Reader I Married Him!

You don't know how much I have always wanted to say that line from the sexiest book ever written...

no...NOT Fifty Shades but Jane Eyre :)

On Saturday I married my very own Mr Rochester...
...Mr Darcy...
...Christian Grey...
...Robert Kincaid...
...Rhett Butler...
Gabriel Emerson...
...Ralph de Bricassart and Count Maximillian all rolled into one.

Yes......"Reader I married him"

Thanks for sharing the journey :)

xoxo Sioux

Here we go.....

The old suitcase is packed with all the table decor goodies.

I'm being driven down by 2 of my girlfriends and we are stopping for lunch on the way.....don't suppose not having lunch will help me loose half a stone by Saturday will it?! ROFL

Here is a close up of the luggage tag....I grabbed the image from the net somewhere!...

... and filled in the blanks to suit :)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Princess for the evening!

I went out with the girls for a few drinks and a meal...it was their treat for me ;)

It was the the bank holiday weekend and went to the local Caribbean restaurant....yes....a Caribbean restaurant....it's run by the mother of the Armitage (no not THE RA!! sadly) boys who play rugby for those in the know :)

It was Pirate Days so that's why there is a pirate in the background...he was not the stripper as someone suggested!!!! ROFL

If you are ever in Brixham do try "The Pepper Shack" it's really nice food and very, very tasty :) Oh dear....yet another reason why the diet has not been working!!!

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Sneaky Peek!

As a general rule I quite simply hate sneaky peeks!!!

But this cannot be shared in it's entirety before the day.

Do you remember my Ruination box?

Well it's that with some extra work done to it ;)

It's now our wedding ring box to present the rings in as we exchange them at the service :)

I nearly screamed with excitement when I came up with that idea :) ROFL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Mood board

Inside the table booklets are some of the clear pockets you can buy and on one page I decided to do a little mood board amalgamation.

The colour swatch was my nail polish.....I say was because I then decided that my nails needed all the help they could get and I had a professional gel job done on them on Friday and of course they cannot use that sort of nail polish....but I am more than thrilled with the colour they did have ;)

The object beneath the pearl is a rose petal.....I've made confetti cones out of the circular sample of hand made paper and filled them with mainly these colour rose petals (some saved from my Valentine day bouquet) with a few very pale pink ones for a bit of contrast.

The background is some T!m packaging from all the booklets and pockets I bought! I was so happy to use that :) lol

The ribbon is on the bookmarks and the lacy burgundy ribbon is 

being tied to the flower jugs in a bow :)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Invitation....

The invites and book marks were inspired by me!!

Yes, it came to me after I had made the ATC for my last project at The Artistic Stamper team blog ;)

The bookmarks followed on the theme but I knew I could not make all the order of services needed in the same style......so I designed a little graphic incorporating our first name initials (two S's intertwined) and was going to self print all 160!!!! of them but even that has gone by the wayside as time got the better of us and the printing is being done by an old friend of Mr B's...whew!

We liked the graphic so much that the first letter of all the names on the bookmarks had this treatment too :)

The ATC sized sentiment between the two bookmarks is now inside our wedding ring box.....

....We have used some of Mr B's glorious poetry of our romantic journey.

If any of you are going to be in Salcombe this Saturday.....please join us in church for the celebration...

it's a biggie...

...full nuptial mass...

...gospel choir...

....there are nibbles and fizz ;)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Ephemera.....

An assemblage of ephemera for the wedding that hopefully will come together on the day and look good ;)

I've made 8 T!m booklets for the tables containing the menu, photo ideas, guest lists, photos etc. I'll share the insides after the day;)

Also made 82 bookmarks as place names for the table....on the reverse is a collage of phrases from some of my most favourite romantic novels.....perhaps you can have a little guess as to what some of them are if you have visited here before ;)

Cut numerous passes on the sexy beast (aka The Vagabond) with the butterfly frenzy die for table confetti out of a really old book supplied by Mr B (the other sexy beast in my life) lol......he so gets all this....his choice of book to use?...."Getting Married" by George Bernard Shaw :)

There are tags....had to have tags! :)....for the enamel jugs which will be on the tables filled with flowers.....although the one in the picture is a mini version of them as they are already with the florists! The tags have various book cover images on them to differentiate the seating areas.

