I bought a pack of polystyrene eggs (£1) to decorate for Easter. I used a wooden skewer, stuck through the egg, to make decorating and drying easier but I actually liked the idea of an 'egg on a stick'. To decorate the eggs I used tissue paper and paper napkins, stuck on and coated with a 1:1 ratio PVA and water solution. Once the eggs had dried I removed the skewer and added curled parcel ribbon, holding it in place by pushing the skewer back into the egg. I think the egg picks would be perfect in the garden as markers for an Easter egg hunt or just grouped in a vase. There is till time to knit an Easter chick (containing creme egg) from my free, easy to follow, pattern or make a bunny from a facecloth 

To celebrate the Royal wedding on the 29th April, I created two bags to mark the occasion. The William and Kate bags are both tongue in cheek, a bit of fun. I utilised fabric flags, bought from the 99p Store, for the couples images. The William "IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME!' bag is my favourite. To create the planted kisses on William's face I used T-shirt iron-on transfer paper, printed the kisses, cut them out, ironed them on. On the reverse of the bag I added my own warrant "By Royal Disappointment " created using the V&A's DESIGN A COAT OF ARMS  give it ago your self. The Kate bag I made from luxury fabric, the roses I made from my ribbon rose tutorial here . The bags are on display at the Courtyard Cafe at the moment.

I like the irreverent wedding memorabilia that is out there at the moment, like the sick bags made by Lidia Leith titled Throne Up and the KaTea & William teabags you can buy.

The racing Royal in-laws, I bought from Primark, in their post Christmas sale, for 50p, bargain! The old Union Jack flag, was another bargain, I bought from a jumble sale for 10p, the Queen has a youthful look.

This is my entry for a Burda/Bernina 'Show Us, Don't Tell Us Brand Ambassador.' competition. Keep an eye out on Burda's blog here for the announcement of the finalists.

With my lanterns being featured in St Albans Quarterley it has prompted me to re visit this idea for Mother's Day, this would be a companion to go with the tea lights in jar gift idea. You will find the basic lantern tutorial here. In the photographs you will see I have used a mixture of glasses and jars for the lanterns. Some of the jars, the round ribbed ones, once contained scented candles. I just cleaned and washed out the residual wax and because they have a lip around the rim I was able to make a handle from wire and add glass beads. You can use a selection of paper napkins and mulberry papers for the decoration, children can make these.

If you live in St Albans a new free publication, St Albans Quarterly, may have dropped on your door mat. You may also have noticed it has a craft page featuring my lanterns and instructions on how to make them. If you don't live in St Albans you can find the instructions on my website here 

At the weekend, whilst Alice was at home, she made some chocolate treats. If you want to find out how she made them take a look at her website Bake n'Beebz 

This is an idea for a Mother's Day. I am always on the look out for interesting shaped glass storage jars in shops, charity shops or at car boot sales. The jars make lovely containers for home made treats like Rocky road, fudge, cookies and chocolates, it just makes them more of a gift. This idea is of the non fattening variety, buy a bag of night light candles, the scented kind would be good, and fill a jar with them, tie a ribbon around the neck for the finishing touch. Or you might like to make Rocky Road, you can find the recipe here 

We have had a couple of family weeks and the weather has been kind. A few days in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire visiting relatives in particular celebrating my nephews 18th Birthday. Alice went to Egypt for a week, enjoyed it but it was somewhat marred by having her ipod and money stolen as well as prickly heat. Bobbin has been given a spring hair cut, like a shorn sheep, she looks very cute though! Alice has spent this week at home knitting and crocheting, to finnish her garments for her final degree show. Ashley has been designing a new two person game app called Wots his Name? It is now on the Apple iTunes store. To celebrate Steve's birthday we had a family lunch at the Six Bells in St Michael's village, St Albans, we would recommend their home cooked food. In the afternoon the weather was so good we had coffee and cake in the garden, happy days!