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/

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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

PC Solutions

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who has been sharing my Facebook page. Ive had 45 new members over the last week, so a big welcome to new members too. I am stil 95 members short of the competition though, so please continue to share my page. I will be adding new items more often so there will be more choice for the winner :D

Over the weekend I tried to install wordpress on my PC, but the version of windows I had was too old. Hardly suprising, Ive had the thing for over 5 years!! (my sister referred to it as a 'great Grandad in computer years' lol). Given its age though, it was still fast and responsive, the main issues I had is that it had less memory than my iPad and i kept having to delete programmes to make space for new ones!! so I decided it was about time I went and brought a new younger model. After visits to Currys followed by PC World I decided to get the first one I saw in Curry's. A HP Computer which has 1 TB of Harddrive space!!! I can install until my hearts content now lol.  So with new computer all set up I installed wordpress.. but I have no idea how to link it to my Google website.. I done some research and came up with nothing.. does anyone else know how? lol id really appreciate some advise!

Over the weekend I was busy with everything other than jewellery making (which is what i wanted to focus on). So finally at 7pm last night I managed to sit down and make some new designs, I ordered these hearts weeks ago so I am glad i've finally done something with them!!

 

 My flower charm bracelets are really popular. and I havent made any for a while, ive been wanting to try out different colours. So I decided to give it a go last night, and here's what I came up with.

A rainbow of colours.. all light and summery, its really pretty... and this one is a one off.. so once its gone.... its gone!

 This one is sea inspired, mermaids and seahorse, shell and fish, there are so many different items pack into the bracelet!!

 I was trying out new designs last week here.. is the finished design....

 with a matching bracelet... both sold but more can be made!

Thanks for reading,

Lucie :D

Prize draw entry

Ok, so after a bit of thought I've decided on how to offer you lovely people the chance to win one of my designs. As I mentioned previously I am lacking feedback on my facebook page, so with a little help from my friends, here's what we can do....

1. Become a fan on my facebook page (click like at the top of the page).

2. Invite your friends, you can do this by clicking on 'share' at the bottom of my fan page or any of my posts.

- I am looking to reach 300 members, so please invite as many as possible.

3. Comment on your favourite piece of jewellery in my FaceBook photo album, just by giving a bit of feedback of what you think (from any album you like, including custom made).

4. Follow this blog, so I can keep you up to date with the progress and this is where I will announce the winner.

Once I have reached 300 fans on facebook I will take the names of people who have commented on my photos from today's date and do a lucky draw. The winner will be able to pick the the prize from my jewellery, if it's something unavailable/custom made then I'm sure I can make something similar for the winner (please note it will be just one item, not a set).

Thank you very much for your support, it is really appreciated, and good luck :)

Lucie
Xxx



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

On the train blogging :D

So I found an App to enable me to blog on the go! I was over the moon when I did, not that blogging takes long, but at least I can make use of my time when traveling on the lovely trains.

Speaking of trains.. I travel from London to Oxford twice a fortnight, I hate the journey, me and my son rush to catch the bus, rush to catch the train, which is so packed we can barely move. Barely able to move my head to look down at my son, he tends to desperately need the loo at this point (despite that fact that he only went half an hour ago) as well as wanting to eat his food and play on his DSI. How do kids manage to be so oblivious to their surroundings? Lol. Im stood their squashed, weighed down by bags, hot and bothered trying to rationalise with him and he doesn't noticed lol. At the time it can feel pretty stressful, people are watching whilst my 4 year old is getting emotional over the fact that I can't move my arm to reach to my bag to get his DSI or his food just yet. He does make me laugh, he does the funniest things! (we were on a bus the other day and I helped him off his seat and he says to me brightly 'thanks sweetheart' lol).





Another favourite memory of my sons obliviousness..... one day I was out shopping with my sister and son, we went into a jewellery store, it was quite big, with a minimalist look, White floor and Walls, glass show cases throughout, really fresh and open. It was quiet and we were browsing the lovely items. A few minutes prior I had brought my son a balloon shaped like an animal, which he was happy running around playing with whilst I looked around. all of a sudden the silence was broke by an almighty BANG!!!! It was so loud it sounded like a gunfire! It echoed around the store which amplified the sound, people in the shop dived to the floor, others screamed with shock (including myself). And then there was complete silence......... which was instantly broken by my son complaining his balloon has burst. At this point everyone in the store broke out into historical laughter. It was the funniest thing LOL, I always think back to that day and have a giggle.


