Discovering Jewellery

Bring it on!

2012-07-26T21:50:00.000+01:00

Welcome back again, I hope you are here to see the wonderful process of my bead embroidery, or just to see my ramblings - either way, let's crack on!

So the second piece I opted to do is the second largest - we'll work our way down on this project! Less rambles this time around, you know the basics now, more pictures.

You may remember in my previous blog entry I warned against being super careful when beading with bicone crystals - this is why:

The great thing about bead embroidery is that a snapped thread doesn't have to mean working back several rows and reworking, it's easy to tie off and thread in from the back and pick up where you left off. So satisfying!

I also love the spirograph effect that is created on the back of the piece, it is in some ways a shame to cover it up.

Once the base row is completed, we start on the bezel row again:

Don't forget to stitch back round the inner row a few times to bring all of the beads into line for a nice crisp finish, and then stitch on your outer row/s.

Trace your outline on your suede, cut out and stick to the back and stitch the edging! Feel free to secure as much or as little as you feel it needs before doing so - you can see where I've sealed in three places with clear varnish before gluing my backing on here:

Keep it as tidy as you can - I must admit I love looking at the back of my embroidery when it's all finished almost as much as the front, it's just not quite so shiny

Two pieces down... Five to go. Here's what we have so far:

Exciting! And I'm pleased to say that I am now at the point of putting all of the components together so will try to make it back a bit sooner for the next 5 components (all small and you know the drill!) so that I can show you the best b its - the finished article!!

In other news, I've recently agreed a loan on my friend's horse, and I'm ecstatic. I've always wanted to own a horse, and this is likely to be the closest I will get to it - helping out and having freedom to go down to the yard more or less whenever I want and getting all of the benefits without having to front the entirety of the bill! It's a dream come true. Here's Felix - he was a bit hot and bothered yesterday afternoon when we went down to see him. Unfortunately the sheep on the yard had all been herded in to be marked or something so we couldn't bring him in for a bath so I promised him I'll be back to give him one soon!

Isn't he just adorable? He's so docile and I just want to cuddle him!

Until next time :)

So who wants to try bead embroidery?

2012-07-12T18:24:00.005+01:00

If you haven't already tried bead embroidery, I highly recommend that you do... Or, if you don't like getting addicted to things, then I highly recommend that you don't! I lost my mojo for a fair while, but I won the Pass the Parcel present on Bead Buddies in May from Aster (visit her blog here) and it was this stunning selection:

As soon as I received the package the creativity came back with a vengeance and ideas were swimming about. First though I made a bracelet for my mum's birthday (which is today, so I can now share it!) It's a piece from Beadwork Feb/March if you're interested in making it. I think mum was chuffed with it.

So, onto the point of this post - I'd like to share with you all the process of my latest beaded endeavour. Here's what I've got so far:

None of these components are stitched together yet, they will be once I have embroidered around the final three components. The main thing that I can say to anybody who wants to try embroidery of this form is that anything is possible, expect to spend hours adjusting and re-adjusting, expanding, embellishing and staring at the finished piece. There is something so satisfying about the freeform element to working this way, you can make your piece as smooth or textured, symmetrical or quirky, covered with beads or minimalist as you like. Every piece of embroidery can only ever be a one off!

The first point of call is to have a plan (however vague) of what you think you want your final piece to look like. In this case I was messing around with the layout of the stones and took a photo so that I knew what I was aiming for. It looked like the picture above just with none of the beading done! We'll start with the biggest stone, and work our way through. If your stone has no hole like this one, get some glue - I would recommend E6000 - and stick to your backing (Lacey's Stiff Stuff / Nicole's Bead Backing / stiff felt). You'll need to leave a reasonable amount of space when you cut around the stone but this is entirely down to you and how much beading you want to do around it. Because this is a steeper stone than some, I have opted to do the first row around the stone in 4mm bicones.

When using crystals, always try to use Fireline or similar thread - I did manage to cut a thread on my second component, they can be tricky blighters! I would also recommend adding one crystal at a time, for this one I added two, went back through both, added one, went back through all three, added one, went back through all four, added one, and continued to go back through 4 crystals - this way you are strengthening as you go along, and it will reduce the number of passes you need to make all the way around at the end.

Here I have gone around adding stacks of seed beads around the outside of the bicones, each stack is stitched from behind the backing, coming up and going back down and along to the next. You may notice that the stacks are alternately topped with black and silver - this is the basis for the twisted bezel you can see in the original photo.

This way you see the sparkle at the side! You can find full instructions for the twisted bezel in any good embroidery book, but I may save that for a rainy day to share with you - if you would like any help just drop me a message. You must always be prepared in bead embroidery to amend as you go, and for this part that meant adjusting the number of beads in some stacks and some sections of the twist to account for the shape and height of the stone. Next we will tidy up the edge of the stone, I've used delicas.

I suggest using 4 delicas and coming up in between the second and third, and then adding four each time doing the same. You'll notice that to start with the round may not be very straight, but once you get back around to the first beads added, thread through all of the beads until you can't get your needle through any more - this will line all of the beads up and make for a cleaner line once the holes are filled. Once you have embroidered all that you want to around the bead or stone, it's time to cut the shape out. The back of your stone (in this case) will look a bit like this:

Have confidence in your beading, I am of the school of reinforce, reinforce, reinforce, and in this picture you can see my knots - if you think you've done enough knots, do a couple more, and then seal with clear nail varnish. This will be made even more safe when we put the backing on. Cut as close as you dare around your beading. I was always told to leave 4-5mm around my beading but I'm very fussy about how much of the backing I can see on a finished piece, so I cut mine as close as I possibly can without endangering the security of the beadwork.

