Cupcakes : Back By Popular Demand ...

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I stopped making my cupcake bunting last year because it was quite

time-consuming, but I was always getting enquiries so I decided to start making it again.

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Now available to buy again from the website.
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And once I'd made it I got ideas for 3 new styles!
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Supplies have been ordered so watch this space!
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Make A Doll

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Just a quickie ...

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I know some of my blog readers enjoy making dolls and there's this great charity project taking place over at Craft Hope.

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If you'd like to make a doll for an orphanage, please pop over and have a look.

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The deadline to get the dolls to Craft Hope is June 13th

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If you do get involved, please leave a link to your blog - I'd love to see what we all make!
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Belated Blogging Birthday Giveaway

I've just noticed that my first blog post was on 7th March last year which means I missed my 1st blog birthday ... shame on me!

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To celebrate, I'm giving away one of my button necklaces to one lucky commenter to this post.

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All you need to do is tell me which of my blog-posts has been your favourite and I'll make a necklace in the winner's chosen colour combination.

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I'll use the Random Number generator to pick the winner on Sunday 10th May.

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So get trawling through my archives and let me know your favourite post!

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Camper Van Feedback

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Whenever I get the idea for a new design, it will stay in my head for a while before I feel confident enough to know how I'm going to make it.
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I'll make it in my mind's eye for a long time before actually cutting into any fabric and getting it made.
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I have wanted to make a personalised camper-van doorstop now for about

- oooh - three years and it's always been there in the back of my head, getting made and re-made (usually at 3am)
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So yesterday I decided to finally sit down and get it made.
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I started with this ...
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(note how I use the actual fabric, none of this trying it out on scrap fabric!)
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At least now I had something in my hands that gave me an idea of what was wrong and what was right.
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I then drew up a template on the computer ...
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And after a LOT of pinning and adjusting, this is the end result
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Mr Jelly thinks it's too tall - he thinks the curve of the 'v' should come down to the bumper - he's probably right, but that means I've got to make another one to photograph for the website.
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And after I'd added the rice, it was a bit saggy in the middle and bulged outwards (insert your own joke here) even though I've used firm interfacing ... so I gave it some internal scaffolding to hold it in the middle, but I'm not sure I like that either.
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So here's where you come in - do you have any suggestions, and also, I'd like an idea of what you'd be willing to pay for it as it was fairly labour intensive.

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I Made It!

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Remember I told you about some top-secret projects recently?

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Yes you do, it was on the post with a picture of George Clooney.

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Oh yes, NOW you remember!

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Well the 300 party bags was one of the projects and the other was sending some of my corsage jewellery to the editor of Make Jewellery magazine.

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Click any of the images to enlarge

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Having spent the week virtually house-bound with the chicken-pox-spot-ridden boy*jelly, it was a treat to get out to the shops and buy myself a copy.

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I let out an audible squeal in the middle of Smith's when I saw they'd photographed one of my necklaces on a real-live, pretty, make-up wearing model!

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Much prettier than my plastic mannequin!

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Go out and buy a copy ... they're giving away one of my poppy choker necklaces with matching poppy brooch for FREE!
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Or if you can't find a copy, you can enter online here as well as watching tutorials and projects.
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And if you're not lucky enough to win, you can always visit my

Folksy / Etsy / Artfire shops to see what's currently available.

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At the time of writing, the beaded corsage necklace featured in the magazine is available to buy.

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When I got over my excitement, I had a proper look through the rest of the magazine, and I can honestly say it's full of great ideas and projects for making jewellery.
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I love this Fimo bangle project and am tempted to have a go ... one day

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A Feast For The Eyes

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Last night, me, Mr Jelly, jelly*bestfriend and jelly*bestfriend's husband went out for a proper grown-up, child-free meal.

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Somebody recently recommended this place in Swindon so we gave it a try.

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Inside a very contemporary, large dining-area are separate "islands" with different foods.

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There was a huge variety of Indian, Thai and Chinese food ("Pan-Asian"), with a little bit of "English" sausage, chicken nuggets and chips too ...

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Once we had been shown to our table we were told you take a plate and help yourself to whatever you wanted and as much as you wanted.

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And when our plates were empty, we got to do it all again!

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Yup. Eat as much as you like for £12.00 a head!

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Choose your meat ...

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... and watch it being cooked on the Teppanyaki hotplate and barbecue grill

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Well guess which islands I spent most time at ...

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This island had fruit and chocolate cake, and ...

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... the biggest bowl of profiteroles!

