i now pronounce you....

Well Bean and I had a rather exciting morning.

Indeed I was so excited last night I couldn't sleep! Eeek!

And what pray were we doing on this very morn?

We went to the Registry Office to give notice of intent of marriage!!!

I wasn't really sure what to expect having never registered anything before yet I was not disappointed (well sort of)!

Indeed it seems that one can only register their intention to marry during weekday business hours yet it did  mean that Bean and I could walk hand in hand (like a little commuter couple) down to our local office after a lovely lie in.  We were ushered in by a rather elderly (but very sweet and impeccably dressed albeit somewhat suspicious) meeter/greeter/security guard/receptionist lady and sat eagerly anticipating our next important moments.

Our time with the surprisingly chipper Registrar (despite the rain, the mondayness and general dullness of having to ask the same few questions everyday) was brief but at least I have truly established that Bean has never married, changed his name or done any too naughty.  So as I sat outside the stained glass windows of the little office awaiting my Bean to declare his intentions I did get slightly giddy by the whole grown-up feeling of actually getting married.  Apparently, I really am just an old softie!

Now we must wait 16 days to gain our wedding licence (I have no idea why our actual wedding registrar from the northern wastelands needs this almost a year ahead but red tape I do understand!) and then we are but one step away from becoming man and woman (or husband and wife? (man and wife sounds wrong)).  I know it's not really that exciting but I did dress up a little (despite the rain) yet in my excitement I forgot my camera.  So you will just have to imagine a little girl in pink with her handsome bean bubbling with nervous excitement standing outside a registry office stating her future honourable intentions.

Oh my, this is actually happening and I could not be happier!

P.S. Uber glad your liked our/my weekend of productivity.  I am but a humble "try to diyer" yet I would be happy to do a couple of little "how I did things" posts if you would like? I'm sure most of you are far more able than I will ever be.

and then the rain came...

What a wretched weekend London has just seen.  The rain, oh the rain!

Luckily Bean and I were safely ensconced in our little flat celebrating our 9 year anniversary.  Who knew a game of spin the bottle in our first year at university would lead to such a future.

Fortunately to ward off the terrifying weather we organised a little gathering which lead to the production of this...

.... now affectionately known as "the beast"

Just to reassure, the horrifying apparition at our door is the Bean.

and these lemon meringue cupcakes (yummy even if I do say so myself!)

and the uber wondrous pie pops!

which were delicious warm but taken to another gastronomic level with the addition of dipping custard...(chocolate fountains I may not understand but a custard fountain...maybe, just maybe!)

and finally some pretty pretty flowers.

thank you, bean xxx

fantabulous etsy friday - to tear thy garter from thy craven's leg

Now, I am not sure I understand garters. (I fear traditions may be a whole other post away from the prettiness).

Yet if I were to purchase a garter it will surely be one of these beauties!

Oh hark, even the etsy shop has the cutest name - Florrie Mitton.  Named after her great grandmother.  How sweet!  The attention to detail, the designs, the sweet vintage feel and even the box.  It makes me feel all gooey inside!  And yay she is a British Etsy seller.  Evenmore wondrous!

are there only two ways of telling the complete truth?

"There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously."

Thomas Sowell

Do you agree?  I'm sure this topic has been discussed ad infinitum but I just feel it may help explain some things about me. These next few posts are delving rather deep into my psyche so please bear with me as I try to find the right words.

I relish the opportunity this little corner of the interweb gives me.  It allows me to speak honestly about my hopes, my desires and my dreams with a healthy dose of my everyday banality mixed in for good measure.  I find comfort in my anonymity as it has given me the chance to interact with such fabulous inspirational people (yes you!) whom I would never meet in "real life."

Yet I wonder why I feel the need to "hide" my identity. Yet hide really is not the correct word, I think protect is more apt?  I am but a normal girl, living in a normal city living a normal life.  There is nothing spectacular about me and I have nothing to hide.  However, their is always a slightly murky undercurrent to any truly anonymous exchange.  I try to be honest in all my exchanges.  Myself I have the policy of only saying something nice(ish) when asked an opinion and if I disagree I generally I do not comment.  The only caveat to this is when I actually like someone and I feel they would welcome constructive criticism.  (Yet at the same moment I hate all the the cooing and ahhing over each other.   It seems, to me as a relative novice, that to be an independently minded bride, wife, person whatever, one still must conform to the tenets advocated by certain writers.  They may deny this yet I am not buying it! I honestly love it when someone has an opinion different from me.  I enjoy the thrill of defending my views.)

