Happy Easter!

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't and life can't...Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8 v 38-39

It's time to party so have a wonderful Easter! Whatever you've got planned, I hope it is filled with lots of fun, laughter...and, of course, chocolate.

original image by Greg Allen (for our wedding!), text added by me.

Good Friday...

For me Easter is more than a time  for easter egg hunts and lamb roasts...although they do play a tasty part in my weekend :)

Today is Good Friday, the day we reflect on the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for me and you. He did not have to come. He did not have to be crucified. But he endured it all so that we could know the true life, freedom and love that is found in knowing God.

It takes my breath away.

Guest post - Blueberry Days

I'm really excited today to introduce Meike from Blueberry Days to you lovely people. She has popped over to give us an amazing recipe for making our own Easter Biscuits...

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Hello The Bumbling Bee readers! I hope you like Easter as much as I do because I made something special for the occasion to share with you. The first flowers are blooming, the sun is coming out, bunnies are giving out chocolate eggs and everybody is getting into the Spring mood. Well, unless it’s freezing cold and chocolate only serves as comfort food against the winter. To make up for the lack of sunny days and colourful blooms I have made some Easter biscuits with Spring coloured icing. You should try them! They really lift the mood!

Ingredients: 100g butter - 100g sugar - 1 medium egg - 275g plain flour - 1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing: 400g icing sugar - water - food colourings

 

Mix together the butter and the sugar until creamy. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract. Now add the flour. Knead everything together until you have a smooth dough ball.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface (between 5mm and 1cm thick) and start cutting out the biscuits. Place on a baking paper lined baking tray.

Bake for about 6-9 minutes (depending on how thick you have rolled out the cookie dough) until the biscuits are starting to brown slightly. Let them cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing sugar, pour one tablespoon of water into a small pot and gradually add teaspoons of icing sugar, don’t forget to beat it all together between the icing sugar additions. You don’t want the icing sugar to be too watery as it won’t dry properly otherwise, but you don’t want it to be too thick either as it will not spread as nicely. Add food colouring until you have your desired colour in the pot. Using a knife, spread the icing onto the cold biscuits and let them dry for a while. If you want to add sprinkles, add them while the icing sugar is still wet.

Enjoy and hopefully see you on my blog Blueberry Days some time! xo, Meike

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Thanks Meike, these look so tasty! 

Happy baking :)

Ad swap...

It has been so humbling to see visits increasing to my blog...sometimes I can't believe you lovely people not only stop by and listen to my ramblings but a growing number of you keep coming back- thank you SO much!

I'm really passionate about supporting small businesses and bloggers - and I'm really excited to now be hosting button swaps with Passionfruit Ads. So if you're interested in a button swap then simply use the promo code FREEBIE at the check out or email me at thebumblingbee{at}hotmail{dot}co{dot}uk with any queries. It's a great way to advertise your blog whilst also getting to meet new blog friends :)

I would love to get to know you so please do leave a comment to say who you are and, if you have a blog, leave a link because I would love to visit your own corner in the internet! I have loved how writing this blog has led me to some really fab new friends :)

Happy Monday!

I love this photo of me and my friend Lill (I'm on the left)...what makes it even funnier is that, as teenagers, we worked together at McDonalds!

Sweet inspiration...

When writing my last post I realised that I haven't posted a cake recipe for ages. Which is pretty unusual for me but it's partly because I have been consciously trying to eat less cake...but that hasn't stopped me drooling over beautiful photos on the internet. So I may not have a recipe for you today but I think I have something better - gorgeous photos of sweet sweet treats (yes, plural!)...

Chocolate caramel tartlets from Annie's Eats

Is it weird I want to dive into that chocolatey caramel goodness?

Spiced apple ice cream by A Spicy Perspective

spiced. apple. ice cream. Enough said.

 Milano cookies from Sacramento street 

(I've been wanting to make these for so long!)

Cinnamon twists by Chasing Delicious

I want to be biting into one these mouthfuls of deliciousness right now!

You know, I could keep going...I love people who can take great food photos :) For more sweet ideas visit my sweet treat board over at Pinterest.

What's your go-to treat when only a sugar-kick will do?

A modern twist on the friendship bracelet...

I love mixing up textiles in Jewellery making (see here and here) so I've loved seeing all the thread and chain combinations that have been popping up over the internet. It was my friend Cath's birthday on Saturday, I knew I wanted to make her jewellery as a gift so I dusted off my tools and started playing around with some chain and this gorgeous embroidery thread (I'm a sucker for anything dusky coloured)...and this is what resulted!

For each of these bracelets you just need chain, thread, jump rings and a clasp. and a little patience (that's mainly just for the blue bracelet).

