August!

Once again it's pouring with rain so I've been making my own summertime with lovely kitschy acrylic flowers and ladybirds, in the shape of earrings and necklaces. I really like the colour of these yellow daisies, they're so summery! Other things on the beadmat this week have included these tattoo style earrings with agate hearts and skull & crossbones charms, Hello Kitty style necklaces and earrings (thanks to Daisy!) and Loveheart necklaces. I've had these charms for a while, bought from the wonderful Bead Shop Scotland and have finally got round to using them. You may notice that my stuff seems to be getting a bit brighter - I love all the gorgeous colours of beads I keep seeing, and have a great love of slightly mad things, which is hopefully showing through. I've just bought a pasta machine (gotta love Ebay!) and will hopefully be creating my own polymer clay beads very soon...

I've been inspired to get on with these things and take new (and hopefully more professional) photos by an application I've made to sell on Amazon, and also a new venture run by Elise Steedman-Green called Eegee.co.uk, a not-for-profit sales site for handmade goods. They are charging listing fees but not sales commissions, which will hopefully make a difference to us small-timers. The site launches at the beginning of September and I wish Elise the best of luck with her new venture.

On the stitching side (yes, really...) I've been working sporadically on the Fumitory Fairy, and need to get it finished as I have two baby feet pictures to do for colleagues who have recently produced, and then I really need to get my daughter's birth sampler done before she turns 2 - and before no. 3 arrives in February.