Vintage Kenmore Sewing Machine

Joe went to the Salvo's looking for a bedside cabinet for my side of the bed and came back with this American Kenmore vintage sewing machine. I'm a very lucky girl but what's even better is that it's electric  and it still works. It's model no. [117-59 - the only model made during this period and was also named the Kenmore Imperial Rotary sewing machine] was manufactured in 1942 - its a total beast of it's time, it's sleek, smooth design is much more rounded and modernised in comparison to my 1936 Singer built only 8 years before.

Kenmore [a brand name used by the Sear's company] first appeared and only stayed for one year in 1913. It was later to reappear in 1934 manufacturing until the onset of America's involvement in WWII in 1942 - the result of the shortage of materials necessary to make the machines. The closer of the war however didn't brighten the future of Kenmore who began to suffer from the withdrawal of import tariffs, as a result it was becoming increasingly more economic for the public to buy imported goods. Kenmore ended it's sewing machine history of American models in 1958, with it's name only appearing on Japanese made machines after this date.

It comes complete with it's original sewing table, i'm debating how to clean it up, maybe a good go with some furniture polish will get rid of the dents in the wood and make it shine once again. I really can't wait to get my hands upon the machine and give it a good rub down! I bet with a bit of loving it can really shine again, saying that for it's age and for being found where it was, I think it's in rather good condition. But what can I make with it first?!

But the secret about what is the best thing about this sewing is what is in the drawer to the underside of the accompanying chair ...

After I've moved i'll do some of my geeky snap happy photographs and show this girl off some more - i totally can't wait to have a full nosey in that drawer, it looks crammed full of goodies! Made my 25th birthday today a little more memorable.

MUA starry night palatte

I thought it would be fitting to review the MUA palette I brought myself while i'm still holding my give away. After realising I was on the verge of turning 25 with hardly any eye shadows at all, I thought something had to be done about it. Following all the blogs that I do, I've noticed a marked liking for palettes, particularly ones by MUA, which seeing they are at my end of the market I thought it would be worthy of checking - not many pennies would be lost if I went back to my non eye shadow ways.

From the Pro range I was most attracted to this the Starry Night palatte which features pans of colours from palest of greys through to denim blues, purples, pinks and some verging on black - colours merely reflecting the tones of clothes I tend to wear outside of work. As with most of the MUA range they are all highly pigmented, they blend effortlessly together and while the shimmery my be a bit youthful and "cheap" to some, I find it slightly refreshing. 

Retailing at superdrug for only £4 its well worth trying, not being an expert I can't rate it against its higher end counterparts but i'd definitely consider purchasing another similar palatte.

Have you tried any MUA palettes? Which other brands do you rate?

Remember you can still enter the MUA heaven and earth palatte give away

Tell me about yourself award ...

I've been happy nominated by two of my favourite bloggers [Charr and Sophie] in the last couple of weeks which means a lot - it's nice to have some recognition for your writing even if what you do is for a hobby. The rules of acceptance are simple - linking back to who awarded you, revealing some secrets about yourself and passing the award on. 

So some facts;

1) I've never driven a car, ever [and i'm nearly 25]. 

2) Chip butties have to be one of my favourite all time meals. 

3) I still listen to The Backstreet Boys. 

4) I don't believe in much belief wise, but anything that tempts fate scares me.

5) Joe is the only person I know irl who reads my blog [that's probably for the best]
6) I'd rather be too cold then too warm.
7) I totally swear by tripadvisor when it comes to sorting trips - it's a godsend that website!

Passing it on;

Geek marries chic

The woollen mitten

With love Jen

The blog of worldly delights

Tales of a little hazzlenut

I could link tens of other blogs and bloggers who's words and blogs totally inspire me so that list is far from definitive. Right better get back to having a productive day off and book some train tickets and a hotel for the visa date with the USA. Ooo it's getting rather real and exciting now!