Oh how I hate my internal confliction but it is who I am.  I apologise, I digress. One of the reasons I know I fear being open and honest about who I am is because of several instances of what I regard as evil.  In one particular instance, relating to an unnamed wedding forum site an acquaintance divulged all the details for her wedding.  Understandable? Of course, one is excited and wants to share the minutiae with "friends".  Unfortunately, one awful crone took it upon herself to cancel all of the bookings and then booked her wedding with the same details for the same day.  Simply unbelievable.  I realise weddings can be rearranged and it is not cataclysmic but the thought of anyone having such power scares me.  Hence my tentiveness to disclose any detailed information.  One may say she was a fool to disclose any details but in what is a supposed safe community..?

Another reason I have an issue with disclosing my true identity is because I am a doctor.  I know it sounds rather pompous yet I have an obligation to protect my patients.  Gosh, that really does sounds pompous.  Perhaps I have an obligation to myself to separate my work and personal life?

I think the main reason I use a nom de plume is due to my oft crippling low self esteem.  I read the words of others writers and whilst I see that a gloss can be brushed over the trivialities or not so trivial matters they have such a positive outlook. My favourite writers speak their mind, do not sugar coat their words and always make me want to read more.  Seriously, how do you do it?  Oh, how I love the fact I can sit here in my pyjamas and high heels (the bean is out and I am playing with some new shoes) and can write whenever I want and have a constant audience.  I love that freedom and the ability to reinvent myself.

Do not fret, I am still real!  I truly believe my interweb personality is my true hidden personality. I know I can be the sarcastic, happy, optimistic lady I force upon you everyday.  Well I hope that this is the personality I portray to you and I hope you like this person?

So how about you, do you relish anonymity or adore the opportunity to air you personal views, in person?

Sorry for the rather heavy post I hope I have given you something to ponder whilst you do or do not digest your turkey.  I wish shall offer something a little lighter tomorrow. I think.

Finally, a Merry Thanksgiving, to one and all!

wedding list wednesday - snug as a bug in a rug

Oh I could extol the virtues of Pedlars for hours.  They seem to source the most fabulous of items.  Now their  items may be on the pricey side but their website and their London shop are such a source of inspiration for me.

So when I saw this I swooned! I know the phrase is somewhat ubiquitous currently but it really looks far too cute! Imagine snuggling on the sofa with your loved ones with this baby!

Oh and I'll take the rug too, if you don't mind!

Oh Pedlars if only you weren't quite so expensive.  I would literally buy their entire range!

hmmm

So I fear I may be about to unleash some rather random albeit interesting (I hope) posts.  Do please bear with me, there will be some weddingy content (well a bit).  Nonetheless, there is an end-point I have in mind although I am not sure whether I am brave enough to face it, just yet!

Ax

sometimes I am grateful that my breasts are not small and humble

Although I'm pretty sure my breasts do not resemble mountains they are certainly not small and humble. (Oh the mongoose is so wise!)

Anyway, enough talk about my breasts.  Yet, on this day, I am entirely grateful I am above a C cup for I really might have spent £195 on this bra!  Eeek, I am in love!

Oh Coco de Mer

fantabulous etsy friday - Nunn the Wiser!

So I have decided that I will no longer second guess what you lovelies want!  

It takes me ages to find the perfect items to display on my little blog that I think everyone will like.  Oh the wistful hours I have spent flitting across the interweb.  I do enjoy this so yet it does stop me from writing about the wonderfulness I find.  

So, as the gifting season is quickly approaching (in the next 3 months I have our anniversary, Christmas, my birthday and Valentine's day) I may have to be a little selfish!  Tis the season of goodwill to all men (and does this not include me?!) and so I might just chose things I absolutely love for the next few weeks!!

So Bean, are you listening?! (Also where are our clues?)

Anyhoo,  I have followed the work of Hannah Nunn for sometime now (and she does count for she also has an etsy shop!) and always swoon!  Yay for British design.  It warms the cockles!

Seriously how cute would these fairy lights look as the lights go down on a window sill or as part of the guest book table or maybe with the cake?!  Or even along the aisle. Oh the possibilities are endless.  Hannah will customise 20 of the pretty little fairy lights for but £80!!!  I am in love.  It's these little details that I adore they just make life that bit more enjoyable!  Ahem, hint, hint Bean!

So what do you think?  She even has her own blog.  Do check it out, it shan't disappoint.

wedding list wednesday - press yourself against me

I know, I know this has been doing the rounds lately but how rad would it be to have your own mini letterpress for just $149.99? (hmm I'm not sure a girl like me can get away with saying rad?)

Obviously it would never replace the deliciousness of a true press but would a sweet swift jaunt into its imprinted clutches be such a bad thing?

Do you think this is a fantabulously archaic application of Moore's Law or is it a desecration of hallowed ground?


