Following my muse.

I have been practising my seed beads and trying to improve my skills.  I am really rubbish at following a pattern, although I have some fabulous ones by Lynn Davy a wonderful, talented lady and friend from the Craft Pimp forum, but I never seem to follow them exactly, always going off on a tangent and following my muse.  Lynn tells me this is normal and I should go with it!

My blue dragon, is my own lampwork bead (what else!) and I have used some beautiful blues, once again inspired by a lovely blue piece that Lynn did and showed on the forum, and spiral roped and looped around the dragon, it took a bit of jigging to get him to orientate the right way.

My blue dragon with spiral beaded rope.

I have worn him all week and he is so comfortable now he hangs properly!

Finally, I can reveal what I sent my bead soup blog party partner (what a mouthful!) thankfully Lizzie says she loves them and I am so excited to see what she does with them, here they are....

Bead Soup for Lizzie

Just a little different from her usual style of elegance and femininity then!

Sunday Feb 17th is Poole Bead Fair, and if you click on this Poole Bead Fair money off link you can print off the flyer to get the discount on the door.  Be nice to see you there!

Have a great Valentines Day, I am now off to see my little brother get married!

Laney x

Almost back to normal.....

My daughter, sweet 16 and going to Prom. 

It has to have been months since I had the time to post a blog or catch my breath.  There have been weddings, a funeral, my son leaving home, 4/5 bead fairs in various parts of the country all involving a long drive, local flooding, the weather is so rubbish and wet, and getting ready for this Prom.  The Prom is the end of school for my daughter, her GCSE's now over and Sixth Form College round the corner in September.  I don't quite understand the whole 'Prom' idea, when I was a kid *yawn* it was a school disco in the school gym hall, all that sweaty sock and teenage hormone pong, now its more glamorous, an evening dress, lots of sparkle, make up, fake tans and over the top transport...there were five.... FIVE.... helicopters taking some kids to the school fields on Friday night, rather extreme and considering the weather was more akin to a monsoon and the girls were 'slopping' their way from the helicopters, across the sodden fields and into the school hall, so their entry was a bit of a damp squib with no one watching anyway.  There were vintage cars, Post Office van with ribbons, several large cars with ribbons which did make me think of weddings not proms.  There were 'waiters' with no shirts on carrying one girl, just the collar and cuffs, bare chests and muscles...rather fun but a touch young for 16..or is that just me being old fashioned and ancient in my ways?

Still, my daughter looked beautiful.  I talked her out of the fake tan, she is naturally pale and beautiful, and as there has been no sun here in the UK anyway.......

I made the jewellery with my own fair hands.  The glass is fused and then beaded around, using a simple but effective spiral rope design in silver and blue teeny tiny beads...it took forever!  There are earrings, simple and elegant in the same colours and a bracelet of fused glass cabs.  The ring was from my stash of costume jewellery that I have collected since a teen myself.  I rarely wear more than my wedding rings - I have a gold and silver one both from the same hubby!! - lampwork dog earrings and my chook pendant, so my collection of over the top sparkly costume jewellery is lots of fun to dig through and giggle at what was obviously a riotious teenage youth!  So the ring, a massive faux diamond set in silver was the perfect match to my daughters dress.  What you can't see are the beautiful nude lacey effect 4.5inch heels, shame as they are stunning and elegant.  My daughter is a petite girl coming in just under 5ft and she does love her heels, rather her than me, these days my feet are not comfy unless in broken down crocs that have seen better days but are superby comfortable for these tired old paws.

So.  There we are.  One proud mummy, one beautiful daughter.  The end of school.  The end of my manic couple of months.  It has been busy, and fun, but exhausting so this week has been catching up on jobs around the house, dusting, grass cutting - inbetween the rain - and totally ignoring the weeds that are as tall as the bushes in places, this weather has been warm and wet making everything grow...everything except the summer veg which I haven't even bothered to plant out...this summer is shaping up to be the wettest on record.

A couple more pics of my daughter and her jewellery, and today I am in the shed!!  Making some more beads and bowls.  Next big fair is Stourbridge and the International Festival of Glass, Bank Holiday weekend in August.