Jewellery, events & updates! [lots of images!]

Hi there bloggers!
Another long stint since my last blog post, but I have been busy this time, and I do have things to share. We are now in the final weeks of the house buying, and hope to find out our completion date this week. Our solicitors on both sides are pushing for the end of this month so hopefully we can get in and settled well in time for Christmas.

Here (finally!) is my finished Laura McCabe cuff:

I am so pleased with this, sorry for the shabby photographs! The leather is a joy to wear, it's so soft, and it's so lovely to have been able to make an embroidered piece without having to cover every square millimetre to make it look good. The stone is Willow Creek Jasper, so I was quick to hunt down a stone to make a matching pendant:

Again, apologies for the poor photograph, it looks so much better in the flesh. This is a teardrop Willow Creek Jasper stone, stitched around with my remaining grey/silver delicas and gold size 15 charlottes. Nailheads embellish the left and a 10mm Swarovski flat back crystal sits at the top. The glass nugget at the bottom is one made by Linda from Bead Buddies - you can visit her website here.

It was my mother in law's birthday yesterday, so out came the beadies again, you might remember my blue cluster necklace I made for my mum earlier this year, well she had commented on how lovely that was. She loves all things cupcakes, so I finally found the perfect use for the charity cupcake bead I bought from Laura Sparling quite some time ago as well. This was the final piece:

I was very happy with this one as well, and not only that but it only took about an hour from start to finish, I do love those projects! It's all made with cream/mocha glass pearls and crystal rondelles, topped with a lemon meringue cupcake.

So, in other news, I have recently been re-broadening my horizons, and typically when I have none of the things I need, I really felt the urge to draw. I made a trip out to our local art store, came home equipped with pencils, black pens and a new sketch pad, and this is what happened:

I've been browsing a lot of Zentangles again recently, and it just made me want to draw. Now I can't stop looking at my butterfly. Very chuffed. I also used to frequent DeviantArt, and haven't visited the site for a long time. Today I returned and was looking back on some of my previous work - I really need to get my Illustrator back! I miss playing around with vector art. Don't get me wrong, I was never anything amazing at it, but I used to enjoy the hours spent tweaking and re-colouring images I had created from a photograph. You may or may not be interested, but if you'd like to take a look this is my DeviantArt page. If you do take a look, do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Well, I will leave you all with a lovely image that met my eyes whilst I was on the phone at work on Thursday evening. I just had to take a picture... or three.

Moving along slowly!

I was so excited today driving to my friend Tracy's, as I drove past our new house, the SOLD sign has now gone up, and when I looked at the website this evening, this picture accompanies the property listing. I've got all sorts of butterflies in my tummy just looking at it - I can't wait!

We have a meeting tomorrow morning with our mortgage advisor, our solicitor's paperwork arrived this morning - hopefully our advisor can go through with that tomorrow as well! I can't believe how quickly this has all happened, it's crazy, but that's just the way of the world of property I guess!

Pictures of my new niece will follow shortly - Leah was born 08/09/11 weighing 7lbs exactly, and she is an exceptionally beautiful little girl. I'm a very proud auntie, and very happy now that my sister in law and Leah are now back home and all well.

Oh, and as this is meant to be a jewellery blog - here's a little something I finished last week!

Birthday makings!

Just a quick post from me this evening, two bracelets for my friend Jackie at work who hits the big 5-0 on Thursday! Bring on the hamper, flowers, balloons, desk confetti and CAKE! Quite a productive evening, I think :o)

Bails, Cuffs & Weddings!

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks, but I've managed to do some beading to share with you all! I've set off on my own little journey with this first piece, having conquered using wonky squares to make a star (which you can see here) - I decided to make a couple more "wonky squares" and make an eye catching bail for this turquoise donut. Goodness knows how long I've had this sizeable nugget sat around, but I finally have a use for it! The plan is for a little odd count peyote chain to sit through the top bail and look pretty and sparkly. As soon as it's done I'll update you!

