Anniversaries, Unaniversaries and Flowers!

Yesterday (friday) marked exactly 1 year until Chris and I tie the knot! It was also my parents wedding anniversary. So to celebrate I went to stay with them for a couple of days to discuss weddings, while Chris set off for a fun day at Thorpe Park with his mates.

First on the wedding planning agenda was flowers! We thought we would check out which ones are in bloom at this time of year, as we will mostly be using flowers we can collect from around the village in the arrangements and bouquets.

We went to visit one of my mums neighbours, Susan, who knows her thing when it comes to gardening! She let us wander around her garden taking pictures and getting inspired. Apparently this is the time of year when blue and purple flowers like to come out to play. I didn't know that the flowers bloom in groups of colour, but apparently that is a thing!

I'm not very good with flower names, although I do know the one above is lavender. The one below is technically known as "MASSIVE daisy". There's also a pansy and a lilly thrown in down there somewhere I believe. Leave a comment if you know what any of the others are called, I'd love to know.

Look what else I found in Susan's garden. It's a succulent goldmine! This is definitely inspiring me to add a few of these cheeky chappies into my bouquet! However, I think this would make it very difficult to part with with it when I have to do the obligatory bouquet toss!

Anyway, the wedding planning went very well. As well as flowers we covered food, drink, timing, decoration and dresses!

I will leave you with a little froggy my Dad showed me, apparently he lives in their garden, underneath the outdoor tap. Cute!

I hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend!

Laura xXx

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Etsy Craft Party!

photosource design by ONR

If you have stopped by OhNoRachio's blog today you will have seen that she is organising an etsy craft party on the 20th June!

I am super excited about this! I am looking forward to hanging out with the girls I have met at previous blogger meets again, as well as meeting lots of new creative people!

I am planning on opening my own etsy shop in the near future, hopefully before the 20th June. But more on that later. 

If you live in or near Southampton and would like to come let us know! Just hop over to Rachel's blog and leave her a comment showing your interest and she will get you a proper invite.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Laura xXx

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Getting organised with a Blog Organiser!

I have discovered that I am happiest when I am most organised. Unfortunately I've been rather disorganised lately, especially with this here blog!

I currently have about 5 different note pads containing all my ideas, brainstorms, to do lists, notes and goodness knows what else! I'm sure I have a lot of really useful information in them, but finding it in times when it could be useful is going to be virtually impossible. Today I am solving this problem!

A little while ago I saw another blogger reveal her blog planner. Unfortunately I have since completely forgotten who this was (another reason I need an organiser), so if this looks familiar please let me know who I can credit the original idea to.

Anyway, instead of just keeping ideas in a book, this clever blogger had decided to use an A5 ring binder. This way pages can be inserted or removed and it will still remain tidy! If there is a topic I have forgotten I can add it at a later date. Hurrah!

Now A5 ring binders seem to be a little difficult to track down. However, I finally found one at trusty Paperchase. You can find it here. I also decided to buy a pack of coloured card, as well as a pack of note paper, which is meant for a recipe book. I would actually recommend buying this lined paper instead as it is cheaper.

Of course, the outside of the organiser is very important. I decorated it using a white gel pen and (you will never guess) pretty coloured nail varnish!

You might recognise the font, it is my favourite and features in the Wrapped Up In Rainbows logo. I copied each letter from here. You can download it for free too.

Inside I have decided on 5 categories.

Initial Ideas - For me to write down brief ideas as they come to me

Ideas - For when i want to fully draft my ideas

Notes - When I see good blogging advice in books I am reading or on another blog.

To Do... - A growing list of all the things I want to do to make my blog as good as it can be.

Brainstorms - I like to brainstorm my ideas once a week so this is a good place to keep track of them.

Sketches - If i have an idea that I can't quite put into words, this is where I will squiggle it out.

How do you organise all of your ideas?

Laura xXx

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DIY Jumping Clay Space Invaders

In my Crafty Creatives box last month I received some Jumping Clay. I had never heard of this before and was unsure what to do with it until I saw Claireabellemakes post, where Claire used a button mould to make little clay buttons.

You may remember a while ago I made some chocolates using a space invader ice cube tray. Well, I decided to get that back out and make some cute little space invaders that I can keep!

It was a pretty simple process as you can imagine. The two little tester packs I had made exactly 4 space invaders. The clay itself is quite interesting, it's a lot lighter than any other clay I have used before, and it does bounce if you drop it! At the moment they are sitting happily in my office, but I am quite tempted to turn one of them into a brooch. What would you do with them? 

Laura xXx

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Song of the day - Once by Emma Stevens

Just a quick one today, a happy little song for you to start the weekend to! Plus the video features a very cute teddy bear couple! Watch it, it is quite amusing.

This song is called Once and is by the very talented Emma Stevens. If you listen to radio 2 you might have heard it already.  Chris has been playing bass at some of Emma's gigs, and I'm actually off to accompany him to another one tomorrow. It's part of the Great Escape festival in Brighton, if you happen to be going Emma will be playing at The Latest Music Bar at 1:45pm tomorrow (friday). I promise you will love it! Come say hi!

You can buy Emma's songs off of Itunes here too.

Laura xXx

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A New Start, A New Office!

Yesterday was my first day being self employed. Yippee!  I am now working with Chris full time on our business The Band Boutique. We provide awesome (even if I do say so myself) bands and musicians for weddings and other events. So come and check us out if you need entertainment for your big day. 

Anywho, currently our office is also our bedroom, dining room, and lounge, so it is quite choc a bloc with stuff! I spent most of sunday arranging my new little area. It was tiring work but I was very happy with the end result. What do you think? 

My office supplies were initially looking rather dull. I had a red in tray and a silver post holder thingy. They were not very inspiring, so I decided to do my usual trick of getting out the old Plasti-kote paint and making them pretty colours!

Much better don't you think? I'm actually excited to start work now just so I can sit at my desk.  It's not quite finished yet though, I'm sure there's a few more things I can do to perk it up even more.

Laura xXx

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DIY Natural Face Mask

The other day I tried out something a little different. I had seen lots of DIY facemasks online and decided to make my own out of stuff I already had in the cupboard.

Please be warned, whilst wearing this mask you WILL NOT look pretty. I actually kind of scared myself when I saw myself in the mirror, I looked like something from the blue lagoon! However, rest assured that your skin will feel silky smooth afterwards!

Ingredients

• Half an avocado
• I teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon honey

As you may know, I am a bit obsessed with avocado. I had run out of different meals to add it to, so I thought I would put it on my face instead! Anyway, all you need to do is either mash the ingredients together or mix them in a blender.

Before using the face mask, make sure you have cleansed your face thoroughly, then apply a hot wet cloth to your face to open your pores.  Leave the mask on for about 10 minutes then wash off. Now you should have lovely soft skin, hurrah!

Laura xXx

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