Vintage Wedding Fair - Chiswick Hall

I attended the Vintage Wedding Fair at the Chiswick Town Hall in London with The Style PA a while ago now and I've been meaning to blog about it. I'm getting rather excited about our wedding, we've got a while to wait yet (until next summer!) but it has given us lots of time to prepare and save our pennies! I want to make as much as I can myself and save as much money as possible... so I thought the Vintage Wedding Fair was the perfect opportunity to find some inspiration!

I absolutely love this simple and beautiful jar of flowers. I'm thinking of having flowers in teapots and chocolate hearts in teacups for the table decor at the evening venue.

There were some lovely dresses... but many were far too lovely... and therefore well out of my price range!

I don't think I want a veil. I'm more or a fascinator or headband kinda gal. I saw some gorgeous flower, lace and pearl headbands that took my fancy. But I can't start gathering accessories until I find the dress. So my search continues!

Rainbows

 Rainbow Cake!

Rainbows make me smile. I just can't help it, colour always seems to brighten my mood. For me, one of the best sources of colourful inspiration is Tumblr. In fact, I follow quite a few lovely sources of inspiration on Tumblr... find me here and be sure to check out Bows and Polka dots and Prettiness and Buttons and Snapped in the Street (for some random finds in mundane places). But for now, just enjoy some of the colourful finds I have stumbled across that put a smile on my face.

Colourful shutters

 Rainbow ice cream

Multicoloured roses

Rainbow peacock

Rainbow painted walls

Wedding Ideas: Scrabble or Lego?

 

I am a massive fan of Scrabble! My favourite necklace is a scrabble "geek" necklace, and I would love to bring a little bit of Scrabble into the wedding celebrations somehow. I really like some of the ideas above.

 Danny is a massive Lego enthusiast and has kept every brick of his (precious) Lego since he was a child. So it would only be right to have Lego versions of us on top of our cake! Though, of course, I'd have to customise the Lego wedding dress so that it was polka dot!

 

There are some really lovely Lego themed wedding cakes out there too...

 

Engagement... and Other Exciting Stuff!

Well exciting news! As of valentines Day I am officially engaged! The other half proposed whilst on holiday in Athens on V-day... how romantic! So there are lots of exciting things to look forward to in the future... like a polka-dotty wedding for starters! It will definitely be a couple of years yet, as I need to save some pennies first, but that just gives me more time to ponder and plan. My younger sister, so she tells me, has already got half the wedding planned: polka dot wedding dress, and dress code, cupcake wedding cake topped with a Lego version of me and the groom, and instead of sugared almonds in the guests' favours... Lego!

There are also some more exciting things coming up this year...

Going to Ghana!

I am officially off to visit a school in Ghana for a week with my school. As lots of you know I went on a charity trip to The Gambia last summer (read about my charity work, explorations and adventures)and I am really excited about going back to Africa and seeing another part of the continent. Especially as I will be helping out in the link school we have there.

Attending the ATL conference
In Easter I will be attending the annual ATL conference in Manchester. It'll be a fantastic experience, not to mention a lovely chance to catch up with old friends and people I met last year!

Holiday and Italian Wedding!

In the summer I will be heading off with the family back to Italy to attend a friend's wedding and to have another exploration in Rome... exciting!

What exciting things are you looking forward to?

10 Things That Make Me Smile :)

1. Old Books
I love old books. The feel of the thumbed pages, the illustrations, the crumbling covers and the way they look all lined up on a shelf. I have quite a few childrens books ranging from the late 1800's to the 1960's and I find it fascinating how the way that literature speaks to a child has evolved and changed over the years from strong didactic tales of morality to books that are solely for entertainment, adventuring and amusement.

2. Trips to the zoo
I took this snap at Edinburgh Zoo of a sea eagle who seemed to be posing ready for my photo. I love a trip to the zoo, you could go to the same zoo and every time you'd see different things.

3. Vintage Inspired Kitchens
The perfect backdrop for an afternoon of baking is a vintage inspired kitchen!

4. Doodling
I love doodling, there's something really theraputic about it, especially when you can totally switch your brain off and let the pencil do the drawing.

5. Vintage Roller Skates
I adore my vintage rollerskates from Rokit Vintage. Luckily I have a skating buddy and we frequent the promenades and seafronts from Hastings to Eastbourne!

6. Brighton Lanes
There's nothing that makes the summer more summery than a lovely trip to Brighton Lanes for a spot of shopping in the weird and wonderful shops. On my recent trip I discovered the brilliant Dollydagger boutique.

7. Period Dramas
I've been making a lot of resources for school and to make the endless cutting, sticking and laminating less tedious, I've been watching a lot of period dramas... I watched Downton Abbey again in preparation for the upcoming second series. I absolutely love Maggie Smith's character and the interaction between the "upstairs" and "downstairs" characters.

8. Creativity and Cakes
I love that there is so much creativity and baking inspiration out there. Being a blogger I find myself constantly in awe of my fellow bloggers and tweeters and their baking skills!

9. Positivity
I think a positive mental attitude can do wonders for any situation. Some of my friends may be going through times of uncertainty in the post-uni job hunt, others may be feeling the pre-september nerves before starting their first teaching post, but keeping positive is the way through it all, that, and drinking a lot of coffee ;)

10. Churros and Chocolate!
When I lived and taught in Spain for a month I became dangerously addicted to these crispy doughnutty delights dunked in gorgeously thick hot chocolate.... YUM! Here's an amazing little churros recipe from the lovely Thomasina Miers.

*Somewhere Over The Rainbow*

Colour Coordinated Pencils

There's nothing like a bit of colour coordination, and I for one, love rainbow coloured things... so I trawled the wonder of Tumblr to share with you some gorgeous rainbow coloured delights! I would love to have a rainbow coloured house, it would make me smile every time I walked through the front door...

Rainbow House

Rainbow Melted Wax Crayons

Rainbow Painted Bricks

Coca Cola Rainbow Sweets

Colour Coordinated Shoes

Rainbow Flavoured Ice Cream

Rainbow Layer Cake

Rainbow Skittles

Vintage Rainbow Materials

Coloured eyeshadow

Colour Coordinated Bookshelf

The Lomo Wall