CANCER RESEARCH UK AUCTION

As per my previous post please see below further info:

CANCER RESEARCH UK AUCTION 2011 – ANGELS AND DIAMONDS

Start date: Saturday 12^th March – 9am

End date: Sunday 20^th March - 7pm

Where: www.facebook.com/angelsanddiamonds

Albums: cancer research auction

How it works.

On my Facebook page, in the photo albums there is an album called ‘Cancer Reseach UK Auction’ each item up for auction is listed here (this will be updated every day until the start date). The starting bid price will be listed under the photo, as well as details of the item and details of who donated it (if it’s not one of my items). Bids to be made in increments of 50p and £’s. not 10’s and pennies please.

When the auction ends I will contact each winner individually. If you haven’t heard from me within 24 hours then please send me a message (it may well be that you have high privacy settings set on your page which prevents me from emailing you).

My contact details:

My facebook page:  lucie porter (Simmons) http://www.facebook.com/#!/lucie82

My email address: lucie.simmons@live.com or angelsanddiamonds@hotmail.co.uk

My phone number: 07769166166

What will be in the auction?

There will be many items up for auction.  Mainly jewellery (handmade by myself).  Some items are custom makes so at the end of the auction I will contact you to find out your preferences.

35% of the proceeds will be donated to Cancer Research.

Feature item:

I will be donating a feature item of which 100% of the proceeds will be donated to cancer research UK.

Items donated by others:

100% of the proceeds will be donated. There will be a link to the webpage of the person who has so kindly donated.

If you have donated something or would like to, then please let me know the details of the item, the link of where you would like me to post under the item details, and anything else I should know. And if you have a picture of the item please forward a copy to me, or tag me on Facebook.  Thank you very much for your generosity J

Payment:

Payments made through Paypal to Lucie.simmons@live.com

Bacs transfer is also accepted. If you wish to pay this way, please let me know at the end of the auction.

Payment is to be made within 24 hours of the end of auction.

How can you help?

By sharing my page with your friends/family/colleagues.  The more people that turn up to the auction the better.

Taking part in the auction, or maybe donating an item to go up for auction.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Updates

I Will be updating my Facebook status’ and the album as well as my blog http://angels-and-diamonds.blogspot.com/ regularly. So please keep an eye out for these.

If you have any questions then please feel free to contact me.

Many thanks for taking your time to read this and for any help.

Kind regards

Lucie Simmons

Angels and Diamonds

From Handmade to Heart-made

HANDMADE MONDAY.

Well I thought id get ahead of myself and have my blog done before Monday morning, that way I dont have to spend all day wondering If i will get a chance to update it :)

I have to say since Wendy started handmade monday, I have had lots more traffic to my blog and I have found some really interesting blogs to read too :) previously I felt like I was talking to myself alot, which isnt completely out of the norm for me but it was a little lonely.. so thank you Wendy, I am very grateful :) http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog and also, goodluck with the giveaway for your 50,000 visits. (i am still in awe with the figure) All of your plaques are fantasic :)

So what have I made. Suprisingly not much.. I am trying to think back through the last week and remember what exactly I have done.. I was busy at work all week, I came home in the evenings and made.....

This was a custom order, aquamarine crystal stone and a pearl (each representing birth stones) and a sterling silver filligree heart on a chunky bracelet.

I really like these pebble hearts so thought id try them out with some earrings. each with a single diamonte, a pebble heart and 3 lengths of chain holding a silver bead, a filligree bead and a stardust bead.

And other than making some orders for jewellery which you've already seen, there are no more new makes this week. (I feel disappointed) lol.

WHAT ELSE HAS OCCUPIED MY TIME..

Me and my son had 2 very lovely cats, Tango and Pepsi, they were full of energy, fun, cheeky and crazy all at the same time lol. But, as they grew older it became apparent that it wasnt fair for them to live where we live with no access to the great out doors until I was home. So I thought long and hard and found them a loving home together. It was hard to say goodbye to them, but it was for the right reasons and I know they are happier now being able to do what cats do best.. hunt mice :)

So that was 5 months ago... since my son often tells me that he misses his cats :(

So the new pets soon to arrive is........

