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Hi All, I hope you’ve had a good start to the week. I can’t believe it’s June already- May came and gone so quickly it’s sort of scary in some ways or another. I’ve been listening to NTS loads lately as well as going on Floe Camp. ‘Lullaby for Cranes’ by Item Caligo is probably one of my favourite albums: no matter how I’m feeling everything about it takes to a place where I’m in my own world and there is something really calm, peaceful and beautiful about this album I can’t quite put it into words.

I suppose this post is unrelated to work as I’ve been quite honest about my anxiety lately as I feel that I shouldn’t really hide it any longer. I finally deleted Instagram off my phone as it’s been cranking up my anxiety levels lately; it was worst the other day and my gut instinct was the delete the damn thing. And you know what? I instantly felt so much better, as in, the physical symptoms went away instantly and my mind was at peace again. I noticed that whenever I was on it I would start comparing myself, my work, my house to others. I would think what changes I can make towards myself whilst looking at these edited and filtered images. Don’t get me wrong, Instagram is a powerful tool to share your work, your family life, your dream decor inspirations etc. However, that wasn’t positive for me at all. I become so wrapped up in other people’s lives that I stopped paying attention to myself. The self-realisation after the mini panic attack made me re-evaluate my way of thinking, how I see myself and how I want to always please others. For a very long time I’ve always been the type of person to make others happy, be extremely critical of myself and constantly beating myself down about the smallest things. It’s very easy to be sucked into the online world, I mean, I thought of all people it wouldn’t happen to me and it did. I look back at my timeline and I genuinely have fond memories of my photos such as holiday photos, birthday’s etc.

 

Instead, it’s getting far too repetitive for me as I’m constantly seeing the same polished photos of  people’s lives  I don’t even know- it’s just so transient. Someone had said to me that we should be enjoying life itself rather than living through social media and I couldn’t agree more than that. We’re getting to the point now where our personal and social lives are blurring into the digital world by being judged and analysed which is completely unhealthy in my opinion.

 

 

I’ve lost my passionate in it and my own creative path by being on it so I’m taking a step back and giving it a well deserved break for a while. Goodbye Instagram, you were good while it lasted.

 

Take care of yourselves everyone and look after one another.

 

Jo x

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Miscellaneous

I had some lovely feedback from my previous post about our wedding ideas. I sound like a right Bridezilla- don’t I?! As much as I love Pinterest, once you spiral down that Pinterest hole there’s no coming back. Literally, spending hours looking at lovely images is easily done!

So I thought I would start off with the theme for the wedding which is simply: party. Party, party, party. I think if Sam could have it any other way it would be like a 24 hour rave like Tresor. No, I’m just joking! Or am I…? We want the day to be a day full of happiness, merriment, drinking (why not?!); a chance to bring loads of people together from all corners of the world. So basically we’re pulling off a big-ass party for 100+ people. I like the idea of it being like a garden party and the great outdoors. We both love going for long walks in the countryside and being out and about when the weather is blazing is what we love doing. Especially visiting National Trust places as well (helps loads if one can drive i.e. Sam and me the passenger who always falls asleep). Ok, I’m proper diverging here, my point being is that we’ve visited so many wonderful places over the past couple of years it’d be great to bring that passion into the wedding. We’re sort of explorers in our own right; continuing to explore the world with each other.

 

 

The whole aesthetic and artwork would tie with one another. The wedding invites would be flowers and abstract patterns growing out from the corners and this would be the same for the seating plans, name cards etc. I love that feeling when you have that light-bulb moment, which I often don’t have!

 

Moving on, we talked about the wedding cake. The cake. We had a heated discussion about this, but it was defo needed though. We decided to go for something simple like a Chinese cream cake- as long as it’s Hello Kitty then it’s all good for me!

 

We also talked quite a bit about the Chinese side of the wedding as this is when things get a bit complicated. Well, not complicated, but I suppose it’s more about thinking of the order of the day. I get to wear two dresses so boom. I’ll rope my mum, Barbara and Shoz to help me with the Chinese wedding dress and all the other traditional things we need to do but we have absolutely no clue whatsoever. I can’t say anymore than that as I need my parents for the heads up!