Work has once again been hectic, and our senior administrator is off on her holidays for the next two weeks so it could be interesting. Thank goodness it's bank holiday next weekend! Tomorrow hopefully won't be too bad or stressful, it's Tracy's daughter's wedding tomorrow, so getting the drinking shoes on for the evening, fingers crossed! I'll be sure to take my camera :o)

Finally, I'll show you a little project that I started and finished within a week (shocking, I know!) Donna at Bead Buddies needed testers to make sure her peyote word charts are all correct, so I opted for her Autumn Flowers cuff, and this is how it turned out:

 

I definitely need to practise the attaching of the peyote strip to the cuff blank, but overall I'm pretty pleased - it's quite cute!

Good news on the fund raising - currently Sandie has pulled together over £340 for the African Crisis Fund!

Well I'm off to prep for the office tomorrow, see you all soon,

Busy busy busy!

It's been another busy week, though it seemed to go slower than usual. Friday is upon us again, and I have my new handbag, my new approach to eating (no chocolate in a week, if you don't count the two squares at my cousin's baby shower last Saturday! And no snacking either!) and looking forward to my weekend.

Me and flossy are hosting this month's pass the parcel over on Bead Buddies, and are giving away a tiara making kit along with a special little surprise from me. No peeking! I'll be sure to fill you in at the end of the month when we send it all off to the winning buddy.

It's the last couple of days of our charity auctions on eBay so if you haven't had a look yet, please click here and bid on what takes your fancy! There are some beautiful pieces, including a stunning set from Lynn Davy

You'd be mad to miss out on it!

So tomorrow I'm off to see the girls, then hopefully get my hair cut (need to call them in the morning!) and off out in the evening to one of my engineer's wedding receptions. Should be a good day. Sunday we're out to a barbeque, so I'm hoping the weather this weekend holds out a bit better than it did today.

What are you up to this weekend?

Raising money for East Africa

Over at Bead Buddies we're at it again, and Sandie has rallied the girls together to raise money for the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal. There are lots of us who have donated pieces which are being auctioned off on eBay, so please pop over and have a look and if you bid, please bid generously!

Today is a good day

I've had a really fab couple of days, including being drawn to win an adorable new handbag. Big thanks to tinchick over at Bead Buddies! Now it's my turn to put something up to be won... Hmmm...

I also came home today to a little parcel at my door. I opened it up and unwrapped the tissue paper to find another lovely surprise from Carrie - a lush polymer clay heart pendant that I had ogled at earlier this week. I love BB, such fantastic ladies to know!  

We went to visit the mortgage advisor today to find out whether we are on target as we hoped, and great news everyone, we really are! By October we should have our deposit and fees for the lower end of our budget, and by January, we will be able to put in offers on a property at the top end! I am so excited. It's mad how quickly this year has gone, and I know that even though January seems far away, it will be here before I even get chance to think about it.

I am off to update our spreadsheets and budgets, and see how close we are to our first home, and maybe do some beading!

Happy crafting everyone

Double post Thursday - part 1!

It's double post Thursday!

Sorry for missing last night's post, I didn't get back from Tracy's until gone 10pm! Was nice to actually have a night off from work  Anyway, in amongst my clearing up the other day, I came across my photo book of my travels in August 2008 - tune in later, and once we get back from my mother in law's for fish and chips, I'll tell you all about my adventure down under! I will warn you now, it's likely to be even more picture-heavy than normal 

My little roses have started to open now, such a lovely surprise from my lovely hubby 


Ooh and the star is now complete, I just need to decide what I am going to do with it:

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, it's quite cool how different they look if you squeeze them 

I even came home to another little parcel last night which is my new bead backing from America to try out. Can't wait - I have 14 different colours to play with now!
Tune in later bead buddies for a little of Singapore and Dubai, and a lot of cattle ranching in Oz!

Naughty buddy missed a day!

