Friday Fill In

1. I'm loved, I'm content, I enjoy my life.

2. Why do I have a middle aged body and not eternal youth?.

3. How does this global recession work, anyway?

4. Every morning, I put clothes on my body.

5. I consider myself lucky because I married the most wonderful man in the whole world.

6. One day we’ll see the Himalays together.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching my son's band play at a fundraising gig for the bushfires, tomorrow my plans include nothing (for a change) and Sunday, I want to help my daughter make curtains for her room!

What I did this week

First of all I did a little bead shopping -

then I took them home and sorted them, then I got them out and played a little bit.

As a bit of a warm up I threaded this mix of faceted agates with some simple silver spacers in between.


Then I used some leftover orange coral with some new round orange coral beads and some dyed stabalized howlite (it looks like turquoise) to make this simple but striking necklace.

Look what I won!

I was thrilled to receive my prize from a blog giveaway on funky finds .


These delightful tags by the very talented Anastasia over at Percival Road Designs.



Three whole packets!



Such cute pictures.



Thanks so much to the generous funkyfinds and the delightful Percival Road.

Monday treasuries

Another week passes, and although it started quietly it finished with my work being selected in a total of five treasuries.

First up - enchantedquilling who has a passion for paper and obviously also has a passion for purple!
She found all these stunning purple pieces made by Australian sellers and was kind enough to include my Barossa Valley bracelet amongst them.


Janice of enchantedquilling is an expert in the age-old craft of quilling.
What is quilling? you say!
Visit her shop and you will see - enchantedquilling.etsy.com.
She says "I wanted to describe in one word how I feel about this unique paperart and Enchanted.... meaning to “captivate fascinate or bewitch” sums it all up perfectly."

I'm sure you'll agree that this amazingly intricate card is captivating, fascinating and bewitching!


I was thrilled on Monday when scrolling down the treasury list to see a little gold star against one!
Ah-ha! that means that I am in that treasury!

It's a great honour to be chosen by mct43 in a wonderful collection to celebrate her home of Trinidad and the Carnival!
What an eclectic mix mct43 found!
I'm glad my green and black carnival earrings fitted the theme.


Please visit mct43's shop where you will see beautiful and unique silver and gold jewellery, like this bracelet.

The weekend brought a flurry of activity with many members of the DUST team scoring treasury spots.
So I was incredibly honoured to be included in this tribute to the team that organised the bushfire appeal shop.
Although I did nowhere near the amount of work that feliciafairy and vanillapixie have done.
Maybe it was because I tried to promote as much as I could in the etsy forums and bring the shop to the attention of everyone.
Much thanks to handmadesbylorri for adding my earth bracelet.

To date the shop has sold 813 items and raised over $13,000! for the Red Cross.
It will remain open until the end od March or until stocks run out. so pop on over there and have a look - ozbushfireappeal.etsy.com


Lorraine of handmadesbylorri is an amazing knitter - how cute is this little chocolate tote with dragonfly decoration?
There are also scarves and mobile phone pouches for you to snap up!



Fran of lyptis looked through her favorites to put this amazing eclectic mix together.
It's always interesting to be introduced to other peoples faves - there are some new surprises to enjoy.
Thanks Fran for sharing! and for putting in my 'sneakin up on you' earrings.


Fran creates stunningly simple but edgy dresses, skirts and tshirts.
I wish I could fit into this! - black winter dress.
Perhaps you can - have a look to see what else she has - lyptis.etsy.com.


Oops! nearly forgot this stunning red collection from theuppitywoman.
She found all these great reds from Australian sellers.
Who doesnt love red? and I'm so glad she chose my soho red earrings.



Theuppitywoman is "an avid collector of the beautiful and unusual".
I think you'll agree this fabric is both those!
Take a look at the other gorgeous pieces at - theuppitywoman.etsy.com

But no treasuries made by me this week! I was never in the right place at the right time.
Come back next week - I may have more luck!

