Sunday, February 19, 2012

Coffee, weddings, babies, sewing and...


Here I am again. I will be putting a few pictures up today and that is because I finally mastered the skill of importing them from my iPhone and iPad to the computer. Thanks to the help of my youngest daughter who wrote step-by-step instructions for me and it worked.



First of all this picture shows what I do on a typical Sunday morning. Of course there is the totally necessary cup of coffee. And none of that instant stuff for me, I just can't drink it now. I love a good tasting coffee, made by a coffee machine. Yes I am one of those so called coffee snobs. Much to my delight my eldest daughter who is pregnant (gee love the sound of that) sold me her beaut machine so we can now make it whenever we like. Unfortunately I do not have a Barista's degree and so must wait for those clever family members who do now how to use it. Also whilst drinking the coffee I am happy to be reading the Sunday Times newspaper. Ah...bliss.




Lovely decorative idea I might pinch

This is just one of the ideas we are looking at for the wedding cake for Amy & Brads wedding. The theme for the wedding is purple and white.  And before you say oh no to the purple, it will incorporate all shades of that hue.
The crazy thing is that Amy and I are making this cake ourselves. Yep, Amy is a great baker and decorator and I am going to be her assistant.
Of course we will be trialling it first, well just a small one to see if we are any good, or if we will need to call on the services of someone much more cake clever. The wedding is being carried out on a small budget and we really can not justify spending $800 on a cake for one day. This wedding is going to be simple, elegant and fun. I am so excited.








We are also attempting to make the bouquets ourselves. I would love fresh flowers everywhere but the cost prohibits this. We live remotely and so everything we need is trucked in and of course costs much more than other places. I am thinking that the brides bouquet may consist of real flowers though. What do you think?










This is some of the sewing I have done recently. I made two small aprons for my great niece and her step sister. I wanted to see if I could do this little project and I could so now I will make some much bigger ones.










This is the first of eight place mats that I am making for Amy. I just wish I hadn't made the quilt lines so close, makes more work for me. :)
Don't get me wrong, I love quilting but with my lack of energy still, I am unable to finish these as quick as I would like. I also need to make some more for my own table.








And finally, these are just some of the fabrics I will be using to make the new baby stuff. That is a pram quilt, cot quilt, bassinet quilt, floor play quilt, ah...oh and a couple of toys. Yes I will have so many more reasons to sew now. My hope is that I can get it done before the child turns sixteen.
I am slow, but once I'm into it, I am in a frenzy.

Now I did have other pictures to show but blogger has lost them some how so maybe that's my cue to stop the show and tell and post this blog before it becomes any longer.

I hope you find something of interest here. I know when I peruse the blogs I do I love seeing snippets of the lifestyle my blogger buddy lives.

Anyway where ever you are take care and be happy if possible,

Till next time,

6 comments:

  1. We made most things ourselves for our children's weddings Jan. They helped, really appreciated it, and it cut down on a lot of costs (which are unnecessary). The cake looks lovely. What about silk flowers (ebay) for the floral arrangements? I understand about getting real flowers for the day when you live rurally. And I love good coffee.

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  2. Thanks sewana. I think in this day and age it is necessary to be thoughtful when planning a huge event like this. If you have any tips to give me or even photos to share that would be great. I will try ebay for the flowers too. Some of the silk flowers actually look real don't they?
    Ah another who like coffee, cheers. :)

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  3. Jan, I love your ideas. We had a completely undecorated 2 tier cake for our daughter's wedding. It was white iced and had a spiral of fresh singapore orchids in purple and maroon colours draped over the top and around the sides in a simple swirl. She had the same colour singapore orchids and gip in her bouquet, with those roundish bluegum leaves. Simple and elegant. I think the cake cost us around $80 and the florist charged us around $40 to decorate it with the flowers. Daughter's mother in law crocheted little baskets for the favours, sprayed them with starch so they were quite stiff, and we filled them with sugared almonds in pink and white. The baskets were really little round doileys, caught up in the middle with a ribbon, and a handle crocheted on top. I wrote the order of service and created a booklet on MS Publisher, then got a local printer to print it onto cream paper, tied with maroon ribbon. Simple again, yet pretty. You are going to have lots of fun planning and creating and I wish you joy doing it. Pat (Secret Garden.)

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  4. Thank you for sharing this part of your life, Jan. Everything sounds wonderful, and I look forward to what you create for the wedding!

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  5. Thanks Pat sounds like some good ideas there. And SFG it is my pleasure to share such wonderful things. Got to have good and not so good news here.

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  6. Jan: Just caught up with your latest posts. Whew! It's got to be the caffeine kicking in - so much news and so many things going on. Firstly congrats on your daughter and future son in law's wedding, and double congrats on expecting a beautiful baby (all of you!)

    Planning for the wedding seems to be on track and you've certainly got some great ideas. I love the choice of purple and white. With so many choices of tonings, Amy and Brad will have a fabulous wedding. (As long as he doesn't decide on a bright purple lurex outfit! LOL)

    Once agin it just goes to show that with good planning and common sense that a wedding can be as special at a few hundred dollars (plus!) as one that costs $15,000 (one that I heard of only last week).

    Keep up your great work - it sounds as though you're really in control of so many things in your life at the moment. Many hugs across the miles.

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