Another Birthday, another milestone...

"Why is a birthday cake the only food you can blow on and spit on and everybody rushes to get a piece?"

I am writing this in anticipation of my 25th birthday on the 8th July. It's a cause for reflection, contemplation... and celebration!

It's been a truly rubbish year, same as the truly rubbish year the year before if honest... but I'm optimistic things will pick up soon. Highlights so far in 2010 include getting married (my first birthday as Mrs Harding!) and spending more time with good friends.

To celebrate, I've created a birthday themed treasury!

What have I got planned for this special day you ask...? A 2 hour strategy themed staff meeting in the morning at work, spending the whole day in the office ploughing through admin duties, then home to my lovely husband at some point in the evening to find out what he has been plotting over the last week or so - I can't get into the spare room - he has been locked in there doing "secret stuff", so I am curious to find out what he has been up to!

I may even take the night off from knitting.... might....

*** Had a fantastic night - went out for a meal with the hubby, bought me a new tea pot, posh tea and retro records and a record player - fab! ***

A Crafty (and Thrifty) Welsh Wedding

After 5 years together, I finally got married to my long suffering partner (and now long suffering husband) Stew in May 2010. We booked it a year ago, and I'd been collecting pieces for the big day all year since - I really wanted to have a hand made feel to the items on the big day... but we were on a very tight budget after I lost my job in June 2009 - BAD timing...

I bought my stunning dress for £40 all in off eBay - bargain yes... but it took me 10 months of evenings and weekends to finally get it in a state where I could walk down the aisle with pride - it was a MESS. The hem had been lopped off by what looked like a blindfolded man with garden shears, the whole top of the dress needed re-sculpting, the Princess Di in the 80's sleeves had to go.... It was a real labour of love. The shoes were priced at £104, I got them for £15 on eBay unworn with the receipt in the box - they were gorgeous!

The Petticoat was hand made by Violavintage - an Etsy seller who also lived in the UK. It was just right - not massively puffy, and with a satin top half it was really comfy to wear throughout the day too - nice and lightweight.


I really wanted a vintage hat to match the dress, but couldn't find one that was just right. So I turned to Alchemy and hoped a fellow Etsy seller could help me out. And along came Mytreehousestudio, and a few months and approx £50 later came a stunning creation, using fabric left over from my dress to create flowers on the side, and french netting to wear over the face at the ceremony. Paired with the stunning up-do from my local hairdresser Gemma, it looked just right!


Accessories did not take too long to find - I had some stunning jewellery commissioned by the supremely talented Shacara consisting of a pearl and ceramic flower asymmetric necklace and matching bracelet (Shacara is currently closed whilst she undergoes chemo so best wishes), and got a total bargain with a stunning bracelet handled beaded bag by whatthefunk - both looked great with the vintage theme of the wedding. I have to have a watch on....but my duckie themed swatch watch, though epically cool, wasn't going to cut it, so a visit to Jewelrybyroseanna for a very reasonably and beautiful beaded watch! One of myhand knitted shrugs kept me warm in the wind on the day - something I was very glad of!


Not to leave out my bridesmaids, I got their dresses 9 months to go knocked down in a catalogue sale for the supremely cheap price of £20 each - bargain of the whole event! With shoes and bags from New Look for £14 and £5 respectively, I was doing pretty well. I knitted their shrugs from some lovely deep purple yarn I had, and I commissioned some stunning jewellery from Baubleworks comprising of a matching drop necklace and earrings set, and some stunning beaded flowers from Beadsinbloom on Etsy - perfect for placing in their up-do's.


Stew has bad hay fever, and has never reacted well to being around flowers; it usually involves puffy swollen eyes and a runny nose, so I had to think outside the box for bouquets and decorations. MissJenniferRae came to my rescue for the boutonnieres and bouquets, doing me a fantastic early bird deal (I ordered months and months in advance) for a stunning set of felt and button items, including loose flowers which I turned into pins for the mums. They are beautifully made, and were the talk of the reception!

Stew's first present he ever got me was a very large and round stuffed giraffe called Eion (said Ian - it's Welsh...) - he is the 3rd member of our little family and knew we had to find a way of getting him in to our special day!


