Another quick update...

I promise that after Christmas you'll be sick of me updating the blog... but for now, it's another rushed entry. Got events tomorrow, Sunday and Monday morning. Then a party next Thursday and an outdoor (!) event on Friday... and then I'm finished for Christmas!!

So what's new?

Well, the workshop is coming along. Here it is with the funky shaped computer desk, the lovely IKEA cupboard (constructed by Tom) and the start of the workbench. I'm itching to get in there as the light is brilliant, but we're still waiting for the plumber to come and attach the radiator. It's far too cold to work in there at the moment - although it might come in handy as a second fridge over Christmas!!

Watch out!! What do you think of these? The bracelet part is byzantine with knobs on as I call it. They are selling pretty well and I'm enjoying making them. I've also done some in copper which is really pretty.
The rest of these are black sets using Black Agate. As always at this time of year, black is very popular.
The first one incorporated some lovely Sterling rectangles and Swarovski Crystals for a Christmas sparkle.
This is the seond of the Murano pendants in this style. The other one was slightly larger and that set has been sold. I was very excited when I found the glass beads with silver and gold in them and knew instantly that they'd go perfectly with the pendant. So I added in some black agate and Sterling Silver tubes.
The last black one is all black agate with Swarovski Crystals.

I think our decorations might go up this weekend. Tom's very keen to start getting into the festive spirit. I'll let the kids do most of it... but I'm very particular about my tree, so I'll do that - sometime! I'll take a photo when I'm done.

Right, I'm off to put my feet up and gather my energy for selling loads tomorrow (hopefully!).

Take care, All, and have a lovely weekend.

Much love.

Hello.... Goodbye

Just a very quick post to give you all a wave...

We're in the middle of a very hectic series of events - five in four days! A Christmas shopping evening last night, an office sale today, a Christmas Fair tonight and then Saturday and Sunday at Berkeley Castle.

We love selling our wares so it's not really any hardship, just tiring.

Hope to have the energy to report back on Monday.

Have a fine weekend, Everyone!

Much love.

Indigo Indulgence

As I didn't post any pics of jewellery in my posting of this morning, thought I'd show you a few new things, hot off the press.

All these feature beads by Denise Karan of Indigo Lily. I'm just hooked on Denise's beads at the moment!

First up are some really pretty beads that I've had for a little while. I didn't want the jewellery to turn out too 'girly' so even though I've used more pink, in the form of sea glass, I think picking up the green from Denise's beads has steered it away from the Barbie look. The green is Ruby Fuschite, which also has areas of a gorgeous dark pink which, hopefully, holds the whole thing together.

Then, back to my newest favouritest finding, the add a bead pendant. These beads made me think of wintry Yorkshire moors (although, come to think of it, I've never been on the Yorkshire moors in the winter, so I suppose this is what I think they'd look like!).

And although I've never been swimming in the Caribbean - and I even when I do swim, I don't do underwater... these colours are what I imagine you'd see.


And I love the contrast of the greens in this set.


Right, better get back to it!

More soon...

Totally Floored!

Brian and I made really good progress on the new workspace this weekend. We put down the vinyl tiles and got the skirting board on. It's beginning to look really good!

The table leg you can see on the right will form part of the support for the desk (which will be on the left where all the sockets are) or the workbench (on the right), so you can see that those unsightly pipes will be under the bench and so not visible. We are going to put the vinyl tiles on the window sill too, so everything will be wipe clean.
All the stuff on the left, the meters, wires etc will be boxed into a cupboard and so hidden away from sight. And on the right where there's no skirting and you can see pipes jutting out of the wall, that's where the radiator will go - which will have a cover.
The steps turned out rather well - if I say so myself (can you guess that I did them?!). The riser for the top step uses the faux slate that we've got in the kitchen (which is through that door) and then the rest uses the tiles from the floor. We've put non-slip metal edging on each step so that I should be safe going up and down the steps. When this was the kitchen (up until last year) it was always my biggest worry, that I'd slip going down the steps. I did once trip going up and the dinners slid off the plates onto the dining room floor!
If you look closely (but please don't) there is a bit of a gap at the bottom of the steps where the tiles don't meet... we're going to put in a bit of quadrant there. The floor/step junction is quite uneven to difficult so get a good line.

The next two photos - again non-jewellery - I took with my phone last Friday. They are of Millennium Square in Bristol. It was such a gloriously sunny day, everything shone and twinkled and I had to get a shot. Looks more like August than November!
Right, that's it for now. Hopefully there will be jewellery to show you later in the week. We are just about to enter a completely mad couple of weeks with 8 events in 12 days! YIKES! So if you don't hear from me until the end of November, I'll be passed out in the corner from exhaustion...

Take care, All, and much love.

Out of my comfort zone...

...with grateful thanks to Tan... Tania Grey of Tan, Of Course.

When I'm blending colours with beads, I'm not too adventurous - keeping things matching and toning... but then, when I have some of Tan's beads, she gives me a sharp boot up the bottom and sends me WAY outside my comfort zone. Her colour combinations are always interesting and they inspire me to put colours together in a more interesting and unusual way.

Take this one for example:

Just look at the fantastic colours in Tan's beads! I found turquoise freshwater pearls and candy jade chips to echo the colours and teamed them with Sterling Silver.

The name of the set comes from the wonderful Burl Ives' song which was part of the soundtrack to my childhood. Remember the chorus?

Oh the buzzin' of the bees
In the cigarette trees
Near the soda water fountain
At the lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
On the big rock candy mountain

You can hear Burl sing it here.

These beads are a little more subdued, but still have surprising colours... the soft heather purple, with red and turquoise... translated into a necklace with garnets and glass seed beads.

Purple and green is a favourite colour combination of mine... so these beads always had my name on! Here the beads are Amethyst and Peridot.

Lastly, here's anther shape of bead by Tan. One of her lollipop beads... and what great colours! Here I've made it into a pendant with my new favourite findings.


We had a very fine weekend, lots of eating, drinking and making merry. And, I didn't fare too badly at WW on Tuesday. Think I'd better be good the rest of the week in case it catches up with me!

A quick *wave* to my bro and his missus, who have recently become blog readers!

I cannot let the day pass without saying, "Well done, America!" I'm not a political person, but today I feel we have witnessed history in the making.

Enjoy your fireworks if you are having them... be safe and have a sparkler for me.

Much love to All.