Spring things and bead things

I keep seeing people posting photos of springtime flowers emerging - lovely crocuses, daffodils and grape hyacinths and the like. Every year I mean to plant bulbs and corms like that but I never do.

I've got naff all in my back garden except for daisies. That's okay, though, because I flipping adore daisies. They're just little flowers of sheer perfection.

This morning I noticed that a couple of little daffodil things have sprouted out in the front garden, though. 

A few years back I bought one of those cheapo cardboard tubs of little daffodils that they sell in Tesco Express. When the flowers went over I planted the bulbs out the front thinking "Well, you've got two options; you can live or die" and every year since a couple of little yellow flowers have emerged. I always forget that they're there so when they pop their heads up I'm always "Oh yeah! I remember you!" at them.

In bead news, I made a couple more orange and purple big hole ones yesterday. I'm not sure about one of them (the one in the bottom right) but it might just be me being super-critical of my own work. I'll give it a couple of days and see what I think. Sometimes I think a bead has dot placement issues and when I go back to it a day or so later I can't actually see the problem that I was initially concerned about.

I'm really pleased with the one in the centre of that strand, though. This one:

He's about 20mm diameter x 9mm and he has many many dots. Lots of breath-holding and careful melting-in required during its making.

I made more dotty big hole beads today, this time in lavender bush kind of colours.

The bead in the photo is still hot so those aren't its true colours. I'm looking forward to seeing what the bead looks like when it's cool.

Don't forget to enter my prize draw. Right now there are only seven entries so the odds of winning the heart necklace are pretty good! I knew this would happen. People are so over blogs. Social media has made it effortless for people to interact by whacking a like on this or posting an emoji on that, and it's made us lazy. I didn't want to do a giveaway on Instagram because it's too easy. "Like this post to enter!" or "Like and tag a friend to enter!" giveaways are far too simple. People end up entering things just because they're there. Doing a blog giveaway takes a couple more clicks and some actual typing, so this way I know that people are entering my prize draw because they really want to. If you've joined in, thank you!