I'm Not Afraid to Say: I'm loving H&M...

I am not a fashion blogger, I ruddy well wish I was as this would suggest I had a more sizeable amount of disposable income to spend on clothes, and a sizebable amount more time to write about the clothes I bought. Unfortunately I live the horrid existence of someone who is forever underwhelmed and disappointed by her own wardrobe, and despite the fact that my brain is very much interested in fashion, my outsides tend to be in skinny jeans (though several pairs of tights in bright block colours have got me through the Winter looking like I know how to put an outfit together).

So... t'is Spring, and in the same way that I freaked out in the Autumn because I had no Wintery clothes to wear, I now appear to have reversed the situation and am severely lacking in the floaty and the floral and also, as is the more considerable issue at hand - funds.

Hear my audible sigh of relief and slight hand clapping of glee when H&M continue to harrass me because I bought a pair of shorts from their website 2 years ago - and I receive the S/S 2012 catalogue through my door. I'm lying already, our letter box is an actual box on our garden wall, nothing comes through my door.

And so, as a one off (ok maybe not ONE off) I turn fashion blogger just to share, with you lovely people, my pick of H&M's cheap and cheerful Spring/Summer offerings which just might get me through my impending honeymoon looking cool and sexy and all those other newlywed adjectives that ought to be applied to me as I swan around in a big old haze of love and more love.

It begins:

Paisley Print:

I don't like to declare myself a trend setter, but I was rocking paisley a long time ago with 2 silk komono style dresses I bought from a little boutique in Canterbury which has since closed down. Unfortunately both dresses have fallen to pieces though over-love so I got a bit excited to see this image on the front of the H&M catalogue. Want. I also intend to start sporting a headscarf, as someone who suffers immeasurably from greasy roots and fringe around 30 minutes after washing my hair, I feel this might be the answer to my bad hair day prayers! That and a big floppy hat for variation!
To address the orange issue, as some may know, some may not, my hair is a very similar colour to the main body of the dress above. That is to say, I would class myself as very ginger. I should add that I absolutely love love love my hair, it's probably my 2nd favourite "bit" of myself... maybe even first, it's a tough 'un. I am a very strong believer in the fact that redheads can, and should, infact must, wear orange. You will not look tango'd, you'll look fab. I have a couple of bright tangerine treasures in my wardrobe already. A scoop backed dress with I wore to a friends wedding in February being the perfect example (and yep, I wore orange heels too). Gingers are, really, the only people who can accessorise to match their hair in the Summer!

Grecian Goddess a la Temperley London Bridal:

I'm getting married in June, (have you heard?) as such I can't tell you about my wedding dress(es) but believe you me, I shall unleash them upon you one day this year! However, for fear of the Mr. sneaking a look at my H&M wish list I shall keep shtum, but be assured, if I had room for another dress, it would be from my 2nd or 3rd favourite wedding dress designer (depending on my mood!), Temperley London. In 2011 I was lucky enough to get myself a pair of tickets to The Designer Wedding Show (which I attended with good ol' Mother of the Bride) and The Luxury Wedding Show (which I attended with the ever delightful Maid of Honour), both of which featured Temperley on the catwalk and both of which featured one T of L dress in particular that made me well up a bit. I am alllll about a bit of Goddess and this Grecian dress couldn't be more honeymoon perfect. I intend to accessorise with  some sort of "bangle" and bare feet. This is one for the days that we decide not to hire bicycles and explore the island!

Snakeskin Shorts:

I love snakeskin, there is not enough snakeskin going on in my wardrobe that's for sure, though I used to have a lovely pair of Kurt Geiger shoes in a similar print to these cute shorts, but alas, they went to shoe heaven at the hands (or should I saw jaws) of my labrador retriever, Ruby (she's got an eye for a good stilleto too!) They do a great chunky handbag to match which I might be tempted by, crisp white shirt and I'm done here!

Going for Gold:

What's not to love about this dress, the texture the colour, the length, it's £12.99 well spent when it's beach-worthy, romantic-dinner worthy, hitting-the-shops worthy, mooching around galleries worthy... in my suitcase worthy. And there just so happen to be a pair of gold Biba sky scrapers in my local "high end department store" which I 100% can not afford and that would 110% look amazing with this dress. *Sigh*



N.B. Gold Biba shoes are not available from H&M, funnily enough.

