Good Morning, well it is for me anyway. Even though I've lagged in blogging I've still been crafting after the wedding and I'm feeling good.

Since September when I last wrote here - being married has been amazing, being married to your best friends is fucking amazing. I won't go mad and tell you everything but Distant Worlds was a highlight, we're going to see it again (two more times) but in Vienna and I got a new job at work with a lot more responsibility which I'm doing well in!

Long story short, I've done a lot of shit, blah blah blah, I like knitting and crochet now too.

I've taken it up after years of speculation and I've got to admit, it's really easy.

I crocheted a baby blanket for friends and was surprised by how quick and easy it was to make, I should be knitting a project for a fellow redditor for an exchange but my hands and needles keep straying.

I'm back more specifically since I've been inspired by According to Matt and his wonderful blog. He has a great amount of links that taught me all I know. Also since I last blogged I discovered Deramores much to my banks accounts detriment and I've been WIPping like the clappers (knitting humor for you there)

Traversing crochet's hook infested waters has been fun, what I once thought looked icky in comparison to knitting, I'm now drawn to and even more so to the idea of a granny stripe throw for the martial bed.

I came across Purl Bee and their Giant Giant Granny Square Blanket and started to salivate, it's just what I wanted to do. I hopped along to their suggested yarn page and what do you know, it's £13 a fucking skein.

NOT ONLY THAT but there's only 87 yards per skein and DID WE MENTION it's merino, soft inviting and a nightmare to wash and care for.

Didn't even get to the cost, you need 58 balls of yarn for this project bringing the price of this bad boy toooooooooo

£754

Yea I think I'm going to pass on that. In fact I'm going to make one for one tenth of the price, I'm thinking of going with Stylecraft or my favourite brand James C. Brett yarn, each ball has a minimum of 290yards, costs £2 per skein and best of all - machine washable!

My poor (awesome) husband will see me come home with another baggie of yarn and sigh, but he's lovely and lets me crochet while watching breaking bad.

Life is good, now we have a decent camera I'll aim to keep this updated, I'm going to start stocking up yarn in June after our trip to Vienna so will see you around!

Get Gorgeous

This WAS going to be a MASSIVE post that I was meant to put up before the wedding - but I didn't.

So instead - this is my homage to my very favourite make-up company - Benefit, and how they made me Look/Feel gorgeous on my Wedding day.

Thank you!

To Start

• Foamingly Clean Facial Wash - Very nice and light, washes without bringing up a rash.
• Moisture Prep Toning Lotion - I didn't think I needed this initially but it preps the skin for moisturising and is very gentle. 
• Triple Performance Facial Emulsion - fancy name but lovely stuff, no oil and light but leaves my skin so springy I poke my cheek for fun.
• It's Potent! Eye Cream - for the dark circles, takes a while to work but after a few weeks it looks much brighter and delicate enough for the sensitive skin.

This is my morning prep, I also bought the Total Moisture Facial Cream which is much heavier so I use it at night! Steve loves it and sniffs my face (sounds weird but it's cute, well to me it is!). 

It took me years to find products that work and don't give me spots/rash. I find that the price is worth it, also because they last a loooong time. I'm still on my first bottle of the facial wash and I bought it 6 months ago! I can't lug all these products on honeymoon though which is why they made a tester set, or in my eyes a Travel set! The whole range (plus those I don't have) for a tenner. So if you want to give them a whirl, definitely get the set!

Finally moving on the the Make-up (almost). There's still some prep to do, once my skin is washed, prepped and moisturised it's time for the base layers for the makeup

To Prep

• The Porefessional - has a sandy feel to it, beige but blend with any skin tone, fills in pores like the fuckers didn't even exist and helps hold any concealer in place. An absolute MUST!
• Erase Paste - some see as a shitty second to Boi-ing but much more specific to underneath the eyes as is a bit more brightening. 
• After the wedding I discovered Lemon-aid, which is amazing at covering the dark circles and way better than EP
• Boi-ing - I have this too, industrial strength, covers all kinds of crap but sits well and you don't feel caked.

Now I'm finally ready to go for the foundation. I've gone through a few of their products, the first was Some kind-a gorgeous and whilst it was lovely it dried out easily and flaked off. I dabbled with the You Rebel but it was far too thick for my liking and was too dark for my complexion. Around April they announced a new liquid foundation which I knew was the one for me. Tammy at my local counter then talked me into getting a powder on top. I thought she was bats but she knows her shit this woman.

