Bumble Bee Biscuits

Goodness, it has taken me an absolute age to write this post!! We seem to be having troubles with our Internet (again!) and everything moves at a snails pace- if you are lucky. Anyway, we are here now and I hope you have all had good days? I have had a reasonably lovely one which involved lots of cooking and baking, but more on that later.
These Yellow ATCs are one of the most recent sets, whipped up yesterday in a frenzy because I was reminded that the deadline was in a few days. I do love mini patchwork!

We found out our colour for next month too so I made the purple ones at the same time to save on postage costs. (Every little helps!) Can't wait to get my returns back!!

On to the baking extravaganza!!! I was multitasking like a pro with this, juggling red velvet cake (above) with iced biscuits and a chicken and vegetable lasagna. The biscuits and lasagna were inspired by a Sainsburys booklet thing that Dad picked up the other day. The red velvet cake was a packet mix on offer in Morrisons (I don't pretend I'm a brilliant cook- quite happy to utilise the packet mix aisle!).
There were slight issues in tin sizes though so the cake ended up being a little, well, flatter than one anticipated! Note to self: must buy more regular sized cake tins. It is delicious though!

So in the children's section of the Sainsburys booklet there was a recipe for flower and bee biscuits which totally caught my imagination!! I doubled the recipe and got quite carried away with cutting out the shapes and arranging jelly beans.

I thought there were specific bee cookie cutter shapes, turns out the bees have a little secret! They are actually teardrop shaped cutter bodies with little heart wings!! I didn't have a teardrop shape but I did have a larger heart so I cut the hearts in half and shaped with my fingers. Worked just as well and they are so cute after being iced!!

I don't think my little biscuit creations will last very long!!

I just wanted to add a big thank you to all the lovely people who have been joining in with my free giveaway. Most of you have been participating through facebook, but I've noticed a few new followers which made me squeal out loud in excitement. Welcome to all you newbies!! xxx

Sleepy Ewe Giveaway!!!

Evening All!!! Remember these guys? Well I am pleased to announce that they are now part of a FREE GIVEAWAY!!! Very exciting. I will be giving four of these sleepy felties away to four lucky people, all you have to do is like the facebook page, comment on the facebook post, share the post or follow the blog! Bear in mind, each thing will get you one entry so if you do all four then you have a higher chance of winning!! The giveaway will close on August 10th so you have plenty of time to enter and tell your friends. Good luck!! =D xx

........................................................................................................................................................................

 

Edited to add: If you do not have facebook then commenting on this blog post will count as one entry as well as following the blog. xx

......................................................................................................................................................................


Edited again to add: It has come to my attention that Facebook apparently has rules about running giveaways of this sort on Facebook so I am having to change my rules slightly. From now on if all willing entrants to my competition enter through commenting on this post then that would be dandy. If you should happen to also like my facebook page or share the giveaway post and then comment on your doings underneath this post you may or may not get a few extra points and your name added to the hat a few more times. The competition closes at midnight on the 10th August and the winning names will be released on my blog on the 11th August. Winners can claim their prizes by emailing me their email addresses and this will be done privately without any involvement from Facebook or other public websites.
This giveaway is not affiliated or endorsed by Facebook!

(Any participants who have already entered via Facebook will still be counted)

Thank you!!

Mosaic Plate ♥

For my birthday party with friends, I chose to go to Glazy Daisy. I badger on about this place constantly and every year make a few more bits and bobs to add to my collection. It just has a wonderful creative atmosphere and encourages even the self advertised 'non crafty' people to have a go at craft. Excitingly, they are moving a few doors down from their current residence to a bigger shop to allow even more people to have a crack at it!!
I have been very inspired by mosaics recently and have just bought the tools necessary to make my own- for now though I thought it would make a fabulous plate pattern, and sketched a design whilst waiting for the bus- I think it's going to turn out rather well! (Fingers crossed anyway!)

