Quick Catch up Post

Hi everyone,

I am sorry I haven't been around much either here on OTTBS. I have been very busy with work, family stuff and April Is Forever, I have now set up a Folksy shop and booked into a few new fairs. I am also trying out a new direction for my jewellery and what with, tweeting, setting up a Facebook page and trying to promote my Folksy shop, by the time I get on to blogger, all I am good for is reading other's posts and looking at the pretty pictures!

I am trying to set up a little schedule though, so hopefully I will be a better blogger soon!

Sarahx

Stone Baked Ring

Back in October, my lovely friends bought me a beautiful set of stone baked beads from Julie Fountain at Lush Beads http://www.lushlampwork.co.uk/userimages/procart13.htm . I have made a bracelet with them but the jury is out on whether it really does it justice. I had one left, this beautiful cream bead with little strands of silver. It's got a really lovely organic, natural look to it so I really wanted to make something with it.

Earlier today, I had a marathon earring making session so I had my wire and tools already set out. I chose some gorgeous antique brass coloured wire, wrapped it around a ring mandrel to get the shape, added a bead and wrapped underneath it. I then used a thinner gauge to coil around the ring band. It fits and wears very comfortably so I may add this to April Is Forever products at some point.

Belated Thanks For an Award & 7 Things You Don't Know About Me.

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Belinda Saville awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award. I was very excited and couldn't wait to thank her and blog about it but needed to think of 7 things, unfortunately best laid plans and all that. Life threw my family a curve ball the last few weeks so I have kind of been out of the loop.

But better late than never! I'd like to thank Belinda, I love her blog and her work and in fact she inspires me to want to take my beadwork to the next level as she has achieved so much in the relatively short time she has been beading. Here is a link to Belinda's blog http://belindasaville.blogspot.com/, go check it out, I promise you will be glad you did!

The rules for this award are

1. Post the award on my blog

2. Thank the person who gave me the award

3. Link the person who gave me this award

4. Share 7 things that you probably don't know about me

5. Choose 7 great bloggers to give the award to

6. Share a link to their blogs

7. Leave a comment on their blog

OK so 7 things you don't know about me, hmmm this could be embarrassing!

1. My full first name is Sarah-Jane, I have had words with my mother about this, she can't understand my problem as she thinks it is a lovely name. Well yes it may well be, just so long as you are under 12 years old, not so much for a grown women!

2. The worst haircut I ever had was when I was 15, she went scissor happy and as I am very short sighted and did not have my glasses on, I did not realise how dreadfully short my hair was going. I put my glasses on to find I had what amounted to a flat top, burst into tears and cried all the way home on the bus. Just to put the icing on the cake, I got suspended from school for it! At least my hair wasn't so hideous by the time I was allowed back.

3. I hate Celery, it is the most disgusting food stuff on this planet!

4. I am slightly melodramatic and have a tendency to exaggerate ( see no 3 for an example)

5. I own a beautiful red, shiny, pretty acoustic guitar, which I am trying to learn to play.

6. I hate feet and can't stand for mine to be touched, my son thinks this is very funny and the basis for a great game.

7. I make a fierce Margherita!

The 7 bloggers I would like to know a little bit more about are;

Liz at http://thecrimsonmoon.wordpress.com/

Clair at http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/

Kitty at http://kittyballisticscreations.blogspot.com/

Bobbi at http://bobbianncook.blogspot.com/

Beth at http://bellesanbeauscrafts.blogspot.com/

Nicole at http://beadwright.blogspot.com/

Rose at http://ahteesblog.blogspot.com/

Blue Jeans Butterfly

A Butterfly pendant to remind us that summer is on it's way!

Little Bow Brooches

I have been having fun with buttons and bows! These tiny little brooches are a lot of fun to make and really quite addictive.

Fluttering in on a Spring Breeze...

Is this sweet little butterfly pendant necklace, I'm anticipating a small invasion of this little pretties as soon as I get some more chains.

Eat Your Heart Out Carmen Miranda!

When I was little, one of my jobs at Christmas was arranging the special Christmas fruit bowl for my Nan. We always had a great selection at Christmas, it was probably the only time of the year that we would have both grapes and pineapple, both of which were generally a special treat. I don't think we'd discovered Kiwi fruits at that point, it was the early eighties, lol.

These days we have a lot more access to fruits at all times of the year, but I still remember the excitement of the first peaches and strawberries of the season, I don't get that anymore. I'm not really complaining though! I had some fun today arranging this silly Carmen Miranda style fruit bowl and remembering the excitement of preparing for Christmas with my beloved late Gran.