Now you need to get your suede backing and draw a template so that you can make your pieces beautiful and comfortable to wear. You'll need to put a dab of glue onto the back of the stone, I normally use E6000 but didn't have any and found that PVA works just as well - it only needs to hold the pieces together whilst you stitch!

Once they're stuck together, trim so that the suede is as level as possible with the backing to make for the best edging possible.

Now you can start beading the edge! I've used size 11 miyuki beads in the same colour as my delicas, this is what will bring my final piece together as all components will be edged in these. Start by coming up from between the backing and the suede and add two beads. You'll need to move along by 1-2mm and thread through both pieces, and back up through the second bead added. From here, you'll add one bead at a time and work your way around the final piece:

Here's the finished piece, which will be put to one side until they're all done and then embellished further once all components are stitched together.

If you've made it this far, I'll be back soon with component number two (a little more brief next time!) I hope this can be of some help to somebody!

Bead Embroidery Project - Back with a Bang

2012-07-08T21:51:00.002+01:00

Hey everyone, pop back tomorrow for an update and I'll walk you through my new project - here's a sneak preview!

Bead Soup 2012 is awesome!

2012-03-03T22:32:00.000+00:00

Just thought I'd pop back - I've been hopping from blog to blog since I posted and let me say I am only down to #40! Get your cups of tea if you're doing the same, it's gonna be a long night. If you'd like to see my favourite pieces, pop over to my Pinterest and see what I've pinned! I love these blog hops, I've discovered so many blogs I didn't know about, more to keep up with now but all b-e-a-utiful work.

Playing catch up

2012-03-03T20:23:00.000+00:00

Looks like I logged back onto Blogger at the right time - Lori's blog hop reveal!! If you've never seen the annual blog hop, just click here and prepare to lose a few hours trawling through. Good news though, it has been limited to 200 participants this year, so you should only lose half a day. Here's a peek of one of the pieces Lori made:

It's amazing to look through and see what people make from components they are sent, and looks like a lot of fun. I know what I'll be doing once I have made my imprint on the blogosphere this evening.

It's been a long and complicated couple of months, not an awful lot of beadery has gone on, but I have dabbled a little and finally tackled working with some polymer clay. I've really enjoyed the little bits that I have done so I can safely say that it's something I look forward to working with more. I spent a week off work, signed off by the doctor for stress, and did lots of baking - I have found that my signature dish is triple chocolate brownie, and there's nothing that chills me out more than baking them. Sadly I didn't do as much beading as I had hoped but I have started a 100% from scratch necklace, here's a sneaky preview:

It will be complemented by two handmade round polymer clay beads, the chain is going to be netted in light green frosted beads and I plan to make a polymer clay toggle clasp with leaves on to match it. This will be my very first piece where all components are completely my own, and it's quite exciting for me.

In other news, we've settled into our home and are well and truly mortgaged up, next on the list of expenses is a new car as ours is still consistently dying - if any of you know what might be draining a car battery please feel free to chip in! We're thinking we need to check if any earth cables aren't connecting properly as it's had a new battery, new glow plugs and temperature sensor on the water coolant (or something like that??) but still the battery will die after sitting for a length of time... Oh well, looking at getting a 2-3 year old car on finance so we'll see what happens in Summer.

I'm off to look at the beautiful beaded items that Lori's soup-ers have created! See you there.

Jewellery, events & updates! [lots of images!]

2011-11-12T15:54:00.001+00:00

Hi there bloggers!
Another long stint since my last blog post, but I have been busy this time, and I do have things to share. We are now in the final weeks of the house buying, and hope to find out our completion date this week. Our solicitors on both sides are pushing for the end of this month so hopefully we can get in and settled well in time for Christmas.

Here (finally!) is my finished Laura McCabe cuff:

I am so pleased with this, sorry for the shabby photographs! The leather is a joy to wear, it's so soft, and it's so lovely to have been able to make an embroidered piece without having to cover every square millimetre to make it look good. The stone is Willow Creek Jasper, so I was quick to hunt down a stone to make a matching pendant:

Again, apologies for the poor photograph, it looks so much better in the flesh. This is a teardrop Willow Creek Jasper stone, stitched around with my remaining grey/silver delicas and gold size 15 charlottes. Nailheads embellish the left and a 10mm Swarovski flat back crystal sits at the top. The glass nugget at the bottom is one made by Linda from Bead Buddies - you can visit her website here.

It was my mother in law's birthday yesterday, so out came the beadies again, you might remember my blue cluster necklace I made for my mum earlier this year, well she had commented on how lovely that was. She loves all things cupcakes, so I finally found the perfect use for the charity cupcake bead I bought from Laura Sparling quite some time ago as well. This was the final piece:

I was very happy with this one as well, and not only that but it only took about an hour from start to finish, I do love those projects! It's all made with cream/mocha glass pearls and crystal rondelles, topped with a lemon meringue cupcake.

So, in other news, I have recently been re-broadening my horizons, and typically when I have none of the things I need, I really felt the urge to draw. I made a trip out to our local art store, came home equipped with pencils, black pens and a new sketch pad, and this is what happened:

I've been browsing a lot of Zentangles again recently, and it just made me want to draw. Now I can't stop looking at my butterfly. Very chuffed. I also used to frequent DeviantArt, and haven't visited the site for a long time. Today I returned and was looking back on some of my previous work - I really need to get my Illustrator back! I miss playing around with vector art. Don't get me wrong, I was never anything amazing at it, but I used to enjoy the hours spent tweaking and re-colouring images I had created from a photograph. You may or may not be interested, but if you'd like to take a look this is my DeviantArt page. If you do take a look, do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Well, I will leave you all with a lovely image that met my eyes whilst I was on the phone at work on Thursday evening. I just had to take a picture... or three.

