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.

'Waterfall Shimmer'

Blue frit and fine silver suspended in crystal clear glass, shaped into smooth, tactile nuggety shapes. These catch the light and twinkle beautifully.

So I'm guessing that these will probably be some of the last beads for this year as I'm in for a hectic few days. I've got to go and do the last of the Christmas present shopping tomorrow then I'm off to London on Friday, travelling back Saturday afternoon, then it'll be straight off to Tesco to get the Christmas vegetables and foody things because on Sunday everyone's coming for the 'fake' Christmas. I'll then have two clear days before I journey up to Manchester so maybe there will be time for one more full beadmaking day. I'll just have to wait and see how stressed I get!

Chris and I had a party on Saturday night. It was just a small gathering - Chris and I were the only guests! Mini party food seems to be being advertised left, right and centre so Chris decided that we should have a banquet of tiny treats. He got all Nigella and arranged the food in an artsy-fartsy manner .....

We had small pizzas, little duck spring rolls and pig(let)s in blankets. Chris also bought some kind of miniature filo pastry parcel things filled with ricotta, spinach, goat's cheese and mushrooms but I wasn't having anything to do with those as I just don't trust white cheeses. My only exception to that is Dairylea and I don't think that actually counts as a proper cheese, does it?!

'Heather Shimmer'

The name reminds me of that famous shade of Rimmel lipstick. My sister Sally wore Heather Shimmer for about three years solid as a teenager during the nineties!

'Seafoam Shimmer'

Aren't these pretty? The seafoam colour and the pearly shimmer of the spacer beads makes me think of mermaids which in turn has had me humming 'Mermaids' by the brilliant Flight Of The Conchords all afternoon.

I just watched the local news which I normally find highly irritating, mainly due to the cheesiness of the presenters and the shoddiness of most of the news reports, but there was an entertaining story on there about a cat called Frankie who goes out and about stealing soft toys from the next door neighbours. It really made me titter! Here's a link to the BBC news video about Frankie the cat burglar.

'Twinkle Twinkle'

Black beads decorated with trails of fine silver 'stars', cased in a thin layer of clear for depth and sparkle. This set also consists of shimmery spacer beads. These are clear glass rolled in a layer of mica powder, also known as 'Pixie Dust'. I do like the shimmery effect but heck, it gets everywhere when you're using it! I always forget what a mess it makes, albeit a pretty spangly one. I ended up looking like I'd spent the day with that Kirks Folly woman off QVC who insists on sprinkling her 'Follydust' all over the place!