Biffsugar

Mermaid earrings

 
I started to make some earrings with all the beads that I bought.  These are my mermaid earrings made from beautiful green glass pearls and fire polished dark teal with milky pink beads. 

 
They're making me very happy - the green is so spring like!  I need a bit of spring green just now.

I also made these : :

 
and these : :

 
Earrings have been a great place to start with my beads.  I have been really inspired by the images in Belle Armoire Jewellery and Jewelry Affaire and want to learn more.  I'm hoping I'll get a subscription to these publications for my birthday!

CASTLE BIRTHDAY CAKE

There was a slight issue with Sunday's birthday party and that was the cake.  I was asked to make a castle cake - which I had made for a 4th birthday - but this time I was going to try something different.  Saturday was exhausting doing all the shopping for the party so I decided to leave the cake until Sunday morning. 

 
By 8am the cake was in the oven.  It was a straight forward all-in-one Victoria sponge cake from the WI - you just can't go wrong!

The cake turned out just fine but then turning it into a castle began to overwhelm me.  I had bought some Angel cake for the turretts and all sorts of sweets and icing and ice cream cones and edible glittler.  The buttercream was sending me into a spin as I just couldn't get it on the cake properly. 

Eventually I decided to give up and go with the back-up plan of a shop bought cake.  However, when I told my daughter she looked so sad and informed me that everyone was expecting a castle cake (no pressure!).  So rather stroppily I returned to the cake and took the approach that if I just covered it in everything I had bought it would be ok.

So that's what I did!

 
It certainly has that kind of "lived in" look about it but you know I quite like that and more importantly so did she.

When I brought the cake in at the party and we sang happy birthday, one of her friends said, "That is the best cake I've ever seen", I had to give that girl a hug!

 

NINE

Today is Miss B's birthday. 

 
The party was yesterday at home with a lovely group of girls from school and her brother of course who did very well entertaining himself as now he's 6 he doesn't want to join in with a girls birthday!

This is a week of birthdays with mine being on Friday.  I am going to be 40 and I'm looking forward to an exciting weekend!

 

Red and I do get along!

I took a little trip into town to buy myself a dress for my birthday.  I had seen it on the internet and loved it, which usually proves fatal as when you get there, they don't have it or at least not in your size and if they do it doesn't suit you.  But ...

 
... they did and it was and it does!  I feel very pleased with myself as clothes shopping is not my thing at all and usually leaves me feeling very sad.  But it didn't stop there.  Riding high on the waves of my new leaf dress I also bought a top!

 
And a cardi!  And the cardi is red and I never buy red.  I love red but I never buy it because I always thought we wouldn't get along.  But now I think we do! 

Changes are occuring and I seem to like it.

Jewels

 
Just before Christmas I ordered lots and lots of beads.  They have been sitting in their bags since then and I haven't done anything with them.  A while ago I bought some basic tools and made a couple of pairs of earrings and my daughter made a charm bracelet.  It was so much fun but what I liked doing best was looking at all of the different kinds of beads and the wonderful colours and so a bit of internet shopping was undertaken.

I did go quite mad with it given I'm not sure what to do with all of these wonderful things ...

 
But the colours are so enticing and the shapes so delightful, some even magical.

 
I am feeling inspired and overwhelmed all at once...

 
Now, what to make?

New

 
The cards and decorations are all put away but this year the house doesn't look bare as it normally does after Christmas.  This time I was ready for it and I like that everything is simple again.

It is very dark and cold today.  A few huge flakes of snow fell and then stopped again.  The winter months are still ahead of us.

 
But the stove is lit and the dog is resting, so all is well.

Happy new year.

Advent - how do you do yours?

 

We currently have 5 different ways to count down the days until Christmas in our house.  Firstly my very own calendar which I have had since a girl.  Then there is the Bunny rabbit Christmas house calendar, the Christmas garland calendar, the advent candle and then there is this:

 
This is an ongoing project which each year gets 'tweaked' and added to slightly; a button here, some trim there.  This year it was the stamped numbers.  I have been in love with this set of stamps for several years waiting for the moment when I could no longer justify why I didn't have them.

The stocking advent was inspired by this photo from the Martha Stewart website:

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Tree Festival

 
Here is the Christmas Tree being decorated by my little helpers.

 
And here it is all finished and in position.  We then took the time to go around all the other trees in the church - and as always it was very beautiful.  Outside it was dark and cold and inside it was a hive of activity and twinkling lights.

 

 

 

 
After all our hard work we had to have hot chocolate and marshmallow twizzle sticks!

 
*****Perfect*****

 

Snow

A little snow has fallen...

We noticed at about 8.30pm and rushed outside to play and have a bonfire.  The flakes were huge and caught on our eyelashes like sugary buns.

There was enough for a snowman...

 
and the obligatory snowmouse...

 
More is forecast for the coming days.  I'm hoping for a school closure - is there anything more exciting than hearing there's no school?  I remember once being sent home during an English exam because of heavy snow.  Brilliant.

 

O Christmas Tree

 

We've been busily making hearts for the upcoming Christmas Tree Festival.  One cold Saturday morning my daughter and I happened upon the festival quite by accident.  We saw a sign which we followed to the nearby church.  We stepped inside and instantly left behind the frantic and noisy street and entered into an oasis of magic and calm.  All around us were fairy lights and happiness and children playing handbells.  We spent an age looking at all the different trees - most of them made us cry with either happiness or sadness.  From that day on we were hooked and last year the Children's Centre where I work entered the festival for the first time with a very small tree.  Because of our entry we were then selected as this years chosen charity so we've stepped it up a gear and we're going for a 5ft'er covered in hearts.  We've all been busily making and glueing in earnest ready for the big event. 

Let the magic begin!