Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

These beauties weren’t exactly made by me but they were grown by myself and my Significant Other so I decided to show them off here on the blog.   Growing your own veg has because super trendy in the last year or so but when you’ve only got a tiny balcony you’re very limited in what you can grow.  I’ve been growing stuff on my balcony for nearly three years now but this year we managed, beetroot, various lettuces, chives, flat-leaf parsley, bay, coriander, thyme, tarragon, rosemary and mint.  We also have a basil plant on our spare room window

To be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of wedding planning lately, it’s still over a year away.  We’ve booked the registry office and the reception venue,  decided on a caterer and we’ve pretty much worked out who will be providing the bar services on the day. So other than that, there’s not much we can do at this stage except keep notes of our ideas for decoration, music outfits etc.

The only thought I’ve given my own outfit is that I want a dress but not a weddingy one, if that makes sense.  That’s why I’m really liking the Monsoon bridal range, it’s simple and budget friendy.  I’m considering doing some customization though - if I think it’s something I can do myself that will be great but otherwise I may be calling on Ruth from Nice Day designs to work her magic. My other half needs a new suit anyway so we’ll just buy a regualar two-piece suit, I don’t think either of us are into all those fancy morning suits and top-hats and tails.  As for the witnesses, well they can wear whatever takes their fancy.  I’ve decided that I’m not choosing wedding colours, I want the whole event to be as colourful as possible so I don’t want to limit the palette.

I did invest in this book of crochet flowers patterns because I’m planning on crocheting my wedding bouquet and the lapel pins for the fellas.  I have yet to actually try any of the patterns though so this could turn out to be purely aspirational.

My main focus lately has been the decoration of the reception venue.  I’ve been keeping a note of any ideas we have and I’ve been roping in family and friends to help with different things.

By the way, this is wedding planning HQ……..

That gorgeous wedding planner you see at the front is from Paperchase and I’ve been using it to jot down ideas as well as keeping cut-outs from magazines etc for inspiration.  If you’re looking for a great wedding folder than I would definitely recommend this one, there’s just loads of blank pages so it’s not one of these ones that gives you ridiculous check lists!  There are also super-handy plastic pocket pages at the back.

Since our summer seems to have abandoned us we all could do with some cheering up. Eating al fresco was a nice novelty there for a while but trying to enjoy your salad with rain and sleet blowing under your table umbrella doesn’t seem like that much fun at all.  So, how better to cheer yourself up than by adding some colour to your (inside) dinner table with these cheap and cheerful napkin rings!

I made something similar before for our good friends and you can find a description of how to make them here.