And Finally:

I'm not about to start posting my wedding night lingerie to the blog, there is only one person that needs to be seeing that. Ever. But at £12.99 this set is very much on my wish list for lazy mornings on the terrace with a giant mug of tea, dreaming about how lovely married life will be when I get home. Accessorise with a decent mani-pedi. Done.



Pancake Day vs. Shrove Tuesday

My blogging intentions for today were to write a mammoth post about my half term experiences, but I have decided to save this (possibly for this evening) following a point raised by my fellow blogging friend, The Sock Lady, this morning on Twitter, which I felt somewhat compelled to explore.
Today, the 21st February 2012 happens to be the day before Lent, not that I shall be giving anything up for Lent, not being of the monotheistic persuasion, however today therefore is, what I affectionately (and excitedly) refer to as Pankcake Day.

The Sock Lady raised a valid point this morning though, with "Happy Pancake Day" trending on Twitter, and other social networks being jammed full of pancake recipes, ideas, and surveys - has Shrove Tuesday all but disappeared from our collective conscience? How many people even know the meaning of Shrove Tuesday or why indeed it's less-significant sibling, Pancake Day, exists in the first place?

I don't want to insult the intelligence of anyone reading this, even in an atheistic household most people are probably familiarised with Christian celebrations in school, but as a brief history lesson which will act as a recap for a lot of people;

Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day for many of us) is always the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The Christian festival of Lent runs for 40 days in the lead up to Easter, and as such the date varies from one year to the next. During Lent Christians are expected to forego indulgence and luxury in recognition of Jesus' 40 days spent fasting in the desert. It is often the case that those practicing Christians observing the Lent festivities will choose a particular indulgence to give-up for the 40 day period, such as chocolate perhaps, or - as I heard from one person today - Facebook. So, on Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the fasting commences, pancakes would traditionally be consumed as they contain a lot of the foods that would be banned for the Lent festival, namely, sugar, flour, eggs and fat. We often top pancakes with further indulgent items, such as treacle, chocolate, more sugar, cream etc. In many ways it's a way of emptying the cupboards of temptation before Lent begins.

Some non-Christian families and individuals may observe the giving-something-up-for-Lent traditions for fun, or as an incentive to club together with a common goal, to lose weight by giving up fatty foods for example, but there are a significant number of people with no interest in the practices surrounding Lent as a whole, who still rush out to buy pancake ingredients on Shrove Tuesday. Many people don't even recognise the occasion by its religious name, referring to it only as "Pancake Day" (myself included), and they're in good company, as this is an approach shared by a majority of retailers too. I even received an invitation to a "Pancake Party" from our local Baptist Church this morning whilst there for their Tuesday morning Mothers & Toddlers group - with no mention of Shrove Tuesday at all.

So - as Sock Lady asks; have we all forgotten the "true meaning" of Shrove Tuesday? Did we even register it in the first place? She mentions Christmas and Easter as further religious festivals that seem to have lost their roots.

And here must disagree and get all positive about change. Sock Lady won't mind me spinning her thoughts on their head; this isn't a disagreement so much as her providing a fantastic source of inspiration that got me thinking on the walk to playgroup!

I recognise the change in our attitudes towards religious festivals, but what those people who frown upon such adaptions must remember is that we live in an ever changing society. Whilst still a predominantly Christian country (hence why Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday, Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine’s Day, Advent, Lent and so on and so forth are recognised at all) we are not the church-going God-fearing folk that we used to be, certainly when you consider the percentage of people who attend a church service every Sunday compared to that of 30, 40 and 50 years ago.

Many of our Great Grandparents would have practiced Lent traditions, and our Grandparents after them, who'd have brought our parents up to observe the same ritual eating and possibly fasting, which we ourselves were aware of as children. The fact that each generation may, in many cases, have lost its enthusiasm for religion (and I would never go so far as to say that religion is dead, or even dying, just that fewer off us today are practicing Christians) so the religious aspects of our cultural traditions may have fallen by the wayside.

