Patchouli Memories

Watercolour painting.

2011-09-19T15:47:00.000+01:00

I've recently got back into painting with watercolours again and I'm really surprised at how quick I've picked it back up. I last painted when I was at art college when I was 17, so that was about 16 years ago! I've really been getting the urge to paint again so I went online, searched around a bit and ordered a set of watercolour paints. I got the Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolour 24 paints which were quite expensive but I thought they would be worth it as I was wanting some good quality paints that would last me.....

My paints before un-wrapping the pans.

For anyone interested I have put more photos on my Flickr account of the paint box and paint samples of all the colours: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patchoulimemories. I did this because every web site that was selling these paints all had the same small photo, which was quite frustrating. So I've taken photos of this set to give everyone else a better view of them.

.....So it took me a couple of days to pluck up the courage to have a go at painting something, because as I said its been 17 years. I found a picture of a robin that I thought I'd have a go at and here it is below....

First painting in a long time!

So what do you think? I was pretty happy and surprised at the outcome (minus the feet! I think the look horrendous), but it was my first go and it also took less time than I expected as I'd always been a really slow painter when I was younger.

Ok so at the weekend I decided to have another go at painting a different robin. This time I needed to have a practice at painting some legs and feet first because they are more difficult to do than I thought and I also used a smaller brush (number 0).

Practice at bird feet.

You can see from above what a difference it is from just having a practice first! You can just see the first painting in the top corner of the bird feet (cringe!!)....

Attempt at bird number 2.

I think this one worked a lot better with it having nicer feet :) I'm now pleased and I'll be starting my next painting very soon....

London living....living in London.

2011-06-23T01:30:00.003+01:00

Well like I said in my previous post, me and my husband moved to London in February. Dave works as a contractor computer programming and originally when he first applied for this job we planned that he was going to be living in London 4 nights a week and then coming home at weekends. We live about 3 hours from London on the train so a daily commute was not going to be possible for him and we have 3 house cats which would make it difficult for us to rent a flat with them, so we decided I would stay at home. I came to London with him before his contract was due to start to help find somewhere for him to rent, but after speaking to an estate agent who seemed to think we could find a landlord that would let us rent with our 3 cats we decided that we would both move here, so we did. We have kept our house back home for us to go back to at the end of the year when Daves contract finishes and I go back home every few weeks to check on everything, do some gardening and see family and friends. The one thing I miss about our house back home is the garden as we don't have one here. Anyway the flat we are living in at the moment is in Westminster and literally a 5 minute walk to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, its not to far from Buckingham Palace either and we live really close to St James's park which we love going to. The great thing about the location is that we're in the centre of everything. The flat itself is modern and spacious and I think we struck gold finding it, it really feels like home here already. Also the funny thing we found out when we moved in is that Cilla Black lives on the top floor and I've seen her twice now.

We have been everywhere in London since we moved here, I could almost qualify as a tour guide :) We've had family and friends visit us over the past few months and I've loved showing them all the places to see and I've really worn them out from dragging them round everywhere. We went and watched the London marathon for the first time and when William and Kate where getting married around the corner from us we went and took photos of all the people camping outside the Abbey which was strange to see. I'm not a Royal enthusiast and not a fan of big crowds so on the day of the wedding we just stayed in and watched it on the TV.

Also I've been getting more into my photography since we moved here as there's a lot of interesting things to shoot so I'll add a few of my photos here and keep you all updated on what happens next....

The London Eye taken from St James's Park.

St Paul's Cathedral.

Guards having band practice.

Water fountains on the South Bank. The Gherkin is the building in the background.

Big Ben.

Houses of Parliament.

Its been a while.... but I've moved to London.

2011-05-31T16:24:00.000+01:00

Well its been a while since I last updated my blog, I've neglected it a quite a bit because I've been busy since the beginning of the year moving 250 miles to London which I will tell you all about in my next post.

