Getting over my fear of yellow...

Sounds really silly doesn't it? But yes I used to be disgusted by and hated the colour yellow...

For years I didn't really understand why...then one day during a therapy session it occurred to me that I experienced a great trauma in my life whilst wearing the colour yellow...I think it accounted for my hate of banana's too...turns out people who have experienced similar trauma's to me quite often have a fear or dislike banana's...(it's strange how the brain works!)

A few months back a member of the Stitched Up crew handed me a banana at a meeting, I looked at it for a bit and hesitated after taking it. I watched everyone else peel their's and start to eat it. I shrugged my shoulders and joined in...and you know what? I haven't looked back!! Banana's are brilliant! I love them & for 29 years I've insisted I hate them, but suddenly my attitude changed and now I can enjoy a good banana...

OK so this post may seem a little nonsensical, what am I harping on about? For me this was a significant discovery and an important process to my recovery. I won't go in to details here, but I will say that sometimes it's really important to try things again and look outside the little box you give yourself because now I've discovered a whole new healthy snack and I've been able to reclaim such a beautiful vibrant colour!!

I've been denying myself the colour of sunshine, buttercups, lemons and dandelions for too long!! So here I am in my new homemade yellow dress...turned out Abakhan had a sale on all fabrics so I thought I would treat myself & got this lovely fabric that Jim picked...I adapted & drafted my own pattern specifically to flatter my size 16 figure and I really really love the results! (I recently discovered my boob/waist/hip ratio is good, so feel a bit more confident with the extra pounds!!)

I just got Jim to take some photies of me with a few of my cushions and bits & bobs too...why not eh? Who likes my giant strawberry swirl lollypop cushion??? And my giant strawberry cushion? It's fun!! hehe!

Settling in at home...

So...can I start a sentance with so, and not "sew"?

Well anyway...I know you're all probably DYING to see my friend Emma's wedding photographs, BUT I am waiting a little longer incase there are some lovely "official" ones with pictures of all the bridesmaids stood alongside the beautiful bride & groom...

Instead, I wanted to post some photies I took of my home...I recently moved into a house. I've never lived in a house before, I've only ever lived in apartments or flats...apart from growing up. I say recently, when in actual fact I moved in September. For those of you that know me know me, you'll know that I moved out of necessity not desire...

I used to live in a really lovely 2 bedroomed apartment in Manchester City centre, with a cute little balcony and a little community of some awesome mates around each corner. I don't drive, never learnt so the convenience of this flat was fab...I could walk into town and be right in the centre within half an hour and feel like I was right in the heart of a bustling, cosmopolitan (Manchester?!?!? -cosmopolitan!?!? Well yes actually) city...

I was happy where I was. But you see I met this person...this particular person I fell in love with. We lived together for a short while in this lovely little flat in the city centre; until oneday he said to me he needed to move...Jim, owns a house you see in a small town or village between Bury and Bolton called Ainsworth. He owns this house in complicated circumstances. Bleeuuurrgghh! - I don't need to go into details, but it was draining money and the current tenants weren't paying rent and well so together we decided that we must move...so we gave our landlord our notice and told our friends and gave notice to the naughty tenants...who then didn't move out and didn't move out, but of course we had to...so ended up staying with Jim's parents for a while, with all our things in boxes...

Eventually we got into the house that belongs to Jim, and it was stinky and filthy and filled with someone else's junk...I felt sad and weirded out...

I complained a lot I won't lie and lovingly nicknamed Ainsworth, "Ainshole"...and continued to complain, but slowly Jim and I have started to put our stamp on the house, to turn it more into our home...

To be perfectly honest, to begin with I didn't know what to do with all the space!! I had gone from living in bedrooms in flats, to flats to a 3 bedroom house, I felt a little rattly! - We don't really have much money either, so we kitted it out really thriftily...These are a few snaps of our living-room, the side board was from freecycle, my good friend Beth found it for us...the old singer sewing machine I've had for years and the jug is from wilko's believe it or not...

The little blue tea-pot is actually an oil burner that Beth & Bryce gave to me a few years ago as a birthday present and the knitted/crocheted monsters are one-off customised creations by the fabulous HelenMakes Jim built her website, she's very talented...but then again so is he, he made my website too!

We're both pretty much mega geeks, so we've framed a couple of illustrative loveliness, in the form of Bed Knobs & Broomsticks original poster and some comic book art postcards...we bought our school desk from this amazing place in Bolton...couldn't tell you where it is, but we also got our 60s dining table and chairs from there for about £30 bargain thanks! Our house is pretty mish-moshy, we both seem to collect little bits and bobs and like objects for objects sake...I'm waaaaay more of a hoarder than Jim is, but he's not far off!! (he's just a bit tidier than I am, oops!)

