My DIY 50's Wedding 11.08.2012

Well I haven't blogged for such a long time my camera broke (eventually repaired and sent back after lots of cross phone calls) and I guess I got out of the habit and then the wedding loomed closer and closer. And being wedding planner, flower arranger, sign painter and bride it all got a little hectic quickly.  So anyhow would you like to see the pictures?

 I arranged the wedding in three months with help from my Step Mum and MIL and it's all DIY to the last detail! Myself and my sisters set it all up the day before with the help of our Dad and Uncle who did all the heavy lifting. I made our bouquets and did my own hair and it was just how I had imagined. Home made bunting and ribbon hanging from trees blowing in the light breeze of a glorious summers day!

I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as we enjoyed the day....

Relaxed, informal, vintage inspired, swing singer, and garden swing, cream teas, hog roast, magicians, sweet bar and much more.

The bridesmaids are my little sisters and the pageboys are my sons. 

An English Summer wedding bliss...

I'm thinking of posting the before and after pictures, showing how we set everything up. The home made details, the morning after with the weary campers enjoying their breakfast in the marque. Also maybe some of the signs I made for the day and how. Please comment if you's like to see any of the above?

And the winner is......

Drawn from a bowl.......

HOME BIRD!

Congratulations please can you e-mail me your address  to

honey.bumble@hotmail.com

I will get all the little bits sent out to you next week.

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

Rusty Pipes

Well all this lovely weather has given me the boost to move on with more of the sanding and the painting out front.The downpipes and the guttering are in a bit of a state, well they are over 130 years old and haven't been maintained so have some rather bad rust spots. So up a rather tall ladder I popped.

lots of vigorous sanding and scraping removing old paint and rust spots,

I quite like the look of rusty old things. It gives them a sense of age seeing the layers peel away. But I'm looking forward to getting them re-painted in fresh coat of cream and hoping they'll continue to last another 100 years.

So far rust has been treated and I've started a coat of primer that also prevents against further rust. But only got half way up as supervising a two year old up a 30 foot ladder, paint kettle in one hand and brush in the other isn't really advised!

The Porch also needs a fresh coat of paint so I set about sanding that.....

Sanding things over head is a hard slog and all the dust and flaky paint ended up in my hair and eyelashes (too hot to wear any type of goggles). I came across some a soft patches and it turned out to be rot, a whole load of wet rot and the wood just started to crumble away..... the good thing is J's a carpenter so this will get fixed this week.

Well I hope the sun continues to shine so I can finish what I've started off. These pictures were taken over the weekend before my camera broke so I'm hoping to get it fixed as soon as possible, so posts may be a bit sparse for the next week.

Herman The German Friendship Cake

A couple of weeks ago I got a text from a friends of mine saying that she had a friendship cake mix at home called Herman and that in 10 days he would have grown enough to share would I like to have some to make my own. I wasn't sure if she was serious or joking..... well she was being serious and my first thought was would I really want a to make a cake from something that had been sitting on my friends counter for 10 days.... and that a bit of it would have sat on someone else's counter before that.... well in the end I got over the idea and thought the boys would LOVE the idea of looking after a cake mix, growing it, sharing it and cooking a cake at the end.

So here are some photo's of Herman's Journey.

Herman is delivered with his instructions. I emptied him into a big bowl gave him a good stir and covered him with a tea towel. Then we kept stirring him once a day for the next few days. It then came to the day where we had to feed Herman with plain flour, sugar and milk.

The eldest bee gave it all a really good stir.

Then we covered continued to stir for the next few days and watched him bubble and grow.

And then it came to the day where we had to add the same amount of milk, flour and sugar as before and split the mixture ready to share with three others and then make our own cake.

We made ours tonight. It smells divine when cooking but sadly my camera finally broke today. The lens kept jamming when turning on and finally jammed open today. So here's a picture of my friends Herman cake that she made with her little girl to give you an idea of what the finished product looks like...... taaaadaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

A moist apple and raisin sour dough cake!! Yummy.

Would you like to start your own Herman to share with your friends?

You can find out how here > Herman

Sitting On The Dock Of the Bay

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay

Watching the tide roll away

Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay

Wastin' time

Sittin' in the mornin' sun

I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come

Watching the ships roll in

And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

We went to Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset today. A friend of mine our four little boys and one little lady.

The morning looked overcast but the air was muggy promising sunshine and a scorcher of a day ahead. We were the first ones at the beach and It's not one I've visited before. we had to walk right along the edge of bay in search of a flat stony area to lay our blankets and set up camp for the day. The tide was right in when we arrived so had a little trek on our hands. But an adventure for little boys who could see the goal ahead. We set up camp and delved into our picnic's.

Then the exploring began. Swim wear didn't stay on long, the little people of the group wanted to run nude! My youngest is almost impossible to keep clothed.

The boys went in search of crabs under stones, paddled in rock pools. Sploshed in the water and cooled off at the mouth of the sea breeze. What a lovely way to enjoy such a beautiful day.

Kimmeridge Bay we will be back.

The Story of a Racing Car Quilt.

Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I'll begin,

The story of the racing car quilt started with an Iron bed. The smallest bee previously had a boat bed and as sweet as it was I fancied a change and loved his brothers Iron bed so the hunt began. I found a lovely cream one on E-bay and was in Dorset that also belonged to a little boy who was now ten and wanted a bigger bed. It was in fabulous condition as it had been re-powder coated in the last four years.

So now youngest bee had his fabulous big boy bed I wanted a quilt to finish it. I'd decided on a racing car theme and loved the Cath Kidston fabric so went on to look for other fabrics that I thought would complement it well I decided on a red ticking as I love stripes and the texture of ticking. The last fabric was a grey and blue check. I love grey (and do think it's quite an adult colour) and wanted the quilt to last years and not be babyish even though he is only two currently. So I think adding this fabric has given the ability for the quilt to grow with him.

The red cotton ticking fabric and cotton checked suiting are from http://dittofabrics.co.uk/

The vintage car cotton duck is from www.cathkidston.co.uk

Now I had the lovely fabric I need for them all to come together and become a quilt. Now I can sew and briefly contemplated doing it myself and then thought better of it. Ellie at Jelly Jam made my eldest bee's lovely cowboy quilt and well what I wanted was a racing car equivalent so I emailed Ellie and she took all my lovely fabric and turned it into the this fabulous quilt!

It's backed with a grey denim which after much Internet scouring Ellie found for me on EBay. I really wanted a thick cotton backing in a grey tone, something with a good texture and weight to it and the denim worked perfectly. Ellie finished off the quilt with little blue buttons. You can find Ellie here. I'm looking forward to some little cushions that will finish off his bed nicely.

I love both my boys quilts as it's so hard finding quilts that aren't really girly. Thank you so much  Ellie.