Friday 27 February 2009

And the winner is.....

So it was time to draw the winner of the bead giveaway and I decided to enlist the help of my trusty assistant (aka Hubby)! I put all the names into a hat and he drew one out for me. Here's how it went...

So Crafty Clare is the winner of the beads!! I'll be in touch very soon for your details and will send the beads out to you later.

Thanks so much for your comments everyone! I will be doing another giveaway very soon!

Thursday 26 February 2009

Lampwork glass beads and bead giveaway!!

I managed to actually make some beads that had no blue purple or turquoise in them which doesn't happen very often! I received my new batch of oddlot rods from Bridgetown Glass in the US and the colours were great so I combined 3 of them to make this set. I have put them up for sale on my website here.

Also, don't forget today is the last day to enter the bead giveaway so if you'd like a chance to win some beads just leave me a comment on the giveaway post!! Thanks for entering!!

Lemonade Award


Thank you to Pennydog who nominated me for the Lemonade Award here: http://pennydog.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/lemonade-award/

Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 5 - 10 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude.
3. Be sure to list and link your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Link to the post where you were nominated


Here are my nominees:-

Chickadee Cards: http://chickadeecards.blogspot.com/

Glamglass gifts: http://glamglassgifts.blogspot.com/

Snow Queen's Blog: http://topsnowqueen.blogspot.com/

Incy Wincy Stitches: http://incywincytogs.blogspot.com/

Pips: http://www.pipsjewellery.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Finding Photos

I picked up my little digi camera this morning to quickly snap some photos and when I uploaded to the 'puter I discovered photos I had taken when we had the snow of couple of weeks ago still on the camera. One of them was this great shot of Sadie running in the woods...

She was certainly enjoying herself, she looks like she's laughing although that could be my imagination as she is a bit of a blur!!

There was also this one of the ben...

It really did look snowy up there! It's almost all gone now though, just a few white patches in the shady spots.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Lampwork beads and knitting

I've finally got round to lighting the torch and making some more lampwork beads! It's been a while as I've been distracted with other things. Mainly playing with polymer clay and making buttons as you may have noticed! Anyway, here are 2 sets of beads, one made in pandora glass which strikes in the kiln to all sorts of colours and it's a case of waiting to see what comes out. These ones were great... lots of purple, blue and soft green! I've put some black spacers with them to make them even smarter.

The other set are a lovely, deep ruby red heavily encased in clear with white spots. These are fun to make and I think I could get addicted to making them.

The other thing that was distracting me from my beadmaking was that I actually started doing some knitting! Having bought my lovely new knitting needles from Pennydog I just had to have a go and see if I could actually remember how it was done...it have been at least 15 years after all. Well, apparently it's like riding a bike! So, I found some soft, fluffy mohair that I have had sitting waiting all that time to be turned into something. I have several colours but when I saw the purple it matches the needles so well I just had to play with that. Of course, in retrospect, the colour matches the needles so well that I can hardly see the stitches! Well, I thought a scarf would be an easy thing to start with and decided to add a second colour in random stripes. I think I'm also going to add some beads and buttons, after the knitting part is finished, to jazz it up some more. Here's how it looks so far...

Don't forget to add a comment to the bead giveaway post as I will be drawing a winner in 2 days time!!

Friday 20 February 2009

Yet more buttons!!

Still playing with the polymer clay and have a couple of new sets that will be going up for sale in the Crafteroo Folksy shop for Comic relief as all the other sets have now sold!

I'm also hoping to make a pendant and earring set with these 3 pieces below. If they still look ok after baking then I will sand and polish them and then add findings to make the pendant earring set.

Monday 16 February 2009

Polymer clay buttons

I spent all day yesterday making more buttons to put in the Crafteroo Folksy Shop for Comic Relief. I ended up with 3 sets so not bad! 2 of the sets I sanded and polished to a lovely shiny finish so they look extra smart. They'll all be on sale here later today!

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Owl Swap, parcel received!! And Buttons for Comic Relief!