There's a little paper house that our pal Katie Hanratty made, she gave it to us as a house-warming present, she's an amazingly talented illustrator...the rocking chair, Jim has had for a while and he says he wants to recover it, but it's got this amaaaazing vintage brocade fabric, which I know is majorly tatty now, but I love it...then the old fireplace...which is a bit weird because someone has put a mirror in it...we filled it with books, because it's such a neat little space...

and the rug...well I need a better photo really as you can only see the corner, but the rug was made BY HAND by Jim's beautiful Mother and his Grandmother when she was 19!!! It really has lasted the test of time! - It's one of my favourite things in this room...for ages I'd complained and moaned about the "horrible-cold-cheap-nasty" laminate flooring and how we desperately needed a rug...Jim went over to his folks house (coincidentally) JUST as they were about to chuck this beauty away!!!!!! Good save I say!

The dining room is really little and cute...for aaages I hadn't put anything personal in there, it was just a table and some chairs...my mate Emma came over just before christmas and said "you don't sit in here though do you?" and I felt really gutted, because well we did...I suppose part of it was my reluctance to make it my home, but I'm so glad I've just made that little bit of effort!! It's a really nice space now, I should take some more photographs of the pictures on the wall too really...

The bike I may have shown in previous posts, it's so cute Jim and his Dad sprayed it for me and Helen knitted those extras...the cork board me and Jim made and the small metal guitar his Dad made...the wine bottle just had an amazing label with a gorgeous art nouveau style red-haired woman on it, so I couldn't bare to throw it out...the sock plant pot Beth made...

So really we have a home of handmade and personal bits and bobs and I really like it...I've discovered that even though it's a massive pain in the ass commute to get into Manchester, I actually really love how we've made it our own, and the good thing is that if I'm perfectly honest, it doesn't matter where you live as long as you live with the person you love most in the world, it's all alright!! - PLUS we get to surround ourselves in really cool stuff from friends and family.

The ultimate plan is to restore the house and garden a bit more and see if we can sell it, so we can move back to the City again...failing that I'll just have to learn to drive!!

Divine Hens With A Craftyclassy Parisian twist!

It's BEEN sOOoo long since I blogged!! And blogger has changed!

Well here I am again. I feel like I haven't blogged for such a long time and there's a reason for that...

My very beautiful and talented friend Emma Divine has just gotten married... and I was asked to be her best woman, and of course I was honoured! (see what I did there?) Not only that, but I was lucky enough to help out with the styling and decor of the wedding...but all that will appear in another post.

As you're all aware, before any good wedding there must be a celebration of true decadence where a bride-to-be waves goodbye to her singledom days and drinks lots of champagne and gets dressed up to & in all sorts of frivolities....well as I said before I was the best woman, so in honour I got to work creating some crafty classy clean fun...CLEAN?? But it's a HEN DO!!! - Well my friends, let the tale unfold as it is told...

Now as my friend Emma is not too much of a traditionalist I decided she needed something really special and out of the ordinary,  so I had a gander on a few websites and blogs and the one that I really stuck out has been The Rock n Roll Bride  - if you haven't already checked it out and you're thinking of tying the knot OR have a friend who is, send them this!! It's beautiful in every single way Kat Williams is a pioneer and I applaud her!

Emma wanted something really special and decided that a trip to Paris was in order...AMAZING!! My organisational skills are not up to scratch, so the gorgeous Sarah Findon & Helen Bower were the ones to organise the trip, and they did a bloomin' marvelous job of it, they even created programmes and guides of where we could go...traditionally Emma, Sarah & Helen go together as a joint celebration, so they knew the lay of the land, therefore I took it upon myself to create something hen-doey-alternative-parisesque and fun...unfortunately I didn't take photographs of everything, but you'll get the idea. The goody bags were handmade and filled with handmade things. Being an eco-warrior it felt hypocritical and "against my religion" to spend money on plastic mass produced tat...I included a bit of tat it was a hen do!!

Things on sticks obv.

So I actually have an illustration degree, which I hardly ever make use of and also my boyfriend (sorry Jim PARTNER) is also a pretty darn good illustrator, so together we created these (well actually he drew the cockrel and the frog I coloured them in and drew the rest)...I wrote a list of things that I thought would be fun, so I did the usual "photo booth" type things, like moustaches and glasses...but then made it a little more personal too...because we were going to Paris I did a Rene Magritte style pipe "Ceci n'est pa une pipe" (- this is not a pipe) a croissant, some tattoo style love hearts with "love" and "divine" (For Emma Divine) and the frog was for Emma because she's always loved frogs for some reason...plus she will no longer have to kiss anymore frogs (or toads) because she has found her Prince Charming (puke! sorry!) If you need me to explain the clever punn of the cockrel then you don't deserve to have it explained to you!!!!!

These are little dark chocolate love hearts from Oxfam, they actually do a range of Divine Chocolates, it's no coincidence!! And I popped some Uncle Joe's mint balls in there...if you don't know what Uncle Joe's mintballs are then you're really missing out!! They're made in Wigan. Emma and I met in Wigan and went to college there, so it was a personal touch, plus as you'll see later I was trying to go for a red white and blue theme, as she got married on the Jubilee weekend and of course the French flag is also red white and blue...I also popped in some union jack chocolate lollies from M&S for all the girls, but Emma got her very own giant love heart and a big bar of Divine chocolate...

