Playing catch up

Looks like I logged back onto Blogger at the right time - Lori's blog hop reveal!! If you've never seen the annual blog hop, just click here and prepare to lose a few hours trawling through. Good news though, it has been limited to 200 participants this year, so you should only lose half a day. Here's a peek of one of the pieces Lori made:

It's amazing to look through and see what people make from components they are sent, and looks like a lot of fun. I know what I'll be doing once I have made my imprint on the blogosphere this evening.

It's been a long and complicated couple of months, not an awful lot of beadery has gone on, but I have dabbled a little and finally tackled working with some polymer clay. I've really enjoyed the little bits that I have done so I can safely say that it's something I look forward to working with more. I spent a week off work, signed off by the doctor for stress, and did lots of baking - I have found that my signature dish is triple chocolate brownie, and there's nothing that chills me out more than baking them. Sadly I didn't do as much beading as I had hoped but I have started a 100% from scratch necklace, here's a sneaky preview:

It will be complemented by two handmade round polymer clay beads, the chain is going to be netted in light green frosted beads and I plan to make a polymer clay toggle clasp with leaves on to match it. This will be my very first piece where all components are completely my own, and it's quite exciting for me.

In other news, we've settled into our home and are well and truly mortgaged up, next on the list of expenses is a new car as ours is still consistently dying - if any of you know what might be draining a car battery please feel free to chip in! We're thinking we need to check if any earth cables aren't connecting properly as it's had a new battery, new glow plugs and temperature sensor on the water coolant (or something like that??) but still the battery will die after sitting for a length of time... Oh well, looking at getting a 2-3 year old car on finance so we'll see what happens in Summer.

I'm off to look at the beautiful beaded items that Lori's soup-ers have created! See you there.

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!

In progress

Sea, sand, sunshine and waves...

Reincarnating the dragon

Hey everyone, I've had a busy beading weekend this week! Makes a change I know. It all started at the beading class on Saturday morning, when we did a new variation on a twisted chain - I immediately knew I wanted it to finish my dragon bracelet and make her into a necklace. It took a bit of trial and error to get it to fasten as I wanted it to, but I'm so pleased with it.

I had originally attached jump rings and a lobster clasp but it showed a little too much - now there's just a jump ring with a beaded toggle clasp and it all goes a lot better. Here's what it looks like together, this is before I put the toggle clasp on though sorry!

I've also been productive and managed to do a temporary repair of one of my sister's necklaces, will have to re-do it when I have some gunmetal/antique bronze wire for a better match.

Have any of you heard about the Little Book of Crafters (LBOC)? It's run by Mimi down in Cornwall, UK and she doesn't charge anything for it. All you need to do is head over to her facebook page for the details. All you have to do is send a few business cards and even a few small samples if you fancy it, and they get put into little packs that are handed out at the craft events that Mimi attends! She's a seriously lovely lady I think. If you want to take part, you need to get your cards/samples posted out to her by April 15th. Have fun!

Christmas Countdown!

Can you believe it is less than 2 weeks to Christmas? I don't know where the time has gone at all! I've managed to get my Secret Santa all packed up and now ready to go, hopefully it will arrive safe and sound. Had a bit of a faux pas with a finding and a last minute borrow from a friend - what a nightmare! Will tell you more when all is revealed after Christmas :) I'm quite excited to share as it's a first for me, having to use supplied materials.

I also invested in a pretty flower cutting stamp thing which I'm now obsessed with and have put into my Secret Santa, oh what fun and joy such simple things bring me...

So have you done all of your Christmas shopping? I think I'm almost there now, and have even written most of my Christmas cards... All that's left is to get them delivered to the recipients now ;) that's the bit I normally fail on. I just hope that my postie gets all of my mail delivered in time as there's more snow forecast, and the last bout meant no post for over 3 days! I would hate to think what the post system must be like out of town if it was that bad in the town centre...

I'm afraid as I've been finishing off my SS pieces, I don't have anything new to show you, so I will leave you with this!

Bid for Beads!

Hey everyone!

On a cheerier note, the exclusive Bead Buddies Beaded Bead necklace is up for auction NOW! Bid here and make a difference - all proceeds are going to Macmillan Cancer (not profits, every single penny!) so please do bid generously!

There are many hours of work and thousands of beads involved in the making of this, but if you pop over to the auction full details are there :)

Happy bidding!

All things new :)

It's September the 1st? Already?