P.S. Thanks for the offers of straws yesterday.  Expect an email later from a very grateful tea drinking Limey gal!!

oh ladies I need your help

Okay.  I'm pretty sure this is not the done thing to ask my lovely interlopers but I need you wondrous yanks (and maybe fantabulous maple leaves) to perchance do me the greatest favour in the world.

I have been lusting over these grey babies for so long and Celia's delicious photos have done nothing to abate my love.  

Could anyone find it in their hearts to purchase a box (or two or ten!) and send them far away or maybe even make a little trip across the pond for the rapture of champagne and macarons in my little home!?!

I just need them in my and my wedding's life (and yes it is now a living being as it seems only fair).  Obviously I would reimburse you for the straws and postage, maybe not airfares to London!  I just am I love.  

magical maids...hmm maybe that sounds a little lame

The closer we get to securing the date and the venue the more excited I get about thinking about who I will ask to be my ceremonial comrades (or maybe confidantes or cronies?!)  Yes, ceremonial cronies is perfect for me!  For there will be naughtiness, mischief and plotting with wine, oh lovely wine.  

I still am unsure as to how many cronies I will "require."  (Gosh how regal does that sound!)  I know I will uncomfortable being on my own (well just with my family) but at the same time I don't want to force anyone to be involved. Although, people want to be bridesmaids, right?    Then I think I will enjoy those last few moments alone before I see my boy for the very last time he becomes my man.  

Yet at the same time I would love for all of the girls I invite to be involved in some way (as I know bean will do the same for his boys).  Oh my mind may explode.  Yet there is one thing I do enjoy pondering.  The deliciousness of browsing dresses.

Oh for them to be dressed like this as we cavort merrily through the next months of my grumpiness, attempts at DIY and general confusion.

magical maids by annaandthering featuring Matthew Williamson

How do you see your gals or boys? Do you even want "maids"? How did you ask them? Did you just have the cool, "so you know I'm getting married right?" "yeah" "well you know I want you to be my girl, yo." conversation or did you go down the exquisitely cute letter route. I sort of want to do both. I know, I'm just so greedy.

P.S. As soon as we lock down the details you will be the first to know, I promise!

P.P.S. I understand that I seem to only find expensive dresses.  I will try harder to find chic albeit slightly more affordable gowns!

P.P.P.S. Please can someone help me with losing the evil double spacing in my posts? It is really beginning to rabbit me off.

bean there, not done that...

Oh the frustration of a Bean who will not do what an anna says!

He sits next to me and sighs.  "Oh anna, stop being so anna.  I will reveal my wondrous self when I am good and ready." 

Hmmm, personally I do not think this is good enough.  Why, oh why did I fall in love with a perfectionist!!

Oh Bean where for art thou?

We know you are out there, but far in the distance hiding from us all.

Come out, come out wherever you are!!

wedding list wednesday - hot stuff baby!

Oh how I wish I was marrying into royalty for this would truly be on my wedding list!

Just look at the sexiest kettle you may ever lay your eyes on?

Oh even the cylons would be happy!

However at £185 that is one pricey cup o' char!  

Oh Bugatti please stop making such outlandishly priced homewares!  I shall never afford a Veyron but a kettle should be within my grasp!!    

11/11/09

I thank you for my continuing freedom.

Your sacrifice is beyond what I shall ever know.

oh it's on...redux

So I am yet to find my one true Bean on the interweb!


I promise I have been looking yet to no avail, to no avail!  He will not even succumb to my feminine wiles. Oh he is cruel. It's as if he's started an evil viral advertising campaign and I'm not cool enough to find it! The monster! Oh how I love him so!


However, I realise I am yet to tap into my most potent vein of searchers...you!  My loyal readers!


So I have devised a cunning plan.  I shall offer the first treasure from my humble blog!


A prize to the first who correctly finds Bean's blog!  All I ask is for you send me the link to the site (either in the comments section or as an email) so I can discover my beloved's home!


And to the victor?


Well how about these beautiful earrings?

Made by Sudlow of Etsy  (with pink spinel beads) and I will be happy to send these babies worldwide!  What more could you want?!  Fly my pretties, fly!


P.S. No ducks were harmed in the making of these photos!

oh these halcyon days

For as long as I can remember my parents (well mother) have yearned to leave good ol' Blighty for pastures French. I have never understood this mainly because I love the UK so very much and also because why not somewhere more lovely such as the Tuscan countryside to be close to one of her very dear school friends.

That was until now. Oh France I miss you so. Your sunshine was warm and inviting and allowed for the first official pictures of Bean!  Eeek - anonymity we laugh in your face!