 

These gorgeous things are little temporary tatoo's from an amazingly cool graphic design website called Tattly, get on there honestly tis brilliant! I ended up buying a mixed pack of fun colourful designs, because I just couldn't decide what to get!! - I ordered them from America, they were the first things I ordered and the last things to arrive, just on the morning I had to leave!! But they were a great addition to the goody bags. 

I also made little necklaces for everyone with Eiffel towers threaded onto very thin red, white & blue ribbon. Emma got a bigger version on a real chain with a love heart gemstone thingmebob too...

                                 

I made & stuffed love hearts with Paris themed buttons, and bought some little bath bombs which I wrapped and packed into some recycled magazine sweetie-style bags (that I make quite often) with tiny little envelopes of confetti....also a button bracelet for everyone...

 

I made Emma a head-dress too as she was adamant she didn't want any form of fancy dress, well I couldn't let her get away with that could I??? Not a chance in hell...So I appliqued some little fabric L-plates and made her a very special patriotic recycled Zip fascinator...

The bags where just an A3 bit of fabric (an old curtain) folded over, french seamed and bagged through.  I used cotton tape or ribbon as handles Bryony from Stitched Up helped me make the bags! and my amazing Janome machine does a love heart stitch, gotta love the extra chinze! 

Emma got a few extra's in her bag (that I didn't take photogaphs of) I found the most beautiful vintage style glass bottle with a cork top in a little interior shop in Didsbury, which I then got Simon -her Fiancee to write her a love letter to roll up and put inside as an extra surprise...(he had to hide it in the bathroom at his and Emma's flat and I had to seek it out before we left for Paris)...that's what I didn't mention Emma lives in London, she's a northern lass like me...so the journey started in London with me and Laura...

 

Laura and Emma...

 

Very British...she's pointing, and we've not just drank 2 bottles of champagne it was Prosecco actually

We left very early on the friday morning and we travelled by chunnel...(Emma stole this dress off me, I made it...I said she could have it!)

 

This stainless steel Martini glass was also in Emma's goodybag I gave it to her early with a little note saying something along the lines of "why have a plastic shot glass round your neck when you can have something as stylish as this? perfect for you're strawberry dachary" -which is Em's fave. - I found the Martini glass in Oxfam when I went in for the Divine fairtrade chocolates...and I thought it was perfect...she did too evidently, but it was destroyed on her wedding weekend...but that's another story!!!

When we got to Paris we all ended up having a nap before meeting up again and drinking more bubbly and handing out the goody bags!!

 

Handing out the goodybags!

  

The marvelous Amy Rixon also brought along some of her home-made Earl Grey cupcakes!! and they were totally scrummy!!! - I've never had anything so gorgeous before!! - We bonded over our love for Blue Peter!! Amy has her own bakery, from home go give her a "like" on facebook here yummy stuff!!

 

Cake, bubbly, make up...then out on the town!!

So from beautiful bubbly and scrumptious cakes...some of the girls ate snails that night...well Emma Kate Wood, Laura, Daisy and Amy did!!!

  

I don't seem to have many photographs of that night...but I do recall there being cocktails, dancing and lots of fun....the next day the sun came out...

Some of the girls decided to do touristy things, me, Em, EmmaKateWood, Sarah and Helen went for a stroll and drank some more!!

 

I love this wall...and I wish I had a photograph of how amazing these ice-creams were!! They made them look like little flowers and mine was mascapone and amaretti it was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!

We went to an amaaaazing restaurant that evening (although the waiter was better to look at than ther actual service...) and then to a brilliant cocktail bar...but loads of us were cream crackered from the night before...most of the girls ended up going back to the hotel super early and then suddenly....it turned into a hen do. We got our second wind!!! We met the entire rugby union team from Stratford-Apon Aven and they were all dressed as cops and robbers....

 

and then there were 3....

a little worse for wear...

We had an awesome time that night...we ended up going to the bakery just as it was opening up as we'd stayed up all night...I'd lost my voice and decided that now I had a belly full of alcohol I could speak fluent French...when in actual fact I was just speaking English with a (probably very bad) French accent, but it impressed Emma, she was too drunk to notice I was just talking gibberish and proudly said to me "Alice, you're really good at speaking French!!" hurrah!!! It was a brilliant weekend and I wish I could tell you more and show you some more awesome pictures...but actually it's probably better that I don't!

Daisy took loads of these photographs, so thank you for letting me put them in my bag and use them for my blog! heh. x

Amy made a friend on the way home and he really really really wanted his picture taking with the moustache, so here it is!!! But I believe by the time Amy got back to London all she was left with was a piece of felt on a stick...so I owe her a new 'tache...