2011

January was a wintry affair, arriving back to Scotland from my Northern Irish Christmas to find snow still on the ground.  After spending the first three weeks of our engagement apart it was fabulous to be back with R!

February brought a rather fine visitor to the garden, we went to see an Andy Goldsworthy exhibition and I made lots of silver bubbles for sea foam jewellery.

March and my working conditions were vastly improved thanks to raising my work desk with big blocks of wood and the purchase of a table vice.  My wonderful siblings came to visit, R passed the big sister test and we got to see his work in print in New British Comics vol 3.  March also brought one of the highlights of the year; seeing the Karine Polwart trio live.

April was blooming lovely as the garden burst forth with colour and we celebrated a year of living in the borders!

May was sunny and warm and led to plenty of walking; along rivers, up and down hills, by the sea, even up the road to watch a rally.  I was delighted to finally find a UK based supplier of recycled sterling silver so now my sea glass range is made from about 90% recycled materials which was one of my aims for the year.

June was about beautiful blooms - more this year please - lots of jewellery making, visitors and exam marking.

July started with a green festival, I turned 30, started trying to take a photo every day and we had a holiday!

August was R's birthday, we had visits from friends, jaunts to Edinburgh, more flowers and many evening strolls in the setting sun.

 October was the month of weddings!  R and I photographed our first two weddings, had a great time, learned and improved loads.  We were both nervous but really felt so privileged to be present and recording such important days.  Just look at them all; such beautiful people!

Early November saw the arrival of Molly cat into our home, what can I say, I love that cat!  

 In December the 'in for a penny' necklaces got a bit of attention including this one which was a special commission.  I love making them and will be listing them on my website soon.  

Molly cat continued to make herself at home and I don't think I'm the only one to have fallen for her charms!  

Just as 2010 ended with the news of our engagement the end of 2011 brings more good news; after a nervous interview I was delighted to be offered the role of Education Officer at Paxton House! The role is part time allowing a lovely balance with my jewellery work and I'm so excited about starting the job next week when I'm back in Scotland!

So, a good year and now it's 2012, Happy New Year to you all!

Still Working

With all the focus on Molly cat you'd think I'd just been staring at a cat for weeks but I have still been working away!

Day 148

One custom order for a set of twin sea glass bangles was made and delivered to a very welcoming lady who showed me her collection of beautiful, atmospheric etchings by Norman Ackroyd.  Really gorgeous.

Day 149

Delivery day was a bit wintery with fierce hail on the sea front as we pulled into buy some lunch.  R was delighted with his burnt rolls, I know the label reads double baked or something but it's just burnt really isn't it?! Pleugh!

Day 150

And a bit more Molly!

Day 143 - 147 Molly meets the Christmas Decorations

Day 135 - 142

135 - Taking photos of R's paintings at Paxton to check if they are straight!

136 - Molly and me.

Day 137 - a frosty walk in the woods and some fabulous giant outdoor Christmas baubles!

Day 138 - Molly. Again.

Day 139 - a most splendid bird from Lynda Taylor, Crown Studio Gallery.  A lovely gift which has been adorning our living room, well out of reach of the cat!  I had a job interview on day 139 and this was a lovely parcel to come home to after being really rather nervous!

Day 140 - headless cat

Day 142 - blurry holly.

December Begins

Before December ends I'll show you how it began. . .

Day 133 was the first of December and R and I went over to set up our work at the Crossing Borders Gallery in Paxton House, ready for the Christmas Cracker festive fair.  It was very cool to have a whole display cabinet to display my work in and Paxton House looked so beautiful decorated for Christmas.  I have news to do with Paxton but more of that in another post.

On the way home from Paxton we stopped to look over a few bridges; the water was high and like swirling chocolate after the heavy rains.  

Day 134 

Lighting the advent candle for the second time and watching Molly cat's contortions on the hearth.  You can tell she's been on the pilates mat with me, just look at that stretch! Pity she has a determination to lie on the mat every time I work out, always at the exact point where she'd be most in the way! 