Blog giveaway: MUA heaven and earth give away open till midnight Saturday 1st October 2011. Click here to enter!

The Crows Are Coming For Us

It was my weekend off, finally after two very long weeks at work especially with the bitchy hicup mid week but we're over that for now at least. I love weekends off, or just having two consecutive days off together, which is often rare makes the thought of having months off after I move, very, very appealing. Yesterday I spent baking - attempted some marbled chocolate cupcakes and some cappuccino squares with a white chocolate topping. Both turned out a lot better then I expected, i'm slowly getting into the baking lark, especially with watching the Great British Bake Off [anyone else totally addicted to this BBC show?!], although i'm a very messy baker in comparison.

With all the photography magazines I end up buying lately I started a scrapbook of inspiring images that catch my eye or techniques or equipment to keep up with. Just cutting and gluing takes me back to my childhood and kept me entertained for much of Saturday afternoon, i'm still unsure what extent of photographic talent i have but photography definitely is becoming one of my favourite pastimes. And Sunday wouldn't be a Sunday without some flower photos and I was lucky enough again to catch some shots of the bees, one of the reasons why I want to upgrade camera wise is to home in on macro shots such as this. 

We have the strange hope of me moving the first week in November, that means I probably should really sorting things out and handing in my notice at work. It's starting to feel very very real lately, just knowing there's that one [expensive] step left. But that's this weeks task - to book trains tickets and hotels for my interview and sort out when i'm leaving my job. Maybe it's too presumptuous to leave my job before getting my visa, I hope it's not tempting fate too much. Either way it's my last week of being 24, 25 is starting to sound very grown up.

Don't forget to enter my MUA Heaven and Earth giveaway - you have until midnight [UK time] on Saturday 1st of October to be in for a chance of winning! [just enter on the linked post]

MUA give away

As a part of a huge thank you for everyone that's helped keep up the positivity with the visa lark I thought it was about time I did a blog give away. Not to mention surpassing 350 followers and it being my 25th birthday at the end of the month, I may have been blogging for over two years but i've yet to do a give away - it's time to correct that. Being the first little experiment I thought i'd give away something small but hopefully it's something people would like enough to partake!

If you've been around blogs lately you'll notice the success of the MUA's Heaven and Earth palatte, with it being hard to come across in some Superdrug stores once I saw it I new this would be the perfect thing to give away. So for one lucky follower here's your chance to get your hands on one!

Rules and small print

To enter;
1. You must be following this blog on google friends connect.

2. Please comment below and leave your contact email address so I can contact you if your the winner.

3. For an extra chance mention and link to this page on your own blog - just post the link in the comments below.

4. The giveaway is open to international entries.

5. It will remain open until midnight Saturday 1st October 2011 BST with the winner announced within a few days.
6. The  chosen winner will be generated through using random.org.

Good luck to everyone!

**  this competition is now closed, thank you to everyone that participated **

Part twelve; letter letter

Total sods law that the day after ranting and somewhat raving about not having my visa interview letter and therefore date, the next day it appears in the post. For such an important, international thing they always come in such unremarkable envelopes and the most plain looking text - when I got my first letter I actually wondered if it was real they are that plain. After all the hassle and the upset, of suddenley fearing it had all been lost in the post, i'd failed my medical but they couldn't get through to tell me, of them trying to break me and Joe up, i've been summon for interview in London on October 12th.

And you pretty much do get summoned, i've heard it's more then hard to get your interview date and time alletered, luckily it seems a good enough day to me just have to shell out yet another £200 odd pounds for the pleasure. Its also come in one day under the average processing time for this section, a massive 78 days over the average of 79.

So in just under three weeks we'll hopefully know the final outcome. My papers started being processed on January 18th 2011 so it will be just over nine months till we got to the interview date. It's been a long hard, unhappy and challenging process at times but i'm glad we have a date sorted. It helps just knowing you have something to focus towards.

