Cherries and other assorted jiggery pokery ....

I'm thinking about starting a new line in some simple, but funky jewellery ... like this cherry necklace I've just finished as a commission for a friend ....

I'm thinking cherries ... strawberries ... maybe Halloween and other holidays .... what do you think ?

I know times are hard and money is scarce, but we all still need a little colour in our lives, don't we eh ? 

Please let me know via the comment box below this post whether you think a basic range would be a nice idea :)

I  shall make a pendant and hold a random draw for a freebie :)

I'll hold a random draw of all the people who have commented their thoughts after this post at the end of the week .... that'll be September 30th :)

New BHB's just listed for sale this evening ...

2 posts from me in one evening ... that's really going some for me !!!

But here you are .... I have finally taken the plunge and started to make those fabled Big Holed Beads ... you know ... the ones that are compatible with Pandora or Troll bracelet systems ... here's the link :)

Click here to see my new BHB's

Thanks for looking ... I hope someone out there likes them :) ??

Ooohhh .. how lovely !!!!

Some of my little tweety birds have been featured in a web tutorial by the very lovely Trish Latimer of Beads and Beyond  !!!!

The web tutorial accompanies October's issue ...

Here's the link ..... why not give it a go yourself ??

When Happy Little Bluebirds Fly

Found these under the kitchen cupboards .....

*sigh* .... original Minton tiles !!!!!!!

Shame I'll not be here long enough to warrant any further investigation though, but oh how pretty they would have looked way back when ! :)

I've been taking advantage of the lovely weather !

And this is what I have achieved today .... and with an achey back too !!!

Before ...

After ....

NASTY old lino now hacked up and bagged, ready for the tip ...nettle roots pulled up ...

Some of the ground elder removed and one very satisfied gardener :)

I also took photos of some focal beads earlier ... which have now disappeared into the laptop to god knows where ... and yes, you guessed it ... I deleted them from the card as I uploaded them ... DOH !!!!!

But I don't mind that so much .... both my kids have come home from school today and have informed me that they are in the top sets at school in pretty much all subjects !!!

I am especially proud of Sam ... he's in top sets for languages, maths, english, BTEC, and Sciences !!!!

*proud mum*

:)

Oh and I made these too ....

... just the glassy bits though ....

And can I PLEASE live here ??

Thank you .. bye bye x

This time next year Rodney .....

I WILL have a great garden !!!!

For almost a year and a half, to two years, I have had an embarrassing pile of rubbish built up in the garden ... I can't actually believe that it got into the state that it did ... it was so bad, I never took a 'before' photo for this project !

Over the last few weeks, with Rob, we've been doing lots of runs to the local tip and this is what I now have .... I can see soil once again !!!!!! All I need to do now is bag up that nasty old lino and get rid of a few metal table legs ....

You won't have seen just how bad it was before hand, so this photo will probably just look like a huge mess to you .... believe me .. this is an amazing change so far !!

Over the Autumn, I am going to start to clear, dig over and condition this patch of ground ... by spring, I shall have a vegetable patch ... I am determined to have one ... After sampling Rob's produce, I really think that I should be growing my own ... they taste SO much better that supermarket veg .... and totally organic too !

So, for posterity, here is the (still a bit bad) before shot of my veggie corner ...

To give you an idea of scale .. the shed is 7'x5' .... this patch is about 8' x 4'

Plenty of room for some yummy veggies !
I must try to remember to post a progress blog post from time to time :)

I despise city living, but I hope that having my own little patch to tend will make it feel a little nicer here :)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, what ever you are up to ... I won't be gardening this weekend though, as I am off camping ... yay !!!

The first day of Autumn !

Good morning ... it's been a wee while, hasn't it !

What a glorious start to the Autumn isn't it ! Well I know we've not yet reached the equinox, but the 1st is (weather wise), the first official day of Autumn.

I have been noticing signs of the changing season for quite some time though ... the rowan berries were out much earlier than usual ... berries in general have appeared a bit earlier than last year, and even the acorn's ( so Rob noticed ) have been fattening up much earlier .... sign of a bad winter to follow, apparently ....

I do have to admit to the growing sense of relief too, that the summer break is almost over now .... my lot go back to school on the 7th !! Ahh ... the glorious 7th !!! It's been a LONG summer !!!!
It was lovely to get a week in North Wales at the start of the holidays, but we've not really done much at all for the rest of the summer break ... boredom is well and truly here now !

I am really looking forward to getting my days to myself again soon, so that I can really crack on and get some new beads made ... it's been hard work over the summer !

One thing I did manage to get done this summer though .... my very first solo bead fair ! It was a mad rush to make enough stock, but I managed a table at The 5th Annual Bead Fair at Stourbridge. The run up to it was stressful .... I was nervous about how well it would go for days before, but I had a fantastic day !
It was such a relief to FINALLY get my first bead fair under my belt :) I met so many old friends ... new ones too, and drank LOTS of coffee !
I had a good day (sales wise), too ... although I made more sales from the stuff I never thought would sell, and didn't sell a lot of the new stock, so I am now giving myself some time off from beading and just getting my stock gradually listed for sale on Etsy instead. The house is a wreck anyway, so it deserves some attention now that Stourbridge is behind me :)

I'm also looking forward to a night of camping on Saturday ... even if it rains, I don't care !!! We have been given a 5 man tent and we've still not managed to use it, so we are going to road test it before taking the kids anywhere in it :)
I can't wait to get back up into the Peak District !

So .... summer is almost over ... Autumn is on it's way and I can't wait for the leaves to start turning ... it'll soon be Halloween too !!!

So I figured I'd end today's rambling with a couple of Autumnal photographs ... hope you like ....

Hope you have a lovely day :) I'm off to catch up with a bit more housework, then maybe make some jewellery for a local gallery ... bye for now :)