Having a lovely time

A quick postcard from (not so) sunny Spain! Well, it was beautifully sunny at the beginning of the week, but the rain has definitely set in now - not that it's stopped us from going to the beach as you can see! We'll be back later this week. Bye for now!

News from the Daisychain Garden

This year was the first year that we tried growing vegetables. We've still got a massive amount to learn, but at least we didn't kill the plants! Neither T or I are the most enthusiastic gardeners. I love the idea of have a productive, well laid out garden that I can potter about in, dead heading and pruning and digging up our own veggies, but I don't really have the time needed to set everything up to get it organised and productive. This autumn, though, I am determined to dig up some raised beds. There's a perfect sunny spot under my workshed window, and the earth is already piled up there from when we levelled the garden to lay the new lawn.


So what has made me so determined to dig a raised bed? Let me introduce Mr Carrot (name chosen by B). Our carrots have been lovely and sweet and tasty but, well, let's just say that we now realise the importance of planting carrot seedlings in deeper soil!



P.S. The stick-on eyes were T's idea. Honest.
P.P.S We have dozens of green tomatoes but no ripe ones yet! I'm trying a few tricks I looking up on the internet to get them to ripen, but I think I may be making a few jars of green tomato chutney!

Moogin Beads

Here are some of the photos of new designs that I've been promising you. Well, these are a different version of a design that I've used before, but it's a design that compliments Mindy's beautiful Moogin beads so well! I really love Mindy's focal beads. The amount of colour and detail that she puts into them is amazing - just look at all the detail in the colourful Flower Garden necklace in particular!

Both of the necklaces are on the website now!

Flutterby

My copy of the October issue of Beads and Beyond popped through the letter box this morning. It's full of dragonflies and butterflies this month, made from shrink plastic and ribbon as well as wire. I've got a four-page project in there this month - a jewellery set that has the butterfly and freshwater pearl necklace below as it's main piece. Following a suggestion from the magazine I'm selling the soldered butterfly frame needed for the centre piece of the necklace on my website so that you can make one for yourself even if you don't fancy a go at the soldering. They are £7 each, including p&p, and you can get them here!

By the way, the magazine is running a fantastic jewellery design competition at the moment. There are several different catagories including chainmaille, wirework and seed beads. The prize for the metal clay section if particularly appealing - shame I'm not allowed to enter!

New term, Fresh start

You know how I said that there must be a rule that states that the longer you leave it between blog post, the more difficult it is to get back into the habit again? Hmmmm....

The last month has been a bit of a blur to be honest, most of it good, but some of it I could have done without. I disappeared into a bit of a black hole for a while, a result really of the problem that landed me in hospital in May. It left me with some issues that I had to work through, and I seem to be getting myself sorted now. Being busy has helped! I've been busy with orders, with doing some preparation for Christmas (sorry! I always hated it when I was teaching and I saw the Christmas signs up in shops almost as soon as the new academic year started, but now my Christmas preparations start in the summer!), and with magazine projects. I love the fact that three years and seven days after I officially started my business I have enough work to fill all my working days and far more!

I've been feeling really productive and organised this week. I do love this time of year and the feeling of a fresh start that it brings, and I like being organised and having a routine. The sunny weather that we often get in at the beginning of September obviously helps too! The school year is still far more of an influence on my life than the calendar year is, which I guess is only to be expected after being at school/college/university for most of my life as either a student or a teacher. B started back at preschool yesterday morning. He's now one of the big boys there and I'm really pleased that he's kept the same teacher as last year. She's great. He's really happy about going as he's there at the same time as his best friend from across the road. Hopefully he'll continue being happy about it for most of the year, and we'll see how long my resolution of making his lunch the night before lasts!! A combination of preschool and childminder is giving me two mornings and two whole days working time (and I guess that I'd better do some housework in that time too!), and I'm really pleased with how much I've been able to get done in the day and a half that I've had so far this week - and the best thing is that I've got another day and a half left this week! I am so lucky to have work that I love and get excited about doing!

Anyway, this is only a quick post for now, but I'll be back again tomorrow with some photos of new designs and also some magazine news - yes, I know I said I had some new photos last month, but this time I really mean it!