Wow, what a fantastic parcel full of goodies I received in the post this morning! Meridian organised an owl swap and my swap partner was Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey fame . Katy's parcel to me contained all these owly goodies!!...
Actually to take this picture I had to gather everything up together again as I was wearing the owl brooch, had already hung the quilted wallhanging up on the wall, the eggs were chilling in the fridge for this evening's treat and I was using the notepad and pen at my desk. So, a big thank you!! to Katy - I love all my owl goodies!! I really hope she likes all the things I am sending her but I will have to wait to find out as Katy is away on her hols now for 2 weeks!!

As well as playing with my owly things I've also been having another go with my polymer clay. I made some buttons this time and have donated them to the Crafteroo folksy shop to help raise money for Comic Relief. These were the first ones I made - special red nose buttons - and they have already sold to Incywincy!
Then I made some purple gingham buttons...Hmm now what should I make next...?


Tuesday 10 February 2009

Knitting Needles!!

I think it might have something to do with all these chilly winter days...I used to have some lovely big chunky jumpers that I knitted for myself which were great to put on as an extra layer when trying to keep warm about the house. Also, I've been seeing a lot of lovely knitted things about recently (probably all that looking around Etsy) and it's all got me thinking that it's way too long since I did any knitting! Well actually it must be about 15 years!! I really used to enjoy it even though I probably started twice as many projects as I finished, but I suppose I stopped when we were travelling around as all my needles and wool supply got left at home.

So, I was just thinking of taking up the needles again when Pennydog at Crafteroo showed us her latest resin (or are they polyester?) project... and it turned out to be gorgeous sparkly knitting needles!! Well I had to have a pair of those - they were just the thing to get me started again! So I ordered a pair from her Folksy shop yesterday and they arrived this morning!! (How's that for service!!) They're a lovely sparkly purple...

So, now I have the needles... next I have to decide what to knit... something simple maybe to start with?

Monday 9 February 2009

Owl Swap

I can't post pictures of what I'm working on at the moment as I am getting things finished off for the Owl Swap I am taking part in. It has been organised by Meridian and is to include one hand made item, some sort of craft material and then one treat! The items have to be sent off before this coming weekend so I have to get a move on! Luckily I have the main item ready, and know what I am sending for the other things so just need to sort them out and I can get them posted.
Lets hope my swap partner Katy likes her items when they arrive!

Friday 6 February 2009

Comic Relief, Folksy shop

With Comic Relief day fast approaching (friday 13th March) the members of Crafter...oo craft forum have decided to start a Folksy shop to sell things and raise money for the charity. There are some fantastic things being donated and new things will be added often so pop along and help us raise loads of money by buying something great for yourself or a present for someone else! Also because the forum is for all sorts of crafts there's a wide variety of goodies up for grabs! Come and take a look!

Wednesday 4 February 2009

Beads and birds!

Finally got some new beads up on Etsy! These are lovely plum coloured beads with swirls of silvered ivory so lots of silver in these ones.
And we actually have more snow today than monday!! It's been falling most of the day and forecast to continue into the evening. So, it's looking very wintery out there! I took pity on the poor birds and gave them some extra sunflower seeds today. There are lots of blackbirds and robins about at the moment and a few chaffinches as per usual. Haven't seen the woodpecker for a while but I did hear him the other day so he's still around. These photos aren't great as they were taken through the window but you can see the birds...

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Saturday sunrise and snow

Well it was a great weekend! Saturday was amazing, Richard and Heike told us all about the work they do and how they do it - so much information! I really want to have a go at casting glass now although not on the sort of scale they work. Just as I was about to leave on Saturday morning I looked outside and this is what I saw...
Sunday was great fun, the new studio at Retro Glass looks fab and I can't wait to have a go with the new 'toys' they have available.

Then yesterday, I had to go into Stirling for a hospital appointment and this is what it was doing outside...
Luckily I had seen the forecast and left the car down the bottom of our really steep driveway! Also the main road to Stirling had been well gritted so it wasn't too bad a drive but as I was leaving Stirling the snow started coming down really heavily. Normally I would have taken the opportunity to spend some time in town but thought it best to get home. Returned to find it hadn't really snowed any more there and by the evening it was raining and washing all the snow away! So now that I don't have to drive anywhere it's virtually all gone...awww not fair!

So no building snowmen for me...I better go clean up those beads I made last week...