Some beady things

I was a very busy girl while I was away, and I'm working my way round to taking pics and blogging them. (Don't hold your breath too long as you may have noticed I'm rubbish at doing that bit!).

So, to start off with, here're a few beady things I knocked up to amuse myself - bracelets so far (the earrings went horribly wrong and I left them in a box to sulk on their own). By the way, beading while sitting outside where the light is good has its drawbacks when it's windy. Small beads and windy conditions don't go together, just so you know.

This one I'm calling "Dawson's Diamonds". We had a famous comedian here in the UK called Les Dawson, and he was a master of playing the piano badly - not easy to do deliberately and still make the tune recognisable. So.......these "diamonds" were "deliberately" made to look wonky, so there. And, they weren't as easy to get wrong as you may think.

For anybody interested in beads, this was an odd-count peyote stitch using size 11 seed beads, and edged with a mix of size 15 and size 11 beads. I'm not keen on odd-count peyote as you always get one edge more rigid than the other because of the "turn" you have to do to make it work. Any beaders with any helpful hints on that - your advice would be much appreciated!

These are some bracelets I knocked up for the dreaded "C" word prezzies for my sisters. I've yet to track down some nice 2-strand clasps here in the UK that aren't all fancy and fuddy duddy looking. Hmmm, might end up making my own with toggles - we'll have to see what I can find.

For the beaders again - it's a right-angle weave with embellishment. Can't say as I'm too chuffed with R.A.W as I can't get a regular shape to my weave, but overall I'm quite chuffed with them as I've never had a go at this stitch before.

Finally, this one will be for my Mum - she chose the colours. Now all I need to do is remember how the heck I made the fastening on the last one I did in this stitch, so I can finish it off! This one is done in St Petersburg stitch - easy to do but very effective I think.

Back again.....

Well, the ground keeps shifting under me so I've been to Portugal for a bit of R&R and me time. I can't believe I last posted here in August - lazy moo, I am - but in my defence I haven't had access to a computer for a while!

Anyhow, my "me time" involved quite a large amount of crochet and beading but sadly no soaping whatsoever. What a relief I hear you cry.... Hang on, though I think I did make a couple of new ones back in September so will have to look for pics (if I remembered to take any). Other time involved desperately seeing if there would be a chance of work or a career in Portugal - trouble is, they're part of the world crisis too so I didn't get very far again, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I even asked the local police when they drove past if they needed any native English speakers at the local station! Well, they didn't say no, but that Portuguese shrug could mean yes, no, or I don't give a whatsit, so I'm not quite sure :-)

Anyhow, now that I'm back I'm absolutely pooing myself with nerves - I should be starting part-time work next week, after 26 years of being my own boss. I am terrified. The only saving grace is that I'll be hopefully working with my sister so I won't be completely at a loss and faff about like a complete moron. Even though our shop (leather coats etc) is doing absolutely NO business, I'll carry on slogging away at it as I have for the past couple of years until we finally decide to call it a day. Hence "the ground keeps shifting under me" comment earlier!

When my head clears a tad I'll look for some pics of what I've been making. Been up since 5 a.m and I'm in shock - didn't know there was a "5" anything at that time of day.
So, until the fog clears, TTFN.
:-)

Crochet binge

Nothing croapy to report lately I'm afraid. Haven't made any soap for ages and desperately need to! Have been a bit under the weather this week so I've been at home and had a crochet binge. I've got loads of ideas going on and some stuff I'd like to make/sell to donate money to charity. Mainly breast cancer charities in the UK, and animal rescue in Portugal if I can.

This is a wonderful site run by a lovely lady called Norma Lynn and I'm trying to make some bits and bobs from her patterns - haven't quite conquered it yet, but I will! Aren't these sweet though. Pics will follow when I finally manage to produce things :-)

Anyway, last year I was sent some of the most beautiful handspun yarns by my friend Ruth. I believe these 2 yarns are a blend of camel down, cashmere and silk! Aren't I spoilt? I've waited for ages to find a scarf pattern that would do the yarns justice and finally found one the other day. I've decided (after consultation to double check) that I don't like the blue lacy edging the pattern calls for so I'm not going to do it. I'll try to remember to post a pic of it finally finished - when the millions of loose threads have been sewn in - that's the bit I really don't like.

This was a flower made from a different yarn - have been playing around with ideas again to come up with brooches/bag flowers etc after CONSIDERABLE nagging from certain quarters. (You know who you are LLL & J).

Remember that cushion?

Remember the jumper I (very) patiently unpicked and made into a cushion cover? Well, here she is.........finished! Yes, I actually finished something before getting carried away and starting something else. Well, I say finished - I never did get round to putting buttons on the back so she does have a tendency to gape and show her undergarments at the moment. I will get round to it eventually......... For the meantime, she's very happily living and working in Portugal, lucky girl.

Sometimes it takes a kid to put you right

This was emailed to me today saying that this 13 year old boy has written this song. If that's true, what a powerful message to put us all to shame.

Well, the body is back but the mind is still swanning about.....

Not a croapy post but I'm back in the UK and trying to settle back into some sort of routine. All the soaps I made before I went away seem to have orange spot and are a bit sweaty-looking so I'm ignoring them for a few more days before I dive in and try to work out what's going on.

For no other reason than I felt like it, I decided to crochet an amigurumi flowerpot today which I've scented. It stands about 4" high (sorry can't think what that is in cm off the top of my head). Not sure if I like it. Maybe a different set of colours for the flowers would help.


I'm working up to facing the challenge of uploading and blogging about what I got up to while I was away, but I've just checked how many photos I have and it's a bit of a task. I'll get round to it eventually. Think I'll set up a different blog for it though as it's nothing to do with soaps. I've gone a bit off track with this one haven't I? Oh dear.

Just a quick word.....

Well, I´m still here in Portugal but I´m busy, honest. I´ve been beading and crocheting and rescuing some poor old wicker chairs from the rubbish. I don´t have easy access to the computer so pics will have to wait unfortunately. I´ve got LOADS of updating to do when I get near a computer for any length of time. Hey ho!