Foundation

• Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow - Wow is the word, smooth, silky, matches perfectly (Shade 2 Ivory) lasts all day, smudge proof, doesn't dry out and is even and scrummy to wear.
• Hello Flawless - a prequel powder to the liquid foundation, it's like the glue that holds all the prep work together. A light brush over the foundation and Boom! My face is ready for the morning. Again, lasts all day, was recommended a slightly darker shade (3 Champagne) and feels so light I can hardly tell (without looking) I'm wearing it.

If you'd shown me all these bottles, tubs and liquids a year ago I would have tried to cook with it probably (and it would have been in no doubt disgusting). Again, it's expensive but it kind of builds up as you go and try new looks. Initially all I had was foundation, concealer and blusher, then I tried a primer, then a mascara and before I knew it I was worshipping at the alter of benefit and howling at the moon of make-up! 

Finally though we get to the finishing touches. This is still slightly a work in progress, I love Tammy, she has transformed my mornings and when I think she's just selling me stuff since I'm so addicted, I then take the stuff home and am able to replicate the look exactly. That's how good their shit it bitches.

To Finish

• Eyes
• They're Real Mascara - works a fecking charm, first time I used it I could see my lashes surrounding my vision they were so massive. Not clumpy and very useful tip for getting in the corners. I didn't blub thankfully too much on the day, just a few tears during my dads speech and it didn't run!
• Velvet Eyeshawdow, Bo-peep - I already have their Big eyes kit which is perfect for my nude look (oo-er). I'm running low on the base colour but they sell them individually as well meaning I can refill at a fraction of the cost!
• Lips
• Posietint - I usually go for the Benetint for the red, but the Posie is a lovely pink and goes with my natural look. Since it's a tint it'll last for hours. In fact I think I re-applied it once during the day and it stayed lovely and rosy all night!
• California Kissin' - I hadn't even heard about this until Tammy showed me. She popped a dab on my fingers and I applied over the Posie. It's amazing, makes the colour pop-it-like-it's-hot, is minty and apparently makes your teeth look whiter. It's such a nice little extra surprise!
• As a bonus, they just released Posietint and California Kissin' in a duo stick, perfect match and much reduced price
• Highlighter
• High Beam - initially Tammy was saying some crazy shit about going with Sun Beam but since it's for more tanned complexions I'm going with this one instead - more pinky and sparkly for my skin!
• Cheeks
• I was initially going to go with Hervana - my favourite all time blusher, but I found the colours too light, instead I went with Sugabomb you swirl all these colours together and get a lovely pink that doesn't look too clownish and goes with the Posietint.

And that's it! That's my make-up done. I do most of this for work everyday, the finishing touches mentioned here are more for the wedding.

I could stress that you don't need make-up to be beautiful, and you don't. I met Steve before my Benefit addiction had even started, I didn't wear make-up for years and that's meant my skin is in great shape, not clogged, minimal blemishes and although a bit sensitive, a great base to start with. 

When I wear it in the morning, part of the process of going through all these stages is really soothing, some women do find it annoying, another 20 minutes to the start of your day, but it relaxes me. I go through the motions and actually enjoy putting it all together. The end result may not look much but I like seeing the effect. It is actually more for me than anyone, I think the pictures on the day will come out great, I won't be shiny or splodgy, I'll feel confident when I smile and won't need to keep re-applying it all day.

Overall - thanks Benefit. I feel fucking fabulous thanks to you guys (and Tammy, legend that she is!)

If you actually got this far you're a legend and I owe you a make-over! Woop!

P.S I won a competition to MEET the founders of Benefit; Jean & Jane. Wonderful afternoon and I got FREEBIES yaaaaay

Rub a dub dub

Having a bit of a bloaty fat day, nothing like watching K-pop 4 times in the last 8 hours to make you want to get up and dance your blues away. I was asleep for 7 1/2 of those hours.

I'm getting back on the Dance Dance Revolution horse as well, after months of searching I finally found the game and bought the mat. Husband is being all "have to clean first" before I can play - bah, just push the plate under the sofa I say. Well I shouldn't really, that is quite bad. I will clean soon then get my dance arrows on like donkey kong.

