Stop! Thief!

OK, 'fess up - who stole June? Because otherwise I can't form any sensible reason for not having written in *three weeks*. I think it's an inevitable part of this time of year - school and social activities seem to be speeding up rather than winding down and one day soon we're going to have overdone it all so much that we just collapse in a soggy little heap on the living room carpet. Which desperately needs cleaning. Oh well. I'll add that to the list then.

June is always busy for us; there have been two birthdays - mine and (moving swiftly on) Tall Small's. This year her birthday fell on a Friday which meant that by the time we had had the day itself, and her party on Sunday, it ended up being a birthweekend - which is as it should be when you're turning 7.

Seven? Those tiny time thieves have been at it again.

Still, it was a good excuse for bracelet making:


partybox creating:

(we watched Beverley Hills Chihuahua, and the (recyclable!) boxes were filled with iced flower biscuit lollies, headbands from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing, and homemade matching hair bobbles - one button covering kit plus some cheapo Boots hair elastics.)

And, of course, cake scoffing:



I was really pleased with the way this turned out - it's Nigella's custard birthday cake with unadulterated Belgian chocolate on the top, and those lollies are inspired by Bakerella but made with this recipe. Glitter and coloured flame candles, naturally. Yuuuuuum.

Bzzzzzzzzz!

I saw something today which at first terrified and then delighted me - a swarm of bees outside my house. Imagine hundreds (thousands?)of buzzing honeybees, loud enough to make themselves heard through the double glazing, and landing all over the windows. Fortunately my neighbour is an ex-beekeeper so she explained to Tiny Small and myself what was happening and we watched as the bees started to cluster together ready to fly off to a new home. By the time we returned from collecting Tall Small from school, there were only a handful of sadly deserted bees bumbling around and we started to wonder whether we had imagined it all.


Sadly I didn't think to grab the camera, so instead here's a picture of a bag I was commissioned to make recently. It's a keepsake satchel, and apparently the little chap it was for liked it nearly as much as his mum did!