The bad the good and the fabulous

I owe you all an explanation.  I've been really quiet as this year hasn't started well, I've had two very close family members die.  It's been heartbreaking and quite frankly I couldn't cope with it.  The first was completely unexpected and the second, although expected was sooner than we'd all hoped.  Death comes to us all but sometimes it sucks big time and this time it had bells on and everything.  I know some of you have been concerned, thank you thank you thank you.  I really appreciate your thoughts and concerns.  I've tried to write this post a thousand times but found it too hard.

And so to move on as I don't want to bring any of you down with my worries.

The good things that have happened, and there have been good things thankfully, are I've now got back into making things, the only thing I could do at one point was knit so I knitted a blanket in a stupidly short period of time along with eight scarves...grief is weird.  I'm still knitting and I've been getting lessons from a very lovely lady at my sewing class but still need more help to be honest.

It's a multicolour circus but it got me through and it keeps my feet warm in bed!

I've been learning lots of things in sewing class lately, all those who quilt already will know these blocks but they were new to me.  I have to say I really loved hand sewing them, it's been a really relaxing process.  I'm working on an off centre block at the minute in shades of purple, when it's finished I'll share it with you all.

My opal fruits coloured log cabin block

Court house steps in shades of blue

Corner square block in blues and greens

Sorry these photos are a little dark, it was late when I took the picture and I'm just too comfy to get up and take better ones now!  You'll get a good light shot when I've finished the project I promise.

And drum roll please...

The fabulous things are that I'm getting MARRIED!  Eeeeek!  Excited and nervous and giddy and oh I don't know all together!  So I'm going to be showcasing all the little bits and bobs that I'm going to be making to make the wedding more me and J and to keep the costs down as we're on a tight budget.

My engagement ring with Welsh gold and peridots

The engagement cake my work mates surprised me with!  The young lady who made this has now given up work to make cakes full time, lucky thing!

Going back to school times making a lino block print to use on my wedding invitations

So I've bought my dress...I know I know I could have made it but I saw this dress and it was a good price in the style and colour I wanted and with my lack of sewing mojo and me wanting to keep the last scrap of sanity I have left I thought I'd buy it and be done with it.  All I'm letting on at the moment on here is that I have a chiffon underskirt to go with it!  Eeeee!  I love it so!  I have my shoes too and J has his suit, we just need to get him a shirt and me some underthings and our outfits are sorted.

I'm going to make a bouquet from brooches as although I love flowers it's cheaper this way as I have a large collection of brooches anyway.  It also means I can have relatives long gone come along for the festivities as I have brooches that were both of my grandmother's and have asked J's family if I can borrow a brooch of J's grandmother who is no longer with us too.

My next big project will be making masses of bunting and paper flowers to decorate the venue when we find one.  It's a bit of a hunt for hen's teeth at the minute as we just want a room to eat in as we're going to get married in a registry office and think we've found a caterer we like so just need somewhere where our families can sit and have high tea with us!  You'd think that would be easy wouldn't you?  Oh no, nothing is easy apparently as whenever you mention the W word the prices of places sky rocket and won't let you have outside caterers. *Sigh*

So I'll try not to bore you all with wedding stuff and will intersperse other pretty things like sewing class activities and my escapades in knitting just to keep everyone happy.  Thank you all for your patience and understanding.