Friday 13 April 2012

All Change!....

Since my last post things have been a little hectic, we've moved house, Hubby started his New Job, I left my Old Job and I have been working on whole new range of items for the Shop. I love experimenting with Colour and Texture so I have decided to be a little more adventurous with some of my designs and it seems to be paying off. I love the look and feel of my new items.

The Charm Bracelet shown in the first picture is one of favourite pieces at the moment, the colour combination of Turquoise, Gold, Black and Silver works perfectly and I really like the way the Crystal, Glass, Semi-Precious Stones and Lucite all compliment each other. Its perfect for a Summers Evening or a Day Out with the family. It has a matching pair of Earrings to finish off the set.

The Charm Bracelet watch shown is another of my favourite pieces. The photo doesn't do this justice at all, the colours are really rich and there is quite a lot of sparkle in this one. The Moss Green in this piece is really striking against the Silver. Again there is a mix of Crystal, Glass, Metal, Semi-Precious and Lucite Beads. I made myself a Charm Bracelet Watch and it's a great item to wear when you want something a little bit different.
My final selection from The New Season Collection is this Personalised Leather Double Wrap Bracelet. It's designed to wrap twice around your wrist and the centre Focal Piece is a Tibetan Silver Family Ring each of the Silver Hearts represents my Husband and I and the two Agate Beads represent our Children. This Bracelet was made for myself but I had so many comments on it I decided to make them to order.
You can see more of my New Season Makes here.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Forces Themed Gifts..

When my other half was on away deployment last year I found it really difficult to get UK Forces themed gift items. There were loads of items saying I love my Soldier, Navy Mom etc covered in the Stars and Stripes but nothing with Union Jacks for our troops. For the last couple of months I have been doing some research and found vast amounts of Americanised products but hardly anything for the British Forces so as a result I have just opened a cafe press store with UK themed items for sale. One of my favourite slogans so far is "don't mess with me I raised a Soldier" shown on the T-Shirt to the right. I love the kids bits and have already been asked by my kids to get them a t-shirt each...typical with the My Hero slogan. I'll be working on some Navy and RAF themed items over the next few days and will post some pictures on here when they are ready. I have also decided to donate 10% of all profits from the sale of the items to either Help 4 Heroes or The Forces Children Trust...I'm sure most of you will of heard of H4H and the work they do. The Forces Children’s Trust is a charity devoted to helping children whose father or mother has died, or has sustained life threatening injuries whilst serving as a member of the British Armed Forces.
I will also be starting a handmade resin range of forces style gifts in the next few weeks (once my new workspace is up and running).

Monday 20 February 2012

A Wise Woman Once Said...

I have moments when i look around the Internet for nothing in particular and come across something that might take my breath away, this quote from Mother Teresa did just that.....beautiful and so very true!

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realise it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfil it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

by Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997)

Saturday 18 February 2012

Jewellery - Did you know?

Well half-term is nearly over, i can't believe it's gone by so quickly!
In between the mix of packing boxes and paint I thought I would scout around for some facts about Jewellery, Precious Stones and Traditions...here are just a few of the ones I found.

It is said that Opals bring wisdom and good fortune. It is believed in some places that they are pieces of Heaven that fall to the ground down during violent thunderstorms.

We have to mine over 100 tons (wow) of the earth's crust to get one Diamond large enough to cut a fine one carat gem

The Cullinan diamond is the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats. The largest polished gem that was cut from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, and at 530.4 carats was the largest polished diamond in the world. That is until the 1985 discovery of the Golden Jubilee Diamond which is 545.67 carats this was also mined at the Premier Mine. Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre of the cross.  The second largest gem from the Cullinan stone, Cullinan II or the Lesser Star of Africa, at 317.4 carats, is the fourth largest polished diamond in the world. Both gems are in the Crown Jewels which are housed at the Tower of London.

In ancient Greece, pearl was thought to be associated with love and marriage. The legend of Venus/Aphrodite (Goddess of love, beauty and pleasure), who came out of the sea with water droplets turning into pearls, implies that pearls hold all the "charms" of the love goddess.
The Pearl of Lao-tze found by an anonymous Muslim Filipino diver off the island of Palawan in 1934 is the largest pearl in the world. In 1936 Wilbur Dowell Cobb was given this pearl as a gift by a chieftain of Palawan for having saved the life of his son.

