Jo's Crocheted Scarf

Look at this beautiful scarf. I just love the colours. It was made for me by Jo at Daisychain Designs. How sweet is that? Jo said in the note that she sent with it that she thought I could wear it while I'm cycling about the Oxfordshire countryside. Jo - if I had any sense of direction (or sat nav for my bicycle) I would do that but I fear getting lost in the countryside so I shall just stick to the routes I know. That means the scarf will come with me to town, Grandma's, the wool shop and Tesco. Possibly Waitrose but to be honest I don't think I know how to get there. I know, I'm abysmally bad at directions. It's an affliction!

Bar Cupcake beads I have zero, like nil, zip, zilch, nada, negative, absolutely no motivation or inclination to do bead things at the moment. This is annoying me, and probably you as well. I'm trying to do stuff but it either goes wrong or I end up hating whatever I make. It's a beadfunk and there ain't no way out of it except giving it time to pass. Please bear with me, beadpeeps and I'll try and have some beads to show you soon.

Dylan's Pinwheel Cupcakes

Just got in. Lots of travelling today - Cambridge, through London, to Oxford then to Southampton and then back to Oxford. I'm a bit tired. *Yawn*

So this is just a quick post to show you the cupcakes that I made for Dylan's first birthday. They're vanilla cakes filled with raspberry jam and topped with pale blue buttercream and hundreds and thousands. I decorated them with tiny gold paper pinwheels. I found some pinwheel (or windmill, call them what you will) decorations for cupcakes but to be honest I thought they were a tad big and ever-so-slightly ... well ... gaudy. So I decided to fashion my own instead. I spent far too many hours on Thursday night making these.

The wheel part is only about an inch wide so they were quite fiddly and yes, they actually spin. This fact amused Robyn greatly although I didn't really appreciate her blowing on the pinwheel with a mouth full of cake - I was showered with damp cake crumbs. Nice.

Time For Tea

A few weeks back Yvonne at Adventures Of A Lady In Training organised a craft swap. I was intrigued as I've read a lot about these swaps but have never taken part in one so I decided to bite the bullet and join in! The theme of the swap was 'Time For Tea' and we had to make a teatime-themed item for the person we were partnered up with and send it along with some tea and a few items that they could make use of with regard to their chosen craft or hobby.

My partner for the swap was Kathryn at Lazy Daisy Glass. She creates fused glass art and she sent me a whole abundance of loveliness. There were pendants and cupcakey things along with some beautiful Japanese paper, some biscuits (always good with a cuppa) and many other crafty bits and pieces. Basically, Kathryn was a fab swap partner! Please click here to see details of the contents of my swap parcel.

I sent Kathryn a Cupcake Cluster necklace, some Redbush tea (her favourite), some spangly knitting needles and some buttons. Big thanks to Vonnie for arranging the swap - it was fun!

I'm blogging this from Chris's flat as I'm in Cambridge. I'm off to Southampton tomorrow afternoon to see Dylan as it's his first birthday this week - can't believe he's a whole year old. Where does the time seem to be disappearing to this year? Is it just me or is 2009 just flying by?

Beads for sale later in the week ..... promise!

Just a note .....

. . . . . to say have a good weekend! I'm off to Cambridge to see my other half.

I've just received my lovely package of 'Time For Tea' swap goodies from Kathryn at Lazy Daisy Glass. She's been so generous! I shall blog about that from Cambridge as I have to go and pack my bag and catch my train now.

I baked cupcakes this morning - vanilla with palest green fondant icing with sugar flowers. Simple but pretty, methinks.

Catch you all later!

'Make Jewellery' Magazine

I received issue one of Make Jewellery yesterday and I'm really impressed with it. It's glossy, colourful and modern and contains some really interesting articles about trends, business and celebrity jewellery. The projects are great too - they're beautifully presented and feature wirework, resin, seed beads, crystals and much much more.

Make Jewellery is available now at all the usual places.