The only way that one can assert that this is a negative thing, and that we shouldn't forget the true meaning of such festivals, is to say that we should all believe firmly in one God, or at least practice the religious rites and rituals of those organised religions whose festivals inspired our family traditions. This, in its nature, is an unfair assertion to make.

As a child my Mother made a half-hearted attempt to bring me up in a Christian household and I attended church and Sunday school for several years as well as an Inter-Church primary school (where Lent was very much observed in its "proper" form) but this had been abandoned by the time I turned 10, my Father having never attended church other than when required to do so by occasion, namely baptisms, weddings and funerals. I fully expect that my parents will be enjoying pancakes this evening after dinner though, as shall we. My Mum grew up in a house that would certainly have had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, as would my Grandparents have done as children. Should we really stop what has become a family tradition as a result of a religious festival because it has become just that, a cultural tradition and not a religious one? Personally, I think not.

What is so wrong with us giving chocolate eggs at Easter because we have fond memories of doing so as children and want our own kids to have that excitement, expectation and tummy ache? Easter not about chocolate to you? That's fine, it is for us.

We give presents at Christmas, we decorate a tree, and we listen to Wham! - And what? Christmas is a fantastically magical time, the modern interpretation of which takes inspiration from celebrations all over the world, and shall continue to evolve as our society becomes more diverse.

St. Valentines Day - yes it's become commercial, yes I love it.

Advent calendars - we don't have a religious advent calendar and do not practice Christian advent ritual, because we are not a religious family, we do have chocolate ones (Thomas the Tank for Seb in 2011, Hotel Chocolat couple's version for John and I) because that is part of the magic of our Christmas.

And we have Pancakes on Pancake Day because that is what my family do, not because we are observing the religious festival of Lent, but because we celebrate family and good memories, associated with this age-old religious tradition.

So today I should like to celebrate Pancake Day, and wish those of you preparing for Lent a very happy Shrove Tuesday, and hope that the two can co-exist quite merrily as they always have in my kitchen. Please don't feel guilty tonight if you're eating pancakes but don't believe in one God!

My Fiance John last year on Pancake Day!

Sebby Elliot

There is a certain stigma surrounding boys and dance classes, even more so little boys attending ballet classes, luckily for my son Sebastian, who at time of writing is 21 months old, I have no qualms about him attending, and very very very much enjoying a toddler ballet class! If it was called a "Music Group" I'm sure it would not worry quite so many Dads, and a few Mums too, that it would be inappropriate for a boy to attend.

 I did say when I first started writing this blog last week, that there would be occasions on which the topics I would write about would be somewhat irrelevant to a lot of people, and this is one such post as it's only really of great significance to those with pre-school children in East Kent, however, for those particular people I hope this proves to be a valuable pile of words!

Sophie Court is a fully qualified dance teacher, and Mum to a son and daughter, and has been teaching various forms of dance to children and adults for over a decade. Her pre-school ballet classes, "Tiny Toes" for 18months to 3 years, and "Mini Movers" for 3-4 year olds, are held in Canterbury, Ashford, Faversham and Whitstable, and prove incredibly popular. I shall include a time table of current classes at the end of this post along with contact details for Sophie for those who'd be interested in letting their children have a go.

Lasting around 45 minutes, a class includes singing and participation in nursery rhymes and children’s songs, from The Grand Old Duke of York and Heads, Shoulders Knees and Toes, to new and exciting rhymes that incorporate flags, ribbons and even superheroes made form stripy socks! The classes encourage parent participation and this isn't a "drop and run" group, but for parents it's a great way to not only have fun with your child/ren but to meet other parents with children of a similar age. Children are taught basic ballet principles too (which differ slightly for boys and girls) and whilst children can wear as much ballet-specific clothing as they want (ballet shoes, ballet skirts etc.) Sebastian wears a pair of cotton trousers, T shirt and socks - and doesn't look out of place, although in his particular class he is the only little boy!

As well as being fun, ballet, dance and movement are great ways to not only encourage a healthier lifestyle for your preschool children, but to develop their coordination, rhythm, musicality and strength as well. I can certainly say that Seb and I look forward to our Thursday morning class so much all week, and miss it during the school holidays!

