Bon Voyage (to us!)...

Image by Texu_be via flickr

Well, we're off, so I'm signing off for a week.
Have a fabulous week, whatever you're up to and I'll be sure to catch up with you all when I get back!

Jojo x

Holiday...Celebrate!

image via Lovely Lovely.


Madonna once said...

"If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice"

How wise she was...well, ok, I AM being hugely sarcastic here, but...
WE ARE GOING ON HOLIDAY! Our honeymoon was only four days long due to my silly work so we are having honeymoon, part 2! We're off to Menorca - the least touristy Spanish island,so it promises to be a lovely romantic getaway. I CANNOT WAIT!
I'll be taking my camera so hope I can report back with some half decent photos. I thought I had some spare polaroid film too, but can't find it anywhere...oops. Oh well.

We have hired a private villa over looking the beautiful Mediterranean... it's going to be a blast! Everyone should have a two part honeymoon!!

And as if that wasn't exciting enough I will turn 28 on Monday while we are away so it's bound to be the best birthday ever...hopefully the husband will spoil me (hint hint, Billy!).

We leave on Saturday so I hope you all have a fabulous week and will catch up with you when I get back (unless I do a really bad thing and take my laptop with me... I am addicted to my laptop and the internet so this could prove to be a problem if I do take it as it's meant to be a break. Maybe I should just leave it behind...hmmm... anyway, I'm totally rambling about nonsense!).

Take care and have a great, creative, fun, darling, splendid first week of June! (aka the best week!)... xxx

Photo love...

So I've been dreaming of being an amazing photographer and one day having my own business in all things photographic... But alas, I have no training and no idea where to start! My dad was a photographer and I always love his photos which inspire me constantly to do the same but I am struggling to know how to begin.

I have great ideas in my head and think I have an o.k eye for photos (I often stare at random things and think - that would make an amazing photo!) and often imagine how I'd like it to turn out... but then I realise I have no idea how to make it happen!

My lovely lovely husband recently bought me my first ever proper camera for my birthday (although it's not my birthday til Monday 1st June!) and I have played around with it a bit, but need to be shown by someone I think. I'm considering taking a course, but my job is so stupidly demanding I find it hard to squeeze in the time...

Anyway, above is my new camera... if any of you lovely people out there have used this camera or similar and have any tips, advice or ideas I'd be so grateful! You can see more about it by clicking here.

Also, my favourite photographer blogger at the moment is without a doubt the lovely Maddie e... her photos are BEAUTIFUL and so varied in style, texture, subject and colour; I love them. Maddie, you're awesome!

Thank you!

Everyone was so generous to us for our wedding... so many beautiful gifts and words... So many fabulous moments and smiles... so a massive thank you to everyone who made it such an amazingly special day for the husband and I... Here is the design we used for our thank you cards... seriously, THANK YOU! x

Blonde Vs Brown...

So this is a selfish post, devoted to my hair. Weird, I know. But I've been a blonde for many years now and suddenly decided I wanted to find out what my natural colour was... turns out, I like it! I've gone back to my roots in the hope it will give my hair a much needed rest! Just trying to get used to the change... but hey, there's bigger things to worry about in the world than my hair colour, but I am just a girl, trying to like the way it looks! ( I did tell you this was a selfish post)...
The photos above are obviously not the best - (brown photos taken at my friend's birthday party last week, and blonde ones at my wedding) - but they're the only ones I have of my new colour to compare to my old colour.
The husband seems to like it, as do I, so hoping it looks ok... Jojo xxx

Work work work...

Photo via Theme Park Photo's on Flickr...

Working in the TV industry has it's good and bad points. Sometimes it's exciting and I love it; but when people get so stressed about the tiniest little thing and shout and scream and act like spoilt brats it makes me so angry... It's not like we're saving lives, curing cancer or changing the world for goodness sake! Which leads me to the career crisis I've been having, but that could be down to the ridiculous hours I've been working recently - at least 16 hrs per day every day without breaks.

We've just filmed a whole new series for the BBC in a week, which would normally take us at least 12 weeks!!! It was crazy! I felt like I was living in the studio. But it all went very well and I'm nearly done and then onto the next venture; such is the life of a freelancer! It was stressful, manic, crazy, funny, hard work and let's just say it was an experience... but at the end of the day it's only TV so I refuse to get too worn down by it all!
The new show is prime time, BBC1 Friday nights so it should be a good show when all edited together, tweaked and polished!

How has work been for you all lately? Anything new to report? What do you all do? I love hearing about people's work lives...fill me in! And, as always, any advice gratefully received.

Jojo x

Hello stranger...

