I Spy Friday

I did it again! I had this I Spy ready well ahead of time, and then just forgot to post it. Clearly planning ahead isn't working out for the blog.

So, this is the final of the registry advice posts. This time I'm focusing on things that aren't so practical for every-day use, but that we love. We could live without these things, but we'd really rather not.

Organic Amy Butler sheets from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The pattern we have is no longer available in their shop, but this Sari Bloom pattern is similar, and just lovely. These sheets are so soft and cool-feeling (400-thread count!) that I'd love to add this pattern to our sheet stock.

I love our Oxo cookie scoop, also from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It doesn't get used much, but every time I pull it out I'm thankful not to have cookie dough all over my fingers.

The only reason this gorgeous Kitchen Aid mixer is on the not-so-useful list is because, well, it has never been used. It's sitting in storage in my mother's house until we move back to the States. Because of our move we didn't put any other electronics on the list, but this baby's a must.

Finally, our Nordicware mini scone pan. This actually gets a surprising amount of use. I didn't expect to need it more than once or twice a year, but it's more like every month or so. It has the best nonstick surface of any baking pan I've ever used, and I'd really recommend it to anyone who bakes a decent amount. I can also recommend a few recipes, too.

Cathy and Iain's wedding flowers

A few weeks ago I made a bouquet and boutonnieres for Cath and Iain's Scottish wedding. I blogged before about the process of creating this bouquet. These lovely pictures are the final step in that process.

 

I love Edinburgh. How beautiful is that skyline?

Congratulatons, Cath and Iain! You can see more pictures of their wedding in Cath's Offbeat Bride flickr set.

(Photography by Liisa Hilden-Parsons)

Berwick-upon-Tweed

This past weekend, M. and I went up to Berwick-upon-Tweed for a few days' anniversary celebration. We saw it from the train on our way up to Edinburgh a few months ago, and were captivated by the cute little town with its cute little lighthouse.

Berwick did not disappoint. I mean just look at this cuteness:

Rooftops in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Allotment gardens perched above the North Sea

We didn't really do much... went for a run on the town walls and by the sea, rolled down a hill...

...pretended to be a lion, ...

...and had a picnic by the sea while watching a cricket game. And Madhu saw a dolphin. Twice! I'm so jealous.

We also stuffed ourselves on the wonderful food at Northumbria House B&B, and spent many hours reading in their backyard swing chair, trying to convince the two house cats to join us for a cuddle. The only annoying thing about the place was that the shops, cafes, and bakeries always seemed to be closed. There were a ton of cute shops I wanted to check out, but they all shut at, like, 4. grrrr.

Seriously, though, if you get the chance, go check out Berwick-upon-Tweed.

I Spy Friday

I have to apologize for the lack of I Spy last week. I decided to write a batch of them ahead of time and then completely forgot to post last Friday's. But it's all good, because I was planning to take this week off. Tomorrow morning, my husband and I are heading north for an anniversary weekend break. So here's your I Spy, a week late or a day early, however you like to look at it.

This week's I Spy is still on the registry theme, but this time I'm covering all of the stuff we should've registered for. Each of these items we ended up buying later, use a lot, and love.

This one is my husband's tool of choice, the Chop-to-Pot cutting board. It makes dumping ingredients into a pot or bowl so easy. Sounds minor, I know, but just think about it the next time you're gently easing bits of veggies into a pot and lose a bunch of them onto the burner.

This French press from Bodum is another of my husband's favorites because, well, I kind of loathe coffee. And apparently it's the most eco-friendly way to make coffee.

And this guy is my new favorite. It's a combined immersion blender, whisk, and food processor (by Phillips). At least one of these gets used at least once a week. My (very cursory) search for this didn't find it available anywhere in the States. (We got ours at Tesco.) But there are similar options out there.

Another thing I really wish we had registered for at all is table linens. Particularly one of these gorgeous vintage flour sack table runners from Pottery Barn. Of course, now I have my own version, which you'll spy if you scroll down to the previous post.

Of course, along with the teapots from last week, we use this Wesco tea kettle a ton. Pretty much daily. And it's always there looking good on the hob.

Feathered bouquet

I just finished making a bouquet for a bride in Florida. She's having a vintage circus-themed wedding, and wanted to incorporate feathers. So, I decided to substitute them for the leaves I usually use.

