Rejected..

Urgh it's been way too long since I wrote. If there's anyone out there still with me, I am sorry for the blog vanishing act - I had surgery a few weeks ago and am just back on my game again. It's nice to be back out in the world, I was feeling a little like a hermit.


While I was recovering on the couch, I spent a bit of time applying for markets. I couldn't sit upright for the first week or so which was frustrating, cos I wanted to be making things, but I figured this was still helpful. The trouble is, the label of "Jewellery" attached to my stuff is making it hard to find markets who will have me. Too much jewellery already etc...


After having a think about it, I realised that these days only a small amount of my current product is jewellery. Yes I do bracelets and earrings, but then there's bookmarks, keyrings and hair accessories...and I've just started making phone charms!


Isnt he cute?

So this made me think a bit about branding. Maybe I should simply drop the word jewellery from applications, cos that's not all I do! It's not even half of what I do any more. The Peruvian stuff has put such a unique spin on things that if you put me in a room with 10 other jewellery stalls, it's unlikely that I'll be even close to similar.

I'll keep you updated as I plod along!

Peruvian Bead Fun

Moonstone stars, Navy glass beads and Peruvian moons

Hello folks! How are you all?
Life plods on over here in our tree, lots of school work happening and a few custom orders at the same time - my favourite!

One thing that seems to be being received well is my new items using Peruvian beads.
My mother in law is Peruvian, and she sent me some beads to play with. The results have been very sweet. I especially love the little animals, as well as the white ceramic beads with little suns, moons, flowers and symbols painted on them. The beads are all hand painted and they make for quite unique pieces!

Isn't this Alpaca lovely!

I have just sent another 7 of these keyrings over to View Point, as I was delighted to hear that the two I took in last week have sold quickly!
No such luck on Madeit, where I haven't had a sale in a month. It's been positive really, as it's making me spread my wings a little into the shop/market side of handmade.

As Mr Monkei would say, swings and roundabouts...

I have always thought that with jewellery, people are happiest to buy when they can pick up a piece, and "eyeball" it so to speak. They get a feel for it's quality, durability and the workmanship far better than when relying on photos.

What about you, readers? Are you happy to buy from photos alone or are you a try on first type of customer? I'd be interested to read your thoughts!

I leave you with some sunshine, like the sunshine we enjoyed today!

Baking - Black Forest Cupcakes

As much as this is a blog about jewellery stuffs and everything Mrs Monkei, I intend on continuing the occasional off topic foray into my other love - baking.
In fact, it was my adoration of baked goods that made me stumble over the world of blogging in the first place. I can safely say that the ratio of blogs I follow is currently 80% baking blogs and 20% crafts. This is slowly evolving as I get more involved in the online aspect of my beading, but I love being inspired to go off and bake treats for my friends and family after reading a blog post! So here goes.

It was my friend T's birthday at the end of Sept and we were finally seeing him Saturday night, so he requested black forest cupcakes. I've not made anything remotely black forest-y since home economics in high school, so...10 years ago. That's a scary thought. So I went wandering on the old faithful google and managed to settle on a recipe that looked nice and doable. Check it out below:

Black Forest Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from http://www.fun-tea-party-ideas.com
My notes are in italics throughout the recipe.

For the cupcakes:1 2/3 cups of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of cocoa powder (I love the Woolworths home brand cocoa, it's beautiful)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of instant coffee - optional (I omitted, we don't like coffee)
1/2 cup of butter - softened
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 large eggs - at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

For the cherry mixture:
450gms morello cherries in juice
1 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of cornflour
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of rum extract - optional - (I used Morgan's Spiced Rum cos we already had it)

For the cream topping:
 2 cups of heavy cream
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of gelatin
2 tablespoons of water

Method:
Cream the butter and the sugar using a hand mixer or a stand mixer,
Add the eggs one at a time, ensuring that the first egg is well beaten in before adding the second. The mixture should be light and fluffy.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and coffee - if using.
Add this mixture to the butter mixture as well as the vanilla and buttermilk.
I always find it best to alternate between adding small amounts of dry, wet, dry etc.
Be sure not to overmix.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake them at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.

Remove cupcakes from oven and cool completely.

