Sweet Bee's summer makes

At the beginning of summer 

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with myself

so I created a board on pinterest of things that I would like to make

One of the things I pinned was a beautiful string picture

 which I found on this blog

I decided that I wanted to make one for my new uni room 

and used Dina's great instructions

It has taken me a VERY long time! 

I’m pretty slow at making and finishing anything

and instead of using cork as Dina suggested, I decided to use MDF

 which made banging in the nails hard work and noisy!

 

 

I nailed one letter a day which was quite tedious 

but I kept at it, as I was desperate to start my rainbow threading!

 I have finished it now and I’m so pleased!

I can’t stop looking at it! 

Mum also loved it and has decided to copy me he he

 she is making one for our hall

it will say 'Sweet home' once it's done!

After I finished my string picture I suddenly had lots of free time again

so I made some jamaica flower iced tea, I found the recipe here

It was delicious!!!

and to go with it, some yummy chocolate and almond fudge

I found the recipe in mum's huge pile of recipes pages

Dad was pleased and said it was the best fudge he had ever tasted! 

it isn't hard to please him with food though, he likes just about everything

and lots of it.

I hope you've enjoyed my posts

I have had fun hijacking mum's blog

I think this will be my last one

 I'm back off to uni at the end of September

thank you for all your lovely comments on my previous posts

Bye!

Sweet bee 

 

better late than never .....

Hello my lovelies

Do you remember a while ago 

when I talked about my cutting patch?

(you can read about it here and here)

well ..... at last I have something to show you

It has taken a while to get going

(understatement)

due to the very strange weather we have had this summer, I am guessing

not my lack of green fingers, you understand  ;o)

 

but I am so happy ..... the flowers are gorgeously pretty

there are stunning red poppies, white ‘purity’ cosmos, cornflowers

 and Ammi Majus or Bishop's flower, that’s the white lacy one

 

I ordered them for here

(big surprise!)

Mr Sweet and I are hoping to visit Sarah’s beautiful garden this weekend

I am so happy

It has been lovely to bring them to bring inside

they brighten things up no end

and what a great year for red, white and blue flowers

 I picked a gorgeous posy of them to take

to our lovely friends last weekend

I am waiting for this to burst into colour too

So excited

I sowed a packet of mixed poppy seeds into a new bed a few weeks ago

I can see the buds getting taller and taller and fatter and fatter

so it won’t be long now

Oh ….. the excitement is excruciating

 (they are also from here, I think it was these)

I do hope so!

 I stupidly threw the packet away

so it will be a bit of a suprise!

I am taking a little end of summer holiday

I feel the need to dedicate my love to

my family, home and myself for a little while

I feel tired

I just can't seem to get enough sleep at the moment

so I am also hoping, after I have 'loved' my home

(aka ..... a jolly good clean and sort out)

to slow down the pace of my life

just for a little while

My etsy shop will close this Friday 

until sometime in the second half of Sepetember

So ..... here's wishing you a lovely few weeks

see you soon

 I am off to finish a few custom orders

toodle pip

 ♥

back soon

Big love

j x

P.S  Sweet B has a fabulous post lined up for you soon!

happiness is .....

..... hanging out with friends

Please let me introduce ~ Miss Violet Skylet

she is my little mascot

I adore her ..... she makes my heart sing
she is a shy little bird with a love for violets
(it seems she is much like her creator!)

you can find her sitting pretty on my shop shelves

I have been working on some new Christmas birdies

but couldn't resist making these sweeties

I just couldn't get her out of my head

Happy Wednesday

BIG love 

j x

I've been meaning to show you .....

..... some things that I've been up to lately

I have had some lovely custom orders

A personalised bunting for a newly qualified teacher

A pink and green ladybird for Hayden

My first advent bunting order for 2012

A rainbow of pencils for Chloe

These pocket buntings and the Easter one below

have flown all the way to Vancouver to a pre-school

for counting practice ..... how sweet

I have added some pretties to my shop too

Three Liberty of London buntings

Oh how I love Liberty fabric

 I have also added to my advent bunting collection

Fairy Houses

Tilda Winter Bird

I hope you have had a lovely week with lots of sunshine

I have been partaking in a little garden lounging today

on my 'flower patch' quilt

I am finding 'lounging' rather hard work to do

I don't think it is in my genes

note to self: must try harder

Wishing you a wonderful weekend

Enjoy the last few days of the Olympics

hasn't it been incredible?

I have been blown away by team GB!

Back soon

BIG love 

j x

Ta....Da!

Hello

♥

Before I reveal my Ta Da

I just wanted to show you the gorgeous flowers

that Mr Sweet, my lovely hubby

gave me for our 21st wedding anniversary

Aren't they beautiful?

neither of us can believe we have been married for that long

TWENTY ONE YEARS

flipping heck.
Happy anniversary my lovely man
thank you for putting up with me
♥

Well are you ready for it?
I am so excited...

my first EVER quilt Ta Da!

my 'flower patch' quilt
for chilling in the garden

 

I have to say that I absolutely adore it, every single pretty square of it

The evening that I actually finished it I was super over-excited

I could tell that my guys had had enough of me

I laid it out on the carpet, the bed, the sofa

I laid it out in Sweet B’s room, lovely G’s room

Me .....

”isn’t it beautiful? 

“isn’t it the prettiest quilt you ever did see?”

“which patch do you like best?”

“I like this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and…”

“did you realise that I even made the binding?”

yes I can clearly see now that I was mighty annoying

but I really do ADORE it

I had breakfast in the garden on it the very next morning
it made me so happy

it isn’t perfect, there are lots of mistakes

and lots of corners that don’t meet

but I am proud to have made my very first quilt

would you like to know some stats?

It has 154 squares
for which I used pre-cut Tilda fabric patches
 I LOVE mix and match so I got one of each of their sets
sewing bird
garden party
Christmas
winterbird
and the gorgeous backing fabric is also Tilda from the garden party range
and is called flower patch in blue

It measures 165 cm x 210 cm

Before I started I read lots on the internet

but mostly I followed instructions in Alicia Paulson's book
Stitched in time
there is a baby clothes quilt project in there

her instructions are so clear

which made it simples.

Oh my I LOVE that lady for so many reasons

and her blog is inspirational and Oh so beautiful

When it came to tying the squares

I couldn't figure out how to find the centre of each square

without having to measure and make marks

and then Sweet B came up with this genius idea

(it could be that everyone else does this 
or that there is some other way of doing it)

she made me a paper square the same size as my patches

with a little hole in the centre

all I did was lay it over each patch and stitch through the hole
in, out and tie

 easy peasy lemon squeezy

you can read more about my first quilt adventure here, here & here

that's if I haven't already bored you to death!

Just a quick little thing before I go

the lovely Nina left me a very kind comment on my last post

suggesting that I enter one of my photos into the
Sarah Raven photo competition

thank you Nina…I plucked up the courage and did it!

I don’t think I stand a chance to be honest

the standard of the photos is immense 

 here is my entry photo

A BIG "Hello" to all of my new followers
It is lovely to welcome you here
x
and as always ..... thank YOU for visiting
and for all your sweet comments on my last jammy post
you are the best

Wishing you a super dooper weekend

BIG love 

j x