After thinking about it long and hard and not really coming up with an answer, I stumbled across Fliepsiebieps and her stunning range of polymer clay toppers - they are so cute! After a bit of discussion, and a lot of prototypes and pictures passed between us, I got the most stunning little giraffes to sit on top of my big fruit cake made by our friend Lynn (It's a stunning cake too!) that I can keep forever - they now sit on top of my TV :-)

I then turned my attention to table decorations and favours - there was a lot to think about. I got a fantastic deal from ParDay for some stunning favour boxes in the themed colours of pinks and purples - I then filled them with sweets and little charms from the lovely Steph on keyrings in the shape of cakes - so pretty! To decorate the signing table, I went to Folksy (UK craft site similar to Etsy) and commissioned Nichola of Beads in Bloom to make some stunning beaded stems which I displayed in bud vases, and a gorgeous beaded cake topper to adorn my gluten free sponge cake - so pretty!
I had loads of comments all day about my quirky and beautiful items - I was so pleased to be able to have a crafty wedding, and I hope I can shop you CAN do it without breaking the bank!

*** UPDATE - you have until THIS Satuday (3rd July) at 3pm GMT (actually BST as it's summer!) to enter my SUPER knitted blog giveaway! - See the Blog Post ***

Celebrate - It's giveaway time!

It's giveaway time...at last!

I am celebrating:

1. Over 50 blog followers in 1 week of me launching the site – score!
2. It’s my 25th birthday coming up on the 8th July
3. It is gorgeous and sunny here in Cardiff - summer is here!
4. I need cheering up after a rubbish time recently...

I’m quite stupendously excited about it all!!

It's not complicated - no research needed, no guessing games – it’s easy peasy!

You get automatic entry into the competition if you:

a. Leave me a comment under this blog entry saying what you would buy from my Etsy shop if you had a blank cheque…
b. You get another entry if you have left a message and follow my blog.
c. You get another entry for following me on Facebook
d. You will get another entry if you follow me on Twitter
e. Lastly if you tweet or post on your own blog a link back to this blog competition you get another entry.

So maximum of 5 chances to win… - how cool is that!?

There's a choice of prize for the lucky winner!

EITHER:

A gorgeous slouch beanie hat in NEW berry colours from my new knitted collection - worth $18!

Or

A stunning pair of 100% wool cabled glovettes (fingerless gloves) in navy blue - worth a cool $12!

Please make sure when you leave your comment on this blog post that you say which prize you would choose, and also where I can contact you (email address, Etsy username, twitter handle, facebook fan page etc)

Winner will be picked at random on Saturday 3rd July at 3pm GMT!

Pob Lwc!

(Good Luck!)

Debs!

Spelling, Wenglish, English and everything in between...

It's an odd one. And I accidentally started a bit of a debate in the Etsy forums on the subject - Spelling...

For me it's not an issue of a genuine spelling mistake - if you look in my store and you see a glaring error, I need to know about it. Grammar mistake... well if it really offensive to you then go for it - let me know.

But since setting up shop on Etsy which is US based, I've had a lot of people telling me I've spelled certain words wrong... when they aren't. Well.... Not to me anyway - I just use British spelling (and throw a bit of wenglish in every now and again!)

I think I got a bit frustrated with it when I put it up in the forum and it came out a bit negative to some people - it wasn't meant that way, I can't be nasty, it's just not in me :)

I am quite dyslexic and am a bit paranoid about it showing through at the best of times (I try to spell check everything first but things invariably slip through the net) - so I'm perhaps a bit oversensitive. If it had been maybe 2/3 people saying it then I'd probably be OK, but it's many more than that.

Colour, Grey, favourite, centre.... to name a few. I try and use the US spellings in my shop tags as to ensure you Yanks make it to my store... but I LIKE spelling things the way I was taught, I don't want to change it!

So be aware people - there are genuine spelling differences across the English language - they are differences not mistakes!

Let me know what you think!

Lol - and I've had a few requests for a bit of wenglish :)
If something is good - we say it's tidy,
If something is icky or gross - we say ach-a-fi! (said uck-a-vi...sort of!)
If something is very___, you'd say - that's proper good!

And check out Talk Tidy for a full Wenglish dictionary!

Debs :)