Sophie offers a 3-week no obligation trial so that parents and children can see what goes on in a class and to gage whether or not it's something they'd like to do regularly. A three week trial is just £10 - we did this and after our first lesson there was no doubt that we'd be staying on after the trial finished!

Usually classes are £4.50 and payable in advance each half term (so it works out at about £25.00 per half term depending on where the holidays fall).

Tiny Toes and Mini Movers are term time only classes.

To book a three week trial with Sophie, either for Tiny Toes (18m - 3y) or Mini Movers (3-4y) please email

justdance-sophie@hotmail.co.uk

You are welcome to let her know that you found out about the classes from Ashleigh & Sebastian!

Classes are at the following times and locations, however Sophie will be able to advise you on which classes have spaces at present:

Monday
Kennington Tiny Toes 10am
Mini Movers 10.45am
...
Tuesday
Faversham Tiny Toes 10am
Mini Movers 10.45am

Thanington Tiny Toes 1.15pm
Mini Movers 2pm

...

Thursday
Tyler Hill Tiny Toes 10am
Mini Movers 10.45am

Friday

Whitstable Tiny Toes 10.15am
Mini Movers 11am

Park Farm Tiny Toes 1pm
Mini Movers 1.45pm

The Wedding Files #1 - Stationery

On 3rd March 2011 my then-boyfriend John proposed half way through dinner at the beautiful Michael Caines restaurant in Canterbury, that's almost a year ago and I'm not going to do a proposal-based post to "debut" on my personal blog, but I can apologise in advance for what shall here on in be referred to as "The Wedding Files", a collection of blog posts between now and June 23rd (the day I become Mrs. John Millward) about my wedding planning experiences.

Fear not - I shall blog about alternative topics, as hinted in yesterdays opening post!

Stationery is big news if you're... me. I wonder how many things in the world excite me quite as much as a new notebook? Not many. A few. But wedding stationery? It's a big deal. Funnily enough, John doesn't share my enthusiasm, despite loving the finished products. Our accurate spend on stationery has already exceeded what we initially planned to spend but it's been worth every single penny for the response that we've had from our potential guests. There were a few areas in which John and I wanted to do something different, not necessarily "never seen before" (that would take serious brain power!) but something that wasn't "typical", and stationery was an area that I wanted to put this philosophy into action. We didn't want to send out "a wedding invitation like every other wedding invitation - with a different coloured ribbon", I wanted to try to think of something that a majority of my guests weren't waiting for.

I limited the D.I.Y element of our stationery to the Save The Date cards, and I've decided to leave my adventures into the world of the home made wedding right there, however, over the past year I have met some incredibly artistic people who've bought my ideas to life and I'd like to share them with you, spread the knowledge, steal their ideas, or just marvel at how utterly pretty it all is, I'm not a wedding expert and some people will find these ideas unappealing, and some will love them. If you're planning a wedding or another large event and you love any of the designs below, please please - contact the people involved in producing them, because you'll be just as chuffed with the results as I am!


Pencil Us In...

When brainstorming ideas I was convinced that stationery really ought to be presented in a different, more functional fashion. A piece of card or paper is all very well, but however beautifully folded or studded with gem stones it may be, it does not serve a purpose and is likely to be tucked away somewhere, and its location potentially forgotten by it's owner when it's required for reference. I am forever rummaging on my desk for party invitations because I can't remember what time a do starts or need the postcode for my SatNav. So I laid awake for all of about one and a half nights, thinking of different every day, useful objects, that you could print a wedding date on to, thus advising people to pop it in their diaries.

At this point (no pun intended) I had an idea.

If it is unclear in the photograph, I had pencils printed with gold foil to read "John and Ashleigh's Wedding", and on the row below, with our wedding date.

This is predominantly a cut and stick project which anybody could manage. I wrote the poem to explain the relevance of the pencil, it may be unclear in the photograph so for an easy on the eye option it reads:

Welcome to the start of our Canterbury Tale,

Which begins for you right now, with this pencil in the mail,

If you didn't know, we're getting married in a year,

And as a chosen guest you need to keep our big day clear.

