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":

Today is a sheep day

I've had a commission for ages. It's for a friend of mine, who wanted 6 sheep mobile charms. They're needed by the end of the week, so today is a sheep day :-)

I love books!

I love fiction books. Without some or the other book on my bedside table I’d feel lost, or that I was lacking vital vitamins. But my passion lies with non-fiction books, or as my 9-year-old would call it: information books. I have books on all sorts of subjects, many of them craft related. Since I took up jewellery-making my bookshelves have been bulging with books on various jewellery techniques, from making button necklaces to enamelling to silversmithing, and of course glass, glass, glass. Now and again I sigh and think I should really put them all into some sort of order and keep them in one place. That would be the sensible thing to do. At present they are scattered all over, some in the bedroom, a couple in the conservatory, some in amongst the children books, some open on my workbench and in the kitchen. I am notoriously disorganised!

And then something happened which make me think it’s ok: I was going through the mundane task of writing up a shopping list for the week’s big shop, and tried to think of something new, tasty and healthy I could cook for my kids. I was running my fingers over the various cookbooks, hoping to find inspiration, and there, nestling snugly between Delia Smith’s “Winter Collection” and “The Best Ever 20 minute cookbook” was my “1000 Glass Beads”! What a serendipitous find, certainly one that granted a fine cup of cappuccino with ground nutmeg on top, and half an hour of indulgence – after which my outlook on life was lifted, my creative spirit flying and I could walk off to the shop with all sorts of new ideas in my head. Needless to say, children had the same good, old favourite fish fingers and two veg for dinner :-)

Have hardly touched the torch over xmas holiday, but a few nights ago I was granted a couple of hours in my workshop, and this little fellow came to life:



I tried to make Nemo, but I think we can all agree it must be his uncle Fred, who’s seen and been and done a lot in his fishy life. Happy New Year to you all!