Wedding Plans

These are the buttonholes for our wedding. We are getting married in a Tudor manor house, hence the Tudor roses. I have about thirty still to make, plus more for headdress and some much bigger ones for my bouquet.

We are doing quite a bit of DIT (do-it-together!) wedding stuff.

• Buttonholes
• Bouquet
• Head wreath/circlet
• Wreath for the Prof's helmet
• The Prof's outfit - he is wearing Saxon clothes, which my Mum is making. She is looking forward to telling people she made her son-in-law's wedding dress!
• Bunting - done, courtesy of Mum
• Table runners - Mum is doing those too
• Centrepieces - the Prof has a cunning plan for these and for the
• Post box -
• Invitations - we are hoping to get these out in the next couple of weeks
• Programmes - in progress
• Wedding certificate - in progress
• Cake topper - we have Playmobil figures and need to glue them on to a base
• Ceremony/vows - we are writing these ourselves
• Table names -
• Menu cards for tables - do we need these?
• Place cards

Other things we need to get done:

Order wedding postage stamps

Send invitations

Renew passport

Book honeymoon

Arrange canapes and drinks at ceremony venue

Arrange food and drink choices with reception venue

Finish wedding website

Buy the Young Philosopher's outfit

Visit both venues with photographer

Make list of photographs we want

Ask someone (who?) to take video

Arrange rehearsal

Arrange flowers for ceremony venue

Arrange car

Buy ribbon for cake

Buy ribbon for family cars

Decide on music for ceremony and make CD

Decide on background music for reception

Provide reception venue with a seating plan

Visit register office and give notice of intention to marry

Decide on readings/details of ceremony

Fill in questionnaire for celebrant/provide her with our ideas for ceremony

Buy disposable cameras and make explanatory cards for table

Buy 'menu holders' to display photos/table names

Order corsages from florist for key female guests/members of wedding party

Get my dress altered

Buy shoes

Buy underwear

Take the the Prof's helmet and sword to be polished

Arrange make up and hair trials for me and Mum

Arrange for hair and make up on the day for me and Mum

Collect cake from the Prof's sister

Collect favours from my friend who is kindly making them (homemade chocs, yum!)

Give seating plan to reception venue

Day of/day before

Put up bunting

Provide venue with runners, decorations, favours, cake

We have just under three months to the wedding, but I'd like to have all the wedding arrangements and all the DIT done by the end of March. It would be nice to spend the last few weeks before our wedding having time to look forward to it!

Making it Simple: 1

Image from here

One of my aims this year is to simplify as much as possible. Since the Prof and I combined our two homes into my tiny one, there is far too much stuff around here. To be honest, there was far too much stuff before he moved in. I probably have five times more stuff than he does. I also want to simplify food - menu planning, easy and quick meals, routines for grocery shopping. We also need routines for household chores. Our current system, or lack of one, doesn't really work. It involves me doing as much as I can as my health permits, which often isn't very much, The Prof does what he can in between working, doing artwork and studying and then he, or both of us have a blitz occasionally when the Environmental Health are threatening to come round. I am only slightly joking.

Progress so far this year:

• We gave my brother a huge coffee table that we loved but was far too big in our living room and always ended up covered in papers and stuff anyway
• Sorted out some books that can go (this is always an ongoing project).
• Simplified the front of the fridge! Fridge magnets be gone! (well, some of them...)
• Decluttered bathrooms - all products we won't use gone, and everything else organised
• My email accounts are completely decluttered and organised. I have unsubscribed from some newsletters and will be doing so from others. If yours is one of them, please don't be insulted! I just can't cope with all the reading right now, especially with the wedding fast approaching.
• I made a menu plan for this week. It started today and I have already changed my mind about dinner. Not my fault, the chicken didn't defrost in time! A list of meals that can be shifted to whichever day is convenient is probably best for us. I am experimenting with it anyway.

The plan is that by the end of the year the house, garden, shed and loft will be decluttered and organised and various aspects of our life generally will be much simpler. Can't wait!

The Fabulous Four

My four favourite men: the Prof, Dad, the Young Philosopher and Little Bruv.

The Yoga Begins....

