Move Day Approaches

We are moving house on Friday, contracts have been exchanged so it can't go wrong this time, right?

It's a strange time, lots of goodbyes to lovely people and the place that has been home for a while but we're taking the good bits with us in memories, photographs and good friends who we will see again soon. In August to be precise!

Thank You from Cancer Research UK

click letter to read larger

A massive thank you to all the Folksy sellers who donated items and all the customers who bought them! Our first donation has been for £160 and since then we've already sold more!

Let's keep going and one day there might be fewer hearts breaking because of cancer.

Thank you xo

Tickling the English by Dara O'Briain

Brilliant.

As someone who has also left the country with a 48 pack box of Tayto cheese and onion, not to mention a large amount of Club Orange and who now lives in England (although not for long as house selling shenanigans seem to be finally coming to a conclusion!) this intrigued and made me laugh in equal measures.

Thanks you to my dearest brother who gave me this as a gift, it's ace and I'll lend it to you next time I'm home or you visit!

Flickr Gallery - "Farm" Jewellery

Perusing the interweb, as you do when you are waiting on the removal man who forgot to show up, I came across this cool collection of mini design boards for 2010 Spring Summer Jewellery trends on COSMOWORLDS. So I decided to have a go with flickr's new Gallery feature on my new jewellery specific flickr account and created a "Farm" inspired gallery. The "Farm" trend is described as:

"Bucolic freshness and charm – for the pretty young woman with a taste for retro, who loves the countryside and wild flowers."

by The Family Jewels

Check it out and let me know what you think!

As for the removal man, he had an emergency and forgot us, poor man was very embarrassed and is calling round later!

Blue Bracelet and Clay Beads

Lovely blues on this charm bracelet which was sent to Northern Ireland for a lovely lady's birthday along with matching nail polish, just in case she's getting bored of always getting jewellery from me! The two gorgeous floral beads are from a stash I'd collected during my GCSE Art, finally being put to use! Today is said lovely lady's daughter's third birthday and she received some fabric paints and glitter paints now that she is over frightening age warnings on product labels that I felt I couldn't ignore! Can't wait to see what she creates!

I've had a go at making some clay beads and yesterday gave them a coat of white acrylic paint. They are not perfectly shaped and I quite like that! These big chunky ones are going to have something painted on them but I'm not sure what yet, perhaps some polka dots, perhaps a floral design, perhaps I'll mess them up and they'll end up just block coloured, brightly, as if I meant it. . .

I'm enjoying using up some of my collections of beads and wire and can hardly wait to get moved, get some tools and to start on my new designs. I've been trying to source UK suppliers of recycled metals to make my jewellery as ethical as I can, if anybody has any recommendations I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sunshine, Daffodils and Hot Air Balloons

Hello! Hope you are all having a good week. I must admit I cheated on my Happy Easter post as the photo was from last year, so here are this year's daffodils! I'm going to miss our shower and loo with a view when we move! Note the positive, confident when rather than if!

It has been a quiet week, a bit of tutoring, online tweaking and general tinkering. With the glorious sunshine and warmth of the last few days I've enjoyed just sitting in the garden and wee danders up the road, being gentle with myself as I've been a bit tense recently.

Some good things:

Yesterday evening we saw this hot air balloon out the back window.

Last week I went to the Church where my friend and old teaching colleague was doing her training placement and came over all emotional seeing her delivering the sermon. Well done Mrs B!

I went back to the same Church on Easter Sunday and received an unexpected chocolate egg with my communion!

My lovely sister sent us a big box of chocolate, no I'm sorry I'll have to scrap the alliteration, it was a huge box of chocolate!

We went for a run for the first time in ages.

Things are growing in the garden.

After being left less than impressed by various things I sacked my dentist! Well, I cancelled my next appointment, de-registered from the practice and registered with a new one.

And so to the weekend, have a good one!

Happy Easter!

Good Friday

Take a moment to reflect:

Isaiah 53:5 (New International Version)

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Fashion Couture on Folksy

Have just been stopped in my tracks by this beautiful new shop on Folksy - Fashion Couture. Full of super gorgeous hand made garments, what can I say, I want!

