Secrets of a Butterfly

Secrets is 3!

Secrets of a Butterfly is 3 today! yes i have been blogging for three years now and its been so lovely to "meet" you all and share and chat! I have made some lovely lovely friends I'm so blessed by all the beauty and friendship that Secrets gives me and i hope you will all continue to share in my journey, and enjoy my posts and features here.

To mark the occasion i think we should have a special giveaway! I want to thank everyone who likes to visit. It has to be of a Butterfly theme of course. You may recognise the sets as they are by the popular Cavalinni & Co range. One is wood mounted butterfly stamps in a tin and the second a set of butterfly postcards, also in a tin.

To be in with a chance of winning please leave a comment on this post, if you have a preferance between the 2 tins please mention it, and if you are first you will get the one you've chosen.

If you leave a comment and also follow me on google friend (either already or click to follow me today) i will automatically give you a second entry. And as other blogs often do, if you tweet about it or mention it on your blog please do let me know and i will give you a further third entry.

Good luck everyone and butterfly wishes

Gorgeous cards from Cavania

How beautiful are these cards! They are made by Cavania and you can buy from the website too. There are a number of different ranges all with a little touch of something special. I was so impressed with Karen's blog and website. She is definately a fellow butterfly girl! Stay tuned for another post on Cavania in coming weeks, this time entirely with a butterfly theme!

In the meantime i thought i'd share some of the designs that i stocked up on...the first shows the full design that the dreams and wishes embroidered writing(shown top) is upon, and theres a white bunny too! i also love this fan and swallow design next to it. The background is beautiful wrap which was only a £1 a sheet, and extremely good quality.

This box of thankyou cards is amazing quality and was a great buy as its in their sale section at the moment.

These two photos above are 2 more designs i liked from the website. After much debating(!) I chose the cards below from another of their ranges, with special friends in mind, even the reverse of the card is beautiful, as you can see from the last photo! Cavania also sell jewellery and accessories which are equally as feminine and gorgeous!

blessings

Gentle blossom

Hello Lovelies, i really enjoy putting outits together, and though i have missed a few weeks of Chic and Cheap this is my outfit for todays.

As a guide for starting to choose the pieces, i used the wallpaper named Anna Maria,which is by Sanderson,and you can see its in the background. A gentle blossom in ivory, pale blue and soft beige.

Their is a choice of tops, a gentle blue by Oasis and one more of a jacket with hood from White Stuff. The bag is by People Tree, a fairtrade company. The dress by Sandwich avaliable at Johnlewis. The scarf by Kew. The handmade butterfly slide is at Selve-edge, the belt at Asos, crochet boots Topshop and the purse White Stuff. If you need the outfit details and links to them on their respective sites you can find those here
Thanks for stopping by today, with blossom and blessings

Carpet of petals

This is the gorgeous photography of 14"standard on Flickr, who's website is here You can find this mosaic at my flickr here

I made up this collage sometime ago, and then lately discovered he has produced a book called Consciousness and roots at blurb in which the centre image (above) is upon the first page.
It is probably my favourite, though its extremely hard to choose considering many are pastel colours and feature beautiful blossom trees and flowers, around where he and his family live.
I'm so in awe of his talent and also grateful to have found such wonder upon flickr. The site, that within its online pages, holds such worlds within worlds, for us to stumble upon, and be uplifted by, is surely are a true and rare gift.
blessings

Butterfly girl....Gemma

1. Gemma Ward - Taylor Swift Inspired, 2. TALISMAN, 3. Gullmerin..(The Golden Mare), 4. Perpetual Picnic

Its been a while since i shared a butterfly girl..... so here's Gemma Ward, "Once upon a swing"
blessings

A fairycake tale

Lately i recieved the most wonderful new baking book called Eat Me by Xanthe Milton. I just had to show you some pages from the book along with an extract from her website as her story reads just like a fairytale....

"Once upon a time there was a little girl. This little girl was generally very happy, but there was one thing that she really hated and that was having to go to school, because she found it boring and she didn’t like being told what to do. What this little girl preferred to do was stay at home and make up her own stories and act out shows with her dollies, she never got bored but she often got hungry...

