Bank holiday monday

Delicious.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The gun has been well and truly jumped...

Ok, so I admit it...I made a bit of a hasty exit from Blogger and jumped in at the deep end with Wordpress and have had to get out of their pool for the time being! Wordpress might be prettier (and actually seems easier for a few things too) but customising your blog isn't one of them. Or at least not to me. I am fairly hopeless with computers and when they don't do quite what I want them to....I want to throw them out of the window....not very helpful I'm sure. All I want to do is enter HTML and put in Google Friend Connect!! Is that such a bad thing to ask? So frustrating. So I'm going to hang around here at blogger and just let my wordpress skills come along in their own time...

It feels like ages since I've blogged and I must admit that's partly because Wordpress has been putting me off. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks though, and not the best - the funeral I went up to Skye for was beautiful but very, very sad. It was a Humanist funeral; very moving and right on the water in such an idyllic and peaceful setting. One of those occasions when I felt it was so important to be there and be part of it - to support my dear friends who had lost their child, a wee boy who had been born prematurely and didn't make it. I am not great with really expressing how I feel about things in words so I won't even try; needless to say, it was a very emotional, exhausting few days but in a way I felt privileged to be part of it and to be able to celebrate the precious and beautiful if tiny life. Goodness knows I hope none of us have to do anything like that again.

Since we have returned from Skye, I have felt pretty flat and unmotivated but with a school concert on Thursday evening, I had to get my ass in gear and get on with life. It's now half term from school (not my college course however) and I have been playing around with some Vintaj blanks and a new stamping kit I bought from my local bead shop and really enjoying what I've come up with - or the process at least! Here are a couple of pendants I created today

not quite how I would like them but I think this idea has bags of potential. What you can't really see is that I hammered a similar pendant behind (no script though, just texture) and added a few little sheets of paper in between to create tiny 'books'. Any thoughts or tips from those who have dabbled in mixed media for longer than I? I'm certainly excited as to where this new branch of creating may take me. I like the wonky script, colour and potential for total personalisation and customisation (can you see that I like my classic fictions?!).

Hope you are all well and my blog jumping around won't confuse too many!

New Blog!

Hiya folks! Just a quick one to say I have moved my blog (or should I say, I am in the process of moving my blog...) over to Wordpress. I'm songbead.com over there so please come and follow me over there!

x x x

BTW - 18.05

A couple of shots of a new design that went down well at the weekend....

 

and a sweet pendant using a stunning lampwork rondelle from Laura...

What's on your bead table today?

Craft Fair Aftermath

So, I'm back home, about to head off to my scratcher (that's bed for you non-Scots out there) and just thought I might put down a reflection on today. I've had such a crazy week, some really tragic news from one of my best friends which is just incomprehendable and heart breaking...please excuse me if I find I can't really write in detail about such things here...I am so moved by folk such as Juls and their honesty but find that for me, it's not so much that I wish to be dishonest, just that I feel that often how I feel is private....often I can't articulate how I feel (nor do I wish to...) even to my partner....perhaps it's something I should be working on but for now it's just how I am. Words are so not enough

I've also been off ill with a fluey cold so my brain's been fuzzy at any rate, and only found out on Thursday there was room at the previously full vintage/craft fair I took part in today. So much as the craft fair is totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things, I wanted to put down some thoughts here in my online diary. A bit like Jess Contreras' blog style, 'Hey blog! How are you doing, here's what I got up to today....'




I wasn't sure about doing another craft market at all as the very few I have done have been nothing to write home about, I've always sold something but there have been a couple when it's literally been that one thing, and much as I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, I really feel that it was mainly to do with context rather than my jewellery per se. But as Magpies and I was a new market, who knew if it would be the right context for me more than any of the others?



Now I don;t want anyone thinking I made pots and pots of cash today - I didn't, but after we paid for the stall (a very reasonable £20) we've got enough for a full tank of petrol and a bit left over.


Which is significantly more than I've made before, and what we were aiming for as we are now going on a long and sad road trip up to the Isle of Skye for a funeral.  [This is not profit by the way, this is takings....beading is still too much of a hobby to think of it in any other way!] We've made enough and had a nice enough day that we have decided to participate again next month and I'm looking forward to it.







This is a pretty rambling post as my brain is still quite all over the place, but what I really wanted to


know was do you do craft fairs? How much money is 'good' and makes it worthwhile for you to repeat
a fair? I didn't really spot much of a pattern in what I sold (apart from lots of hair clips - a new idea and really quick and easy so I'll be doing more of those!) so I don't have much to go on there but it was a lovely atmosphere and lots of people came round and were enthusiastic....so we're going to stick our neck out and go for it next month too. I'm really interested to hear other people's experiences though as I'm pretty new to the selling part of jewellery, more experienced in the teaching side of things....so do leave me a comment or send me an email.