FISH! lol no where near as exciting for Reece, but I thought he would have fun choosing the tank.. I thought wrong, he left all that down to me.. it seemed obvious that this purchase was more favoured by myself (although he has already named the future fish mario and sonic.. so he must be a little excited about it)  I choose the tank, with a waterfall that treacles out the top.. not quite the aquarium ive always wanted but its still lovely.  We just have no fish.. 3 days to settle the tank. maybe Reece will be more excited when we go and collect them lol.

And this is a sqaure strawberry! pointless but.. its square!!! lol

On a serious note...

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED PLEASE.

Just before christmas I lost my nan to cancer. It was horrible to see it happening and to see the struggle she went through to try and fight such a fierce disease, not to mention the hurt and pain it can bring to family and close friends.  I also lost my Grandma to cancer when I was a child, back then I was less aware of what was happening.

But now, I feel I am in a position to atleast try and help others.. even if its just a small donation, every little helps.

So I thought I will run an auction on my facebook page. 35% of the proceeds will go to Cancer Research UK.

I have picked a start date.. Saturday 12th March and I will let the auction run for a week so the end date will be Saturday 19th March.

I am listing as many items as possible for the auction so each day from now and prior to the auction you will see more and more items. (this means I am going to be up working late each evening... so I will have plenty of coffee at the ready :)

Someone offered to donate some items today, which was really lovely, so I will add these items to the album with links to the person who has donated them (obviously the full amount of the final bid will go straight to CR Uk).

If anyone else would like to donate any items then that would also be lovely. :)

I was also thought of doing a feature item. where, again, 100% money raised on that item will be donated.  Any suggestions on which of my items I could use for this? obviously the more chances of raising more money the better. I was thinking maybe a crystal cluster watch or the butterfly necklace I made last week (or something else?).

I have never run an auction before, and I have never organised a charity event before either, so i'm rusty and nervous lol.

I would really love some help spreading the word.

And if you think any of the above wont work.. please let me know :)

More details: http://cid-92ed7b18f9ba4c0c.office.live.com/view.aspx/New%20folder/CANCER%20RESEARCH%20UK%20AUCTION%202011.docx

Many Thanks

Lucie xx

A clustered mind

Last week I had an extremely busy week at work, what with my new added job role in my day job. That and the fact that my other half superglued all my beads together, I didnt think i'd be able to do any jewellery making at all!! Ok he didnt really glue them... thank god, I cant imagine how id feel if he had.. Shocked would be an understatement lol.

There are times when the idea of gluing beads down seems appealing. I often look at my bead boxes and think... One day the contents of this box will end up all over the floor, it's going to fall of the table, be dropped, or maybe tripped on..im not quite sure how but something is going to happen, and how do I know this?.... because I am very clumsy! And How long will it take to pick up thousands of beads and re-sort them into 36 different compartments?.. thats assuming its just the one box that falls. The thought sends shivers down my spine, I assume that I would freak out if and when this happens.

The other day however, I had a little taster of what is to come. I was pulling a string of beads out of the box, and managed to pick up the wrong end.. all 150+ beads made a lovely bouncing glassy sound as they all hit the floor. and then ..... SILENCE... This is the point where I would normally say something, whether it be 'Oh for crying out loud' or simply $@?*Beep*@%#. My OH was watching over waiting for my reaction... nothing. I actually managed to keep my calm! in my head i was thinking 'carry on like nothings happen.. (if I had said it out loud it would have sounded high pitched and squeeky)' Times like this I think its best to ignore whats happened, and if you do that.. someone else will tidy up the beads ;)

CLUSTER CLUSTER CLUSTER

On my last blog you will recall I made a bookmark, which I gave to my bookworm sister. The following day she gave me an order for 3 more bookmarks, she wanted one vampire themed, one with a butterfly and one with an angel, and I could make them however I thought best.. I have to say, these were fun to make (actually I say that about everything.. thats because I love my hobby) :)

The vampire theme. pitch black with a hint of deep red!