We've booked a pretty barn for the 23rd of June,

For vows and food and merriment, taking place all afternoon.

We'd love for you to stay at the barn all evening too,

For dancing and a hog roast and a cheeky drink or two.

So 'pencil us in', because we really want you there,

A formal invite follows, so please keep that one day spare!

To make these Save the Date Pencil Cards I needed:

• personalised pencils (you need to order these really as I don't think there's a very easy way of producing something of any quality at home.) The company that I used were very reasonably priced and could provide almost any colour of pencil, so for brides with a particular colour scheme in mind you could pick a pencil shade to match! For details of suppliers please see the end of this post.
• Green card (available in all craft and stationery shops in all sorts of colours and textures - patterned card would work well too)
• Pearlised paper (looks a little bit more special than white or ivory matt, and is available at most craft and stationery shops, also check Ebay for good deals on a pack)
• A printer
• Ribbon (you can buy ribbon in just about any colour and/or pattern that you're after, have a look on Ebay and crafty websites for a wider selection, or visit your local haberdashery - I love that word!)
• A friend with a circuit expression machine. I was very lucky to have one of these! My wonderfully arty friend Emma managed to get her hands on an apple shaped punch for her machine, and sourced some card for me that matched the ribbon I'd already chosen. Before I knew it she'd produced a pile of lovely polka dot apples to add the something that was missing. Not many people would want apples on their stationary so it would be worth shopping around for different shaped hole punches (there are a lot of love-heart hole punches out there) or stencils, to produce something similar without the need for a machine that most people don't own! However, you can always get in touch with Emma and have her design and produce your entire stationery range to avoid sticking your fingers together with Prit Stick Xtreme.

The Save The Date pencils` were very well receieved. I know some of our wedding guests are still happily using them now! Although apparently the gold foil writing does start to rub off after a while if you use them lots! The fact that people have used their pencil enough to discover this makes me quite happy though!

Following the sending of the Save The Dates I turned attention to something altogether more essential.

Tea for Two (and 70 of our friends and family)

If you're planning a wedding and you are not familiar with the polka dot pages of Rock My Wedding then please, head over there very soon. RMW was the first blog that I ever started reading regularly, and I have to admit I'm ever so slightly hooked, but it is literally bursting at the seams with ideas and inspiration for every type of wedding your mind could come up with.

I have taken tonnes of wedding ideas from RMW, including our florist Bloomin'Gayles who I shall no doubt blog about in a later Wedding Files post, but way back in the day I saw an idea that I had to steal and keep as my own.

The Wedding Tea Towel.

The Original Wedding Tea Towel are only a little company, headed up by husband and wife team Karen & Ben. With a background in design they're not only able to offer a range of their own designs which you can customise with your names, wedding date and details, but they also offer a bespoke service whereby they'll design the art work for your tea towels to fit in with your theme or ideas.

This is what we went for and I must admit, at first I was a little concerned at how someone else would interpret our theme. With inspiration taken from Geoffrey Chaucers "The Canterbury Tales" - without turning the day into a Medievil themed wedding, and a touch of agricultural/rural styling to compliment the fact that we wanted every aspect of our day to represent Kentish tradition and heritage. Oh dear.

We had to make a couple of changes to the first design to adapt it to my vision of how the tea towel should look, but Karen was so accomodating and helpful throughout the whole process, and from Day 1 I knew that she had a pretty good grasp of what I had in mind.  I could NOT have been happier with the finished result. Our tea towel invitations have gone down a storm with our guests and I have encouraged everyone to use them rather than hide them away! I'm so chuffed that we've not only started as we mean to go on (by doing something our guests will actually remember) but also that they already have a memento of our wedding before they've even turned up, because lets be honest - half of them will leave their favours behind!

If you're not making your own invitations, and you don't want to order more paper, I strongly urge you to consider The Original Wedding Tea Towel... I can't really think of anything bad to say about this idea! I am slightly annoyed that I didn't come up with it in the first place!

Follow The Yellow Brick Road (or the A2)

OK I've thought of *one* downside to the tea towel invites, you can't cram them full of an awful lot of information. I must admit I do rather admire invitations with paper inserts that tell you all about gift lists and menu options.

