The Range.

My sister has raved about The Range. Brides to be on wedding forums have raved about The Range. I had never heard of it!!

So, yesterday, I tracked down my nearest store (only 16 miles away all this time!!) and purchased some lovely new treats for the house which I thought I would share with you all!

Hardly a necessity but I just loved this shabby chic jug/vase. I've got a bit of a thing for all things French looking at the moment and since it was only about £4 I thought 'why not?' I plan to use it as a vase for all the flowers Kieran brings me in our new house!!

I also got this heart mirror and to be honest, I'm not sure where I'm going to put it in the new house but I'll find somewhere!! I am a heart obsessive (in case you've missed the wedding planning pics!!) and at £14 I just couldn't resist!!

Along with my love of hearts, I also love just about anything with the word 'love' on it! Again, I don't know what the plan is for these wooden letters but I had to have them!!

Kieran is now fearful that he is going to be living in girl heaven (or girl hell to him) so I did let him choose a couple of more manly things!! He picked out a big, brass key holder, which, for security reasons will be hidden in a cupboard so as not to advertise our keys to burglars (that's the official line!!)

Anyway, I could have gone completely crazy in there and plan on going back once we have the house and I figure out which rooms are lacking love hearts!!

Christmas Sunday Shoes.

It's Christmas!!!!!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

I do have a slight confession to make though - I am slightly ahead of Christmas as I write this as I was torn between letting Sunday Shoes slip or missing out on presents and Turkey as I blogged! So, it's actually not quite Christmas but had I not told you, you'd be none the wiser so we shall continue as if it's Christmas Sunday Shoes!

In honour of all that is festive, I have decided to post a very Christmassy looking shoe and one of my fave pairs...

Not surprisingly, it's another pair of KGs. What can I say about them other than I absolutely love everything about them!! I love the fuschia satin heel and bow. I love the platform. I love the coloured polka dots all over the gold!!

They are true party shoes - as long as the party last 4 hours max and there are plenty of chairs hanging around!!

Christmas Tree.

Sorry for the slacking on the blog front of late - I have been caught up in the Christmas hype! I have 1 fiance, 2 parents, 3 siblings, 11 nephews and nieces... and a partridge in a pear tree!!

I find the easy bit is getting online and ordering (I can't face the shops after a Bullring disaster last Christmas) the hard part is deciding what to buy for everyone! I have all sorts under the tree from a toaster (it was a request, not a cruel gift!) to Sylvanian Families to a milk frother and a lovely jumper for my Mum I sort of want to keep for myself!!

I can now happily say I have it all sorted, mostly wrapped and ready to go! What a relief!

I also got round to decorating the tree (in an OCD manner of course!)

Sunday Shoes.

Good morning all! Only one week until Christmas!!!

Today's shoes are another pair of beautiful Kurt Geigers (KG by Kurt Geiger to be precise). I wore them out on Thursday to my work Christmas meal and got a lot of compliments.

I have them in another colour but saw these at the outlet store near York in the Summer for half the price so snapped them up too...

I love the bow on the front, the purple stripes and the little detail on the back. I think they're really dainty and lady like which makes a change as I usually opt for something a bit chunkier. I'll be honest, they are not the most comfy shoes as the heel is very thin and I think I have got so used to having a little platform that I struggle with any that a completely flat at the front.

I call them 'restaurant shoes' - from car to table and back again but ideally not much more. Especially as it's starting to get icy!!

I do regret not getting the matching bag as I struggle to find a bag that goes and just revert to all black but at least that lets the shoes do the talking (whilst I try and do the walking!)

Sunday Shoes.

As we get into the Christmas party season (some of you may have been in it for a while - they seem to start in November these days!) I am digging out all of my favourite heels for various parties (new house does not equal new shoes unfortunately!)

These Dorothy Perkins heels were a real find about 2 years ago...

Now, forgive me but I had always thought Dotty P was for a slightly older lady (my Mum shops there!) but when I saw a colleague sporting some beautiful heels and was informed this is where they were from I got straight online and realised the mistake I had made! Dorothy Perkins had improved a lot!

They also had a special offer on shoes online so I ended up buying four new pairs all at once! Oh, the good old days! When they were delivered to work I remember the girls in the office gathering round and making ooh and aah sounds! These ones, with the shiny gold heel, were a real fave and I shall be getting them out regularly over the party season!

Writing out invites.

Even though I am not sending out my invites until February, I have started to write them out and put them in the envelopes. There's something about them being finished, written and in an envelope that is very neat and makes the OCD side of myself feel very happy!

To save costs, for the safety of the invite and just because we live so close to most of our guests, we are hand delivering most of them. A forum friend of mine who is a brilliant graphic designer kindly made some 'delivered by hand stamps' for me. You can find more of her work HERE

They were an existing design of hers but also happened to match my invites so well. I think they make the envelopes look 'finished' and are such a nice touch. Another thing ticked off the list!