Still shuffling!

2011-10-08T16:36:00.001+01:00

Well it has been a while, has been very busy around here! I have a new niece, a new cousin who I still haven't had chance to get round and see (slap my wrist!) We have moved back in with my mother in law for a few weeks whilst we wait for news and an update on our house. It's all going through slowly, offer has been accepted and we are now going through the painstaking wait for our paperwork to be gone through by the mortgage people. Unfortunately as we are first time buyers and it's a great rate, it's all having to be done on paperwork instead of being able to do it online! the flat is finally starting to look a bit emptier, we have been doing a few loads on the weekends for the last couple of weeks now. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can move into our own home, then I can show you all my new beading room! Super excited, need to get some ideas of what to do with it though to utilise all of the space I can. Last weekend we went up to London as part of my birthday treat, and though I didn't spend much there, I did get a beautiful new Amber ring, which I will have to get a piccy of for you, but it also meant I had a spare few pennies for a shopping trip today. It's the first time in ages I have had any amount of money to get clothes so I'm normally quite stingy with what I will spend but I got a few good deals and was really happy with what I came home with. Only thing I am after is some new shoes and possibly boots but couldn't find any I liked today. And I have lost half a stone, so very happy at the moment! Coming soon, my finished Laura McCabe cuff... Watch this space right here!

Moving along slowly!

2011-09-10T21:40:00.000+01:00

I was so excited today driving to my friend Tracy's, as I drove past our new house, the SOLD sign has now gone up, and when I looked at the website this evening, this picture accompanies the property listing. I've got all sorts of butterflies in my tummy just looking at it - I can't wait!

We have a meeting tomorrow morning with our mortgage advisor, our solicitor's paperwork arrived this morning - hopefully our advisor can go through with that tomorrow as well! I can't believe how quickly this has all happened, it's crazy, but that's just the way of the world of property I guess!

Pictures of my new niece will follow shortly - Leah was born 08/09/11 weighing 7lbs exactly, and she is an exceptionally beautiful little girl. I'm a very proud auntie, and very happy now that my sister in law and Leah are now back home and all well.

Oh, and as this is meant to be a jewellery blog - here's a little something I finished last week!

How time sneaks up...

2011-09-05T18:12:00.000+01:00

Oh my gosh bloggers, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster! We've been saving for a house for a long time now, and were planning to be looking to buy after Christmas. We looked at a house on Sunday, and now it's all come to a head with mortgage advisor meetings arranged for tomorrow, phone calls back and forth today, and I have the biggest knot in my stomach which I think will remain until I know the outcome! I hope this explains why I've not been around, and probably won't be around much for a little while. It will be all worth it though in the end, I'll have my very own bead room, and if this house is meant to be ours then my bead room will be a rather lovely size :D

Fingers crossed... and see you all soon!

Birthday makings!

2011-08-23T20:50:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post from me this evening, two bracelets for my friend Jackie at work who hits the big 5-0 on Thursday! Bring on the hamper, flowers, balloons, desk confetti and CAKE! Quite a productive evening, I think :o)

Bails, Cuffs & Weddings!

2011-08-21T20:41:00.002+01:00

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks, but I've managed to do some beading to share with you all! I've set off on my own little journey with this first piece, having conquered using wonky squares to make a star (which you can see here) - I decided to make a couple more "wonky squares" and make an eye catching bail for this turquoise donut. Goodness knows how long I've had this sizeable nugget sat around, but I finally have a use for it! The plan is for a little odd count peyote chain to sit through the top bail and look pretty and sparkly. As soon as it's done I'll update you!

Work has once again been hectic, and our senior administrator is off on her holidays for the next two weeks so it could be interesting. Thank goodness it's bank holiday next weekend! Tomorrow hopefully won't be too bad or stressful, it's Tracy's daughter's wedding tomorrow, so getting the drinking shoes on for the evening, fingers crossed! I'll be sure to take my camera :o)

Finally, I'll show you a little project that I started and finished within a week (shocking, I know!) Donna at Bead Buddies needed testers to make sure her peyote word charts are all correct, so I opted for her Autumn Flowers cuff, and this is how it turned out:

I definitely need to practise the attaching of the peyote strip to the cuff blank, but overall I'm pretty pleased - it's quite cute!

Good news on the fund raising - currently Sandie has pulled together over £340 for the African Crisis Fund!

Well I'm off to prep for the office tomorrow, see you all soon,

Busy busy busy!

2011-08-12T19:27:00.000+01:00

It's been another busy week, though it seemed to go slower than usual. Friday is upon us again, and I have my new handbag, my new approach to eating (no chocolate in a week, if you don't count the two squares at my cousin's baby shower last Saturday! And no snacking either!) and looking forward to my weekend.

Me and flossy are hosting this month's pass the parcel over on Bead Buddies, and are giving away a tiara making kit along with a special little surprise from me. No peeking! I'll be sure to fill you in at the end of the month when we send it all off to the winning buddy.

It's the last couple of days of our charity auctions on eBay so if you haven't had a look yet, please click here and bid on what takes your fancy! There are some beautiful pieces, including a stunning set from Lynn Davy

You'd be mad to miss out on it!

