Our Day by Design

Last weekend, the 20th / 21st November, I was down in London for the Hen Do for my sister Ashleigh, who is getting married on the 18th December. I am the only bridesmaid, or maid of honour, so it was up to me to arrange the weekend of events and keep it a complete surprise from Ashleigh. The only thing she knew was that it was to be held in London, where she lives {since the wedding is up in Edinburgh}, and that we were going to stay over somewhere for one night. It was a fantastic weekend and Ashleigh loved everything I had planned, from start to finish! Since both me, mum, my aunt and Ashleigh's friend Claire had all come down from Edinburgh on the 6.25am flight on Saturday, we had to get up at 4.30am and me, Claire & Ashleigh didn't go to bed until 4.30am on the Sunday morning. We started drinking at Ashleigh's at 11.30am and probably didn't stop until the club closed at 3am, so I was probably drinking for almost 16 of those 24 hours! L-R: Ashleigh, Claire, ...

Congratulations to the wonderful Anna from Anna and the Ring , who is marrying her Bean today! As I'm sure you are all aware, Anna is another British blogger who was one of the first to find my blog last July; she was so supportive up to and since our wedding, I love getting all of her lovely comments and she even left my this lovely post on my wedding day. I have loved reading Anna's blog up to her big day and I'm so excited for them both and cant wait to hear all about the wedding! I very almost met Anna last month but hopefully we can arrange a proper meet up soon! I hope you both have a fabulous day and it is everything you could have wished for! xxx

I wrote a guest post for Laura at Purple & Pearls , while she is on her fabulous honeymoon, about the last bit of DIY I did for our wedding, the Thank You Cards! You can read all about how I made them, the supplies I used, as well as the photo cards we put inside, over there ; hope you enjoy!

It was another early start the next morning, so that we could get to the rock fortress of Sigiriya before it got too hot since it involved an energetic climb to the top for the spectacular view. The guidebooks even warn you about the climb before you go! So hats, water and trainers at the ready we arrived at Sigiriya before 9am and started our climb. Even at that early time in the morning, it was so hot, which made the climb harder so I would not have liked to have done it during the hottest part of the day. Twice we saw people who had to lie down as they had underestimated the climb in such a heat, and the amount of water needed to get all the way to the top. Half way up there is a mirror wall and up a small metal spiral staircase there is a gallery of cave paintings. At the top of the rock is the main fortress. Lions paws guard the entrance to the palace ruin which is right at the top. It was definitely worth the climb to see the views but the last bit on the rickety metal stair...

The next morning we had an early start from Mount Lavinia. Kuoni had thought of everything on the tour and all we had to do every morning we were leaving was put our suitcases outside our room and they were taken to the coach. After our first experience of a Sri Lankan breakfast {basically everything normal then loads of curry} w e all piled onto the coach and started the journey. Our first stop on route to Habarana was the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela . We started by going down to the river to watch the elephants having their bath. It was amazing to see all of the elephants so close up. We had specifically wanted to visit the orphanage after visiting one in Thailand in 2006 which we loved. While this one wasn't as established, it was still a wonderful place to visit and I loved seeing all the elephants up close again. After their bath, the elephants were lead up the main road back to the orphanage. You just had to move out of their way as they knew exactly where they were go...