Dress Progress - one strap done, didn't take as long as I thought, only about 3 episodes of Buffy (still how I'm measuring my time, half way through season 3). One more to go and slip to buy and the dress is done. I'm not going to sew the straps on until I've sew the slip in, I'm going to leave that for a week as well now so I can get started on the wig and bolero. I can complete the finishing touches pretty quickly, I remember making my Magma costume (by hand, like without a sewing machine) and it took about 2 weeks, so I know I can pull this together quickly.

That's all for today, I've got a busy day ahead and cleaning/dancing planning for tonight, maybe at the same time :)

P.S - I reaaaaally want to cosplay the white outfit and sparkly pants the girls wear in the video

Doing the Polski Sklep

What a fab fab fab weekend.

We were lucky enough to have tickets to the final day of Athletics at the Paralympics so the tension was high and the crowd was loud.

Not to gush too much, but this guy, Maciej Lepiato, is my new favourite athlete (he's my banner today!). We got to see him break the world record in the F44 high jump. He was quite happily in gold with an amazing jump of 2.08m but he thought "NAH - MAKE IT HIGHER"

Which they did, and he bowed out at 2.12m. When he made that jump, the whole crowd was watching, there was clapping, cheering, chanting, all the good stuff and when he cleared it, the whole stadium went nuts. All the hands went in the air, he got a standing ovation and we all clapped along to the Polish national anthem. This guy was awesome. To put it in perspective, Jessica Ennis, the heptathlon champion, made a jump on 1.86m. The male high jump gold medalist Ivan Ukhov, won at 2.38m. In that competition it's a big difference but I just see it as awesomeness in action.

Photo from knitty.commodel: provided by Artfibers 
photo: Nyle Seabright 

Even with all the Paralympic fun-times, I did have a really relaxing weekend, and very profitable in terms of knitting.

After I undid all my rib stitch work which had take 3 days to do, I was a bit peeved and wasn't sure where to go from there. My first step was to decrease the amount of stitches though. I had 204, I could have done this slowly over the coming rows but there were too many things to think about; how this would affect the shaping of the body, how to distribute the decreases etc. 

It was a puzzle, let me tell you, one I worked hard and long over. Well about 2 hours. I was cruising on Ravelry which anyone with knitting know how NEEDS to be a part of (the capitals are needed for emphasis). I came across this rather cleverly thought out bodice pattern. It's by Marnie MacLean who has some fucking stunning designs, this is an older one found here. 

The genius thing about it is that the pattern is knitted sideways rather than from top - bottom. I'd forgotten about this method even though I've made my pac-man hats using this style. I should post the pattern here one day, hopefully I'll have a chance to write it up once this bad boy is done.

So inspired by this genius idea I knew what to do. As the dress is open at the front, I knit two panels on either edge to cover the girls, then in the back, I picked up the stitches along the edge of one panel, knit sideways and connected it to the other panel, all the while picking up stitches from the skirt edge to keep it all happy.

It looks perfect, really exactly what I wanted - I made sure to add 5 extra stiches along the edges in garter stitch so they wouldn't curl and I'm now working on the straps. I haven't skimped on this part either, I'm using a technique I learned when making my Katamari ears for a party. You slip each odd stitch with the yarn in front, and knit each even stitch. It is a lot of faff, you have to move the yarn back and forth rather than knitting straight but it makes a flat tube with stockinette stitch on the outside. It's much tougher and looks better and won't stretch too much which is what I need for the dress to stay in place.

Once the straps are done and attached, I'm going to buy a white slip and bra to sew in underneath then the dress is done and I can start on the wig. This will be really tough and I want to get this out the way before I move onto the bolero and horn. 

Hurrah for fab knitting weekends with lots of Buffy and Athletes. 

wakka wakka

Oh Shi.......Knit-sticks.

Well, two days work down the drain!

I totally miscalculated and over-estimated the amount of stitches I would need and the length that the yarn would stretch so it came out MASSIVE.

I could have half-heartedly tried to make the most of what I had done but the image I have in my head is so clear, if I did anything other than the design I want I'll be disappointed and not 100% happy with it.

Took me about an hour to undo it all last night, the yarn is partly mohair so it starts to wind together making it difficult to undo, but I eventually sorted it.