So tomorrow I'm off to see the girls, then hopefully get my hair cut (need to call them in the morning!) and off out in the evening to one of my engineer's wedding receptions. Should be a good day. Sunday we're out to a barbeque, so I'm hoping the weather this weekend holds out a bit better than it did today.

What are you up to this weekend?

Raising money for East Africa

2011-08-08T20:08:00.001+01:00

Over at Bead Buddies we're at it again, and Sandie has rallied the girls together to raise money for the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal. There are lots of us who have donated pieces which are being auctioned off on eBay, so please pop over and have a look and if you bid, please bid generously!

I heart macro

2011-08-07T19:06:00.002+01:00

Taken when I was in Sydney September 2008

Sunday night already?

2011-08-07T19:03:00.000+01:00

This weekend has disappeared right in front of my eyes, and it's been an eventful one. Friday night, my beading buds and I had arranged for a night in so our hubbies could all meet. It was a really good night, and before we knew it, it had gone midnight! An evening full of chatter, laughter and good friends.

Saturday morning I headed out to see the girls for our regular Saturday beading sesh, and made these earrings! Unfortunately, an error of my own meant that I put an extra row of delicas in on one disc so one is fatter than the other - oh well, just means I will have to keep them for myself then ;) For a prototype though, I was quite pleased.

Saturday afternoon I headed to my parents house for a barbeque, which is where it became eventful. There's been a lot going on, and further developments have just got me thinking again. It's probably all for the best, but just now it's a little hard to see it. Later in the evening I headed off with my auntie, sister and mum to my cousin's baby shower, and though my mum and sister left after a short while, my auntie and I stayed on a bit longer and had a good giggle, including playing pin the sperm on the egg! It was very very close. We all did pretty well, but very funny to watch - especially as we were spun around first :D

So today we went for breakfast with my mother in law and were supposed to catch up with our brother in law and niece, which never materialised. In the end, my dad called and I went for a drink with him to catch up and try to make sense of what's happening. It's just changing, and it's not about me, but with work at the moment as well, it's all coming down on me. Things can only get better, right?!

Well I'm off to do another load of washing, and prepare for an inevitably fantastic week at the office!

Today is a good day

2011-08-01T18:51:00.002+01:00

I've had a really fab couple of days, including being drawn to win an adorable new handbag. Big thanks to tinchick over at Bead Buddies! Now it's my turn to put something up to be won... Hmmm...

I also came home today to a little parcel at my door. I opened it up and unwrapped the tissue paper to find another lovely surprise from Carrie - a lush polymer clay heart pendant that I had ogled at earlier this week. I love BB, such fantastic ladies to know!

We went to visit the mortgage advisor today to find out whether we are on target as we hoped, and great news everyone, we really are! By October we should have our deposit and fees for the lower end of our budget, and by January, we will be able to put in offers on a property at the top end! I am so excited. It's mad how quickly this year has gone, and I know that even though January seems far away, it will be here before I even get chance to think about it.

I am off to update our spreadsheets and budgets, and see how close we are to our first home, and maybe do some beading!

Happy crafting everyone

Final AOTM post - lots of photos!

2011-07-31T22:35:00.001+01:00

And now, the end is near... And so I face the final curtain...This is my final aritst of the month post for bead buddies. Here's the rest of my travel adventures!
This month has absolutely flown by. I've just sat and arranged my budget spreadsheets to take to the mortgage advisor tomorrow, so we avoid the trying to figure out what we spend out on each month - we went to see an advisor a few months back to check we were on track, and struggled to remember it all!   Hopefully it will be good news and that we are still where we need to be to get our house hunt officially started to hopefully buy in the next 6 months!

Anyway, as promised, here follows the details of my stay in Australia. I was a bit gutted to find that half of my pictures taken in Sydney appear to have been lost somewhere along the way... I need to try and find an old back-up disc as I'd be completely gutted if I've lost them completely. I do at least have a photo book with some of them in if that's the case.

Where were we... On our way to Goomeri! We got taken to the local bus depot where we picked up a Greyhound coach that took us to be picked up by Matt, our ranch hand for the week.

We arrived and settled down in our bunk room and headed out to the conservatory for dinner. The meals here were fantastic, every night we had something different and delicious, and on the last night we had a huge barbeque Then it was off to bed ready for our first day on the ranch. Now, I can't remember exactly what order we did these in, but what does it matter - it was all great fun!

Quad Bikes

These were bloody good fun, and we spent several hours going along various tracks, ridges and speeding across fields. You wouldn't believe the power in these machines, and unfortunately one of the girls did find that out the hard way. It involved a wheel slipping on a loose rock, adjusting the steering on the bike and causing her to go head on into a barbed wire fence. That's how easily it happens. Fear not, she was OK, but lucky to have hit the brakes when she did or it could have been less slicing and more garotting... A stark lesson. But as I said, other than that - bloody good fun! The scariest bit for me? Being at the top of a near-vertical hill, and pulling back on the throttle to go down it. Oh. My. Gosh.

