Warm and fuzzy day...

The day started early getting a packed lunch ready for Daisy to take with her to school as she had her first school day trip, to a farm. She was so excited, it made my heart swell. It was also going to be the first day of all her 4 years where she was out of my sight for a full day in the care of someone else. Ruby and I waved her off bravely, fighting back the tears... Daisy ran onto the bus and didn't even give us a backward glance. She did admit when she got home last night that she might have missed us just a little bit, but she had had a very good time riding a pony (it went too slow, she wanted it to go faster, but the bumping about had hurt her bottom a little bit... LOL!) and she had seen pigs, and goats, and sheep and had waved at the farmer.

Checking into my blog comments last night, I also made two warm and fuzzy discoveries.

The first was from Michele at Hedgeland Glass Gems. She had very kindly nominated me as one of her five for an award 'Sweet Home Blogger - for sharing Beauty, Love and Joy



Now I in turn must nominate 5 people. I'll have names ready in my next blog-post as I'd like to take some time to think about it. In the meantime, please have a read of Michele's blog and see the other four bloggers she has nominated.

Also, Clare of Beads By Clare Scott nominated me as one of her five for the "Arte Y Pico" Award which is The Creativity and Art Award.



Again, I'm considering names to pass this award on to. The responsibility is overwhelming :-D I shall be back with names in a few days with my next update.

Michele, Clare - bless you both. I'm truly honoured.

Le vin.... lilac?

Sue, another wonderful Bead Buddies member, commissioned me to make a rather special gift - a winestopper for a 15th wedding anniversary present. She told me her friend liked Renie Mackintosh and could I create something with that in mind. I knew the colours used in a lot of the designs, so we chose a lilac, white and black theme. I also suggested I had some roses... Here's the end result.

Trees & Vines

We had the mother of all thunder and lightning storms early evening yesterday. We were sure there would be a power cut - not goods news following 4 hours at the torch making tree and vine beads. The beads had been put on a longer soak as the biggest bead was just under 40mm and the storm starting just as the kiln would have begun ramping down.

Fortunately, there was no power cut, and this is what I collected from the kiln this morning... Not a bunch of frit as had been expected!

This is the largest...


My friend Petra wants a set of beads in turquoise, white and purple but not sure this is what she wants...


And this... My tree beads are usually lentil shape so experimenting...

Blushing Daisy

Daisy has been pleading with me to make pink beads so she can have a necklace. I made this set - unsure whether to etch them. Anyway, these will be strung on a pink leather thong to make a very girlie necklace!

A difficult task...

A little image heavy!

Sooz, of the Bead Buddies forum, came up with the idea of everyone contributing toward making Barbara Windsor a bracelet, as she'd heard that BW had lost a favourite bracelet some time back. As so many people wanted to get involved, this turned into making a piece of jewellery for various characters from the soap opera, Eastenders.

I chose Dot, and this is the pendant I created for her. The pendant is on an 18 inch snake chain - don't think you can see it in the photo.



I found it quite tricky! Originally, I had three of the focals on a silver wire choker but it didn't look right. So I made this pendant. Fortunately, I now have two focal beads I can add to my site this weekend - That's a silver lining!!





We also have a challenge/swap running on BB's whereby we make two mushrooms from whichever media we choose, and send it to two BB members and they reciprocate. These are my mushrooms, going to Sooz and Colette. I won't say who is getting which because I can't remember whose envelope each mushroom went in (and it would spoil their surprise if they read this blog before getting their little envelopes!)



And last, but not least, I had a request for a set of orange beads for someone's mum. I don't work with orange very often, but I hope she likes these.



And these are for the young lad who requested the beads for his mum. I thought I'd try and make some "man" beads as I know he makes jewellery too and thought he might like to make something for himself.