Friday Fill In

1. Give me vegetables and I'll cook you a delicious curry.

2. Whenever I climb into my new bed, I sigh "ah!!" .

3. I wish I could draw.

4. Lindt chocolate caramel slice was the last thing I ate that was utterly delicious. (It was OK 'cus I shared it with my stepfather!)

5. To live in this world you need compassion.

6. Other than this one, sandfibers is the last blog I commented on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to an early night, tomorrow my plans include having a stall at Glenbrook market and Sunday, I want to look at beads and jewellery at the Gift Fair!

Treasuries on a Monday

It's been a busy week!
I have spent a lot of time promoting the Ozbushfireappeal shop.
It has been tremendously successful with $10,000 raised as at Monday morning.
Full credit to feliciafairy for starting it and all the Australian etsy sellers who have supported her as well as the many generous contributors and the amazing buyers.

Thankyou all!!!

Here is a treasury that I curated today with the bushfires in mind.
Thinking of all the beautiful bush that was burnt and the estimated one million native creatures who died.

Please visit my treasury and give it some love (click on every picture and leave a comment)
LOST - the flora and fauna of Oz.
It will be visible until Wednesday 7.14pm US East coast time.

Now to recap a little - I didnt post the treasuries from the week before last as last week I just posted the bushfire ones.
But they are so gorgeous I just had to mention them.

First - a woman after my own heart, Faeriemajikk found some wonderful oriental inspired pieces. I love japanese designs, fabric and calligraphy.

I thank Linz, of Faeriemajikk for including mine and amy's Japanese Summer tshirt in such a beautiful treasury.

Linz is an amazingly talented artist - maybe it's because she is self-taught!
she draws, paints, makes fantasy sculptures and such pretty jewellery.
Please take a look at her full shop.
I have just chosen this Steampunk Lady because it combines two genres - steampunk and fantasy and I think that is so original and creative. It appeals to the unconventional side of me.


Coincidentally the next treasury was inspired by one of Faerimajikk's works - Seductive Selkie.
It was curated by Vanillapixie and she continued the cool blue ocean theme.



I was thrilled to see she had included my Winter Ocean bracelet amongst her aquatic delights.


Carley of vanillapixie makes the most delightful hair accessories.
They are all very sweet, but I was attracted to these rather punk ones, maybe following on from the steampunk lady.

But you can chose for yourself when you visit vanillapixies shop.


Lastly another one from me - this time to promote the Australian sellers February sale.
The theme is 'Heart's Desire' but in the excitement of nabbing a treasury I typed in 'heart's delight' by mistake!
I made it all romantic red and pink -


My treasury shows 16 boxes, although the four on the right hand side are fainter.
That is because there are 4 spares in case some of the original ones sell.
The alternates are only visible to the curator of the treasury.

Friday Fill In

1. It seems like it will never stop raining.

2. Close the door when you're done, please?

3. If I thought you would go I'd go too!

4. My soul mate is what I think of most when I think of you.

5. To me, Valentine's Day means red hearts.

6. The generosity of people around the world, in response to the bushfire disaster in Victoria gives me strength. Please visit Ozbushfireappeal if you'd like to help.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to driving to Goulburn with G, tomorrow my plans include having a market stall at the blues festival and Sunday, I want to come home to my kids!

What to do on a hot day

- escape to the mountains of course!

It was still going to be a fairly warm day so we set off early from Wenty Falls, to walk the beautifully renovated national pass track.
There was not so much water going over wentworth falls this time, but it is still a lovely shady place to walk.


Hey what are you guys doing?

- looking up at this!

You have to look up a lot to admire the sandstone cliffs as well as look at the view over the Jamieson Valley to Mount Solitary.

the path has been extensively redone with sandstone blocks in the wet bits.
I guess there were blocks left over and rather than chopper them out again they made seats or sculptures.

then you have to climb to the top of the escarpment again, but it is so pleasant to walk up through the beautiful valley of the waters.



come on up and visit the Blue Mountains!

Australian bushfire treasuries and more

These are terrible times -

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed
countless animals - native and domestic have been anihilated
whole towns have disappeared
thousands of hectares of land burnt to a cinder
hundreds of people are homeless
and most sadly 181 people have died.