Also in January I signed up in for The Race for Life which is a sponsored 5k (3 mile) run for Cancer Research. I have always been a poor runner, when I used to do cross country at school I was always at the back trying to catch my breath. I just can't seem to breathe when I run so its always been limited to 40 seconds maximum before I have to stop and walk. So I took this as a challenge to improve my running and its starting to pay off. My husband Dave is a really good runner and has helped me loads by coming out running with me and keeping my times. I started out doing interval training where I run for 1 minute then walk for 1 minute and its now got to the point where I can run for 8 minutes without stopping, which I'm really pleased about. The Race for Life was on the 27th May last week and I completed 5k in 35 minutes, raised money for charity and I'm fitter! I'm defiantly keeping up my running routine, and who knows, I might just sign up for another charity run.

Me before the race.

Harry Hill....

2010-10-28T19:48:00.007+01:00

My sister phoned me up last week asking if I could make my Nephew the Harry Hill Kitted Character off the TV show Harry Hill (which is actually crocheted). I've only really made a couple of crochet soft toys and a blanket so I wouldn't consider myself a confident crocheter but reluctantly agreed to try and make one with no pattern to follow. To be honest I didn't have a clue what the Harry Hill Knitted Character was as I don't watch Harry Hill, but my 8 year old Nephew is mad on him. I had to do a search on Google images to get an idea of what it looked like and then went from there...

Above is the character from the Harry Hill TV show.

Heres the one I made. Considering I had no pattern and my inexperience I think I done a good job.

Im really pleased with the outcome and it only took me a couple of days to make it.

New items in my shop...

2010-07-25T14:44:00.003+01:00

I have recently been busy making new items for my patchouli Memories boutique on Etsy. I have also bought a new camera recently and have been updating the jewellery photos in the shop too which I feel is a great improvement. I have added below a few of the new items for you all to see. Please, let me know what you think :) Thanks.

P.S I have also added an extra page to my blog titled My Handmade Cards which contains photos of all my handmade greetings cards I make for myself that I thought I would share with you. Take a peek, just click on 'My Handmade Cards' at the top of the page.

Sterling Silver Purple and Lime Furnace Glass Necklace.

Sterling Silver Aqua and Pink Furnace Glass Necklace.

Adjustable Red Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

Adjustable Purple Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

Adjustable Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

My painting has arrived! :)

2010-06-07T17:04:00.003+01:00

Ok so as promised here is the painting I bought from Whitby last Wednesday, isn't it beautiful! Its by an artist called Chris Carbro and the painting is called 'Wild wind swept sea' and its an original oil painting on canvas.

Sunny day at the seaside

2010-06-04T14:52:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday the weather was beautiful, sunny and hot, so I took my friend Michelle out for the day. She works in a school and they had a week off this week so we thought we would go to Whitby. We parked at Sandsend then walked along the beach to Whitby which is about a mile or so, bought some cockles and muscles off the seafood stall which were really tasty and then had a walk around all the lovely shops there. There is an artist I really love called Chris Geall who has a shop in Whitby called Trattles and Geall so we took a look inside. Chris was in the back of the shop working on one of his oil paintings which was interesting to see. I wasn't actually looking to buy a painting there and then but an oil painting of the sea caught my eye by a different artist and I just had to have it. It cost me £180 but its really beautiful and will be my first ever original art I have ever bought, its exciting! They are posting it out to me so when I receive it I will take a pic and post it on here for you all to see. After buying a few bits and bobs and enjoying a delicious ice cream we headed for the chip shop and bought some chips to eat while walking back along the shore to Sandsend. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the car from the sun and all the walking we did (we must have walked at least 5 or 6 miles) but we had a really lovely day.

Whitby Harbour.

Looking back at where we had just walked from. In the distance is Sandsend where we started our walk, we were only half way to Whitby.

This wasn't my kite but I loved it. I will have to have a look out for one like this to buy.

The little huts you can rent out. I love them.

Michelle.

Whitby Harbour.

