Beautiful Sunflowers

When Chris and I were shopping in town the other weekend we noticed that a massive crowd of sunflowers had been planted in one of the flower beds on Christ's Pieces. I knew that they would look fab when they flowered and I've been really looking forward to seeing them.

Today the sunflowers were in full bloom, standing tall and proud, all facing the sun. They are absolutely beautiful.

There were lots of people taking photos of the sunflowers - they're such a wonderful sight! The bees and other buzzy insects were loving them too.

Excuse the virtual dust sheets

I'm having a bit of a blog and website re-vamp so things might look a bit untidy for a couple of days. It's time for a new colour scheme and a new look. All will be sorted shortly .....

Bead Haiku

Lots and lots of beads

Put them in my shop last night

Now they are all sold

(Thank you to my fabulous customers!)

'Midnight'

These dark blue beads already have a new home but I thought I'd post them here anyway.

I've had such a busy couple of days! I've been making beads like crazy - I added a few more items to my Etsy shop this morning and they were snapped up pretty much straight away. Thanks, you lovely bead-buying people, you! It is such a fab feeling to know that people appreciate my work.

I have some more beads to clean and I'll restock the Etsy shop with those tomorrow night but right now I am off to watch Masterchef. Gregg Wallace seems to have toned down his ridiculous cutlery-sucking behaviour this series. Have you ever seen a man lick a spoon like he does?! Fellow Masterchef viewers - you know what I mean.

Oh my!

I can't believe that the virtual shelves of my Etsy shop are empty.

Thank you to everyone who has made purchases today! I have a few more beads that I will add to the shop either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Your custom is much appreciated. Thank you.

Bead Buying

I think I'm just about there with working out my new bead-selling schedule.

I will be adding Freshly Baked Beads to my website on Wednesdays at 8.00pm UK time. I'm hoping that the regular once-a-week sales will be more convenient for you.

I've also re-opened my Etsy shop and am slowly stocking it with pretty spacer beads (like those ones up there) and focal beads. It'll also be the place to buy my Lonelies, smaller bead sets and bargain beads. UK people, please don't let the US Dollar thing on Etsy put you off - PayPal will do all the currency conversion for you. You can also use XE for quick currency conversions. There is no shipping to calculate as postage is free no matter whereabouts in the world you are.

Thank you for all your input about bead selling and buying - it's been a great help.

All Sorted

So here are those beads from yesterday all sorted out and strung in sets.

First up is 'Nectar' - some ethereal yellow beads with hints of peach, palest green and a subtle touch of blue. They have trails of fine silver droplets and they're encapsulated in a layer of crystal clear. The pearlescent spacers have a touch of pale gold about them. Pretty.

Next up is 'Candy Floss Shimmer' - girly pink and white beads with shimmery pale pink spacers.

And lastly is 'Wisteria'. These lavendery-lilac beads are decorated with indigo stringerwork.

Bead Cocktail & Lonelies Poll

I've just been cleaning beads and after their bath they were all sat together in a heap in the sun and they looked so pretty I just had to take a photograph. These all need stringing and photographing in their respective sets but for now the photo will act as a sneak preview of what I'll have for sale tomorrow night. These will be available to buy at 8.00pm (UK time) over on my website on Sunday night.

I know I keep asking you questions lately but I really appreciate your feedback on my bead ideas so I have another poll for you. This time it is in relation to my Lonelies beads. My 'Lonelies' are experiments, one-offs and leftovers from sets. All of the beads are first quality and I know a lot of you like to use them for pendants, charms, bookmarks, phone dangles and the like. Thing is, I never know the best way to sell them so if you have a second would you kindly vote in my little Lonelies Poll over on the right hand side of my blog. Thank you!

More Flurries

These light blue Flurries and some other beads will be for sale on my website at 8.00pm (UK time) tonight. That was the favourite day and time that people chose on my polls - thank you to everyone who voted.

'Flurries'

flur·ry (noun) 1. A stirring mass, as of leaves or dust; a shower. 2. A sudden burst or commotion; a stir.

I think the word flurry sums these up well. These pretty beads are a variation on my 'Anemone' beads that I made a few years back. The new 'Flurries' have a sense of movement about them. I have a feeling that this set may be the first of many.

They've got a real depth to them - it feels as if you could climb inside the beads and actually touch the 'frondy' bits. I've got a few colour ideas for these and Chris came up with some suggestions too so I guess tomorrow will be a Flurry day in my shed!

'Crocus'

Nobody does purple glass quite like Creation Is Messy. These 'Crocus' beads are Heffalump encased in Count Von Count and they're decorated with Lapis stringerwork. The spacers are Crocus.

Purple deliciousness!

'Treacle Toffee' & A Poll

These shiny gems have opaque brown cores which I've encased in a transparent brown. While I was making these they kept reminding me of chocolates and caramel so I settled on 'Treacle Toffee' as a name for them.

