Thanks!

Thanks for all your kind words about my sister. She's really doing well, coming out of hospital today but the doctors have told her she can't travel back until next week. So although they have had to make the decision to cancel the ceilidh (kay-lee!) for this Saturday, they've decided to make it a postponement rather than a cancellation. And she'll definitely be back for my wedding! So not perfect but things seem to be working out. She has been extremely well looked after in Dresden which my Mum and I are so grateful for. So far as the singing goes, as I'm a singer I have loads of friends who're also professional singers coming along to the big day, and I've asked my friend Richard to sing instead of Trina. I'm pleased to have a tenor singing rather than another soprano as it'll be a totally different sound, even within the same song. So, like I said, everything seems to be working out! 8 days to go and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm getting my hair cut and dyed today and then (you'll be pleased to know!) I'm going to go dress shopping. 

And then onto the jewellery...I'm imagining I'll get something lovely somewhere along the blue to green spectrum so I thought I'd share a couple of green pieces of jewellery I've made recently. 

This necklace just arrived in the post yesterday, back from Beads and Beyond and goes with the earrings from this post. It features lampwork beads by Clare Scott, ribbon from Sowzere and semi-precious stones from one of my favourite shops, Precious Sparkle Beads.  

The bracelet features a Green Girl Studios pewter clasp and a few super sweet lampwork beads by Mika of Pinocean. The Amethyst and Aquamarine stones are again from Precious Sparkle Beads and the bead caps (I love these!) are from Palmer Metals. They are so pretty, I use them all the time. 

Hope you like my new-ish pieces! Have a great weekend. 

Beach Bride

Woo-hoo! The new Beads and Beyond is out now and is filled with lots of delicious projects and stunning photographs. I am such a big fan of this magazine! As you can see from my sidebar, I've been lucky enough to have had quite a few projects published by them over the past year and in my opinion the quality of this mag goes from strength to strength. The photography has always been really top notch but they recently had a mini makeover and now the pictures are more stunning than ever! It really is such a privilege to have my jewellery presented in such a beautiful way.

Here is my project from this month - Beach Bride. I had originally named it Something Blue but there was already a beautiful Blue Topaz ring by Jane Kharade called Something Blue so they went for Beach Bride instead which I think suits it perfectly - somehow the stick pearls do look quite beachy! I completed the legal bit of getting married on Saturday (wedding itself not until August but the humanist civil partnership we are having is not recognised by law so we had a legal trial run!) and I in fact wore the necklace on the day which was lovely. I had actually bought some jewellery from Eve Smith to wear but annoyingly the neckline of my dress didn't work with the beautiful necklace I had bought. Another time! I did manage to wear the bracelet however, which came complete with some Moogin beads! The whole day was lovely beautiful and amazing. It was also my Mum's 60th birthday so we had a double celebration - it was so great of Mum to share her big day with us!

Running...

Some of you may know that I'm getting married in a few months...in an attempt to not destroy all wedding photos immediately they are developed, I have been hitting the gym recently - not my favourite thing to do! It seems to be making very little difference (possibly due to the fact that I like things such as cheese and wine?!) so last week I decided to try out a couple of sessions with a personal trainer. They were offering the initial sessions almost 1/2 price at my gym so I thought it would be rude not to.



Last Thursday I went along and paid to be tortured for an hour, during which I had to stop because I felt sick and was seeing spots! Who would have thought that after three months of going to the gym 3-5 times a week I was so unfit???!! Admittedly, we were doing completely different things to what I would normally do, but still, the experience was fairly mortifying! Today is the first day I've been able to get back up to the gym (due to busy-ness as opposed to being physically unable to move I might add!!) and I went through the workout Andria (perky trainer) had got me to do on Thursday. I'm sure there were a couple of weights exercises I forgot or at the very least I wasn't doing properly but I was pretty proud of myself for getting through the routine once again - and then managing to go into school to teach! I felt like I had pushed myself very hard but not that I wanted to die which was a DEFINITE improvement.

The bit that I find so hideous is the running! Andria had me doing interval training on the treadmill (1 minute brisk walk, 1 minute pelting it as hard as you can, repeat ad lib.) to start off the workout and the treadmill is the one machine I generally avoid like the plague. I HATE RUNNING. Like many musicians (for musician read GEEK!), P.E. was never my favourite subject at school and in particular I hated running because I was so damn slow. I actually used to be pretty fit at school and used to swim for a local team - I even have medals to prove it! But running has just never been my bag. And apparently it's still not. But for some reason, I'm going back up for another session of torture on Friday...wish me luck...