Sia Furler and Krispy Kreme :)

2010-05-31T01:21:00.007+01:00

Well Thursday was the day Me and Dave went to see Sia Furler live at Roundhouse in London and it was absolutely amazing! We got the train down to London and headed straight for Krispy Kreme. I've been obsessed about going to Krispy Kreme ever since I seen a picture of someone I know on Facebook with a box of doughnuts from there. We got a box of 12 assorted doughnuts, headed for our hotel in Islington and tucked in. They are the best doughnuts I have ever had and they were like doughnut heaven! Anyway back to telling you about Sia. The doors opened at 8pm and we were almost at the front of the que at 5.30 as I wanted to make sure we were right at the front of the stage (I had actually had a nightmare about not being able to see the stage the previous night, as mad as it sounds lol). Anyway to my relief we were right on the front railing and had an amazing view. The stage was beautiful, covered in crochet and knitted blankets and on the back wall was quite a large crochet blanket with her name Sia made up of pom poms. Sia came out in a dress that was made of red and white barrier tape that was half crocheted which was gorgeous. When she came on for the encore at the end she was wearing a set of "bubble wings" on her back that spun while she sang with an air fan behind her which blew masses of bubbles above the crowd. I expected the gig to be good but it was even better and we had a great time. Once we got back home the next day I was on the internet and noticed that she is playing another gig in October in London again but this time at The Troxy, needless to say I quickly booked 2 tickets to see her again :)

Sia's dress was crocheted with red and white barrier tape.

The stage was covered in crochet and knitted blankets and pom poms spelling out Sia on the back wall.

Not a great photo but you can see the wings on her back. They had bubble discs in them and a motor on her back pumped bubble solution onto them with the fan behind blowing through the wings as they spun around. Amazing!!

Our delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts! mmm

Summer is here! Yay :)

2010-05-21T15:49:00.001+01:00

Well its very warm today here in the UK (reading 24 deg/75f on the house thermometer), so much in fact that I have stored away all of my winter clothes and swapped them for my summer stuff and I'm now wearing my shorts and vest top and have applied my fake tan :) I dug out all my summer skirts from a storage box under my bed and tried them all on just to make sure they still fit. I was convinced they wouldn't fit and crossed my fingers in hope as I tried each one on and very luckily they all do, Phew! So I headed for the bathroom scales thinking I can't have put much weight on over the winter if my skirts still fit me but I was wrong! :( I've put on 10 pounds (4.5 kg) since last summer!!! Im really going to have to get back into my exercise regime but I just can never find the time to fit it in. I have just bought a Nikon D90 DSLR camera and I'm trying to learn how to use it to retake all of my jewellery pics and then theres painting the hallway to be done, which I'm planning on doing at the weekend.

Thursday 27th May me and my husband Dave are off to London and staying over for the night as I have got us tickets to see Sia Furler which Im really excited about and I really hope the weather stays as nice as it is today. Friday 28th the next day is the anniversary of when we first started seeing each other and will be 17 years, only feels like yesterday though, time flies so quickly doesn't it? So when we get back I will let you know how it went and post some pics too.

Spring flowers and fruit pie!

2010-04-04T23:38:00.001+01:00

I think polymer artists are amazing and I came across this Etsy seller today Zuleykha who makes jewellery from her handmade polymer clay. I absolutely love the flower bracelets she makes, the colours are wonderful and as for the fruit pies and cupcake pendants they look so delicious! I really love polymer canes, it fascinates me how they are made and she makes beautiful ones for her jewellery. Take a look at a few of my favourites below and check out her shop.

Tasty Easter goodies :)

2010-03-28T02:49:00.003+01:00

This week I thought I would feature a seller on Esty and a blogger I follow known as Marmalady. Shes from Derbyshire here in the UK and she sells in her shop all sorts of traditional homemade tasty treats that look fabulous. Take a look at the Easter cakes below that she has just recently added to her shop along with a few other treats that will make you drool :)
Check out her blog too http://marmalady1.blogspot.com/

A beautiful selection of Simnel and Easter cakes above.

These cookies look so good!

Oh how I love Lemon Curd.

I've tried a few attempts to make fudge but it never works, good job I suppose otherwise I would make it all the time. This chocolate fudge looks delicious.