If anyone knows anywhere locker, eurocar or hotels in central London, say around Marylebone across to Kings Cross south towards and around Grosvenor Square where you can leave left luggage that would be an amazing help.

Part eleven; stress.

You might have noticed I haven't blogged anything about my visa lark for about a month, well it's time to admit I'd stressed and not coping too well with it all. What topped it off today was the same woman laughing in my face for not having my interview date, it took huge effort to just not burst into tears on the shop floor.

I had a somewhat stupid idea that after having my medical everything would fal into place really quick, that I'd be having my interview around about now and moving in a month or so. Yeah right. It's this utter wall of silence from the embassy that i really can't deal with, you hear nothing, not one little word and you hear of people going through the whole process four times the speed your going through, it's just like how?! What are the secrets? Apart from angry phone calls to the embassy which while i'm tempted apparently is a very costly business [something over a pound a minute]. And everyone moans about how immigration is meant to be easy?

This somewhat delays most probably ruling out the wedding till December if not till next year. So much for the November the 10th and Chicago as the honeymoon. Everything seems to be failing. To say I'm not stressed may be somewhat of an understatement and over coming the urge for tears isn't fun. Especially at work. But that's what you get for trying to sort out a wedding before you have a visa. Now it just feels like they are trying to push us apart, i'm scared i'll never see my boy again.

What makes everything so much harder is how much I miss Joe, i'm sick of pretending to people outside of me and Joe that i'm strong and that not seeing him doesn't bother me, because in reality I hate it. I don't rant and i don't rave about our relationship because i'm not that kind of person. I actually hate it when people go on and on about their private lives, so to to other people i'm very quiet about what's occurring. But this silence is associated with a strength and a toughness that being apart doesn't bother me. I utterly hate being apart. Hate, hate, hate. It's all so incredibly hard not being with him at the moment, I know there's people in far harder and greater, and more distant relationships out there and I sound like i'm whining and moaning. I am grateful and thankful for having such an amazing guy, a guy that actually wants to make this work. It's just hard being without him physically and being able to touch him and see him when I wake up.

Guess need to pull myself together and plaster on a smile yet I know tomorrow at work I'll get the same daily question from the woman who laughed, and I just know she'll laugh at me all over again.

 Picture taken from weheartit.com

Another unsuspecting Sunday afternoon

I was starting to think because the days are drawing closer, the colours of the flowers are changing and plants start dying off there wouldn't be too much to keep photographing. I guess my luck was in today. We have a mass of tiny [well in comparison to their proper counterparts] sunflowers - all grown from all the fallen sunflower seeds under the bird feeder. There was about twenty or so of the stalks growing at one point, but there's only two flowering. I love the loud in your face rowdiness and colour sunflowers have.Yet the photographs of the bee where just pure, pure luck. 

Most of today was spent listen to random music, starting some sewing - [it's been so long] and watching all the rain showers that the afternoon brought in, so I hope you've all had better weather then it's been here in East Yorkshire. As for the week ahead it's the same old same old. looking forward to doing some baking at the weekend and possibly might have to start looking into the whereabouts of this visa interview letter seeing after four weeks we're had no word. Whoever claimed immigration was easy?!

25th Birthday Wishlist

I don't often post wishlists on here, if ever, but i'm using my forthcoming 25th birthday at the end of the month as an excuse. There's a bit of a photography theme methinks.

Wants; Power: Portraits of World Leaders book by Platon, Vivian Maier - Street Photographer book, La Sardina Lomography Camera [with our without a flash and with out of date films would be nice], Samsung NX11 Compact Systems Camera, Models Own Nail Varnishes [any colour], H and M flower hair clips, SNOG recipe book.

Oh and a birthday cake - a really big birthday cake.

What you all coveting lately? 