There is only one way to happiness, and that is cease worrying about the things which are beyond the power of our will - Epictetus

I love my workplace, and my colleagues. It's gone 8pm and I've just wandered in the door. It's my manager's birthday today and we made last minute plans to all head to the pub for a drink - it turned into a really lovely evening sitting outside, having garlic mushrooms [huge portion] and lasagne [even huger portion!] and a couple of drinks, with cake and laughter. If only every school night could be so relaxed! When we were sitting chatting there was a whole club of old cars turned up as well, which were lovely to see. Unfortunately, I've been a bad buddy and didn't take any photos to show you all  sorry! Need to get the hang of this getting snapshots a bit more.


So, now that I know it's OK, I can tell you that I had another massive panic whilst we were house sitting. Jim's step-dad is Apple crazy, they've got iPads and iPhones, and he has his prized Apple Mac flat screen thing. Now, I don't know about anyone else who uses a Mac, but they never shut it down, they just put it to sleep. Apparently that's quite normal for a Mac? Anyway, the first Saturday [when the cat went missing], I went on it and had a browse on the internet, sent a couple of e-mails the usual kind of thing, and when I finished I put it to sleep. For the rest of the week, I was playing on the iPad as I don't have one, and I love the novelty [] so the Mac sat untouched until 9 days later when I went and wiggled the mouse on the Tuesday morning. Nothing happened. Pressed the Esc key. Nothing happened. Hit the Enter key. Still nothing. Clicked the mouse. Starting to panic a bit now, so thought it may have turned itself off. Had to practically pick it up to find the power button [on the back left at the bottom in case you ever need to know!] and pressed it. Still nothing, so I held it down. The Mac turned off. Oh poo. Turned it back on, and it made that loud noise that Mac's do, and came up with a white screen - promising! Then it sat there. And sat there. I clicked the mouse, and it went to a black 'boot' type screen. Oh double poo. I spent the rest of their time away panicking about it, and when my brother in law had a look and couldn't tell me what it was I panicked more! Anyway, it was all for nothing as when I nervously broached the topic yesterday, mother in law said 'oh yeah we know about that, no panic!' I have decided that after a fortnight of near-disasters that's it! Next time they go away, I will feed the cats and the bunny rabbit, but I am not touching anything - except perhaps the iPad 

I have started saving for Laura McCabe in September! I can't wait, it's going to be fantastic. Only thing is, we've been recommended to use Fireline and I have never used it before. Jo has recommended me the 6lb stuff, and some wax, so I need to get that ordered so I can start playing. When I moved from Nymo onto KO, I never looked back and have never moved on. What thread do you seedy beaders use, and why do you favour it? One thing I love about the KO is the range of colours.


Well, I'm off to bead some more of my box - I'm on the lid now then just to hem it all! Not long now buddies 

AOTM day 3 (so good so far!)

The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old Anon

I was excited on Friday, I got my emails advising that Bead and Button, and Beadwork had been dispatched. When I got home, there they were waiting for me, and I quickly dumped all of my stuff we brought back from house sitting (only tonight left!) and ripped them open. Only problem is, with my Beadwork subscription, it appears to include 2 specials each year - and my latest issue was 'Stringing'. I can't begin to explain how gutted I was! Thankfully, Bead and Button was a bit more fruitful  for me at least. It is also a special, but is B & B favourites. It has a cool project that shows how to bead around a toy frog, looks so cute! 

My B & B subscription has ended now, and I have one more issue of Beadwork, which I will definitely renew; I always pretend to make this decision when B & B comes round for renewal, but I never know whether to or not. You know I will. Next Beadwork and B & B look fab, can't wait for the August editions 

We had a good day today, the park was absolutely teeming with people. The weather stayed nice, and I didn't get burned. I even got to go into town and treat myself to two new pairs of jeans, I finally have jeans again that I am comfortable in! What is it with sales people at high street stores though? I went in, and one of the pairs of jeans was in a "1 for £15 or 2 for £25", all well and good, but unfortunately I wanted some skinny jeans too, which weren't in an offer. I pootled off to the changing room, decided they were lovely, and headed to pay for them. Scanned the first pair of jeans, and notices I only have one of the second pair - 

"Ooh, don't you want to get a second pair for just £25?" 

