The Big Prize Draw Winners

I've just drawn three numbers using www.random.org and I've counted down through the comments (all 172 of them!) and I've got Dad to double check and the winners are :

Random Number 104 JC wins Prize One

Zuleykha's four flower beads, my mushroom dangle and one of Lyn's cupcake MiniZs.

Random Number 162 Kelly wins Prize Two
Janine's Alice necklace, one of Lyn's cupcake MiniZs and my scrollwork dangle.

Random Number 31 Jessica wins Prize Three

Joy's pack of Art Clay Silver, my cupcake dangle and Lyn's dotty MiniZ.

Well done to the winners! Your prizes will be on their way to you this week.

Massive thanks to all of The Big Prize Draw sponsors and also to everyone who took part. The next draw will take place at the start of April.

Wedding Dress Success

I didn't expect to find my actual wedding dress yesterday ..... but I did! We were only going for a look-about but now it's hanging in my wardrobe all zipped up in a posh dress bag. I also got Robyn's bridesmaid dress which she looks gorgeous in.

The dress I bought was the second one that I tried on. As soon as I saw myself in the mirror I knew that it was the one for me. We did look in other shops but I kept comparing all the other dresses to the one I'd found and in the end we went back and I got it.

It's not kingfisher blue. In fact, it's not blue at all. I'm going to keep the colour a secret from Chris so that it's a surprise on the day which unfortunately that means I can't tell you what colour it is either as Chris does read my blog. So I'm afraid you'll have to wait until September to find out .....

Wedding Frippery-Faffiness

I made these yesterday.

I made even more of these this morning.

Then I promised myself 'normal' beadmaking time after lunch.

Nothing. Normal beadmaking batteries are flat.

Rubbish.

Now I'm off to look at houses on the interwebs and then I'm going to flick through a wedding magazine to look for dress ideas as Sally, Robyn and I are going for a wedding dress look-about tomorrow. The wedding isn't until September 24th (yep, that's right - the date is set and the register office is booked) but I need to get a dress sorted soon so we can decide what other colours and things we'd like. Emily and Robyn are being bridesmaids. Em gave me no choice in the matter - she just told me she was being one (I'm totally aware that her six-foot-tallness, gorgeous figure and stunning looks will show me up in any wedding photos but she's my little sis!) and how could I not have Robyn as a bridesmaid? When I asked her she said 'Of course I can do that for you, Auntie Laura!' which I thought was so sweet. I told her that one of the reasons I was asking her because no-one has ever asked me to be a bridesmaid. Good job really, I'd have probably kicked up a right stink about having to wear a dress.

Tell you what though, I can't believe the load of unnecessary wedding-related faffery that exists! I used to make wedding cracker favours yonks ago (fairly unnecessary) and we advertised in a couple of bridal magazines which I only ever glanced at but I seriously cannot believe some of the stuff you can buy for weddings. One thing I saw in my magazine was lavender-filled fabric hearts to hang on the back of the guests' chairs at the reception. Is this in case the guests smell? And at eight quid a piece that would work out at a mighty expensive chair-scenting gesture. Oh, and the price of wedding cakes! I saw a picture of one and I thought 'That's pretty!' and it nonchalantly said £630 next to the photo. What? It's a cake! I'm not a tightwad by any means but that's crazy money. And also how much are tiaras? Not that I would contemplate wearing one (I would look foolish and would feel even sillier) but I saw one priced at £200. Two. Hundred. Pounds.

Thank goodness Chris and I are agreed on a small wedding. All this house mortgage stuff is daunting enough on its own without needing to get another mortgage for the flipping wedding! Having looked at the magazine I am fully aware that I'm a bit of an unconventional bride-to-be (or 'b2b' as all the cool kids are saying) as I don't want any of this frippery-faffiness. All I would like is a nice day getting wed to my fella (or 'h2b', apparently), to spend the day with the people that we love, to wear a nice dress and to have some nice food. And pudding. ;o)

Blogroll

I've just added a blogroll to the right hand side of my blog. I read loads of blogs but I've set my blogroll so that it only shows the twenty five most recently updated blogs that I follow or you'd be scrolling down the page forever! I like blogrolls - they're a good way of finding new blogs to read.

(How many times can I write the word 'blog' in one post?!)

Fabulous Fordite

Have you seen or heard of 'Fordite' before?

If not, would you believe that this beautiful stuff is made of paint? It's layer upon layer of car paint. Fordite comes from old automobile factories and it's now in limited supply because it was a by-product of the hand spray-painting process which no longer happens. All cars are painted by machines and high-tech processes these days.

The pieces of Fordite in these photos came from the British Leyland factory in Cowley in the early seventies. How can I be so precise? Because my Dad made these! We have three pieces of Fordite (or 'Leylandite' as Dad likes to call these) but I can only find two of them at the moment. I remember sitting on Mum's bed as a child having a good old sort through her jewellery box and these pretty pieces always fascinated me. Back in the day Mum used to wear the triangular one as a pendant. Groovy!

Dad said that the overspray from the car painting process used to build up on the trolleys that carried the car bodies, colour upon colour, layer upon layer and these pieces of Fordite/Leylandite contain all the British Leyland car paint colours from the early seventies. Dad and his workmates used to chip off chunks of built-up paint with a screwdriver and they would then cut and polish them into all sorts of shapes. Dad said it is very similar to working with acrylic or Perspex.

I think this material is fantastic - it's like funky agate. You can still get hold of it in the form of cabochons and shaped pieces on eBay and suchlike but as I said, it's no longer made so what's out there is all there is. There is a great website dedicated to the wonder of Fordite - www.fordite.com - which has a wealth of information on this wonderful stuff. There is also a whole host of photographs of handmade jewellery featuring Fordite over on Flickr.

Fab stuff!