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You'll be pleased to hear I resisted the urge to stick my head in the chocolate fountain!
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These looked really pretty but were a bit like eating candles

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It was a great experience, and the food was top-notch - there was something for each of us.

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Here's their website if you want to see if there's one near you.

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If you do go ... be sure to wear something with an elasticated waist!

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(PS - Please don't tell my inner-skinny-minny that I went here)

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Do Me A Favour ...

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Have you ever wondered what 300 fabric party / favour bags look like?

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No, me either until I was asked to make them!

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Each one has a jb*jb label stitched inside

... that's 300 lots of zig-zagging on the machine ...

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.Each one has a co-ordinating ribbon-tie

... that's 300 lots of measuring and snipping ...

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Each one has been folded inside out and ironed

... that's 300 lots of moaning about ironing ...

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They are going to be sold as favour-bags by an online stockist, but I can't give any more details just yet.

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By George! I've Done It Again!

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I have had little opportunity to get into my workroom to sew this week what with boy*jelly driving me mad needing lots of tlc, but there's one thing I can do happily in the living room whilst we're watching Spongebob Squarepants lots of educational telly ...
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I've added lots more button necklaces to my Folksy and Artfire shops, and because it's St George's day today, here are two I've made in Union Jack colours. .

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And it's not just me that has been rummaging in the beads, button and car-tyre boxes either - here is boy*jelly's necklace that he made for me to sell ...

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... any takers?
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Put A Sock On Boredom ...

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Just now :

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I make my way upstairs to see what boy*jelly is up to alone in his bedroom, he makes a swift move and slams the door shut.

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Him : "Don't come in!"

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Me : "Why? What are you doing in there?"

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Him : "I can't tell you"

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In my head "OMG! He's six! This shouldn't be happening for about another 9 years. What's he doing in there? OK. Calm down. Perhaps he's drawn on the wall or something and he doesn't want you to find out...."

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Me : "Are you drawing with your pens in there?"

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Him : "No! Don't come in!"

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In my head : "Why won't he let me in? I'm his mum!"

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Me : "But what are you doing?"

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Him : "Nothing! I can't tell you. Don't come in"

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Me : "Right, well I'm just going downstairs now"

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In my head : "What's he doing?"

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Two minutes later he makes his way downstairs.

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Wearing every single pair of socks he owns on his feet.

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I totally knew that's what he was up to ...

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Dot To Dot

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One of my most successful creations to date has been boy*jelly.
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I worked tirelessly for 9 months eating Haribo healthily to make sure I produced the most beautiful baby boy ever.
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I also laid around getting fat read all of the preganancy books and moaned like buggery looked after myself.
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All that doing nothing hard work paid off and I did indeed produce the most beautiful baby boy ever.
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But in the space of 4 days, the varicella-zoster virus has undone all my hard work ...

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.My beautiful baby boy!

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He is absolutely fine in himself now, after having had the

"worst weekend of my life"

(his words, not mine)

but is mortified that later on today we're going to school to pick up some work for him to do at home

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He thought it would be all about fun in the garden having the chicken pox!.

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A Pox On Our House

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So it's the last day of the school holidays and boy*jelly has woken up with Chicken Pox!

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Six years I've been waiting for him to get it and he gets it on the last day of the school holidays...!

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Granny*Jelly-In-Law has been despatched to get Calamine lotion, I've cut all his finger-nails short and I'm scratching every single itch on my body in a paranoid manner (even though I had CP when I was young) ...

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... is there anything else I need to know?

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Blog Challenge :

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I challenge you to not scratch yourself in the next five minutes.

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"Not Exactly Gross"

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Thanks for all your comments on my last "I'm A Fat Monster" post.

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I have replied to your comments in a comment, so please re-read the comments to see how I've responded.

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(Ugh, I hate using the same word 3 times in a sentence but I couldn't think of an alternative!)

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I particularly like one comment ... "You're not exactly gross"

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Ah ... if only Mr Jelly could be that romantic!
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(And, yes, I do understand that's not what the commenter meant, but it did make me laugh!)

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Now on to other things that aren't exactly gross ...

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I have been having more fun with my boxes of buttons and have added more necklaces to my Folksy shop - click here to have a look.

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This button reminds me of a kiwi fruit.

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This necklace is quite dramatic and not the usual colours I use, but I think it looks great.

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This one reminds me of an apple tree when it's in blossom.

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I also want to show you a necklace a bought the other weekend at a car-boot sale.

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It's so kitsch!

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I'm not sure that I'll ever wear it because it's quite scratchy, but I just like being the owner of it.

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