Knitted birds and birdhouse

Woop woop! I finally finished knitting these lovely little birds and birdhouse, courtesy of Amy Gaines.

All Amy's patterns are absolutey gorgeous, and the best thing about them is that they are so simple to do. I really recommend you take a look at Amy's patterns. She has tons of cute and quirky creatures that you can knit and crochet. I have plans for the octopus next (of course once my owl is done), I'm just going to need to find somewhere to put them where the cat can't find them!

My Mum did her own spin on the birds and birdhouses. And even though it's only January, she's got her first new homemade decoration for Christmas. It's so festive with the cute robins and snowy roof.

Plus her knitting is so much neater. I think it's because she's right handed. They're at an advantage! ;)

A day of vintage finds

I love a good bargain. And even though sometimes I have been accused of *shock* being called a snob, I do like to have a rummage around and find myself some second hand goodies. Especially when they are as pretty as my finds.
I went to the Bette Noir vintage fair today, and as per usual it was absolutely packed. And also as per usual, there were tons of fabulous finds. But I was there, raring to go bang on 11am. Unfortunately so was everyone else...
My friend, with her luckily size smaller than me feet, nabbed some gorgeous grey heels, and I found a couple of lovely dresses.

This is a really pretty, just very sheer, boob tube dress, with tons of dainty flowers all over it. Just need to find something to wear underneath.

And this bargain navy dress for just £3. Though I have set a little bit of challenge with this. It's a couple of sizes too big. But I am willing to give dress alterations a go. Who knows, I may even find a hidden talent!

So after kitting out my wardrobe in the morning, I popped into a charity shop where my fiancé found a gorgeous kitchen table. It's really warmed up an otherwise very white kitchen. Just need to sell our breakfast bar now.

And leaving my absolute favourite to last. My new china teacup set. Just so pretty. Only £7 for 4 cups and saucers, and 6 side plates. Plus wrapped in loads of newspaper so I have a whole stack to line the cat's litter tray now :)

But now the dilemma, do I use the teacups for drinking tea. Or put them to a decorative use and make candles out of them. Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions...

Knit one, purl one, drop one... scream!

Barney Owl by Fluff and Fuzz

My friend has shared an absolutely gorgeous knitting pattern of a Barney Owl by the very talented Amanda Berry. It's incredibly cute, and very simple knit - Bonus! Now I admit that I'm not the fastest knitter in the world, but I shared this pattern, and several others, with my Mum, and she's already knitted about half of them. In 2 days! Well, I thought to myself, this is a challenge, I must start knitting my Owl. Three days on, only done 40 rows. But it's a start.
However, my knitting speed isn't really the main problem. My fiancé has announced to me that his least favourite of my hobbies is to knit, and here's his reasons why:
1. I ignore him
2. I drop stitches and sigh alot
3. Eventually I get so mad at my knitting I throw it away in discuss
4. That leaves me grumpy, and I then take my grumpiness out on him
Of course I feel this is all highly unfair. He should support me in my knitting, and my occassional frustrations with said knitting.
So now, I'm going to finish my rant and get back to knitting my Barney Owl. Don't forget to check out Fluff and Fuzz for some of the most adorable knitted animals I've come across.

Written, sent and now waiting

Yesterday I sent out most of my wedding invitations. These invitations are beautifully quirky. Designed by the very talented Zoe Sadler. Zoe is an illustrator who has recently branched out into wedding stationery.
My wedding has a vintage glam feel, and I wanted my invitations to reflect this, but I also wanted to have a Zoe style twist.

Seems to me planning a wedding is one huge learning curve. So for any brides to be out there, here are some tips to make the invitation process a little easier:
1. Don't leave it until 3 months before your wedding to decide what you want your invitations to look like
2. Have a definite number of guests
3. Make sure you know the correct spellings of all your guests' names
4. Don't try to write your invitations when you have to deal with a tipsy fiancé
5. And finally, most importantly don't use ribbons around you're inquisitive 9-month old kitten.


So now the invitations have gone out it's a waiting game for the RSVPs to come back. Woop woop.

Hello!

Welcome to charlie moments. Firstly, let me tell you a little bit about myself...
I work in marketing for a David & Charles, who publish tons of gorgeous craft books, it's a total source of inspiration. Which brings me on to personal me. I love to craft, in my mind there is nothing better than curling up on the sofa with loved ones, and crafting, though my fiancé gets annoyed with me ignoring him as I contemplate my knitting, complaining because I've dropped another stitch, or just making lots of noise with the sewing machine.
I'm also getting married, and I can guarantee that over the next ten weeks I will be blogging (whinging) about the trials and tribulations of final stages of wedding planning, dread to think what I'll be like when I'm actually married.
Anyway, look forward to blogging more to you soon.x