I did break one of my needles in the process though - when it rains it pours :(

Oh well, I'm back to the hips part now - I'm thinking either I can carry on in stockinette stitch and figure out how to knit darts, or I can just do more rib stitch but reduce the overall amount by half.

If I go with the first it'll hug the figure more, but if I do the latter, what I like about this is the look of the costume. After I complete the green arms I kind of feel it'll have a Empire line look - like the costumes in Pride and Prejudice. A regency kind of look / empire line. 

Also it'll make my knackers look fab and considering Steve is putting up with the whole debacle, the boy deserves a treat.

So in the efforts of saving money and being a hermit, I'll be knitting pretty much all weekend, well apart from when we go to the Paralympics for the last day of Athletics - super fucking excited about that Woo!

Here's us at the wheelchair basketball where we saw Canada trounce Spain (then they trounced up but oh well!)

Hope you have a lovely weekend too.

For added awesomeness, here's a video our amazing mate Mike did of our wedding. We are so lucky to have such awesome mates woooooo

Vancouver Stitches?

Hello! Good Morning! Hurrahzah!

I'm back, I'm married and I'm knitting.

What a crazy couple of months it's been, but awesome. I could go on and on and on about how awesome the day was, how chilled, how perfectly thing came together (including the weather), how lucky I am not only to have wonderful friends and family but also a rather spiffy husband who - at the alter - gave me a 9/10 (wooo) but has given me so much happiness, love and down right bat shit crazy times, what girl could ask for more?

Now that that massively grammatically incorrect sentence is out the way, what brings me back? The wedding is done and I tell you, my brain is so much happier, I do NOT miss the organising, bunting related stress or general faff. 

No, I'm back for the knitting mother fuckers.

Gardevoir! So pretty

Last week, I finally did it - I research and bought yarn for my Gardevoir cosplay project! Ahhhhhh, I'm so excited.

Aria, colour Z1, white!

I'm so glad as well, I found THE most perfect gorgeous yarn. It's called Aria by James C.Brett - quickly becoming one of my favourite brands (they make massive marbling skeins that I've made a snood with)

The best part about this yarn is it has teeny tiny sequins running through it, so when the body of Gardevoir is done it'll look so sparkly and pretty.

See how I'm reduced to the language of a five year old when it comes to sequins! 

I've been knitting for a week now on big fat 12mm needles, the skirt is done and I'm working on the bodice and coming up with the design for the top as I go along. You can follow my progress at Cosplay Island, where I'm keeping a small journal for the moment. It's really fun doing the knitting again, more for myself than aiming to sell, I think this is what I really want to do - not sure if I'd be up for commissions but my final goal would be to enter a masquerade competition but I'm still too nervous for that.

I'm going to try and update more often but with Short and Sweet updates

Hurrah

P.S - should I keep my blog name Shortt Stitches now that I'm married, I don't quite know how to work Vancouver into it, as awesome as the name is!

2 Months to go

It seems that every time I come back to write a blog post another month has zipped by!


I've had a brilliant month so far, everything is going fab and I'm finally going to write about my Hen do! Woohoo!


Quick note,things that I've got completed since I last wrote

• Paid for the registry office where we're getting hitched
• Picked up our wedding certificate
• Ordered Steve's wedding ring
• Ordering my ring (tomorrow weeee)
• Had my hen do (more in a min)
• Got Steve his wedding present
• Went to London Comic-con dressed as little mermaid
• Bought lots of crap from afore-mentioned con
• Neice/God-daughters Birthday (taught her to go 'nom nom nom')

What a brilliant month it's been, the weather finally improved and the sun in out. I love this hot weather, Steve doesn't cope very well bless him but I'm always a fan, even if 2 minutes without factor 50 turns my shoulders pink I don't care, it's worth it.

Getting around to the Hen do then. It all kicked off rather well, my amazing maid of honour and all round awesome matey Jasmine came down to London for the night (LEGEND). I love her to bits and it was so awesome she could come, I am having a hen do with the girls in my hometown but I thought inviting Jasmine being head bridesmaid would give her a chance to meet the other girls, and she got on with everyone so well - just like her, you can't help but love the girl.