Motorbikes

This was terrifying. I've never ever been a fan of bikes, and to be honest they scare the living daylights out of me. Needless to say, when these were presented to me, I was less than eager to get on one. Thanks to Matt though, I made it onto one, and set off. First we had to go in a straight line, not so bad. Then we had to go around a little course. The only catch, it was up a hill, then around and across the top before turning onto the decline and back down. Not so easy, but after a couple of shaky laps, I soon caught up with the others. This was all OK, until we started doing a long run up to a hill where we had to turn full circle and come back. Why so nervous, you may ask - well the hill wasn't just a nice smooth grassy hill, it was absolutely riddled with boulders and rocks, and I started to doubt I was going any further on one of these things. Again, Matt talked me around, and although my cousin had to rescue my bike from a rocky outcrop once, it went alright. Then we were off! Out on the tracks, a different way to the route we took on the Quads, stopping off quite early on at a big round dusty 'circuit'. I pulled a wheely! I never thought I'd pull a wheely EVER, but it was awesome. Again we headed out along tracks and ridges and up into the top fields of the ranch. Once we got there we had great fun in making our way down the ridges. The fields were all ridged as we came down, this is their form of irrigation so that the water doesn't all collect at the very bottom of the hill. Half way down, we all pulled up and lined up to jump one of the larger ridges, and we knew we were getting stitched up - ranch hand's jokes aren't always funny you know! We all pulled off, and as my front wheel went over the ridge, all I could see was sloppy sticky mud underneath me. Lucky for me, I had flown over just behind two of the other girls, and my bike clipped the side of one of the others who had just got well and truly stuck in the mud! This resulted in my handlebars locking back and slamming into my leg - this was the end result:

The one on the left was taken the following day, the second one was about 7 days later when I was in Sydney. I still have a dent in my leg to remind me of it now

4 x 4 driving

I loved this. We went out to the top of the fields again, and the first thing we did was learn about a 4x4 and maintaining them. This included each having a go at changing a tyre on one of these beasts. I couldn't remember how to do it now though...  I have hubby for that
After our little lesson, we each took it in turns to take it for a spin, and we had to be careful because those of us who weren't driving were sat on the back of the truck suffering any arguments with tree branches or excessive water splashes! We did all get out and go one by one for the big hill though - the reason? At one point the tilt of the vehicle was within 5 degrees of it's rolling point - that got you sweating! This was me on my way back down said hill - sadly it really doesn't look half as big or scary as it was!

Horse Riding

This was what I was looking forward to the most. I started horse riding when I was 2 years old, and I used to help out every weekend in exchange for a ride on a Sunday evening. I really miss it, as due to the expense of it, I haven't been in over 2 years. The smell of stables is a very nostalgic one for me. Here though, there were no stables - we had to round up the horses before we even started, quad bikes at the ready! We got them in, and groomed them to get rid of the dust before we saddled up. Whoever has been horse riding here in the UK will know we have quite a strict way of riding, in that you must always have your shoulders, hips and feet in a straight line, sitting up straight with your heels pushed firmly down. Americans for example, ride in a very laid back fashion with no such rules, they just sit back in the saddle and get on with it. Australian riding is somewhere in between, so for me, it was a little bizarre at first to do rising trot with my feet in front of my body. I soon settled into it though, and what followed was a very enjoyable ride. Highlight: when me and Molly cantered off with Laura the ranch assistant and jumped a sizeable log. What a rush, and how I miss it.

Fencing
[Sorry no pictures of this... It's just building fences!] We got to play with chainsaw's today - felling excess trees, and chopping them down to size for collection. Later we headed to the wire fences and learned how to repair them and put in new posts.

Tractor Driving

This was wicked fun. My granddad used to work on a farm on tractors and harvesters, and used to tell us stories of his days there. We had to move the haybales from one location to another, ready to feed the cattle when we brought them in the next day. The gears and clutch took a minute or two to adjust to, but after that, playing with the spike and the lift at the front was brilliant. We also got to enjoy some beautiful views, and experimented with our sunglasses a bit


The final round-up

Our last day was what we had been building up to, it was time for the cattle to come into the ranch. I saddled up with Paul, and the others picked quads or motorbikes to head out on. The plan was to do two rounds of the fields to collect every last cow and bull, and bring them back into the yard ready to be branded, clipped, injected and castrated... The first round went pretty well, we kept to formation and managed to round up all of the cattle. However, on our way down the last hill, me and Molly got into a bit of a to do with a bull who tried to break away from the front of the herd, and on our chase Molly lost her footing, and I went flying. Subsequently I was winded, and couldn't hold on to her reins - Matt galloped off after her to bring her back, and the other ranch hand came over on his horse - who apparently spooks at bodies on the floor. That was fun, there was nearly two of us spangled on the floor! Unluckily for me, when I landed, it was almost square on my tail bone, so when I got back up on the horse (which you always have to do!) I didn't get too far before it was hurting. Alot. I bade the group farewell and me and Molly took a steady walk back to the yard whilst they made the second round trip. We had a pleasant hour, I gave her a thorough wash down and brush, and lots of cuddles  then when the others arrived back with the cattle up ahead, it was into the paddock with them. We had to get in to herd small numbers at a time into the bigger 'keep' paddock, via a small filter gate where we could seperate the calves that needed attending to.

We all went home that night with a great feeling of accomplishment, but also sadness that it was over. We all celebrated with a barbeque, and got our certificates for passing the week! Oh, and we had a little bit to drink

From here, I bid farewell to everyone and as they headed off to work on various ranches, I made the trip back to Brisbane airport to fly to Sydney to meet my friend Tim. Unfortunately, it is now getting late, so I will leave you with snaps of Sydney, and tell you it really is a beautiful place. Wherever you look there are stunning water features, the gardens are so peaceful, the Opera House sublime, and the only thing I regret is not climbing the bridge, but that was something I just couldn't afford by then. I will be going back, and next time, I'm taking hubby. If I can, I'd like to time it to see the chalk festival again - if I ever recover those missing photos, I'll be sure to post them for you to see. Some of the art work we saw was amazing, and we got to decorate the water paths with our very own chalk stamper!


BATS!

