Back to basics.

 This time last year I had a psychotic breakdown. I was in hospital for just over a week. What exactly happened, I don't know. I'm still quite muddled about it now. I do know it is taking a long time to recover. They were going to section me but Michael thought I would be better treated at home. 

It's 12 months on and I'm still being treated from home. It's been the hardest 12 months of my life. I've been suicidal and deeply depressed. My marriage with Michael broke down in April 2024 and I've been living in Bristol since May. 

DIY Wedding Invitations

Michael and I are getting married on a bit of a budget which means that I’m trying to do as much of the organising and making of things myself (with the help of Michael). I actually really enjoy doing this sort of stuff so I’m secretly very pleased that these jobs have fallen upon me!

It took me a while to think of something to do for the invites- I kept trawling through Pinterest and Blogs, seeing these amazing designs, and panicking about how much time they were going to take. In the end I just started doodling and it all kind of fell into place. I decided not to include all the details about the wedding on the invite itself but made a web address at www.theknot.co.uk. Guests could RSVP, find directions, places to stay and pick what they wanted to have for dinner (which by the way is going to be Italian food from a man with a van that is also a pizza oven… Fancyy!!)

The invitations themselves probably took me half a day to paint, scan in and layout but it was the printing and envelope writing that took the longest. I would say all in all it took me two full days to make sure everyone on our guest list had a personalised wedding invitation.

If you’re planning on doing the same sort of thing for your wedding I would advise setting aside 3 days. This will give you time to get hold of all the materials you need, designing/experimenting (aka having enough time to make mistakes) and then the monotonous task of photocopying/printing, cutting up and addressing.

This is what I spent our money on for creating these invites:

1. A big pad of drawing and watercolour paper (100 sheets of paper). We bought ours here. £18.50. Luckily there’s a lot left over which I’ll use for place names and table numbers etc.
2. Watercolour Paints… which I already had.. but you can get a cheap set for under £5.
3. A pot of gold paint and a brush. £10. Here and Here
4. Good quality envelopes. £28 (£4 for 20). Here
5. A book of 100 2nd Stamps. £54. Here
6. Sealant wax and stamps. £6. Here and Here
7. And if you don’t use a photocopier from somewhere… There will be the cost of printing….
8. Last but not least… Guilletine  £29.95. Here. If you’re on a really tight budget you can just use a cheap stanley knife and a metal ruler but I found that took me longer.

I would advise creating your invitation around tools you already have. For example I knew I already had a guillotine so I purposely didn’t search for cheap good quality A5 size blocks of paper… I knew I would be able to cut the big sheets up myself. In total I spent around £100 on getting invites sent to all out guests. But that will also cover the place names, table numbers and maybe even the order of service.

I could give you a step to step guide on how I created these but I guess you don’t want to copy mine completely! If I were to do this all again I would start by drawing and doodling and see what comes out. Once you’ve created something- scan it in and put it with some text.  If you don’t have Photoshop or any creative programs you can download GIMP which is a free program for image manipulation and will work perfectly well for this project. 
If you’d like me to design your wedding invitation or you’d like help designing your own please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

The Importance of Homemade Photo Albums

Coming from a photo obsessed, image taking addict, I’m sure it will come as no surprise when I tell you that I make and keep homemade photo albums.

Having albums with the images laid out to tell a story means that every once in a while I do look through them and remember times that I don’t often think about. I get my photo albums from Paperchase which you can get here and use brown photo corners which you can get here

I thought it might be nice to share with you a few from a few years ago.

For the full article of and more images of the album please go to the blog on my website.

Wedding Photography Packaging Part Two

After googling 'Wedding Photography Packaging' multiple different times, changing the designs of envelopes, stickers and USB cases- I am finally 100% happy with 'Eleanor Joy's Wedding Package'. I'd even go as far as to say that I am proud of Eleanor Joy's Wedding Package.

So what's inside (I hear you all ask)

• A Personalised USB with:

400+ fully edited, high resolution colour images- printable up to A4
80+ fully edited, high resolution black and white images- printable up to A4 
All the original images so if there are any extra photographs you wish to have edited I can do that for you

• 4 envelopes with:

30+ 6x4 prints of some of the beautiful moments

• And a chocolate bar because I like receiving chocolate so I thought they might too!

Wedding Photography Packaging

I’ve been focusing on the presentation of the wedding photography packaging. Currently I provide all the edited and original images on a USB stick which is presented in a handmade, bespoke package. As an addition to this personal photo package I am now creating cute string-tie envelopes to hold the couples prints. As I am addicted to taking photos, I took a few photos along the way- just incase you too have a yearning to create a few little envelopes.

So here's a step-to-step guide

Step 1. Create an envelope template.

Step 2. Fold it all up.

 Step 3. Seal it with some Washi tape (or if you’re not using tracing paper some Pritt Stick)

Step 4. Cut out the shape of card which your string will fasten round.

Step 5. Make a slit in the shape you just cut out and another slit where you want the shape to be fastened on to your envelope.

Step 6. Put a paper fastener through. I bought my paper fasteners from Amazon for about £1.50

Step 7. Tie a knot with string round one of the cut out shapes and wind the thread around both shapes.

Step 8. Finished

So here you have it, the very first string envelope made by me! The couple I photographed at Gatton Manor on 14th February (photos are here) will be the first couple to receive the new handmade wedding photography packaging (photos of the final thing will be up shortly). And from then on I’ll be needing to make lots of these envelopes for many different reasons – the main one being that they are just so cute!!

A Ribbed Scarf

This winter I've been knitting a scarf with 'Pamola Tweed' wool by Debbie Bliss.

It's £6.95 for 50g (You can find it using this link) but totally worth it! So soft and also washable! I used 7 balls for this scarf with 9mm knitting needles. The recommended for this wool is 10mm but I wanted the knit a little more tight. It's a pretty simple scarf- just two purl and knit. 

There's lots of videos on YouTube- which is how I learnt. Just type in 'Ribbed Knitting'.

With my tail between my legs...

A few months back, shortly after the renovation of my photography website and blog, I told myself and everybody else that this trustworthy blog was no longer in use. However, I miss it. And I miss the guilt free posting of whatever creative Wotsits I fancied posting about.
My photo site shall be my photo site and from here on up I shall be posting creative Wotsits to my hearts content!
Starting with a couple of cushions I created; a girly one for me and a not-so-girly-one-but-still-quite-girly-one for my boyfriend!