Big Blog Card Swap - The Cards!

Hello! I hope you're all well :) I am feeling rather blue today after failing my driving test yesterday (first time...second time is for winners, right?!), but looking at all the beautiful cards swapped during the Big Blog Card Swap and realising what a success it was has perked me up - I thought I'd show you the cards, as well as a cuter-than-cute message from our youngest swapper! Go check out their blogs (and you can also click the images to go to the designer's own pages)!

This is the card that Vicky sent to Kellie, mentioned in this post:


Naomi sent Vicky this pretty, mentioned here:


Marice received this stunner from Mary, and blogged about it here:


And Marice sent Jenny this cutie, and blogged about it here:


Kellie sent this card to Naomi (who's made a Big Blog Card Swap round-up post here!):


Hilary sent Hannelore this printed pretty, which is mentioned here:


I received this beauty from Helen, and blogged about it here:


Hannelore sent this geometric lovely to Yvonne, who blogged about it here:


And Sarah sent this recycled shabby chic card to Pam, who blogged about it here:


Last but certainly not least is Pam's bright explosion, which she sent to Myfanwy, who blogged about it here:


Gosh what a lot of links!

I also got the loveliest message from Jenny, the mum of my own swapper, who said: 'Thank you on behalf of my daughter Dakota for the card which arrived today. Dakota is nearly four and she loved undoing the string, unwrapping the paper and the beautiful ladybirds on the card. I asked her which special person she was going to send the card to, and she replied that didn't want to send it to anyone and to keep it for herself!'...aww! Her email made my day! Unfortunately I didn't photograph my card before I sent it (goodness knows why, I photograph everything at the moment!), but it had tiny wooden ladybirds on a leaf, and the hand-stamped message 'Just A Little Note...' - I'm overjoyed she liked it!

There were so many new ideas to inspire everyone - thank you all so much, swappers! If you're a swapper whose card hasn't been featured here, let me know and I'll add it! There was a great response, so hopefully Naomi and I will organise something together again - she's been a great partner in crime!

In other (highly irrelevant) news, I painted my nails green today...then realised they match my bike haha I've gone a bit bicycle mad!



What have you been up to this week? Have you had any successes? Failures? Tell me your driving stories and cheer me up!

Birthday Presents and Granny Tea Parties!

Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend and had some of the beautiful weather that seems to have given everyone I know a healthy glow! Thank you so much everyone for the birthday wishes, they warmed the cockles of my heart and made me feel very special, so thank you!!

We had a weekend in Liverpool this weekend - and I used one of my birthday presents whilst I was there as it seemed pretty apt! I really do <3 Liverpool...it's one of my absolute favourite places, especially when the sun's shining!


We did some sunbathing, some pasta eating, some cocktail drinking and some people watching - there's nowhere better to people-watch than Liverpool, literally every single girl looks immaculate (except me, obviously...!), I love it!


I also rode my new bike!! Ahhh look at it in all its glory...I'm in love! It's beautiful, floral and very ladylike (keeping up the pretence, oh yeah!)!



And I wore my new helmet - also beautiful and very ladylike - now all I need is some floral panniers!


...but until I get them, this pretty pretty Cath Kidston bag fits perfectly in the basket!


And I finished off the weekend icing and then eating (some of!) this monster of a carrot cake (recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery via Afeitar's post - it was amazing!) at fullofmarketingcupcakes' granny tea party! I learnt that I am rubbish at Scrabble, but it's pretty tricky when all you have is J, Z, K, G and three I's...I was well up for N'Dubzing-up some wordz, but apparently that is not allowed...boo!


What did you get up to?

Woohoo...!

...it's my birthday today! Yay! So I'm going to do an incredibly selfish post and show you lots of lovely handmade, UK-based things on Folksy that I'm loving at the moment! Click the images to go to the item's Folksy page!

Twenty-four lovely things, in fact...one for each of my years (eee!)!

























I hope you enjoyed that...if you're all the way down here, well done! Have a lovely day!

Book Reviews and A Little Creation!

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely weekend! I was pre-birthday treated to a hotel, a meal, and Russell Crowe's frankly ridiculous accent in Robin Hood - was it Geordie? Yorkshire? Irish? Only Russell knows...! Though I hasten to add, I did enjoy the film immensely! An eagerly-awaited parcel also arrived for me, and I thought I'd share the contents with you!



I've had an Amazon voucher hanging around my room since Christmas, and after seeing the ever-stylish Queen Michelle's review of Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means by Eithne Farry over on Kingdom Of Style, I decided it would be well spent on that and its sister book, Yeah, I Made it Myself: DIY Fashion for the Not Very Domestic Goddess, by the same author.

If I'm truly truly honest...I was slightly disappointed. The books themselves are beautifully designed and illustrated (my photos do them no justice, they really are lovely!), and very friendly and accessible, but I have only the most basic knowledge of seam-stressing and they were still just too simple - a lot of the projects are really quite obvious.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot about both books I love; the background stories, the handy sewing hints and the way the books show the reader their way around a sewing machine:



...some beautiful projects to try:








...some charming accessories:


...and an amusing tutorial (from the author's experience in domestic science lessons) named 'How to make a draught excluder in the shape of a sausage dog in 17 weeks':


But there's also quite a bit of repetition between the two books:





...and some of the projects are so simple, they're on the silly side:




What do you need for this butterfly headband? A headband and some paper butterflies...oh...


A chip-fork necklace...? I don't care if Tatty Devine designed it, it's ridiculous (and you'd be forever sniffing vinegar!).

I am glad I bought them, but I could have just bought the second one ( Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means) and been happy! Have any of you bought any crafty / thrifty books recently? What have you thought?

Talking of simplicity, however, sometimes it's the best way! I recently bought these beautiful hair pins from eBay:


...and after having a little look at their construction, quickly rustled up another set from some wired roses I had hanging around:


I love them!

I'm generally too lazy (busy!?) to do my hair, and shoving it up in a bun with these pretty flower pins is my answer! What do you think?