Well, from here I thank you all for reading, and would like to invite you to my blog to keep up to date - http://littletreatslou.blogspot.com
Please welcome for this month Dee! I look forward to reading your blog Dee, and sorry to everyone that I've been a bit of an inconsistent blogger. Wish me luck for the mortgage advisor!

The travels - attempt #3!!

2011-07-30T18:51:00.000+01:00

Here we go!

In 2008, I set off for what was supposed to be 3 months of travelling with my cousin. I'd been planning it for over 18 months, and we had all sorts of plans to see different places and do different things. However, having met hubby the previous June at a rock festival, it didn't quite turn out that way, and the 3 months became 3 weeks of travels. I still loved every second, but I really missed Jim by the second week, and made the decision to book my flights home for 8 days later.

I've been very lucky ever since I was young, and my parents have taken my sister and I away on some lovely holidays. Gran Canaria, Corfu, Spain, Penang (Malaysia), Florida, Egypt, Cyprus (honeymoon), and here follows my journey to Dubai, Singapore and Australia.

We decided not to do the flights in one stint, having flown to Malaysia and back twice, I didn't fancy a long flight going straight into Australia, so we made stops for a couple of days in Dubai and then Singapore. We arrived in Dubai in the evening, and it was absolutely one of the most humid places I've ever been to. Due to the heat, we didn't get much chance to explore here, and we were nowhere near the coast, but I can't say I'm all that bothered, and I won't be going back.

The 'blurring' in these photos isn't done by me for effect, I could barely take two photos before my camera lense was fogged up! We were quite lucky with the accommodation here, as it turned out to be a self-contained apartment, and for a very good price. Nice.

A couple of days later, we headed back to the airport and on to Singapore. The accommodation wasn't so good here, but a room with a bed is a room with a bed, for a couple of days anyway. In fact, my cousin even managed to drop the window...

Yes - that is sellotape. Oops. On our first day, we decided to go for a wander and see what we could find. Little did we know that our hostel was not far at all from western conveniences - McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc - instead, we headed off in completely the opposite direction and found the local market street. Some very... interesting foods which we didn't go for. I believe dinner that day consisted of a bottle of coke and lots of crisps from the local store. If only my nose could have led me to pizza Our second day was more successful; we headed into the town centre, as we wanted to visit the Raffles Hotel. After a little bit of window shopping, we headed inside to the Long Bar where we had a burger and chips, and I decided that with my coke, I would indulge in a Singapore Sling cocktail. Here's what my cousin thought of that:

Brilliant. Interesing fact - The Singapore Sling is a cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915[1] by Ngiam Tong Boon (嚴崇文), a bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore. The original recipe used gin, Cherry Heering, Bénédictine, and fresh pineapple juice, primarily from Sarawak pineapples which enhance the flavour and create a foamy top

This is definitely among my top 5 most expensive meals, but it may be the only time I get to do it so what's £50 for a burger, chips, coke and cocktail hey? It was a good burger! What I loved about the Long Bar, is every table has a bowl of peanuts on it. The customary way with these, is to crack the shell to get the peanuts out, and throw the shells on the floor. You would
be amazed at the number of people who would pile their peanut shells up nice and tidily on the table, only for the staff to come along after they left and sweep the lot on to the floor!

Let's see if I can get past this bit today - I would like to let you know, that I had just started writing the first paragraph todayand Jim's laptop did the blue-screen crash dump and restarted, so this nearly didn't happen at all... I wondered whether I am destined not to tell you about our journey! Third time lucky perhaps

From Singapore, we took our third 7 hour flight on to Brisbane, and spent a few days with fellow backpackers at the Brisbane Backpacker's Hostel. Our starting point when planning our 'gap year' was to do a week's ranch experience - this was organised a long time before we left England, and we had made arrangements to be collected from Brisbane airport by the rep. After over an
hour of panicking, they finally arrived to collect us, and after introductions to those others who were also doing the week on the ranch, we headed up to our rooms, sorted out our bags and bunks and headed out for a drink to celebrate. The only bar open was
a Rasta bar, and I had to settle for drinking spirits which I don't normally, but we had a good few days settling in.

Here comes the fun stuff, so I'll leave you wondering for a bit - I need to get some dinner on. I'm all by myself this evening, I dropped hubby, brother in law and our friend Ben off for a boys night out camping in the woods earlier this afternoon, so he's looking out on a lovely view a little bit like this, before they head into the tree-line for the night

Back in a bit!
Xx

Computer FAIL

2011-07-28T22:29:00.000+01:00

FYI - I'm about to cry, I was just adding the photo for my last paragraph of my travels part one, and my b&%$£y computer just crashed. Unbelievable. I don't even remember the last time it happened. As it's now 10.20pm I'm afraid it's going to have to be tomorrow now, but in the meantime, here are some of the pictures I had prepared for it! In mini, so when I do my blog tomorrow, you can then see them properly

Double post Thursday - part 1!

2011-07-28T07:22:00.000+01:00

It's double post Thursday!

Sorry for missing last night's post, I didn't get back from Tracy's until gone 10pm! Was nice to actually have a night off from work Anyway, in amongst my clearing up the other day, I came across my photo book of my travels in August 2008 - tune in later, and once we get back from my mother in law's for fish and chips, I'll tell you all about my adventure down under! I will warn you now, it's likely to be even more picture-heavy than normal

My little roses have started to open now, such a lovely surprise from my lovely hubby

Ooh and the star is now complete, I just need to decide what I am going to do with it:

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, it's quite cool how different they look if you squeeze them

I even came home to another little parcel last night which is my new bead backing from America to try out. Can't wait - I have 14 different colours to play with now!
Tune in later bead buddies for a little of Singapore and Dubai, and a lot of cattle ranching in Oz!

