Chocolate Cupcake Challenge

I was asked to make a new design this week for a little girl who loves chocolate!

Her mum wanted to buy her a personalised cupcake apron, but could I make it as a chocolate one instead?

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. I tried using brown felt instead of the pink, but it looked like a muffin rather than a cupcake, so I added some white icing and a red button for the cherry.

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I've also used red gingham and felt instead of pink.

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I shall shortly be adding this style to the website and I hope Amelia likes it!

From America To Norway....

I was tickled to read two of my "blogging-friends" blogs this morning.

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First is Susan's blog in America. Susan makes gorgeous children's paintings and lately she has been experimenting with clothes-pin dolls (wooden pegs to us in the UK!)

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To quote from her blog today : In the meantime, it's been near 100 degrees the last three days so we've been hanging out by the pool! Not getting too much craftiness on when I'd rather be swimming.

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(Jealous? Me? Nooooo)

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Next I read Emily's blog in Norway. Emily also makes gorgeous dolls ... beautiful fabric Baboushka dolls.
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Here is a quote from her blog today : the winter was long and dark in Norway and the lighter days, buds on the trees and flowers in the garden are oh, so welcome! I might even forget about sewing and knitting for a little while, but not too likely

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It made me reflect about how much the weather affects us! As I type this, from one window I can see blue clear skies, the apple tree has some blossom coming and the clematis has a few flowers. From the other window I can see big, dark clouds threatening to bring rain.

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I also received a nice surprise from another blogging friend .... Sam at Incywincy has given me an award!

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I have to give this award to 5 other bloggers.

For making me think about the weather (and just because I love their work) I shall give an award to both Susan and Emily.

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I love to read Happy Loves Rosie's blog, because like me, she loves Cath Kidston products and has even met her!

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I also enjoy reading Hoola Tallulah's blog ... especially now she has some happy news!

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I shall also give an award to Claire because it was from her blog I pinched the excellent Feedjit widget!

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Thank you ladies!

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Anyway, I also thought I'd share with you my workroom. It's nowhere near as nice as Heather's workroom (here), but it just about does me!

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The boxes in the tall, skinny shelves are all my buttons, sorted into colours. The pink VW Beetle on the far right on the shelf above my desk is my CD player. The black table has now been covered with an ironing-pad and is in effect now my ironing board!

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To the left of this picture are my two floor to ceiling drawer units crammed with my fabric ... again sorted into colour. There are 4 drawers for pink!

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This is the view as you walk into the workroom.

The drawers under the black table are for all my beads ... sorted into colours again! The little drawers (behind the chair with the pink box on top) are for my threads, bobbins, sewing feet, screwdrivers and stuff!

Football and Beads

I finished this personalised football bunting today.

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It's in the team colours of Manchester City and I was under strict instructions that there must be NO RED!

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I have to profess, I no absolutely nothing about football (apart from the fact the players get paid way too much money), so having had a quick look at the Man City website, I really hope I've got the colours right!

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I've also had a hankering for ages to get on and do some jewellery making, so I made these last night.

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White and silver watch :

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White and silver bracelet :

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Pink tone bracelet :

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I have a lady's shopping event later in the week, so I'm hoping they'll be liked!

Virtually Me

I'd like to introduce my virtual me:

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I saw a link to this website on Happy Loves Rosie's blog and just had to have a play!
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This is generally how I feel after a day of sewing :

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And this is how I keep my jellybelly thriving :
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This is what I do in the evenings :


And this is how I'd like to look!

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I'd love to see your meez!

Fab Finds And New Toys!

I dodged the april showers today and went to the "Stitch and Creative Crafts" show at the Bath & West showground.

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It wasn't as big as I was expecting, but there was a nice selection of fabric, ribbon and button sellers there, so I still had fun!
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.I bought home these 1 metre rolls of fabric .....
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These Amy Butler and Kaffe Fasset fat quarters .....
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This yummy ribbon ......
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These buttons for a project I have in mind ......
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The buttons and ribbon came respectively from these websites :
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buttons ribbons
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And THIS is being delivered next week .....
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... my new toy! It's an applique / embroidery machine!
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I had a fun morning, but I was a bit puzzled as to why there was a garlic-peeler stand, a hedge-pruner stand and a stall selling applie-pies ... at a stitch exhibition? Still, the apple-pie was yummy after tea!