The feathers were a little annoying to work with, because they kept sticking to the floral tape. Also, Max the Cat was fascinated by them. I had to keep him well away from my working area. But it was worth it in the end, because I think they look really nice.

 

You can also see our new table runner in these pictures.

I fell in love with some vintage table runners made from old Hungarian grain sacks by Pottery Barn, but they were a bit too expensive. So, I happened across a very similar-looking fabric at Cloth House in Soho.

And then the lady at Cloth House told me that this is vintage fabric from Hungary as well. Hmmm... And it ended up costing about half what the Pottery Barn table runners cost.

I Spy Friday

My lovely hubs and I got married last year this month. Yeah, time flies and all that. But we've learned a lot in this important first year, lived through a lot of changes (new job, new country, new business). And I want to share some of that wisdom with you right now.

Sorry, no marriage advice this week. But, just as good, how about some registry advice? Over the next few weeks I'm going to share a few of the things we registered for and love, and some that we should've registered for.

This week I'll share the handful of items from our registry that we use all the freaking time. (Excluding things like cutlery and dishes because, duh, of course we use that stuff every day.)

Note: Unless otherwise noted, we got all this good stuff from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

We love these Calphalon knives. I don't think my husband has ever used the utility knife without commenting on how great it is. And my MIL has given them her stamp of approval (which is kind of like winning the Pulitzer of the culinary world).

Maybe it's because we moved to the UK soon after getting married, but these teapots (left, Crate & Barrel; right, Anthropologie, although I don't think this teapot is still available) are in weekly use in our house. And they look lovely on top of the bookcase in the dining room with a few other pieces of white china, too.

For me, this set of ten bowls from Williams and Sonoma are the greatest. I love cooking for dinner parties and big holidays, things that require all kinds of prep. Before we had these, I had about three bowls to work from and, geez louise, was that annoying. Now, with these, I'm in heaven. Plus, they're ridiculously sturdy. I was doing the dishes once and one slipped out of my hands, flew up in the air, and bounced a few times on the way down. Not a chip. Nice.

Grilled cheese for one? Scrambled eggs on Sunday? Mushrooms and onions for that sauce? Ridiculously heavy and stylin' pan? Check, check, check, and hell-to-the-check. Le Creuset. Bless you.

Oh, and ask me sometime how to make the best scrambled eggs in the universe. I'm a generous soul, I'll tell.

Grilled cheese for two, pancake night, ginormous fry-up of a Sunday morning, all is made easy with this luuuurvely double-griddle from Crate & Barrel. This one competes with the glass bowls for the number-one spot in my heart. Oh, and it's double-sided (other side is a grill), but we've found that this smooth side works  much better.

Okay, to be a little cheesy about it, one of the great things about these gifts is that whenever we use them, we think about the cousin or aunt or friend who gave them to us. Yes, I know. But it's true.

Reminder: Mini-workshop coming up!

There are a few spaces left in the mini-workshop I'll be teaching at the Craft Guerrilla's DIY Craft Night, Thursday, May 13. The event is held at the Old Rose and Crown pub on 55 Hoe St., Walthamstow, starting at 8. The workshop starts at 9.

At the workshop I'll be teaching you how to make a fringe flower headband. The workshop costs 6 gbp, including all materials. Email me directly (bwefshop {at} gmail {dot} com) to pay and reserve your place.

Arrive with 6 quid, leave with a new headband and a new skill. Nice.

How a bouquet is born

A bouquet's life starts with a message or an email from a potential client. We usually exchange a few messages so I can get a good idea of what the client is looking for, their budget, etc. Once all of the discussion is out of the way, we can get down to the fun stuff. The paper.

I have the enormous pleasure of going paper shopping, dawdling through aisles comparing swatches and shades. It's pretty freaking fun. And then I send the client a picture like the one above, showing all of the papers that I have gathered together. Hopefully I get back a gushingly positive message, and then the work really begins.

I pull out my handy cutting knife. (You can see another bouquet in embryo in the background here, as well as my awl, floral tape, and a ruler. The many and varied instruments of a self-styled paper florist.)

And I get down to work, measuring, marking, cutting. This is what my workspace generally looks like. My most important tool, Blistex, to which I have a bit of an addiction, is always nearby.