There are more tags for the lovely old suitcase that will be the place everyone can put the cards.

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Tie pin

I found this gorgeous antique tie pin on line a few weeks ago from a shop in York.

It was just perfect as a wedding day present for Mr B.....(I'm wearing pearls, as you know, and we have a trinity thing with our wedding rings going on) but I could not take the risk that he might not open the package till after the service so he is already looking forward to wearing it on the day:)

Hence I can post it up
xoxo Sioux

xoxo Sioux

Nails

Here is a first.....I'm having my nails done on Friday evening...my nails always used to be nice but just recently they are quite shocking....the last thing I need on my wedding day in just over a weeks time!
So needs must and hopefully they will look as good as they did last November when I was matching up colours with my matron of honour dress :)
xoxo Sioux

Gunfire......!

Hi there ;)

Went away for a weekend on our wine group annual trip away.

Did not go too far....a rental property outside Callington in Cornwall.

On the Saturday we drove to a pub and parked up and started on a fairly short walk...but my goodness did it rain!!! We were all rather soaking!!!

Just at the start of the walk on the roadside was this sign....don't see that very often on the highway do you? LOL

We arrived back at the pub and had a lovely lunch....even though we were all sopping wet from the walk!!!.

The following day was much nicer and we went on a trip to Cotehele...

...lovely old house and gorgeous colours of petals all strewn around...

...no doubt due to the bad weather the day before!

Monday saw us walking to the top of Kit Hill...

...marvellous views from the top.

Followed by the BBQ back at the cottage.....it was all going well and then the rain came down again...

Mr B volunteered to watch over the salmon and sweetcorn cooking!! ROFL

A great time was had by all :)

xoxo Sioux 

Easter surprise

Mmmmm...need to get to grips with posting via my smart phone or there will be very few posts here ! ;)
Easter Sunday and my honey now celebrates.
So a little surprise package is in order.
Flower made from tattered floral dies of various sizes.
X Sioux

Update on hotel art work

Hey! Bit of info...remember this strange proportioned baby head from the hotel?

Well.....it's been replaced by this....

....and this...

...from the same artist....who is....

John Humphreys....a son of Salford who has worked within the special effects industry in films and T.V.

...and Yikes!!! For only twenty thousand pounds each they could be yours!!!!

xoxo Sioux

Mothers Day Wishes

Happy Mothers Day to everyone who is one!

Sadly I've never been blessed as they say....not unless you count the cats I've had....not that I've physically had them you understand....now that would be weird! ROFLIA

Sadly my mother passed away some years ago....but hurrah!

I've now acquired a soon to be Mother-in-Law ;)

So I made this card for my honey to give to her :)

Papertrey flowers coloured with Distress markers, Papertrey die cut leaves, sentiment and background border stamp.

T!ms scroll stamp finishes the edges using Distress mustard seed and peeled paint.

Thanks for looking

Hope your day is just fabulous!

xoxo Sioux

WOYWW - Bookmark

Hello again  WOYWW'ers.

Yikes....what haven't I got on my table?!
That is the question.....at the moment I'm on to the task of making bookmarks to be used as place settings at the reception. There are a couple showing at the bottom of the photo....and a Mothers Day card...not on show...well actually the yellow Papertrey flowers are going on it!