Slow times on Etsy...

2010-03-24T20:56:00.001Z

Well my sales in my shop on Etsy have been almost non existent this year which is a bit disheartening. I had my friend Michelle round my house for Sushi last night and I showed her the jewellery I have made. She said that the women she works with would love my designs and I should let them see them. I packed a few things up for her to take into work today. To be honest because of the slow sales on Etsy I wasn't too sure that she would sell anything, then this morning she contacted me to say that as soon as she had got out the jewellery at work they had swarmed round and were fighting over the pieces! Well she has ended up selling 3 things so far for me with 2 requests for a necklace to go with a pair of earrings someone has their eye on and another charm bracelet which one of the women had bought. So all in all its been quite a success and I'm over the moon!

Honeytree Photography

2010-03-15T22:53:00.014Z

Ok so this is the first time I have featured anyone on my blog and it makes me slightly nervous. There is so many wonderful talented artists out ther that I feel like I need to start sharing with you all the ones I've came across on Etsy.com.

As we're heading into Spring and Summer I couldn't think of a better artist than Lupen Grainne of Honeytree Photography to share with you. Her fine art photography captures nature and life at its best, the pictures draw you in with their warmth, dreamy lazy Summer feel and charm as Im sure you would agree.

Wonderland and afternoon tea

2010-03-11T15:07:00.004Z

Yesterday my husband Dave had the day off work so we thought we would make the most of it by going out for some lunch and then to the cinema.
For our lunch we went to Betty's Cafe Tea Room in Northallerton in North Yorkshire. I have been here a few times now and I love it so much. Its a dainty traditional English tea room that makes you feel like you have stepped back in time to the 1920's. They have a little shop in the front of the building selling a range of cakes, biscuits, chocolates and pastries to take away, then in the back is the tea room with its domed glass roof and a huge palm plant set in the 'palm room'. The food here is amazing from the warm seasonal quiche to the simplest dish of egg mayonnaise and cress sandwich, Ive never had a dish that I didn't enjoy, even my Mam and Dad thought it was delicious when I took them for a treat. The desserts and cakes are what Betty's are famous for, a selection of mouthwatering cakes you can choose from off the cake trolley they bring to your table for you to browse. Its called a cafe tea room but the prices are restaurant prices, I find the food and service is better than restaurant standards so I think the prices are reasonable. If you are ever in Yorkshire look this tea room up and take a visit as you won't be disappointed but it is quite expensive.
We had a lovely time yesterday there, I ordered a warm spinach and leek tartlet with salad and chips and Dave had fried fillet of haddock with pea puree and chipped potatoes which was basically fish and chips but was the best I've ever tried. For dessert we both had chocolate torte served with double cream. We were so full up for the rest of the day :)

Betty's cafe tea room in Northallerton.

After finishing off at Betty's we headed to the cinema to see the new Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Unfortunately we missed the 3D showing, I've never seen a 3D film and presumed that all of the showings would be 3D, but no not at the cinema we went to. I wasn't really disappointed that it wasn't in 3D to be honest, I can imagine the 3D making me feel motion sick. I thought the film was a remake until Dave pointed out that he had read somewhere that it was a sequel where she returns back to wonderland 13 years later. I really love the original Alice in Wonderland with all the colourfulness and surrealism but the new one has more of a darker feel, I suppose that's because its a Tim Burton film. It includes a good cast, the favorite and funniest for me were Tweedledee and Tweedledum which were played by Matt Lucas. The film was good and I did enjoy it but in my opinion it wasn't as good as the original, it might have been better if it had been a remake. Has anyone else seen this film yet? What did you think of it?

