Knitting, naughty puppies and what to do with my hair!

Keeping Regular? Well I lied. Maybe fornightly to start with?

So after I bought the stitch and bitch book, I finally got some needles and wool at the weekend and have started to knit. Currently it looks a bit like a scarf for Barbie, with a couple of teeny gaps! 

The parents visited this weekend and we had much deserved chilling time. Plus they bring with them the crazy pups, Leo and Maisey (Llahasa Apsos dogs). Leo decided to carry my wool from the sofa right into the garden, whilst I was still hanging on to the needles. Needless to say, the wool has now got a few knots that are a bugger to get out. So tonight after Hip Hop (dance class!) I am going to attempt cutting the wool and then learning how to add the wool in again. Cue reading stitch and bitch and searching for youtube tutorials.

The weekend was somewhat overshadowed by the rugby, the welsh contingent are not happy chappies right now... crossing fingers for 3rd place, just to cheer them up!

Wedding planning: pretty quiet right now. Got a thing for 3ft yellow balloons again thanks to this lovely wedding here: http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/a-ticket-to-ride/

Hopefully seeing a florist on Saturday too, so can start thinking about what we want.

Oh and 'bridal bob or not' is back in force after seeing this post:
http://www.london-bride.com/2011/09/bobbed-brides-glamorous-bob-hairstyles.html

I am thinking bob all the way! (Mainly because I am fed up of growing it)

I was also extremely excited about the launch of http://www.florencefinds.com/ - go take a peek!

Keeping Regular

One of the number one rules of blogging is that you blog REGULARLY.

Well surely this is if you are trying to cultivate an audience? And does anyone really expect to cultivate (is this the right term?) straight away?

But anyway, I digress, as I do... I will start to blog on a regular basis. I will book time in to do it and I will post SOMETHING at least once a week!

Yes? Yes I will.



I have also started a bit of a fitness 'regime'. Well not really a regime as such, more a smattering of occassional classes. Last week I attempted Zumba (great fun) and Step Aerobic (sadist teeny tiny instructor). Tonight I am off to a Hip Hop dance class... (dont laugh) and Wednesday is Yogalates.
YAY for new stuff!

Today I also order a book called 'Stitch n Bitch'  beginners guide to knitting. Yes, I am going to start to learn to do something creative.

It is all quiet on the wedding front. 8 Months to go and we are pretty sorted:
Venue booked, Dress purchased, Suits chosen, DJ booked, Photographer done, Honeymoon Cottage chosen.... so next jobs are: Bridemaids (yep I changed my mind again), flowers, stationery... oh thats it really! So taking the foot of the gas for a while to enjoy the run up to Christmas. :)

Honeymoon Decisions

When the whole world is your oyster*, how do you chose where you want to go?

At Christmas, shortly after our engagement, a friend of mine bought be Make the most of your time on earth: 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences. This book is gorgeous and is filled with amazing sights from all corners of the globe (ok the globe doesn’t have corners, but you get my drift)

Since then Mr C and I have spent many a day looking through this book and trying to form some idea of where we would both like to go for  THE BIG holiday. (ok, no pressure then)

Due to the fact that we have never been outside of Europe (bar an accidental trip to Turkey), making a decision about where we might go has been pretty difficult.

We love a city break, but I also wanted a bit of swimming and sea time, He loves a bit of an adventure, I wanted to go somewhere with a bit of history. 

We eventually decided on Vietnam. 

Halong Bay:

via New7Wonders.com

Hoi An:

 

 via Flickr

And the fact that we get to go to an island called Phu Quoc.  

via topvietnamtravelguide.com

But the only issue was that we wouldn’t be able to afford to this directly after the wedding. We want to see quite a few things in Vietnam, and with this I can’t imagine there will be too much chilling out time which we will probably need straight after the wedding. So we have decided to go to Vietnam a little later in the year (something else to look forward to).

However, we do want to have a break straight after the wedding, (a mini moon if you will)

We love Cornwall. It is such a gorgeous, relaxing place, whatever the weather.

