New

I bought some handmade lampwork beads last year intending to incorporate them into a panel, but I never quite found the right design for them so they have been sitting in a little glass box and making me guilty all this time.

With them in mind, I bought some suede thong last week and today I sat down and put together a little series of bracelets called "Fleur". One of which you can find in my Etsy online store.

French Fancy

Last week I watched Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette on dvd - whilst it was no Lost in Translation, visually it was an absolute feast! It's had a little influence on my latest bunting. I used double strands of ribbon for tying - aqua satin and velvet, and gorgeous pale pink rose beads. The ends of the garland are knotted and more rose and stained glass attached. Perfect for a girly boudoir - Antoinette would have approved I'm sure :)







French Fancy bunting is available here

Heck, I even bought pale pink sequins in little flower clusters from a cute french bead shop this week - I don't see a minimilist period for some time yet :) I'll be listing some chokers too in the next few days with a confection of colours and cabochons. movies are so great :)

The cultural diversity of our little village

Last month we were asked if we'd like to take part in an event at the village school. Children, school, Saturday, me? I couldn't see that working! Then we found out a local association who works to stamp out rascism had organised the event to introduce the kids to some of the many non-french residents of St Pierre d'Allevard. Ok - that's a very good reason to find me in a school at 8.30 Saturday morning with freshly baked soda bread and scones and truly international strawberry jam (made by my Turkish friend Saba in Germany!)

I forgot my camera in the rush to get out so these pictures are from a newspaper cutting that a friend kept for me.

The kids made little passports and then they had to ask yes or no questions about our country after seeing some clues - Aaron and I had photographs on powerpoint and a bodhran drum which the kids got a quick lesson in playing, and some celtic stuff. Then they got there passports stamped before moving on to the next 'country' It was good fun - some kids practised their english which was sweet.

The kids also got songs and stories from some of the countries in the classroom too.

At the end of it all food was brought out to a marquee in the playground and samples of food from each country set out for everyone, including the parents who had arrived to collect their kids.

from Cambodia

from Morocco

and Ireland of course
me Aaron and our friend and my self appointed *PR Manager* Bernadette - her husband, Michel, is headmaster of the school.

It's great to know that we're living amongst such a rich, diverse group of people from Cambodia, Italy, England, Singapore, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Montenegro, Madagascar and more that I can't remember!

A little bit vintage

I've started to embellish some of my glass chokers with vintage cabochons and beads . The pendant shape was inspired by the Vera Wang Fragrance bottle and one of these more simple, unembellished pendants will be featured in Septembers edition of Belle Armoire Jewelry (all being well!) I'm really pleased with them so far - I think they're sweet and romantic - which is why they have been given old- fashioned and pretty names :) I'm going to be offering a variety of colours and cabochons over the coming weeks but Lily and Mabel are on sale in my Etsy shop now.

Findings

Firstly, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Alessandra aka ixela, who a few weeks ago featured my glass in her "An Artist a Day" series. An Architect and jewellery designer, her fab Italian blog has been getting lots of attention recently - leading to an interview with Italian radio for ixela :) You can read my feature here

My Briar Rose Bunting is featured in online magazine "Small" summer edition - it looks so cute with those little dolls!!!!

A few weeks ago, lovely Etsy admin person, Anda, asked if I'd like to write an "Etsy Finds" (the daily etsy email featuring goodies) . I squealed :) ran into the livingroom still squealing, Aaron wasn't impressed (he hates the treasury thing!) I told him, no, this was a real treat, and he said well that was different - but he still didn't squeal. men.

Making treasuries is easy - you find pretty things with a link - for me it's colour, shapes and feel and sometimes with a little joke. I don't think people 'get' my connections all the time - sometimes you must look very carefully ;) But the Finds are different! they always seem trendy and very cool and seem to picked by themes - pincushions or bags or whatever. I panicked! I got 'finders' block!! So took myself off into the garden..... read the result here
Fellow Etsier and columbine fan, Debi - dmriceart had just been out in her garden snapping this pretty columbine before she'd read the Etsy Finds email on Monday, and so sent me the photo!

I'm allowed another go too - yay!!!! I have a theme that I'm quite excited about - but will need a little more work than the last one! and I'll try not squeal anymore :)

This is it! (so far.........)

Almost there! Remember what it looked like back in February? Just some finishing touches now– like shelves and hangers!, but I’m planning on moving some stuff in and using it anyway, so I wanted to photograph the empty space.


The old wardrobe turned out fine and the new steps leading to my current workroom are much safer than the old wooden ones with the hole in the middle!


Tomorrow I’m off on a shopping trip to get the finishing bits and pieces and then I can play at displaying everything – it feels like xmas!