While cuppies are in the oven, make the filling;

To make the filling, place the cherries in a saucepan over medium to high heat.
Bring them to a boil. As soon as it boils, add the sugar and mix until melted.
Add the cornstarch, the lemon juice and the rum.

Mix with a whisk until the cherry mixture thickens. Take off the stove and allow to cool before using. (I had so much extra filling that we are still enjoying it on ice cream for dessert)The recipe originally states to use the "cone" method of filling these cuppies, ie: use a knife to remove a section of the cake, put filling in the hole and replace the top of the bit taken out, however I overestimated the rising capabilities of these cakes and obviously didn't fill the liners full enough. To save myself, I piped a ring of the cream on the top and dolloped a cherry and some sauce in the middle. It still looked cute!

To make the topping, start to whip the cream with a hand/stand mixer. Mix the gelatin and the water and add this mixture to the heavy cream.
When the whipped cream starts forming add the sugar very slowly and then the vanilla extract.

The gelatin is used to stabilize your whipped cream. (I don't find that gelatin is necessary if the cream is whipped to stiff peaks and you're serving the cakes straight away, but it is probably more of a necessity in warmer weather)
Put some whipped cream in a piping bag and decorate the cupcakes. (I added lindt hot chocolate flakes as a sprinkle over the top)

These little cakes seemed to go down very well on Saturday night!

If you try the recipe, please leave a comment to let me know how it went.

Features and Linkies

I'm excited today. Isn't excitement a fun emotion? It's all bouncy and fluffy and YAY-y. Yup, that's a word.
Before you start thinking that I'm crazy (and you'd be right) I'll explain why -
I've been featured in another crafty blog!! Yup, one other than this one. Really!

Hey, this is a big deal for me so just humour me on it!!

Jill at Creating My Way To Success has graciously let me answer some questions, pop some pictures up and generally ramble on about Mrs Monkei Jewellery. At the same time, there's a Creative Hop happening (see the linky at the bottom of this page) for crafters worldwide to meet and greet. I see myself spending quite a bit of time wandering around on craft blogs today..

Head down to the button down the bottom and check me out over at Jill's page, as well as the hop. Thanks Jill for letting me invade your blog for the day. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!

If you've found your way here through the linky gathering, please pop me a comment and say hi either here or over at my facebook page. I love "meeting" other handmade lovers and creators alike, and am always up for a chat!














<center><a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/creating%20to%20success"><img border="0" src=" http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/creatingsuccess_orange.jpg"/></a></center>

A Visit to View Point

Yesterday Mr Monkei and I went to Bendigo to drop in to View Point Handmade Gallery and see my little nook there! I was very excited as I hadn't yet seen the retail space all renovated, painted and open for business. It was nice to see Jess again, she's always lovely and patiently answers all of my noob stockist questions!

Of course, we walked out of there having spent money. There are so many talented crafters being stocked there, I justify my purchases as support for my fellow stockists :D



See my new little tags? I made them on Saturday, I think they are way better than the plain white tags I was using - what do you think?

I took along some new pieces to add to my stock at View Point, including 2 bookmarks and a bracelet made with my new Peruvian beads. My mother in law had the idea that I have a look at some a few weeks ago, and I have fallen in love with them. I now have the sweetest handpainted beads, with all sorts of designs in various shapes and sizes, as well as some beautiful ceramic animals such as Alpacas, Turtles and Koalas. As you know, I'm a sucker for animal beads and findings!



Check out the tiny black Alpaca painted on the bright bead at the bottom!

We'll see how people take to the new direction, it's definitely a different flavour to my normal style but I think it's sweet.

I can't explain how much I'm enjoying having my work in a shop. It's the most thrilling experience to sell my creations in this manner. I hope that Jess will be happy to keep me on there for some time to come and I can continue to learn along the way. It's all fun, after all!

Workspace Woe

Here I am!! I wrote this post on friday, right before my laptop died... It's spent the weekend at the shop being fixed, and even they don't know what was wrong with it. Onwards!!



I've had today off ahead of a full weekend at work. Hooray for days off!
It has been utilised well, with a car service and a lot of housework. Woo.
However I did manage to sit down and make some earrings with the new bits I have just received. Couldn't resist making a pair with emerald swarovski crystals for myself. I am a big lover of emerald green, coupled with a leafy charm and you have my dream earrings! (I have a fairly large leaf bead collection these days, love 'em)

Anyway, I promised woe and here it is...



