News & Updates from Sue Way ~ Lily~Pickle Designs · Page 3

I am a fair-weather gardener; as soon as the sun comes out, Im outside weeding, pruning, and planting. I love flowers, but since our garden is mostly covered in shingle, I have to rely on plenty of plant pots for colour.

I wanted to create a flower bed, but the ground under the shingle is really hard and has been down for years, making it impossible for me to dig.My husband noticed some border edging, and we thought it would be perfect for a raised bed.

So we mapped it out and filled it with bags of compost and topsoil. After that, I researched which flowers to buy and had a great time in the garden centre selecting all my favourite perennials.

My husband is also growing some bedding plants from seed, which will be ready to add in the next few weeks.

While it doesnt look like much at the moment, I believe once those flowers grow and blossom, it will become the beautiful flower bed Ive been dreaming of.

I missed the Easter post box topper this year. However, I was thrilled to see this lovely new one this week, created to celebrate 200 years of London Zoo.

Among the beautifully knitted wild animals, there is a card that reads, Celebrating 200 years of London Zoo: Pioneering animal scientific study and conservation of endangered species.In other news, I realised today that this month marks my 17th anniversary as a designer on CUP, with a total of 3,696 products to browse through on my page.

Instead of driving to visit our son and family last month, we decided to take the train. This made it so much easier for hubby as he didnt arrive feeling tired and dreading the long journey home.

The only problem was that we usually throw everything into the car, like snacks and drinks, and dont have to worry about carrying it.

I realised that all my small crossbody bags were no good, so it was time to make something a bit more practical for days like this.

So I made this sling bag that can be worn on your back or across your chest.

I can even add 2 straps and use it as a backpack. I enjoyed making this until I got to the binding, which I hated! I am so happy with how it turned out and love the celestial fabric.

We always buy our granddaughters Easter Eggs, even though two of them are teenagers now. They love the big posh ones now, but we dont mind. And little Daisy loved her one with the unicorn soft toy.

Hubby and I didnt have any Easter Eggs for ourselves, but our daughter gave us both a chocolate muffin cupcake, with a mini egg on top.

Delicious with a cup of tea.

Our Golden Retrievers suffer from seasonal allergies, which make them very itchy and can cause hot spots. So we decided to try to feed them healthier snacks to replace their shop-bought dog biscuits. This can work out quite expensive, so we decided to make our own.

Hubby has been making them a chewy biscuit, made from carrot, oats and honey, which they absolutely love! Then the other day I made them Peanut Butter & Oat Sticks. I added a little chunky apple sauce too. They are nice and crunchy. Both got Billys nom-nom seal of approval.