'Daydream' shimmy bracelet

There was going to be two bracelets today, one of them a gold one, but the gold chain I ordered is way too chunky for my liking and the beads don't sit nicely on it so I've sourced some other chain elsewhere and am now waiting for it to arrive, so it's just this 'Daydream' one instead.

The colours in this shimmy bracelet remind me of sweets, fizzy bath bombs, pink-toned sunrises and unicorn-related gubbins. The glasses I used for this one are CiM Douglas Aster and Dollhouse Milky, and Effetre EDP 254, Light Sky Blue 224 and Dark Lavender 081.

All metal is high quality silver plated base metal which is lead-free and nickel safe. The bracelet is in my shop as I type this. I've reduced the prices of a few jewellery items so do pop over there and have a look-see.

In other news, it was my birthday on Saturday. Chris and I had a quiet day but on the Sunday we met my littlest sister, Emily, and her fiancé, Adam, in London as they'd got me tickets to see Ash as my birthday present.

The gig was to celebrate the 21st anniversary of their album Free All Angels which means that it's been twenty-one years since I last saw them, which was in Cardiff when the album was new.

Em and her youthful glam face,
me and my aged un-glam one

The gig was at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town which is a lovely little venue. The show was great and a highlight for me was Ash playing A Life Less Ordinary which is, as Emily would say, a banger.

If you've not enetered my prize draw yet you've still got time; I'll be drawing the winner of the lonelies beads tomorrow. Head this way to add your name to the hat.

Halfway to seventy

Tis my birthversary today. My best friend, Jenni, made me this groovy, colourtastical and jollymaking scarf. I love it! I've had lots of wonderful presents and cards and the sun is shining so it's a pretty dang good birthday so far.

I'm going to sit in the garden with a pot of Earl Grey and have a natter with the guinea pigs now.

Wicked Weekend

Chris took me to London for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.  On Saturday afternoon we went to see Wicked which was absolutely brilliant!  Afterwards I kept wondering about Elphaba's make-up.  I reckon Rachel Tucker must have a heck of a hard time getting rid of all that green!

We stayed in a swank riverside hotel on Saturday night.  I like to judge a hotel room by its tea and coffee making facilities and these ones were great - big mugs, a variety of Twinings tea and Walkers chocolate biscuits, no less!  Yesterday we had a wander along South Bank and ate lunch in the pub where we went on our first date and then we caught the train home.

We had a really great weekend!

Birthdayness

It was my birthday yesterday and I had a lovely day.  Dad came to visit which was great ( I do miss him!) and we nipped to Homebase to spend some of my birthday money.  I bought lots of spring-flowering bulbs and some pots to plant them in.  I got tulips, daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops and if all goes according to plan the garden will get its first splash of colourful floweriness in about February.

I've gained another wonderful recipe book.  Chris gave me a copy of 'The Great British Book Of Baking' which accompanies the BBC's The Great British Bake Off.  The book is superb and I think we've decided on which recipe will be tried out first.

I received lots of cards, both paper and electronic, from my lovely customers so thank you very much to everyone who contacted me with birthday tidings.

I will do the drawing for the Lonelies giveaway either tonight or tomorrow so do check back to see if you're the winner .....

Have a fab weekend!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Big thanks to everyone who has sent me birthday greetings via blog comments, email and e-card. Today I am a whole thirty two and I'm having a great birthday!

I got lots of fab pressies! Emily (littlest sister) sent me an über-cute Paperchase Tea For One tea set which I am in love with. I have a cup of tea poured from the very pot next to me now.

And the lovely Janine sent me a wondrous recipe book which is full of cakes, biscuits and more. She also gave me some sweet little rose earrings. Thank you, Janine!

Chris is taking me to Center Parcs tomorrow for the weekend so I'll be quiet until next week when there'll be more of those 'Atlantis' beads that you all seem to like so much!

Early Birthday

It's my birthday on Thursday but the celebrations started a little early. Chris and I went up to visit his family in Manchester this weekend and we had such a fab time!

On Saturday we had a lovely barbecue. Chris was head chef and he did a great job. The weather was just right and we sat outside until gone 9pm. We even saw bats flitting about at twilight which Chris's Dad and brother found a little bit perturbing.

I got some wonderful birthday pressies from Chris's Mum and Dad. Lynne made me this fantastic hat, scarf and gloves set. They're crocheted in a beautiful blend of pinks. Isn't she clever? When Chris and I get a place next year I'll probably have a shed for beadmaking so Lynne thought that the fingerless gloves would come in useful during the winter lampworking months and she's not wrong - from previous shed experience I know that they are very chilly places from November through to March. Chris's parents also gave me a pair of china mugs featuring a pretty poppy design for the Chris And Laura Box.

The long journey to Manchester and back meant that I got a lot of sock-knitting done so I'll have another pair to show you in the near future. I do like Manchester - I've been there several times now and everyone is always so jovial and friendly. Great place!

Birthdayness

It was my birthday yesterday and what a lovely day I had!

I met up with my little sister Emily in town and we had cocktails and lunch. I took a snap of the cocktails with my phone camera as I was so taken with the colours of them. Emily's 'Apple Passion' ranged from bright green through to that wonderful aqua (Blue Curaçao) at the bottom. It tasted even better than it looked! My 'Summer Peach' was yellow with swirls of cranberry. It should have been orange with swirls of cranberry but the bartender was all out of orange sherbet so I had lemon instead. It tasted lush!

Em came home with me and then Sally, Paul and the little'uns came over for pizza and birthday cake in the evening.

I'm going to make a slight diversion here but stick with me and it'll all tie in.

The other day I decided to wash the pillows off my bed and give them a freshen-up. They're just feather pillows from M&S and the label on them said to stick them in the washing machine on a 40° wash and then tumble dry them. So I did just that. But for some odd and bizarre reason they came out of the tumble drier smelling of what I can only describe as wet dog. You know the smell - dog-hair-grease mingled with river water. Musty, damp and rank. I stuck the pillows in the airing cupboard thinking that they just needed a good old air, but no, after ten hours they still stank of wet dog. I Googled it and apparently even if the label on your feather pillow says you can wash it, you shouldn't. Great. So new pillows were called for. I decided to grab a lift with Dad when he dropped Em off at Southampton train station last night (she's living in Bournemouth at the moment) so that I could go to the 24 hour Tesco on the way home to buy myself some nice-smelling pillows.

Right, that was the diversion so now we're back on track.

Just as we were driving into town we saw swarms of Southampton FC supporters all over the place. The traffic was awful because of the the football match that had just finished and getting to the station would have been a nightmare so Dad decided that he was going to give Emily a lift home ..... all the way to Bournemouth! So we had a bit of a road trip there. Em (who has a much better sense of direction than me) directed Dad to her boyfriend's house via all these back roads and shortcuts. This was all very well and good but when we'd dropped her off Dad was a bit disoriented. I won't say lost because he's normally got a killer sense of direction and is like a human GPS system. Dad did have to give in (after we'd passed the same bingo hall and dry cleaners twice) and use his actual GPS on his phone to direct us out of Bournemouth and we were eventually on our way home. We got to Tesco at midnight and I bought two fresh-smelling pillows. Huzzah! At least I didn't have to spend another night feeling as if I was resting my head on a smelly damp dachshund.

Anyway, bead stuff. I posted on my website that there would be beads for sale tonight. Slight change of plan - it will now be at nine o'clock Friday morning instead.