Come and take a little walk with me!

As you all know, I live in the UK, in the South West of the Country in a County called Wiltshire.  I am not far from the historical Roman City of Bath.

My little village is called Holt and I thought it would be nice for you to be able to see what I see when I walk outside my back door.

I am very, very, lucky!

This is the brook at the end of my Garden Path!

The Little Bridge going over the brook!

Turn Left and this is the path....

...that takes you to the village pond!

under the Willow Tree is the Glove Factory Studios - I would dearly love to have one of these studios!!

turn around and this is the back of our house - the one at the end on the right!

Carry on walking back down the path and this is the road through the village.  The Old Manse is opposite our house and the church is just a little further up.

If you cross the road you come to Withy Walk - isn't it pretty!

At the entrance to Withy Walk is this amazing house called The Courts.  It has stunning gardens which are open to the public and it is owned by the National Trust.

The Courts

Turn around and this is the village hall, you can see the Willow Tree at the end of the road where we walked earlier!

Look to your left and there is our house, right at the end with the Red Front Door!

It was such a beautiful day - we had ice creams in the park!

Thank you for walking a little with me - it is always great to share things with a friend!

Hope your week is full of sunshine too!

Easter Bundle.......and some photos of what I made with all those beads!

Easter is just around the corner!!  I am excited!  I love Easter.

So today I was inspired to make some Easter Eggs.  I made some a couple of years ago as Easter Egg Tree Decorations and hung them with little bits of ribbon - very sweet (check out my Flickr Photos if you would like to see them in situ), but this year I thought my Easter Eggs could do with becoming a little more grown up.  I decided to make them in the Faux Ceramic Style I have been working on and to team them up with some of my other beads.

So here you are - an Easter Bundle - Just for you!

Easter Bundle

Round Texture Beads, Love Bird, Ivy Leaf, and Easter Egg

I do so hope you like them!

And especially for Rin, who left a lovely comment and asked if I would show what I eventually made with all of last weeks beads!

So here are some photos for you Rin, hope you like what I did with them :)

Seed Pod Bead Bracelet

Seed Pod Bead Long Necklace

Retro Cherry Heart Necklace

Metallic Motif Necklace





Purple Haze Snowdrop Necklace

Phew!  It was a good productive week, but tiring!  I have one more Craft Fair this Saturday and then I have a Saturday off to take my gorgeous daughter and her 2 friends to have their nails done and have lunch (a birthday treat) and then I am off to Cornwall the following weekend for a few days!  I can't wait!!! 

The weather is beautiful here at the moment, so I wondered if anyone would like to see where I live?  I could take a few photos of my village and some of the historic buildings we have.  It is a beautiful place.  I thought it would be nice if you all could picture where I live and work? 

Watch out for the next post!

Hope you all have a wonderful and sun filled week, where ever you are!

Pippa

Bead Table Wesdnesday - Or...I've stopped faffing around and got something made this week!

After a slow start to the week which went something like this....

...OK, need to make a lot of beads this week, because I had a storming day at the Craft Fair on Saturday and now I have next to no stock...I'll just make a cup of coffee first because that will get me in the swing of things...while the kettle is boiling I'll just have a quick look on Flickr....oh Wow, pretty things, shiny things, gorgeous things!

Ok, really need to sit down and make some beads, but I finished my coffee whilst I was on the computer checking out important stuff so I will make another and then I will really get on.

I'll just check if I have some black opaque seed beads for this design first...ok really need to order some seed beads, just check what that new site has to offer....oh look lots and lots of beads and clasps and ooooh look shiny stuff and pretty things.....

Right I need to settle down and MAKE SOME BEADS.......gosh I'm hungry, look it's lunch time already, I'll just make a sandwich and then....

You get the general idea lol!!

But today I was disciplined, I was focused, I was productive (makes a change!)

And here is what I made!  Feeling good, feeling pleased and just a little bit better about the amount of beads I still need to make lol!

Would you like to see any of these on Etsy?  At the moment they are earmarked for necklaces for the craft fair, but I would love to know if you like them and if they are something you could use in your designs!

Thank you so much lovely blogger friends!

Seed Pod Beads

Metallic Motif

Candy Hearts

Purple Haze Snowdrops

Buttons



Lots of Sunflowers!

 Phew....That was a good days work.

Hope you week is proving productive too!

Pippa

Newbies!! Faux Ceramics

Just had to share some new things I made this week.

Faux Ceramic Pendant - Trees

I had bought some Cernit Clay ages ago and had had a little play with it, but not made a lot.  Then whilst having had one of those day when nothing goes right, when my pile of scrap clay grows bigger and bigger as everything gets squished, I decided to have another go with it.  I am really glad I did. 

These pendants and beads are all made with "Basalt" which has a lovely soft green colour with tiny inclusions and when sanded and buffed really looks like Ceramic Clay.  I created the picture by "drawing" in the clay and then painted into the texture with burnt umber acrylic paint.  Waited for that to dry and then sanded the excess away.  I love the slightly aged look to this.

Having posted some pictures onto Flickr and Facebook and asked for some feedback, I had such a lovely response from everyone that I made some more and listed them tonight on Etsy.  Pop over to my shop if you would like a closer look.

Here are the other things I made - I would love to know what my lovely bloggers think of them!

Rounds Zig Zag

Landscape Pendant

Ivy Leaves

Rounds - Dot and Dash

I also made a few of my Chinese Leaf Beads earlier in the week, they are in the shop too.

Chinese Leaf Beads in Blue, Purple and Teal

Well, it is off to the Craft Fair tomorrow, wish you could all pop in so we could chat!

Hope you are all having a good week and enjoy your weekend!

Pippa

Creations and Cupcakes and Celebrations! (extremely Picture Heavy!!!)



We have had such a lovely week!  My Beautiful and Talented Daughter Katie, has just had her Sixteenth Birthday.

Katie



Most of the week seems to have been taken up with preparations for the big day.  Here are some pictures of Cupcakes and Celebrations!





Springtime Blossom Cupcakes



16 of them!



Waiting to blow out the candles (wearing the balloon hat I made her and made her wear!!!)



Wake a Wish

Logan Posing!!!

The rest of the time has been filled with making up orders for Beach Huts and other beads.  (I am still a little in shock at how well they have been received!).

And now to the Creations part of my blog post.  Last week I promised you pictures of some amazing designs that some very talented artists have been making with some of my beads.  They so kindly sent me pictures or blogged about their designs and I have been squealing all over the place at seeing what they have done - soooo exciting!

So, in no particular order, here they are:

Bracelet by Jean of Jean A Wells Handcrafted Artisan Jewellery

Jean of Jean A Wells Handcrafted Artisan Jewellery made this amazing and beautiful bracelet.  There are so many beautiful components in this and I love how Jean has used Sari Silk.  I adore it!  Check out Jean's Blog here.

Elephant Earrings by Therese

Therese of Therese's Treasures asked me to make some of my little elephant charms, but in Coral Red.  They are a present for her sister whose birthday is in March and she is a graduate from the University of Alabama and a huge Alabama football fan.  Just how much fun are these!!! 

Cilla from Tell Your Girlfriends beautiful Earrings





And last but by no means least, feast your eyes on what Cilla Watkins from Tell Your Girlfriends made with my Petal Capped Beads.  I love these so much!

 

What can I say?  Such beautiful and amazing designs.  I am so happy to see what you have all created using my beads, thank you all so much for sharing with me!

 

Goodness, this is a long post!  But I hope you enjoyed seeing all the pictures of beautiful daughter, yummy cupcakes and amazing designs and creations.

 

Hope you have had a wonderful week too.

 

Pippa