On procrastination (or, my life in numbers)

I am supposed to be doing a job application which is due today. I am struggling to muster the enthusiasm to finish it.


Reading wedding blogs is more exciting. Especially when you find quotes like this:


"I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance, A church filled with flowers, friends and beautiful music, I asked him what kind of a wedding he wished for, He said one that would make me his wife." ~ Anonymous

5 weeks until the wedding. 3 until the hen party. 1 week of unemployment. 4 nights of disturbed sleep and nightmares. 5 hours until job application due. 4 pages of questions unanswered. 4m of bunting made. 50m of bunting left to make...

Still, on the upside, I picked up my wedding dress this morning.

Rings II

At 5 weeks to go until the wedding day, our to-do list still looks a little long. Thankfully, this afternoon we were able to cross off a big item from the list: choose and purchase wedding bands.

As I wrote before, my engagement ring was designed by M in conjunction with a rocks man and made by a craftsman in London’s Hatton Garden {the jewellery quarter of London since medieval times}. At the time I could only show you a very poor quality snap taken on the day we got engaged but here is a better photo:

{Image is of my ring via Duttson Rocks website}

So, we wanted our wedding bands to match my beautiful ring. We returned to the same craftsman, in his tiny studio, to discuss what we wanted. Our decision was very easy. We have opted for bands which match the band on the engagement ring but slightly wider at 3mm for mine and 5mm for M’s.

My ring was measured (and cleaned; it hasn’t looked so sparkly since M first gave it to me!) and then M’s finger was measured. A price was quoted and agreed and they will be ready next week. It couldn’t have been easier and I am so pleased that we have at last sorted them out. Really makes the wedding seem much nearer and real having ordered the rings.

Rings

Finally, we are meeting the craftsman who made my engagement ring. We are going to see him in his studio in Hatton Gardens {London's jewellery quarter} and discuss with him our wedding bands. I am so excited to see where my engagement ring was made and how, and to choose our rings to match.

Customer Service Which Makes Me Want to Scream

Finally after 21 working days, the tag hole punch people have agreed to send us another one and will claim back the lost parcel from Royal Mail.

But they are making us pay the delivery cost for the new tag hole punch...

So despite us paying £3.99 for the first one to be delivered, it not arriving, us having to go through the palaver of trying to find out what happened, them making us wait 15 working days and then not bothering to contact us, so we had to chase them, they are charging us another £3.99 to send us a replacement.

It makes me so cross I could scream.

Put it this way, I wouldn't recommend them or their customer service. Aaaggghhh. This is not what we need 38 days away from the wedding.

My Boy Writes: The Stag-Do - Review

Click here for M's latest Elizabeth Anne Designs column...

"Last weekend was my Stag weekend. 3 days of fine food, wine, walks, football and much hilarity in a beautiful house on a Loch in Scotland.

Things couldn’t have gone better. Everyone got on (most of the time) and some new bonds were formed; across generations in some cases. Almost 40 years separated the youngest from the oldest but this didn’t get in the way. There were no strippers, nobody was tied to a lamppost (although they did throw me in the Loch) and there were no serious injuries. We didn’t destroy the house and everybody made their respective flights back.

This was a weekend of relaxed hedonism. Our aim was to leave everything except 2 big meals (Friday and Saturday nights) completely in the hands of the group. We wanted everyone to come and go as they pleased. We wanted to see people quietly reading in one room whilst in the next people downed shots over an improvised version of paper, scissors or stone. We wanted to see one group of people trying to shape vodka into lines with a coaster right next to a 60-odd year old being taught to play guitar by his son’s friend. We wanted to galvanise the core group of men at this weekend and make them a powerful collective force on the big day and after. Remembering back through the haze and smoke, I think we succeeded. Well we certainly had a lot of fun!

Myself and my best man decided not to fly back. We drove down the west coast of Scotland and ultimately on to Dumfries before slipping round the corner and down into the Lake District. We tried Penrith and Keswick (both of which were too built up for our tastes) and settled for the first night in Grasmere. We found a great pub with half decent food and incredible views. Monday was an exquisite day and the sun just dances on the hills there. It’s a photographers dream. We watched the sun go down with pints of well-kept ale.

We were up early-ish and planning a big walk. Sadly the weather had closed in and mindful of how shamelessly under-equipped we were (the only jacket I had was a suit one) we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and viewed the lakes by car. We had lunch that day in one of the finest pubs I have been to, The Drunken Duck. It wore the gastro-pub title beautifully and demonstrated that a pub doesn’t need to be rustic to be real. We continued rambling after lunch and decided to skip a visit to the dales (the original plan) and to get to know the lakes a bit more. In the spirit of adventure we tried to trace the hill path from Ambleside towards Boot. I originally led us down a somewhat slippery “road” which was clearly not designed for cars and we very nearly smashed ourselves into one of those gorgeous dry stone walls. So a swift three point turn; try to avoid the guy dragging a tractor with a tractor and back on to the right road. We drove up and up and up, amazing view after amazing after amazing view. This road summed up the lake-district for me, the style is consistent but it just gets better and better until you run out of superlatives.

We spent another very relaxed night in a cheap half-renovated house near Eskdale with beautiful grounds and headed back to London via Shropshire. This was the perfect way to wind down after the stag and a great opportunity to spend lots of time with my oldest and best friend.

“A most satisfactory binge!” – Hugh Laurie"

April Lifestyle Challenge: Favourite Gratis Activity

I have many favourite free activities, but one I particularly enjoy is afternoons in the park with friends. Only I don't post photos of my friends here, so some of the deer which also live in the park will have to suffice for this month's challenge.

{Image from Author's personal collection}

DIY How-To: Bunting

{All images from Author’s personal collection*}

Just in case anyone was wondering how to make the bunting, some quick instructions.

Collate material from various sources {photo 2} and iron flat {photo 3}. Lay out fabric on a flat surface and make a pennant shaped cardboard template (I used a box I found in the recycling bin). You need 2 triangles per flag so work out how best to utilise the fabric. I sewed some of the smaller pieces together to optimise the size of some of the fabrics (do this by placing the pieces outsides together and sewing a seam of about 1cm, then open out the fabric and iron the seam out so it is flat).

Each triangle is then sewed together with the outsides together, starting at one end of the base, down to the point, placing the needle in the fabric and lifting the sewing machine foot, rotating the fabric and then placing the foot back down and continuing the seam. I then trimmed off the excess fabric and turned the triangle pocket right side out, using a closed pair of scissors to poke the point of the triangle {photo 4}.

Each pocket was then ironed flat {photo 5} and pinned along a length of tape. I then sewed one line of stitches to attach the flags to the tape (mine was slightly crooked but I considered that no-one will see it and I have better uses of time than unpicking and re-stitching). I will then add a second layer of stitches to make sure that the flags are well attached {photo 6}.

Then repeat, repeat, repeat until you have enough for your desired venue and hang.