They will be for sale at some point this week which brings me on to a little survey.

Please could I ask the bead buyers amongst you to complete the polls over on the right hand side of my blog? I'm trying to find out what nights and times suit you best for buying beads. I think I'm going to go for regular bead sales as opposed to erratic ones so the results of the polls will be useful for deciding when those sales will be.

Thanks in advance!

Project De-Weed

Chris and I went and bought gardening gloves and de-weeding potion yesterday but the afternoon was way too hot for gardening activity so we tackled the front garden this morning instead.

The photo above shows the 'garden' before we started - just gravel and a bazillion weeds including dandelions, nettles and some fluffy lightweight green stuff.

Here's a picture of Chris in his gardening gloves - I never thought I'd ever see him in a pair of those!

About an hour later the garden looked like this :

Much better! Okay, it still has a few green bits but the weedkiller will take care of those. It looks much neater now. We think we'll grass the area eventually but for the time being it's nice to be in the kitchen and not be looking out at a mini jungle.

'Fruity'

These 'Fruity' beads and more will be for sale over on my website tonight at 9.00pm (UK time) tonight.

Cor blimey it's hot in my shed today! The last few days have been nice - not too sunny and a little overcast which makes for good beadmaking conditions. This enabled me to work from about 9am to 4pm but not today. I gave in about half an hour ago when the hotness and mugginess became pretty much unbearable. So now here I am talking to you while sitting on our brand new sofa. We ordered it a few days after we moved in and a week or so later we were informed that there was a delay but it finally arrived today! I can't say I'm sorry to say goodbye to Chris's old sofa - the thing was beyond dead and it was more comfortable to sit on the floor.

Going back to the subject of the shed, I had a couple of visitors today. Not human visitors but small, squeaky types. I was sat making beads when I heard a rustling noise and then a squeak. I turned around to see Martha and Jemima at the shed door.

Jemima was nosing around the bag of guinea pig hay that I use to prop the door open and Martha came into the shed, looked at me and uttered a few 'Mweeps!' as if to say "Oh! It's YOU in here! Fancy you being in our garden!"

As you can see from the photos I am literally working in a bare, no frills garden shed. Outside the door are a Laurel bush and two massive evergreen-type trees (I don't know exactly what they are yet but I will find out) that are around about the forty year old mark. When Dad was visiting the other day we measured the circumference of one of the trunks and with some mathematical jiggery pokery Dad calculated the tree age using some complex formula that he found online. The trees mean we have a whole host of birds in the garden which is wonderful. We have a couple of very tame collared doves, some sparrows, blackbirds, pigeons, thrushes and also a massive amount of starlings. I know that some people think of starlings as pesky birds but I like them. There was about thirty of them in the garden the other day eating some food that I'd put out for them.

Tomorrow Chris and I are going to tackle the front 'garden'. This is a gravelled area that is full of weeds. It looks a right old state so we're going to just pull the weeds up which should improve it no end and then we'll work out what we're going to eventually do with the area. So it'll be yet another trip to Homebase tomorrow morning to get some gardening gloves and some kind of magical anti-weed product. I'll let you know how Project De-Weed goes .....

'Summer Breeze'

These pretty pale lavender and light blue beads will be for sale over on my website at 8.30pm (UK time) tonight.

Not much to report here. I've just been quietly making beads and pottering around the house. It's odd adjusting to the quietness of it all. Chris is at work all day so I only have myself for company. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon, though.

Dad is visiting today so that'll be nice. I expect we'll take a trip to Homebase and Argos to get a few housey bits and pieces.

I will probably have some more beads for sale on Friday.

'St Clements'

Ooooh, it is nice to be blogging on my laptop again. We finally got our internet up and running on Wednesday night and I cannot tell you how much I've missed the old World Wide Web.

As you can see I've been busy making beads and there will be some for sale over on my website at 8.30pm tonight. I'm quite enjoying my new shed. It does get a bit warm in there in this weather but I'm looking forward to making it 'home'. It's very bare at the moment - just my bench, kiln and torch but in the coming months I'll give it a bit of a makeover.

Chris and I are settling in nicely here. It's very bizarre to think that this is our house! The guinea pigs are loving the big garden - we pig-proofed it so they can't escape and they've been spending their days roaming free. Brenda used to be The World's Laziest Guinea Pig but since we got here it's like she's got a brand new lease of life! I'm missing Buster terribly, though - it's so odd not having a cat about the place.

I'm gradually getting my bearings. I've told you before what an awful sense of direction I have. I actually got lost the first time I went to the postbox. What should have been a five minute walk there and back turned into a twenty minute one. I've got it sussed now though! Chris has marked all the local landmarks on GoogleMaps on my iPhone so if I get lost again I should be able to navigate my way home. Sad, or what?!