We did a quick tour to the benefit counter where I bought myself a pretty blusher (Hervana) which I am totally addicted to. I love benefits make-up and I've been meaning to buy this particular blusher for ages so when better than my hen do?

After that we went to my flat, she played with my cat whilst I got ready. Now I had bought my outfit a few weeks ago from New Look, the dress was backless so I found a nice stick on bra to help hold up the girls. However as I went to try it on it FAILED. Either my nungas have gotten bigger (again) or the bra was just too crap to hold them up, it meant that I'd either have to change outfits or Free-boob it as Jasmine says. Guess which option I went with?

Not a bra in sight

Yep, I risked it, luckily the dress was quite solid in front and kept the twins in check (unless I bent forward and accidentally flashed Jen but she didn't mind!).

My other (amazing) bridesmaid Kate was the clever person to suggest getting some grub before we kill our livers off. Initially wanted to go to Byron burger but was a bit small, luckily on the way to the bar was a restaurant called Giraffe and they had space for the four of us leaving for food.

I'm so glad we went there in the end, the food was amazing, I had a cosmo to start and had a main of Parmasan Chicken Schnitzel "Kiev", with mash and a salad. Wow, talk about NOM. I wolfed the whole thing down and by 5.30 we were heading to the bar.

Now initally I had all these other plans for my hen do, but what I've come to notice about this wedding or anything to do with it is that nothing has gone as planned. Not in a bad way, most of the time it's been an improvement and the bar we went to is one of those examples.

When I was looking for a place to go, I just wanted somewhere with decent cocktails that wouldn't cost loads of money. A quick search sent me the way of Barrio North and I would recommend the place in a heartbeat. The bar is actually on the same route as my bus home and I've passed it so many times. That was 1+ point, easy access to getting home. Then I was able to rent an area in the bar, at the front, for us to sit at. 1+ point again.

Yeaaaa drinking from a barrel
Things got fuzzy after that

THEN I found out it has a happy hour

Where the cocktails are half price

Every day

For 3 hours

That made it a bajillion + points. 

Go look at their cocktail menu for happy hour....DO IT. They're amazing, and they're £4.50 max with beer for £2.

The bar was so cool overall, it had a Mexican theme, a half cut out caravan in the back and naked ladies on the wall, the bartenders were fab and really quick which was amazing considering the amount of time it can take for one cocktail. The music in the background was obviously Spanish and even though I didn't know it, it was fun to wiggle to.

God those cocktails were amazing, after the grub, the girls and I settled in and did some taste swaps. The clear favourite was Hawaii-N-Dry, it was pink and it was delicious. I swapped between them and mojitos until 10pm. All night people kept coming along, North London crew, old Uni friends, future sister in law, and with Jasmine there it was a shmorgous board of buddies who all chatted and got along really well. I was nervous about inviting so many people but I thought that if I'm going to celebrate might as well be with as many peeps as possible.

Once we had sozzled ourselves quite nicely (me especially) then quite a few of us went to the final part of the evening. Club De Fromage.

I've been a couple times before, and like my old clubbing days in uni, they play good cheesy music, the crowd is a little older so it doesn't feel like a cattle market. All through the night there was ace music, silly dance moves and very strange competitions (where you could win a meat pie.....I didn't win *sad-face*). I loved it, and much like the bar, everyone was getting along really well. It was amazing, and after the amount of rum I'd been drinking I got quite emotional. By 3.30am the rum had worn off and my feet were killing, we climbed onto the bus and made our way home to bed!

I've got to say, it was easily the best night out I've ever had in my life. Including the time where I won free VIP tickets for McSlutskies by putting sunscreen on a boy on stage (as bad as it sounds I assure you). I loved the mash-up of my friends, I loved the venues, drinks and food, it was fun and easy going and it was fucking fantastic.

I can't thank everyone enough for coming and celebrating with me. I did it quite early on since two of my bridesmaids are going on holiday but I'm so glad I did. Because surely that means there might be enough time for another night out.

Right????

Thanks to everyone that came and was a part of it, you saw me out in style and I love you all more than Rum. That's not hard, god the day after EVERYTHING tasted of Rum and that is not a good way to go I assure you

Spot the sister-in-law
Hint: It's not the boy!

Overall: Getting married + Awesome mates * COCKTAILS / Crazy Dance moves = Amazeballs time people