Bees at large!

Remember my bees? Now it's time for their first outing and you can see them here from tomrrow ...

I had a look at all the art being set up today and it all looks really good. If you come to the opening tomrrow you can meet lots of the artists too and me as Queen Cat helping to open the exhibition at 11am. Drinks and nibbles and a voucher below if you bring it with you :-)

And here are the sock bees that turned out so well! Everyone wants to stroke them! Naughty!

Bee-cause I wanted to!

I had a real urge to make some bees. I wanted them to be at least based on the

Anatomy of real honey-bees but based around a pair of cool black and yellow socks... 

Using the filled-width of the socks, I made a full sized drawing to help make the patterns. Those lovely knee socks bee-came the abdomen!

I chose a dense-quality fur from my stash. I can get 8 bee abdomens from a single pair of long socks. Amazingly I had exactly enough black fur to complete all of them! Some thing's are just meant to bee. 

A completed torso, with pipe cleaner legs, looks like a tic!

The 21mm solid black eyes are the right size, but needed the yellow border to keep the bee looking friendly!

Now the wings sent me digging in my bag of lace and mesh fabric. This mesh gave a good effect, but the wings were floppy. So I sewed all the mesh to pieces of acetate, and i had just enough sheets of acetate to complete all 8 insects!

but the acetate and mesh creation still bends, so i added three folds - problem solved! And the folds look like veins too!

Finally the wings are attached with buttons, so they can be moved a little too. The first bee admires my prize flowers ... 

The Hive Cafe, Weymouth ...

Taking a moment on a nice day to give a shout out to a wonderful place in Weymouth town centre ...

They have a sweet little courtyard for starters, a surprise oasis which the owners Simon and Rachael worked hard to restore and make cozy. 

Everyday they leave their busy bees at home in Wyke and sell delicious honey as well as tasty food in the cafe. Simon let my children taste some of the set honey at the end of a nice family dinner there. 

So many different salads to choose from, you can also have something special to suit your dietry requirements, and no request is too silly as I have come to learn. At the moment for example, I cannot chew cucumber with the braces on my teeth so it's easier to say no thank you! 

If you don't want new potatoes, you can have pasta salad instead. All requests and suggestions are respectfully handled and all food is served with love. More than once when Rachael has placed food before me I have felt that! 

There are no children's menus, but instead you can have adjusted portions to suit which is great as I have always eaten the same food as my children. My girls know what good food is and were very impressed. 

Cake is a must. I love cake. At this point I need to say that all the food is made with love, too. 

Another delishious slice of cake perfect for flagging souls on a hot Weymouth day!

Today I delivered a piece of my art to be displayed in the cafe. I haven't shown you the other bee art there but you can see it if you visit soon. Mention you have read The Raggy Rat blog for a big smile! Enjoy. Xxx