A Busy Little Bee!

Hey there! Wednesday turned out to be a pretty busy evening...I've re-jigged my blog around, added a pretty new background and header that I think fit Wrapped Up With String really well, and I've finally listed some new items (long-awaited, I know...!)!

So here's my first batch of Father's Day cards - in which the recycled maps return...let me know what you think! Click the photos to visit each cards' Folksy listing.






As ever, I'm more than happy to make cards in colour-palettes of your choice, or with your own messages on the front or inside, and I have lots of different bits of maps, so if there's a place you'd like featured, just let me know!

I'd love to hear what you think to my new-look blog, too!

The Crocheted Throw Continues...!

Hiya! I hope the Bank Holiday treated you well and you spent it doing lots of things you enjoy! We did a bit of cycling, a bit of running, a bit of barbecuing, too much shopping (it was payday...!), plenty of cocktail-creating, far too much giggling at this video, and I also managed a couple more squares of my crochet throw! The magazine seems to have caught up with itself now - I've suddenly had a tonne of them through the door and have plenty to be going on with (including some comfy-looking socks that I might begin soon as they'll probably take me until Christmas to finish!)!

The most recent squares have been these two - the blue is a half-treble and is nice and dense (and square!), and the yellow one (maize, apparently!) is a ribbed treble stitch that doesn't really show very well, but it's very nice, I promise!


I've also begun a third, which promises to be really pretty when I manage to untangle myself from the various coloured cottons...it was really tricky to get, but satisfying when I finally did! There are more rows of bobbles to come, in yellow, blue and cream. I like it!


So here's the throw so far...it's taking shape at last!


I also finally picked up this monster from the Post Office...


It's a paper punch holder with 36 tiny punches in some really cute shapes! A teeny tiny cow! An aeroplane and a helicopter! An elephant!


I actually bought the punches below originally, without realising you need the holder thing to make the punches work, and then found the entire set for less than I'd bought the separate punches for, so I now have these twelve little paper punches going spare if anybody wants them?! You can use them without the holder, it's just really fiddly - but you can also buy the punch for a couple of pounds on eBay, so if anybody wants the spare punches, you're very welcome to them - just leave me a comment! Waste not want not and all that!


What did you get up to over the Bank Holiday?

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!