Hello!  It is Royal Wedding Day!  I am a little excited.  See, I am not really a royalist, despite being married to a Dane, whose royal family is one of the longest running monarchies in the world.  Also, despite the fact that I not too long ago realized I had unwittingly given all 3 of my children middle names after English kings and queens (Richard, Elisabeth and Mary).  I am excited for William and Kate.  Because it is their day.  And we get to have a little look in.

I made a banner to go with the party my neighbour and our kids are having tonight.  There will be a little champagne, maybe some cherry bakewells, a few crisps (that is really what they call chips over there!).  There will be lots of fake British accents thrown around (my kids think this is really funny!).  The banner was completely inspired by Tiff from Dotti Angel’s lovely weathered cotton bunting.  You must go and have a look.  I thought it so pretty.

Anyway, Happy Wedding Day to William and Kate, may your day be lovely and special, just as mine and Mr Viking’s twas.

It has been a full mailbox the last two weeks.  Here are some of the goodies that have surprised (and delighted) me.  The top picture is a lovely mixed media work that I found, by Portland artist Cathy McMurray.   It was a present for Mr Viking for our wedding anniversary on Monday.  It is titled ‘Books’.  He really liked it.  We read a lot in bed and it is for above our bed.  I said it was a double present because he gets to put a hole in the wall to put it up, which is one of his favourite things to do! 

The pretty blue card is from Mr Viking to me – it came with some sweet cotton bed socks, as cotton is for your second wedding anniversary.  Yes, we have been together since 1994, though only married two years ago.  It was time!

Inside Out arrived this week.  I have been a subscriber for many years.  I was a little nervous when Karen McCartney left as I really liked her aesthetic (even after 10 years) though I really liked this issue with Richard Waller the editor doing a great feature on collecting Art. 

Can you see the pretty Bespoke zine in there?  I was a lucky winner of this over at the Brown Paper Bunny blog last week.  I have loved reading it, it is jam packed with crafty articles of all sorts.  Jess from Epheriel Designs puts this together.  You won’t be dissapointed.  Jess, from Brown Paper Bunny, makes really fun cards and things here.

The pretty butterfly envelope and notecards came from Etsy seller Sarah Ogren.  Sarah is a mixed media artist with lovely whimsical work.  The japanese tapes are from Uguisu, my favourite place to buy tape supplies – Hiki’s service is outstanding and fast.

Last but not least, Chantal, whom I met at the ABCD meet-up last week, well we did a little swap - some notebooks for one of her gorgeous Willy Wagtail stamps.  Chantal hand carves these stamps, they are so clever, she also makes lovely Easter cards which you can find here.  It is not normally this exciting a week of post, so definately worth sharing.