Spent the day up in Dereham today preparing for the handover of contracts in my job - it's all change as of Monday (Exciting! Different! Scary? A little...) Also got to take the company Mondeo out for a drive - I should point out that I have a stupid thing about not driving big cars in case I scrape/bump/mark them in any way. The Mondeo is an estate car. Scary! But oh so fun when used to driving a small 1.4 Clio :)

So, the new website design is coming along swimmingly - no sneaky peeks yet though, but I think you'll be impressed :) and also on that note, dear sister who is taking my photos (hopefully very soon... Yes, as a beloved sister I'm left waiting!) has made her own portfolio website, which you can view here. There's some impressive stuff!

I'm also about to start my next commission, a choker to match the anklet, only this time with firepolish instead of swarovski, which I received today and are a perfect (and lush!) match. Duly noted that I have found a fab new supplier in Sheffield where I can get very reasonably priced, very lovely beadies from - Jencel - hop on over and take a peek. I was very impressed!

Ooh, and check out my bargain buy for the day from a fellow bead buddy Claire - 4 lovely display stands :) just as I was wondering what I was going to display my pieces on for that fair in October... Thanks Claire!!

Happy crafting
x

Oh how time flies

I can barely believe how fast time's going by at the moment. I can happily say that I HAVE been beading this week though :) I'm half way to finishing my spring lariat, and I completed a St Petersburg necklace, which you can see on the left!

We went round to celebrate my little cousin's first birthday today, it doesn't seem like 2 months ago that she was born! Now it's less than 5 weeks to my wedding and I'm starting to worry that I've forgotten things!

Even when I'm not beading, I try to keep up with the latest on BeadBuddies and everyone's blogs, I barely seem to get 10 minutes to myself at the moment, but it's not long until I get to breathe a sigh of relief and reap the benefits of my hard work :)

In other news, thanks to Sooz on the BB forum, I'm now starting to attempt beaded beads! Watch this space... :P

Happy crafting!

Baby pinks

I had a really good day yesterday...I thought I was never going to make it back in to Ipswich in time to catch up with the girls at my beading class but guess what, I did, and not only that but I made my mum a baby pink bracelet that she'd asked for only the night before - now there's service! Pictures to follow shortly :o)

So anyway, I went on a happy little jaunt up the A14 to drop Jim off and came across a lorry that had tipped onto it's side, adding 20 minutes onto my return journey - not so cool, but it was one of those things that everyone stops and looks at whilst driving along at 2mph... Also not cool. So then I had to take a different route back into town because they're doing work on the A14 and my regular slip road was closed. Thankfully I arrived only 10 minutes late and the girls had only just got their beads and bits together so I didn't miss anything :o)

Isn't it lovely when you have the first bbq of the summer? We had one yesterday at our friends' new house, and boy did it make me want to get out of here - I want to get saving on a serious note and get me a beautiful house like that one. Just as well I have a new, better, permanent job then hehe. On that note, you'll be pleased to know that so far it's going well at my new place, and fingers crossed by the end of this week I'll be ready to take it on solo - I have to take it all on either way, so that might be nice! Everyone's really nice though and I think I'll get any help that I need so yippee. 

In jewellery land, I currently have three outstanding projects which I really want to get done, so hopefully I can show you those very soon. First on my list is my spring necklace which I really hope I have enough bead-age for, and then a net necklace which I started several weeks ago (slap my wrist!) and one other necklace for which I may have to wing it because I'm not sure I still have the pattern... Ermm... Teehee.

I hope you all are well, and crafting merrily away

Blog Overload!

I've just been reading lots and lots of blogs and subscribing - now I've not a clue how I will keep up with everyone's scribblings! Thanks though Joelleabelle for starting a blog sharing thread on Folksy, it's great to be able to see what everyone else does. I've started adding... I think I'm about half way through (once I start reading I can't stop :P) How do you all organise your subscribed blogs? I've no idea how to work anything technical on Blogger - I've seen a few people mention Google Reader, but that confuses me too...

I took a few photos of my latest necklace today, back in the Zen garden. I'm particularly proud of this piece as it's not from any pattern, it's something that I decided to do at home, not anything that I started at one of my classes and then carried on with afterwards. Let me know what you think:

Having just put these photographs on here, I'm now wondering whether I should transfer all of my photos onto my Picasa account for ease of adding... Hmn, food for thought.

I'm now off to make spaghetti bolognese with the lush ingredients that came in my hamper - the girls know me so well and I'll miss them ALOT. Fingers crossed my new job and new colleagues are half as good and nice! I'll let you all know tomorrow night after badminton ;)

Happy crafting!

10 weeks to go

Oh dear, I've been very bad in keeping up to date with the blogosphere just recently - I've just spent nearly an hour reading through all of your updates! I can't even begin to tell you how stressed I've been some days this last week, it's been horrendous. All I can say is that now it's getting sorted and aside from job issues, all is fine with the wedding (10.5 weeks away and counting) and the dieting (perhaps not SO fine with the dieting... KFC and wine anyone?)

