My wedding shawl

Being engaged has become the perfect excuse to start crocheting my wedding shawl. I know I blogged about it ages ago when I first saw the pattern within the Crochet Today magazine which was just wow and totally stuck out to me. It was something I wanted to keep and to make for myself, for my magic day and to keep as a memory of it. 

The finished orginal article is meant to look something like this;

Its made in two halves with pineapple and a million trebles and chains but its a really easy pattern to follow even though to do a row seems to take forever due to its width. I'm making mine with some free wool, my mam gave it to me months ago because she had no use to it so, seeing its free its even more great [seeing we're working with a £2000 budget to get married with]. We're planning an autumnal wedding so this shawl is going to be the perfect way to keep a little warmth.

It needs pulling into shape a lot and some of the chains are a bit iffy - not sure if its the yarn or me but it's fine. I wanted to make and finished this first, the dress has to go around this for which I have a million ideas!

Amineko cat

I was wondering where else the crocheting lark could take me, alongside the squares, doilies and what not. Raverly is my godsend for free stuff and patterns and there was this cat that just said "make me" from the screen. Its made up from scraps of ginger 4 ply wool, stuffing and stones from the drive - it asks for pebbles but we have none of them so i was making do and mending as the saying goes. 

His arm went slightly funky not too sure why other then I sewed it on wrong and i totally couldn't handle the design they suggested for the face, so I just back stitched my own idea and added whiskers. Without the whiskers it looked more like a bear.

An afternoon wedding tea

I'm not sure many people have "themes" for their weddings, maybe the go more for show or for colours. But we want a theme. We both, well probably Joe more then me, huge tea lovers and after having an amazingly fun and posh time at Betty's in York the other week, the "afternoon tea" idea has been something overly running through my mind when it comes to the decoration, food, drinks and atmosphere at our wedding. With myself being English and us hopefully marrying in America, I hope this theme brings a little bit of an English countryside feel to some little place in Michigan next year. As well as making a scrapbook of ideas myself, I thought i'd make a virtual one too. 

So things like;

Cupcakes, lavender, china, tea, pinks, purples, gardens, cakes ...

YORK: Heart of Yorkshire

Rumour has it, well the Pullman Bus Tours state that if lovers kiss under the "Heart of Yorkshire" officially known as the Great West Window they'll stay in love for the rest of their lives. Me and JJ were all up for trying that!

Its only when you play at being a tourist you realise how much the Minster dominates the city. But its expectantly pretty at night, all lit up. Was the perfect spot and sight on the slow wander home back from our floodlit boat trip. I went for a peek inside the Minster last week - I kind of wanted to get away from the world and be quiet for a bit. I might not be religious but you can't mistake the beauty inside such a place. 

Hope you all have fabulous weekend, i'm back to sorting and mending the crocheted blanket while fixing up me and Joe a scrapbook of our holidays and messing with that wedding wrap I blogged about ageeees ago.

YORK: Afternoon Tea at Betty's

Betty's Tearooms were opened as a haven to offering traditional meals, cakes and teas mixing influences from Switzerland and Yorkshire. The first tearoom was opened in 1919 in Harrogate by Fredrick Belmont, a Swiss confectioner with later additions opening in York. The naming of the tearooms as "Betty's" however remains a mystery. Some consider them to be named after the former Queen Mother; a former Harrogate Spa owner Betty Lupton, a previous daughter of the sites former owner who had died of TB and/or perhaps a small child who is said to have interrupted a meeting and suggested a name. 

Opening in the 1930s, the York St Helen's Square branch of Betty's became its flagship tearoom. During WWII the "Betty's basement" downstairs became the hangout of American and Canadian bomber boys located over here. Overall the design of the tearoom is inspired by ship RMS Queen Mary after Fredrick sailed upon its maiden voyage. Impressed by the design that much he commissioned the same ship's designers and craftsmen to provide a setting for his latest branch.

Me and JJ decided to pretend to be posh and opted for "afternoon" tea at Bettys.

Least its given me one idea for our wedding - a basis of "afternoon tea" for the buffet, little sandwiches, little cakes all on vintage cake stands. With posh tea.