I am taking part in Marianne Elliot's 30 Days of Yoga. I was a bit late to the party, as I should have started yesterday. Yesterday was not a good day, so I did my first session today.

I enjoyed it, though it was a bit uncomfortable at times. I am pretty unfit: all I used to do a lot of was walking, and with my CFS and being off work for the past year I don't even do much of that anymore. Sitting on the floor cross legged was uncomfortable for a start, though improved by sitting on a couple of cushions. I enjoyed the breathing exercises, and felt centred and calm. I was fine with cat pose and cow pose, though in child pose it was difficult to get my forehead on the floor properly. Added to all that it hard to breathe at the same time! I am sure I will get the hang of it.

Savasana - now THAT is my kind of pose. I could do that one all day. My feet got freezing cold though! Socks tomorrow.

Dreaming of Pineapples

The other night I had a weird dream. It was my wedding day, and the bouquet didn't arrive. There was a pineapple nearby and my Mum suggested that I carry that instead of flowers.

I googled the symbolism of pineapples in dreams:

• To see a pineapple in your dream, represents self-confidence, ambition and success. You are self-assured in what you do. Alternatively, the pineapples symbolize hospitality. Or perhaps you need to relax or take a vacation. To eat a pineapple indicates sexual problems and issues of losing control.

Hmm. I have so little ambition it's laughable. I wouldn't say I am particularly self assured or self confident. Who doesn't need to relax and take a vacation? We are planning a well earned one for after the wedding. Hospitality - yes, I enjoy having people over and that's definitely something I would like to do more of in 2011.

For the record, I would like to state that in my dream I WAS NOT eating the pineapple and neither was the Prof.

43 Things to do while I am 43

Following on from what I said about not making resolutions, here is my list of things I actually want to do this year. As I achieved that magic number myself on January 1st, here is my list of 43 things to do while I am 43. All things that I am going to enjoy doing!

1. See an Imax film
2. Learn to crochet and make something
3. Get married!
4. Organise my digital photographs
5. Organise my old photos
6. Take a writing course
7. Pass ECDL Level Two
8. Have a colour analysis consultation
9. Paint the garden bench
10. Take part in an online photography course or challenge
11. Do archery again
12. Make a birthday cake
13. Renew my passport
14. Go abroad for a holiday
15. Put a piece of my writing (other than the blog) online
16. Knit a flower brooch
17. Knit 10 dishcloths, enough that I don't need to buy them anymore.
18. Make a pair of earrings
19. Visit the Tate Modern
20. Visit 5 places in London I have not been to before
21. Go on a walk with London Walks
22. Go out with the Dusty Professor for proper London pie, mash and liquor
23. Take part in 30 days of yoga
24. Get a dining table and have people over for dinner!
25. Have a picnic at the ruins of Hadleigh Castle
26. Sort out and organise the house
27. Sort out and organise the loft and shed
28. Send some parcels of little goodies to certain people
29. Try 10 new recipes
30. Send the Young Philosopher's baby blankets here
31. Keep a record of the books I read
32. Keep a record of the meals I make
33. Take part in Susannah Conway's unravelling course
34. Write real letters
35. Find and buy a pair of shoes (not boots or sandals) that are actually comfortable
36. Work my way through Part One of my BBC French course, or at least some of it!
37. Learn more about how to use the features on my camera
38. Join a Tai Chi class
39. Attend a traditional craft workshop
40. Do some Saxon-style embroidery
41. Have a boot sale
42. Sell some books and DVDs on Amazon/ebay
43. Have a weekend away with the proceeds

Lovely Things

What is it about the New Year? That fresh start feeling that makes people want to change things? No resolutions for me! I hate the feeling two weeks later when I have failed to do all those (boring) things I didn't want to do anyway....

So! This is my list of things I want to have/do this year. No giving anything up or visits to the gym required.

More handwritten letters - sent and received

Time to write, and to read

Good food

Time with family and friends

More days out in the wonderful city I live so near to

More SPACE (serious minimalising going on this year. More on this later)

If I can get plenty of all the above into my life this year, I'll be happy.

What lovely things do you want in your life this year?