Hi everyone,
thanks so much for your patience with my lack of blogging... And a special thanks to Maddie for making me realise I need to get back into it!
Getting married, followed by honeymoon, followed by starting a new job, followed by my new nephew being born, followed by my very difficult decision to change my hair colour, followed by my new camera, followed by my general slackness have all contributed to my lack of blogging recently...but I have so much to tell you!! I hope you are all well and enjoying the new season.
More to come!
Jojo x

Spring Back...

Happy official Spring everybody and...I'm back! Firstly thank you all so so much for your gorgeous comments and wise words of encouragement just before my wedding, you guys are grrrrrreeeeaaaat! And secondly, I'm finally back to reality, wedding over, honeymoon finished, Easter complete and now back to work. Not so fun, but hey nevermind. So expect a lot more from me in the land of blogging now that I'm officially back on the radar!

Our wedding was FABULOUS, I loved every minute of it. I'll be posting more pics soon, but for now, the one above is of me and Billy just as we were arriving at our reception venue in Soho. To the left you can just see our wedding car which was a cream 1960 Jaguar...such a great car!
The weather was glorious, everyone looked beautiful and I couldn't stop smiling the whole day. I highly recommend marriage - it's great!

Hoping you are all well and happy,
Jo x

Image via Xeebug on Flickr

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had great, relaxing, fun and wonderful weekends... What did you all get up to?

Today was such a gorgeous day here in London - sunny, warm and so so spring like. I'm just hoping it will stay that way, just at least until Sunday!

As you know I had a bit of trouble with my dress last week but I picked it up today and am so relieved as now it fits perfectly! I am SO thankful. I'm just finishing off the last few details and now cannot wait for Saturday.

I'm going to be off the radar a bit over the next 2 weeks as I won't be able to post (probably...!) due to obvious reasons! So I hope you all have a great couple of weeks, and looking forward to catching up with you soon...

Wish me luck for Saturday and any last minute advice you might have, please let me know!

Thanks and love, Jo x

happy weekend

Image via Marais USA

Hello lovely ladies,

Thanks for all your kind comments yesterday & today, they really helped and I genuinely really appreciate your advice...I have decided to relax and not be so stressed and just enjoy the coming week, so THANK YOU!

Last night my best friend took me out to a great little noodle bar in town called Cha Cha Moon... I have no pics to share but the food was delicious. If you're ever in London and fancy an inexpensive but tasty bite to eat, go there!

We chatted for ages and had so much fun... She's so good at talking me down from panic mode. And then we went next door for a huge cup cake from Candy Cakes...mmmmmmmmm!

This weekend I am going to try to relax with Billy - our last weekend as single people!

I hope you all have fabulous weekends, whatever you are up to.... any exciting/relaxing/low-key/party/staying in/going out plans to share? x

this is one worried bride...

'Captured' image via Lapinfille on Flickr

So, to cut a long story short I have 9 days until I am married. And my dress doesn't fit. I've just had to run it down to a local dress maker (my dress maker is away in Australia... couldn't really get much further away from London!) and beg them to fix it for me... They were great about it and said it's 2 inches too big for me!

Thank goodness I tried it on just in case. It fit me perfectly when I picked it up a few weeks ago...
Here's hoping that when I pick it up on Monday it will be ok, or I am completely stuck! yikes...

Love from a very nervous bride. x

creating favours

As it's now less than 2 weeks away until the big day (WHAT?!) I thought I'd just share a few details, as I feel like I've spent the past few months of my life making stuff... I LOVE IT!

Sorry for the awful pictures - my polaroid was not playing ball and I am without any kind of digital camera until my birthday... but here are my wedding favours in the making.

To start off with we decided we wanted something pretty and a bit 'Londony' as Billy's family are all coming over from Canada.

So, we chose to give everyone a mini bee bar from Rococo Chocolates, a London based chocolatier whose packaging is just lovely and they come in all kinds of delicious flavours, such as Rose, Lavendar, Chilli pepper etc... but don't let that put you off, they are divine, and organic!

We also wanted to give our guests something they could take away and keep to remember the day by. My love for flowers meant that these little packs of seed sticks were the perfect idea! People can plant them and every time they grow it will remind them of our wedding day! Oh and the colour of the packaging just happened to match the chocolates perfectly.

I then bunched them together with this cute 'to have and to hold' ribbon, and used white luggage tags to make the name tags, which will be instead of name place cards.

To finish them off, I had some button badges made, all saying 'i love you more than.....' and then personalised them for each individual guest with something they love, inspired by the 'i love you more than blank' website. I tried to imagine each person and what I most associate with them as being their favourite thing... the one above is for my best friend, Eleanor, who loves tulips and cheese! It's true, they really are her favourite things!

