WEDDING STORY PART TWO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOMETIMES

Sometimes life is good , this last week has been truely amazing, now I see that Newcastle is in floods, thats where we had booked to stay last night, we were so happy with the wedding and our holiday on Holy Island that we decided to come home, nothing to do with the weather.  We would now be stuck.  We feel truly blessed.

WEDDING STORY PART ONE

I am going to be indugent Im afraid with wedding tales....
The outfit...mine that is...what a nightmare, if you have a wedding planned then go on a diet, I wish I had what a trial to find something that was 'arty & floaty' the request from my daughter, the bride

Not very flattering Im afraid shot by my husband, heels sunk into the wet grass lol

Perched on my head is a THING, this thing is called a fascinator & I am 5 feet 10 tall this thing kept getting caught on doorways, bus roof and I had flowers on my wrist that were huge, a rose and a gerbera.  More on those in another post

So arty & floaty I was in navy blue with lime green beads & a lovely pashmina which covered my fat wobbly arms the thing I was most freaking out about as the bolero for the outfit had really short sleeves.  I altered the fascinator by adding stickles in copper and chopping up green and orange feathers, actually looked okay but I felt a trifle silly in it especially as my counterpart did not have anything perched on her head!

Here are the bridal party

My daughters dress by Ian Stuart was stunning.  Ivory silk with a diamonte insert & lacing up the back, it was so lovely

My darling daughter

This lady is my daughters hair & make up artist, look at the yummy table, all made available to me, I spent so long blending out all my wrinkles and blemishes that I forgot my mascara, good job as I was in floods of tears at the ceremony.  The room is their turret suite at the Radisson Bleu in Edinburgh, the site of the pre-wedding drinks party following the pre-wedding meal, which was lovely.  As my son in law is Swedish it was wonderful to meet all our new relations & friends

Here we are at the pre-wedding dinner, looking a bit silly as we were all having a very good time, my husband does not really look like wallace or is it grommit (ha)

Another new outfit for me, this one had nice elbow sleeves and I am wearing the beautiful brooch bought for me by my daughter

My hair is a mess after swimming & being under strict instruction by my hairdresser not to put any products in it or use heat tools

Im very tired now having returned from out holiday to Holy Island & Ive been swimming today, more to come soon, & I have some good shots that will work for textiles

Back soon xx

Home now

Back from the great adventure, will post tomorrow with piccies night xx

Journey from hell

7 hours Northampton to Carlisle in the awful rain, wind and stop start M6, a very odd arrangement to get to the hotel through farmers gates and no entry signs, just what you need when you are socaking wet, it was so bad that we left all the wedding clothes including THE dress in the car overnight and a disturbed night peering out the window watching the car park fill up with water and leaves.  Same old same old this morning until we got to Gretna Green then it cleared up and we had a fabulous ride through lovely scenery to our destination Edinburgh, where we found Princes street had road works and promptly got ourselves lost, two lovely random women at a bus stop sorted us out and at last WE ARE HERE
Ive been swimming, eating fabuloous food and to the wedding reception with all our lovely friends and meeting our fabulous new Swedish friends & tomorrow relatives
The suite is the top of the tower & here is one of the views

Wonderful sky set for a wonderful couple & we are so emotional & proud & excited

Stunning views from an unusual vantage point

Goodnight x

TIME TO GO

Bye all Ill be back in a week with tales and pictures & who knows maybe some sketching
Please wish for a clear spell around lunch time on Sunday in the Scottish borders
Thanks for following me x

EARTH

Just a quick pop in, to show this fabulous picture of the Earth from the North Pole via NASA

Look at the UK...wow  x

Where have I been & where am I going?

Shopping shopping shopping, food, clothes, hats, shoes, bags, fascinator....yes the wedding is a week today.  Ahhhhhh, yipeeee, ummmm.  Mother of the bride, in Lydias words 'gosh how droll that sounds' I try to not post too much personal stuff, but this is just way too exciting to keep bottled in.  I have 5 new outfits...heehee how silly and some really dodgy shoes which I cant walk in..yet..I gave up heels years ago but I must wear them and this very odd thing in my hair called a fascinator, which might end up looking a bit wild if I get time to add bits to it to personalise it, imagine..Lutradur...Evolon...heat gun and soldering iron, do I dare???

