Tuesday 20 March 2012

My Neighbour Totoro

One of my all time favourite films... love love love it...





In fact I love it so much that I carry a totoro around with me...

Have you seen it?

Friday 16 March 2012

Ring ring

One of the joys of being able to make jewellery is that I can make finally wear pretty rings that fit on my big fat sausage fingers.

I made myself a lovely moonstone and silver ring last week.

And R asked me to make him a ring too. Imagine my dismay when I realised he is exactly the same ring size as me....sigh. I'm a R (and a half). I wonder what the average is? What's your ring size do you know?

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Birthday goodness

I never did get around to showing you my lovely birthday gifts.... so here are some of them...


(I love daffs!)

(and orchids....ahhh how beautiful are they?)

How gorgeous are these dinky teeny vases....so beautiful, and crying out for some blossom, or teeny buds - but not until they are in my new room dagnammit.

On a vase theme, a do love a nice vase +  I do love Rob Ryan's stuff = perfect pressie for me!


Have you seen "My Neighbour Totoro", produced by Studio Ghibli? It's a japanese animation, and one of my all time fave films. The girls love it too. So this totoro key chain, which now hangs on my bag is an extra special pressie for me. It reminds me of cosy Sunday afternoons, watching a dvd with the girls while the rain pelts the house. And how can you not smile back at totoro?

Hubbie and I have been in discussion about getting a dog. I had a black lab when I was growing up, and I'd love another.  R said he could probably be convinced about a dog "if we can find one that doesn't moult, or smell". Hmmmmm..... in the meantime he bought me this cute little black lab... made of soap and which smells of rosewood and bergamot!

And I also bought myself a little pressie....


Kheeeeeeeeeeeeeee new tools.

Saturday 10 March 2012

The state that we are in

This time of year is notoriously slow on Folksy and Etsy compared to the rest of the year, and so it's been quite good timing to be doing our building work now, when things aren't manic. Can you imagine if it was just before Christmas....aaaaggh doesn't bear thinking about.


I was thinking I'd be spending my spare time in February sorting out my stock, getting my new standalone jewellery shop up and running and getting my marketing sorted. Hmmmm. No. I'm not sure what I've been doing with all my time, but it doesn't seem to be any of those things!
(my new work-room)

The building work is finally nearing completion. It's really just last fix stuff now. We still have no kitchen to speak of, we can't get the sink or hob in as we're waiting for the worktop to be sorted but we do have a working oven at last...hurrah... and a washing machine. It's sad just how excited I was about putting a load of washing on yesterday. And it is actually starting to seem quite decadent to have a separate room devoted to the storage and preparation of food. I've kind of got used to washing up in a bucket in the bath. And having the fridge and freezer, and bin in the hall way is pretty handy, if not particularly nice to look at.


Anyway I'll bore you with more before and after pictures when it's finished in a couple of weeks, and give you a tour of my long awaited work space, in which I shall be neat, efficient and everso organised. Honest.

Monday 5 March 2012

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on Friday, so to treat myself I spent the day at the Desire fair in Richmond.

Wow,  there was some truly amazing work there. It was great to see such a fantastic range of work in one room.

Things seemed to click into place for me about my jewellery style and where I'm going (and where I'm defintely not going!). People often ask me what type of jewellery I make, and now I think I could answer them a little better.

Ring by Sabine Konig

There were some stunning stalls, where I simply stood and stared at the goodies (possibly with my mouth slightly open, and  drooling a bit) and some where I had a chat with the artisan and got a real insight into the stories behind the pieces. So interesting.

The best thing for me from the day though, was that even looking at the most stunning works there, I felt inspired, and thought, "yep, one day if I work hard, I could do something as good as that". It probably sounds a bit silly, but in most other fields I seem to be the type of person who would think " oh dear, I'll never be that good, aren't they lucky to be able to do that"

A beautiful ring by Barbara Bertagnolli......


I wonder if it's just that I've found my path with jewellery.... or whether I'm just getting a bit more confident in my old age.

Speaking of which, I had a great weekend as well. We went up to London and had a Duck Tour - it's a tour on those amphibious vehicles - a drive around showing the girls all the sights, and then a splash down in the Thames. The kids loved it! After that we took the girls to see Stomp. Brilliant - sweeping up will never be the same again.

I got some fantastic pressies off my lovely family... I'll show you later in the week but I also made a little present for myself.

I've been looking into birthstones recently and thought it would be nice to have something in my own birthstone. As my birthday is March - that means Aquamarine. I have a little secret....don't tell anyone.... I don't really like it that much... (ssshhhhhh!). Don't get me wrong it's a really beautiful stone, but it just wouldn't look right on me with my pale skin and red hair.

The traditional stone for March is Bloodstone, which I admit would probably suit my colouring a little more, but I fancied something with a little more sparkle.

So what to do? I did what anyone should in my situation. Cheat.



I found a lovely moss aquamarine, wrapped it in sterling silver and voila! Happy birthday to me.
Let me know if you're a March birthday and would like to cheat too, I'll happily make you one!

Friday 2 March 2012

Birthday finds....

Some lovely bits and bobs from around the interweb that i would LOVE for my birthday.....

Vintage test tube holder from Concept Furnishings on Etsy. Not planning on doing many experiments, but perfect for keeping my saw blades in order!


3 antique french apothecary bottles - yummy - from French Melody on Etsy. No idea what I'd use these for - they just look pretty.

And just think how organised my new room could be with this..
(from elemental)

or this Doctors Cabinet from The Holding Company..(sorry can't grab the image for some reason!).

or ....(swoons)...these from the Portobello Road market


So I love storage...who knew!


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