"No thank you, I really just wanted to get a skinny pair with them, it's a bit of an emergency dash. Plus I doubt hubby will be impressed!" 

(I have needed jeans for a few weeks, and had been putting up with one pair of particularly unflattering baggy ones until now)

"Ahh, I see, well if you open an account you get two 20% off days in the year, and you'll save (wait for it...) £4 today!"

"No, I'd better not, thank you"

"You get extra discount on your birthday too"

Now, I can understand that the ladies that work in these shops must be on commission, but they must be able to see when a ship has sailed? In other shops, they just ask "did you find everything you wanted today?" which seems a much better option - it covers it all, right? I was perfectly happy with what I had picked up, regardless of the possible discounts for things I didn't need.The box has made a small number of rows of progress, it has the lip at the top now, but I left my book at home so don't have a clue how to hem it. That's for tomorrow 

Must dash. First look of Desperate Housewives is on 

Procrastination - Day 2

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday
Don Marquis

Did I mention that I'm quite good at procrastinating? I intended to start writing at 8pm. I do blame Sylvia though, she has got me addicted to coin push on my iPhone.

However, aside from crawling around on the floor of the summerhouse picking up stray delicas (Sylvia's beading tray took a bit of a tumble...) I have had a fairly productive day. Here is the progress of my little beaded box:


I've only had to undo it twice because I can't stand to have a single bead wrong in this project, it's like my little baby at the moment  - for the first time, decreasing in peyote has really 'clicked', and I have had my EUREKA moment at last.

This weekend I also have to make time to mount and post my giveaway flower from my blogspot blog - anyone who took an interest in the bead stash challenge will know that I put in my wooden hearts that I had been staring at for well over 2 years. I had no idea what I was going to make with them, and now I don't have enough to make enough of these dear flowers.

I was reading my blogroll earlier, and found a really cool challenge that took place last week over at Art Bead Scene - if you're stuck for inspiration, I think you should give it a go. It was called the Muffin Tin Challenge. All you have to do is pull out a muffin/cupcake baking tray, sit with your beady stash, and put a few bits together that you intend to make into a piece. They go into the first muffin hole. Then you repeat to fill up all the holes in the tin, sit down with your tools, and put them all together! You can have a look at what everyone came up with from here http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com/2011/06/muffin-tin-jewelry-challenge-winner.html So much pretty stuff, you'll be sucked in!

I couldn't find a muffin tin at my mother in law's house - most unexpected considering how many cupcakes she makes - so I settled for silicone cupcake cases, and I made 4 pairs of earrings. The best bit is sitting going through your beads, pairing them up and going from there. I wish I had taken pictures, but I totally forgot. Sparkly beads and findings in brightly coloured cases, they were pretty even before they were made up (see, that's the procrastinating part of my brain telling me I didn't need to go any further!) I've got loads of bits I want to try and use, so I'm going to try this to get started on some stashbusting. I'll try to remember to take photos of those though.

It's Music in the Park in Ipswich tomorrow, which is great as our flat is right opposite the park - we get to wander in and out as we please all day, and no smelly portaloos! I think I've had my fill of those for at least another year after Download Fest. The last time I went to Music in the Park, I spent about a week looking like a lobster, with constant itching on my back where it had burned; note to self - not again? Even if it's decidedly overcast at 10am, I am going to be slathering on the factor 30. Unlike Jim (hubster) who morphs into a Portuguese look-a-like in the summer months, it appears that my skin has opted to torture me into remaining pale. I remember when Jim was temping at a place where there were a number of Portuguese guys also working there, they started talking to him in the lingo. Needless to say, that conversation didn't last long, but he did somehow end up learning various Polishswearwords from one of the other guys!