On Thursday last week, we went to Harriet Kelsall jewellery in Hertfordshire to pick up my engagement ring!

I'm really pleased with it, and lucky for everyone on the road on Thursday, Piete drove us home, so I could sit and look at it!

And this means that for the moment, there's nothing exciting going to happen about the wedding for a while. Neither of us are in any rush to get married – we still have to move house, with all the expense from that, and at some point, we get to commission wedding rings, but for the moment, we're just going to be engaged, and having fun with estate agents, and vans…and then the decorating and unpacking – yuck!

This blog will be updated when we know more!

Tomorrow afternoon, we get to pick up my engagement ring. The jewellers also put up a blog post about every ring, so I will let you know when it's up! And I'm sure I'll post when I've actually got the ring, and can take a photo myself!

Now I just need to get through the next 20 hours or so without bouncing off the walls - it's like Christmas!

Exactly two weeks ago, Piete and I were at the jewellers designing my engagement ring, and late on Thursday just gone, Rebecca contacted Piete to tell him that they've found the stone for my ring!

The ring on the left is one that I tried on whilst we were discussing ideas, and the stone is 7mm on each side. My stone is 5mm on each side as the 7mm one looked pretty over the top when I tried it on.

It's been pointed out that I've not given links to some of the bits I was talking about for my ring, so I'll describe it again, with links!

It's going to be in palladium, which is a white/silver metal, with a green tourmaline trillium (the stone is cut so that it looks like a triangle, as you can see in the picture!). The stone is going to be set in tension style, which is apparently safer than an actualtension set ring, and so I won't loose the stone!

There's also going to be along the lines of this ring, which you might be able to see from the pencil design, but there's going to be a couple of diamonds on there as well.

All in all, I'm counting down the days until it's finished, and I'll let you know when I know more!

23 January is a day that should have been a lot sooner. We went to design my engagement ring today, after having to postpone it from 9 January, which was when there was so much snow that we weren't even sure if Piete could come home for the weekend, let alone try to get to the jewellers, without getting stuck in any snow drifts (even though Piete had a duvet and a spade in the back of the car, it still didn't seem to be a great idea!)

Piete and I had done some research before today. I knew that I didn't want a heart shaped stone, or for it to be too gaudy, and that the long term plan for when we actually get married would be for my engagement ring, my wedding ring, and Piete's wedding ring to have a matching theme/echo across them all. Not the best description, but here's some links to sets that have this idea in mind!

After some excitement on the drive ('dear good lord! If anyone tries to come down this hill while we're going up it, we're toast!' for example), we got to a beautiful showroom, where we spent just under an hour and a half designing the ring with Rebecca.

And (drum roll please) here's the rough design! Yes, it really is a rough design, and so you can't see that the stone is a trillion, and going to be a tourmaline. That the setting is meant to look like it's tension set (yay!), and that the metal is going to be palladium (very white looking metal – think silver), and that there's going to be some diamonds in it (had to be done, after all, it's an engagement ring!)

I'm absolutely thrilled, and can't wait for the six weeks until it should be ready! Don't worry, there'll be more pictures when I actually get it, and I'm very sorry, but I am going to be bouncing about it for a while!

You might have read Piete's blog post, and as a couple of people have guessed, something exciting happened at Christmas.

Piete made me a story for my advent calendar, which turned out to be the story of how we got together – complete with the hideously embarressing incident on stage in the first year of university, where the comedy act made us 'fall in love' – who knew it would actually happen one day!

On Christmas day, I had a couple of presents that I knew, and one that Piete had mentioned, muttering that it wasn't enough, and he wanted to get me something else as well. So after opening the presents that I knew about (and all the rest – the living room was a bomb site of wrapping paper, and presents), I (spoilt brat that I am) asked after the other present, which Piete had even pointed out as being in a large envelope in the trunk. And that's when Piete asked me to marry him, and gave me the present, which turned out to be a little presentation box for the ring.

Of course I said yes! I may also have mentioned later on Christmas day that since Carrie and Mr Big hadn't gotten married until they'd been together for ten years, that he had still had time!

So, we're going to go to Harriet Kelsall jewellery, where we're going to have my engagement ring designed and made, which, given how I like to play with beads, and have always loved jewellery, I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that I'm over the moon about.

The wedding will happen sometime (Piete recently found out his grandparents were engaged for 7 years, and when his mum asked his gran why that was, the wonderful answer was: 'I enjoyed being engaged', which is what I plan to do, though hopefully for not as long!), in the meanwhile, we have to move counties, I have to find a new job…and I have I mentioned i'm getting a lovely ring?!