One more week to go....

Oh dear, oh dear, how am I going to last another week? Term does not finish until next Friday and I just can't wait - so many projects I want to get started/finished and I have been unable to get hardly anything done over the past couple of weeks due to the day job together with sheer exhaustion! For anybody not working in education, the end of the school year is a complete nightmare, getting one lot of children ready to move on to 'big' school, preparing for the new intake, dealing with tired and very irritable children (usually so well-behaved..) who seem intent on trying to kill each other for no reason at all, as well as the slew of social events - we are shuffling around at the moment looking hollow-eyed and keeping each other's spirits up by counting the days until the start of the summer holidays. (Six, that's how many, six - would you like to know the hours and minutes too?)

So I have not been very productive this week, although I did finish the above cardigan (at 7 a.m. yesterday morning) which has been a WIP for far too long. It is from a free pattern on the Knitty web site, and is a fantastically easy thing to make as it is knitted all in one piece, the only sewing is the under arm seams. The next knitted item is the lacy skating dress......bit worried about that to be honest!

I have also been churning out gifts for teachers - which I will not show here, but they consist of bracelets using beads chosen by my daughter so we are talking bright, sparkly with definite overtones of pink!!

And in the meantime, there are two paintings crying out to be finished and it is driving me nuts not having the time or the mental state (I'm TIRED) to get on with them. Maybe tomorrow!

Ridiculously Romantic!

Yesterday the first of my ordered novelty beads arrived in the post - a little bag full of china doves, tree frogs and glass elephants. The doves are so sweet and pretty I had to start straight away and spent the whole evening making the above. It consists of two china doves on a V shaped piece of gold wire with green glass seed beads, glass leaves and AB coated pink glass flowers, with a little pink heart dangling from the V. Above this are pink and lilac Fimo roses and more glass leaves and green seed beads. I had planned to go even crazier with the roses but had a bit of technical difficulty, so decided to keep it simpler before I broke something!

I am so pleased with the result and as I have four more doves, there will be some matching earrings and another necklace in the pipeline. £22 + p&p

Bubblegum Pink!

I just couldn't resist getting this done - I had a couple of hours while watching the Chili Peppers on Live Earth (had to switch off James Blunt though - dull, dull, dull.....) and this was the end result. It is a mixture of large wooden beads, pink and cream glass sead beads, and two cute glass pink elephants, all on gold wire. Perfect for anyone who likes a tipple or two...
£15 + p&p

Future Projects...

I'm very excited by the things I have in the pipeline to make but very frustrated at not having the time to do them. I have just received some super little pairs of beads that I bought from E-bay, in the shapes of birds, fish, and even a couple of pink elephants! I can't wait to start making more kitsch pieces. I also bought a large piece of fabric with a Noah's Ark animal print which I want to make into nice roomy shoulder bags. The piece de resistance (!) are the porcelain beads I have just ordered in the shape of toucans and tree frogs - as you can imagine, my brain is just fizzing with ideas!

However, there is very little time to spare at the moment - the day job just keeps on interfering one way or another. The end of term and school year are a fortnight away and we are so busy getting various things sorted out for the children leaving, the new children starting in September, as well as a slew of farewell/'thank God it's over' parties! If that wasn't enough, I have committed myself to taking my daughter to see Shrek 3 today, going shopping for shoes tomorrow, the garden looks like a jungle after all that rain, not done any painting for ages, the list goes on....

Oh yes, and I've just received a new knitting project from Wear-Downey, which is a company I knit garments for and get paid for doing so. It is a lacy skating dress........hmmm, is that a new fashion or am I kitting out some figure-skater somewhere?

So it may be quiet here for a while..........

More Sea Glass and a Variety of Purple Beads...

The above is a simple little necklace using a large piece of sea glass (not sure where this came from, it's been sitting in a pile of pretty pebbles at home for ages!) which I have wrapped with green wire (plus a little spiral) on a green wire chain with clear glass seed beads. I'm really pleased with the result and am already planning the next similar necklace for my last large piece of sea glass. What a good excuse for a trip to the seaside! £15 + p&p

This necklace is made with a mixture of purple and gold glass beads, vintage 'pearls', and a beautiful purple glass vintage button as a pendant, all hung on bronze wire. I'm trying to use up all the 'odd' beads in my collection to make room for more - there is a bead fair coming up at the end of the month and I need justification to buy lots of new beads! The necklace is very pretty and the touches of gold, together with the pearls, make it quite glamourous. £20 + p&p

All Sorts of Blue Beads

I haven't been making much jewellery the past few days - having a rest and knitting a cardigan instead. However, I was thinking yesterday about all the odd blue beads I have that don't match and how I could use them, and I came up with the above, which is every blue bead you could think of strung on dark blue wire, with a silver heart and a vintage button for good luck! It is very heavy, very opulent and makes a satisfying clinking noise as you walk (I love jewellery that makes a noise - don't ask me why!). So this is £20 + p&p SOLD - that didn't take long!