Vivian Maier

Sometimes you just stumble upon images, or people; or both and you totally associate and fall for their work. This happened to me with the photographic work of Vivian Maier through a showcase of her work within this months issue of Photography Magazine. Born in the United States, Maier was raised in France only to return to her home country at the age of 25 with a camera. Becoming a nanny, her spare time was spent photographing the everyday occurences upon the streets around her; showcasing the people; events, society and the life of middle 20th century America mostly Chicago and New York mainly in black and white and shooting "at the hip". Yet the majority of her work remained unprinted yet along acknowledged, it was only till they were found among an auction lot. I'm more then glad they are finally having their chance of seeing the light of day and I thought with my love of photography I just had to share some of her work upon my blog. 

Seeing her work has really inspired me to try and focus on taking some real "streetlife" photographs, I know people possibly don't like being in random strangers photographs so it won't be an easy mission, but I think it would be fun to at least try. Watch this space. 

If you want to see more of Vivian Maier's work [which is where all the above images are taken from] I urge you to check out the website in her honour.

Nail whitening - denture tablets verses lemon juice

So this is the case of the denture tablet verses lemon juice. When I posted last Sunday about having somewhat stained nails due to my constant nail varnish abuse I was stuck by the two ideas people were giving. That of plain old lemon freshly squeezed juice and denture tablet. Two simple things both of which are cheap and easy to get hold of. I couldn't escape a little experiment to see which was the most effective at restoring my finger nails to their former glory.

My finger nails before hand - the left hand was typical of the staining on both right and left which you can see starts midway into the whites of my nails, not sure if the picture demonstrates it but my nails were very dry.

So what you need is pretty simple most of which you might have around your house or you can get hold of really cheaply at your local supermarket or market. The fresh lemon can be replace with enough tablespoons of bottled lemon juice whereas the denture tablets are Tesco's own brand.

I used one hand for each of the products, the left for the freshly squeezed lemon juice and the right for the denture tablets. Squeezing the lemon juice into one bowl and filling it up with tepid water [reading up on the Internet some websites recommend water, some don't, some say hot, some say cold], the denture tablet was left to fully dissolve in tepid water. I filled the bowls up so there was enough to cover all my nails before placing each hand [although separately to be able to take some photographs] into the mixtures for ten minutes each. After using either of the products make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after and use plenty of hand cream afterwards.

The results;

With regards to the lemon juice, there was little improvement. One word of warning I wouldn't recommend using this is you have some cuts [however small on your fingers] because they get a little sore! There was some improvement with the colouring, however it was only slight with considerable yellowing still on the upper part of my nails. This is especially so in comparison to the results via the denture tablets. Although they aren't super white and there is a presence of some markings left, there was a greater whitening compared to the lemon juice.

You shouldn't expect miracles with either product but if your fancying something that's easy and cheap then I wouldn't recommend giving it a go, especially the denture tablets, I could see them being very effective if perhaps leaving your fingers in the bowl for an extra five or so minutes.

Refilling vintage powder compacts

It all started with the pure need for some more powdered foundation and I never thought it would end up in refilling one of my vintage compacts. In York there's a discount beauty shop called Zest [you'll find it mid way between Superdrug and Boots] where they tend to sell lesser known products or discounted lines. I'd eyed up the Max Factor Creme Puff foundation  for a mere £3.99 and thought bargain!

This Max Factor Creme Puff works out to the the perfect size for refilling and replacing powder in your vintage compacts. It even helps that the foundation pan, with a little digging out [with a little help with something sharp and pointy - mind your fingers!] is very easy to part from the plastic casing. Now you just need to find a vintage powder compact ...

Your best working with a post 1950 circular vintage powder compact - they are not only more regular in size in comparison to foundations that are available on the market today, but it means you can reuse compacts that are more readily available and are therefore cheaper to get hold of and you won't be risking using an older more rarer compact. The compact I chose to use is one i've apparently never mentioned on my blog before. I found it with a Melissa compact in a local compact shop priced at £5. Branded wise it's unmarked with only a "made in England" stamped around the mirrored rim, but the cover emalling was in perfect condition. I only had one other compact that this Max Factor powder would have fitted - one of my first that I rescued from my gran, it would have been a sweet idea to have brought new life and re used it, but I didn't want to risk the foundation damaging the already old Stratton compact.