Bunting Giveaway

For your chance to win a jellybelly*jellybrain bunting of your choice, please enter the competition being run on the Funky Finds Blog :
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The giveaway runs from 24th - 30th April

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Good luck!

Time Travel

I had a hair appointment yesterday that I arrived a bit early for so I took the opportunity of having some spare time to browse in the charity shop next door.

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Hidden away on a bottom shelf was this collection of children's Ladybird books. I had a quick look through and decided to buy them.

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It wasn't until I got home I had a proper chance to sit down and look at them in any great detail.

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Now, my memory isn't that great (hence jellybrain) and I had completely forgotten about this book, (no reason I should remember it I suppose) but the instant I saw this cover, I was transported back to my childhood. I was mesmerised.

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Even more so when I saw this page.

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I don't remember any of the story or many of the other pictures in the book, but these pictures really stirred up some long-forgotten memories and I spent ages absorbed in them.

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I don't know why those pictures in particular jumped out at me, but it was nice to see them again and to do a spot of time-travelling!

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I was going to give the books to boy*jelly to have as he enjoys learning to read, but I think they might go on my bookshelf instead!

Colin Gets A Pet

You may remember I recently won Wilbur from Paper and String

Well he has completely settled in to his new surroundings and snuggles down every night with the other teddy-pets..

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However ......

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Colin apparantely wanted his own tortoise for a pet, so boy*jelly has made him one.....

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So sweet!

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And here they are getting cosy in Colin's bed

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I can't think where boy*jelly gets his creativity from!

Mad For Bags

With only 2 orders outstanding because I'm waiting for a delivery of some fabric, I decided to have an indulgent day today and make some products for fun (who shouted "housework" from the back?)

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It was a real pleasure to rifle through my drawers of fabric mixing them together as well as playing with my buttons and ribbons stash.

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In the end, these are the bags I made:

To see more photos, please click here.

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Sue also finished some more hats over the weekend. Here they are being modelled by "Elspeth the Head", only they are slightly too big for her as she is just a slip of a girl, and these hats are made for adults! Still, it's easier to take a photograph of them on her than get a real-life model!

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With warmer weather forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week, I may continue in my self-indulgence and get out into the garden (again, who shouted "housework"?)

These are some of the blossom trees that are in Granny and Grandad's garden and every year they look beautiful for a couple of days before they get pelted by the April showers.

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Now I'm just off to look up the word "housework" in the dictionary.......

101 Pink Triangles

Okay, not quite as cute as "101 Dalmations" I grant you, but this week seems to have been a week for personalised bunting orders, and I ended up having to draw, cut, sew and iron 101 pink triangles today!

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The buntings are all made, personalised and wrapped ready to be posted on Monday.

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I love packing the finished products. I use girlie pink mail-bags and have some blue ones on order.

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I think they look really pretty, especially with this new tape I've recently acquired....

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Hopefully, they raise a smile when our customers receive them.

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I'm now off to check the weather forecast for tomorrow as it is the first car-boot sale of 2008 tomorrow, as long as the rain stays away.......!

Wanted : Sunshine!

Sue has just finished making some more floppy sun-hats, and as promised, here is one made from Cath Kidston fabric!

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It's fully reversible and has a really wide brim to keep the sun off your face.

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lining:

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All that's needed now is some sunny weather!

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I hope to be able to add a range of sun-hats to the website soon.

London, New York and Miami

I got up early yesterday morning to head for London with Carol.

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After an hour and a half of gossipping and putting the world to rights, we spent a lot of time looking at this:

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And this:

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But at least in the end we got to look at lots of this:

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And then to really make my day we went to a naming ceremony where they have named a street and apartment block in my honour:

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(that's a joke, but I was really excited to find a road with my surname, I mean, it's not that common-a-name after all!)

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I got lots of gorgeous new products from the suppliers and hope to be launching them on the jb*jb website as soon as I have time.

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Then in the evening I nipped over to New York and Miami via the t'internet and Google's new gizmo "Street" where you can wander through virtual maps at street level.

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If you have a spare couple of hours (!) try it ... especially if you like seeing men in orange spandex! Unless of course, you live in New York or Miami, in which case, what are you doing inside reading this?!