Yet by the power of your maginificent hypermarches with wondrously cheap but juicy crevettes to your satisfyingly french markets with strange meats as far as the eye can see, we were bedazzled.  Also I fell for  your quite ingenious contractions!  I'm sure the rest of you have access to such perfection but alas I have never met sugar in such a perfect form!

Then there is the wine.  I have been spoilt.  The quality of their cheap wine is astounding.  Seriously we never see the likes of their young wines in the UK, well certainly not at £3 a bottle! As you may hypothesise we drank the evenings quietly away.  Outside in the balmy air with bats a-circling and owls a-hooting.  

So in case you are yet to comprehend.....I like France...I would like to go there (a la Liz Lemon) again, soon!  

and the final cherry, and what a magnificent cherry. Why did Bean not avail me of this fact before. There be the following factory within walking distance. Albeit we never managed to visit when they were not at lunch (or whatever they do between 10-4!) but a cherry nonetheless!   

A cherry complete with a very sweet cat!

And so ends my tale.

à demain!

hmmmm....oh it's on!

So the boy appears to have hidden depths!

He has been awfully furtive of late and I have just found out the reason. 

His is now in possession of his very own blog.  Eeek!  No wonder is was not wanting to share his thoughts on these fair pages for he has been hoarding his genius.  

Yet he will not share its name with me.  I must find it on my own!!

Well then, bring it, baby!

We are no long Beanna.  Oh it is on!

So who's team will you belong to? Team Anna or Team Bean?  I have to admit Team Bean sounds so much better and will be far more beautifully written.

P.S. I love you really and am so excited about your blog.  Just wish I could find it already! Huggles from the anna!

P.P.S. To the others who may read the P.S. we do talk really it's just nice to have huggles in writing as well as in person!

P.P.P.S. Please don't choose a team.  We are one big family!

wedding list wednesday - oh the fever

Now whilst I am sure the Bean envisages a certain future.  There is a reason it is called "the future."

However, I must admit since our petites vacances I am suffering from the fever, the baby fever.  Swoon!

Oh bless you House my little faux nephew, you are truly heart-breakingly beautiful.  Your smile - le sigh.

What a wonderful wedding present - although I fear one may be hard pressed to add this little one to a registry.  No matter how many times I want to steal him away.

oh those halcyon days

(If only it were award season)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my future mother and father for thinking of me 15 odd years ago when they bought their fantabulous roofless house.  I know you will never see this, but I do love you so.

(and now I introduce my inner 4 year old)

We awoke on a cold and rainy morning for a 8am flight driven by a rather generous Bean brother, Grumpole. A flight sitting so close to Club Class and their breakfast of manna.  So close, yet so far!  

After a short hop, skip, a slightly naughty satnav induced detour and a drive away from the bright lights of Bordeaux.  We found our way to the tiny town of love and hope.

(and now begins my homage to the funnybones)

And as we drove down a long, long road we arrived at the dark, dark gateway to our week of heaven.

Down the dark, dark stairs into the dark, dark cellars where the pretty bats lived.

  

(Bean would like to point out that while yes these are his legs he is not a man who would usually partake in the evil of turn-ups.  Needs (and some amount of bat "packages") must.)

Through the pretty, pretty doors into the jungle that was once called "the garden."

The garden in which we lazed with the wondrous warm, warm sunshine.  The sunshine that never left our side and was our beautiful companion.

And so began our wonderful week of food, food and food, laughter by candlelight and of course le wine.

Oh those halcyon days....

oh hello

So yes, I (nay we?) am back.  

To say I am at loss of where to start is a slight understatement.

So may I begin by saying thank you to my new followers who have shown such fortitude in my lean times, my cup runneth over in excitement by now being able to introduce myself properly to you!

It also goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you for the love from my vintage followers, I do hope I can enthrall you once more!

So I guess I will start at the beginning but alas not tonight for my eyes are heavy with sleep!

A sneak peak, I hear you say?!

Also, I am attempting to Moussaka tomorrow evening - any hints or tips?!?

it's november!??!!?

Hello Interweb!!!

Seriously, how can it be November already?  Where did October go?  It seems but a minute ago we were in France.

I have meant to write everyday since my last post but life has rudely got in the way!

So over the next week you can expect to be titillated by the likes of...

...our wondrous week en France with the cutest nephews

...our wondrous weekend en Northumberland with some very exciting news!

...something a little more serious to explain my absence

...some exciting new features

...maybe a little redesign of the blog.  I think I'm up for a sans serif life!

So do bear with me and Bean whilst we recount our lives of late and our future plans.  I am super exciited to be back and blogging.  I have missed so much.  My google reader is endless but I will be commenting on a blog near you soon!!

I have missed you all so!

anna (and Bean) xxxxxx

Oh Sun how I miss you

P.S. We have found a venue!  Eeek!