I've put in some shots of the stuff I sold....just really so I can look back here as a kind of 'record'. Hope you are all having lovely weekends and I'll be so interested and grateful if you leave any craft fair thought here.

Magpies and I

Just a quick post, I'm having a hell of a week....

I'm going to be peddling my wares tomorrow at Altrincham Market, Greenwood Street - it's a Vintage and Craft Fair so I anticipate there will be some lovely goodies on sale there as well as my own (lovely too I hope you'll agree!). If you are in the North West of England, why not take a trip to Altrincham tomorrow? It's a pretty town and well worth a wander. The market is on from 10am - 2.30pm. Hope to see some of you there!

BTW...plus update...

Ugh, I'm off work today with the lurgs....nasty throat (kind of a pain in the bum when you're a singer/singing teacher!), glands up and feeling generally spaced out and grotty. So I'm lying in my bed, watching crappy tv (and for crappy, read awesome 90s detective drama boxed sets....I do love some boxed set action) and thought I'd shoot a few quick pics for Bead Table Wednesday. I've recently discovered the wonders of Picnik and have been enjoying making some collages....so here's another. I've played around with a couple of filters as you can see too....

Pendant(back and front shown) by SwoonDimples

Czech glass beads from BeadandRibbon

And here is a small update....I've had a quick peak in between troughs and here are a couple of things I came up with using gorgeous components from Floridity....

A necklace (available now in my Etsy shop) and a wee bracelet - I want to work out how to hang the bracelet from my mannequin so for now you can only see the front....the back is a double length of chain from MissFickleMedia, sweet and simple. The necklace features Vintaj chain, sea moss Czech rondelles and a lovely fat Green Amethyst briolette from PreciousSparkleBeads. Green Amethyst is a really beautiful stone, such a delicate shade and it has a gorgeous clarity. 

What's on your bead table today?

Best Giveaway EVER!!

Hop over posthaste to Lorelei's blog for this awesome giveaway of Kylie Parry charms! You've got 24 hours to get your comment in :-)

Folksy Friday

It's been a while since I've done one of these but was feeling inspired having a browse around Folksy yesterday. I've got a bracelet named Afternoon Tea in my own Folksy shop so took that as my starting point.

Tea with Bickie Scented Soy Candle from Delphie Burling Scotland

Beautiful Vintage Three Tier Cake Stand from Dee-licious Dee-sign

Teacup Earrings from Cuppa Tea and Cake

Afternoon Tea tea towel from You Say That You Love Me

Afternoon Tea fine art print from Tracey Hill Photography (possibly my favourite that I've featured here...so delicate and pretty. Who would have thought a simple cup of tea could look quite so beautiful?)

Hope this selection has given you a little bit of cheer and inspiration! 

Have a great Friday x

***Update: later, that same day....!***

At the lovely Erin's request, here is a parting shot of my own Afternoon Tea bracelet :-) It's in my Folksy shop if you fancy it :-)

Etsy Earrings

I thought today I would share some earrings I have bought from Etsy over the past year or so, from some of the very talented artists over the pond. I think that earrings are my very favourite type of jewellery.

Lorelei Eurto, Denise Yezbak Moore, Jess Contreras.

Lacy bird dish by PrinceDesignUK.

BTW

Not many words, just a few photos...

A new bracelet, shot on a lovely dish; one of a pair I received for my birthday, from PrinceDesignUK - an artist coincidentally also based in Manchester.




Aqua birds....






Can you guess just how much I love them...?






Blush pearls, pale as a whisper pink faceted Czech glass beads from ArteBellaSurplus, purple chain from MissFickleMedia.

A selection of shots from my bead table...


General beady goodness.


Beautiful large brass filigree hollow rounds.


Gorgeous lily pad pendant from Kylie Parry.


Beautiful indigo washed wing; one of a pair from MissFickleMedia.

What's on your bead table today?

A new arrival

Well hello there! I just had to stop by and tell you about the new arrival at my house today. Somebody I've been pretty excited to meet for a week now....a new mannequin! And when I say new, I mean first ever. She's only wee (70cm tall) but she's pretty cute and perfect for me. And she was pretty cheap too :-) always a bonus! Check her out...

A few slightly crappy shots of her, two with a little Maisie bunny behind :-) and one with a new necklace hanging on her. Any name suggestions? She's got fancy French script on her so I'm thinking Nannette, Marie-Claire, Juliette....any suggestions? I do love to name inanimate objects.

On another note, Sunday completely passed me by...oops....it was meant to be my giveaway draw! So I just hopped onto random.org and it came up with 2...Lynsey. Congratulations Lynsey, drop me a line and I will send you a bag of beads post haste! Lynsey came up with the name Calypso for my bracelet which I really like and as well as that, has made me want to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean again :-) Thanks for playing along!