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.

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,

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!

And to join the new website...

A fresh blog layout, courtesy of Blogger templates - thanks guys!

Still chasing up those new photos (that's what you get for asking a favour of a younger sister...) but here are some temporary pictures of my latest creation, a patchwork beaded bracelet - still deciding whether I like it or not but it is slowly growing on me. What do you think?

It's something different, a bit random and totally how I feel at the moment - all over the place! Mum has already tried to steal it, so I've no guarantee that I'll get it back after it goes for its photograph!

Coming next... An exciting charity auction that any beady lovers just can't miss!!

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!

Autumn Treats on Folksy

I've just had a pleasant browse (again!) through Folksy and loved these Autumnal shades. From top left, these are; Autumn Leaves Handbag by Brigantia Designs, Brown Corduroy Puff Bag by Erin, Chunky Charm Bracelet by Elca Designs, Autumn Days Pendant by Red Bird Jewellery, Autumn Leaves Bracelet by Paisley Chainsaw & "Forever Autumn" Charm Bracelet by LJL Designs

I'm hoping to get chance tomorrow to upload photos of my first earring attempts - of course all feedback will be appreciated! I'm having trouble with being patient enough to wait until after Christmas when I know exactly what beads I already have before buying more! There are such endless options! I think even my mother is getting the bug for bead hunting now - but that could work in my favour :o)

On another note, I'm also having trouble in deciding on my Secret Santa present... I was hoping to have one of the girlies so that I could try out my new jewellery making 'skills' but unfortunately I have one of the guys... Oh what to do??

Oh and if anybody can tell me where I can get back issues (or anyone has old issues they wouldn't mind passing on!) of Make Jewellery magazine, that would be fantastic!