Less than 12 hours left!

Yes, that's all! Less than 12 hours left to enter the draw to win one of these pairs of earrings - both pairs are up for grabs! To see more details have a look at this post. The giveaway is open to everyone, UK and international.

BTW

 

Poppy soup, anyone? I am really pleased with this bracelet - I've finally used one of the poppy beads that Mindy made for me after hoarding them for much longer than I usually hoard her beads for, I haven't used it in a necklace or pendant as I would normally do, and I've continued to break out of desire to make everything symmetrical!

I had planned to make a necklace using the bead soup ingredients that I tucked away in my cupcake tin yesterda , but as I started to make it up I realised that it wasn't really going to work out. I wanted to use the bead horizontally rather than vertically as I would usually do, but it kept spinning over due to its weight. I actually went to bed feeling a bit fed up last night as neither of the two pieces I was working on yesterday evening were going well. But then inspiration struck - how about a Summer Solstice bracelet instead of a necklace? This is the reason why I keep a sketch book beside the bed!!

I'm really pleased with the poppy clasp. I wanted to do something to balance out the bead so it wouldn't spin too easily underneath your wrist, but if it did something lovely would still be on view - and it works! I wore it out tonight to test it - yes! I went out somewhere that didn't involve children, although they were the topic of conversation more than once. I went out for a meal with some friends I used to teach with, and it was lovely. We don't get to meet up often enough. Thank you Ali for organising us, and congratulations Tiggy on the pregnancy and Suzy on the new job!

If you want to remind yourself of what my ingredients looked like, and where the inspiration for the bracelet came from, visit this post!

June giveaway at last!

A comment that Lynne made on my incy wincy hat post reminded me that although I had planned what this month's giveaway was going to be, I hadn't actually got round to sorting it out - oops! If only someone had given me a Tardis for my birthday (with or without David Tennant, I'm not greedy!) then all my not-enough-hours-in-the-day would have been solved!

Anyway, I have finally listed the pieces above on my website. I first made them before Christmas, and they've sold really well on craft stalls, but I'm still catching up on taking and editing photos etc of pieces to go on the website. The pendant and stud earrings above have been textured with my favourite hammer to match the Silver Birch bangles, and they are lovely to wear - and that's not just me saying that, honest! Katie (my tester and owner of the largest collection of Daisychain Jewellery (Mum and Hellie are very close seconds!)) sleeps in her Silver Birch studs as she finds them so comfortable to wear. They've become her "go-to" earrings. Both designs are made from 2mm square wire. The pendant is just over 2cm in diameter and the earrings are about 13mm long.

Both designs are available in a shiny or oxidised finish, and they can be found here and here. However, if you would like to be in with a chance to win your own pair of Silver Birch earrings then read on...

1. There are two pairs available - one pair to one lucky person on my newsletter mailing list and one pair to someone leaving a comment on this post.
2. You can enter both draws by adding your details to the mailing list if you haven't already done so and leaving a comment.
3. You can get an extra entry into the blog comment draw by blogging/tweeting/facebooking about the giveaway, linking to this post, and leaving another comment telling me that you've done so.
4. You can choose whichever finish you prefer.
5. The draws are open to international and UK readers.
6. The draw closes at midnight on Thursday 30th June, so you haven't got long!

I think that's all I need to tell you! Good luck!

Tutorial Tuesday - Summer Solstice Necklace

I've fallen in love with this gorgeous necklace by Heather Powers on Art Scene Blog - each of the components are so different yet go together so beautifully. I've started my own version using the ingredients below, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's Bead Table Wednesday as I've got a magazine article to finish and a teething baby to console - oh, and a giveaway to take photos for!

The Art Bead Scene Blog also had another great idea - well, a challenge really that I didn't have time to join in with. Use a muffin or bun tin and fill each dish with the ingredients for a project, and see how many you can work through in a week. I usually have little piles of beads and pieces of silver all over my desk, some in little boxes, others in bags, and they never stay organised for long while they're waiting for me to have time to make them into something lovely. I don't know why I didn't think of baking tins before - such a simple but brilliant idea! Anyway, these two piles of bead soup ingredients will end up as two very different necklaces based on the Summer Soltice necklace - one with a gorgeous labradorite cab with beautiful purple flashes, and one with a Moogin poppy bead and Swarovski crystals. My aim is to finish at least one to show you tomorrow!

You can find the tutorial here: Art Bead Scene Blog: Summer Solstice Necklace

Incy Wincy Spider Hat

Lori posted last week about, of all things, stinky shoes. It may sound like a rather strange thing to blog about, and an even stranger thing to take a photo of, but if you go and read her post (click here) you'll understand that it wasn't the shoes themselves she was blogging about but the memories and about how the small, simple things can make life a joy. Now, we (unfortunately) have a few pairs of rather stinky shoes in our house, and I expect that as the boys grow and turn into teenagers that we will have even more, but after reading Lori's post it was the hat pictured above that came into my mind. It's Jamie's hat now but it was Ben's before him, and I love it. It reminds me of how small my big boy once was, of how easy it was to pick him up, to carry him about and cuddle him, and of how lovely it was not to have to rush around for school and various appointments everyday. He still likes cuddles, but I think from his reaction the last few school mornings that the days of letting me kiss him goodbye at the school doors are numbered! At least the summer holidays are coming up, so we'll have a few weeks at least of taking things at a bit more leisurely pace. Jamie looks just as cute in the hat, and I think it's going to be one of those items from their babyhood that I'm going to keep and cherish.

Sunny Sunday

The sun decided to come out and play again today - just in time for Dad's birthday BBQ! Lots of lovely BBQ'd food, wine, birthday cake, playing in the garden, teasing Dad about the fact he can now collect his pension - you get the idea! Both boys had a lovely time. Ben loved playing in the garden and playing with my brother who he absolutely loves spending time with, and Jamie just loved all the attention and tickles!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today was the perfect opportunity to try out my new camera. I finally invested in one with a better zoom after seeing the fantastic photos that my friend Hellie took with her's when she visited a couple of months ago - there is no way that my old camera could have taken the beautiful shot of Jamie that she took here. I need to spend a lot more time practising with it but I'm really pleased with the pictures I took of Ben playing with his giant bubbles!

BTW

Thank you so much to those of  you who posted a comment on my dilemma about childcare. I know I'm doing the right thing, both by me and by the rest of my family, and I know that I will really look forward to my Thursday work days and make the most of them so that my time with my boys is quality time, but I also know that there will be a bit of guilt as well - that's just the way I am!

I spent some of Jamie's nap time this morning making up some orders - some NOTHS orders and some orders for my clasps as well - I am so chuffed at how well they are selling! They're selling mainly on my website at the moment, but hopefully the etsy sales will pick up too as I list more designs - the more I list, the easier it will be for people to find me. This evening, though, I actually used one of the oak toggle clasps myself and made the bracelet above. I've had it planned out for ages! The beads are some of my goodies from Artisan last October - picasso jasper in a beautiful matt finish. The chain that makes up part of the bracelet is interlinked - fun to do but it takes a lot of concentration to get the pattern right!

Now, my job for tomorrow is to upload this, some earrings and some new clasps to the website!