Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

Photo from The wedding Wire

So, many of you will already know that my significant other (from now on to be known as my SO) and I got engaged late last year.  Many of you may also know that I’m more than a bit uncomfortable with the idea of being a “Bride”, I want to be married far more than I want to get married - if you get my drift. My dream wedding was 25 people in the Registry Office and the off to the Market Square for dinner, no speeches, no hired cars, no chair covers, no wedding music and no “giving away”.  My SO on the other hand wanted a larger, more public affair (although he didn’t want hired cars or wedding music either and I’m not entirely sure that he knows what chair covers are) .  So after many discussions we came up with a compromise - a small private ceremony and a big casual reception. I asked around (i.e. on twitter and it seems that this might be a topic suitable for the blog - since there will be a lot of handmade/homemade aspects I think I’ll get away with it.  First up - venue finding.

So, the search was on for a reception venue.  The problem with this was that  we didn’t want to have it in a hotel, mostly because we are wannabe foodies so we didn’t want a traditional “wedding” sit-down meal and also we just wanted something a little bit different.   The first idea we had was a marquee on the lawn of my SO’s families house in Ballyferriter, however the more we looked into it the more problems that came up, for example someone mentioned public liability insurance and that immediately put me off. Also the thoughts of having to hire portaloos really didn’t appeal to me.

So we searched on, Margaret suggested the Daghdha dance space in St Johns Square and a cousin suggested a local yacht club.  The yacht club was a no-no due to the necessity to jump through too many bureaucratic hoops and I didn’t really give Daghdha too much thought, that is until I went to a Swell Season gig in that very dance space.   I was pretty much smitten as soon as I walked in the door and as it turns out my SO felt the same.  So we sent an email and a very nice lady came back to us and said that occasionally they do rent out the space for functions and that as long as our date didn’t coincide with any of their own functions that we could hire the space.

Next up, what to put into the fabulous venue. Stay tuned.

P.S. Soon after we decided on our venue, I found out about the lovely Ciara Crossen and her website devoted to helping you find the perfect place for your BDO (Big Day Out).  It’s called weddingdates.ie and you should definitely check it out.

Despite my absence from the blogosphere I have been crafting and I finally finished my embroidery set.  This was the third one I did, roses.

In order to complete my plan and use the hoops as frames I had to figure out a way to hide the extra fabric, after trying and failing with pins I resorted to glue.  This is what the back looks like.

I decided to display my new “art” on the side of the bookshelf in our living room, here’s what they look like together.

I have to say that I really enjoyed embroidery and I’m already thinking of my next project.  I think it will be pillow cases for my own bed, I’ve used cream bed linen for as long as I’ve had my own place but I’m tired of it, I’m thinking I’d like white bed linen with DIY embroidery detail on the pillows and a crochet throw for the bed.  I like the idea of having some examples of my crafty goodness in every room.   This might also require new window dressing….now if only I new how to make curtains

I’m a tad too late with this but here’s one of the Mothers Day Cards I made this year, this is part of a set of three but unfortunately the other two had to go in the post before I could photograph them.   I felt like using the green to bring in some Spring and I’d never used the gatefold before in a greeting card but thought it would be a nice change.  Hope you like!

…..is finished.  I took Elise’s advice (see her comment on the last post) and added an extra row of feathers.  He’s actually growing on me so he might get a place on the wall after all.