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.

Summer flower

Happy Mondays, I managed to make a start on this for you before leaving for Download Festival! After a lovely catch up with the girls, and some super treats from Sylvia ( pics to follow when I get home! ), I am now packed and ready to go camping.

All that's left to do with this little summery beauty is to cut, edge, and attach to the winner's choice of finding! To enter the giveaway, please visit this post.

So, on Bead Buddies, we sometimes have challenges, giveaways, and swapsies. A couple of days ago, Helen of LaLa Lampwork posted a swap for her awesomely cool lampwork piggies. I had to get one for Sylvia - I don't think she's named it yet, perhaps you could give us some ideas? :P - If you would like to see what else Helen creates, visit her website!

Happy crafting, liking, commenting, tweeting and blogging! Entries for the giveaway close @ 21:00 on Sunday 19th June, so please spread the word and join in!

#100 - The Giveaway!

Hello there my lovely bloggers. Yes, I have just made it by the skin of my teeth and remember I promised a giveaway by post number 100. Now, the piece isn't made yet, but that Stash Challenge flower has inspired me to make a bright summery version in yellow! This is what it will look like:

So, I'll give you a couple of options with it as it's not yet been made;
1* Hairband - wrapped with a ribbon in your choice of colour
2* Hair slide - a bit like this one!
3* Made into a flowery pendant and hung on a bronze chain in a length of your choice
The flower will measure around 2 1/2 inches once finished.

How to enter (1 entry for each you do!):
1* Become a follower of my blog and leave a comment here with how you would like to receive the flower
2* Follow me on Twitter, and tweet about the giveaway
3* Like my page on Facebook and leave me a comment
4* Finally, if you have something you really want to try but just haven't gotten around to it yet - mention what it is in any of the above 3 places and I'll throw you in an extra entry! If it wasn't for the stash challenge, I don't know when I would have gotten around to using these super cute hearts!

I will give you a nice long two weeks to get your entries in - partly as I'm off on Tuesday to Download Festival! So get commenting, following and liking, and when I get back next Tuesday I will make a start on the flower itself. The giveaway will close on Sunday 19th June at 21:00 BST. Winner to be announced on Tuesday 21st June once picked by my bead buddies Sylvia and Tracy - to be pulled out of a hat... or beading tub?

In other news, I'm trying to start moving away from just making jewellery for myself, and so am starting to think more about you guys out there. My first piece that will go into the "saleable jewellery" box is this golden flat spiral bracelet:

What do you think, would you buy this for yourself or as a gift if you saw it? (Obviously with a better picture, mind you!)  I just love the sparkle it makes.

I hope you all have a lovely week if I don't get back on here before we leave, and I look forward to sending one of you a bit of summertime when I return!