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!


Hope you are all having a lovely holiday time, I'm back in Northern Ireland and it's great catching up with family and friends here.  Today has been a dedicated stay at home and chilling out day so I thought I'd share a few more photos of our life in the borders and try to catch up on project 30.  Here is days 129 - 132.  Day 131 is missing, ahem.

Trying to remember to take a photo every day sometimes results in photos like this - our dinner!  Usually a favourite from Nigel Slater, using red cabbage turned our noodles purple and whether it was the colour or what, the noodles just didn't rock that night.  If you ever want a giggle ask a Northern Irish person to talk about noodles; apparently we sound funny.

A rainbow in Coldstream en route to a beading lesson with the lovely Barbara from Coldstream Gallery.

The excitement of discovering, ordering and receiving an Annie Lennox Christmas album just as November ended ready for the advent period.  Joy!

Day 124 - 128 More Molly and Festivities Begin

My lovely sister came to stay for a few days which was fabulous.  Lynne had to share a room with Molly cat and they got on very well.  By tying a few lengths of wool onto the toy mouse Lynne encouraged Molly to polish her hiding in a box, behind a throw stalking tactics.  Impressive.

A new person in the house meant new shoes to explore and the delight of discovering new laces.  Even Rocket Dog is no match for Molly.

We had a lovely time pottering around, relaxing and visiting places.  A jaunt up the road to Edinburgh was a must and we accidentally went on the day the Christmas lights were turned on.  Beautiful and bizarre to watch a busy street of people stop walking and stare as a huge firework went off. It was the only one as it was too windy for the rest but that didn't detract from our festive joy.

Image from Lynne, ta!

In the midst of perusing potential bridesmaid dresses I took Lynne over to have a look at the Church where R and I will be getting married next year.  

Just before setting off for the airport we went to Haddington, I found the bead shop to stock up for a lesson, we had some lunch and were treated to a pipe band. This was so nearly December and I was with my sister so it was awful hard to resist the festive feeling!

Day 121 - 123

Day 121 took us over to St Abbs for a visit to Number Four Gallery's Christmas exhibition and, as always, there was a wonderful array of beautiful work.

Day 122 and a quick shot of the work bench in the midst of the busy pre-Christmas period.  

Dy 123 started with my attempt to open a tub of wet wipes to clean down my work bench.  Who knew this would end with me nearly and tears and R wielding a pair of mighty tin snips to cut my finger out of the lid.  It's hard to take a photo of your own right hand when you are right handed but just look at the scraped nail and near serrated finger.  It hurt.  So dear reader, learn from me; never use your finger to push through the first wet wipe of a new tub.

Mysteries for Molly

 Since arriving, Molly has done a lot of snoozing on the hearth as shown above, however, on the morning of day 119 the warm had disappeared and there was much puzzlement.

The lack of heat coupled with the wind causing some spectacular howling down the chimney made for a very inquisitive cat who, without human intervention, may have climbed on up the chimney!  

I've arrived back in Northern Ireland and am trying to catch up on project 30 so I'm not bringing you festive frolics in January!  Hope you are enjoying the build up to Christmas.

New Tool

Day 117

I ordered a new tool and when it arrived I got quite a shock to open the box and find what looked like a recently removed organ wrapped in layers of blood filled plastic.  Many on facebook thought the same!

Day 118

Despite the grim appearance and red oiled hands which resulted from unwrapping it my new disc cutter is great.  This is a fairly cheap model but I've been really impressed with it so far and had made cutting circles of metal so much swifter!  

Day 120

The first in for a penny necklace featuring hand stamped faith, hope and love copper discs on sterling silver chain.  I have loads of ideas for these and am really pleased customers are wanting personal stamps on their necklaces; initials or names of loved ones being the most popular.  These will be available online in the new year.