I could at least buy a new earring stand, right?

With all of the new findings and bits I have had arrive in the past month, I'm realising exactly how inadequate my workspace is. I have taken over the dining room table in our little kitchen currently, and whilst it is doing the job it's not ideal. We live in quite a small 2 bedroom unit, and whilst I could probably get a desk and take over a corner in our spare room, I like to be out in the main part of the house where I can chat to Mr and be near a heater! So until it drives me crazy, this is where I will stay.

I'm going to start having a think about how to make the most of this space, and I might do a bit of a before and after feature if I succeed. At the moment it's a little too embarrassing to photograph in full!!



This is mini Jim. My husband gave him to me to look after when we first met and I never gave him back. He now watches over my workspace. By "watches over" I mean he takes up room. But hey, he's cute!

Lessons in stock and materials

Well I've been quite slack in updating this month as my day job has become incredibly hectic. After a relaxing weekend with Mr I'm back on board. We spent quite a bit of time here this weekend - beautiful!



Back to business..
My current lesson in the education that is handmade selling, seems to be around stock timeliness. I found out 2 weeks ago that my earrings have been selling well over at View Point in Bendigo, and that I needed to get some more stock there as they only had a few pairs left. I thought no worries, I'll get a few pairs made and sent over. Plenty of time, right?

Well work got busy, school got busy, time got away from me and before I knew it I was at the day I had intended to post some stock over but I didn't have the stock made! Luckily they didn't run out but I felt quite unprofessional in taking that much longer to get the stuff over there.

I'm trying now to have some pieces already made and sat aside for if/when they are needed. They can always go to a market on on madeit if they aren't needed in store.
I think this is another confidence thing - where if I gain more confidence in the products I create, I won't hesitate to have some extra stock on hand as I believe it will sell!



The other part of this is materials. I order a lot of my findings etc online and it often comes to me from other countries where it can take at least a month to get to me. I need to start factoring this in especially for November where I have 2 markets booked in. It's a lot to think about but that's the fun of it!!

That's enough thinking for one night, I'm off to make some stock!

Giveaway winners and market displays

Well we've just watched Toy Story 3 together after a long day at school. What a gorgeous movie, I think it's my favourite of the three!
Once the movie had finished I asked Mr to draw two winners out of a hat (okay there was no hat but you know what I mean) - and the winners are:
Tina and Chris
Please email me at mrsmonkei@gmail.com and let me know which colour you would like, and where to send it.
I hope you both like your baby bookmarks!

In other news, I have a good friend who has been helping me to get ready to head to market. She is also going to help me man the stall when the time comes. She's a creative type herself, and when I told her I'd like the stall to look a bit like a tree, she certainly hasn't disappointed me!



On the left is a cd rack that she found at an op shop. She has wrapped the metal parts with brown tulle and found some awesome leaves on wire which we wrapped around the entire thing, with a little help from a glass or two of wine on a saturday night. It is going to make an awesome bookmark/keychain display.

The circlular thingo on the right is an embroidery hoop with brown tulle in the middle and leaves around the outside - an earring display that will still be effective when the earrings are already on cards.
I would never have thought of this stuff myself, how clever is she!

Baby Bookmarks Giveaway!

It's been an interesting week. Just as I was starting to dispair at my difficulty finding a market that wasn't already too overrun with jewellery makers, I was accepted to have a stall at 2! Both of them are in November. More on that later...

I was thinking about the reasons why I was so keen on heading to markets and it all comes down to one thing - my mum. She made her living when I was young doing market stalls, she made everything from felt toys, to clothing, to gorgeous fully joined mohair teddy bears. Her health isn't the best these days so she's unable to do this stuff any more, but she's always been a big support and inspiration for what I do now.

I decided that as a tribute to her (and the childhood I spent at markets!) I am going to attempt to recreate a couple of her designs to add to the Mrs Monkei collection. I'm not incredibly great with a needle and thread, so I don't see myself abandoning jewellery any time soon, but it's been a lot of fun.
(Who knew tying bows was so difficult - thank goodness Mum is so patient!!)