So, we have booked a beautiful little cottage in Cornwall for a few days after the wedding.
We are going to chill, eat pasties and cream teas, stroll along beautiful Cornish beaches and walk in the stunning countryside, all the while, I will be pretending that I live here:  

check out that view! Photos via Boutique Retreats were we booked this cottage in Mousehole.

*well perhaps not the whole world…. I think there were quite a few places that I would have loved to have gone that were a little beyond the price bracket! J

Life List...well maybe not LIFE but you know...soon

So Anna (andthering) did an inspiring 30 before 30 , Kirsty (@asafemooring) also has a pretty fab list of wishes, dreams and ambitions. So after reading these, and a few others I realised that I have never done a ‘list’. Partly because I am not really a list person… I just buzz about and see what happens (work, life, everything) but also I guess in some areas of my life, I am just not that decisive..

But after reading a few lists throughout the blogosphere I thought about what it is I want from the next few months, years, decades. It sort of highlights the simple needs but also the fantasy ideas that maybe in reality are more difficult. So some of these things are simple and I just need to go and do them, some of them need a bit more money than we have, some may end up being a bit of fantasy and some just need me to be a bit more ballsy, but here we go:

Cut all of my hair all off and dye it red* note this will probably happen AFTER the wedding

Own a VW Campervan* (on a recent camping trip to Cornwall, Mike and I were pretty jealous of some of the AMAZING vans people have)

Learn to bake the best (or pretty awesome) Victoria sponge

Act. On a Stage. Again* (Just audition for an am dram, god damn it.... oh. fear. its a bastard)

Learn a difficult dance routine

Learn to Jive with Mike

Have a house with a red door and daisy trees outside

Live by the sea

Have a vegetable patch and grow my own

Work for myself, something flexible, something where I get to help people in some way OR make people smile/laugh, something that makes me happy (most days)* (yes this is pretty vague… need to work on that a bit more)

Have a reading corner in my house with a HUGE arm chair that I can get lost in and a tower of books

Get a Springer Spaniel and call him Jacko

Jump out of a plane

Learn to surf

Learn to sew

Volunteer with a local community group, maybe helping people get back to work, maybe helping young people with CVs, application forms, that kind of thing

Read all 100 books from the BBC Big Read list

Learn what to do with a whole piece of meat or fish* (again, back to the fact that my cooking skills aren’t up to much)

Oh and buy a house one day (I guess…)

Get an awesome camera and learn how to use it

Knit a scarf

Get some rollerskates

Own a 1992 Nissan Figaro in Light Blue (shhhh I don’t car if it’s a micra in a pretty coat – I love my micra)

Stop. Smoking. ASAP

Learn and then dance the Argentian Tango in BA

Write a book about being a lazy girl... make people laugh and feel less guilty for not have photoshoot perfect houses, clothes, faces, bellys ETC (because frankly, there is much much more fun in imperfection)

I am sure there a few more things to this that I cannot think about just yet, maybe some more serious ideas, maybe a career plan* (maybe), but I know ultimately the things that make me happy I already have: family, friends and my future husband who makes me laugh everyday, I am lucky to have the confidence to tell people they make me happy and the confidence to believe I make others happy in return, I have both physical and mental well being, a new found ability to budget and save like a mother fxxker and, inherent optimism.

The rest is just extras.

But as they say, reach for the stars and you'll get the moon... and who isnt going to be happy with the moon! ;)

Bridesmaids

This weekend all my bridesmaids came to visit and I was reminded just how lucky I am. My 4 bridesmaids (My sister and my 3 best buds) all got on so well, we got drunk, we laughed and I thought all day: Wow, I am a lucky lucky girl.

So heres to my bridesmaids, who ROCK.... I cannot wait to till I see you all again.

oh and dresses.... I thought I wanted floral maxi dressed or little lace dresses but they tried on these navy dresses from coast

via Coast

and they all looked stunning in them... so just got to hold out for a sale ;o)

Loot-alikes

Pretty silly... but looters that look like famous people

http://lootalikes.tumblr.com/

Boris not liking his job anymore... on the Daily Mash Up

Discovered The Daily Mash Up (might be a bit behind the times)

This article made me laugh :)