We all feel so helpless...
It's so good to know that our etsy friends are thinking of us during the terrible tragedy of the bushfires in Victoria.

Thinking of Australia is the title of this treasury by VintageEmbellishment.



I thank vintage for including my Tagula Island necklace amongst the other beautiful Australian sellers.

VintageEmbellishment has the most interesting shop, it was so hard to single out one item to show you.
You just have to go visit her shop to see the whole range of eclectic delights.
But I thought this was something many people need at the moment.
and *hugs* to VintageEmbellishments for helping draw attention to this tragedy.

*HUGS* also to alyanna for this treasury, for her kind thoughts in and doing what she can for the victims of this terrible disaster.


I think her for chosing one of my tshirts to feature alongside other australian items, many of which are being offered in the fundraising shop OzBushfireAppeal, where 100% of the sales are going directly to the Red Cross.

Many people have donated their beautiful handmade works to raise money for the bushfire victims - please visit the shop and help as much as you can.
Every little bit helps.

Friday Fill In

1. Please don't tell my daughter I bought another chicken ornament.

2. Can you talk to people in the morning?

3. The color green makes me want to scream!

4. I have a craving for a long cold drink.

5. If my life had a pause button, I'd pause it in 1995 when we lived in Tucson.

6. Eyes are the mirrors of life.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to dinner with friends, tomorrow my plans include seeing an old friend and drinking margueritas and Sunday, I want to go for a bushwalk (but I fear it will be too hot)!

Solving a Problem

I'm in love with cube beads!
So when Natalia of realisationcreations was having a destash and wanted to offload some cubes I jumped at the opportunity.
I made a couple of bracelets with just cubes,

or cubes and seed beads,


but I remembered seeing a lovely bracelet on the BeadingDaily website.
It is called 'Cubed Herringbone' and was designed by Lorraine C. Menard.
It couldnt be better - I love herringbone (ndebele) stitch and it uses size 8 beads, so it wont take forever to make!

I even had a strand of mixed green colour 3mm czech glass beads.
Perfect!

So off I went with my needle and thread.
The pattern is easy to follow, the instuctions are clear with good illustrations.
My bracelet grew quickly - but then


- I ran out of the 3mm fire-polished crystals, and the bracelet was nowhere near long enough!
Arghhh!

What to do?
I could buy some more 3mm crystals - but I can't get them locally and I was too impatient to send for some.
I could undo it and put 6 or 7 rows of ndebele between the crystals - Who in their right mind ever undoes something and then redoes it??? Not me!
I could make a very long button and loop clasp - that would look silly.
I could just carry on in ndebele without another row of crystals - spoils the pattern.

Or I could use the threads coming out of the cubes as a base for decreasing brick stitch, which would also make a nice base for the loop and button closure.

- so that is what I did -


I only needed to add 5 rows each end and it was long enough.



I added a square green 'pegasus' bead from my bead collection, and it's DONE!



If you are a beader and not familiar with Beading Daily - it's an on-line daily newsletter from the publishers of Beadwork magazine. Go and check it out - there are fabulous patterns (some are free), helpful tips, a shop, forums - you could get lost for hours in there!

Treasuries with me and by me - part 4

It has been very hot in the Southern continent for the last week, and so the weather was a popular topic for treasuries.

Michelle of michvanetta curated this stunning collection of hot pinks and hotter reds.
I'm so happy she included my red venetian glass earrings.


... so I thought I would showcase a gorgeous red necklace of hers.
I just love these clear red glass pebble beads, the necklace is simlpy elegant!



Others were thinking of water to cool them down - like lisspops' refreshing collection of blues and aquas.
I feel special that she put my sheely beach necklace in this treasury.



Alissa (lisspops) makes the most gorgeous feminine accesories.
How pretty is this vintage rose hair ornament?
Please visit her shop for more beautiful delights.


One day I was surprised to find the treasury opening when I had nothing prepared, so I looked back through my favorites from when I first joined etsy and the theme and the colour just came together.