Holidays.

Well it's the school holidays. And already they're off to a bad start.
Summer has the measles :(
No one can remember if I've had them either.
Which means I probably haven't and probably soon will. So you can see, a pretty rubbish start to the school holidays.

Now I just wait with baited breath as to when I (and quite probably) my baby girl get them too. Not happy. At all. Actually that's an understatement.

Below is an earring display stand my FIL built for me over the weekend. ♥ it.

I am in the process of waiting on some sticky adapter things for the backs of my earring cards, so when I've got those I can start arranging my dangly earrings on this stand. Yes I am intent on getting to some markets in time for Christmas shopping. I have decided to try the ones closest to me, they're Farmers/Craft markets and about $33 a stall. I will have to borrow the FIL's gazebo tent and I have found a table to buy and I just need all the other bits n bobs - table cloth, vinyl logo and a mirror - then all I need to do is get more stock together and finally go! haha how long have I been saying THAT for??

Anywho, below is the latest off my bench:

Earrings and a pendant. I am working on more earrings and more pendants and a ring or two. There are some new tools on their way to me and some new stones, new books and some new enamels. Oh and I got new Business cards coming from Moo.com with my new logo on them! Lots to look forward too! :)

These are 3mm Natural Diamonds I purchased from a fellow jewellers stash on etsy.

I would like to flush set these. Which means teaching myself to do this. I have seen a couple of videos and read in mags/blogs etc how to do this. And most of these tutorials suggested making your own small burnisher, as the original burnisher we use to set stones is too big and will mar your metal and leave not nice scratches all over. Well I am not one to make my own tools. Not yet anyhow. So I purchased these off an Etsy seller also:

I haven't yet used them. Well actually I lie, I did try the metal twisted bezel rocker and found it a little slippery and a bit difficult to hold as it's quite small. But I will keep trying. Probably just used to using my big wooden handle one I guess.

Trying to get to some tuition for metalsmithing is pretty much out the window for now too. It's much too difficult to get to the classes, I will just have to be happy with trial and error and continuing to teach myself with the help of the internet. ♥ the internet.

Alrighty well I had better get back to my less fun chore of the day - bleaching the grout in our tiles. It looks terrible. Spesh when I have bleached the actual tiles and they're looking pristine. I am bleach/scrubbing them by hand and we have A LOT of tiles :(

Take Care
Em ♥