After removing the foundation pan from your new foundation just pop it into your compact, there's no need to stick or glue it in place especially if your compact as a circular holder in place, any adhesive may even ruin the bottom of the compact.

Finally just click the holder back into place and your all ready to reuse your compact! A really helpful website/blog is The Powder Compact Dairies which has headed up a guide of other suitable modern foundations which you can use if your tempted. Aside from the Creme Puff by Max Factor, your looking for pans with a 67mm diameter, this includes Rimmel Stay Matte and Estee Lauder Lucidity. If you have a smaller pan (say the 59mm diameter) then have a look into using foundations by Boots 17, MAC, Benefit, Lancome and Bourjois.

What do you think? Have you ever given new life to a vintage beauty piece? Would you be tempted too?

LIFE: Come Together

This weekend has been half spent between baking and reading countless photography magazines. You could say I was becoming a little bit of a geek - especially about the latter element I just mentioned. I'm trying to get my head around the geeky camera terms, working out which camera to invest in and reading up about the Lomo cameras which i'm really tempted by too. I found the photographed charm necklace in Primark when I was down in London for my medical and just fell for it - for £1.50 it was a dead winner and sums me up perfectly. 

The parents found a cheap cupcakes and muffin recipe book in Asda yesterday so I was making use of it, making some moist walnut [with lots of lemons] cupcakes and some orange cupcakes. Both are totally untried too - how they've managed going a day without being eaten I don't know! I blame myself for eating my way through strawberry tarts.

But another full weekend off means back to work tomorrow. I'm not really loving work at the moment, one women wants more hours at work so can't wait for me to leave and the rest, well I feel like i've totally done something wrong in my visa because of not hearing anything back yet [that is a rant in itself] and all they hear and see is newspaper headlines claiming immigration is easy. They don't fill me with positive vibes at all. Plus having an American boy I have a slight attachment to America these days - it is going to be my new home country after all. This set off a debate at work steaming from a chat about 9/11 - and the narrow minded convostation from some quarters at about muslims and how mosques shouldn't be built in the UK especially in York. I actually had to walk out the room because I would have blown at the girl who came out with this statement.  Don't get me wrong, I totally believe you should have freedom of speech but not arrogant and ignorant statements. I know you shouldn't really talk about reglion in the work place but I couldn't just stand there and not say anything. I'm all for being an open, expecting, democratic and tolerant society. I'm not very good at dealing with such narrow mindness.

Here's to be better week, and just maybe getting my interview date or we may have to move the date of our wedding back. Boo hiss.

An Hour in the Gardens

The hours at work got changed around on Wednesday because we had to have some random team meeting - it was all surrounded in mystery yet wasn't exciting at all. Same old same old. So work didn't start till ten yet had to still get the same eight am bus to work which left an hour to entertain myself in York's museum gardens. The trees are on the very verge of turning and falling, one of my favourite aspects about autumn is the colouring of nature. I thought i'd give myself a challenge to try some more landscapey/building photographs but as you can see my macro flower shots always sneak in. I'm have plans of getting some of my shots printed off and framed arty for our flat, perhaps they'll give me some more inspiration of a morning. 

Bio Oil

 Bio Oil claims on their website to be "efficacious in improving the appearance of scars". Brilliant I thought - the perfect way to decrease the appearance of my own. Not only does it state to work for scars, but through multiple daily applications, bio oil helps to reduce the appearance of stretch marks and uneven skin tone and for the price - £9 odd for 100ml I thought I was onto something. Perhaps I thought I had some liquid gold.

