The third FHFTEAM giveaway

If you forgot to enter the first and second time, here's a new chance to win. This time these prizes are up for grabs:


Please visit the FHFteam Blog to enter the competition, winners to be announced on Friday 24th of September.


I am still working on my swirly beads - here's the latest set I made using this technique:



Have a great Tuesday!

Julie x

Big FHFteam giveaway competition!!

Woohoo!! Fhfteam on Etsy is giving away prizes for the next fortnight!! Here's what is up for grabs today, kindly donated by FHFteam members Ingrid, Glenn and Helen:



Please visit the FHFteam Blog to enter the competition!

Have fun!!

x

I'm back!

I'm back, not only to look after my neglected blog, but from our annual holiday in Norway. Oh, what lovely three or so weeks we had. Only one day did we not take the kids to my sister's beach (not that the weather was that fantastic, they just didn't care - and I was told I could sit inside the boat house if I was bothered by the rain...)
Beach life:


On a kayaking trip:


Last summer in Norway I got a bit frustrated, missing my glass a lot, and so this year I decided to not think of glass at all, and not bring any glassy magazines or books. Instead I embarked on another craft that I used to love - crocheting. I asked mother and sister for some leftover yarn, of which there are loads hidden around in their various cupboards, and set to making myself a shawl in warm, lovely wool. It had to be a colourful design given the many small bundles I had to work with. I carried my work with me every time we went to the beach, and here's the result:



Another week or so and we're back to "normal" (i.e. school starts), and I look so much forward to spending time in my workshop. I switched on my kiln the other day, and to my dismay it didn't want to heat up. Luckily my husband is pretty clever with his meter, and it didn't take him long to realise a relay was broken. A quick call to Robin at www.electrickilns.co.uk, and I had a new relay the following day. So all is now good and ready to go!

I hope you all have had a lovely summer as well!!

Snow, H&S and Attitudes

We had an inch of sleet, and my kids' school was closed for three days, as sleet turned into ice. School was closed partly because staff was not able to get into work, and partly because it was deemed too dangerous for the kids. Most pupils live within walking distance to school.

We had more snow, but on the fourth day school opened for part of the day. The playground was covered in a layer of snow over the frozen sleet. When I picked my kids up they told me they had not been allowed out in the playground at all during break time.

I come from the West Country of Norway, and these conditions are normal during the whole of winter: It snows, it thaws a bit, it freezes etc. My mother told me that d/t great amounts of snow followed by frost they had poured water over part of their school playground and made a skate rink for the children to enjoy!!

Do I blame school? No, of course not! But I do think that something is seriously wrong with the "Accident claims legislation" in this country! We are advised to not salt or grit or remove snow/ice from the pavements outside our houses, as if we do we can be liable if someone happens to fall over. The council doesn't do anything with the pavements for the same reason. School is held responsible if a child falls over in the playground. And so on! I have been approached in town and asked if I have had an accident lately, and if so, I should claim compensation... Mad, and very, very sad if you ask me!

A huge sum of money is needed for a country to invest in the resources necessary to be prepared for the amounts of snow we have seen this year, and maybe for counties like Devon it is not worth making that investment. I do react strongly to the fact that necessary services stops functioning, though, and that there needs to be lives lost d/t a bit of snow! Ambulance services, police, nursing and caring services should definitely be equipped for winter. And maybe, just maybe a bit of winter driving instructions to the common man would be worth considering. I have been scared to see several near misses on flat roads!

Enough ramblings - snow is nice and fun and bright and pretty.... but I hope it only falls on the countries that can deal with it in the future.

Here's a set of winter sparklies I finished the other day. Hopefully I'll get it on Etsy soon. I have received a couple of new bead presses as well, and there are a few new shapes from me cooling down in the kiln :-)




Happy New Year to you all!
Please walk carefully, and don't claim unnecessary ;-)

It's the perfect day for a treasure hunt!

On this Bank Holiday Monday, and for two days onwards, you have the chance to win two prizes in an Etsy Treasury Hunt created by lovely Jolene from Kitzbitz Art Glass.

All you have to do is to log in to Etsy (or, if new to Etsy, register for free), and solve this treasure hunt mystery:




The prizes, I hear you say? You can either win a beautiful Sterling Silver Helm pendant created by Kimberly Kitchen, or a fused cab bling ring by myself. The glass cab is glued to a solid adjustable sterling silver ring blank, so should fit and agree with most people :-)







So, what are you waiting for? Go find that treasure :-)

We survived – with only one nosebleed to account for!