I've started with a staple of Mum's, baby bookmarks. She taught me to do these when I was young, I'll admit I needed a bit of a refresher. But how cute are they!

If you're still with me after that rambling - I'm having a giveaway!!
To celebrate those who inspire us, I'm giving away 2 of these cute little bookmarks.

To enter, you just need to be following Mrs Monkei either on this blog or on my facebook page, and leave a comment here saying who it is that inspires you - your mum, dad, kids, friends, whoever - and why. I'll pick two people at random on Saturday September 3rd. The winners can pick their colour from the three in the photo; pink, purple or blue.

I look forward to reading your comments. Now, I'm off to show Mum my work.
Hopefully she'll be proud! :)

Keyrings and Oreo Cupcakes!

This little bee is the cutest thing I've added into something I've made since the glass seahorse on my aquatic bookmark! I found them months back and couldn't think how to use them, until I thought of making keyrings. This is something my mum only briefly dabbled in and in her case ir was tiny little cross stitched images or letters. So this is a bit of a change for me. I have done a couple with gemstones as well but I liked the change into something a little more bright and cheery.

I sent one of these guys with more yellow and less red beads to Bendigo but I thought I should make one for the madeit store as well.

Today has been a fairly relaxed day, I've not been well the past few months and I'm starting to get really sick of the pain. Pain is a bully, isnt it? It beats you into a sort of submission... Hopefully it'll all be sorted out in time, until then I am crafting and baking to get my mind off it!


Oreo Cupcakes!

I return to work tomorrow after our week off, hubby went back this morning. I thought maybe we'd have nice warm welcomes back to work if I baked some cupcakes, so I've made Bakerella's oreo cupcakes. They are stunning! So light yet moist at the same time, and such an easy recipe. Doesn't get better than that.
I've gone with a boiled vanilla bean frosting and filled them with chocolate ganache. Yuuum.


The innards of an oreo cuppy :)

There's a whole oreo in the bottom. Let's hope Mr's workmates like it - they have become my taste testers!

Shop Stocked!

Hubby and I have just had a week off together, it's been lovely to spend some time doing not a lot. We had a couple of little day trips and hung out with the kitten whilst getting some stock made up for the shop.

Yesterday we tripped on up to Bendigo with 2 little boxes of hair clips, bookmarks, bracelets and earrings. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Jess and her little helper - they showed us around and appeared to like what we had brought along. Well worth the 6 hours we spent in the car and we both got home tired but excited and optimistic. I'm thrilled to be a part of what will be a great thing for Bendigo's art community.

ViewPoint Handmade Gallery opens in September, keep your fingers crossed for me that the people of Bendigo like what I do!!



On a side note, Mr and I have a bet on the 4 bracelets that he designed for the shop selling, he says they won't, I say they will. Hopefully I'm right!

Bookmarks

I've just had a bookmark accepted for sale at a post office. I don't sound overly excited about it for a few reasons...the lady didn't like ANYTHING else that I had to show her, only the metal bookmarks. And only that particular metal bookmark, one with a leaf boomark piece and glass leaf beads of different colours on it. Nice.

Also, she argued with me over the price, as she wanted more profit than I was offering her to have it sit on her shelf. It didn't occur to her to raise the price I had on it, and I have set my prices as such that I already don't profit much on sales. That's just how it is with handmade, you can't really charge for the time it takes you to make something because people wouldn't want to buy it! So with profit margins already quite slim, I'm not going to be able to take a heap off my profit without making it non-existant.
So we'll wait and see how that goes, I'm not holding my breath!!

Orders from customers beat consignment any day, and I sometimes get orders for these metal bookmarks as christmas presents for those on the list that people aren't too sure what to buy for...I hope they go just as well on a shelf as they do by word of mouth.

I also make corded bookmarks, like the ones I did for the wedding.
The cord ones are great for functionality. They aren't as likely to fall out of the book as the heavier metal ones if you're taking a book in a bag on the train or whatever. I couldn't decide which type of bookmarks to do for ViewPoint so I figured I'd try both.



I came up with these for my mum, who with her uncooperative fingers was having trouble picking up the metal bookmark I made her originally. Funny how life can sometimes force a bit of creativity, and in this case it has definitely paid off.