I have also finished and posted the wedding invites....
Want to see? Even though it's a rubbish photo!! LOL

These were the first batch for guests to the whole weekend at the hotel....
....the background is a map showing the river Dart/Dartmouth and Kingswear...
...'cos the first time we met I sailed across the Dart from the Kingswear side to see my soon to be honey on the other side at Dartmouth....it was such a romantic first meeting...little did we know that love was waiting to envelope us in it's cosy glow! Sigh! :)
The insert looks like this and incorporates an image of the bench at Broadsands where my honey proposed..........along with his fabulous poem :)

The rest of the invites...and there were quite a lot...well......
.......something had to give.....I just could not face messing around with all the twiddly bits on that fussy die cut.
So I printed out the background as per the first batch but also added the printed word "Invitation" and a  fancy border to the top too...some drop shadows sorted it ;)

The die cut T!m silhouettes were added just the same for some added texture....now...on the subject of those "framelet" things!
Am I the only one?
But....but...they are not that easy to line up and stay in position to make a uniform cut...
...in fact the silhouettes were not even stamped...I just die cut them from black card in the end...they looked so much better!!!
Quicker too....and what do you know the male silhouette looks remarkably like my sunny honey! :)
Unfortunately the lady silhouette shows no resemblance to me!!! ROFL

Thanks for looking and now it's time to head on over and visit Julia who has all the desks in the world on show today :)

xoxo Sioux

Magical Feeling

A wonderful weekend. Visit to the florists in Totnes went well on Saturday. Looks like it will be alliums going in those enamal jugs ;)

We had a lovely breakfast in one of the many cafes there. It's hard to choose which one to go to! ;)

I've also been looking for ages for a necklace with a pearl in it to go with my earrings for my wedding...paste would have been fine if I could have found the right one. I like pearls set in yellow gold but so many pieces are set in white gold/silver settings!

Anyway.....my honey and I were browsing in the jewellery shop windows on the way back to the car. Yep..how lucky am I?...a man who browses jewellery shop windows with me!

I hadn't seen anything....but my honey said what about that one? What one? I said.

Well it was so exactly what I was thinking of....and my honey had picked it out...I am now the very proud owner of this.

Thank you so so much Mr B :)

Yesterday (Sunday) we visited Coleton Fishacre...a National Trust place close by here.

Mr B had never been before...I've been a few times it's a lovely garden. As you walk down the valley garden you can go through a gate leading to the coast path and a viewing point.

A very Daphne Du Maurier moment don't you think.

Such a romantic magical weekend.

Thanks for looking 

xoxo Sioux

It will be alright on the night! Won't it?

Not having much luck with posts at the minute!

Sorry folks!

How about this image?

Gorgeous enamel jugs (8 of them) arrived yesterday

all I need now is some sort of idea of the flowers to put in them as table decorations for the wedding!

Yikes only 8 weeks this Saturday to go....can't help thinking I should be more stressed about it, but in reality I am very chilled.....so chilled I worry that I shall run out of time to do stuff without realising it!!! ROFLIA

I have to admit I bought these after seeing a picture on Pinterest

(you can't half waste a lot of time on there! LOL)

It was simply full of common Cow Parsley that grows in the hedgerows...

...it looked really pretty...

...but somehow or other I can't see myself gathering cow parsley the day before my wedding...

...what if there is none growing.....PANIC!!

So off to the florists on Saturday to try and attempt to finalise in my mind exactly what it is that I want in my bouquet.....the buttonholes...the corsages...

....and whatever for the enamel jugs!!!

(I really want some colour....see.....I just can't get it sorted in my brain!)

xoxo Sioux

My Valentine

Just thought I'd share the card I made for my huggy SB.

I designed it on the computer and printed it....no stamping for a change.
He absolutely loved the graphic (and that's a huge boost to the ego coming from a designer in a former life).
I bought him the spoon with the sentiment "coffee, tea, or me".
Guess which one he picked! Rofl

xoxo Sioux

Sweet Valentine

Morning...

...My honey gave me a sweet Valentine ;)...

...His taste is impeccable...

...He knows me soooo well...

...'Cos he also gave me a chocolate cake...

...glittery heart filled card and cake...

I love him to bits :)

xoxo Sioux

P.S. The diet starts Monday!!! ROFLIA

Over the hill?!

Morning all!

Thought I'd show you the 50th card that was on my table on Wednesday.

It really fits the bill for a bit of fun, with those sentiments on the front and insert too...

...he was not very enthusiastic about his big five-O birthday you see!