The chains in the blue bracelet are held together by two pieces of embroidery thread woven through each link and then secured in a knot at the end.

For the coral bracelet I had a throwback to my friendship bracelet making days when I was inspired by this post from I Spy DIY. 

And finally I used some light grey thread to create the simple plaits of the third bracelet to tie the pink and blue bracelets together. I love how these bracelets look when worn together!

Does anybody else love wrapping up presents...any excuse to make something look pretty!

Important news for Bumbling Bee readers...

I came across this photo from last July when we visited Wakehurst Place...it's got me dreaming of Summer!

But now for the more relevant bit of news...

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is shutting down on 1st July. So if you use Google Reader to manage your favourite blogs then it's time to start thinking about alternatives. I have made the switch to Bloglovin' and actually much prefer it! They have made it really easy to import your favourite blogs over from Google Reader. Simply log in to Bloglovin', click on account > settings > other - import blogs.

Having made the switch I'm really pleased that I have. It is even easier to keep up to date with my favourite blogs and it marks posts as unread so you don't have to accidentally miss any.

Click here to follow The Bumbling Bee on Bloglovin'

I'm not too sure what this means for google friend connect - I imagine it'll also be on it's way out but if you know more then I would love to hear from you...

D.I.Y. travel-sized safety pin holder...

So are women really meant to have Mary Poppins bags that contain all you could ever possibly need for every possible circumstance? Because my handbag mostly just has old receipts and empty chocolate wrappers in it (hence why I will never do a 'what's in my bag' post...it would be completely staged because, as much as I love you, I'm never going to reveal to you how much rubbish I really carry around with me!)

Up until now I have never (intentionally) carried around safety pins. They're something you will hardly ever need but equally if you do need one, it normally warrants an emergency situation where either your arms are clamped to your sides for the rest of the night or your friends form a shield around you as you, clutching your skirt/dress/etc, make for the nearest exit trying to avoid showing everyone your choice of underwear that day.

Suffice to say I decided it was time to add safety pins to my handbag.

After the pretty addition to my handbag of the mini notepad I decided to continue the theme with my safety pin holder. Again, this is so simple (a common occurrence in my D.I.Y. adventures!).

What you need:

Thin card

Ribbon

Scissors/craft knife

Glue

Stapler

1) Cut out a strip of card (I cut mine 16 x 5.5 cm)

2) First fold your card 2cm from the bottom of the strip to create a small lip. Then fold the top of your card to meet the first fold.

3) Next using either a knife or scissors ( but knife is easier) cut two slits in the back of the card. this is going to be for your ribbon so they need to be slightly wider than your ribbon width.

4) Feed your ribbon through the back of the card so that the ends can be hidden under the first fold. Add a dab of glue to secure the ends of the ribbon together.

5) Staple the small fold...and you're done!

What are your travel necessities? Share if you have any cute ways to organise your bag, I would love some inspiration :)

D.I.Y mini notebook...

I meet up weekly with a group of my friends to read through a book called Women By Design. It's by a woman named Penelope Swithinbank, who we got to meet last week when she came to lead a retreat day at my husband's college. The book looks at identity and self esteem, challenging the measures we so often use to measure our worth. In the first week we were challenged to name things we like about ourselves...needless to say we all found it a little embarrassing and, well, very unbritish! We were much more comfortable talking about our shortcomings which I think as women we are very good at doing. It was a good challenge though because, actually, we should like ourselves. God made me to be me and you to be you, so we should celebrate our individuality rather than constantly compare ourselves to others! As a little joke I made these mini notepads for each of the girls the following week with the covers saying things like 'I'm just blooming marvellous' to serve as a cute reminder that actually they are just that :)

These are so versatile, I'm thinking of making another one to use to record birthdays and maybe another to carry around with emergency numbers in.

I didn't initially think to share these here so there aren't any step by step pictures...but that doesn't really matter as it's pretty self explanatory.

What you need:

Pretty card

A3 paper

Pencil and ruler

Scissors or Guillotine 

Glue

Printer (optional)

1) Take the A3 paper and cut into strips (one per notepad). You can make them any size you like, mine were 7.5cm wide.

2) Fold the strip of paper in a concertina fold using the ruler to score the edges.

3) Next cut out two rectangles from the card, these are the front and back covers so you want them to be slightly bigger than the folded paper (I cut mine 8 x 6 cm)

4) Next print out your statement on the printer, cut to size and glue to one of the rectangles of card.

5) Finally use a small amount of glue to secure the front and back covers to the folded paper. Place under a heavy book (or similar) until dry.

And that is it!

Happy Sunday :) Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend...has anyone else had snow (albeit a tiny amount) over night?