  

The Angel, Swarovski pink angel, girly purples and pinks.

         

 The butterfly clusters of pearls and crystals with a large silver butterfly and trailing swarovski butterflies. (I really like this one).. it looks so fresh and summery.. this has got me in the mood for some summery designs :)

I liked the idea of incorporating my butterfly design into a necklace (this is what I was making when I dropped the string of beads)

I made it with the same colours as the previous one, and added more crystals on the necklace.. I have tried it on.. and it looks lovely :)

I also made some earrings.

 And a cluster ring.

An this is a pic of one of the first rings i've made (out of a total of 4 that is lol)

And my last piece is something I actually wore today....

I started this watch a few months back, it was done in a completely diffeent style (threaded beads etc). But with my new cluster/summer motivation I started all over again.. and I am very happy with the finished piece. so these can now go up for sale in my store. Maybe in a range of colours....

HANDMADE MONDAY

Now you have seen my makes this week.. why not pop over to Wendy's page and share your Makes http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog

oh and whilst your there, join in the celebrations of her page hitting 50,000 visitors!!! Just a tad more than my 787 visits to my page lol.

Right, I think I best get myself a cuppa coffee and get on with some jewellery making before the day is out.. fingers crossed there are no disasters tonight :)

Thank you for reading xxx 

A little bit of everything..

Firstly I was nominated Stylish Blogger award by three lovely people. so as instructed here are the steps I need to carry out.

Step one: links to the pages who nominated me..  http://anitemeachdayoftheyear.blogspot.com/ and http://silverpebble.blogspot.com/ and http://www.silverthistlebeads.com/blog/versatile-blogger-award/ thank you very much Ladies :D

Step two. 7 random things about me:

1. I LOVE cake.. it was also my craving during pregnancy (a large family sized cream cake a day..YUM!!! I could never eat that much now tho) lol. and now my son also loves cake.. almost more than I do!! I have to eat my cake in secret now incase he wants it all lol.

2. I'm a London Gal... born and bred, I moved to Somerset for a couple of years but came back. 'You can take a girl outta london, but you cant take London outta a girl'. :)

3. I love to read. Although recently I havent had the chance too :( two fav authors are Sophie Kinsela and Lee Child.

4.  I am an accounts manager for a Telecommunications company who specialise in lovely gadgets such as iPhones and Blackberrys. I have worked in various different roles of admin, but ended up sticking with Accounts. (i also used to work as a sales consultant for the Carphone Warehouse).

5. I cant bend my toes. I dont know how abnormal that is, but I have tried and I just cant! lol

6. I love gadgets. Im more of a tom boy than a girly girl when it comes to things like that. (hence working for mobile phone companies).

7. I LOVE cake!!! oh I already said that!  I dont drive... I done a few lessons a few years back, i drove too fast and too close to the curb (on the pavement at times) I think if I did start again I would be really good at it now though. :D

Step 3. Nominate 15 recently decovered blogs.

1. http://dreamstardiary.blogspot.com/ 2. http://glitzandglamourjewellery.blogspot.com/ 3. http://itsamistrydesignstudio.blogspot.com/ 4. http://handywoodcrafts.blogspot.com/ 5. http://with-u-in-mind.blogspot.com/ 6. http://melissaceramics.wordpress.com/ 7. http://giftsbyjenny.blogspot.com/ 8. http://jinjajewellery.blogspot.com/ 9. http://amidesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/ 10. http://sillyoldbearcrafts.blogspot.com/ 11. http://softflexgirl.blogspot.com/2011/02/hearts-and-spirals-by-jamie-hogsett.html 12. http://creativeandfaithful.blogspot.com/ 13. http://kryshees.blogspot.com/ 14. http://ballderdashandbunting.blogspot.com/ 15. http://madewithlovebykat.blogspot.com/

*********************************************************************************

What have I been up to:

Well I was given the duty of dealing with Marketing funding, Distribution and reconciliation at work. At first I was a bit worried about whether I knew anything about marketing, with my boss leaving the country that day I was given the task of calling all necessary people to find out what I needed to know. 5 phone calls later I had a meeting booked for the following morning to give me a briefing and to go through strategy’s..  Which I was really nervous about.. I am not a confident bubbly sales/marketing type girl, I’m quiet and laid back, sit behind the desk kind of girl!

