Finally! I made something!

My lounge room has been taken over by boxes of bead trays and I'm not feeling much inclined to put them away again any time soon so I might even make more stuff in the next few days. I'm rather excited by this, it's been months since I made any jewellery!

I only have one finished necklace from today to show you, plus a couple of pieces of tablet weaving I did ages ago that have been waiting to have their pictures taken. They'll all go in to the shop shortly.

Moss agate, brown zebra stone and sterling silver necklace.

Kivrim tablet weave.

The zig-zaggy pattern I don't have a name for.

Now, make more jewellery or feed the children?

Bracelets and earrings are up too now

Bracelets can be found here






And the earrings are here

Friday Fragments

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Time for a Friday Fragments brain dump. Lots of little bits of dubious value thrown together to masquerade as a post. When you've read mine you might like to head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time and see what other all the other fabulous Friday Fragmenters have on offer.

The kids have been on holidays this week so I've been sleeping in and spending way too much time lazing around at home pretending I'm on holidays too. Despite that there are a few things I have achieved this week:

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I cooked a birthday dinner for my now 13 year old. Tacos and chicken fajitas, it was good. But I didn't cook the cake.

Happy birthday David!

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I watched lots of Buffy with Caitlin, we've finished season 6 now. What? That's an achievement isn't it?

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I finished another length of tablet weaving, it was by far the slowest to weave of all the ones I've done up till now.

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I finally got around to putting my tablet weaving, necklaces, earrings and bracelets up for sale on-line - right here on my blog. I have intentions of working out how to add paypal purchasing buttons for each item, but that may take some time.

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I threw caution to the wind and added grated carrot and zucchini to my bolognese sauce. No one noticed and it was eaten quite happily. But I didn't like it. However, I strongly suspect I'd not have noticed either had I not known I put the veggies in there.

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I watched the first two episodes of the new season of Dr Who. And it was good. And I don't hate the new Doctor at all. Looking forward to more!

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Ummmm. Yep, that's about it!

Better late than never?

Many moons ago, back in March to be precise, I participated in a blogging meme titled Want a gift from me? I was supposed to deliver those gifts within a month of posting the offer. Here we are almost 8 months later and it hasn't been done - man am I ever slack!

Time to remedy the situation I think. Alix, Mel and Marjorie, I know the gift was supposed to be a surprise but I have these super cute Christmas earrings so I'm kind of hoping that you all have pierced ears and a fondness for Christmas sparkliness, can I interest you in a pair of green or crystal Christmas tree earrings?



If the Chrissy trees aren't your thing please have a look at the various earrings I've posted on Flickr and pick something that does appeal - and if your ears aren't pierced feel free to browse the bracelets too!

Finally, I'll need you to email me with your mailing address so I can actually get these things sent off to you :-)

Market day

We held Christmas markets at the school today.

In 40 degree heat.

(That's 104F for you non-metric types.)

I shared a stall with a friend, it was our first markets for both of us so we had no idea how it would go. Thank FSM that Simone had organised a table cloth and clever deployment of a box for our display, 'cause I completely dropped the bundle on that aspect of things.

Our stall

It was a bit breezy and the earring displays were exhibiting slight nautical tendencies, sailing across the table every so often. Eventually we managed to arrange and wedge them into place such that they stayed more or less put.

My end of the table

I'd been rather dreading being outside for 6 hours in that hideous heat and I guess I wasn't the only one who felt that way because it was really quiet.

It did get a bit busier than this...but not by much.

If I was assessing the day on the basis of financial return I'd have to admit it was a bit of a write-off. But, as I got to spend my time sitting in a comfy chair, in the shade, with just enough breeze to make the heat bearable, in the company of a good friend and chatting to people we knew as they came by and admired our cool stuff, I'm willing to call it a Good Day. Of course I now have a whole heap of stuff made, photographed, priced and ready to put up for sale on-line. Watch this space!

But wait! There's more...

I'm having that "it's never-ending!" feeling about life just at present. I rather suspect that when I stop I'm going to crash, Monday may be a bit of a write-off.

