pearl custom bridal order

A friend contacted me recently to make some bracelets and necklaces for her bridesmaids, she liked the design of the Classic Pearl teardrop necklace but wanted circles instead. I used glass pearls in a lovely ivory white and a central circle to form the focal on the necklaces and bracelets.

I really enjoyed making these and also delivering them in person - I do like seeing peoples faces when they get their jewellery - a lovely feeling.

Both designs are now available in my shops, Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda.

I will be listing new pearl colours after my holiday too. Yay!

on holiday!

I'm going to be away on holiday for a week, I am so looking forward to a rest and a chance to enjoy the (hopefully) good weather.

We will be off tomorrow to Somerset, visiting Stonehenge (after the Glastonbury hippies have made their pilgrimage), little villages, to the beach, cafes and pubs. Yay!

My Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda shops will be open whilst I'm away but I won't be shipping from the 24th June. Any orders made whilst I'm on holiday will be shipped on the 5th July.

Due to the wonder that is my iPhone I will be responding regularly to messages and emails, so please feel free to contact me whilst I'm away :)

And come back to the blog soon for pictures, lots of pictures!

Iced Coffee in 5 Minutes

So it is summertime in England and it is hot, in June. Not raining. Hot. And meant to be hotter. I am wearing my questionable looking linen trousers to keep cool.


The office is like an oven and I had an odd desire to do gardening after work, so I collapsed on the sofa afterwards feeling hot and tired. I needed coffee in order to get energised for making jewellery and my (also) an oven of a studio.

I love my coffee machine, I'm not a fan of instant coffee (snob , yes) and it makes really great capuccinos (I have a Dualit by the way). And it is perfect if you want iced coffee too!

For this recipe you need a blender too. You can use double strength instant coffee but brewed coffee (try a cafetiere) is better. I am definitely going to experiment with syrups - caramel or hazlenut would be fabulous.

Iced Coffee - makes 2 big  glasses

1.5 cups or 12oz of crushed ice (bash up cubes or buy crushed ice!)
2 shots of espresso (half a tea cup full)
3/4 cup or 6 fl.oz of semi skimmed milk
2 tablespoons of sugar or 1 tbsp of flavoured syrup

Make your coffee and then stir the sugar in to dissolve it.
Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend for about 30 seconds.
Pour into big tall glasses and feel colder!

wordless wednesday

Elderflower Fritters

Happily I located an elder next to my office the other day, off the road and with lots and lots of flower heads to pick. So I made fritters!

The finished fritters were lovely, not the most attractive I hasten to add, but crispy and doughnut soft in the middle. I sprinkled them with sugar and served with some softly whipped cream. The flowery scent is gorgeous here, not to overpowering and it is so lovely eating basically free food!

I think I need to make my batter a bit lighter next time, for some reason it was very thick.

Head over to Colour It Green's blog for a fabulous recipe and a better picture of finished fritters - she is an elderflower connoisseur!

tilly

I did a lot of things this weekend but unfortunately it ended sadly, our little cat Tilly died on Sunday morning from kidney failure. We knew she wasn't going to be around for a long time but it did come suddenly, hopefully she wasn't in pain for too long.

It has only been a day but the house does feel very different, she mainly spent her days sleeping in her favourite spots or lying out on the patio, it is strange to not see her curled up in her favourite places anymore.

I've tweeted about it and even put it on Facebook, I felt that was enough but I couldn't really blog about normal things either so I thought I'd mention it on here too.

We still have our other cat Jess who seems a bit forlorn without her, they got to accept each other slowly but were never cuddly to each other, but I think Jess might miss the company.

For now we have a nice holiday to look forward to in Somerset, staying on a farm with chickens, goats, llamas and horses. Will be nice and relaxing to go away after this sad weekend.

Friday Folksy Finds

My Folksy shop is being updated at the moment so I thought I'd join in with the Folksy Finds for Friday Fun!

L-R

Iris Necklace by I Can't Remember My Grandmas Name
Raspberry Bubbles Bracelet by AMI Designs
Small Bee Hotel by Wudwerx
Secret Language of Eggs by Champignons


Stop by today and buy something from these lovely UK Sellers :)