Back from Milan - and some new colourful jewellery

Morning all! At least, it's morning here is whistling, wet and windy Manchester. We're thinking of venturing out to the cinema to see Life of Pi later today, let's see if we brave the weather.....

It's been a bit quiet here on the blog recently, and that's due to a couple of reasons - one, we were away in Milan last week for a work conference (not my work!), and two, I had a ridiculous pile of stuff to do before we left on the 15th. 9 (yes NINE!!) magazine projects to get done before we headed to the airport! They kind of sucked my time up a little.....it was a good feeling to get them all done and sent out. 

Our Milan itself was....ok. I couldn't really be more than luke-warm about it. We had some lovely times and also some fairly pants times! 

Pants - 

*Most of the weather (the photo is the view from our hotel room....). 

*The fact that despite the freezing weather, our hotel room was always weirdly hot at night to the point of not getting much sleep.

*The fact that our hotel mucked up our booking. 

*The fact that as the weather was pants and Helen was at a conference and the hotel staff were generally a wee bit snooty and grumpy, I didn't have much to do apart from sit in my hotel room. 

*The fact that the Euro is so high compared to the £ that we spent a bomb on seemingly not very much. And a lot of that was pizza and wine I think.......

Lovely - 

*The weather on our last day, which was also when Helen's conference had finished. 

*The views from the roof of Il Doumo on this last, beautiful day (where the shot above was taken). 

*The fact that on that same, beautiful day, we had a great tramp about Milan, discovered corners we hadn't seen so far, in our search for a bead shop, and met many friendly and non-snooty Milanese.

*Vigano, the bead shop we found.

*The fact that I am the type of person who can quite happily sit and entertain myself all day as long as I have beads and my phone to listen to audiobooks (although I'd rather not have to stay sitting on a hotel bed whilst doing this!!)

*The fact that I had the chance to just sit and create without feeling I 'Should Be Doing Something Else'

*The fact that the hotel had a wee gym which made me feel slightly better about the quantities of pizza and wine we consumed. 

*The fact that the last night was spent in a lovely and friendly hostel, rather than a snooty hotel.

So, you can see that the 'Lovely' outweighed the 'Pants'. But it wasn't our best trip away, that's for sure!

But, as I told you in the list of Lovelies, I did manage to while away the hours with my beads.....and it was brilliant to be able to do that without thinking that I should be doing something else really......

Here's a few of my Milanese creations:

 The Things You Have

{Swoondimples, LyndasLampwork, Golem, SlateStudiosSupply, BoHulleyBeads, Vintaj brass}

 Printer's Drawer Eclectic

{GreenGirlStudios, Golem, EarthShineBeads, SlateStudiosSupply, Jubilee, JeraLunaDesigns, czech glass}

 Spring Scene 

{EarthShineBeads, BoHulleyBeads, BeadyEyedBunny, Golem, CapturedMoments, czech glass, resin, Greek ceramic washers}

 Peace 

{KylieParry, MamacitaBeadworks, MissFickleMedia, Vintaj brass}

 See the Stars

{Swoondimples, DianeHawkey, SlateStudiosSupply, Golem, Melanie Brooks, Vintaj brass}

Rusty Jade

{Bo Hulley, vintage lucite, czech glass, brass, 7 ply Irish waxed linen cord}

Bollywood

{TheaToo, vintage carved acrylic, czech glass, 7ply Irish waxed linen cord}

So you see, I do have rather a lot to show for Milan! And although I am always a sucker for colour, I think the unexpected ice and snow inspired me to even more cheerful and colourful palettes in some cases. 

Here's hoping that we get some more sunshine here in the Uk soon. I could do without the wind whistling through the rafters quite so much!