Bloomin' Lovely

I really like flowers - pretty much every kind, and especially sweet scented ones. I really like bringing flowers into our home, but they're not a cheap luxury so I'm always looking for ways to use what's in my garden in fun ways. As we have been in our house less than a year its a bit of a surprise what flowers each season - especially as Spring arrives and lots of bulbs pop up.

A couple of days ago I picked these little yellow daisies - I recently added to my assorted jar collection with these wee ones. I think they look really cute with the sweet yellow flowers in them.

I then found these lovely pink pretties - they smell divine too. I have them sitting just inside the front door so every time I come home I'm greeted with their lovely scent.

Not inside my house! But I did also see this beautiful Kowhai tree went out for a walk the other day - you can't really see it but it had about 10 Tui's having a feast on its flowers!

Are you a flower fan? What's your favorite?

Cooking up some Fun!

Following on with the baking theme, the next give away revolves around recipes! I want to try some new baking ideas, and I want to get these from you!

Email you favourite baking recipe to sweetdesignsnz{at}gmail.com before 6pm Tuesday 20th August and you'll go in the draw to win a $20 store credit.

Make sure you mention in your email if you're happy for your recipe to be shared with everyone or not, as I may just blog about the recipes I try :)

Share the love, and let your friends and family know about this competition by sharing this blog or my facebook page :)

Winners will be chosen by random.org and notified by email.

Baking Binge

Earlier this week I had a bit of a baking binge - well probably not compared to some people's baking, but as much as I like baking, I don't normally make 2 different things in a few hours, so it felt like a binge to me!

I had some Feijoa & Pear yoghurt from The Collective Dairy that needed using up. So I went on a hunt for a Yoghurt Cake recipe and found this one. I did wonder what the flavor of the yoghurt would do to the cake, but you can't actually taste the yoghurt as such - just the lemon. I chose not to ice the cake as I figured it was sweet enough as it was.

Then because I'd decided to make soup for dinner, I decided I'd make fresh bread to go with it. Fresh baked bread straight from the oven is always a winner! I thought it would be a good time to try a new recipe, so went hunting thru my books to find a goody....thought I'd found it, til I read the ingredients and it said "1 packet of white bread mix". Now this recipe book was written decades ago, so I don't know what packet mixes they had then, let alone what was in them. Frustrating! I'll have to go back to it when I've got a bit more bread making experience and see if I can make something up!
Instead I ended up on trusty ol' Google, and found this Herb & Cheese Pull Apart Bread

It was pretty tasty!

And the Winners are....

Thanks so much to you all for entering and sharing the give aways :) Hope you stay around for the rest of the relaunch festivities!

The 3 winners of the Blog give away, who all win a set of Peg Magnets are.....

Tammie Banks
Nikki
Fiona Herbert

The 2 Spot Prize Winners from the Facebook Giveaway, who both win a Lucky Dip prize are....

Jodi Allen
Maricris Williamson


If the winners could all email your name and address to sweetdesignsnz@gmail.com I'll get your prizes in the post!


Thanks again for participating, I'd love it if you could keep spreading the word and joining in the fun :)

Getting in the Groove

So its been a while since I ran a Give Away, and since I'm going to run a few more as part of the re-launch, I thought it was a good time to give you some practice entering!

Up for Grabs are three sets of hand stamped peg magnets - great for keeping your fridge organised and looking pretty, or use on a magnet board in your study, bedroom, hallway or where ever you choose. Three people will be winners - see below for all the ways you can enter :)

Mandatory Entry:

1. Leave me a comment below with a topic you think would look great on a set of pegs (e.g. Oceans, Flowers, Drinks)

Optional - for additional entries - please leave a separate comment for each one you do!

2. Follow Sweet Designs on Facebook. 1 entry.
3. Tweet about this giveaway. Please link to your tweet. 1 entry.
4. Pin this blog post to Pinterest. Please link to your pin. 1 entry.


Giveaway closes August 6th 2013 at Midnight. Winner will be chosen at random and announced via Facebook