One more week till I take my stock to Bendigo and have a wander around the store/gallery, which is still being refurbished. I can't wait to see my stuff on a shelf, it's going to be a lot of fun. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)!

Market moan

Feeling a little disheartened today, as I've recently been on the hunt for a market to take my stuff to. It's something I've always wanted to do, after all of the time I spent at markets as a child with my Mum who made a living selling the things she made, before handmade became so fashionable - I guess it's ingrained in me. I love the atmosphere of markets, the people, the wonderful things you find, the friends you can make.

I feel the need to express my feelings on the subject after looking around for the past couple of weeks. The places I've found seem to fall into the following categories - either SO far away, ridiculously expensive to hold stalls, the market falls on the weekend I have to work or they don't want jewellery as they have too much of it already!

I went onto the madeit forum thinking "maybe I can find someone to team up with - that could work!" only to find another Melbourne based crafter has beaten me to it!

So for now, I admit defeat. I'll carry on getting ready for the shop and get the 20 bookmark order I have made and try not to be too bothered by it. Maybe I'm not meant to go about this the same way Mum did - looks as though times have changed!

Heading to a store near you....possibly!

My first ever attempt at a display!!
I'm getting slightly excited...
I was contacted about a month ago by a lovely lady named Jess from Bendigo, asking if I'd be interested in being stocked at a store that she is opening. After much consideration and a little confidence boost from those around me I thought - why not? Check out the store's blog: http://viewpointhandmade.blogspot.com/
So I've been madly making stock up and yesterday I sat down and put together the above display. I have enough stock....for that one display. If nothing gets sold I'm fine!! Clearly I have to make some more stuff, cos I'm hoping that things WILL sell!



This is my new mascot. He's very keen to assist with my crafting, as long as it involves taking up my entire lap and getting a belly rub. Helpful chap!
With this furry little distraction, I'll need a but of luck to get myself organised...

A post for the birds!

I'm officially bird-brained. I can't get enough of these bird related earrings.
I've spent the past few days making up a bunch of stock with the idea of putting it into a store! More on that when it's official. In the meantime, more birds...



I realised that I have always described Mrs Monkei Jewellery as "beaded jewellery using glass beads and semi-precious gemstones. Those ones are amethyst, and the ones below are lapis lazuli. I love gemstones and the meanings behind them. I currently have a piece of aquamarine that I keep in my pocket during the day, as it is supposed to promote calmness. And that is something I need!!



I've just ordered some bird cage pieces, looking forward to expanding my lil bird obsession! Watch this space.

A tentative toe in new waters..

Good things are happening in the world of Mrs Monkei. Well, hopefully they are all good!
I've been on about wanting to do markets for ages, but with time and weather being uncooperative at the moment, it hasn't really been possible. As a shift worker I only get 2 weekends off a month, and one of those is taken up by school. Doesn't make for regular things like markets!

A once off market is an idea. I spotted a flyer today for a local market in support of a community week later in the year. I've put in an expression of interest, so with a little luck I'll be able to try my hand at a market stall.

Another answer to this lack of time is to look in to stocking shops. This is something that I may have news about very soon, so watch this space!

New order

This is an order I've just completed last night for a lady, who saw a pic of the design on facebook and ordered it in her own colour choices. These are my favourites as it gives me a chance to play around with the colour combinations that are chosen especially. It's always a little nervewracking when they see it for the first time as I worry that they won't like it, but luckily that hasn't happened yet *touch wood*!!

My giveaway is going well, 5 entries so far with hopefully more to come. There was some confusion from facebook fans regarding automatic entry due to being a fan - this is no longer allowed with the new facebook rules.
People have to choose to enter by going to Amaria's blog and commenting. Now that this is understood (poor communication by me there) people are starting to enter! Yay! Good luck to all...
The winner of the bracelet gets to pick their own colours. So I'm happy, whoever wins :)!

Giveaway!

With minutes to spare until we dash out the door for dinner at our friends' house, I've popped online to see my giveaway is up! How exciting.
The original idea was to do a "randomly chosen" type giveaway to go to two of my fans on facebook. However I soon found out from the lovely folk at the madeit forum that this is now against the rules over at facebook. Just my luck!

