New Cone Design

Well things have been progressing very quickly with Sweet As Candy. I have already had bulk orders and lots of interest. I have now booked 4 craft/christmas fairs and the first one is just 2 weeks away (so nervous!).

The fanpage has gone from strength to strength and I am totally overwhelmed with its success. There is currently a competition on the fanpage to win one of the NEW cone mixes named Perfect Princess, which is full of yummy pink and white sweets.






I have done absolutely no jewellery making ove the last few weeks, which Im starting ot get unhappy about! Its my Grandads 80th birthday on the 2nd November and I am busy planning and making for this as we are having a meal with 40 of us. However I am planning that once this evening it out of the way I shall start to make some time to make some pretty things :D. I want to make some bracelets for the ladies in my family for christmas so will have to get cracking on that after the party!


Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves.... Sweet Cones!

Hello everyone :D Well I have been extremely quiet on the blog front I know :( But there is a reason for that and that reason is.... SWEET AS CANDY!

Sweet As Candy is a new venture I have started. I was admiring Snowman Soup and have browsed sweet hampers many a time on websites and then it struck me... why not combine them?! It took me a few days to decide that I was definately going to go for it, I saved some money and then it was time for the trip to the wholesalers and to launch a Facebook fanpage! I guess I just thought, well if it doesnt work I just have alot of sweet to eat, and thats never a bad thing is it? hehe

So far I have launched 3 cone themes, but there are lots (and I mean LOTS) more in the pipeline. Here are some pictures of the current cones that are available.









I think they make great party bags, wedding favours, stocking fillers, or just little treats! Infact the list is endless as I can personalise the labels such as the cone below. In the new year I will be uploading examples of the personalised labels such as, Well Done on Passing Your Driving Test, Graduation, Exam Pass, Thank you Teacher, Sorry You're Leaving etc etc. I sell them for £2 each per cone with discounts for bulk orders which I feel is fair for the product they are recieving, the price of some novelty sweets in the shops is shocking!





I have started a Facebook page named Sweet As Candy for the sweet cones and am so surprised by the reaction and support from everyone on Facebook. It really has been lovely, and the page now has over 550 fans in just 2 and a half weeks! the link to the fanpage is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001488970981#!/pages/Manchester/Sweet-As-Candy/150812264940660?ref=ts
Hopefully that will work :D.

Let me know what you all think :D

Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves.... Buttons! MSE Jewellery Challenge

Over on the MSE Jewellery thread we had a new challenge this week, this time set my Crafty Juju, with the theme 'buttons.' Unlike most of the ladies on the thread I am yet to venture into other crafts such as sewing or card making so I dont have a button stash (yet!!!!). At first I thought I would struggle with this challenge due to my lack of buttons but thought I would try and drag myself out of bed to attend a bootsale to get some so I could join in. However on Thursday myself and my friend Jo decided to have a drive to Blakemere craft village as I had been told it had a good bead shop called The Bead Trail. To be honest I was quite dissappointed with the size of the bead shop and its selection (I expected it to be much bigger) but it does do classes, which Ive been told are very good, and a class to learn how to do a necklace is £20 so I think I may try this later in the year. Whilst browsing The Bead Trail I found some buttons for sale (only 2 types) so was quite delighted as they were perfect to use for the challenge (and meant I could stay in bed this morning!).

I decided to make a bagcharm with my buttons, bagcharms seem to becoming a favourite of mine recently! I love the citrus themed colours of the buttons and felt this would look really eyecatching on a bag. I originally tried to use jumprings to tie all the buttons together but I found that they were strong enough to hold everything together and wasnt confident the bagcharm wouldnt fall apart on first use, so I abandoned that idea and attached them all to chain instead. It has had the same effect and at least I have confidence in the structure of this design!





I have also attached a very small 'made with love' envelope charm to the bagcharm to finish it off. I have decided to use this as a competition prize over on the facebook fanpage. I currently have 59 fans on the Lily Loves... fanpage, so I am going to offer this as a giveaway for when I reach 100 fans! If you would like to have a peek at my fanpage just head over to http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Manchester/Lily-Loves/107740405941247?ref=ts&__a=38&ajaxpipe=1.


This challenge has really made me realise how great buttons are to work with! So I really think I am going to have to get myself out of bed and off to some carboots to stock up on some buttons from now on!


Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves.... Scrabble Tiles!

Quite a while ago I won some pre-drilled Scrabble tiles on ebay off a seller who was selling off some of her stash. It was just a mix of different lettered tiles so I cant use them to spell anything as no all the letters were there but they were a bargain price compared to brand new full sets! Infact theres a little story to go with this.... I just happened to be on a night out saying bye to a friend who was off to do camp america when the item ended. Que me 'slightly' drunk on my iPhone bidding on the item hahaha My best friend Jo was by my side ensuring I didnt bid an extortinate amount (which could very well happy after a few bevvys hehe) but luckily no one bid against my first bid so I got them at a reasonable price, and me and Jo even had a high five to celebrate hahaha

Anyway, I finally got round to using some of the tiles to create a bagcharm. They are so quirky that I didnt want to mix them with any beads, rather just leave them as the total focal point! I am quite pleased with how it turned out and I think it
looks great on the bag!







I have now added this to my facebook Lily Loves fanpage shop.

Love Lily
x x x

New bookmark makes :D

Its been a long time since I have made anything new so tonight I decided to have a play making some jewellery when watching Big Brother. I had 2 bookmarks left so I decided to use these and made the following 2 bookmarks.





The Hello Kitty charm is one of the new charm purchases I have made. I have lots of lovely beads and charms now which I havent used yet so I need to stop myself from buying more till I have used some of my newer purchases! I reckon bought a bead which I literally fell in love with because I thought it was hilarious. Im hoping to make it into a bagcharm so all will be revealed soon I hope!

Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves.... Followers :D

I have just noticed that I have reached 10 followers on the blog!

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all (10) of you :D. I see so many wonderful blogs that I sometimes wonder why anyone would want to follow mine!

Thank you also for all the comments you have added to posts, they really do encourage and are always so supportive :D.

I have a busy weekend ahead but hopefully I will be able to spare an hour or so to make something new. I wasnt able to participate in the last jewellery challenge over on MSE (the retro one) and thought I had missed out on the current challenge but luckily it has been extended! Its has a flowers theme and I have some wonderful beads I could use, now I just need to figure out how to use them!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone

Love Lily
x x x

Lily Loves.... Graduation!

I haven't been keeping up to date with my jewellery making and bloging over the last couple of weeks and the main reason is due to my graduation from my Masters degree. I have spent the last 18 months or do studying for a Masters Degree in Statistics from Manchester University and on the 12th of July was my graduation day. I know its not jewellery related but I couldnt resist posting up a few pictures from the day!









The middle picture is of me and my Grandad who came with me to the ceremony. My Dad was at home preparing a wonderful party for me which all my lovely family and friends attended to. I had a wonderful evening and couldnt thankthem all enough for making it so special for me. And one of my favoutire pictures from the day has to be when me and my Grandad decided to dress him up in my hat and gown for a giggle! It suits him don't you think?





Love Lily
x x x