Saturday, September 25, 2010

Riding and shopping

The Bead and Gem show is in town and being a beadaholic it's compulsory for me to attend.
In fact I went twice.

Thursday evening was wholesale buyers night but it was only for 3 hours, not at all enough time for a serious bead addict!
Time to visit my 4 regular suppliers, but I wanted to see what else was around.
So I went back today, but I combined it with a bike ride.

The bead show is in a hall at Olympic Park and Sydney people will know how much work was done in that area rehabilitating an old industrial site.
The renovated area stretches up to and along the Parramatta River and there are paths and park, cafes and wetlands.
It was perfect because parking is so expensive in the main precinct, but free where I started from, next to Silverwater bridge.

Newington wetlands



Olympic Boulevard

The bead show isnt big by Bead and Button Show standards, or Tucson standards, but it's all we've got!

My favorite suppliers Ross and Bev from The Rock Shop have lovely gemstones -


A new company Kazzi had bargain sample bags of greek ceramics and castings - couldnt pass them up - no plans yet as to what I'll do with them!

Kalash have fine gemstones and a huge range of silver -


I had to go back for these ceramic beads for my best-selling necklaces -


I couldnt resist these bright stones from Crystal Cascade - they are dyed but I love them!


The Venetian glass shop is my biggest buy!
But there is nothing else like Venetian beads in my humble opinion.


Also I couldnt walk past these cute litle ceramic fellas!


Of course Czech glass is always on my shopping list.


These are from the lovely Sue of BeadGlass who also is an accomplished glass bead artist.


And something for a bit of summer fun.
Decorated shell -



Missing were the glass artists who have been there before and I missed them.
I love buying artisan beads and supporting other craftspeople.

Anyway perhaps that's a big enough stash for now.

Off I go to count them, price them, sort them and put them away!

Remember to leave a comment and I'll pick another winner next wednesday.

Friday, September 24, 2010

What have I been up to this week and we have a winner!

It's been a very springy week - beautiful one day, the pits the next!

Luckily we chose a great day to go by rivercat to the city.
As I've said in a previous post the Opera House is one on my favorite places, and what a splendid view as the cat floats under the harbour bridge towards circular quay.


I went with K, K and H to see a couple of exhibitions - one, Flora - an exhibition of botanical art (where a friend was showing for the first time) was in the Palm House in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

This is the aptly named Spring Walk in the gardens -


At the weekend we visited our daughter and went down the coast to Kiama - which is known for it's blow hole.

Due to the pitsy weather and ferocious seas the blowhole was really blowing!
Despite that there were still some very brave surfers out there!


On another lovely spring day I went on one of my favorite little local walks.

The bush was full of blossoms - boronia -

and peas -
The bees were buzzing the birds were tweeting!

This is a tiny flower called a phebalium -


There were new fern shoots as well.


One evening my son took me to the jazz club where Pete Mcdonald was launching his new CD.
What a great evening of funky, mellow, jazz.

Legend Sandy Evans played sax!


Oh, and I went to the Sydney bead and gem show - but I'll tell you about that another time!

And before I go I'd like to announce that this week's winner is Beryl!!
Yay! for Beryl!

Remember to leave a comment to have a chance of winning a surprise!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

What do you do with ....?





What do you do when something you have made, something you have spent many hours designing, gathering supplies, spending money, creating, displaying, listing, promoting - doesnt sell?

Do you -

1. Move it - to another selling venue

2. Reduce it - give it a price cut?


3. Gift it - give away as a birthday/christmas/wedding/etc present?


4. Give it - run a giveaway on your blog, website, whatever and offer it as the prize?



5. Donate it - give it for some other fundraising/school raffle/ trivia night prize....?


6. Keep it - use/wear/display it for yourself?

7. Stow it - put it in the back of the cupboard to be brought out several months or years later?



8. Renovate it - polish it up, give it some new bits, or package or display it differently?

9. Restyle it - Make it longer or shorter, bigger or smaller?

10. Remodel it - take it apart and make something completely different?

11. Forget it!!?


Please leave a comment - you'll have a chance to win a surprise!

images from the web

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Wednesday wishlist

I'm in the mood for birds!

Maybe because it is spring!

bird and berries by studiolyon

And I can hear the birds tweeting outside!


What are you in the mood for?

Please leave a comment on any post and I'll collect all the names together tomorrow and one person will get a surprise!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday's treasuries

Thanks to all the lovely people who took the time to make treasuries this week and chose to feature some of my items.
I always get a thrill when that happens!

I love the colours in this one by ArtbyAmarose -



ArtbyAmarose is a very telented photographer with a wide range of subjects, but we're a bit into bare tree branches at the moment, so i had to pick this one -



The lovely Geritom71 is a fellow Aussie and member of the DUST (down under street team) and she picked all these wonderful aussie creations -

Geritom makes all sorts of papery goodies and also has some sweet original paintings -


lady with green hair by geritom71


Spiralspace dedicated this treasury to her recently deceased cat, Chance.
She included one of BoosTees tshirts.


There are so many gorgeous gemstone necklaces and bracelets in Spiralspaces shop, like this chakra necklace -

BlueBarnHillCrafts loves elephants!
Can you tell??

thanks to BlueBarn for including my elephant earrings -


Whereas I love chickens!
So I would pick these tea towels and I love the handy hanging crochet handles -



FingersandToesUnique is another Aussie and also a member of DUST.
She selected a delicious cupcake theme and I'm so grateful she popped in one of BoosTees tshirts -


Fingersandtoes makes wonderful resin jewellery like this pretty bracelet -



And then two from me -



That's all for now folks!

Remember to leave a comment to have a chance to win a surprise on Thursday!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Mad Monday - mad about guinea pigs!

Well they are pretty cute!

We had a series of guinea pigs when the kids were younger.
We had Pierre and Winston, Muffin, Cupcake and Brownie.
They get into your hearts because they love cuddles and make such sweet sqeaking noises, especially when they think they are getting food.

They are great demolishers of assorted veggie scraps!

So here are some cute images of guinea pigs that I found on the daily squee
and some other websites.









Then I looked on etsy to see what sort of guinea pig related goodies you could buy.
Look what I found!

Guinea pig cross stitch -


Guinea pig key ring -

by zozcards

Itsy-bitsy guinea pigs -

by itsybitsycritters

A guinea pig to wear round your neck -

by JenKlimas

Plushie guinea pig -
by zygopsyche

You can crochet your own guinea pig -

by bvoe668

Wear one on your finger -

by MissMaryElliot

Take from the rich to give to the poor -


Do you have a pet?
What do you love?

And before I go I'd like to apologise for being AWOL the last few days and not announcing last week's giveaway winner.
So sorry.
So I'm extremely happy to announce that Poetess Wug is the winner of last week's giveaway!!!!!!

Remember to leave a comment to get a chance to win a weekly surprise!
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