On one particular occasion when she was off school... she crept into the kitchen thinking how nice it would be to have something ‘sweet to eat’.....
She knew exactly what to do, she pulled out a stool from under the worn old kitchen table and climbed up to where the recipe books were kept and got down the one that Daddy had given her and her big sister. It was called ‘Cake Decorating’"...you can continue to read the rest of the story here!

"Some years later Xanthe, by now an actress and mother to her own little girl, had reached a crossroads in her life. She thought about what she could do to earn some money and it occurred to her that everyone always enjoyed her cakes and cookies so she decided to bake a batch and sell them around London's Notting Hill. So began the new chapter in her life as Cookie Girl!"

Her recipe book ‘Eat Me’ is just out this month,and the photos i've taken to share with you in this post are from its pages.

I have had other cupcake books before,but none quite so lovely as this. I think its because she has such a true passion for her subject that each of the recipes not only look so inviting to make,(and eat!)but are totally unique ideas too,whether fun, classic, contemporary, seasonal and so on, all tastes are covered.

On her facebook page Xanthe has handily placed her youtube videos and i was delighted to watch the one of her showing how to ice, and get the professional cup cake finish, as its something i've never known how i'd achieve,
this is the link to the clip

Amazon has copies and The Book People have a fab offer on Eat Me, that can be found here!

Having been asked many times for her baking secrets, now we have the chance to read about them and try the recipes for ourselves. I hope Xanthe will keep baking and making her fairycake magic so that we will see more from Cookie Girl in the future.
sweet blessings

Star biscuits and kisses

A collage i made for my Mam for Mother's Day, which is today here in England. (for images in the set view at my polyvore)

 It includes the things we love: sharing ideas of what to make from floral fabrics, baking biscuits, the scent of freshly picked roses, tea in pretty china cups, peace, silk flowers and feeding our garden birds. Happy Mother's day Mam and*thankyou*

Love and blessings,xxxxx

 

The Ribbon Shop

The Ribbon Shop, have an array of ribbons to fall in love with, sheer, satin, organza, and many more, all in gorgeous colours.

They have a website, which is how my Mam came to find them, while looking for ribbon for my birthday parcels in January. The order arrived in a golden box, the ribbon folded, tied and each labelled by hand on tiny ivory tags,then exquisitley wrapped in ivory tissue paper. With an accompanying handwritten receipt. I think Etsy sellers aside, of whom the personal touch is something you come to expect, this is the order most full of care we have ever had the pleasure of receiving.
I am most impressed with the company and the prices of the ribbon are unbelievably favourable, with no compromising on quality. You can see our selection in these photos. For more, or to order your own visit the website here.
with butterfly blessings,

A watercolour dress

Rachel McAdams is an amazing actress and a firm favourite of mine, having been in two films i love, The Notebook and The time travellers wife. So perhaps its not a surprise that from all the dresses upon the Oscars red carpet, i chose this as the most beautiful. Its by Elie Saab and Rachel looks just gorgeous. How about you, who wore your favourite? see more dresses at Marie Claire here
photos of Rachel via Fabsugar
blessings

A Lula Girl

I'm a Lula Girl, are you? I so LOVE them. This year, with the sad closure of Borders stores here in England, i was a little concerned as to where i would be able to get the newest edition to add to my collection above.

Thankfully i have a fairy god-mother friend, and she magically got me a copy upon a recent adventure to London. I am more than delighted, its another wonderful edition-just how do they do it! There is a retro strawberry shortcake (remember her) theme which i may share more of in another post.

So here it is, no 10. and a peek at some of my favourite pages, to your heart from mine....












So BIG thanks to Paula of the lovely blog Pink Bow for my Lula 10 to add to this collection.. i have a little idea of something which i'm getting you in return P, i just hope you don't get one yourself in the meantime..for now i'm keeping it secret! xx

If you are looking for Lula 10 and to subscribe to fututre editions at £8 an issue, check out Newstand

Also its thanks to Emma of the lovely blog Beneath Magenta Skies that i now have a signature to sign off my posts. You can create one in choice of font,colour,size and slope really easily at Mylivesignature.

I have been wanting to share my Lula pictures for quite a while, and could today as am a bit better from the cold. So till next time,i'm signing off with butterflies and blessings