Baby Steps

After nearly two months I have finally made something.

No new designs, I think I need to take small baby steps at first, so I have revisited some old designs.

Butterfly Wing Beads - Cane instruction by Donna Kato
Beads - my own idea!

Slowly, I am starting to create again. 

So happy to be back here.  So happy to start interacting with you all again. 

Water Colour Beads - Technique by Maggie Maggio

Thank you all for all your support.

I've missed you all !

What I finally made with that Klimt Cane I posted on my Flickr Page!

I know I still have some outstanding orders and some enquiries to answer fully, will be making a start on those next week - I haven't forgotten!

Much love

Pippa xxx

Lovely Blogger Friends, 

This is such a hard post to write, so I will keep it very short, I know you will all understand.

My lovely Mum, who I have been looking after and caring for for the past 7 years, died last Monday.

She was 88 and had suffered from Dementia.  As any of you who have had to help a loved one with Dementia will know, it was a sad and difficult road for us all to travel.

The one bright lining to our particular cloud was that we managed to care for her at home, right up until the end, even though the last 3 weeks were very hard.  She died in her own bed, in her home and that was what she had wanted. 

Her funeral is on Wednesday and the forecast is for a beautiful sunny day, she would have liked that.

I will need a little more time to get myself together and then I will be back.

Thank you all so much for all your wonderful messages of love and support that you have sent me, they have meant so very much to me.

With much love

Pippa

A Leave of Absence

Lovely Blogger Friends, I need to take a leave of absence for a little while.

My lovely Mum is very ill at present and I am caring for her pretty much full time now.  So please bear with me.  I do not have the time at the moment to blog and did not all want you wondering what had happened, so hence this update.

I will be back as soon as I can and I hope you all will be able to join me again when time permits.

I will still be watching for all your beautiful creations that you post and checking out Facebook when I can.

Thank you all so much for understanding.

With much love

Pippa

10 Minute Warning!!!

Ok, maybe a little more than 10 minutes!

I am off to wonderful Cornwall in a couple of days, so just wanted to give you all a bit of warning that my Etsy Shop will be put into Vacation Mode on Wednesday Night for about a week.

So if you have had your eye on any of my beads, if you order tonight or early tomorrow (remember I am working on UK time here!!) then I will have time to make your beads and get them shipped to you!

And just to tickle your fancy....some new Disc Beads!

Disc Beads in Duck Egg, Bassalt and Savanna

I have been experimenting with making a Faux Ceramic Mix in a Duck Egg Blue and finally got the colour I wanted.

Now of course after all that effort I couldn't think of a thing to make with it!!!!  Why is that always the way?

So I decided the best thing to do was to make some Disc Beads in all three colours whilst I wait for Lady Muse to put in an appearance!  Actually, I was really pleased with these Discs - really versatile and lovely and aged looking!

They are available in my Etsy Shop now if you would like a closer look.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  I will miss you all whilst I am away, but will be back, renewed, refreshed and hopefully with lots of lovely Cornish Inspiration, not to mention a picture or 300 to share with you!

Pippa

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