Next morning I realised that thankfully I can continue sitting behind my desk and do the job over the phone and through emails.. PHEW!! Also.....I was presented with gifts at this point I felt this was going to be a fun addition to my new role: FREE MERCHANDISE!!

The pen isn’t just a pen.. its a JAMES BOND STYLE pen/2GB memory pen.. I currently have the film 'Due Date' stored in it :)

There's was also a few other little non gadgety bits including an American flag which I gave to my son (who now thinks he is a pirate) :)

I missed Handmade Monday this week, due to being extremely busy at work and at home. 

So here is what I have made since last Monday:

Someone asked me If I could do rainbow coloured flower bracelet (like one I made before) and earrings as well. They are thinking of having their bridesmaids wear them with Maxi dresses on their wedding day in Cyprus. So I said I will do a sample to send pics of and here they are....

All the colours match the dress (which I was sent a pic off) I added lots of crystals and even more flowers and charms than my previous designs.

Ive been meaning to do earrings to match my flower bracelets for some time now, and love how these turned out.

I thought I'd try some dangley earrings. its funny, earrings are the first thing I learnt to make, and I rarely do make any. So i've decided to get creative and try out different styles.

This bookmark I made after reading Louisa's http://beadelicious-beads.blogspot.com/  (i just used crystals I had in my stock to give it a go. and I gave it to my sister.. who is a massive book worm and loved it )


On my last post you saw I had been making name on rice necklaces.  Someone asked me to do a male version, so I did.. I added tiny spring coils and a metallic bead inside the vial and hung it from Leather cord with silver beads to give it more of a manly look :0)

I was in a massive Panic last night.

I was finishing an order for a customer, it was getting late and my eyes were getting sore. I needed to finish off by adding a tiny amount of Super glue to seal the lid. When i was squeezing the lid on I hadn’t noticed that, In my daze, I had poured it full of Superglue, it was seeping down the side all over my hand. After tearing the lid from my fingers,  i tried to moved my thump and finger apart and to my horror they were glued together! I jumped up, screeching, and making panicky sounds, everything i touched was welding itself to me.. I was panicking some more waving my arms around in a frenzy.. and the whole time, my partner was sitting across the table to me and hadn’t noticed a thing ( it reminded me of one of those scenes where you see all the destruction and chaos and then the camera swtiches over to a calm tranquil setting, of chirping birds and baby deer bouncing across a field full of spring flowers).... LOL.. don’t you just hate it when that happens!! I finally managed to pry them apart, but my hands after looked like they belonged to some kind of alien. A lesson has been learnt here.. 1. never use super glue when tired. and 2. Never expect your partner to notice or save you from being trampled on by a stampede of noisy wild animals running through a quiet suburban village... luckily the chances of that happening are very slim!!! :)

Thank you for reading :)

xx

Whats your addiction?

Over the past week I havent done much jewellery making, although I have added some more colours to the cluster heart necklaces range.  Ive been waiting for a delivery of supplies for my name on rice necklaces, which arrived yesterday, I was very excited when I saw the package had arrived, so you can imagine the horror when i realised that the pen didnt work! Luckily I managed to purchase a new one, but I took that out the package and it started leaking..., it was one thing after another, i must be a jinx! I did manage to make one for myselfin the end though, and ive got a few pens on standby :)

 I decided to add some extra sparkle to the necklace by adding a swarovski crystal heart and swarovski crystal beads.  The names are mine and my sons, I havent sealed it yet, im going to  re-write the names and then seal it, im looking forward to wearing it tomorrow :)

Over the last few months I have become a complete bead addict.. I cant say there has ever been anything that I have purchased so frequently, apart from things for my son that is.The world wide web is an amazing thing, I can order beads and supplies where ever I am.. walking to work, at work, at home, travelling, from the blackberry, iPad. the PC! the problem is, I do just that, im constantly ordering stuff... my bank balance is suffering and so it my living space.