All in all we had a really lovely day :)

Don't get scammed like I did

2010-03-03T00:19:00.007Z

My husband and I enjoy buying DVD box sets for things we're really into watching. About a year ago we got into watching the American sitcom King of Queens on the Comedy Central channel and decided to buy the box set so we could start from the beginning and work our way through. We're really loving it but we're 2 seasons away from the end so I thought I would get us a box set for something else to watch when King of Queens has ended. We both really love American sitcoms and another one we have enjoyed a few episodes of is Everybody Loves Raymond. So a couple of weeks ago I searched the Internet for the complete box set for it and came across a site called www.supremedvds.co.uk (DO NOT BUY FROM HERE) which was the cheapest I could find, £60. If you have ever bought a complete DVD box set you will know that they don't come cheap (the King of Queens one we bought was about £100). So anyway the website had good prices and seemed genuine so I made my order through Paypal. 2 weeks later they arrived from China and because of the cheap price and it being shipped from China we started to have a few doubts as to the DVDs being genuine. Once unpacked the box that contained the DVDs looked how I expected until I opened it up to look at the discs which were in plastic envelopes, which didn't seem right. I also tried playing the discs, we have a multi regional DVD player that can play discs from any country, but only about 8 out of 44 would play! Quite a few of the discs were also scratched. I realised that the box set we had been sent was a pirate copy so I contacted Paypal about this and luckily the seller refunded our money within about an hour of complaining! I found the genuine box set on Amazon for £111 and ordered it and was very happy when it arrived, no fakes this time. Has anyone else had problems like this before?

This is the first box set that arrived. Its slightly smaller than the real one and has different pictures in the windows and door. Other than that you wouldn't be able to tell.

^ This is the genuine one .^

The fake one once opened. Discs in plastic pockets in 2 boxes labeled box 1 and box 2.

Inside the genuine one with the discs inside season folders and a booklet of the finale script.

I've bought quite a lot off the Internet in the past and have never been scammed until now. I will definitely be more cautious of websites that are selling things with prices that are 'too good to be true'. I just wanted to share this experience with everyone to make people aware of things like this.

Handmade cards

2010-02-28T01:33:00.003Z

Hi everyone. This is just a quick post to share with you all the Valentines day cards my husband and I both made each other. I know Valentines was 2 weeks ago and I'm a bit slow putting this post on but nevermind. We decided rather than do our usual thing of buying each other a card we would make each other one which is more personal and special. I really love receiving handmade things and it makes it really special if its from a loved one. I started making cards for everyone about a year ago because I love doing all different crafts and card making is one of them I thought I would enjoy.

This is my card to Dave.

And this is his card to me. He has never made a card before and it was the best card I have ever received!

Inside he done this stencil rose that he cut out and used foam pads to stick and raise it off the card which I thought was amazing.

Christmas trip to Bruxelles

2009-12-20T23:59:00.004Z

I have always wanted to see the Brussels Christmas market so last weekend Dave and I went to stay for a few days in Brussels. We got the Eurostar straight there from London which I always enjoy using as its more scenic and greener than flying. We stayed in The Dominican Hotel which is in the centre of everything going on and was a very friendly and beautiful hotel. The Chritmas market is set in Place Sainte Catherine and is busy but not packed where you can't move or see anything. There are 250 small chalets selling everything from retro tin toys, allsorts of different foods and drink, jewellery, clothing, handmade gifts. There is also a huge ferris wheel, a gorgeous quirky carousel which has a dinosaur, submarine, hotair balloon and a few other strange great things that all had moving parts for the children to play with and an outdoor ice skating rink which we went on.

These photos are of the beautiful childrens carousel.

We came back to the market the following day to go ice skating which was loads of fun, we enjoyed ourselves so much!

I hadn't skated for about 17 year but soon got the hang of it :)

Dave tring to keep upright!

There were loads of little streets just full of great shops that we came across when we got lost but if we hadn't got lost we wouldn't have found the Grand Place. Down one of these streets before we ended up at the Grand Place we came across the most beautiful shop I have ever seen called La Cure Gourmande which is a sucrecuitier, biscuitier and chocolatier and it had this gorgeous old fashioned style which I loved.

The whole shop was like this, just full of gorgeous coloured containers filled with goodies and tins with ribbons full of soft biscuits and I could have just bought everything!