Think again. While i'm not here to slate Bio oil off, i think it's easy to get over hyped and thinking this is some form of miracle cure, perhaps that is half my fault of falling into advertising hype. To cut a long story short there was some scars I was more then willing to at least hide. Now these scars are about eight to ten years old; ranging in length from a centimetre to a couple of centimetres across, most are now white in colour and one, the longest is slightly raised. So that is what we were working with. 

Bio oil states it needs to be used daily for a number of months to reap any benefits, nevertheless other similar products claim they need to be applied twice and upwards for the effects to be obtained. I went with the belief that the more applications the better so i tended to apply the oil twice a day, if I was lucky [and remembered] three times after showering, waking up and before bed. It applies in little drips if your trying to get it from the bottle, holding it over the scar in turn gets more out, its very slick, and has a funny smell - but one that isn't offensive. You rub the oil in in circular motions across the scar and it's surrounding area. It doesn't soak in the best but nevertheless it leaves your skin smooth and soft.

And the results  - well i've stopped using it now, after my medical the purpose of why I was using it has ended but I lost heart with it within a month or two yet I carried on using it for a good four months. Yes it has had a tiny effect on the smaller scars [in the right light] to the point where they appear less "white" and therefore more blended with my natural skin tone yet to my eye I don't think it's worked or changed it to a noticeable extent. Perhaps my scars were too old, too formed into my skin and too marked to be changeable.

I've never had any problems with having my scars, they are what they are and they are a part of me and what got me to where I am today. I wouldn't change my past so I can't change my scars, but I would have liked them to be more blended in. Maybe I notice them more because I know where they are, what they are and where to find them. Maybe we shouldn't be reaching for products to hide things like that. 

Would I use it again - probably not, maybe for stretch marks because i've heard better reviews for using the oil in that regard. But for scars, i'll just learn to live with them.

Have you had any good/bad or indifferent experiences with Bio Oil or similar products?

The image was found visa google images and all thoughts regarding this product was my own after purchasing the product myself. It has nothing to do with the company, just little old me. 

Sometimes we're rather radical

I'm starting to think Joe may have caught my lets to things randomly bug. It's the same bug that got me into doing an MA, made me get tattoos, dyed my hair random colours. Ok not really huge things, but ya know. For some reason i'd taken out and dusted off the dress that I'd brought from TMaxx for our wedding, ever since I'd brought it i'd always had a little inch of doubt about it but I thought i'd go with it. Trying it on again and the last little bit of hope I had vanished. Trouble is, with it being V necked in shape, it was rather revealing and went rather low - possibly not the most flattering for a wedding and more then a nightmare when it came to trying to find suitable underwear to wear underneath. Don't get me wrong it is a gorgeous dress, ivory and white in colour with Georgian like ruffles and gathers down the back with a ribbon bow formed into black flowers under the bust. What was even better was that is only cost £30.

The first wedding dress with the black flower detailing.

I don't know how it came about, I normally moan about my dress and then forget about it for another month or two but on Sunday I actually started poking around for dresses just to see what else there was available that was wedding like, not an overly formal dress, but one that was special yet wouldn't break the bank. Joe stumbled upon the Milanoo website just to nosey at other dresses and I happily clicked upon the wedding dresses and I just totally fell in love with the first one on their page. I'm a totally lucky girl because Joe even brought it for me :D

This champagne coloured [you can also get it in pink, grey, pink and ivory], a line, knee length dress is totally my dress. It even comes with the flowers attached. It was partly a guess with the dress size and we opted for the champagne colour. Luckily I'm not one for superstition because Joe's already seen it - well the picture of it at least and it is getting delivered to his flat. Hopefully it looks half decent on - it's a slight risk but sometimes they pay off.