Holiday snaps

Thank you to everyone who's given us there's congratulations and best wishes for getting engaged. It still feels like an amazingly good dream. I guess we should pretend to be all grown up now?! So here's just some piccies of us on our holiday together in York. No doubt there'll be countless other blogs about what we got up too. 

Lazying in the sun just by our special place where we got engaged

Snuggles behind the Minster

We're right posers, I know.

Love

My guy :D

No more piccccccies!

Best week of my life. Loved it.

Thank you all again

Riverside Romance and an Engagement to Boot

The Thursday before last me and Joe took what just seemed to be a normal little wander through York. After spending the early evening watching Funny Face with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn and eating Spag Bol and endless quickly melting Ben and Jerrys [because there was no freezer and it was melting too fast] we headed towards the river. We found a perfect little bench just by Skledergate Bridge just sat watching the world go by, the river cruises, the geese and the ducks.

And then somewhere out of the dream Joe asked me to marry him, mid kiss. The whole world seemed to stop, my heart went giddy up. And everything went amazingly perfect. We finished off the evening with a ride on the floodlit river tour down to Bishopthorpe Palace and a stroll through the city.

The women at the jewellery store was surprised at the tiny sized fingers - saying that she's given me a complex about it now. We choose the ring together, its everything I could ever want, small, pretty and shiney. I love it and I really really can't wait to marry Joe - he makes life so fun and amazing.

LIFE: 43 Things

There's an amazing website doing the rounds if you love making lists. Especially to do lists, of things you really want to get around to doing someday. I know i've posted a list like this before somewhere upon this blog [can't really find where] and I know it revolved around having proper holidays by the seaside and visiting Hye on Why. But like I'm inpatient, my head jumps, ideas fly and my ideas and lists always change. I guess anyone's to do before they die list is somewhat always reflecting the point where a person is in their life. A wish of things they might of done in the past and a hope to do in the future. 

So here is mine, in reflection i'm surprised just how American my ambitions are heading already

1. See a Broadway musical [New York]

2. Collect seashells from around the world

3. To see a musical in London's West End

4. Try and keep my blog going which is rather hard to do at times, especially at the moment. But I am trying.Honest.

5. To like myself more, probably one of the hardest things on this list.

6. To get married. I think this is one of the big and more doable and planned things i'll be doing in the near future [hopefully]. Yet getting married totally wouldn't of appeared on any to do list of mine even as recently as a year ago, it's a wonder what meeting an amazing guy does when it comes to changing your stance about romance. 

7. Visit Virginia, especially Williamsburg

8. To carry on collecting my vintage powder compacts and figure out some impressive and more affective way to store and display them.

9. Make a huge Afghan crochet blanket for long romantic snuggles, another for the back of the car for picnics and one for edders.

10. To be happy, generally.

11. To go and watch a PGA golf match, somewhere, some place.

12. To crochet more, doesn't really matter what. Just crochet and get better at it. 

13. To finally see the Backstreet Boys live, been "into" them for 14 years and still haven't done it. Must try harder. 

14. To own and give a home to more rescue cats. I'm slighty bias to ginger and white cats, but i'll take any! 

15. Own and do up my own house. Have dreams of a little yellow ranch house in Massachusetts, but just any little place that needs a bit of loving, a hammer and some paint.

16. Road trip to New York, maybe up through Canada via Buffalo. Just to walk along Fifth Avenue, see the Statue or Liberty, watch the big lights.

17. Visit and travel around Italy staying in gorgeous quaint little villages, see the sites of the Romans, soak up all the culture.

18. To move to America.

19. To honeymoon up in the Laurel mountains in PA and especially visit Falling Water. 

20. Road trip around Pennsylvania [at least the western part] up into the Mountains, the caves, snuggle into a cabin and watch the world go by. 

21. Develop my photography skills - slightly my new snap happy addiction. Need a "proper" camera but we'll get it some day.

22. Visit Chicago and see the Chicago Fire Soccer team play seeing they are the closest to the big time you get closest to Detroit.

23. To learn how to knit. I can crochet, sew, embroider. But can I knit - no chance!

Okki, so there's room for 20 more ideas. It's hard to focus and think of things you want to do when you have to actually think about it! Always room for more though.

What are your things to do?