DIY blankets

In this northern part of the world we always run a risk of getting cold evenings, even in the hight of summer. If we're lucky we get a heatwave with tropical nights, but that rarely happens in August though.

Since we're having an outdoor lounge I figured some blankets would be a good idea in case it gets cold. 8 blankets is the plan. There are more blankets we could use too if needed.

It's the cheapest blanket available at IKEA with the cheapest quilt cover available at the same place. Two blankets and one quilt cover makes two swanky shabby blankets.

Now I have 6 more to make.

Romania? Not quite.

I have 20 fan bunting flags I need to make as decoration for the barn walls. I'm now halfway through the project. The "flags" are sewn together and pressed, ready to have one side gathered and a strip of fabric finishing off the upper side of the flag. Tomorrow I'll start with the gathering which will have to be done by hand because the folds need to be in a certain width for it to work. The hand basting will slow things down a bit. I have no idea how many I can make in one day, but I bet it won't be 15, as I did today.

There they are. All nicely pressed and folded. A good day's work indeed. And I'm blissfully ignoring that it looks like we're celebrating the free Romania. It is the colours of Sweden and Skåne. It'll look less... Romanian, when they're done I'm sure.

I'm done, in several ways

Second day of IKEA shopping and I'm done with it. What a relief. I also went to the textile store next to IKEA in Malmö and got myself some denim fabric and red gingham cotton plus thread, buttons etc. etc. and as I write this the fabrics are being washed so I can start sewing the clothes. Yay! I feel accomplished. And exhausted.

Time to start cutting some fan bunting fabrics!

A bit daunted

After actually calculating how much fabric I now have, I've realised how much I have to do. 20 fan buntings flags (70x125 cm) and 8 blankets. On top of the clothes. And the rest of the DIY. And the cooking. Sigh. I have 47 days left until the event but in reality I have 39 days.

I'm glad I'll be done with the shopping the coming days.

Hairdo musings

I have been messing with my dreads today. I don't have a fringe, something I have regretted not saving when I got my dreads every now and then. Right now I regret it a lot.

Thing is, since I've decided to head in the general rockabilly direction it'd be cool to have a fringe. I can make a back rolled fringe with my dreads, but dreads behave a lot different than ordinary hair does so I'm not sure it will be a good thing to do in the end. A normal fringe would be so much better. Problem is, I don't really want to buy an extension for just one day, and I'm not keen on cutting the dreads around the forehead to get a real fringe.

I like fringes, it's not that, but I've had these dreads for 5 years now. They've been my saving grace when my illness has caused my hair to fall out. I've grown very attached to them.

I'll think about it for a while.

How impossible can it get? Very impossible.

Finding dungarees/bib overalls has turned in to a challenge I didn't foresee. I'll have to abandon that idea unfortunately. They're either ridiculously priced at €315 or too large. I'd drown in loose fit 32', which seems to be the smallest size available.

I'll need to figure out something else obviously. I still don't want a dress. The most offbeat kind of clothing reasonably readily available is rockabilly style clothes, so I've been thinking I could perhaps head that way. I've also decided to go back to sewing again. It takes me about 2 hours to sew a pair of trousers and a peasant blouse takes a lot less. I think I'm going to wear a bandana in classic rockabilly fashion, because I want my hair up and out of the way. Just trying to pin it in to place is difficult because my hair is so heavy. Dreads tend to be. I'll come back to that later.

Jeans in dark indigo with yellow thread seams, higher waist than normal and cowboy style at the back and a gingham peasant blouse (haven't decided whether I should wear navy blue or red), that's what it looks like right now, and considering how close we are, it's got to be the final thing. I'm wearing flip flops or red Converse to this outfit, depending on weather. I have red wellies too if it really gets bad.

It's fairly close to what I had in mind at first. The trousers basically lack the upper part of bib overalls really. Now I only need the patterns and fabrics. Easy peasy.

Spending money

So today I got most if the things I still haven't bought which we need aside from the IKEA stuff.

• iron thread - for hanging the glass jars
• brick layer thread - for hanging fiesta bunting and balloons
• globe party lights
• wash line - for the ceremony and lounge
• schnapps glasses
• coffee cups
• gunny thread - for the name tags on the glasses
• plastic tablecloths
• paper runners
• plastic forks

Still to go are

• teaspoons
• bamboo torches
• plastic taps

I'm going to get the torches and teaspoons tomorrow and I'll order the taps next week. The first weekend of July I hope we can go to IKEA and get the stuff we need there.