We are travelling to Scotland, as its a joining of countries Sweden & England.  Logic goes out of the window when it comes to weddings.  Its outside in a ruined Abbey, oh so beautiful and romantic.
The clothes are divine.  I wept when I saw my son in his tail coat, so very handsome
Wish them well and Ill be back sometime as We are having a holiday visiting Holy Island, I will lots of pictures I hope

Im wearing navy blue, it has been very stressful finding an outfit which didnt make me look daft.  Tall and large does not work with a vast amount of colours.

My husband has nagged for years, wear something bright.  Well he nearlly had a fit when I pranced out of the changing room with a 1950's style off white dress with huge bright blue flowers on and then a shift dress in bright yellow and lime green.  Sort of proved a point!!!

Tasteful I shall be if a tad boring ....soldering iron keeps coming back to mind, embossing powder!!!

See you soon, cant promise to blog, but will if i can, lets hope for some good clear weather, but we have huge umbrellas and it will be fun x

Stitch magazine

I dont buy many magazines nowadays, but today I looked through the new Stitch with the Embroiderers Guild mag with some lovely articles in it.  Interesting as we were using the smashing machine and the hand felting needles.  I now have to buy the Clover machine and the brush.
Very different effects with the single hand felting into sponge, multiple into sponge, Clover into brush and the smashing machine.  I also have the childrens machine, what an enjoyable lesson with lovely inspiring students.  On a really wet grotty day it was a pleasure to go to work

Tomorrow I am teaching Fabric Manipulation, a whole day messing about with bits of fabric - bliss, hope it stops raining soon

This is a fantastic book, would be terrific if I could find my copy, but I cant so I will use my Jennie Raiment book which has a lot of techniques from Colette Woolfes book, but written in a much easier format.
Oh goodness the TV is still going on about the England football match & the awful floods, I feel so sorry for the people loosing all their stuff.  I am glad that I live on a hill, but wont ever crow about it, as there is a drain about 6 foot higher than my garage which could overflow.  I moved all the precious photos upstairs years ago when we had a flood in our county, fortunately the little concrete lip that the silly (not so silly) builders built in front of the garage doors saved the garage and all the contents.  We have another house in the garage, isnt that what they are for..?.... night off to bed, have not finished explaining all the workshops yet as its getting wedding fever time here only a few days to go, how exciting, please wish for beautiful weather for Scotland as the wedding is outside in a ruined Abbey...heels or wellie boots hmmmmm I will look great in my flowing chiffon dress with boots at least they will hide my manky ankles and save me having to wear tights (no not stockings, we have a two hour ride on a jolly bus, singing Abba songs...hohoho...if you know me then you know why...secret squirrels)

NIFTY TOOL, WORKSHOPS & DESIGN TO STITCH

Over on http://jeansmuse.blogspot.com  there is an explanation of how to do this.  Bias binding maker
I have not tried it yet, but Jean gives a really good explanation, considering the cost of a bias maker this could be a very cheap and effective alternative.  Thank you Jean & thanks to whoever thought of it in the first place.

Check out the new page links at the very top of the blog (above the picture)  There is a new tab with images from our creative brain edges blog & another new tab with workshops that are now FOR SALE, there is a BRAND NEW workshop called LUTRADUR FLOWERS.  I am filling in the details and adding pictures.  If you have any queries regarding the workshops then please email me on shelaghfolgate@aol.com
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DESIGN TO STITCH TWO

Starting 1ST AUGUST 2012 - another opportunity to join DESIGN TO STITCH

All the details are on the DESIGN TO STITCH BLOG link HERE including images of the excellent work being created by the first set of students

4 WORKSHOPS for £50.......or if you have previously purchased a workshop & join before 1st JULY 2012, there is a £10 reduction, making the total price £40 for all 4 workshops

• Each of the 4 workshops are available individually for £15 each
• Check out the blog http://designtostitch.blogspot.com

