Tuesday November 9th, 2010

Woo today is my sisters 24th birthday. Earlier this after I was browsing through my new bead book ('Its all about the Beads' just in case you're interested) and it was then I had one of my 'eureka' moments. I suddenly remembered I had a large teardrop style pendant in green, red and blue with a sort of silverish (is that a word?) tint, I'd gotten it free with a magazine yonks ago, I knew I had 10 metres of black waxed cord I'd purchased on one of my Beads Unlimited shopping sprees as well as some thin black organza ribbon and 2 small black hoops to sit either side of the pendant. The only thing I was lacking in were the crimp beads that were especially designed for cord and that kind of thing. So up to Pink & Dizzy I strolled, initially I had planned on using the round leather crimps but as the shop was empty I thought I seek advice. For some reason I get so embarrased about seeking help, I know I shouldn't but it's just me.

I'm so glad I did seek aid, she was very helpful and recommended the flat leather crimps instead, saying they were her personal preference. Personally I thought they would perhaps suit my design better too, particulary as I was using ribbon in addition to cord.I trusted her judgement and snapped them up. They were so simple to use I actually got both of them right on the very first attempt, my god that is saying something. Including all the measuring of the ribbon, cord and putting it all together it took less than 10 mins and cost barely anything to make. So if that piece does ever sell it will be pretty much free money and I'm certainly loving the sound of that.

Monday November 8th 2010

I really wanted to make some things for my stall but wasn't quite sure what, in a book I recently purchased the author said a good money earner for stalls such as mine was to create pairs of 'simple earrings'. Personally I think that transpires as just whack a few beads together, whack them on a ear hook and hope for the best but well worth a try. I thought I'd begin using a pair of the purple satin acrylic leaves I purchased yesterday, all I simply did was put a violet seed bead at the bottom of a headpin, added the leaf, another seed bead then adding an ear hook repeat and there you go, I was liking this 'simple earrings' style. Feeling the love I went out to make a second pair, this time I placed a silver saturn bead, a 20mm turquoise & black cord bead with a turquoise 7mm frosted glass bead above it, ear hook added then repeated.

Personally I don't think they look too bad I much prefer the corded ones to the leaf ones but that's just me. If anything they are really stall fillers, if they do sell then it's easy money - each pair took no longer than five minutes to put together and less than a quid to make so if they do get left behind I can just take them apart and reuse the beads and findings. Simple (as that annoying meerkat would say). I put the pix up on my flickr page so you can see for yourselves.

Just wondering out of interest; why is 'JEWELLERY sometimes spelled like that on other occasions spelt 'JEWELRY' I think the latter version is American but (if that's the case I prefer the English method) just weird to me.

Sunday November 7th, 2010

Today is actually Matty's birthday he's 20+7, so today was all good, we went out for a rather delicious meal with chums and then went round some of the large retail parks around the Swindon area and one of those parks just happened to have a Hobbycraft. I went into Pets at Home to purchase some hamster supplies but I had to leave that to Matty to do because I knew if I'd stayed in there longer than necessary I would've left with a dwarf hamster and cage etc. I love hamsters as much as beads and we already have 2 so I had to reluctantly had to accept the fact that we could have no more. In a bid to cheer me up I popped into Hobbycraft and treated myself to a bead splurge; even my boyfriend's birthday cannot keep me parted from these gems. I left with several packs of satin acrylic beads in various colours, shapes and sizes and a pack of bells - I was especially pleased with these as I'd been looking for some to use in some Christmas charm bracelet projects I had in mind. I'd looked on the Beads Unlimited site but they were all out of stock.