Charity starts at home

2011-07-24T22:37:00.001+01:00

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Mohandas Gandhi

As promised, here I am, and I have even made a start on my star! I'm not sure about the colours yet, but I'm thinking about having it as a 'Fire & Ice' kind of thing, and doing a blue version as well. I'd like to make matching earring stars but it all depends how far my black delicas go It's a little hard to see in the pictures but there are actually 3 different coloured reds - am just not 100% yet about the bright red centre lines.

You can see in the first picture, I also managed to have a beady accident - when I moved the bead mat the beadies all went everywhere!

I don't know if you've heard of Pinterest, but I'm addicted to it at the moment. I can't help but just browse aimlessly through everyone's pins. I keep getting great ideas for decorating the house from it, there are so many pretties. If you've not tried it, pop over and have a look - can't promise you'll get away too quickly once you start though

I can't wait to see all of the pieces that come in for the Disaster Emergency Committee collaboration, this is why I love Bead Buddies - the sense of community here is the best, and I love the fact that we can all do what we love to try and help others. I think I may be able to persuade my friends to help out too, so we could have two more donations.

We had a lovely barbeque at my parents house today, and we even made it away with some of the scrummy chicken and a couple of sausages. Scrummy - mixed chicken salad for dinner tomorrow, followed by a lemon cupcake. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm trying to make a proper start on eating a bit better, so I've stocked up on snack-a-jack snack bags for those mid-morning food cravings, nectarines, and cucumber to go with my houmous. I have registered on the Activia website to check out their meal plans, and they look pretty good. Whilst we were shopping though, I had a look at the Activia yoghurts, and was surprised to find that all of the pots including the snack pots have the sweetener aspartame in! I'm pretty gutted as aspartame not only gives me bad headaches - I used to get migraines when I was younger - but it is just really not good for you anyway. Just goes to show, unless you check everything, you really never know what you're eating...

Last weeks!

2011-07-23T21:56:00.000+01:00

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for
Anonymous

It was my sister in law's baby shower today - only a few weeks to go now! Amongst the games we played, I caught one on video which was using a cocktail stick in your mouth to hook little tiny dummies out of a bowl of rice... Me and my SIL tied with 5 each in 30 seconds. You can watch it if you click here. Funny My mother in law tried a new cupcake recipe for today's party, a lemon flavour and they were so scrummy! I even managed to bring a few home, though whether I'll get to eat any of them is another matter

Every Saturday, I have to be up and out of bed to move the car as it's always either on a single yellow line or in a 1 hour parking space. Today, I went to visit my dad, and have a catch up. We spent an hour taking my passenger car door to pieces as the lock on it has been very temperamental all week, and now doesn't unlock remotely at all - even the inside door handle wouldn't open it on two occasions this week. The aim was to see if there was a loose connection on the solenoid, and having taken the door apart, with lots of screw types, we found that the solenoid is actually under aNOTHER panel which is riveted on. Perhaps that can wait for another day then... For now I will hope that it just unlocks from the inside, as the only solenoid replacements I have found are in excess of £40! Madness. May just have to pop in at the scrapyard some time. My dad has also said he will get the front wing re-sprayed for my birthday/Christmas present (I said when we got the car that I wanted to get it re-sprayed/replaced as it's the only bit of rust on the whole car, and it has now started to spread) - so I'm pretty chuffed. I love my car ... Most of the time anyway. Once we were done with my car, we took my mum's Mazda out for a spin with the roof down - got to get the use whilst we can, right?! We took a little drive out to the countryside and into a local farm to get some nice fresh meat for a BBQ tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it, nobody else is coming, it's a test run for a bigger BBQ in a couple of weeks, but we got garlic butter chicken breast, rosemary and garlic chicken breast, and smokey BBQ chicken breast, minted lamb steak, and various sausages including Bramley (with a hint of apple) and lamb sausages with rosemary and garlic - are you sensing a pattern yet? We like garlic. Alot

I did get some more poo news today, my grandpa was taken into hospital this week with heart problems. He has been released now, and my dad went to see him this afternoon, so I'm just waiting for an update which I will probably get tomorrow.

As it's my last week of being AOTM, I am going to make a concerted effort to be here for every remaining day - I apologise for being an infrequent blogger! I recently purchased Jean Power's Geometric Stars pattern and my aim is to have made at least one before the end of the month for you guys to see. They just look so cool

Be back tomorrow! In the meantime, please take a minute to think about the people mercilessly killed in Oslo, and those in China who have been killed in a collision between two trains.

House Hunting Commences!

2011-07-16T19:24:00.000+01:00

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step
Lao Tzu

Woohoo! We've just been to our first open house. It's so exciting to now be starting the steps to buying our first house, and it feels so weird that we're finally at this stage. We had a chat with a mortgage adviser about 6 - 8 months ago to check we were on track and we weren't going to suddenly realise we had completely the wrong end of the stick, and we're going to talk to another adviser next Tuesday to discuss where we're at now and what we want. I'm SO excited - I am off after this to look at interiors, bathrooms, kitchens... Oh yes :) So the house we looked at was a 2 bed semi detached, we're ideally looking for a 3 bed but the rooms in this property! Fantastic sizes, and a lush kitchen. The kitchen or potential for a big kitchen is going to be a huge selling point for us - at the moment we have one work unit to cook, wash up, and stack plates on, which is less than ideal. I can't wait to have workspace! We've got another property to have a look at tomorrow as well, and are going to try and arrange a few more over the next couple of weeks. The pic on the left is the one we viewed today, the one on the right is the one that we're looking at tomorrow ;D

I've gotten a bit further with my box, but haven't had too much time for beading this week:

I've ventured off in my own direction a little bit, the lid is going to have a lip around the inside to keep it sat on top, and the black sides that would have been hidden will then show - they're so shiny I didn't want to hide them after all. Just a bit more to do, so I will try to get it finished before the end of my blog.

