I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Let it snow... (just a bit though because I'm not that keen...) We woke up to a smattering this morning, but still went out for a play. P loves throwing snow at me for some reason. Can't think why!

The Queen's grandaughter, Zara Phillips attended a wedding this weekend wearing a fabulous fascinator in steel grey which looked amazing. I love it when the royals get dressed up and wear great head wear!

I particularly loved the Duchess of Cornwall's (Prince Charles' wife, Camilla), wedding head piece. An amazing plume of feathers that suited her so well and worked perfectly for her age and for a second wedding. Classy but fabulous showing that fascinators can be worn at any age.

P and I have been on a Christmas baking spree this weekend. We've made vanilla cookies which she had so much fun decorating for everyone, and has made a special one just for Santa for Christmas eve. Bless her!

I've been making presents for my sister and my two friends who I don't see as often as I should. I made Chocolate Brownie Jars! Basically it's the dry ingredients of the recipe layered into the jar, and finished off with Christmas ribbon and instructions on how to bake! I think they look amazing and I'll definitely be doing more of these for other presents throughout the year now. I love home made presents, and you can't beat ones that you can eat!!

I've actually had time to complete all my orders too this week, making a fascinator for Hong Kong, some jewellery and a hair comb for a client in the UK and I forgot to show a fascinator that went over to the States a couple of weeks ago for a repeat client who has lots of children who are all getting married around this time so I'm sure I'll see her again!

For the States. Laura design in English rose with blue and purple feathers:

Jewellery and hair comb for the UK:

Jane design in daffodil yellow with fluffy yellow feathers:

We went to the candlelit carol service in the church tonight which was lovely and walking home in the snow made it feel really Christmassy. Roll on Friday!!

N x

More Pics

John has worked fantastically hard to get me my new product shots within a week! Thanks John! I've finished writing up 95% of the descriptions for the site now, so I'm literally waiting for some artwork to be done for my new look site, then I can put everything together and 'Hey Presto', we're in business for 2010!

Here's the rest of my new shots.

N x

What A Week!

I've had THE best week! Talk about packing it in! It started on Tuesday when I made the 3 1/2 hour drive down to Kent to finally do my photo shoot for my 2010 fascinator range with John at Waterham Studios. After a quick cup of tea when I arrived, we went off to the most gorgeous little seaside town called Whitstable. It genuinely is probably one of my favourite places. Every shop is tiny and a boutique selling flowers, craft stuff, clothing and toys and it was all lit up for Christmas. I LOVED it! John and I went on a hunt for flower props in the fab flower shops, and ended up getting some amazing gerberas and the most beautiful ornamental cabbages! The colours were perfect to compliment my new pieces.

After having a look at the sea and breathing in all that amazing fresh sea air, we went back to John's house to spend the night with his wife and kids who are like my adoptive family when I'm in Kent. They are the most amazing people and I love them to death. I feel very lucky that one of my loveliest friends is also such a wonderful photographer who enables me not only to get some brilliant shots for my products but lets me get totally pampered by a professional make up artist and pose my heart out as my own model! I totally love it! Here's me with my lashes on! These are the second lot, the first lot were so big I could hardly lift my eyes up but they look great on camera!

My make up artist was an amazing young talent called Emily-Rose. She did 2 amazing looks for me which make all the difference to the shots. One 40's style for the big fascinators and a softer look for the wedding pieces. Here's a sneak peak at some of them...

Can't wait to put them all on the site!

Then, as if that wasn't enough excitement, I've just come back from celebrating my friend's 40th birthday at a swanky hotel! We drank champagne, ate gorgeous food and chilled to the max over the weekend... there should be more weeks like this!!

N x

Hip To Be Square

I'm happy with my bridal stuff for my 2010 collection so far, although need to create a couple more to finish off the collection, and I wanted to do something very different to what's available out in the stores and on the net for the Race Day pieces. After trawling through some wedding and fashion pages, I got the idea of doing a square design, and this is sort of it half cooked! I love the colours, and the shape. It needs more tweaking and some more weight at the back to balance it out, but I think it's a great design! Not for the feint hearted, but for someone who wants to be noticed! It's hip to be square, so Huey Lewis and The News told me when I was a kid!

I've used cerise and english rose sinamay with a beautiful false flower and some gorgeous green stripped quills to give dimension and an extra wow factor. What do you think?

I was also asked to make a piece for a client who's purchased from me in the past. The brief was that she had a champagne coloured dress, with black accessories, and wanted something light, not too bold, and delicate. This is what I came up with, and she loved it! (I loved it too, so much I might make it to go on my site!!)

Next week is a busy one, getting all my props and pieces finished for the shoot the week after and organising how I'm going to package them all so they don't get damaged 'en route'!

N x

On the Mend

It seems that once someone gets wind that you make stuff, everyone brings you something to fix! I've had 3 people bring me pieces of jewellery to fix over the last week or so which is so funny because I could do it before but never told anyone. Anyway, because I'm nice like that, I've fixed it all. A bracelet and 2 necklaces for my lovely clients. What would I do without them?

It's still all go on the fascinator front and I've just finished the tiara that I was talking about a few weeks back. The client made various tweaks to it, including a whole re-hash of the pearls, but I'm so pleased with it. You can read the original post here. I'll post a pic of the complete one soon.

Here's some more orders that have gone out. I must start using my actual camera to take photos instead of my phone, and I might give 'Polly' the head some hair for a change! Better sort out a wig for her!

Jane design in chestnut with chocolate and ivory feathers with additional guinea fowl plume on a comb:


Jane design in royal with black feathers on a comb:


Jane design in pewter with ivory feathers on a band:


Jessica design in black with silver and black feathers on a band:


Claire design, reduced size, black with ivory and silver feathers on a comb:


Sparkle tiara with ivory feathers:



I've just downloaded 100 pics off my phone because I'd lost the USB wire, and there's about 60 of the cat that P's taken, some orders and some holiday snaps! I'd forgotten about most of them!

Me and Mom in the sunshine:

My beautiful sisters waiting for our plane home:


P wants a new kitten, so we're on the look out. Preferably a short haired black female for Charlie to woo! It'd better be chilled too because P likes to look after Charlie like a baby!

N x