Update

3

Morning; thought I’d share a bit of what I’ve been up to lately.  The last few months have been a bit all over the place as so much has been going on so ‘routine’ hasn’t been part of my vocabulary.  Not that I really like too much of a routine but it helps me get things in order sometimes.  This sunny morning began with a run on the beach and now I’m finally updating my blog.  Yay me!!

So I/we’ve

1 spent our last winter in London, a very busy one it was too

2 finished trading at the Sunday Upmarket :(

3 moved from London to Bournemouth, we live a 5 minute walk from this beautiful beach

4 spent lots of time with family and friends 

5 charity shopped our hearts out finding amazing furniture for our first proper home together (Colin and I lived in a shared flat in London)

6 found bargain artwork for our walls in said charity shops

7 discovered some great places to go for coffee and cake

8 collected fabric for our wedding

9 started making my wedding dress with mum

10 learnt to cook a few more yummy dinners (if I do say so myself)

 11 been making exciting plans for my jewellery line and working on a few new ideas

12 bought bikes and gone for a couple of bike rides

13 turned 30!!! (still not faced up to that one)

14 collected a variety of vases/containers for flowers at our wedding

15 collected pretty plates, just because they’re pretty.

There’s probably a lot more I’ve forgotten but hopefully I’ll be back here more regularly to fill you in (if you’re even that interested).  I hope you've had a good couple of months, spring is on its way, can’t wait!!

xxx  

p&p price change

image via Project Wedding

Just a heads up to say that p&p prices have now been lowered on Jewellery by Vanya to £2.45, with additional items 50p extra.  You still get the full gift wrap service of recycled kraft box, ivory ribbon and floral pouch.  Items are still sent via Recorded Delivery.

Hope everyone is well.

xxx

Wedding Invitations

Since setting the date and feeling the relief that it is actually happening, we have not done another thing wedding related.  I have been focusing on work a lot as it's coming up to the busiest time of the year but this morning I decided I really ought to think about the invitations.

Here are a few favourites from around the web:

via oh so beautiful paper

via ruffled (this wedding has such a beautiful setting)

via 100 layer cake

via bird and banner 

via rifle paper co. (love love love the two on the far right)

As you can see I'm drawn to the vintagey, floral, hand-crafted, colourful, informal and fun kind of designs.  This will be the vibe of our wedding so hopefully I can create something (I'm making/designing them myself) inspired by the above to represent the day.

Any brides or grooms out there want to share their invitations with me?  Did you make them yourself?

xxx

Business Cards, P.s and a P.p.s

Hi all, hope you had a nice weekend.  It was my first day back at the Sunday Upmarket yesterday and I still feel tired and achey.  Oh well, dinner cooked for me and an early night should sort me out.

Lately I've been thinking about re-designing my business cards.  You can see what they currently look like here (although now I only use the floral background)  I still love the idea of them, they work especially well at the market where customers can browse through to find their favourite item, but they are time consuming and I wonder whether my time may be better spent on other aspects of the business.

Here are a few I've found as inspiration, as you will see I can't keep away from the handmade cards, they are just that extra bit special I think.

Lena Corwin

Ruthi Auda

above two via Logo Designer Blog

the feather collective

via oh hello friend

A lot of stamps feature in this list which is a quick, easy and cost effective way to make my own cards but will it represent my jewellery well?  Hmmm some more thinking is needed on that one.

P.s, we have a wedding venue and date, yey!  Until the deposit has been paid, I feel like I'd be tempting fate to tell too many people so if you are a friend or family member reading this, you will hear from me as soon as money has changed hands.

P.p.s, Colin sent me this this morning, so sad. 

xxx

just thought i'd share...

...Kitty Gallannaugh's new blog post.  I know I can relate, can you?

Read it here.

xxx

Family Day

Last Tuesday I visited family and got to have lots of cuddles and play time with these two cuties!

(my niece and nephew) (please excuse the horrible font used, only just realised how bad it looks, never mind)

I also spent a couple of hours wedding dress shopping with my mum and sister! I must have tried on at least 10 dresses, don't know if that's a lot or not when wedding dress shopping but it was a lot for me in one go.  I was worn out by the end and had to skip the last shop.  Although there were some lovely dresses, none of them were very 'me'.  

I haven't forgotten I said I would talk more about the dress (if you are at all interested).  I'll show you in another post all the images I have collected.

Hope you're well.

xxx

The Rings

I don't have an engagement ring.  I know it's not the norm but a while back, when Colin and I started to talk about getting married, I started to think about rings!  I have been a major fan of Rust jewellery for a couple of years now, posting about one of the designers here and here so when marriage was possibly on the cards I knew exactly where my wedding ring would come from. 

I liked the look of these three below and as they are very detailed and delicate, I wanted to wear it alone.  Soooo basically I told Colin that if/when he was going to propose, not to get me a ring (I didn't see the point in spending lots of money on a ring I would only wear for a few months).  Hope that makes sense.  I have had to explain that so many times!  Anyway the rings...

 

I'm not going to tell you which one I choose, I had a favourite online but when I went to try it on, I prefered another.  It arrived last week and I LOVE it!!!  All available from Rust.

Colin's ring was slightly more complicated.  We originally ordered a kind of mechanical looking spinner ring with a tiny bit of bling but the re-sizing couldn't be done without having the join visible so we took it back.  We then searched some more and found Van Buskirk Jewellery.

Again I won't tell you which one is Colin's but I will say that the designer, Mike is such a lovely guy.  He happily put up with all our questions, created the ring in a different finish, and re-sized it (when we ordered one too big) all within a week!  Fully recommended.

Next wedding post I might talk about the dress :)

xxx