BTW - I'm back!!

Hello! We're back from our travels! We arrived home last Friday afternoon, but as you'd expect it has taken us a few days to recover from all the travelling and the time differences! We spent four nights in Los Angeles on the way back from Auckland, and left there before we'd really acclimatised to that time zone -in fact we managed to time travel on our way to LA as we left Auckland on the Sunday evening and arrived in LA the same Sunday at lunch time! So, last Saturday lunch time I really wasn't sure whether my body thought it was the early hours of Sunday morning or breakfast time on Saturday! T and I are just about over the jet lag now, and Ben is getting there, but we've definitely got child lag as Jamie is not coping with the time changes well - he wants to be up playing at 2am!

We had an amazing time in New Zealand, and saw so much - but its such an amazing country that there was still so much we could have seen if we'd had the time! It was fantastic to spend so much time with our friends over there too. Hellie and I had lived together before at uni, and after that for a year or so as well, so we quickly fell into a routine, and in some ways it feels very strange to be back. We were so busy over there that although I drafted several blog posts I didn't get round to editing the photos to go with them and publishing them, so over the next week expect to see more photos and chat about what we got up to!

But today things have started to settle back into our normal routine. T and Ben started back at school at the start of the week, and today Jamie went to the childminder for the first time in seven weeks - and I got back into the workshop! I didn't get straight back into hammering and soldering though, as I'd been doing some planning while we were away and I'd decided to do a bit of a revamp. I haven't been completely happy with the worktables. They weren't quite as high as I'd really like, the table legs needed reinforcing because of the amount of hammering I do, and I also needed more storage.

So, this morning saw me emptying out most of the equipment from the shed, putting together three storage units from Ikea (where else?!) and using them as three of the legs. They have raised up the level of the tables perfectly, and as the original legs are extendable I've been able to lengthen them to match. It took all morning and a lot of work, and halfway through I wished I'd never started, but I'm so pleased I did it! I also put up the blinds I bought a few months ago, and it was lovely working in there this afternoon, feeling very organised and not too hot in the lovely afternoon sun! I even managed to get three of this week's Notonthehighstreet orders done as I felt so organised and motivated!

I have opened up my NOTHS shop and my etsy Daisychain Extra shop, and my website will be back up by the end of the weekend. I've decided to offer a discount in my Daisychain Extra shop to say thank you to all of you who placed such lovely orders before I went on holiday, and to celebrate the fact that my clasps have been in several magazine projects over the summer, and not just projects that I wrote!

So, until the end of Monday 17th September 

enter the code "NEWTERM" at checkout to get 15% off your order. 

My "Macramé, Art Beads and Wire" ebook is also included in the sale.

This is the last discount I will be offering in the Daisychain Extra shop until after Christmas, so take advantage of it now!

Forgive me blog readers...

for I have sinned. It has been 9 days since I have blogged.

Heavens! Has it really been that long?! Time is not just flying by at the moment, it's in a jet plane breaking the sound barrier. I was going to call this post "What a week" but I've got a feeling that I've used that title at least a couple of times before. But it has been a crazy week! T's Dad came to visit, T had to have a couple of days of work with a bad back (very unusual for him, he never has sick days), Ben and a friend have been preparing for the school talent show next week (I taught them some magic tricks!), T's Mum and StepDad arrived for the weekend this afternoon - you get the picture! And Jamie started walking too. Only when he wants to, that is. After all, he can speed crawl everywhere a lot faster than he can walk! He's just this week seen the advantage of being able to see higher up as he moved around the house, which has meant that I've had to clear things away a lot better and Ben can now longer assume that if he leaves a lego model on the table that it is safe from his baby brother! I want to take some photos of him toddling about but that's proving rather difficult at the moment as he just doesn't want to stay still, so you may have to wait a while!

My work has been lovely and busy too. I think that the gorgeously sunny weather has got people thinking about new outfits and new jewellery to go with them, which is fine by me! It's getting to the stage that I need to wither clone myself or get a helper. Any takers? You have to love jewellery and beads, put up with me singing along to Radio 2 and be willing to be paid in malteasers and cuddes from Jamie. The picture above is of the parcels that I took up to the post office today, and there was double that amount yesterday, some etsy orders, some notonthehighstreet and a couple from my website too. I've worked out a system with our lovely local post office that I buy the main stamps I need from them in advance, collect customs labels and air mail labels from them too and do as much preparation as I can at home, usually in the evenings when everything is alot quieter. It makes everything so much quicker at the post office, which is very important as I usually have on if not both of the boys with me! I've sent parcels all over the world this week - everywhere from the Bronx, LA and Dallas to New South Wales, Hong Kong and Vancouver and back home again to Manchester, Cambridge and the Isle of Wight!

