Back in civilisation

Well, after a week of no internet (yeah, cheers for that Virgin!) I'm finally back on and have just had a proper catch up with as many of you as is possible in under an hour. I did find a sneaky and great little thing that my iPhone can actually be used to access the internet on my PC, which would be great if I had unlimited usage, but as I'm limited to 500MB I had to use it sparingly.

Anyway, we have a new challenge on Bead Buddies... Sooz challenged us to show up to 3 bits in our beady stashes that we haven't figured out what to do with yet. We have to make something out of the norm from what we normally make (eek!) and be super proud of our achievement - and we have until the end of May. HELP! Here are my 3:

Now, I think that Laura's lampwork cuppy-cake is calling out the most at the moment, so I will probably work on something for that first. I'm still brainstorming the others - the aventurine leaf is a bit of a beast, it's 25-30mm or so, and I've no clue what to put with it! As for the wooden hearts, I'm thinking if I get chance that I might do a bit of bead embroidery (I know it's not 'out of the norm' per se, but I haven't done an awful lot of embroidery beading...) 

So, I'm currently half way through another pearly necklace:

ANNNND... Drum roll please... I have finally finished the Spring Necklace that I started over a year ago:

Stay tuned for some better photos - these are just a gist of the finished piece, I'm so pleased with it!

A good start, and presents!

Woohoo, Beaded Allure and Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork arrived today - well, yesterday but I wasn't here so had to collect them this morning. I love my collection of books, there's just so much pretty to look at.

As promised, I have started the netted chain for my lariat, here is my progress so far (slow going... darn size 11's!) The small end piece will be embellished though I haven't decided how yet - I'm sure it will come to me once I spend a few more hours finishing the chain though. What do you think to the colours? I really quite like how it's turned out so far.

I think I'm going to go through my blog roll this evening and weedle out those of you who don't post any more... Sad times I know but it's hard enough to keep up with you all as it is!

Whew, I just closed the tab and hadn't saved this but with some magical clicks managed to reopen it! Woohoo for technology nowadays... Well I think that about sums up for today, still can't show you my secret santa makes, will stop boring you with this update and just post the pictures when I can!

Off to browse new books for pretty things to make **once I have finished this lariat**...***hopefully***