Mad March!

Spring is finally starting to spring here in sunny Epping - I'm loving looking at the daffodil spikes appearing along my route to the station, and Epping's many crocuses (croci?) are starting to bloom along the verges. Although I'm definitely an autumn girl I really love all the gorgeous yellows that seem to pop up about now - it's still cold but there is a feeling that winter might be on its way out. Something is getting me down, though - what is it about dog owners (in this town, at least) that makes them think it's ok to leave piles of crap all over the place? Who thinks 'oh look, there's a bed of daffodils, I'll let my dog foul it?' I'm a firm believer in personal freedom and object to the abuse of council spying powers generally, but if they want to use my council tax to catch the disgusting people who encourage this, then hey - I say yes!

On a crafty front....this time of year also makes the creative mind kick into high gear and so I have ideas for patchwork, the urge to stitch, the need to knit, as well as the beady head to contend with. Work really is the curse of the crafty classes...

I bought some fabulous charms from ebay recently, lucite ones from Hong Kong, and I've been waiting for the inspiration to make the most of them, and here's the end product.

Springtime Riot

Once again I've been slow updating this blog - I can only make the excuse that I've spent most of the last week either salsa-ing or sleeping! But inspiration did strike in the shape of this Springtime Riot bracelet, which follows on from the Harvest one posted last autumn. This one came out of seeing the daffodil shoots on my walk to the station - I do love spring blooms and the colours of the lucite flowers in this really made me think of them. As well as the lucite flowers and leaves, there's a host of Czech crystal flowers, hearts and firepolished rounds in pale pinks and frosted colours to give it a bit of a sparkle.


On the subject of the Harvest bracelet, I've entered it into the bracelet competition in February's issue of Making Jewellery magazine - I had a moment of bravery and went for it, so I hope reactions to it are positive. I've also been asked to turn the design into a necklace, which is lovely - I really like seeing what other people see as the potential in my designs. I'll be adding black ribbon, I think, and maybe a leaf clasp to echo the rest of the design.

I may have been a bit premature with the spring flowers though....it snowed after I posted these pics on Facebook!

Lillyrose's Luxuries and I are now looking for a market or two to do in the spring, preferably close to home....any suggestions?

Tiaras!

Inspired by a red-themed Valentine's salsa party....

and this one is for all those of us who are away with the fairies!

Merde, il pleut..

...which at least removes the niggling worry that we wouldn't be able to make it home tomorrow! Daisy has been missing her daddy hugely this time round and is very excited at the thought of heading for the UK tomorrow.

We finally made it out of the village yesterday to Pontivy for the market and a bit of shopping - Tove has her first big-girl shoes and Daisy has some funky new bouncing boots courtesy of their granny and the 50% off sale, and I have new jeans and a swishy dress for salsa dancing. We didn't make it to the craft shop as we had to get back to Pont Augan - still, its something to look forward to on our next visit.

I have managed to get quite a lot done on the Fumitory Fairy and I've really enjoyed the time spent stitching. The background half-stitching, the fairy's arms, legs, face and hair are complete, and most of the green on the dress and the flowers are finished - the wings, the red details on the fairy and the flowers are left along with the backstitching. I think I'll be taking it on the train with me when I get back to work!

Right, now I need to go and rescue Granny from the kids....

Il est tres froid...

Greetings here from sunny Brittany! And it is sunny, but very cold - Mme. Colombelle in the Maison de la Presse in Baud tells us we're going to have some snow on Thursday which will be exciting for Daisy. Yesterday we made the most of the freezing sunshine and headed for the beach at Port Louis, where Daisy tried to convince us to let her paddle! No chance....we're living on delicious spicy turkey soup and fresh bread from the wonderful boulangerie,

I am managing some stitching in the evenings when the girls have been persuaded into bed, which is lovely. I'm working on the Fumitory Fairy from DMC and in my usual backwards fashion I'm getting the half-stitched background out of the way so I can do the interesting bits afterwards.I really must decide what to do with these poor fairies at some point, I have 18 of them under the bed and it seems such a shame. Suggestions most welcome....

Due to a severe damp problem in the back bedroom at home my poor Rose Flower Fairy has had to be stripped from its frame and will have to be professionally cleaned, I think, so I have lots of fairy decisions to make. This was one of the first things I ever did and I know there are lots of mistakes in it, so maybe this is a sign that I should stitch it again....

Watch bracelet

Been dying to make something with this charm since I found it on ebay a while ago! So here it is....silver heart charm with turquoise watch face, matt satin and glossy pearls in shades of aquamarine, airforce blue, seafoam and teal (6,8 and 10mm), tiny czech firepolish crystals and a toggle clasp. And you can use it to tell the time!

Nearly Christmas!

And what an exciting week it's turning out to be...all this snow in the days leading up to the 25th get us all hopeful that it may actually be a properly white Christmas, although knowing British weather there will be a huge thaw and we'll wake up to stories of flooding once again. Daisy has loved seeing the snow although she's been unwell so hasn't been able to go out and play in it - her daddy is less impressed as it took him almost 5 hours to get home from London last night. Only an inch fell but it caused travel and traffic chaos across the area.

