Handmade cards

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

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)

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!!

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

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!

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

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.