Right then, another quick post about some new designs (easier to keep them separate so I don't get muddled!) and then I'm off to catch up with some of the blog reading I've missed in the last nine days!

BTW part 2

It took me a while to get going this morning. I knew what I wanted to get done, has my list of jobs drawn up, but it wasn't until mid morning that my brain was ready for the delicate task of stone setting! Lots of hammering had to be done to wake me up first. Wednesday morning, you see, is the morning after the night before of teaching two 2 hour college classes back to back - the 15 minute break between the two never really happens! Don't get me wrong, I love teaching my classes, love helping my advanced class bring their beautiful designs to life and teaching them more advanced techniques, love seeing the delight on the faces of my beginners class when they complete a new piece of jewellery - and reassuring them that everyone, no matter how experience they are, has off days when things don't quite go as well as they planned! But some Wednesday mornings are a bit sleepy.

Anyway, I did get my list of jobs done in the end. Parcels have been sent with NOTHS orders in time for Mothering Sunday, two of the stone settings that I posted a picture of this morning have had more silver added to them and added the box of items to be sent off to Goldsmiths' Hall for hallmarking, new clasps made to polish tomorrow and list on etsy before the weekend.

This evening has been spent editing photos of the four pieces I finished today and listing them on my website - you can see them above. The lampwork cabochon much admired in the comments on my post earlier today is by, of course Mindy Macgregor. I've taken about 50 photos of this pendant to try and show the colours and the pattern on the cab as clearly as possible! The silver surrounding the cab has been decorated to mimic the pattern on the glass. The other two cabs are porcelain, shaped and glazed by Lisa Stevens. I've used a combination of bezel and prong settings to hold the stones in place - I love how it has worked, and I'll definitely be using this design again! The fourth pendant has been sitting on my desk part done for weeks, and I finally finished it this morning as part of my "warm up"!

All of the pendants are now on my website - and the lampwork cabochon has 10% off as I've decided to extend the Moogin sale until the end of March as Moogin March sounds good and I want to buy more of her beads!

BTW

 
Ummm....yummy colours! This was what was on my desk at the start of the evening when the sun was still streaming in through the windows! A gorgeous Moogin heart focal, some deep red spacer beads, Swarovski crystals, amethyst nuggets and some handmade silver chain, all sitting on top of the latest Beads and Beyond.

I've just spent a lovely couple of hours in the workshop working on some new designs, some of which I can't tell you about yet - sorry, I know I've said that a few times recently, but I've got a couple of exciting things in the pipeline! I can tell you about one of them very soon, promise. I can show you one though - some new earrings made with my favourite hammer.

Sorry about the awful picture - it was a very quick one!

These long ovals of silver have been sitting on my desk for months. They're the cut out sections from behind the turquoise set in two pairs of earrings that are waiting to go on the website, and I didn't want to put them in my scrap pot as they were so well matched and I just knew they'd be perfect for something. Today the perfect something came together, partly because most of the things I'm working on at the moment are big or NOTHS orders and I wanted something smaller to work on, something I could start and finish in one sitting!

The ovals have been hammered (obviously!), gently curved and had stud fixings soldered on. I think I'm going to oxidise one pair - what do you think?

Easter Flowers

Happy Easter! I hope that you are all enjoying your long weekend!

We've had a fairly relaxing, family weekend so far. It was T's Mum's birthday yesterday so we drove up North to met up with everyone from his side of the family (two grandparents, three sons and wives (including T and me, obviously) and four grandchildren) for a long lazy early evening meal at a local pub. All the children were really well behaved, and we had a great time. B was thrilled to see his eldest cousin again! There's only 7 months between the two boys, and they get on brilliantly. It was the first time we'd met our newest niece - she's gorgeous, and fell asleep in my arms!

I've spent this afternoon editing photos of new products and uploading them to both my website and to my notonthehighstreet shop. Here are a couple of them, and there will be more to come at the beginning of next week!