The Grand Place is the huge central square surrounded by guildhalls and the city's townhall and is so grand! The square was full of people waiting for the Les Nuits Electrabel to start which is a light show to music on the townhall and was amazing. The atmosphere there was brilliant, we ended up going back again the second night when they had a DJ playing for the lights.

The Grand Place during the day.

The Townhall. If you look closely you can see bars on the windows, thes are the light bars which light up for the light show when it got dark. There were also images and patterns projected onto the building during the light show.

This is one of the light shows I recorded.

We had a great time there and will definitely be going back in the future!

Cold weather and furnace glass :o)

2009-11-05T22:28:00.002Z

The cold weather has started and the clocks went back here a couple of weekends ago and its just not nice! The only thing that gets me through the winter is my pjs, dressing gown and soon to be electric blanket :o). As I sit typing this Im waiting for my husband to finish his work and come with me to the supermarket as Ive decided its essential I have an electric blanket. Last night I just couldn't get to sleep as my face was numb from the cold!

I know I haven't updated my blog recently but as promised I have added a couple more items to my shop, made using furnace glass which I love. I think the colours in both sets of these sterling silver earrings are just beautiful, greens and purples are my most favorite colours.

Anyway Im off to get my electric blanket now and then a mug of hot chocolate before bed, and if the weather is turning cold and wintery where you are then make sure you all keep toastie warm!!

SALE SALE SALE!!

2009-10-23T21:09:00.003+01:00

Im having my first sale in my Etsy shop this weekend starting today. Everything in the whole shop is 25% off from 23-25 October. More jewellery in store. Come and grab a bargin!!!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7573289

Sterling Silver Furnace Bead Necklace

2009-10-19T18:58:00.007+01:00

I have just completed my first sterling silver necklace for my Etsy store, made using my sterling silver components and chain I recently bought. I have also just got a few packs of David Christensen furnace beads which I love so much and though they would go perfect in my store. I also used yellow and an aquamarine 4mm swarvoski crystals with this necklace to bring out the rainbow colours of the furnace bead perfectly. I am so pleased with this necklace and Im hoping its going to be a favorite with my cutomers. I am going to be making a few different pairs of sterling silver earrings using my other funace beads which have different colour schemes and I will be adding them to my Etsy store and to my blog shortly, so keep a look out for them :) http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32879089

Insane cat!

2009-10-07T23:56:00.000+01:00

I absolutely love cats and I have 3 very unique ones of my own. I saw this video the other day and thought it was so funny, so I just had to add it to my blog to bring a smile to everyones faces!

The Lake District

2009-10-03T22:00:00.000+01:00

I mentioned in my last post that I havent had much time at the moment for updating my blog. Well last weekend my husband and I went for a long weekend 4 night stay at The Lake District, so I thought I would do a quick post to share our adventures. We both really enjoy staying at the lakes, its so peaceful and beautiful. We usually stay at a hotel called The Swan Hotel in Newby Bridge which is set along a river that leads into the south of Windermere lake which means there is quite a drive to go to visit most of the lakes but its such a gorgeous hotel we think its worth it. The first whole day we had there we planned to have a hike upto Easdale Tarn which is roughly an hour and a half to two hours walk to get up to the Tarn. The walk starts off in Grasmere (the home and burial place of William Wordsworth), over a little stone bridge and up into the hills past a waterfall called Sour Milk Gill then higher still, which was a bit tiring on my legs but worth it when I saw the beautiful tarn surrounded by wilderness. I first saw Easdale Tarn in a book about the British Isles a few years ago and I just had to see it for myself.

Us just before it got steep :)

Sour Milk Gill

Easdale Tarn

This picture of me was taken high up on a hill to get the whole tarn in the picture as it was quite large.

The second day we planned to do a mountain walk upto Cat Bells. I read that this is an easy/family walk but it was still tiring and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. We parked in Keswick and took the boat over Derwent Water to Hawes End, the start of the Cat Bells walk. We only had about 4 hours to do it in and get back to the pier in time for the last boat pickup of the day to take us back to Keswick so we didnt have much time for resting. Once we were up there and reached the peak the view was so beautiful! We stopped at the top to sit down and eat our lunch along with all the other climbers, took some more photos and headed down the other side for our trek back. We made it back to Hawes End pier with half an hour to spare :)

The boat ride over to Hawes End.