Yesterday at 7am, after going to bed at 4am (I was working, laptop disaster & database problems legacy), I kicked Adam out of bed to get the kids off to school and went back to sleep. Adam woke me at ten to nine and I hauled myself out of bed, my beading kit out to the car and me, car and kit down to Ariane's for a craft day. I made some more Christmas tree earrings, including some green ones, and a sodalite necklace (photos are a bit ordinary, there's no sunlight at 11pm :P I took some new ones, much better!).

Swarovski crystal and sterling silver Christmas tree earrings

Sodalite and riverstone necklace
Length ~52cm

Then it was back home to meet the kids - I arrived 30 seconds before their bus dropped them off across the road. I did a quick blog post and then abandoned the boys while I popped up the road to the shops to pick up salad supplies for dinner and a few odds and ends for the market stall on Sunday. Then came home and cooked date scones as a present for my Grandma while the boys made the salad.

99 years old and looking good!

Dinner last night was a buffet affair at my Grandma's nursing home with pretty much the whole extended family - my Mum, Dad, sister & family and brother & family, my Aunty Liz and Uncle Rob, cousins Warwick, Cameron and Rebecca and her family. Twenty four of us all up. It's not every day the matriarch turns 99 years old!

Food!

Today was Caitlin's dance concert - matinee and evening performances - which has taken up pretty much the whole day.

Ballet costume



Song and Dance costume

I did manage to grab an hour to finish pricing all my stuff for tomorrow. I'm now tossing up between sleep and making a few more earrings. The markets start at 9am so I'll need to get going pretty early, sleep is sounding pretty good...

Jupiter jasper

Another riveting edition of stuff wot I made.

Jupiter jasper, tiger jasper and sterling silver necklace



a couple of bracelets of the same





and a bunch of earrings - Jupiter jasper and sterling silver.

Grey skies are making this photography business a bit tricky, wish I'd got around to doing number 3 in my 12 things to do this year list. (Wish I'd got around to doing any of them really...)

Moukaite jasper

This morning's efforts, Moukaite jasper and gold plate:

Necklace



Bracelet



and earrings

(I've also done 2 loads of washing - productivity is my middle name :P)

Now, off to a meeting with David's teacher...

Pretty rocks and NaBloPoMo prize

*****UPDATE*****

The school Christmas markets are done and as promised here are the options for one lucky NaBloPoMo prize winner to choose from.

A) Moukaite jasper necklace with gold plated beads, bead caps and toggle clasp. Length 49.5cm. With matching earrings.

Click on the photos for bigger images.

B) Snowflake obsidian and riverstone necklace with silver plated bead caps and sterling silver toggle clasp. Length ~49cm. With matching earrings.

Click on the photos for bigger images.

C) Sodalite and riverstone necklace with pewter beads and sterling silver toggle clasp. Length 52 cm. With matching earrings.

Click on the photos for bigger images.

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On Saturday I promised there'd be pretty rocks pictures the next day, but stuff happened and I got a bit distracted. Anyway, here's my latest batch of shiny things.

Whatever I have left-over after the school Christmas markets in a couple of weeks (Sunday Nov 22nd, come along if you're in the area!) I will be putting up for sale, either through Esty or just on my blog and I'll also be offering a few pieces for one of the NaBloPoMo winners to pick a prize from. I promised a necklace and earring set so I suppose I'd better start making matching earrings for some of these! I'll update this post with my prize offerings after the markets.

Swarovski crystal and sterling silver Christmas tree earrings.



Botswana agate and sterling silver necklace.
Length 45cm


Rhodonite, snowflake obsidian and sterling silver necklace.
Length 45cm with 7cm extension chain and 4cm pendant


Indian bloodstone necklace with gold plated beads and clasp.
Length 49cm


Indian bloodstone, Swarovski crystal and sterling silver necklace.
Length 49cm


Sodalite and riverstone necklace with silver plated bead caps and clasp.
Length 45cm


Aventurine and tiger jasper bracelet with pewter beads and clasp.
Length 20cm