The girls all got very crafty; Heather painted an oil burner, Amy painted a little penguin sign to go into her new classroom (congrats again on your new teacher-ship!!), Katie painted a lovely heart decoration for her Mum and Emma was inspired to make her own mosaic plate. The dinosaurs below were painted by Izzie- full of life and character!

I get to see my plate in all it's glory next Thursday when we are going back to GD for another go- maybe another mosaic plate too!!

Not only did I have a fab time painting my own pottery, but due to the big move, there was a sale table of previous display items painted by the very talented GD staff. I totally fell in love with this vase, the intricacy and detail in it is absolutely amazing (and it was only £7.50!!!) so it came home with me.

And when I haven't been painting and dribbling over pottery, I have been hard at work framing my stitched embroidery pieces. What do you think?

 

Elvis Goes To Pevensey

On Tuesday myself and Elvis went to Pevensey with some friends to spend the day at their caravan. It was a really nice day out, although the weather could possibly have been better. We went beach combing for shells, played ball games and cards, walked along the seafront and even watched the first footage of the Royal baby emerge from the hospital.

Post Birthday Post

Good Afternoon Everybody!! It seems like an age since I last posted, but I know it has only been a few days. The weather has been steaming hot down here in the South and it seems to have produced an abundance of shirtless retire-ees wandering around their gardens with knotted hankies on their heads. Each to their own I suppose. I am more of a shade person and prefer to wait until the early evening when the sun has slightly dimmed to an orangey glow before venturing out to do some sunbathing.
Ziggy has been finding the sun particularly strenuous, who knew that sleeping in the sunshine could be so exhausting!?!

Fred, my birthday owl, has found his place on the patio. The Mother has decided that even if I moved away from home, Fred is not allowed come with me because she likes his solemn little face peering out from behind the cat mint.

 

And my gladioli are positively radiant!! The colours remind me of the story of Snow White and Rose Red.

 



I have been getting some very exciting post in the form of badges for my camp blanket. I may have gotten slightly carried away with the excitement of bidding on eBay and one or two badges seem to be arriving every day so far this week, with many more still to come!! I have been frantically stitching them down, including the badges I bought at the Harry Potter studios, which were recently rediscovered at the bottom of the ironing basket.

And whilst on the subject of stitching, I have been very inspired by the flowers in the garden and have been drawing up all sorts of patterns and stitch ideas. The latest being this pansy design which is really quick and simple to put together, can be adapted to personal taste and colour choice and looks really lovely when framed. I think it may be another pattern to go on my list for my future shop!!

My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday!! (21st if you wanted to know.) The weather was glorious and Dad took the day off work so I wouldn't be home alone. We drove to Lewes and had a wander, I came across these beautiful gladioli in Tesco and decided to treat myself. It was my birthday after all!! (When taking this photo I didn't realise the brown bin was nicely centred- have any of you been introduced to the new bin system? It's so confusing!!)

At lunchtime we drove to Firle Beacon for a picnic and every time I go I can't help but take photos of the view!! It seems to slightly change every time depending on the weather, sometimes it is really clear all the way across the valley and other times the clouds mask the tops of the hills so you can't see much. (Check out previous posts here and here to see what I mean.)

This time it was really clear and you could see everything in crisp detail.

In the evening I had a family party- another picnic!- on Ashdown Forest. It was a lovely place to set up camp with tables and chairs, a great sandwich spread and birthday cake, complete with unlit candle (it was so windy the candle wouldn't stay lit so I had to pretend to blow it out!!).

Oooo, what is this casting a silhouette on the party?...

...Fred the owl!!! One of my favourite presents for the garden. Isn't he cute?

It was really lovely watching the setting sun go down behind these trees, dappled light filtering through the swaying branches. Another of my presents was a flamingo wind chime which we hung up on a branch to provide musical entertainment for the rest of the evening.

A lovely end to a lovely birthday. xxxx