After posting my dismay at the rule change, I was soon saved by another madeit crafter. This lovely lady is Amaria, the brains behind Amaria's Paper Works. She's graciously hosting my giveaway over on her blog. Head over and check it out, instructions on how to enter are all there. Please also take the time to look at her shop at madeit. She makes gorgeous custom paper dolls in a variety of styles - I especially love her multicultural dolls. My mother in law would appreciate her Peruvian dolls, they are lovely!

Amaria's blog (and my giveaway) can be found at: http://amariasreviewsandgiveaways.blogspot.com/2011/06/mrs-monkei-jewelry-giveaway.html
You'll find links to her stores there as well.

Thank you Amaria!

p.s: I don't know how she did it, but she's made my photos look amazing! I'm going to prod her for her secrets :D
p.p.s: Apologies for the dodgy link, if blogger was being nice to me you wouldn't need to copy and paste ;)

Photography Lessons

Well it finally got to the point where I realised I needed to make some changes. I go onto etsy and madeit and I see all of this amazing handmade stuff, photographed so professionally - perfect lighting, no fuzz, no shadows, no glare...then I look at my stuff and it's just okay. Okay just doesn't cut it.

I'd LOVE a new camera (I'm currently using a 4.5 year old canon which my husband assures me is perfectly fine) but finances don't permit, so it was research time.

After a bit of googling I found a post that someone had put on a jewellery photography site about DIY light boxes. It involves a 3 sided box covered in white paper with 3 halogen lamps for light and tissue paper to add some sort of softening effect. All very doable but still a little too complex for this little duck. So instead I grabbed a little box, covered the inside with printer paper and bought myself a desk lamp. The real lesson came at Bunnings when I was trying to figure out which globe to buy - I now know the difference between warm white and natural light globes.

It has been a day of learning, but my pictures are certainly improving.



Before: an attempt to shoot in the afternoon sun



After: with my new makeshift lightbox. Still looks a little dark...maybe I do need another lamp?!




Edit: I discovered that I have a "auto adjust colours" option on irfanview! Yay!





Edit (again) 23/7/11: Okay, so nothing beats natural light. This was about 3 in the afternoon, with the blinds open, on my coffee table! I'm not messing with a good thing anymore, just have to hope that the sun keeps behaving itself!

100 Bookmarks!

Now that it's over and I haven't looked at or thought about bookmarks for a few days, I feel relaxed enough to write about it!
My sister in-law is getting married in just over a month. Unfortunately we can't make it to England for the wedding, but I made some hair slides for her bridesmaids a couple of months ago as a way of helping and being involved from over here in Oz.
Can't wait to see photos of them on the day!



Moving on!
Just a little over 2 weeks ago, my lovely mother in-law asked me if I could make something little to add into the favour pouches that will go to the guests. Just something else to help them feel our presence there on the day!
No problem, says I. What and how many?
In the end it was decided that corded bookmarks were the go, as they are fairly easy to put together, and pretty light for postage.
How many? 100. Oh..okay. No problem. *gulp*

Once I sourced the materials for them in the wedding theme colours, I got to work.
I set up a work space on my coffee table, we hired some movies and I got started.
Managed to get them done and in the mail 2 weeks later, quite an acheivement! I was surprised at how cheap it was to post, only $43 - and that was registered. No way was I risking this package disappearing after all those hours of work.



Now to wait for the news that it's arrived...

Beginnings

Hi folks and welcome!
After a couple of years of quietly stalking here on blogger, I've jumped aboard the blog wagon myself to see what the fuss is about. Glad to be here!

The beaded jewellery making hobby that I've enjoyed spending vast amounts of money on for the past 5 years has become a bit of a side venture, and I'm really enjoying creating things especially for people to wear and enjoy. I'm still (as you can see) grasping the online component of handmade crafting. My favourite orders by far are the times that people have seen something I've made and asked me if I can do it for them in their own choice of colours/styles. It makes it so much more personalised and I love to see their reactions.


A custom order from last year.

I certainly don't expect to take on the world anytime soon with my creations, but it would certainly help to support my bead buying habit!
I hope to connect with other crafty people on here, most of the blogs I currently follow revolve around baking, which is my other love. I imagine there'll be a balance of both on here over time!