Happy New Year Everyone!

Hope it is a wonderful year for you!

2012 had its ups and downs and at times it felt like downs were bigger than the ups but that is life. What matters is that We are still here!

The thing that personally affected me most in 2012 was Bullet. Sending our beautiful boy for his final sleep on 15 September will just be one of the worst days of my life. He gave us his love unconditionally from the first day we brought him home from the Rescue Centre near Wittering 11 years ago. He was around 14 and I think we did the right thing for him but it hurt a lot!

BUT!

There are a lot of good things that happened too!

Taj is the newest member of our family. We brought him home from the Animal Helpline Dog Rescue (same place where Bullet and Millie were found) on 23rd December and he has been an absolute joy. He is settling in nicely and Millie does not seem too bothered by him. I am hoping they will become good friends as time goes by. He has only been here a few days! He does not even know his name properly yet! And he needs building up a lot. He is very very thin but otherwise healthy.

Things have been good on the jewellery front! I have had a lot more bespoke work coming my way which is such an honour. It feels good to know that my work (and Mr A's) is being appreciated. Sales have been good at the various craft shows in 2012 and I am buzzing with more ideas!

I am also working on getting the Motorhome business back on track again after a couple of very quiet years (Thanks Mr Banker and Mr Government and Mr Market Forces!) I know that it will take years to get it back to the level it was pre 2008 because of reasons beyond our control. But that does not mean I should suddenly write off the hard work Dave and I put in.

So 2013, Welcome! I am looking forward to dealing with whatever you have planned for me good and bad! Bring it on!

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Bead Hoarders Blog Hop Reveal

So its time to reveal what I have been hoarding. Well this does not even touch the surface of things I have stashed away but its a start! Let me begin by introducing fellow Stamford Artisans Guild member DL Designs of Rutland . Diz makes the most amazing jewellery, charms and lanyards in different types of cords and threads and I admire her work a lot. So about two years ago I bought a handmade hemp macramé cording knot necklace from DL Designs. And then I promptly put it in safe keeping because I wanted to make something special with it. And I have been hoarding it all this time. I also had a beautiful Labradorite Cabochon cut and polished in house in our Lapidary workshop . This beautiful stone has a magnificent Labradorescence and I have had it on my board for almost 6 months! Because of the angle its been cut at it needed a special wrap on it for the colours to be seen in full glory. I have wrapped it a couple of times and then taken the wire off because the Labradorescence w...

Busy Week-end

I had a really busy Week-end in terms of events. Sadly not a lot of sales to show for it. The Help For Heroes Military Tattoo was badly affected by the weather unfortunately. It really felt more January than June especially in the strong wind. It was an outdoor event and the Gazebos we set up did not feel secure at all. And as it was so cold a lot of people did not turn up even though the organisers had sold lots of tickets. So the group of Crafters who had set up stalls spent the afternoon chatting with each other and listening to the music played by the RAF band. That was pleasant... and hot food from Tuk Tuk Foods was very welcome too! That was lovely as always! I would like to thank the Organisers of the event for inviting us to be there and I hope they raised a lot of money for this very noble charity, despite low attendance. On Father's Day I was at Sacrewell Farm near Peterborough for a Day of Demonstration and Sales. I took one of our Rock Tumblers to show the tumblin...

UK Inspiration Challenge... "Walk On..."

I came across ArtisanWhimsy on Facebook through MyBeadTherpay ’s Page (I follow Heidi’s work with a passion because she has inspired me to try so many new things and its great to see how wonderfully her work has progressed in the 2 odd years we've been talking bling with each other!) And right there on the front page of the forum was this little banner which took me to a page which said: “Can you create a piece of jewellery or a jewellery component inspired by where the UK Blog team live?” The choices were Dorset / Edinburgh / Bath / The Isle of Wight / Liverpool / Southampton and this is what the description said about Liverpool : image courtesy Wikipedia “ Liverpool is world-famous as the home of The Beatles, but is also well known for football, the Scouse (now there's a term for you non-Brits to look up!) sense of humour and of course, the shipping port and the River Mersey” The description and for various other reasons Liverpool it had t...

'Crystal Fire ' Copper Sculpture with Citrine

Buy Online: 'Crystal Fire ' Copper Sculpture with Citrine : Hand forged small copper sculpture with flame like shapes rising up. There is a small Citrine crystal in the base of the copper sculpture. The crystal is from Thunder Bay in Canada.

My Kuala Lumpur Challenge Earrings

And here is my entry for Dini Bruinsma's Blogger Non Blogger Photo inspiration Challenge on Bead Soup Cafe. The two things that immediately struck me about the challenge picture are the vivid colours that show up against the dark brown to black background and the prominent rounded shapes. So I used multicolour freshwater pearls in shades of orange, yellow, red and brown with a few greens too and twisted them on silver plated copper wire to make funky hoops for earrings. Good Luck everyone taking part!

Jewellery By Shalini

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