I've shown you the Full Bloom necklace before, but I've added more stone choices now - you can choose from aquamarine, citrine, iolite (my personal favourite - such a beautiful rich purple) and turquoise, but if you fancy a different stone let me know!


And some pretty earrings to go with them. These swing gently as you move your head, and are lovely to wear. They have the same stone choices as the necklace, and I did have a turquoise pair to show you but they got sold before I photograph them - not that I'm complaining about that!

More lovebirds

I had a new toy, or rather set of toys, arrive in the autumn - sets of letter stamps (both upper and lower case) and a set of numbers. I bought them from a US etsy seller, NextofKenn after hunting for a font that was a little bit different from the standard but still easy to read and not too fancy - I think that these were well worth the wait!


I didn't have the chance to do much with them before Christmas, but I've had the words "personalised? stamped? dates on back?" written next to my original sketch of my lovebird pendants for months, so last night I finally finished and uploaded my new and improved personalised Lovebird pendants to my website and to my noths store!



I've combined the original separate silver and gold lovebird listings into one to make life a bit easier to everyone, and you can choose whether or not to have any personalisation, and what wording you would like. There is room for approximately 8 characters.

And, while I was on a roll, I've also made matching Lovebird earrings! I am so pleased with these. I don't usually wear long earrings any more, I got out of the habit when B was a baby, but I've been wearing a pair of these since I gave them their final polish and I love them! They are so comfortable! I've got a pair with sterling silver wings coming shortly too.

Busy busy busy!

Just because the blog posts have been slow recently, don't think I've been slacking - it's Christmas, don't you know, the time of year when I spend a lot of time in my shed, thanking God that we (or rather Tony and Tim) insulated it well and I've got a good heater, making lots and lots of goodies to post all over the UK. There's been quite a few overseas parcels as well this year thanks to notonthehighstreet orders. More and more people have found my website too - thank you! I've done a fair bit of promoting this year, some of which, such as posting my tutorials on forums and writing magazine articles, didn't seem like advertising the jewellery sales side of my business, but it seems to have had an impact. Thankfully the bout of the flu I had last week seems to have been a fairly mild one. I started feeling ill a week ago Thursday, but I was fine, just very tired, by the weekend. I'm still tired, but I'm working through it!


Christmas also means that I'm busy making gifts for family and friends. I started earlier than usual this year, partly because I knew that I'd need to be ultra organised this year - I had been warned by a few of the other stall holders at the Winchester Handm@de fair that Christmas on noths is rather busy! - but partly because I really wanted to get started on knitting the patterns I'd found! Now, I can't show you all the things I've made as there are probably a few prying eyes looking for things they shouldn't be, but these are a few of the projects I've been knitting recently. They still need blocking, soI'll show them to you again in all their full glory and tell you about the patterns later on!

Today's tutorial is on it's way, but the way - I've got to polish the earrings I've made (well, there's a hint for you!) and finish some more photos for it first!

Look what the postman brought me!

Aren't I a lucky girl?!

Laura has been really naughty (and lovely!) and sent me this funky coloured crotchet hooks! Aren't they great? Don't they go brilliantly with the yarn I used for the scarf and dress I showed you the other week? Thank you so much Laura - they are a lovely surprise and I shall use at least one of them this evening!

The other parcel that the postie brought me today was one that I paid for, but it was still lovely to open it and see these goodies inside - rough cut rubies, sapphires and emeralds! My ruby and sapphire charm bangles have been selling well on notonthehighstreet, and when I went to buy some more beads I decided to get some emeralds as well so that I could offer more choice. Hopefully the emerald charm bangles, and a turquoise option too, will be on both my notonthehighstreet shop and on my website tomorrow. I've got to finish some with rubies and sapphires for orders first and get them posted!


Before I get back to work, though, I just had to show you this. B and I went over to my parents yesterday for lunch. My Dad wanted to test his new BBQ (very posh, even got it's own chimney!) so of course we said we'd help out by eating the sausages etc. It's a hard life! B and I worked some of the food off by playing golf - I use those words in the loosest sense as I don't think that Tiger Woods has got anything to worry about from either of us! B had a great plan of action though - he picked up the ball, put it in front of the hoop, hit it through and then moved on to the next hoop - when he had done them all he did a celebration lap round the garden!