Tree Of Life Pendants

I've just been having a go at making these for the first time and below are my first two attempts - one in a full-leaf green and the other a bit like a cherry tree in bloom though I like to think of it as a bubblegum tree as it's in a bold shade of pink!
There are many tutorials on the web about making these and of course slightly different techniques/ ways of making them, so obviously best to try a few and find the one that works best for you. I was happier with my second effort - the pink one - and that follows (more or less) the technique described here.





I tried these with silver plated wire as opposed to sterling as I didn't want to make any expensive mistakes and used glass chips but of course these can be made with any small beads (around 4mm) or semi-precious gemstone chips and the wire doesn't have to be silver either.

This is the sort of thing where you learn what works as you go along and you don't know til you try. One thing I would like is to be able to make them a bit smaller as they're (to me anyway) a bit reminiscent of the fashion for wearing VW badges in the 80s!! Quite big and blinging!! I'd like them a fraction more subtle. I think the pink one would actually look rather nice just hanging up in my bedroom rather like a dreamcatcher.

April Giveaway Winner!

Well I have to say my first giveaway has gone pretty well...71 entries! A big thankyou to everyone who entered (and blogged, tweeted, followed and so on!) Using the wondrous random number generator the winner is...*drumroll*...

Va!
I'll be contacting you to get your details.

There'll be another giveaway starting May 1 so please check back then.
Meanwhile this giveaway's earrings are up for sale in my shop here.

Just A Ramble

This is just as the title says a little ramble. Was browsing on Ebay and put in a search for silver polish expecting to find..well, the obvious silver polish but the first result was this..






...and these are Silver Laced Polish Bantam Chickens or rather their eggs for hatching/incubating! Wow, they really look the shy and retiring type!
We used to keep chickens - bantams actually, just not quite as spectactularly feathered - when we had a bit more space. I know you don't need acres of room to keep them but we are a little too confined and urban here.

Here's a little article on these particular birds.
Take a look at the hairdos on these!

Happy Easter!

Above are examples of my attempts at homemade Easter eggs this year! A bit rustic, not quite at the master chocolatier stage, but quite edible I hope! One for my Mum who likes white chocolate and one for myself of course :)
As mentioned in a previous post I attempted one for the dog too using special dog choc drops. It didn't turn out amazingly well...obviously chocolate for human consumption has a consistency that it is probably better for this sort of thing. The dog variety has a more crumbly texture and didn't want to melt - maybe because the drops were a few months old or maybe a different brand would work better. Anyway I have to say aesthetics and crumbliness were of no concern to my dog and he was quite happy to wolf down half of his egg! Will save the rest for later.

April Giveaway!

So here's my first giveaway and it's for a pair of earrings - specifically my Weekend In Paris Earrings. Featuring little 3-dimensional Eiffel Tower charms in gold and accented with vintage pearly pink roses they hang from gold plated earwires.



How to enter:
Just visit my Etsy shop here, return here and leave a comment about your favourite item. One entry per person but I'll give extras -
one extra entry if you follow my blog
one extra entry if you follow me on Twitter
one extra entry if you tweet/retweet about it.

The giveaway is open from Thurs April 1st til Thurs 15th (closes 9am BST - British Summer Time which is 1 hour on from GMT).

PLEASE leave your name and Etsy username/email address (in the (@!) format if you're worried about spam email) so I can contact you if you win.
Winner will be announced the next day.

One more thing...Good Luck!

P.S. They're available for purchase in my shop here.