Nicola, I love the new cluster necklace, and thank you for the inspiration - my mum loved hers. My necklace inspired my friend Sylvia to make a dangly necklace too and start branching out from our usual seedy beading:

Me and Jim have cleared out a whole load of accumulated junk from our bedroom today and taken it to my nan's house where we are storing things until we get our own. Not necessarily productive in the long run (I'm a hoarder, and need to have a strict clear-out of everything when we do buy...) but short term it gives us a little bit of storage for other bits that we currently don't have room for. Lovely. All we need now is more kitchen space then... ;)

I was having a look through my beady stash for inspiration on what my next project is going to be, and found a stash of huge turquoise nuggets - must have bought them before I found the seed beads! I've always loved the colour, but have no clue where to begin with these. There are 8 in total and they look to be between 20 - 40mm or so and in varying shapes. Can anyone make use of them, as I doubt I ever will! Shout SUMMER if you can - there's a turquoise cross that I'll throw in as well. ***OPEN ONLY ON BEAD BUDDIES FORUM***

Well, I'm off to drool over interior design for a while, then more work beckons!

Long days!

2011-07-13T22:19:00.003+01:00

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing - Werner von Braun

Ahh, I'm sat now with a glass of wine, have just had a big bowl of spaghetti, and am blogging before I sit back down and work for another 2 - 3 hours. Work has been hectic this week, my senior administrator has been off sick so there's been less of us to pick up the phones, and I've been trailing since yesterday in my own work! Hoping she gets better soon, it's a nasty virus which they've not even been able to give her anything for.Over the weekend, I have managed to make my mum's birthday present with those beautiful beadies:
As you can tell, it's a thanks to Nicola here for the inspiration! I really enjoyed it, and having done so many 'long' projects recently, it was nice to make something up in an evening. Thankfully my mum loved them I had a billywitch sat on my car when I went out to it yesterday - have you ever got one stuck to something before [no rude thoughts! lol] I was driving along at just over 70mph.... And it was just there, hanging on by one leg! Here's the beastie

Sorry for the short one, I promise a nice long one Friday when the week is at it's end!

Crafty outbreaks

2011-07-10T13:59:00.005+01:00

Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs - Anon

**sneaks in late - hopefully nobody has noticed!**It's a wonder I ever get anywhere on time
I had every intention of posting yesterday evening before I went out, but we actually had a rather eventful day and by the time I got home I was just about ready to go to bed instead of out for dinner! Saturday's are normally the day I catch up with the girls at Tracy's, but we got a text at half 8 saying she wasn't feeling very well, so that just left the two musketeers [Sylvia and I] to decide what to do with the day. We weren't too worried, as this is the sort of thing that Tracy ends up doing anyway: [love her really!]

We ended up going up to the craft section of a local garden centre, just to get out for a drive, and I accidentally bought a few bits. In all fairness, they are to go to making my mum's birthday present so I figured I was allowed to splurge - I am now broke for another 19 days though. She's asked for something long and dangly - I'm going for something that is not my usual style of jewellery making, so fingers crossed I can translate what's in my noggin to what I picked up

I couldn't resist the dark navy blue, they called to me, and I love gunmetal, so it was an easy decision - I just hope my mum has something to wear it with when it's done!

We even popped into the bead shop - we've not been there in quite a while, so just went in for a catch up. They are doing a netted embellished bag next week, so we're thinking of doing one ourselves, just because we know we probably can! Reserved our copies of Bead and Button, so hopefully I'll have more beady eye candy to look at soon. Then we headed to Asda, and back to do some beading at Sylvias. We had lush bacon and chicken tortelloni with tomato and basil sauce, and started doing more work on our boxes. A bit later in the afternoon though Sylvia got a call from her son who had found himself outside of the skate park, and didn't know how he got there - it turns out he had come off his BMX and hit his head against the metal ridge on the edge of the ramp and got concussion. I'm glad at this point I don't have children! A night in hospital worrying about your son doesn't sound much fun to me at all. He is ok now though, and starting to have recollections of what happened.

So after all that excitement, I came home and was intending to blog then, which I clearly failed at. We went out to a nice pub in a local village as part of my mum's birthday celebration [her birthday is Tuesday] and had a lovely meal. I can't say what we've got her yet [aside from the unmade necklace of course], as I'm not sure if she reads my blog - hopefully she will like it though.

Today, Jim is on his second day of his Kayak course - his latest hobby since he almost broke his other foot playing football a couple of weeks ago [last year he chipped a bone in his other foot]. Hopefully this one will be a little less troublesome? Only time will tell. He had a really good day yesterday though, so as long as he's happy, I'm happy. I've had a relatively productive morning, I have had a tidy up, done some washing, sorted some washing, hoovered, finished off my giveaway hairband which is now ready to go out to Kate at Tropical Blonde, and now I have blogged as well! Admittedly, I have done the bare minimum of washing up [saucepan and bowl so I could have my bolognese for lunch ] but that's for tomorrow. I will leave you with the finished giveaway piece, and as we're at my parents later, I will get the photo of me when I used to do ballroom dancing - it was in the newspaper, you know!