The Cat Bells summit is the peak on the left. The walk started on the far right up and along the ridge to the peak on the left, then over the top to the far left of the photo then walking halfway down to the bottom and across to the far right back to the pier.

Almost there. (thats not us in the photo by the way). You can see the path we came back on in the far left of the photo.

Yey, we made our first ever mountain! 451 metres above sea level. Very windy and sunny!

The beautiful views of Derwent Water.

In the very distance you can just about make out Bassenthwaite Lake.

Custom orders

2009-10-03T00:29:00.000+01:00

I have been quite busy lately so I havent updated my blog for a while.

Just over a week ago I had a customer convo me in my Esty shop asking me if I could restring some jewellery for her that was done in macrame as she liked the macrame jewellery I made and sold in my shop. I agreed to do it for her so she sent me her items. She wanted her 2 turquoise bead bracelets restrung in the same way they were originally strung with the same colour threads. The second piece was a packet of small pearls she sent and wanted them made into a bracelet the same way the turquoise bracelets were made. And the last piece was a black thread necklace with silver beads she wanted changing onto brown silk thread that she supplied. I was very pleased with the outcome as I didnt have a clue what she was going to be sending me because she didnt have a camera so she couldnt take any photos of what I would be working on, I was just going to try my best to do what she was asking as I wanted to help her. I finally finished them yesterday and sent her photos of them and she was over the moon!
I have done custom orders in the past where someone will ask if I can make something that I already sell but in a different colour. I think maybe I might start offering restringing option too.

Turquoise bracelets

Pearl bracelet

Brown necklace

Things to come..

2009-09-21T13:36:00.000+01:00

I recieved my sterling silver goodies the other day and couldnt wait to start some new items for my shop. A simlar pair of these earrings in silver plated wires sold about a week ago which were one of my favorite pieces so I have recreated them with sterling silver earwires. I loved making these! Getting the composition right with the colours and beads took a while because I didnt want to just copy the ones I sold but I got there in the end and I love them :)

Sterling silver

2009-09-14T16:16:00.000+01:00

I was in the Etsy forums the other day and noticed someone had put on a question "do you go for sterling silver or silver plated?". I was curios to know everyones choice as my jewellery is silver plated. I use silver plated because its cheaper to buy so keeps my selling costs down and I have never had any problems wearing silver plated jewellery. So in the forum about 97% of people were saying they prefer sterling silver and dont mind paying the extra cost of it. After this insite I had a think and decided to buy a few items of sterling silver to see how well it sells. I went online and placed a sterling silver order for 3 different wires, ear hooks, jump rings, chain and some bolt rings so I can start offering a sterling silver option. Im quite excited to recieve my order and will keep you updated on my sterling silver items as I make them.

Finally new pieces in my shop!

2009-09-07T00:21:00.000+01:00

These are my recent pieces, Lobster pink shell earrings. I really love the colours of the lobster pink and the lime crystals, they go so well.

With this necklace I had the idea that I wanted to make a colourful necklace that was fun and made for everyday. I love using pony beads as the colours of them are gorgeous so I used a mix of large and small ones. I was careful to not make the colours clash but to keep them in harmony with each other and I think it worked.

This is my blue shell necklace. Blue oval shell hoops with glass and wooden beads, threaded onto purple hemp with a silver clasp. I really love the way this has turned out. Id had these blue shell hoops for quite a while but no ideas came to me with what to make with them that I liked until the other day when I made this. Its exactly what my jewellery is about, a boho ethnic feel.

Whats new?

2009-09-04T00:58:00.000+01:00

So I made a start on Monday but still haven't made too much progress with the polymer clay beads, even with the help of my cat Jasper!