I've been a busy bird in the last couple of weeks, catching up with orders from the jewellery party in November (one necklace took a week to make) and and with last minute requests coming in from the website. I've run out of Ladybugs bracelets! I had a wonderful request to make 3 bracelets with black ladybirds for a lovely lady whose children's father had died recently, and at the funeral a black ladybird with red spots had landed on all 3 of her daughters and then flown away - I was really honoured to be asked to make something so special, and I really hope she likes them. They're pictured above. I've also made some variations on earlier designs for a teenager (blue squares, elsewhere in this post...).

Since getting everything into the last-post-before-Christmas I have managed to actually make some pieces for myself using the beads I had for my birthday back in June. Who knew it would take so long to get round to it??? The pictures are scattered through this post - my favourite at the moment is the turquoise and copper bib-style necklace made with beads from Bijoux Beads but I also love the blue lariat necklace made with beads and findings from Spoilt Rotten Beads. I still have some gorgeous margarita daisies and some pink glass beads left so will get round to them soon.

I have to admit I'm missing stitching though and will be taking a Flower Fairy off to France with me after Christmas so I can get a fix in while I'm away...it seems ages since I've done any (in fact, it may have been last time I was in France back in May) and I hope I haven't lost the knack....

We're almost ready for the big day - my presents are all wrapped up and ready for Santa to deliver on Christmas Day, the stollen is made and will hopefully last at least until Christmas, and the tree is decorated. I finally have icicle lights outside which make me feel festive every time I look at them, and we've visited Santa at the amazing Victorian Grotto at the Museum of London Docklands. It's only a stone's throw from Canary Wharf so if you're in the area do go and see the grotto, it's gorgeous and guaranteed to make even the Grinchiest Scrooge feel festive.

Time, time ticking away!

It seems weeks since I've managed to post on here! Oh yes, it has been weeks...almost a month...but what a busy month!

The two markets I did - Festive Fair at Museum of London and the Christmas Market in Epping were really successful for me and for the lovely people I shared stalls with. Rhiannon at Mabinogion Crafts brought along her gorgeous chunky necklaces to the Museum of London, which were a great success. Their USP is that as they're made with rather lush ribbons and wooden beads it's almost impossible to be allergic to them, plus the purples and autumn hues are really on-trend. The lovely ladies from Victoria Rose Crafts and Lilly Roses Luxuries were my partners in crime in Epping and we all had a great day - Shivs brought along her newest make, 11 day old Lilly-Rose, and when breaking for feeds she made sure to bring back tea for the rest of us! After a horrendous week of rain and wind we were really relieved to see some sunshine, but it was pretty cold. You can see me all bundled up in this picture - along with my other half and daughters who'd stopped by to see us. The picture is shamelessly stolen from Rose as my camera failed to work on both days....

The slinky jewellery set sold as separate pieces (and I can get the rings again so will be making more), and I was really pleased that the Swarovski crystal tree earrings all sold, as well as my favourite Ladybugs bracelets. I'm now having a small sale over on my Facebook page and all orders will come free with a pair of Christmas Present earrings. I'm now racing to catch up with orders for Christmas as the website has been really busy.

In between all this craftiness, I did manage a day out in London with a gang of girlfriends - our annual Christmas knees-up, which was lovely. This year we went to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre - an amazing show! Check out a video here...

Party!

Last Friday was my first jewellery party! Having been coerced into it by two friends (one of whom hosted it) I was quite worried in case no one liked my jewellery but as it turned out I sold several items and took orders for many more - which gave me a great excuse to spend lots of time internet shopping yesterday. It was great to see what people were interested in, too - the Slinky bracelet was snapped up almost immediately and it's a great shame I can't get the components any more as I could have sold several. I have made a set for the market stall though, so hopefully they'll be just as popular. The little worry beads were also popular and I've had to order some more beads for those too, and I'll also be making keyrings for a little boy.

I now feel much more confident about the upcoming Christmas Market (4 December in Epping) and the Festive Fair (3 December at the Museum of London)! Better get making...

In other news...I'm loving salsa dancing on Wednesday nights, and almost feel as if there may be life after children after all! I may hold the record for the most time spent in the beginner's class, but as long as it's fun then who cares?

Finally, a new addition to the webshop is the Baby Bag Charm, seen here...

All behind!

Have you ever noticed that a weekend away is lovely but it seems to take forever to catch up on your routine? Here it is, Wednesday already, and I haven't done my weekend laundry or written a blog post...thank heavens for tesco.com or we'd all be starving as well.

It's all worth it though! My best friend and I spent a weekend away in a gorgeous hotel in Hellidon on the Northants/Warwickshire borders - we abandoned our children with their daddies and relaxed in the pool and the jacuzzi, ate great food and put the world to rights while wandering around lakes and Leamington. We could have done without the chest infection (me) and the stomach bug (her) but even being ill isn't so bad if you don't have to look after anyone else!

This week I've had a couple of Christmas orders in so have been working on those - the items I've come up with have a vaguely Victorian Gothic vibe to them which I quite like. These charm hoop necklaces are getting popular, so it was nice to make earrings to go with them for a change.

I've also just written the cheque for market trader's insurance, which makes it all feel terribly official. It's dawning on us all now that our stall is only a month away - will we ever have enough stock? Although Shivs at Lily Rose's Luxuries is probably thinking more about the impending birth of her baby, who is due to make an appearance any time now.