JOIN HERE

DESIGN TO STITCH

ALL WORKSHOPS£50.00 GBP SPECIAL OFFER£40.00 GBP 1. WHITEWORK£15.00 GBP 2. ACROMATIC JOURNEY£15.00 GBP 3. MONOCHROME MAGIC£15.00 GBP 4. SUNRISE£15.00 GBP

Aol, favourite places, email & ahhhhhh...& a Tutorial

Tearing hair out, jumping up and down and sorta screaming....I cant access my email through my provider aol and now all my favourite places have vanished, in fact everything has vanished.
So a google search provides a really techie answer which my brain wont compute (ah) at the moment
So I am CROSS with a big X
As respite from these problems, my husbands friend visited and sorted out how to sell on eBay.  Great I have been trying to teach my husband for years, will he listen to me........ but his friend oh yes its all working now...fume ...fume.  So whilst they were sorting it all out, I sewed and sewed whip stitch around a circle, my goodness it took over an hour to go round a three inch circle
So the weather didn't rain today whoo hoo, dried washing outside, what a bonus and at 4pm the sun came out, so we went into our town centre and what was the market place to support our son with his BOUNCY CASTLE business called BOUNCY WOUNCY

The place was full of street dancers, really loud thumping music, lots of stalls, this fabo castle & lots of people having huge fun.  The castles are really good and the kids were all having a great time

So I sat on a wet seat (well I would) in the sunshine and enjoyed the experience

On the stitchery front, I have been designing a flower vase with the embellisher machine for my Design to stitch class on Monday & a hanging for a class in July with silk rods & weaving (hmmm tempting??)  I have been making applique blocks inspired by Susan Briscoes fantastic Taupe book to make into a patchwork organiser using my ill gotten gains from the sneaky trip to Malvern

I surfed the net for some ribbon tape which was really expensive so I stitched my own.  £2.99 for one metre of what is India tape with a bit of printing on is extortionate in my view, then there is the issue of postage, on Etsy some of the places want £2.50 plus to post a metre (yard) of tape.  That made me mega cross.  First class postage is now 60p so where does the extra nearly 2 quid come from.

So make your own like this

1. Cut a piece of fabric 1 inch wide

2.  Score a line on the wrong side a quarter inch from each edge

3.  Using the iron press the seam towards each other

4.  Press from the front side, this makes 'bias' binding but its not bias as its on the straight

5.  Cut off twice the required length

6.  Fold the tape in half wrong sides together

7.  Whip stitch or ladder stitch the two pieces together

There your own tape, which matches your fabric and costs enth of a penny.  Okay does take a bit of time, but what is time when its your hobby, do it whilst watching rubbish on the box

Sorry cant really be bothered to take photos of each stage

There is a shopping bag on the floor next to me with croissants peeping out saying eat me, I shall have to go and put them away, my naughty husband bought them, I bought cherries and plums

croissants / plums

No contest, no wonder I am fat & diabetic and my knees are giving me gip

Have a lovely evening / day where ever you are, I hope the sun shines on some of your day and lifts your soul

Thanks for reading x

DIAMOND JUBILEE

WOW
What a fabulous weekend, how proud am I to be British...hugely...how wonderful to see the UNION FLAG everywhere, in all the streets, on the cars, on the people.  What a unified nation we can be.
I have so enjoyed our Jubilee weekend.

From the dreadful rain and mist on Sunday to the glorious sunshine on Monday with the fantastic concert to today with the parade and my favourite fly past which made me cry, much to the amusement of my son, who could not understand why the sight of all the people in the mall & the Red Arrows would make me so emotional.

I think Tom Jones & Gloria Jones stole the show.

She hula hooped whilst singing to the river all the way through, fascinating, what a figure, another wow

I love Stevie Wonder has always been a favourite of mine, I am a Tamla Motown lover

Madness sang Our House on the top of Buckingham Palace whilst it was lit up to look like a block of flats, hilarious.  Oh it was just wonderful.  I am watching it again lol

Yesterday there was a party on our local village green, the road was closed and it was such fun, packed with people.

The new song SING is great

I do hope that you have had a lovely weekend xx