This gave my I.T consultant (read "geek") fiance an opportunity to flex his techy muscles and create our wedding website, which kind of took "informative" to the next level, but hey ho! However, when flicking through one of the million wedding magazines that I possess (slight exaggeration maybe but John estimates my collection to have cost hundreds of pounds!) I spotted an advert for a company who drew personalised maps for guests to find your venue. I loved the idea and googled "hand drawn wedding maps".

The website I found first wasn't the one I'd seen in the magazine but I fell in love with the examples on the gallery and instantly sent an enquiry for pricing and availability for a Canterbury map to match our towels. Little did I realise at the time that the artist in question, Lydia Bevan, infact lived a short drive down the road from us, in the village of Herne, and had been hankering after an opportunity to design a local map!

We arranged a get together at Lydia's house, a luxury she often doesn't get with her clients as she's drawn maps of a multitude of locations across the country and beyond, and the weddings that she designs for are very rarely on her doorstep.

2 hours later my son Sebastian had had a good go at trashing Lydias beautiful cottage and garden, I'd had a cuddle with her then very small daughter Eliza, we'd got through a couple of cups of tea each in the Summery sunshine and - we'd come up with tonnes of wedding map ideas (and put the world to rights whilst we were at it).

Lydia has since become a good friend (and Eliza is not so small any more!) and I'm delighted that she's agreed to help me to design "Order of the Day" booklets for our wedding guests, (or "programmes" as John calls them!) aswell (will blog about them when they're done!). If you're impressed by Lydias work you need to find an excuse to get these maps in your life. Lydia will do all of the research to ensure that your map is easy to follow, pretty, and full of local landmarks that your guests will recognise. They're not just great for weddings, Lydia has been asked to design maps for Christenings and corporate events plus a host of other get togethers. Personally I think she could make adorable "we've moved" cards, to send out to friends and family with your new address... oooh the ideas!

Lydias new website will be under construction in the early part of 2012, if you can't see images in her "gallery" then please be patient and check back in a little while as the beautiful new site is still a work in progress! In the meantime you can check out the Hand Drawn Maps Facebook Page for lots of pictures.

Phew - well, that's our stationery pursuits as they stand now, and I do hope that our guests love our slightly quirky take on the tradition method of invitation! As promised here's a list of all suppliers incase anyone wants them!

Engraved pencils: SilverKimbo on Ebay

My friend Emma who not only cuts out apple shapes but also designs and produces personalised bespoke stationery for those looking for something more traditional but with their own twist, through her own business, Designs To Treasure

Wedding Tea Towels: The Original Wedding Tea Towel

Hand Drawn Maps: Lydia Bevan at Hand-Drawn Maps

I need somewhere...

Today I started a blog for my business, The Canterbury Toy Shop, and kicked off with a relatively serious piece about Chinese factories, and whilst I was writing I kept thinking.

"I love the toy shop, as businesses go it really does rock my socks, but what about when I want to blog about the new facial that I've just had, or why I'm currently getting through one butternut squash every day. Sometimes I want to write about planning my wedding, my sons first sight of snow, the fact that my favourite wine (in.the.world) costs less than a fiver and has a picture of a cat on the label. My customers do not need to know this. They won't even want to read about me having my teeth whitened."

So, I thought it best to start a seperate blog (because who knew that is was so easy to do?) to use as my dumping ground for thoughts, opinions, and experiences, that are non-toy shop related. This doesn't mean that the two won't cross every once in a while. The Toy Shop has an effect on all sorts of unexpected areas of my life and being a self employed parent has given me various new traits and interests. But I'm not just a business owner, and I'm not just a Mother (hence the rhyming blog name, like it?)

I guess this is a "female interest" blog, though I don't pretend to hope that you'll find every post interesting, in the same way that if you had coffee with me every day for the rest of your life you'd find that I often talk about things that don't interest you, or that you know nothing about, and that I know nothing about some of the things that matter to you - however, I hope that if I take the time to write about what happens, and what I think about it - I might find myself on the same page as someone else now and again!