I have been quite busy this week so I haven't had time to make any new pieces of jewellery or any crafing at all until tonight. I have made two necklaces and a set of earrings which Im very pleased with and will show you on here when I have done the photos of them for my Etsy shop.

Making beads with polymer clay

2009-08-31T13:57:00.000+01:00

Its bank holiday Monday here today so I'm spending the day at home crafting. This is just a quick post to show you the gorgeous colours of polymer clay I'm going to be using to make beads. I'm using Fimo in metallic gold, plum, leaf green, light turquoise, sunflower and purple violet (which is really just a strong pink). I chose this palette with colours of India in mind which I absolutely love and cant wait to get started.

Tasty home baking

2009-08-30T02:01:00.001+01:00

My Chocolate and Raspberry Pavlova.

Basically I made 2 meringues and sandwiched them together with freshly whipped double cream, raspberry coulis, fresh raspberries and chocolate sauce. The top was finished using fresh raspberries, and drizzled with raspberry coulis and chocolate sauce. Delicious!

Lemon Meringue Pie.

This was my second attempt at making lemon meringue pie. The first time I made it was straight forward enough, everything was going great until it came out of the oven. I didn't realise that I would have to leave it for quite a few hours before cutting into it. So Dave and I had been waiting for the oven timer to go off so we could start eating it. I left it to cool for about 10 mins and just couldn't wait any longer, I needed to try it. I placed it on the chopping board and cut into it and the lemon filling came oozing out in liquid! Quickly we both got a spoon and we ended up eating the whole thing between us as I was unable to save it. Needless to say we both felt a bit sick afterwards but it was very tasty which led me to have another go. This time I left it overnight and it was perfect!

Cupcakes with Strawberry flavor icing and Sprinkles :)

My 3 triple troublets!

2009-08-29T21:59:00.000+01:00

Fudge. Hes a semi long haired cat. Hes Jasper's brother and he is 3 years old. His favorite hobbies are watching the birds, anything to do with water, sleeping, having lots of cuddles and sitting in boxes (even boxes he cant fit in!). He goes by various names, Fudge, Fudgy Fudge cake, The Fudgester and Fudge Muffin.

This is Jasper. Hes Fudges brother and is 3 years old. Hes a semi long haired too. His hobbies are sleeping, eating absolutly anything off the floor, eating, having lots of kisses and strokes and watching flies. He also goes by various names, Jasper, Jaspy, Jaspy Jasp and Jassy.

This is Milly (the boss of the 3 as you can tell by the photo). She has no relation to Jasper or Fudge. She is a tabby and is 6 years old. Her hobbies are being as irratic as possible, sleeping, having lots of strokes, eating prawns and telling the brothers off! She goes by the names of Milly, Milster, Lil Mil, Lilly Milly and Lilly Milster.

First post :)

2009-08-29T21:04:00.000+01:00

This is my first post of my new blog. I have recently set up making my own jewellery to sell and will be updating regularly with my new creations.

A bit about myself: I have been married for 10 years to my husband Dave whom I met when I was 15 and I'm a stay at home wife which I love and feel really fortunate to be. We have 3 house cats, Milly, Jasper and Fudge which are the most lovely little things but get up to all sorts of trouble :). I love different crafts and always have something on the go, whether it be knitting, cross-stitch, making something for the house with my sewing machine, making beads or little things with polymer clay, card making, glass painting or anything else that I can turn my hand to. I absolutely love craft shops, I could and I do spend too much time in them just looking at all the colourful pretty things! gorgeous fabrics! rubber stamps! paints! card toppers! beads! beautiful wool! and all of those coloured and metallic sewing threads, the way they are presented all in order of colour just makes you want them all doesn't it! I'm one of those people that if I want something new either clothing etc or something for the house I can never find that specific thing I have in mind anywhere in the shops so I spend hours and hours searching the net for that perfect thing! That's one of the benefits of crafting is that I can make it myself if I want it. I also love baking and cooking, it tastes loads nicer than shop bought and it is really satisfying to see the final result as with all my crafting hobbies. Well that's it for now, hope you visit again soon!