This week we'll finish the cleaning of jars, making dahlia flowers and cutting the bunting. I'll be cocking some more gumbo of course. After the IKEA trip I'll need to sew the flag bunting and the blankets - and continue with the cooking. By the end of July I want everything do be finished, the DIY and the preparation cooking, so there's nothing hanging over my head. I'll need to be able to just clean and put everything up the last week before the big day. I want this to be a good time for everyone and I want to be able to enjoy it.

But oh, am I going to scare the teenagers doing the waiting? Yes I will. But it's not that bad. It's all a rather laid back affair and we could have pulled it off without the 4 or 5 teens we now have. They should be able to handle this without any problem at all. After all, we'll probably only be just over 40 in total without the teens.

I've really started

I have decided to make sugar skulls as cake toppers, but I'm not making it easy for myself. There are no moulds to be found on this side of the Atlantic and we don't have meringue powder either. While trying to figure out just what meringue powder is I stumbled over some sites (selling products naturally) stating using caps lock, YOU CANNOT MAKE SUGAR SKULLS WITHOUT MERINGUE POWDER. Fine, I get it, you need something to bind the sugar.

However, there are other things you can use to bind sugar so meringue powder isn't necessary. It's one thing to want to do it the way they're made in Mexico, and another thing to make a sugar paste so you can make a sugar skull. The key is the sugar and the skull shape, the rest is just... superficial. I'm going to make a sugar paste the way we make it here in this nook of the world and use it to make the skulls. No one's going to eat them or notice the difference anyway. It's going to be interesting.

I've started the cooking as well. The gumbo can be pre-made and kept in the freezer for up to three months, so it's time to start. I'm going to cook another 5 batches the coming weeks and then I'm done with the gumbo. Next thing is the tortilla bread. In July I'm going to make the meringue for the Pavlova cakes we're having and freeze them. The rest is going to be cooked the day before the wedding. It's not that much cooking to be honest, but a lot of dicing, cutting and mashing. In the morning on the wedding day cream will be whipped up for the Pavlova and we're also be making the drinks for the day.

I'm contemplating getting large plastic containers to keep the drinks in until it's supposed to be poured in to the dispensers. They are easier to store that way until it's time to drink them.

Well, it's slowly coming together with two months to go.

New dessert

We have gluten and lactose intolerance among our guests. I knew that one invited person, who have declined, have lactose intolerance but a mild kind, but it turns out that we have more people with these problems.

The dinner isn't a problem. I can make gluten free tortillas and use lactose free crème fraîche and everyone will be happy. The dessert however is a different story. The rocky road I was going to make contains both gluten and lactose. The gluten can be excluded but there's no such thing as lactose free milk chocolate.

Personally I don't like gluten free flour. I have been without gluten for two weeks to check if I had celiac disease and it was a horrible discovery. Baking with gluten free flour is baking concrete. Trying to mimic something for what ever reason, is usually not a good idea, and that's as true with plastic trying to look like wood as gluten free flour trying to be ordinary flour. It's a lot better to embrace the non gluten plants we have and adjust accordingly.

This means I will not make anything containing flour, so no cakes or pies of any kind. And when you think about it, there's a lot of flour dependant desserts out there. Since we have excellent lactose free products these days thanks to Valio, I don't have to exclude milk products as long as it's not milk chocolate.

I still want to make it simple, possible to pre-make and put in the freezer, so what are the options? Meringue can be frozen for up to a month actually, if it's the kind of meringue that has a sticky core, to preserve that chewiness. This means I can make them well in advance and take them out in the morning on the big day.

So what do you get if you combine meringue, whipped cream and fruits/berries? You get Pavlova. Not very southern, but it's a dessert everyone will be able to eat and it's always a huge hit. I still haven't met one who doesn't like Pavlova.

I'm relieved to have found a simple replacement (which actually is cheaper too) but now I have a plate related problem. Need to think about that.

The surroundings

After having the two main problems settled for real, the barn and the ceremony, I have turned my attention to the rest of the space. It's got to have some sort of festive feel to it too.

In front of the barn there's a farmyard (obviously) where people will spend quite some time. Especially the smokers in the congregation, but I suspect everyone will hang out there from time to time.

The plan has all along been some sort of a lounge next to the entrance of the barn. It's going to be quite simple, with a thatched roof of twigs, back against the barn wall, a cast iron sofa, a rattan lounge chair, some blankets, a chiminea, cushions and some rag rug. It'll be decorated with lanterns basically.

There's another spot on this yard where people potentially will sit and that's where the current garden furniture are. With some lanterns hanging from the branches of the chestnut tree in that corner it'll be a bit more festive. Some blankets would be needed as well.

We'll have to have a portable toilet here too, but where it's going to be located isn't decided on yet. There are two possible locations but either way it's going to be somewhat hidden. Not sure how that's going to be solved.