One down... eight to go.

I'm in my last year of four as a 'mature' student studying for a degree in business. Not in a million years did I ever think I would be doing a business degree. Even when I was 18 and planning on going to uni as an 'immature' student, I wanted to do media, then psychology, then fashion, then media. Even though I changed my mind from course to couse (and uni to uni) there was a common theme - none of them involved accounts... and strategy... and hr law - boring stuff!

The fact is, my work are funding me and so I have to do a degree that helps with my job (which involves managing and marketing and budgetting - boring stuff!) Now, don't get me wrong, there are parts of my job I like (mainly the marketing and choosing pictures for posters and talking to people and giving presentations - anything not budget related!) However, it's not my dream job. I do have a dream job but it's a bit of a pipe dream at the moment and for the foreseeable future so I will save it for another time... anyway, I digress...

It's a struggle managing uni with a full time job (as well as moving house and planning a wedding) so my assignments this year are a bit of a chore. However, I have just finished my first of the year! Woooooooo! I do have another due in 4 weeks, and then one 3 weeks after that, and then another and then an exam 2 days before the wedding... but one thing at a time!! One down, eight to go!

There was only one choice when it came to instgramming this photo - shades of grey!

I'm sure it will be worth it in the end - it's all about focusing on that end result. After all, the last 3 years have flown by so it really is the home stretch now!

Arriving in style.

All too often with wedding planning, it becomes about the bride. I know from regularly reading wedding blogs and forums that the 'your day, your way' mantra is fully reinforced. I too am a huge believer in this but must remind myself that sometimes 'your' can be plural and I must remember to include my groom.

My groom has not been hands on in the planning at all. As he said early on his concerns were his suit, the food, the photographer and the transport. Favours, bunting and stationery could be left to me. This arrangement suited us to a tee as I could have total control (I'm a little bit of a control freak over the wedding)!

However, when it came to transport there was a slight disagreement. My groom's chosen vehicle was a VW camper. And not just any camper, it had to be a split screen camper (rather than a bay window camper). He had found the perfect one (according to him)! A lovely, shiny, refurbished split screen camper... in burgundy. It didn't go!!!!! And I didn't want to go to my wedding in a van!! We were at a stand still on the transport front.

But, since it was OUR day, we compromised. He could have the split screen camper if he could find it in a pastel colour and I would have my dream vintage princess car. So commenced the search! After several emails, some seriously expensive quotes and a 160 mile round trip we found my groom's transport. And as time goes on I'm even starting to feel a little jealous!!

Beady Eye.

2 weeks ago I went to see the band Beady Eye and I have been meaning to blog about them since.

They are fronted by Liam Gallagher and although I wasn't a huge Oasis fan (obviously, you can't help but know the words Wonderwall) I was hugely impressed.

I had dismissed Liam's part in Oasis as 'just the singer' but the songs he has written with Beady Eye are catchy, melodic and prove that he is quite the talented song writer.

I recommend anyone who likes a bit of Indie music to check them out!

Sunday Shoes.

Sorry for the delay with this week's Sunday Shoes. I have had the busiest day Christmas/new house/wedding craft shopping and am officially exhausted!!

Since it is dark, cold and raining, I thought I would post some shoes that are a complete antidote to all that is dull...

I usually prefer to use the 'earlybird' setting on my instgram i-phone app (you may have noticed I am slightly obsessed with that setting) but to mute these shoes would not have done them justice!

These Kurt Geiger shoes are officially the highest shoes I own (6 inches!!!!!) but the hefty platform makes them pretty comfy... honestly! Infact, I wore these shoes to a wedding from 12pm all the way through to midnight with a barn dance in between and can proudly say I was one of the few women on the dance floor still wearing shoes!

So, I hope they have brightened your afternoon! I'm off for a nap!!

How I Made My Invites.

As I am in the process of finishing off my day invites and moving on to the evening ones, I thought I would show you how I made them.



I ordered 100 blank pocketfold invites from ebay. I like the way pocketfolds keep everything together so people won't lose the bits.

I also ordered some Cath Kidston wallpaper to fit in with my shabby chic theme. I got this from ebay too (6 metres) - it meant I didn't have to order a 20 metre roll and was also a lot cheaper!

Next, I then covered all of the inserts (3 included with the invites for main details, guest info and r.s.v.p.) with the wallpaper. The easiest way I found to do this was to pritt stick them on to the wallpaper and then cut around it.

I printed my invites on to some pink card and cut then out with a guilletine to give them a wavy edge (serious arm ache!) It took a few attempts on plain paper to get it lined up right.

I then added some ribbon and a little wooden heart with our initials. I'm really pleased with them and have decided after much debate to make the evening ones look the same.