{Giveaway} WINNER! Consol Glass

A little while ago I received a lovely package from Consol Glass complete with amazing glass jars and bottles of all sizes, stripey paper party straws and lovely little cocktail umbrellas to make tropical cocktails. I ran a cocktail competition for a glass hamper giveaway - you can read about my cocktail: Santa's sneaky sleigh sipper here.

I would love to give you all a Consol Hamper - cause they are so awesome, but unfortunately there can only be one winner -

Beverley Johnston and her Lickable Lemon cocktail
which includes lemongrass, pineapple, sprite zero and crushed mint leaves.
Lemongrass makes me think of thailand... so fragrant and delish!
Don't those ingredients just make you want to test run this yummy drink!
(You can actually find her full recipe on the indieBerries facebook page)

I had some awesome entries so just wanted to share a few with you in case you needed any cocktail inspiration -
Cherry Cranberry Beer Margaritas  - from Claire Kirkman
A "healthy" version of a White Russian (milk, kahlua, vodka and ice-cream)  - from Georgie H
A Pimms concotion with mint and Strawberries  - from Dhesh
Liquid Glass with rum, pineapple and ginger ale - from Zai Khan
And some Christmas cocktail specials (below)  - from Cleverbird



Thank you all for your entries and you can keep up to date with any other Consol Giveaways by liking their facebook page. They currently have some awesome Valentines Day glass ideas  -

pretty ne?

As a little something extra, Consol have come out with a Glass Inspiration Digital Magazine - which is packed full of awesome Glass DIYs and other inspiring things to make and do with glass. You can download a copy here.

AND! Something even more awesome - Consol have also come out with a range of  downloadable printables - all those gorgeous labels you see on those glass jars? You can download a variety of them here ranging from gift tags, fathers day tags, lid decals (my personal fave) to cake bunting and envelopes. They are all so gorgeous - and there are a couple of designs for each category. Definitely download them all right now!

(And Guess what Warren is getting for Valentines day? lol)

{Featured} Save the Dates

You may have seen my recent post on our wedding Save the Dates - The lovely Gaby from Southbound Bride has asked (a long while ago over a bottle of wine) to feature our handmade DIY scrapbookish Save the Dates (and lots of other wedding bits and bobs) - YAY!! I love Southbound Bride and it has been a real little inspiration-fest for our wedding planning!

If you hop on over to Southbound Bride, you can see all our Save the Date pics here and you can also see all my tips for a DIY wedding. So if you are planning on mashing up DIY-ing your wedding - definitely check out some of the tried-and-tested tips that I've sent over to Southbound Bride.

Viva la YEAR OF THE WEDDING!

{Cartoon} Aircreeps

So, on Saturday I flew to London to visit le Fiance. And as with any time I travel internationally, I am surrounded by creeps. I don't know why they pick me to plague - It's like I have a pheromone for them for them or something.

Anyway.

When I checked in at the check-in counter, the lovely Emirates Lady told me that I would have a free seat between me and the other passenger who had already booked the window seat.
Free seat: score.


But when I eventually got to boarding time and I boarded the plane and went to my allocated seat, who should I find in the "free seat" ?

Before continuing, I would like to make an adjustment, because

That's right, there is that whole "sharing-of-the-armrest" thing going on.

We do not like that.

And when you find yourself seated next to a creep (who should rightfully be seated in the window seat), you make sure to keep your distance - or alternatively, as far as humanly possible within the confines of airline seats.

...because of course, 

true creeps have no concept of personal space and they will just

willy-nilly stick their creepheads into your zone.

Pull out phone.

Text Warren.

Text Mother.

Text Father.

Text Brother.

Tell them all that you are sitting next to a creep.

"im sitting next to a creep"

(just so that if anything happens, your people will KNOW.)

No creep.

No.

Don't talk to me.

I don't want to be your friend.

and i really don't want to have 8 hours of arbitrary-broken-english chit-chat.

Creep: can you check my bluetooth?
Me: No.
Creep: Ok, can i just see your bluetooth?
Me: No, creep. I don't use bluetooth.
Creep then leans over (into my zone) and starts pushing buttons on my phone to try find the bluetooths.
NO. CREEP. NO.

Snatch phone away from creep. Tell creep "NO CREEP NO!"
Tell creep: I don't use bluetooth and I don't know what you are talking about.

Creep then thinks I am technologically challenged and proceeds to explain to me (in-fifth-language-english) how to use the inflight entertainment system.

NO!

Switch cellphone (and all the bluetooths) off.

Creep is not listening.

Air hostess comes down the aisle and sees creep on his phone.

Creep is not listening.

Creep then decides to make a call.

Plane is on the runway.

Air hostesses walk up and down the aisle - 

every time they walk past the creep, he hides his phone under his t-shirt.

Creep is definitely going to blow up the plane with his cellphone.

Struggle with the inner turmoil of 

"should-i-alert-the-airhostesses-to-the-creep-with-the-cellphone-bomb?"

versus

"i-really-don't-want-to-anger-the-creep-with-the-cellphone-bomb"

Confront creep

Creep smiles at me.

Creep continues phone conversation.

Plane begins take off on runway.

Creep finishes his conversation.

Hides phone under t-shirt.

Get back to the seat issue:

Because surely, since he had booked the window seat, he would want to sit in the window seat.

And because surely, what human would NOT want extra space between them.

Extra Space.

That is what they PAY FOR in first class.

Surely.

However, as a true creep (characterised by the reckless abandon of social norms and personal zones) creep of course wishes to spend the entire flight on my armrest.

Yes, I probably could have just asked him to move over, 

but,

Anger the creep with the cellphone bomb?

I don't think so.

Decide to ASSERT DOMINANCE over the armrest.

