Weddings and swaps

Things have been a bit hectic round here the last few weeks. My best friend got married on Wednesday in Cyprus and the weeks leading up to the big day were a blur of preparation. As well as this I was frantically and nervously preparing swap parcels for my two first swaps.

We flew to Cyprus very early on Tuesday morning, leaving our little girl with my mum. It was a big moment as we have never left her for more than one night before and this time we'd be gone for three so I found it hard, though Lillia was as happy as a lark!

The weather in Cyprus was sizzlng and sunny and we had much fun splashing about in the pool and drinking pimms before the boys all departed for the night. We spent most of Wednesday getting ready - the bride, the other bridesmaid and me - they are both really good at being girls and have lots of useful girl things like lip gloss, nail varnish and stuff you put in your hair to de-frizz it. It is a slightly alien world to me as I have never been great at being a girly-girl, but I enjoyed it very much, I used every pink and glittery bottle I could find.

The wedding was beautiful and so romantic and the bride and groom had a brilliant day. That's me on the bride's left with the brown hair...

Here's me and hubby, he was a groomsman and made the "best man" speech...

The happy couple...

It was all over very quickly. We we due to fly back late on Thursday and be back in the wee small hours of Friday morning but our plane was cancelled and in the end we got back seventeen hours late. It was a bit of a nightmare and reminded me why I don't generally fly! Plus we missed Lillia for a fourth night, arriving back after she had gone to bed. She was delighted to find us there in the morning though and although we are knackered it is soooo good to be home.

I had wanted to write a post about my swaps before I went but just didn't have a second. I took part in two - the first a general craft swap on the Here We Are Together blog, and the second a simple fabric swap from Parallel Botany.

As I am new to sewing crafts I was a bit nervous, and because I left things late of course I was under more pressure! I am not sure if either of my swaps have been received yet but I think a little teaser or two won't hurt.

For the first swap we are sending to one person and receiving from somebody else. I sent mine to Kristina who writes Growing a Better Me, though I am not sure if she knows she got me! She likes cats, black, teal, bright green and black. Here's a few teaser pictures...

For the second swap I exchanged fabrics with the swap organiser Lisa...



I really enjoyed the process of selecting suitable patterns and colours and reading through people's blogs to try and get to know them a bit. I really liked the wrapping and presenting of the swaps. I think that swaps may be a bit addictive! Plus of course there's the excitement of getting your little parcel in the post.

It's the end of a long long week so I am off to spend some quality time with little Lillia xx