Bits & Pieces

So this week has been quite productive wedding wise.

Band – We have booked the band that my friend had at her wedding. Means we have heard them before and know that they can keep the dance floor full all night.

Photographer – After a long and painful argument we have finally settled on a photographer. O’s brother’s girlfriend’s Dad is going to photograph our wedding.

Invitations – we’ve received samples from here. Gaynor, I basically searched your invitation posts and looked through your suppliers so credit to you. A colleague at work showed me her son’s wedding invitations and they are basically exactly what we want so we are waiting on supplier recommendations from them.

Kilt – O has ordered his kilt we just need to find the rest of the outfit – jacket, waistcoat, brogues etc.

Hen Do – invitations have gone out and we’re narrowing down activity options. My hen do will be a very relaxed affair, I don’t drink very much so it won’t be a wild party.

Florist – I’m in touch with a florist and we are arranging to meet up.

Dress – I’ve booked my first dress fitting. Yes it is very early, my dress hasn’t even arrived yet but I was warned that the seamstress gets very busy so best to at least get an appointment in the book.

Bridesmaid dresses - #2 went and got more silk choices and I’ve decided to go with a darker blue instead of the silk that was bought in India. Hopefully we’ll be able to sell on the other silk.

Ushers – my nephew is our only non-Scottish groomsman and as a 13 year old English boy he won’t be wearing a kilt (or skirt as he likes to call them). My parents were babysitting last week and have bought him a suit for the wedding. We just need to hope he doesn’t grow too much now.

Tomorrow I’m going to try on my dress again so I can start working on
underwear and jewellery.

Feel like we have achieved a lot this week and got some big things ticked off the list.

So ladies tell me what I've forgotten or should be doing next.

Blue shoes

So I'm leaning towards blue shoes for the wedding - so there is a chance I might wear them again plus I hope I might be able to find them cheaper than "wedding shoes". So I and other lovelies have been trawling the internet. They need to be flat or as close to it as O is just a little taller than me and because of my back issues I don't often wear heels.
This trawl has come up with some possibilities

(image from here - thank you Anna)

(image from here)

The search has also brought to light some truly hideous spectacles

(from here)

Could someone tell me what these are all about?

Sunday night

O comes out of the kitchen “Aw this one must be for you” he hands me a heart shaped potato.

Me: “Aw that is so cute! I must take a picture”

O “what do you want a picture for? It is only a potato”

Me “its a heart shaped potato and I want to put it on my blog”

O “Hmph is your fiancé’s blog interfering with your life?” *stomp off*

Me “Oh I’m sorry darling, of course, I’m being silly lets make tea together” – Or that is what I should have said and wish I had said. What I actually did was smile at him, get out the camera and take pictures, while O continued to make our food.

(image by me)

Me thinks I might need to get my priorities sorted. I generally try to write blog posts on Monday/Friday nights when I have the house to myself and schedule posts for the week. However I do read and comment on blogs or on twitter most of the time – even sometimes at work (oops).I think my constant computer addiction might be wearing a little thin with O.

How do you maintain you blog/life balance?

Shoes

I want these shoes for the wedding only with a much lower heel - like teeny tiny heel. If anyone finds them anywhere.......

(image from here)

Lottery Houses I

(images all from here via here)

I've said before that I like to shop for houses we can't afford. O would luuuurrve to have a house with a swimming pool.

Feb 14th

(source)

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, we never have done. I’m glad I’m not the only one, blog land is full of love but it is for real people not plastic hearts. There are those that do embrace Valentine's and I'm happy for you if it works.

I think our reluctance towards Valentine's might have something to do with the fact that by the time our first Valentine’s came round we had been together for almost a year and the romance was already over (how jaded do I sound). Seriously we are just not a very romantic couple. We went to see the Magdalene Sisters for our first official date! There is nothing like a nun film to ruin the romance in any relationship. We express our love for each other in ways that aren’t red! Or chocolate – although O absolutely adores chocolate and would probably shove me out the way to eat them all first.

I hope you have a lovely time with your special someone whether it is today or any other day of the year that you decide to chose to celebrate your love.

It is not the winning but the taking part that counts

O and I both have colds so we will be spending this weekend hibernating in our little flat watching sport on the TV. (Might have to turn the heating off though, just had our winter gas bill –ouch).

O participates in sport, I don’t. We don’t regularly watch sport not that either of us dislike watching it, we just prefer to watch other things. O does support a football (soccer) team however they are not in a division that is regularly televised.

We do watch the big events, we both really enjoy watching the Rugby 6 Nations which is what we will be doing this weekend – although we don’t watch any other rugby, I’m from Yorkshire I really should prefer rugby league but I don’t understand it! We will be watching the Winter Olympics and imagine we will also watch the World Cup later this year – although I will be supporting England and O will be supporting anyone but England.

Hope you have fun plans for the weekend – especially birthday girl Anna.

I pledge to read the printed word

I've finally got round to adding my pledge to read button.

I've struggled with adding it and have been privately sitting on the fence.

I love reading and read as much as possible. I get most of my books from the library except those I'm too impatient to wait for. I believe that we should all read more - quite a strange campaign for a community of people who write online but I suppose it does make sense that people who love to read also love to write.

But I don't really agree with the dislike of Kindle and other e-readers, they make a lot of sense for me. For someone who usually takes at least 15 books on holiday that is a lot of luggage weight so the idea of an electronic device which can store loads of books in one place is very exciting. No I still haven't got my head round reading by the pool or in the bath. And the number of times I leave my paperback on the sun lounger when I take a dip in the pool or go for a drink would be seriously reduced if it cost £300+.