 

We were planning on getting a caterer for the food; as to what type of food we’re undecided but we need to make some calls first to see what they can actually provide. I would also like to have Chinese food as well so I don’t know whether we’ll need a separate caterer for that. In terms of the styling and layout, something quite simple with minimal effort.

 

 

Well, I’m going to end it here as I need to crack on with getting the guest listed sorted out! If you have any tips you’d like to share with me please feel free to leave a comment below.

 

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

 

Jo

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Miscellaneous

So Sam and I sat down on Saturday and we managed to write down a very long list of what we needed to do… yes, cracking that whip and wedding planning has started- again! We’ve been stopping and starting over the past couple of years but we’ve decided that next year will be the big day. I’m super excited as well!

 

 

I already decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to have a ‘traditional’ wedding dress. I’m going to look for a gown instead as I haven’t seen any dresses that I’ve liked, whereas if I go down the gown route there’s loads more options for me. Plus, I’m really picky and I already know what I want. Ideally, if I had a couple of grand to spend I’d opt for a Valentino couture dress or a Gucci dress… I suppose I better get saving then!

 

I always knew I wanted to wearing something different and interesting so for a while I wasn’t sure what. But then when I saw one of Valentino’s couture collections from a while back I loved the combination of beautifully decorated fabric and the incredible detailing of the embroidery. I mean, it’s Valentino for frigs sake, what else can I say about it?!

 

And there’s more…

 

 

I have no idea if I’d be able to get my hands on a dress similar to these so if you do spot anything that’s within my price band and that’s not over £5,000 please send the link my way!

 

So, onto hair accessories. I’m sort of thinking Hollywood glitz and glam, 1940’s feel, myths and goddesses. Again, I’m totally in love with Gucci right not so I think I want to have my hair up with some fancy hair pieces dotted around my hair or a floral crown. I probably won’t wear a veil unless I see one I really like- like the one above with stars embroidered onto the lace.

 

 

Gemma Ward for McQueen popped up in my head and, taken from a couple of years ago, I love the placement of the butterflies floating around her head and neck. I can defo pull this off…!

 

We both wanted our wedding to be a big celebration with friends and families so of course means pulling off a one big party- (weddings are basically a massive party with drunken family members!). Sam wanted to keep things simple…. me on the other hand I really want a pop of colour around the venue with balloons, buntings, fabric hangings all over the place. In terms of the decor, my plan was to make all of it if possible such as the table decorations, placement cards, seating plan etc. (this includes roping in some very lovely friends to help me out and feeding them loads of food and plying them with alcohol!). By no means can I make a 1 x 1 meter paper pom pom but I’ll give it ago- me looking up tutorials on Pinterest and YouTube!

 

 

I’m going to have to leave it there but in my next post I’m going to be revealing my ideas and inspiration for wedding invites, flower ideas, colour schemes and more!

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post and if you have any tips and wedding advice please leave a comment below- I look forward to reading it!

 

Jo

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Miscellaneous

 

Hey folks, how was your Bank Holiday weekend? I think we were blessed for having good weather over the weekend, although did anyone see the thunder and lightning in the evenings? They were pretty spectacular as I often don’t really see lightning fork so quickly. I’m off for the week so I’m going to spend my time doing some more personal artwork and rejig my website as it’s desperately in need of a revamp. I don’t like the theme as it no longer represents what I’m doing at the moment so I’ll be updating my website very soon.

 

To celebrate Etsy’s 13th year in the arts and crafts business I’ll be holding a mini celebration of my own by having a 10% discount in my Etsy shop starting from 18th-22rd June- so put that down in your diaries! It’s been a journey for myself over the past couple of years as I’ve learnt so many things online and through doing craft fairs. Etsy has been a great platform to showcase my work as well as to experiment with photography and trialling out different products. It’s been a wonderful experience and I suppose without it I don’t think I’d be where I am now. Granted, it’s tough as you have to put in lots of time and hard work into it but I love the Etsy community as it’s such a supportive group of people where you can always ask for help.

 

I’m going to leave it there; have a lovely week and take care.

 

Jo

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