All posts filed under: Jewelry

Bead soup, a list and a necklace

I am participating in my first Bead Soup Blog Party this year and so far, it is going rather well. I have a wonderful swapping partner all the way down in sunny Florida and I have received a fabulous mix from her, so thanks to Charis Designs Jewelry for my treasures! I have to use a focal and the clasp, which should not be a problem at all, now I need to get my thinking head on and make some jewels!  Our ‘reveal’  where we have to show (here) what we made is in April, so watch this space. #52lists ‘Messy things I like’.  I am enjoying writing these crazy lists!  This one is the first in my new notebook which I intend filling with writings and lists and cut outs from magazines and lots of interesting stuff until it won’t close properly! I made the random necklace!   Remember I had a pile of random lovely beads picked out by my friend to make a necklace for her?  Well, here is it is!  I …

Hearts, Owls and Clouds.

I thought today was going to be a non starter. I didn’t go to the gym this morning as I usually do. I had big plans to use the extra time wisely and get a feeling of work well done by 11am. When I got home from school, I wasn’t feeling it, I almost wished I had just gone to the YMCA and done a class to get me started. I thought it would be a treat not to go, but at 8am, I was feeling a little lost. You know, the rabbit in headlights feeling, what to do, where, how? A bit like when I get to the Y and my locker is being used by someone else, a momentary and mild panic, something is wrong, all is not as it should be. It techically isn’t ‘my’ locker of course, just the one I usually use. If I use another, heck, I might not find my non gym clothes, and I have a strict rule about wearing gym clothes outside said gym.  I don’t. …

I want a friend with a cafe and other pressing needs.

As I was reading Meet Me at Mikes by Pip Lincolne, and how Pip was helping her friend out who owns a cafe, I had a huge joyful feeling that I want to be involved with a cafe. I don’t have aspirations to own one, but I would love to be able to help someone with one, not even work for them, just help out as and when.  I can help with recipe ideas and I am a very excellent taste tester.  I can carry, waitress, wash, dry.  Also decorate, paint and choose the music. This came as a very strong feeling and a positive one.  Isn’t it strange how a feeling can overtake you for a moment.  I like it. Now, who do I know who owns or wants to own a cafe?! Maybe we serve these hot chocolates?   I also want to make a random bead necklace for my friend. Sounds easy?   Of course, grab a handful of beads from my various jars and bowls.  No.  I don’t do random very well, …

January 2013 photo a day.

Day 1. Today. Connect Four on New Year’s Day. Day 2. Something New. New Feast magazine. Day 3. Heart. In the snow. Day 4. The View from here Day 5. Movement Day 6. Mine. Some of my favourite beads. Day 7. Street. Always a handy place for a toilet! Day 8. Something beginning with T. Day 9. Paper. Vintage Fox River Onion Skin paper. Day 10. 1 o clock. Day 11. Water. Reflection and Swim. Day 12. Suprise. Lots of lovely books from the library, full of suprises. Day 13. Circle. Day 14. Something yellow. Day 15. An ordinary moment.  Frost on a pile of leaves. Day 16. Two things.  Garlic cloves. Day 17. Ready.  For my January jewelry sale. Day 18. Shadow. Day 19. Delicious.  I love finding bonkers stuff in the antiques mall. Day 20. Something you saw Day 21. What you do.  Sometimes I make zombies. Day 22. Corner.  Snow on a roof. Day 23. Electric. Day 24. Stripes. Day 25. Landscape.  At Laumeier Sculpture Park. Day 26. Together.  Bodhi and Max’s …

Hearts abound at Handmade Happy Hour Sweetheart Edition.

Hearts hearts everywhere and lots indeed to wear! I have been a busy bee making lots of new jewelry which will be debuting at the fabulous Handmade Happy Hour Sweetheart Edition.  I will be with a wonderful assortment of  handmade vendors at Home Wine Kitchen in Maplewood on Friday Feb 1st from 5pm-9pm. Come along, get dinner and peruse some lovely local artist’s hard work. Bring along boyfriends, husbands, wives, girlfriends and be sure to get beautiful gifts for your beautiful people this Valentine’s Day.