Dental Floss

I like a certain type of dental floss which, so far I've only found in one shop. It's a shop I don't go to often so I stock up on dental floss when I'm there and only need to visit once every few months.

You've got to look after your teeth!

Tomorrow, I'm going to go and buy dental floss and it upsets me greatly. Not the dental floss really but the fact that the last time I bought dental floss and many other buy once every few month type items it was supposed to be the last time before we moved.

Things were looking positive with the return of Ms. Cream Bun. Yet still we wait, for another visit from another professional in conjuction with the sale. So we've now been waiting around for six months getting increasingly frustrated and while I'm in town I think another visit to the estate agents might be necessary.

Heart Choker on Artfire

New heart choker available in my Artfire Studio, where I have been playing with the new merchandizer tool - it lets you rearrange your studio items as your fancy takes you!

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

This was recommended to me by a friend and, without having read it myself, I bought it for my Mum for her birthday last year. When we all met up a few weeks ago she had brought it with her to read on holiday and, having finished, lent it to me.

Now that I have read it I would like to publicly apologise for giving my Mother such a rude book! Ahem.

Earth Hour 2010

WWF's Earth Hour will be this evening between 8.30pm and 9.30pm in the UK.




Get involved, switch your lights off for the hour!

Gait Barrows Nature Reserve

Last Wednesday I wasn't teaching and we headed up the M6 to visit a friend who happens to work for Natural England on Gait Barrows Nature Reserve in Lancashire. Even though the poor man wasn't feeling great he took us out and about around the reserve and it is a fabulous place.

Described as a "rich mosaic of limestone habitats including unique limestone pavement, yew woodland, fen and reedbed", the areas of limestone pavement with its vast, deep crevices was fascinating and, as I was told time and time again, impossible to photograph well. They were right, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like:


To find out more about nature reserves near you, conservation, volunteering and loads more, check out Natural England's website.

A Whole Week

A whole week has gone by and still no more news on the house sale.

All seems vaguely familiar.

Even though original buyer is back and "really wants" the house there is no clear answer to our question over why on this planet we are still waiting for the sale to go through. Whilst all this nothing is happening the house we want is back on the market enticing other potential buyers, we feel sickened over the big fat bill we'll have to pay for nothing if we don't get it. Even in all the tediousness of being messed around with the house I feel so blessed and relieved that I've gone from having no job to having four just when we needed it, it's going to be another fun tax return, ha! I've been teaching, tutoring and trying to remind myself of the creative life with some jewellery making and some experimentation in clay and we had an ace day out with a friend who took us on a tour of the nature reserve he works on - more on those joys later.

Bringing some cheer with 'The Secret garden' inspired jewellery!

I had managed to not to annoyed during the week and even had a lovely early morning swim on Friday as I wasn't teaching that day. Perhaps because I had a day doing my own work the frustrations have built up on the heaving realisation that by now I should have been doing this as full time as possible and that even though I still have a few boxes of tools and materials here everything else is in storage until we move. So I find on this grey wet old Saturday I'm a bit fed up and am quite frankly going to plop myself down in front of the rugby for the afternoon, harumph!

I wonder if we have any crisps . . . ?

Keep Calm and Carry On

Hello!

We're back from a fun trip North, hanging out with both sets of parents, picnicking on the beach, falling over in the sand and having a laugh. Back to days like yesterday which started so well, moved on to slight financial panic, then anger at having to pay a hefty bill for nothing, just because somebody, somewhere made an error and then arrived at trying to firmly ignore the tiny glimmer of hope over us selling soon.

On the plus side the house we should have been living in by now hasn't sold yet (I feel so sorry for the people selling it who should have been starting their new life adventures by now as well) I have got more teaching and tutoring work and had a sale on Folksy, phew!


The light still isn't great for jewellery photographs and I still haven't replaced my little daylight on tripod thing-a-ma-bob but I'm working on listing new items daily in my Artfire and Folksy shops, including this pretty wee charm bracelet made using vintage cat's eye buttons from a gorgeous box of buttony goodness R's Mum had collected when she worked in an Oxfam shop. Thank you very much Mrs J!