Actually, I'm kind of lying. This is what my workspace looks like just after I've had a freak-out because my life is too cluttered, and I clean up every inch of my immediate surroundings. It normally looks more like a paper tornado just went through town. I don't think you need pictures of that.

Glue, buttons, toothpicks, scissors, caffeine, audio book. Paper. All grist to my mill.

After a day or two of assiduous work, the flowers start to take over the flat.

The dining room table gets pressed into service as a drying area for recently varnished flowers. (If you look carefully, you can see the edge of our Scrabble board. We had to leave a game in the middle when we were both feeling sleepy one Friday night, and it's carefully preserved under a plastic sheet until we get back to it. And, yes, I am aware that we have rock-star lives. I'll try not to rub it in.)

Just when we're all feeling overwhelmed with the enormous numbers of roses, like the walnuts in that one Dick Van Dyke episode, they get arranged and wrapped into this:

I take some pretty pictures, wrap them up as carefully as I can, and send them off with happy thoughts to the bride-to-be.

Not a bad way to spend your working hours.

Bookworm Eats Flower on Indie Quarter

Jenny from Indie Quarter has been kind enough to include one of my papercuts in a post on some lovely papercut art! It's unbelievable that my simple little papercut is in a blog post alongside the likes of Rob Ryan and Helen Musselwhite. Swoon!

Blog features

Two lovely blogs have been kind enough to feature me recently:

Nicole's i love etsy blog features daily picks from etsy in a no-nonsense format.

Marijke blogs about her busy life of crafting in London. I actually know her irl, through an awesome meetup (Make + Do, if you're in the London area check it out!). And be sure to take a look at the amazing dress she created for the Elf Fantasy Fair in the Netherlands.

So be sure to stop by and say hi to Nicole and Marijke! Thanks, ladies!

Recent projects

I've been quite busy over the past week or so, and I thought I should share some of my recent work with you.

I made these bouquets for a bride up in Scotland, and it was a wrench sending them off. While I was putting them together it seemed like the whole flat was filled with lovely pink roses.

Another bride wanted to put together her own pinwheel and rose bouquet. Here are most of her roses, in the midst of being packed up.

And the rest of her flowers, just about ready to go in the box.

I got a last-minute request from a bride in London to put together a red, yellow, and map bouquet for her wedding in just over a week! If I hadn't been telling M. that I really wanted to do a map bouquet, I might not have taken it on. But I'm so glad I did, despite the hectic week, because I love the way it turned out.

I Spy Friday

This Friday, the only thing I spied was my work table and the post office. I had three deadlines in one day, an ungood state of affairs. I made them all, but email and the blog suffered in consequence. (Sorry to anyone who emailed me last week!)

But, in a way, I'm glad I delayed a day, because today I read a post on Betty Joy about the beautiful papercut art over at Roadside, a website and etsy shop. I loved everything on the site, and started perusing her favorite sellers as well (a great way to discover new shops). I kind of fell down a rabbit hole, and emerged with all of my I Spy choices for this week. Which means that there's no etsy pick of the week, because all of the following are from etsy.

Starting, of course, with a charming selection from the Roadside store:

Ring of Fire print

Curly-Haired Lovers, hand-cut kirigami from EmerlyeArtsKirigami.

Kirigami is one of many words for the traditional art of papercutting. I love this gorgeous, intricate design, which is apparently created as it's cut. Amazing.

Round juniper trivet, from NatureDesign

This trivet, made from juniper wood, is gorgeous enough to display on the wall. And yet so practical. Love it.

Nature Walk by Tim Biskup, from Wilkintie

Wilkintie is a letterpress printer in Australia, specializing in gorgeous prints for children. But why should children have all the fun?

Button Sackcloth Handbag from CrazyBoy

I like big bags (I cannot lie). Lots of space for my various notebooks, novels, ipod, phone, recent purchases, bottle of water, and random junk that I can't be bothered to get rid of. Lots of pockets to keep it all semi-organized. This bag delivers.

Tiny Tiny Air Plant Terraria from TortoiseLovesDonkey

If there's one kind of etsy shop I love more than another, it's a shop with a sense of humor. So, even without the adorable, hard-to-kill products, TortoiseLovesDonkey would be a cute little shop. As it is, well. Fabulous.