ONTO MY JEWELLERY..

I went through a few days of thinking maybe my jewellery isn't so great after all. I guess everyone gets moments like that. I realised that I'm just lacking feedback, positive or negative. I think I need to do something about that, so I will soon be announcing a feedback related give-away :)

In the meantime, here's one I made earlier......





I went for something a little different with the 2 strands on one side, the links joining the hearts will be thicker this is just my first attempt.

KEEPSAKES

Over Christmas I sold a lot of baby keepsake bracelets (some below). I personally have a small box containing my baby's first things, mittens, socks, hat, rattle, panto tickets, loads of precious things I will forever cherish, and one day give to my son. So making items for others to cherish in their baby memories is something I feel is very special. So I am currently working on a range of keepsakes. I am pretty excited about it :D not just for babies memories but keepsakes suited for everyone.













I've been slacking this weekend, so I am going to spend some time working on some new designs.

Thanks for reading :)

Xx


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Oxford back to London

So much to do

Each day I wake up with such enthusiasm (after my morning coffee that is)... in my head are ideas of what I want to achieve that day. plans to make jewellery, write my blog, take photos, update my website, update my ipad, sort out my sons DSI, do the house work, do the accounts, spend some time with my son etc etc... (the list is endless)...

So after I drop Reece to nursery and spend 8 and a half hours at work followed by an hour and a half getting my son and myself home, i am shattered. Being dark outside doesnt help matters! (especially when I need to take photo's of new designs) it makes me more tired! lol.

I need to get organised.. my brain is a muddle. I purchased an iPad and thought that'd help me get organised.. everything at my fingertips.. but ive found that it has just added to the list of 'things to do' :/ although atleast I can put the list on the iPad (if i find the time) lol.

So I have decided.... tonight I will research on how to blog and update my website from the iPad, i can do it whilst im on the loo then :D lol no I wouldnt do that really hehe but atleast i dont have to be stuck at the desk on the PC. I love my iPad but if it doesnt do the things I need it to do I wont be happy! or am I just asking to much?!

Friendship Bracelets

Happy New Year!! It feels odd saying that now as its been that long since I last blogged!! Wow time flies. I havent really been that busy, I had a lovely break over christmas. All those lazy days made it difficult to snap back into reality. But Last week I managed to do just that lol. so below are some new designs. (one thing that didnt get any rest was my brain.. so many new ideas swirling around... and so many bead orders to go with them)

 Chunky silver beaded bracelet with 'key to my Heart' charms.

 Chunky curb bracelet with 'Hearts and Stars' charms

This shows you the red swarovski heart shining in the light :)

 These are my friendship bracelets.. available in 7 different colours.. they look lovely on. suited for all ages. children - adults.

 Leather friendship charm bracelet.

 This is a custom order. i made for someone who isnt too well. with a swarovski angel, quartz crystals, rose quartz (for healing) and pearls.

 A friendship bracelet with an extra touch of class.. I added the red crystals to make the bracelet a little more dressy. 3 of my favourite colours together :)

 This is the whole set... I made it custom for me :) I love the darkness of the ribbon against the silver and red crystal, it makes them shine even more :)

Mobile phone charms. I have the lips on my blackberry.. the rhinestones are really shiney :D

I ordered a photography tent last week and it arrived at the weekend. I love using it, I just need to get used to it though. the pictures above without the lines running through are the ones taken in the tent. some a little blurry but i think I'll get used to it :)

I also ordered lots of new stock.. so much that it took 4 hours organsing everything into some kind of order. luckily i received lots of bead boxes for xmas.. and they have 100% come in handy, they are all packed out!! :D

So now we're in 2011... my ambition is:  to make a success of my business.  Christmas showed me that people like my designs, so this year I want to make lots more to add to my collection, and I hope they are all loved.

Here's to many new and successful designs :D

Lucie xxx