Happy Friday: Mostly chainmaille

Hi everyone,

The week's seem to fly by, don't they?  Now that it's getting towards Spring, we have been taking advantage of some sunny but cold days to get out and about and do some swimming.  That's Lucca swimming, not me or Phil!

This was great fun and Lucca got a good workout for his dodgy elbow. Then one of those swans that you can just see in the background decided to swim over to remind us whose territory it was!  

Amazing what you see when you're dog pulls you to every available river.  From the distance, we did wonder out loud whether this was a toy helicopter!  We all thought it was a bit showy to have it on the lawn, but I suppose if you've got one, it's a challenge to find parking spaces big enough.  Not a problem I think I will ever have. The chickens seemed to be quite happy with it there. 

Jewellery wise, still mostly chainmaille. How long can this obsession last? Some of these bracelets are quite heavy - it's amazing how the weight of the rings builds up.

I love that this one looks a bit like knitting.

The weave here is held in place with faux brown leather cord. 

This one is my favourite, with a rainbow of faux pearls.

Which do you like best?

Here's the link to see what others have been creating this week at Planet Penny .http://planetpenny.co.uk

Alison x

Wordless Wednesday: The joy of weeds and wild flowers

I know the gardeners won't be pleased with me celebrating weeds and wild flowers, 

but the colours here are beautiful!

Wordless Wednesday: Lovely pendants - which is your favourite?

1. Moss agate
2. Moukaite heart
3. Riban jasper leaf
4. Purple crazy lace agate
5. Faceted smokey quartz

1. Jasper teardrop
2. Unakite
3. Chohua jasper
4. African blood stone heart
5. Pink leopard jasper

Folksy Friday: The Red Rose

Beautiful red roses from Folksy sellers today.  Partly for politics reasons - the red rose is still alive and kicking, hooray! - but mostly because they are lovely!  Click on the pictures to visit each shop.




1. Luscious felt brooch by Granny Ruth
2. Pretty rose card by Box of Delights
3. Beautiful brooch by Gelert Design
4. Macrame and fimo bracelet by Jayfa Jewellery
5. Stained glass decoration by Diomo Glass
6. Wire wrapped ring by Emily Mah

Folksy Friday - Turquoise

Turquoise is the colour of the coming season, apparantly.  Here are a few of my favourite Folksy turquoise items.  Click on the pictures to visit the shops:







1. Felted bag by Doodles and Daydreams 2. Poppy corsage by Nuada accessories
3. Charm bracelet by Kath Good 4. Ninja by Lilley's
4. Butterfly corsage by Lupin Handmade 6. Blue and green set by Fiona Design

And a couple of items from my collection:

BESTeam weekly feature: Keiglass on Etsy

Promoting the BESTeam Etsy shops

This little rainbow selection comes from Keiglass - click on each picture to find out more. Keiglass is Kat, who makes beautiful dichroic glass jewellery and object d’art and is based in Denver, Colorado. Having started out producing beautiful pendants and earrings in a range of lovely jewel colours, Kat is now branching out into a wider range of glass objects, starting with zipper pulls and windchimes. So watch this space for lots more craft-related home ideas from this shop.

This Venice glass pendant really caught my eye with its bold blue and greens and its translucent qualities

it would make anyone want to be on the Grand Canal!

Each object tells a story, with the pendants named after some of the beautiful places that Kat has visited. It’s great to have a piece of jewellery that’s a reminder of somewhere, isn’t it? Inspired by places like Rome, Athens, Tokyo and Sydney, they really conjure up some of the colours and flavours of those cities.

I also love this sunrise set – the reds, pinks and oranges are so cheerful and life-affirming and the glass pieces are really glowing

All pieces are one of a kind and Keiglass also accept custom orders, so you’ll probably never meet anyone with an identical pendant, earrings or home accessory.

Kat also shares another of my passions – dogs – so I just had to include a pic of the lovely pooches! Here they are relaxing:

You can also find Keiglass at her website, on her blog and on Facebook and on Twitter

A quick turnaround

Last weekend I went to a great bead fair and picked up some lovely things: semi precious beads, some fantastic Sicilian clay beads, which I'm still thinking about what to make with, and some acrylics.

Within the day, I made up the pillar-box red acrylics into a necklace and I listed them a day later on Etsy.

Within 5 minutes I had a message to say they were sold! What a great surprise!

That turnround really took my breath away. Less than 48 hours after buying the beads, the necklace was on its way to California.

I didn't even have time to start thinking about what I would wear it with.



By the way, if anyone knows whether the patterns on these beads mean something, please let me know.