With orders comes storage problems.. having ordered so much I had to rethink my storage situation! This is my ever growing storage corner. I have lots of  cases which are meant for screws, they have 21 conpartments in each one.. they are perfect, but not enough so i also have little draw sets, more storage cases and more units. I have bigger storage to store smaller storage.

 I use this for the obvious, holding necklaces.. but mainly so I can take a pic of the finishing pieces. I havent got all my made necklaces on this as I dont want them all tangling :)

 This is holding more necklaces and bracelets. it looked nice with a couple of bracelets dangling from it, after a little time it looks like its struggling a bit.. a bit like me when i do the shopping :)

 And this is where i do my jewellery making. at one end of the dining table lol ( i started off at the other end, but found the light was much nicer down here. This is one of the rare organised days.. alot of the time, when Im in a creating frenzy you'll be shocked to hear there is a table underneath all the beads :D

I am going to work on some orders tonight and maybe some more designs. :D

Like Mother like Son.

Where I have a bead addiction, my son has an addiction of his own... SUPER MARIO! He plays it on the wii, on the DS, Watches it on You Tube, he wears mario clothes plays with mario toys, speaks with mario's accent. He has so many toys in his bedroom, lots of new ones from xmas and his birthday too, and he barely notices them. I have to constantly remind that they are there and to play with them. It is really sweet listening to when he's on the phone to his friends, , they talk about super mario and bowser and what levels they want to complete next time they're together Lol. He has asked me to get him Super Mario Galaxy next, tomorrow! Ive told him that I cant get it tomorrow as we dont have loads and loads of money. He sweetly says.. 'your work does. you can go to work tomorrow, get the money, get mario galaxy, get me and then we can go home and play it' LOL I think he's misunderstood that I go to work to earn money. he must think I work in a safe! lol If he had his way he would live mario. unfortunately for him he doesnt lol.

This weekend however, I agreed to let him bring his DSI with us shopping, I wasnt planning on being out long, just a few shops and then home. Every shop we went in Reece managed to find a seat. I was shocked when I first turned around and saw where he was sitting......

This is in Argos.

And this is WH Smiths! lol

Another thing Reece holds dear to him are a couple of favourite Teddy bears, he has a rabbit called carrot and a long tailed cute looking teddy called Tails.  He has only recently become really attached to them (mainly tails), but he left one at my sisters so has been patiently awaiting its return. 

I was speaking to my sister about how attached kids become to their comforters and im lucky Reece doesnt panic when misplacing his. Her one year old son on the other hand has an elephant teddy called 'smelly nelly' this has been with him since day one, he will not sleep without it. My sister has tried to get a duplicate (just in case) but cant find another.  We were saying how bad it would be if he'd lost it, and I told her about the websites for missing teddys (such a great idea). oh and some facebook pages too http://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-lost-Help-me-find-my-family/144491355562803?v=wall this page is dedicated to a bear who lost his family :D

The next day I get a message from my sister calling me a jinx... they have lost 'smelly nelly'!!

Luckily someone had found him and put him up.. normally you'd find a lost bear put up on a wall or somewhere safe, Smelly Nelly was found on top of a car.. I dread to think where it'd be now if someone used the car lol. at least its home safe now :)

HANDMADE MONDAY!

Get involved with the fun and pop on over to Wendy's page http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog
 all you have to do is:

• You blog about something you've made and in that blog post, link to my blog to direct people over
• You come over to my blog and leave a link to your blog (there will be a tool to allow you to do this).
• The link tool will be open for 24 hours on Monday only.

Thank you for reading!

Lucie

xxx