Treasury mad!

Making treasuries must be addictive, because myself and my Etsy pals from The Lonely Jewelers team have been burning the midnight oil selecting beautiful items and then waiting for that tiny window of opportunity to open up.

Here are some examples. I hope you like them!

"The days fly by, but these creatures live for ever"



"Autumn Gold"



"Azure if you are missing the sea"



"Dreams really can come true ... over the rainbow"





A shame that treasuries don't live for ever!

The Legendary Gypsy Queens and Kings

Just recovering from going to see the Queens and Kings last night. What a fantastic, energy-filled evening! This music has such life, such a fascinating heritage and really makes you want to dance...

In our household, there is virtually every type of music you can think of. My other half is a full-time musician, playing modern jazz trumpet, and he's responsible for introducing me to a whole range of the best music from around the world.

Over the last few years, we've been following Balkan and Gypsy music from around Eastern Europe and the Ukraine. It's probably an acquired taste, but if you've never heard it before, it's really worth having the experience. Turn the volume down on your PC first, though, as the brass is quite strident!

You can hear and see the performers here:

http://www.myspace.com/gypsyqueensandkings

They deserve a bigger following, I think.

Autumn colours

If you like jewellery that reflects the colours and shades of Autumn, check out this treasury from TheEarringBoutique:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=87215

I love this necklace. What do you like best from this selection?

Places to return to...

Travelling has been curtailed a bit this year by the arrival of Lucca, so I've been reflecting on a few of my favourite destinations. One of the most interesting, and seemingly least well known, is Kihi Island in Karelia, Northern Russia.

We were on a boat between Moscow and St Petersburg in 2003 when we pulled up at the island. In late September, the northern light was beautiful and it gave the small island a really magical appearance. It's what the tour guides describe as a 'green stop' - apart from these fabulous buildings. Apparently, the air is so pure around there that rare mosses and lichens grow on the trees. There was certainly ever shade of green you could imagine on view.



Basically, it's an open air museum of wooden architecture. The church is the most spectacular with its majestic wooden onion domes dancing against the white northern sky. There is also the farmhouse where inside you can view what life was like for those living there - anything but romantic given the harsh winters and stark conditions.



You can read more at http://www.offbeattravel.com/kizhi-island.html if you're interested.



It felt like a privilege to go somewhere so off the beaten track but so stunning and different.


Where have you been that you would like to return to?

Introducing the dog

A year ago yesterday we brought this small brown puppy aged 12 weeks into our lives. We’d just got back from holiday and had been madly preparing the house and garden – imagining we had everything puppy-proofed. Of course, we were totally wrong!!

Lucca is named after the beautiful Italian town in Tuscany we were visiting when we decided it was time to get a dog. It’s the birthplace of the composer Puccini whose music we both love.

Both me and my other half were brought up in houses with dogs, but we’ve never had one ourselves. With work, we’d restricted ourselves to cats, but now my other half works from home, so having a dog became practical.

A year later we both agree that we’ve never been more tired, or more fit! Lucca has a main big walk each day, usually with a swim. He also has about three other little outings to the small lake, stream and woods we live near. As a Labrador from working stock, he’s extremely active and has the energy to run all day, but he also loves his deep and dream-filled sleeps. Our rule about not going on the sofa lasted about two hours. He was born in a stable on a working farm, but he seems to have a real instinct for creature comforts!

Of course, we are biased, but we think the world of him. He’s taught me so much about the simple pleasures of life and about living in the moment. We’re both devoted to keeping him happy and healthy.

The pictures show him doing some of his favourite things – swimming, football, digging and yawning!

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting Lucca. He’ll be featuring back here, I’m sure!

Today's creations

Two major projects on the go for today: Amazonite and baroque pearls strung and knotted on white silk, and a new departure for me, acrylic beads.

I bought into the acrylic craze last weekend at a Bead Fair. They are large and bright white, with pink, green, blue and yellow flowers artfully painted on them - what girly girl could resist those?

Anyway, turns out I have similar sized acrylic faceted smokey brown stones and just as I strung them, they really started to pop!

So I’m off to finish off, and hopefully post photos later.

See y’all!