You may be excited to hear that I have finally gotten around to finishing off my Garden Necklace and am going to be wearing it into work with great sparkly pleasure and pride. I'm getting more comfortable with knotting new thread on to existing which is a milestone for me, but it's for that reason I'll definitely have to keep this necklace all for myself - I'm not so confident with the first two attachments of thread and I can't have it breaking whilst a friend is wearing it! Oh well, one more pretty piece of jewellery that has fallen into my mitts :o)

This week feels so long already and I can't believe it's only Tuesday night! I really want to get back onto the netting necklace we started on Saturday but I'm enjoying procrastinating over what to do until Jim comes back from football. Seems it's the first time in many days that I've been able to just sit, and I'm making the most of it! Well I will post pictures of the netting necklace when it comes a bit further along, it is of course in purple and so far looks lovely.

Ann Summers parties are great fun - I went to my friend's party last night and it was such a fantastic girls night in that I've booked myself one to have the day before my official hen night. Bring on the buzz!

I will be back tomorrow (hopefully!) for LittleTreats loves... probably early as we are having a night in watching movies and drinking wine, which sounds so pleasant and I just can't wait.

In the meantime, happy crafting!

Mothers day handmade...

Mother's day tomorrow! I'm all organised although I must admit that cards have been missed from the equation, perhaps that needs to be tended to in the morning. I've made bracelets and the boxes that they'll be given in - I feel really quite accomplished this week. Not to mention that I now have 3 works in progress, my two latest pictured below.

I do love swarovski bicones. They always sparkle so beautifully, and my garden necklace (pattern by Deborah Roberti) is no exception - after all it is entirely made of swarovski's and gold seed beads. Lush. 

On a more personal note, I came home after a long day on Friday and my lovely fiancée had made a pie:

It was a nice touch I must say :-)

Happy crafting!

LittleTreats loves... Time!

Could it really be Wednesday again already? I can't believe how fast time is going by at the moment. There's so much I need to do! Anyway, I have been a bit busy when free of jury service, Mothers day is looming on the horizon and I've been tasked with making a bracelet for my own and my mother in law - boxes and all :) I've got my mum's bracelet and box made, just got to wait for the clasp to arrive tomorrow (I don't work in gold much, so I've ordered in a one-off gold clasp) along with my mother in laws pearls that I need. I don't have a photo of the box but I'm pretty pleased with it. I used the basic pattern given by clairenobledesign on Folksy for gift boxes and have adjusted it as necessary to make a square but flatter box. Lush.

 

This was the fruits of Saturday morning's labour this week - I'm appalled it's taken me this long to show you all! The necklace isn't finished yet but it sure is on it's way. I was feeling a little risqué this week, for my troubles, and the girls were quick to tag it Burlesque! I like it though. On one other creative note, one of my first posts showed the many beads I got for Christmas and I'm finally going to show you my adorable piggy earrings. 

My good friend thought it amusing that I'd worn them on jury service this week ;)  

So without further ado, here are my picks for this week, on the theme of 'time' as I have so little of it at the moment!

1. In Love's Own Time Steampunk Pendant - LondonFogg  2. Penelope's Tea Time - Tangerinie & Purple Hippos  3. Half Time, Wooden Round Pocket Watch Pendant Necklace - comedaygoday  4. Bracelet, Tick Tock - MyBeadyEye  5. Butterfly Effect Pendant - LondonFogg (yep, I like alot!)  6. Vinyl Record 7" Clock - BeetleJuice

Happy crafting!

LittleTreats loves... Monochrome

Good evening one and all, here are my picks for tonight

1. Ikat Millefiori Cat Quernus Crafts  2. Alice in Wonderland necklace Niche Handmade  3. White Flowers on Black bracelet Sorcery & Sparkle  4. Black satin hair bows Talulahblue  5. Black lace boudoir resin picture frame PennyDog Jewellery  6. Nora Evening Bag Clutch one off Les Sacs Magique

I'm loving these pieces, and I think I could be developing a bag fetish as well as my ever-growing bead fetish! Oh dear, perhaps I'd better apologise to my bank account in advance... 

This theme brings me neatly onto Zentangles. Have you seen any? They're amazing! Here are a couple of Maria's pieces just to whet your appetite, you can view more of her pieces and others here

Maria and Rick developed this art movement, seeking to help people find a state of relaxation, almost meditation. They say that anybody can use Zentangle to create a beautiful and elegant piece of art, line by line. If you're interested they offer a Zentangle starter kit for $49.00 on their site, linked above. I can't help but be fascinated by how these pieces come together, and especially at the fact that you're not allowed to erase anything - eek!

Happy crafting!