The earliest known bead work in Europe comes from a 13th century tomb near Burgos, Spain, complete with blue glass beads, seed pearls and coral beads. 

The word necklace comes from the Latin word "laqueus", which means 'noose'. Although traditionally now women wear more jewellery men were the first to wear jewellery as a status symbol and as good luck amulets to keep them safe in battle.

Aaron, first high priest of the Hebrews, wore 12 gemstones (representing the 12 tribes of Israel) in his silver breastplate. This is believed to be were birthstones first originated. 

  The ever popular Charm Bracelet was thought to have originated in ancient Egypt during the age of the pharaohs. Charms were made of precious metals and gemstones and would of been worn on these bracelets to ward off evil spirits.

There is so much that I didn't know about the traditions of wearing jewellery and the reasons behind it...I think I have found enough information to keep me going for weeks!! x

Thursday 9 February 2012

Valentine Traditions

With the 14th February fast approaching I thought i would spend a little time browsing the net to find some old Valentines Traditions........I wonder how many of them you will of heard of?

Hundreds of years ago in the UK, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing round their neighbourhood.
One of the verses they sang was: 

Good morning to you, valentine;
Curl your locks as I do mine ---
Two before and three behind.
Good morning to you, valentine.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

 In Scotland valentines gifts were given by both parties in the form of a love-token or a true-love-knot.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women chose names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. Could this be where the saying  "wear your heart on your sleeve" comes from?

In some countries, a young woman would receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she kept the gift, it meant she would marry him.

It is also traditionally believed that a girl is able to tell what sort of man she will marry by the first bird she sees on St. Valentine's day.
A Blackbird - Priest, A Robin - Sailor, A Goldfinch (any yellow bird) - a rich man, A Sparrow - Farmer, Any blue bird - a happy man, A Dove - a loving man, A Woodpecker - she will not marry.

If a hen and a cockerel are seen together on this day, it indicates that she will marry during the next year.

Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.

When peeling an apple, try and peel it in one piece from top to bottom, and then throw the peel over your left shoulder. When it lands on the floor look for a shape of a letter - it will be the letter of your future husband

Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.

If the names of all a girl's suitors were written on paper and wrapped in clay and the clay put into water, the piece that rose to the surface first would contain the name of her husband-to-be.

It's a shame some of these traditions have got lost over time.

New Year...New Start

A belated Happy New Year to everyone! Yet again I have neglected my blogging world, I'm not making any more promises to keep on top of it. I have no new makes at the moment, the shop on-line is having a bit of a revamp and i am working behind the scenes on some new ranges "Family" & "Forces". It's a pretty busy time at the moment as we are in the middle of a house move so my little workspace has all been packed up... :'( I'm missing having a pair of pliers in my hand and beads all over the floor (hubby is happy though...lol). I'm sharing a couple of things I've found from some of my favourite people. I love this Handbag shaped clock from Elibee Gifts, her items are always beautiful....my sister would love these!


I found this Easter Wall Hanging Decoration browsing Folksy (one of my favourite places) in a shop called Country Style Clutter. I love Easter so I might just have to invest in this piece, and it would match my new Kitchen perfectly.
I should really head off now, lots of boxes to pack and things to plan....take care x

Sunday 18 September 2011

New Items

OK OK....I know i promised to keep on top of the blog but it's now been 3 months since my last post...so bad!
School holidays took over for six weeks so everything slipped but no excuses for the other six weeks have just been very lazy!!

On a more positive note I've been busy working on some new items



Turquoise Magnesite and Tigers Eye Charm Bracelet watch.

Ice Blue Glass Pearl and Stardust Bead Charm Bracelet Watch with Snowflake Charms

On Trend - Glass Pearl and Stardust Bead Elasticated Stacker Bracelets

Personalised Stocking or Christmas Sack Name Clip


Glass Pearl Snowflake Tree Decoration

Children's Charm Necklace










I'm still working on some new bits and pieces and some more Watches as they are proving to be a bit of a hit. There's lots more Christmas bits to come and loads of ideas for pretty stocking fillers.

On the 1st October I have a Girly Night to get ready for with my Jewellery and Gifts and the local Avon rep with some samples and her Christmas catalogue....I'm getting really excited for it now. Here's hoping it will be a good night! Just need to find a huge dose of motivation then I'm all set...does anybody have any spare going? x