My Spring Garden

I've been neglecting my blog, I'm really sorry - but I will be back!!!!

I'm really busy getting ready for the craft market next month and that means building up stock and I'm up late into the night working so my poor blog is taking a bit of a back seat.

Last night, Gabe needed some images for a school project about his back garden so I put together the above collage for him. I've been so busy I havn't really noticed that life is beginning to come back to our garden - yay!

Our family of hedgehogs are back into the bin bags left outside and the flowers are in full bloom....not to mention the millions of birds that seem to love our garden...

 Hope you are all having a great week

Take care

xxx

The Forest Floor - A Bracelet

Hey Everyone,

I am very excited and nervous to be exhibiting and selling my jewelry at a Craft Market next month. More nervous than excited to be honest!

I have decided to run 3 lines in my collection, Beach, Earth/Nature and Bohemian.

You have seen most of my Beach range and few items from my Nature range. Today I wanted to show you my latest memory wire bracelet from my Nature line - The Forest Floor! 

I used glass beads, seed beads and wood beads to achieve this look.

I'm really liking it, its different - what do you all think?

 

Here are a few more items from my Nature line...

Have a great day and be back soon

xxx

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Silver Ring Makeover

For those of you who've been around my blog a while, you'll know how I love to recycle or upcycle my  jewelry, making new pieces out of old....

Look what I got my Sean to make for me last weekend.

Sigh.... is it not gorgeous???

 

First up let me tell you that Sean was very, VERY skeptical when I proposed my plan to him. But he eventually agreed that if I didn't kill blame him if it all went wrong then he would do my bidding...

I have a wide band Sterling Silver ring that I love but it was in need of a makeover or a good polish and an odd earring that I don't think has ever had a partner.

 

 So.... Sean drilled a teeny tiny hole in the ring with his special drill bit. 

Note how he made the hole on the dented side of the ring - just in case it looked awful. He was really surprised how hard silver is to drill through.

He applied some E6000 glue to the underside of the earring and pushed it through the hole and left it to set. Once that was done, I snipped the long bit off the back of the earring and Sean polished the inside of the ring with his drill thingy again, so that it wouldn't scratch my finger.

Now I have a beautiful new ring....I just love it!

 

I think it may actually be my favourite piece of jewelry ever...

Happy weekend everyone

xxx

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A Thrifty T-Shirt Rescue

 

Its Spring and the warmer weather is on its way.

And to discover that the kids have ALL had a huge growth spurt since Summer and none of their summer clothes fit - a trawl through the thrift stores was in order recently.

Payton is my rough and tumble kid, she really struggles to keep her clothes looking good. So she needs a lot of everyday clothes especially since having started school, she normally has at least 2 outfit changes a day  - sometimes 3....sigh!

She really loved this long t-shirt that we found for $3 at the Salvation Army store. I had hoped the fairly noticeable stain would wash out, but alas it was not going to budge.

  

We dug in my stash of saved bits and bobs to find a couple of cute embroidered flowers that would cover the stain and "pretty" the t-shirt up.

Here is Payton at 6 months old wearing a cute romper that I saved the flowers off of.

 

 I hand stitched the larger flower over the stained area and added the second smaller flower next to it

 Payton is really happy with her "new" top and cant wait to wear it to school when its warm enough.

It was really difficult to get a photo of her wearing the shirt though! 

My little poser did not want her photo taken that day!!!

Yay for warmer days and great thrifty finds...

xxx

Chain and Bead Bracelet

 Hey Everyone,

I'm sick at the moment with an awful flu, so today I'm going to share this tutorial really quickly with heaps of photos so you can't go wrong..

These bracelets are so easy to make - I whipped up 4 in less than an hour

Simply all you need are;

 beads, charms, chain, jump rings, head pins and a clasp. 

Not pictured - you will need pliers to open the chain links and to bend the head pins. You don't need fancy jewellery pliers, any long nose ones will do.

  

Snip the end off the headpins and cut to the length you want (slightly longer than each bead).

Bend the pin 90 degrees then using the pliers - loop in the opposite direction, to form a link on either side of the bead.

Then join the beads and chain together (by slightly opening the links to connect - don't forget to close them) in whatever combination you like and add your charms in too.

 Add the clasp and look at the cute bracelet you just made!

What I love about these bracelets is that you can adjust them along the chain to what ever length you want, leaving a decorative length of chain free.

Cute right? And easy enough to make more than one!!!

 

 Thanks for stopping by, hope you all have a great week

xxx

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