I am sitting here, halfway through a well deserved glass of red wine, extremely grateful that we have been able to return thirteen unharmed 7-year-olds to their parents! The only near-miss was our own daughter who collided with a garden toy and which resulted in a heavy nose-bleed and swollen lip - resembling an Elephant seal, according to my son – he only tried to cheer her up, lol. Today we celebrated our twin girls’ 7th birthday. After preparing for the influx of party-lusting kids all day, I felt rather calm and collected when they started to appear. All warm food was ready, keeping cosy in the hostess trolley (if you think they sound naff, like I used to, have a rethink, they are excellent gadgets….I think I need to have another blog post on those another time), and all cold food ready in the fridge. I had time to chat to parents and with confidence reassure them that they did not need to be present. Although the ratio of adults to kids was well below that of any regulated organisations I felt we had full control! After all, these kids learn good manners and to “Listen and Do” at school, right? Right, but then not quite so…

Our house is a standard 3.5 bedroom end terrace house with a corner plot. However, connected to our house is a room/space very much like a Village Hall. Jokingly, but rather precise, we call it the biggest garden shed in Devon – it is a playroom, storage space for old relatives’ furniture, it houses my workshop, my husband’s workshop, his drum practise room, and is also occupied by freezer, tumble dryer etc – we don’t know how people live without a village hall in their garden, to be honest! When the children saw this space, filled with balloons, roller skates, skipping ropes, scooters and an old sleeping sofa and football board, and then the back garden (read: jungle) with a huge trampoline, slide and some old trees excellent for climbing, I do believe their brains told them in no uncertain terms they had come to some weird sort of adventure park. A place where you just scatter a different way if encountered by an authority, and where there are thousands of places to get away from any registry. My poor husband, who tried to count the children present and never made it add up, eventually required a written list of kids invited, and started to cross them off as he came upon them. It didn’t help that he didn’t know half of them, poor man. Eventually we sourced the mistake; I had managed to write down the name of one girl twice!!

Apart from the initial shock of all those small bodies moving very deftly and speedily around the place, I must say they behaved wonderfully during meal time, ate well (I am a mean mum, serving out the “healthy stuff” before offering up the party cakes and sweets), and made a great effort and racket of the party games. It was short, and very noisy! This year I’d even managed to put together party bags for them (this is a totally alien concept for a Norwegian, although I believe they have started to import this horrendous habit at home in later years – how can you go to a party and expect to go home with a bag full of gifts?) When I came back to the kitchen after saying merrily goodbye to the last party lion I realized I’d still not reached “perfect mum” status…the Birthday Cake was still there, uncut! Oh no, it was not to end up moldy in damp and forgotten party bags, or kept in fridges until worthy of the bin! It is still here, whole and wonderful and lovely and chocolately to be enjoyed by our family for days :-)

Here are a couple of things I have been doing lately: organic beads, playing with silver glass, silver foil and enamels:

Riverside gems:


Desert Trails:

I have been tagged

OK, so I've been tagged, or "nudged" might be a better word :-). Lovely Sabine from www.littlecastledesigns.blogspot.com picked up on the fact that it has been a LONG time since I have put words on screen (no excuses offered :-)), and proposed this subject to help me get going again! So, here goes, in no particular order:

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1) Summer holiday in Norway.
2) Getting into a size 12 (:D)
3) Being able to make the bead in my head.
4) Receiving my Impress Bead Liner.
5) Next Flame Off.
6) Experiencing my kids develop and grow.
7) Starting fitness hula hooping.

8 Things I did yesterday:
1) Visited favourite Internet places (like Frit Happens, Flickr and interesting blogs).
2) Vacuumed and tidied.
3) Cooked.
4) Picked up kids from school.
5) Took twins to swimming.
6) Caught up with a good friend.
7) Jotted down some ideas for beads I want to make.
8) Checked girls’ hair for head lice (Phew, none found!).

Yay, what an interesting day....

8 Things I wish I could do:
1) Make do with 1 hour sleep a night.
2) Speak more languages (copied this one from Sabine).
3) Karate.
4) Go sailing (miss that a lot from my former life; i.e. before the UK, husband and kids).
5) Swim with dolphins - daily.
6) Earn enough to employ a cleaner.
7) Write a beautiful and memorable book.
8) Draw/paint.

8 Shows I watch:
No way can I list 8 of these, even if I am allowed to say "sometimes", and "occasionally"..
1) The Apprentice (have only missed 2/5 episodes of the last series!)
2) Grand Designs (occasionally, when I happen to stumble upon it)
3) Primeval (sometimes, just because my kids like to watch it..)
4) News at ten (sometimes, but not really a show, is it?)
5) erm..
6) eh….
7) uhm…
8) gone to sleep..

Now, I am supposed to tag another 8 people to do the same, but I am afraid I don't know 8 bloggers who have not been tagged already, and I don't want to do it to anyone I don't know well. Does that make me a sad person? I'll tell you a secret, I never send on chain emails either (now that is for a very good reason, as these are gift-wrapped opportunities for low-life creatures who like to spread viruses).

I hope inspiration for another post hits before another month has gone by. Here's a little sunshine for you - "WAKE UP! Sun's out":