Oh, I say!

Well well well, looks like I got me an award!  Whoop! I have been nominated by the lovely http://www.blueribbonfair.wordpress.com for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award and shock, gasp  The Versatile Blogger Award I must (no really, I must, it is in the rules) nominate others for the same awards and it has been an easy and joyous task picking these blogs out! I have to confess when I saw that I had to find 15 deserving blogs, I thought I might have to start digging about.  Absolutely not, all of the blogs I have listed I have read and I enjoy reading them and the photos,  stories,  photographs,  crafts, recipes and general fabulousness contained within each. Some of these bloggers I have met and started to read through participating in the JustB blog school headed up by Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes.  Without the blog school I am almost certain that I would be posting once a month at the most and my blog would be a wandering mess.  As it is, I …

New

New. These beads are new and I am so happy with the colours. I usually have a pretty good idea of the colours I am ordering so I don’t get a nasty suprise. Sometimes when there is an unusual finish on the glass it can be spectacular or spectacularly awful! I have to say that I was hopping with joy when I saw these gorgeous colours. Love love love them and I can’t wait to use them to make new jewels! More new.  Books, DVDs and a CD from the library, new to me, but borrowed for a couple of weeks.  I have to say I am almost always impressed with a trip to the library, so many resources and bang up to date.  What to do first, make something, bake something, read, listen or watch?

Ten on the 10th. January 2013

I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance of getting 10 photos today, unless you fancied a wonderland view of rain, damp, then fog and back to rain, then dark. Fear not! I started off with stuff I am reading and stuff I am making, I snapped the melting giant snowball in the back garden and off I went on a photo extravaganza! Here are January’s ten on the 10th. The last of the snow, in a convenient ball. Itsy Bitsy wire hearts all going to grow into earrings. In a vintage Ponds cream jar we found in the woods last year. Check out my Etsy store for the finished product. Bodhi and I are reading ‘Mr Stink’ and I love it as much as he does! I am listening to ‘State of Wonder’ by Ann Pratchett at the minute, ‘The End of your Life Bookclub’ is jostling for next in line with ‘Grace’ by Grace Coddington. I’m reading ‘Mr Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore’ and enjoying it no end. Good stuff. My Instagram prints stored …

2012 in review.

This was so hard, choosing one, single photo per month to cover 2012.  I love the ones I have found and remembered all the great stuff we did through the year.  Thank goodness for the daily diary I keep, otherwise I would never had remembered half the  dates and events.  It has also made me realise how time zips by!  I am taking part in my first link-up ever and it is with Farewell Stranger which I came across as I was reading Writing Wishing blog. January starts top left and the months follow downwards.  I made a collage of the photos and I like to see them together like this. January we found these wicker huts in Clayton.  They are still there and I still don’t know why.  Are they art?  Does someone live there? Or are they just because?  Jan 4th-update-the huts are called Double or Nothing and are by an artist called Patrick Dougherty who makes these wicker installations all over the world.  Thanks to Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes for the …

December 2012 photo a day

Every day I take a photo using the prompts from Fat Mum Slim‘s creative brain.  I am looking forward to having a whole year of them in 2013.  I started doing it late this year, but it is a great daily creative challenge. Day 1. 8 o clock. Opening the advent calendar. Day 2. Peace Day 3. Something you held. Found these gorgeous antique postcards at the weekend. I love to look through them, they are all Italian, British and other European sights. Mainly cathedrals. Day 4. Black and white Day 5. Looking up Day 6. From where you live. I walk through these woods nearly every day from where I live. Day 7. Stars. Trader Joes cookies! Day 8. Someone you love. My boys in a plane, at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur Airport, St Louis. Day 9. Out and about. I spotted this rain drenched thistle on the way home from the dreaded Walmart! Day 10. Under.  I walked under this decorated but bare tree. Day 11. Sweet. Candy cane …