50 % of that armrest belongs to YOU.

(And technically 0 % of the armrest belongs to the creep, because he has technically paid for the window seat).

MY SEAT.

MY ARMREST.

SHOVE.

it failed.

And that is how I spent 8 hours flying to Dubai.

* * * * * * *

The end.

In fact this whole flight reminded me very much of the time I sat next to my new "friend" 

What did I tell you about those pheromones that I must emit?

Also - the next time I fly back to London, I will be sitting next to my new husband, The Warr - 

who of course,

is the biggest creep of all

x

{Wedding} Our Save the Dates

Since people are starting to receive our wedding invites, I thought I would share our Save the Dates with you.

In South Africa I don't think that many couples opt to send physical Save The Dates - considering the extra cost of making/printing/posting them (on top of the cost of the actual invites), but I'm a definite "paper" kinda gal and I knew that I wanted something fun, papery, textured and different to set the tone for our wedding.

{Side note: Me to Warren: We need to send these Save the Dates out pronto.
Warr: Why don't we just send them out with the invitations?
Me: what? are you serious?}

Boys. They don't get it.

So I set about mocking up a few ideas that were floating around my head and came up with a prototype that included a pencil to be sent to each guest with the Save the Date. I opted for the phrase "pencil us in" rather than "save the date" - ahem did you know the acronym for "Save the Date" is S.T.D - and nobody wants that.

{In fact, it became rather a joke between The Warr and I in our messages to eachother -
Me: Have you got the STD?
Warr: Yes, I'm giving it to Claire.
Me: haha lol.}

So anywaaaay,

I mocked up our first prototype using plain paper and black card and just drew up what I wanted them to look like - then I started on the computer with different colour ideas and combinations. If you are making your stationery yourself - you have the freedom to play around with ALL different options - so go wild!

{Making the wedding stationery yourself is also the perfect excuse to buy ALL the lovely paper. Not, that you need an excuse, obviously.}

I found some chunky pencils in one of my favourite bulk/bargain stores - the pencils had some text on them which had to be whittled off. It took a little guess work to figure out how exactly to attach the pencils to the cardstock and to get the size of the slits exactly right - making sure that there was enough leeway for the card to close, but enough hold to keep the pencil in tight.



{Above are two of the pics showing our very first mock-ups - playing around with different colours, different ribbons, different combinations etc etc - we didn't end up using any of these}


Eventually we settled on some basic colours - purple cardstock for the outer cover, turquoise text with pink highlighting the date and a colour photo. Behind the printed sheets we used a combination of pink tissue paper and bronze and gold textured paper (which was actually cut from sheets of wrapping paper).

It took a lot of work because there were lots of different elements that went into it - measuring and cutting the cardstock to the exact size, printing and cutting the text elements, cutting the slits in the cardboard, cutting the strips of pink tissue paper, the strips of bronze paper and the strips of gold paper and then pasting the pink paper, bronze paper, gold paper and words onto the cardstock, slotting in the pencil, printing and cutting and pasting the names of each of the guests and tying them up in a little package with pink ribbon.

oh yes, and Warren helped whittle the pencils.

I wrote our names on each of the pencils too so that it acted as a kind of caption for the photo. (I had to write our entire names out because our initials together spell W.C.
What is it with this wedding and toilet humour?)

The pencils could be removed from the card by the guests and kept near the phone or a desk or wherever as a very practical reminder of our wedding day.

Don't be afraid of a little extra work, in fact I remember sending a few pics to Warr while he was at work - of an option which didn't include the pink tissue paper (ie: less work)
Me: Which of these do you prefer? The one with the pink tissue paper in it or do you think it looks fine without it?
Warr: mmm... I like the one with the pink tissue paper.
Me: Damn. Me too.

It really is worth it in the end once you hear the reactions of the guests who receive them.

So, what do you think?

I can't WAIT to show you our wedding invites - they are too awesome. 

If I do say so myself.

x

7 things

7 things I've done this week

1. Flew to London to visit my very handsome Fiance. (Woooop!)
2. Sat next to a creep on the plane. (Story of my life) Cartoon to follow.
3. Went out together with The Warr to start our wedding registry in central London - fun.
4. Finally got to see one of the "things" that I had made and ordered and delivered to London, for our wedding - can't elaborate too much on it now, but - it's awesome :) (Warren concurs).
5. Thought about buying a razor to shave my legs, but I forgot. (Warren does not concur).
6. Ate some delicious Moroccan Chicken and fiery tomato soup and some amazing seared tuna. Also - drank some delicious red wine and 
7. Pre-registered to some upcoming festivals for the year.
   
   
   London, it's good to be back,
   Now how's about a little more snow?

Hipster Wedding

headless

Things have been a tad crazy around here - and for the past few days I have been running around like a headless-armadillochicken. (What is that even?). Let's put it down to UK visa admin, banking/exchange/transfer admin, freelance work, dentist appointments, HTML coding course, planning an epicWEDDING (stationery, menus, invites, guestlists, numbers, names, rsvps, catering, decor hire etc etc etc).

And oh yes, I'm flying across the earth tomorrow.

Today's blog post is titled "I-don't-have-enough-time-to-do-a-blogpost-so-i'm-just-going-to-show-you-pictures-from-other-blogs" which I guess is what half the blogging world actually really does.

Awesome paper teacups on How about Orange

Beautiful fun images on Color Me Katie

Awesome 52 week scrapish journal-book on Elise Blaha

365 days of cloudporn on Tomboy Oh boy

Funky business cards curated by Cleverbird

Adventures in Thailand on Tails of a Mermaid

(reminds me of this one time we went to Thailand....)

sigh.

Gorgeous Etsy outfits on Oh Joy

(one of each please!)

That's all for today...
and