Crafty outbreaks

Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs - Anon

**sneaks in late - hopefully nobody has noticed!**It's a wonder I ever get anywhere on time 
I had every intention of posting yesterday evening before I went out, but we actually had a rather eventful day and by the time I got home I was just about ready to go to bed instead of out for dinner! Saturday's are normally the day I catch up with the girls at Tracy's, but we got a text at half 8 saying she wasn't feeling very well, so that just left the two musketeers [Sylvia and I] to decide what to do with the day. We weren't too worried, as this is the sort of thing that Tracy ends up doing anyway:  [love her really!]

We ended up going up to the craft section of a local garden centre, just to get out for a drive, and I accidentally bought a few bits. In all fairness, they are to go to making my mum's birthday present so I figured I was allowed to splurge - I am now broke for another 19 days though. She's asked for something long and dangly - I'm going for something that is not my usual style of jewellery making, so fingers crossed I can translate what's in my noggin to what I picked up 

I couldn't resist the dark navy blue, they called to me, and I love gunmetal, so it was an easy decision - I just hope my mum has something to wear it with when it's done!


We even popped into the bead shop - we've not been there in quite a while, so just went in for a catch up. They are doing a netted embellished bag next week, so we're thinking of doing one ourselves, just because we know we probably can!  Reserved our copies of Bead and Button, so hopefully I'll have more beady eye candy to look at soon. Then we headed to Asda, and back to do some beading at Sylvias. We had lush bacon and chicken tortelloni with tomato and basil sauce, and started doing more work on our boxes. A bit later in the afternoon though Sylvia got a call from her son who had found himself outside of the skate park, and didn't know how he got there - it turns out he had come off his BMX and hit his head against the metal ridge on the edge of the ramp and got concussion. I'm glad at this point I don't have children! A night in hospital worrying about your son doesn't sound much fun to me at all. He is ok now though, and starting to have recollections of what happened. 


So after all that excitement, I came home and was intending to blog then, which I clearly failed at. We went out to a nice pub in a local village as part of my mum's birthday celebration [her birthday is Tuesday] and had a lovely meal. I can't say what we've got her yet [aside from the unmade necklace of course], as I'm not sure if she reads my blog - hopefully she will like it though. 


Today, Jim is on his second day of his Kayak course - his latest hobby since he almost broke his other foot playing football a couple of weeks ago [last year he chipped a bone in his other foot]. Hopefully this one will be a little less troublesome? Only time will tell. He had a really good day yesterday though, so as long as he's happy, I'm happy. I've had a relatively productive morning, I have had a tidy up, done some washing, sorted some washing, hoovered, finished off my giveaway hairband which is now ready to go out to Kate at Tropical Blonde, and now I have blogged as well! Admittedly, I have done the bare minimum of washing up [saucepan and bowl so I could have my bolognese for lunch ] but that's for tomorrow. I will leave you with the finished giveaway piece, and as we're at my parents later, I will get the photo of me when I used to do ballroom dancing - it was in the newspaper, you know! 

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!

Tropical winner!

Waheyyy and the winner of my first bloggy giveaway (as randomly selected by my bead buddy Sylvia) is Kate at Tropical Blonde!

Congratulations Kate, pop me an e-mail or comment here as to how you would like your summer flower finished :o)

It's been lovely to invite new followers, and I have exciting news, I am going to be much more active in blogging land throughout July - watch this space as I have been asked to step in and reveal all as Bead Buddies Artist of the Month. Scary? Yes. Exciting? Very! I just hope I can find enough interesting things to talk about for a whole month. Better start thinking early.

Just as scary and exciting, my bead buds here and I are doing our very first craft fair on Saturday - and just to put the pressure on, we only found out/decided to do it TODAY! Eek! Should be a good chance to get some experience at least, and it's nice and local. Hopefully we can learn lots and come up with a proper table layout for future events. Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end!

Well, I need to get on with fretting about how little jewellery I have to sell - just as well I have two great friends two do this with.

Happy crafting!

Last chance to enter the giveaway!

Well, I've inherited another 6 followers over the last few days but no new entries for the giveaway! Remember, it closes at 9pm tonight!

In other news, my MIL has given us free run of her house whilst they're sunning it up in Florida. This means I have use of a proper kitchen, so if I can kick myself into gear, I may try my hand at making some of my own cuppy cakes! Watch this space. Obviously, they will not be as cool as these funky sheep cupcakes. I can try.

I hope you've all had a fab Father's Day, what did you do with your Dad today?

Happy crafting!

Fab finds

It's giveaway time, and I've got a few finds for you to browse!

Firstly, let me remind you of my giveaway for this cute embroidered flower, the entry guidelines can be found here. Remember - you can have it made into whatever you choose!

I've been having a little browse since I got back from Download (what a weekend!) and found a few new sites, blogs and giveaways for you all. I hadn't realised what fab sites are out there for us crafters. If you haven't either, make sure you check out Craft Blog UK - a comprehensive list of jewellery, sewing, papercraft, art, photography, knitting and all kinds of other crafty blogs. Get involved! I will be. They are currently running a Craft Photography competition, designed to get your product photos seen and to help us all understand what makes a good photo. The competition page can be found here - it's great even just to have a scroll through and see how other people present their items.

Kate at Tropical Blonde is also holding a giveaway - click here for a chance to win one of these lush pendants. Two lucky people will win one, so get commenting!

Moonlitfantaseas is holding a giveaway for Metalworking 101 - clicky here

Copper Diem is holding a Pass It Forward giveaway, and is giving away a selection of beads, charms and a lovely toggle clasp, which can be found here

Now, here's the biggy - Lana at somethingunique is having a MONSTER giveaway, and you will have to go to her blog to see the amazing collection she has put together, here are just a couple of things:

So - let me know what takes your fancy, and I'll see you over at these wonderful blogs. Just don't enter these too many times - I'd like the lot please! Coming soon, we are making a light box to try and get better and more uniform pictures - watch this space.

Happy crafting

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!

FOLLOWERS!

Ohh you've gone and snuck up on me faster than I expected - I've just hit the 50 followers so watch this space for details of my giveaway... I've got to come up with something lovely for you now!

Fab giveaway

Visit Love My Art Jewelry for a fab prize opportunity! Just click on the image to the left. Don't try too hard though, I want these little babies :)


The dragon is coming along, the body is now complete and he will have a head very soon. I'm so excited :D

Happy crafting
x