Thanks for looking

Happy stamping ;)

xoxo Sioux

WOYWW Invites Done!

Two weeks in a row  WOYWW'ers.....give myself a pat on the back!
Don't hold your breath for next week 'cos I already know I'm not going to make it! ;)

All change on the table.....I am in the middle of a 50th card for a work mate. Darkroom Door vintage car stamps, being inked up for the first time since a bought them heaven knows how long ago!!! ROFL

All those twiddly bit die cuts from last week are now safely attached to the wedding invites :)
Went in the post yesterday....don't want to post a picture of them yet as some of the guests read this blog...
...it's so difficult trying to whittle down the numbers to fit the venue but there is limited capacity...
...and funds come to that!!!!
We already needed to make a split and have some people at the wedding ceremony with canapes and drinks at the church...
...and others who come along for the whole weekend at the hotel!! 


Thanks for looking and now it's time to head on over and visit Julia who has all the desks in the world on show today :)

xoxo Sioux

Weekend Trip

We spent the night at the hotel on Friday where we are having our reception ;)

(Sampling some wine ;) pondering the choice of food, having fun ;) )

It's directly on the beach and most of the rooms have a great view of it...

...afraid it was a bit wet and windy whilst we were there...

...dining room...

...and our fabulous bagel breakfast...

A new piece of art work arrived a couple of days earlier and is on display on the staircase...

(Unfortunately I don't know who the artist is yet...he is someone well known though! Also it really does have that squashed look to it...it's not my lack of photograpy skills!! ROFL)

...loved it....but can't help thinking it might scare the living daylights out of some people! LOL

And talking of the staircase...

...how about a group photo at the wedding with everyone standing on it and looking up?

From that angle it will get rid of any double chins on display!!! ROFL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

WOYWW....I return!!

Yikes and thrice yikes  WOYWW'ers.!!!!....

I've been away so long!

My table is once again seeing action.....

I am in the middle of making our wedding invites ;)
Need to get them in the post by end of the month!

Intended to make a great start on these over the Christmas break but the best laid plans as they say....
...we both got the winter vomiting bug....well at least that's what I think it was!!!
Suffice to say it was not quite the Christmas we had thought it would be ROFL ;)
Anyway both recovered now but did not feel really tickety boo until last week.

That twiddly die cut on the guillotine is a pain to remove from the die even with the slightly helpful layer of greaseproof paper first! After 50 of them I really have had enough of that little task for a while!!! LOL
Now to assemble the elements on the card :)

Thanks for looking and now it's time to head on over and visit Julia who has all the desks in the world on show today :)

xoxo Sioux

It's a 2009 Mystery!

How strange!!!

This morning I had an e-mail from someone who is working on Thorntons marketing team (yes the chocolate people) about the project above where I made a box to put some of their chocolate blocks inside....it was posted back in 2009!!!...it said

 Hi,

My name is Emma Stott and I work within the marketing team at Link Sentinel. I have been reviewing existing links to our client site as part of an on-going SEO review. I have discovered a link on your site linking to us from the following page:

http://artyjen.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

I would be extremely grateful if you would be able to remove the highlighted link above as I feel that this could cause us both problems with ranking in Google in the near future. It would be great if you could get back to me so that we can discuss further.

Thanks,

Emma Stott

Most peculiar...but I have removed the link (I also have removed the link that was in the e-mail that I copied here too!!! LOL)........and also said this

Good Morning Emma,

Well I've removed the link from way back in 2009!!!

Sorry if I did anything wrong but it is the done thing in the crafty world to be nice and provide links to products you use in any projects that you blog about...even if it is chocolate and not crafty goodies!!! ;)

Best regards

Sioux

Surely no-one is going to be looking at that bit of blogger any day soon?

And does that mean that being nice and doing links is absolutely pointless....I certainly won't be bothering any more unless specifially called to...such as entering challenges etc!!!!

It's a mystery to me ;)

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I know I have been missing in action lately but I intend to show my desk top on Wednesday ;) Those of you who know will know what I mean LOL!! :)