I'm thinking we might need some fabrics and hang them from clothes lines just like for the ceremony on strategic places, but I also came across an image with an idea I liked a lot.

Yeah, the truck is cute, but it's the flags I liked. We don't have a fence like that along the road past the farm but perhaps it could be solved anyway. There's a phone line along the road and the poles can be used and incorporated on the decoration. Not quite sure how yet.

Change of plans

We were at the site where the wedding will take place today. For the fourth time I went up on that field where I thought it would be best to have the ceremony.

The barn is a perfect place to have a party in but there aren't really an ideal place to have the ceremony. The garden had been perfect had the old beech still been standing, but some five years ago my dad cut it down. It was just as well, because it had a rotten core, as most beeches tend to get at old age and they didn't want it to end up on the house.

The field on the other side of the yard opposite the barn was the next place that came to mind. I wasn't very happy with it though. It's vast, and the backdrop isn't stunning, and today when I was out there I kept thinking about that it's a long walk to the best point on the field so the entrance would be very long, plus the fact that people will have to park on the field and also put up their tents there.

I went back to the garden and looked around. It still misses the large tree, but it is well kept by my mum and it has a natural slope and a large lawn. We could put up a backdrop at the lowest point on the lawn to draw attention from the kitchen garden there in the background. Behind the kitchen garden there's a wall of trees so it's all green, which is nice.

This would give us the opportunity to make a good entrance, the people have ample space for the ceremony and the drinks later, and since we have the house on the opposite side of the potential backdrop place in the garden, we can have music without a boom blaster.

So, suddenly it's a garden wedding, not a field ceremony. The backdrop will be different than the one on the field would have been, but at the same time it's more simple.

We'll set up a clothes line, use the table cloths we can find, a small table in front of the backdrop with room for the certificate and some decoration and we're good to go.

Party space

We've got 600 m² air to fill up in the barn where the festivities are held.That's an awful lot of space and you really have to think big. It's a challenge to make it feel festive without looking silly and tiny and to a very low cost. So, what can you put up there in abundance that hardly will cost you anything? The answer is fiesta bunting and balloons.

When I was in a toy store yesterday they had bags containing 100 balloons for €4.20. I got one bag, then went over to a hobby shop and bought a big pack tissue paper for €10.55. Balloons hanging in string and Mexican fiesta bunting on strings along with some globe string lights will ensure festive light and colour. I have enough tissue paper to make pom pom flowers too for the table decoration, which means we can finish the barn a day or so in advance and concentrate on food the last days instead.

Skulls?

I really like Dia de Muertos. I live in a country where Halloween really isn't celebrated, though the stores try to promote it, and it's damn cold and rainy in October/November. To me the bright, sunny and colourful celebration of your ancestors as you see in Mexico is fascinating and also something to be envied. What's not to like? Colour, celebration, warm weather and skulls?

There are of course cake toppers in the Dia de Muertos theme. I'm seriously tempted.

Sugar skulls like the one above can be found on www.artfire.com.

I like the elaborate ones above but I also like the second one, which isn't a cake topper obviously. I've used her as post card motif for Dia de Muertos the past 6 years. If you pimp her a bit more she'd work really well.

Since you really can't get hold of moulds here I guess I'll need to either make a skull and make a mould or find a suitable one and make a mould. Making the sugar skulls is in itself not difficult, it's getting hold of a mould that's difficult. Well, it can be done by ordering from the US but I have a hunch that the shipping will exceed the price for the moulds far too much.

If you're in the US you can use this internet shop: www.mexicansugarskull.com.

I had the, what I thought, perfect idea for a dress. I designed it and decided on fabrics, ribbons, the lot. Then I left it for 3 months. When I came back to it I realised that though I think it's cute, it's not exactly what I needed nor really wanted. The original plans was a bash. Not a WEDDING. There's a difference there. Actually a huge one.

I don't mind dresses or skirts, so it's not that, it's just that I've left fancy schmancy behind. If I don't have to do dress up, I don't do it. This party was meant to be come as you are. No fancy clothes. And definitely no petticoats. High heels is just plain dumb on a farm and out on a field.

I'm quite simply not going to wear that dress. I will try and find loose fit dungarees, a nice top, sneakers or flip flops if it's too damn hot, and wrap my hair the way I usually do it, and wear some ridiculously large blingy earrings, just as I like it. I can wear that and prepare, get hitched and dance away through the night, which this is all about.

After coming to that decision I felt a lot better about things. Now I only need to find dungarees, which has proven to be difficult. I prefer to try on clothes before buying them but none of the local stores have jeans dungarees. I can only find them on the net. There's no dungaree related crisis just yet though. I'll just keep looking.