At work it would also come in handy, I blame the appalling condition of my eye sight on the amount of time I spend in front of a computer screen. My job involves reading a lot of lengthy documents, I tend to print them so I can read on paper. However the eco-warriors are asking us to print less and less. An e-reader screen flickers less than that of a computer so it would be better for saving my eye sight - or so I tell myself.

Hmm through writing these spare thoughts it would appear that I'm not sitting on the fence about reading the printed word but e-readers instead. That is about as clear a point as I've come to.

Cats vs. Dogs

My family and I are cat people so we have been loving this story in the news recently.

"People who own a cat are more likely to have a university degree than those with a pet dog"

(image by O)

Weekend

Hello lovely readers,

A couple of things I guess, first of all thank you for all your lovely comments and suggestions regarding my silk dilemma

#1 thinks that the dark blue is too bright and she would prefer an even darker blue. Everyone likes the light blue on my niece so we are likely to stick with that. #1 and #2 are going to visit some fabric shops with my Mum and Dad who are down to visit next week so that they can get samples of dark blues to send to me. We will then think about pricing for buying new fabric vs dyeing the fabric.

Received a sample of my wedding dress fabric and I'm very pleased with the colour - funny how memories and pictures on the internet distort things in the muddled mind of a bride-to-be.

Secondly the big parental meet up. You were of course correct it went fine. They were all very civil to each other, on their best behaviour and nobody did anything too embarrassing. Don't think they'll be best friends but that isn't really necessary. We went to our venue for a tour and for dinner. Very relieved that everyone liked the venue and that the food was wonderful! I've been questioning every single decision I've made for this wedding so I'm glad that I'm still happy with the venue. My Mother-in-law described it as quirky and relaxed - bingo, I love that woman.

Thank you again for all your sane rational thoughts and comments they mean a lot to me.

R x

When does his family become my family?

….and vice versa….

On Saturday night O’s sister and her husband had a baby boy.

So O is an Uncle for the first time.

O doesn’t regard himself as an Uncle to my niece and nephew – they were born a good while before O and I got together but hopefully over time he will get closer to them. They currently think he is great anyway because he is a big kid that they can't exhaust.

And I'm an Aunty again, feels strange for me, it being on the other side of the family. I don't distinguish between my own Aunts and Uncles, those who are blood related and those related through marriage. I guess it just takes a while to get used to.

Not only has the new arrival got me thinking about the familial boundaries merging but this coming weekend is going to be HUGE for us. Our parents are going to meet each other for the first time and I’m crapping my pants, much more than when I introduced O to my parents for the first time. I have no idea if they are going to get on and I keep dreaming up all the horrible ways it could go wrong. So come on bloggers tell me your experiences how was the big parental meet up for you? Tell me it is all going to be ok!

Oh crap

#2 sent samples of the silk she bought in India. They're not the colours I want.

The dark blue is more of a bright royal blue instead of the dark ink/midnight blue I wanted and the pale blue is quite silvery.

What am I going to do?
I hope I'm going to get over myself and get on with it.
Don't really have the money to buy more silk in the UK and don't have anyone heading back to India to buy more silk before the wedding.
#1 and #2 are meeting up at the weekend so #1 can see the silk.

I’ve picked all the wrong friends.

The comment Wellies and Vogue left on this post made me giggle as I was already composing this post in my head. I’m fortunate to know a bagpiper and have a sister who knows a dress maker and they both flukily managed to have a trip to India in their work schedule at exactly the right time – #2 hasn’t been to India or travelled abroad with her work for almost 18 months so it was a complete fluke.

However apart from these two connections I don’t have any other ‘useful’ friends (not sure they’d be impressed by that comment if they actually knew about the blog). I always hear conversations at work from colleagues who are asking their cousins to re-do their bathroom or a friend who is a mechanic is going to fix their car. I’m tempted to put an advert in the paper for useful friends, I need;

Plumber, joiner, plasterer, IT wiz, carpet fitter, kitchen fitter, tiler, electrician, roofer, gas engineer, mechanic, painter & decorator........

Friends I need to make in the next 6 months or preferably right now;
Photographer, a whole ceilidh band of musicians, florist, stationer extraordinaire, hairdresser, make up artiste or instead of all of these just a wedding planner who could arrange it all for me.

I’m sure there are loads of people I’ve missed of both lists. Do you have useful friends? Am I being unrealistic, is it actually quite awkward to ask a friend to fit your new kitchen and replaster your entire house (I can see how it might be pushing the boundaries ever so slightly)?

Wedding Traditions I

Quite a while ago I posted about wedding traditions having seen the lovely card box that Stacy posted about (have you seen her dress – wow). Hopefully I’ll get round to posting some more traditions but for now let’s stick with the bagpipes.

It is traditional to have a bagpiper at a Scottish wedding. Yes it is a very loud often screechy noise to have indoors but it is an evocative sound. 

I will be piped down the aisle and we will be piped back up the aisle as husband and wife (eek). Guess what, O’s brother is a piper and he is going to pipe our wedding.

Yippee so that is piper and ceremony music ticked off the list.

(image from here)


Other news; #2 went to India with her friend the dress maker last week (they work together and were on a business trip - handy). They bought silk for the bridesmaid dresses so that can all get underway. #2 is going to send me samples for my approval, however as it was a third of the cost of silk in the UK and non-returnable I think it'll be just fine. They have bought extra for waistcoats and ties for the boys.