To see the wording on the badges, click on the photo and that should give you a zoomed in image. (Sigh, wish I had a proper camera to take detailed pictures with!)

I hope you like them! x

mean people suck.

mean people suck photo via supercapacity on flickr
daffodils photo via jessiecutts on flickr


Dear Daffodil thief,

I hope you are happy with yourself. Every morning I wake up and check on my daffodils in the front garden. This might sound silly to you, but in my own, simple little way they cheer me up and make me feel happy that Spring is on her way. I wait patiently through winter and then when they finally appear through the grass I watch them each day as they grow.

It makes me smile.

When I woke up on what was a lovely, sunny Sunday morning, I went to the window to see how my daffodils had grown. They had gone. You came into my garden, right outside my window in the dead of night and cut away my flowers. I hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for everything,
Love,
The rightful owner of the daffodils.

P.s. you can't always get what you want... You might like to remember that next time you go to steal something which doesn't belong to you.

happy weekend

I'm loving the new Spring/Summer collection at Jigsaw, first brought to my attention by Amy Joy at her Playing House blog. I've put together these few key pieces as I love their use of blues, reds, greys and mustard yellows... so simple and so gorgeous together.
Block colours married with cute stripes and embroidered birds is what I will be seeking out this weekend.

So on that note, have a great weekend one and all and happy shopping!

sparkly day, sparkly shoes...

So, I am over my migraine, thank goodness, and as today is such a lovely day here in London I thought I'd put on my sparkly shoes and go out and enjoy the sunshine. It's still a bit cold, so the opaques will be out in force (aaahhh, a pale English girl's best friend are the opaque tights...in all colours, naturally) and finally a chance to put some sunnies on and go out there and enjoy feeling great! I hope you are all having lovely days too, sunshine or not.

killer headache...

Today I have the headache from hell. In fact I can barely see straight. Migraine paaaaain. Ouch. Therefore I cannot bring myself to trawl the wonderful world of the web to bring you any visual delights from the big bad world, but instead from my little life, here at home. With any luck I'll be with you tomorrow, back in the pain free swing of it, but for now, I bring you what I can see from my sofa...my favourite window seat, my wedding shoes (not so) randomly posing on my favourite birdy cushion (made by me!), wedding favours waiting patiently for the next 2 weeks to zoom by, Darth Vader guarding my sewing and memory boxes and my Beatles records on the mantle piece above the fire. I bring you my world today. I hope you like it.

Love, a very sore Jo.

P.s. Any advice with how to deal with head pains gratefully received... To be honest I think it's down to my lack of sleep and increasingly large wisdom tooth peeking through at the back of my mouth. Grrrr. But still, I seriously need your help!

Love xx

daily coveting

Today I want to be wearing these shoes, in this room, eating this greek honey, and then I want to go dancing on the beach in this red dress... Anyone want to join me?

London, fashion and you...

all photo's by the brilliant Style Sightings

Well, one of the many reasons I love London is the sense of irreverent style - there's always an element of tongue in cheek, quirky coolness with the style of my city and I love it. People are not afraid to put together a style and really own it; make it theirs. I love walking around town and seeing how people have picked up odd bits and pieces from the abundance of vintage and high street stores we are so lucky to have, and put them together in a 'oh I was up all night with the band so I just grabbed this and threw it on ' kind of fashion... So, to London, my city, I salute you!

What's your city's fashion like? Is it uniquely yours? Or do you think it's influenced by other places/people in any way? I find it so interesting how from city to city there will always be those who stand out - whatever their style - but they are always different in some way to someone across the river/ocean/highway etc...

Fill me in, I'd love to hear what influences you, your style and your city!

why i love stockholm street style

Need I say more? (i'll take winter for a few more weeks, just so I can wear these clothes).

tidy

I really want to sit here and do some really detailed art work... I don't know why, I just think this desk inspires me to be neat and precise (which I never am in my every day life). I love everything about the muted tones and fine lines. I wonder if it's because I'm stressed at the moment and it makes me feel a bit more together and organised, as I sit here surrounded by paper cuttings, ribbons, old polaroids, scissors, rulers, pencils...? you get the idea.

Why, THANKS!

'Thank you' illustration by elli moody illustrations

This is a huge thank you to the lovely Kubby Bear who has given me this cute lemonade award for attitude and gratitude... Thank you again, it's so kind of you and I love it. I'm sending it right back at you as I think you need it too! As we're in the spirit of giving, I'm passing the karma on to everyone out there...spread the joy and consider yourself all awarded for being lovely! x