Cherry Red

Sundays often turn slightly into my version of pampering and beauty days. First they often become home hair dying days. I think the John Fredia Deep Cherry Red might just well be the third colour of hair dye this year alone. I get jumpy and bored with the same colour. I thought it would be more redder then it's turned out - in fact its gone rather dark but heys too experimenting. I often get stuck  between trying to be more vintage and being more rocky in style - i'm currently refinding my love for the darker side of music so i'm following that flow at the moment it seems. I've spent the morning listening to Evanescence for some odd reason. Those were the days!

My nails have got to the point were i'm constantly having to repaint them because of their pure natural state. They are too stained and chipped not to be painted sadly. They've gone into an orange pinky colour - i'm sure that's not right. I managed to bag some Model Own's varnishes in London - for some reason i can't find them in York [only the Pro range - unless i'm totally blind]. They were on three for two in Oxford St Boots so I managed to bag Feeling Blue, Lilac Dreams and Grey Day [pictured] i've been going between the three colours for the past couple of weeks and i'm totally in love. They apply brilliantly, are really colourful with two coats and stand up to the hell I put them through at work. I want my visa interview just to go and grab some more!

Speaking of visa's nothings really occurring at the moment. Stuck in silly paperwork silence. It's three weeks on Tuesday that I sent off my forms and i'm still waiting for a flipping interview date. I should of expected this but it's just frustrating. Nothing can be booked or planned till we have an idea when I might possibly, could just, maybe be moving. 

Plus today is mine and the boy's second anniversary, I don't think we could have ever imagined our relationship would have ever turned out as strong; as successfully or as strong as it has. He's totally changed my world, how I see myself, how I see life. I love him so incredibly much. Gushy I know!

Time to think about weddings?

I still find it odd trying to get my head around the idea that in two months [i really really hope] we'll be married. It's got to the point where you have to see and sort things out beyond the visa interview because if you don't nothing will get done and it'll all just be an insane crazy rush. So i've been trying to get my head into thinking about weddings and how we want it and just the little details. We're never wanted a big wedding which is rather lucky because a fiancee visa doesn't really allow you much planning time [we have to be married within 90 days of me entering the USA] so we've always opted to wanting to be married by the Judge. That suits us just fine.We're eloping as much as we can - our families won't really be there. I know some people don't understand that, maybe it makes us selfish?

Because I've never really imagined myself getting married I'm not too up on what you need to sort and do. Thankfully Joe's work colleagues are helping us out and having a party for us after our honeymoon, as too his Gran is sorting out our rings, so that takes some of the stress out. Ruffledblog.com [which is the source of all the above images] has always been a great inspiration to me, it's full of the quirky little real weddings you can actually see yourself having, rather then all the ones that fill the static wedding magazines.

So what is sorted? Our rings we're hopefully being given to us by Joe's gran [the story behind this is worthy of a post alone], my dress was high street [I just need to remember to pack it], my shoes colour I fancy something colourful but haven't a clue what, Joe's suit colour - we're playing with colour and it definitely won't be black but i don't know how formal it should be. For some reason we were talking about blue flowers for the bouquet and I haven't a clue as to why. Ahhhhhhh ...

And here's me thinking eloping was meant to be the easy option!Yet I still don't know where to start ... all ideas would be totally, totally welcome xx

FOOD: SNOG

One thing I was really looking forward to when trying in London was getting my mouth around my first ever SNOG - a frozen yoghurt with a super cool name. SNOG is located in numerous locations around London - I visited the one in South Kensington [between the underground and the museums]. You basically pick your yoghurt flavour [natural, chocolate, green tea - with more added with the seasons] and then add your toppings - the quantity depending on the price your willing to pay. Toppings can be fruity, chocolatey or nutty. I went for the SNOG Special - the classic SNOG with three toppings - I picked blackberries, raspberries and chocolate hearts with which you get a pink spoon. Helpings were very generous and all the fruit looks fresh and tasted lovely and sweet. If your fancying a treat it's well worth a visit. 

I've been eyeing up their recipe book - does anyone have it? Have you ever had a SNOG?