Cannot Think......

my daughter is outside on the patio singing her lungs out and I can't think. All day it's been 'don't do this/don't do that/if you do that again......' I'm a bit over it.

And she's only got 2 more days of Kindy left this year, then it's home every day for 6 weeks. I'm still not feeling great (will elaborate another time about that). We have an inspection tomorrow :(  So a few things to get done for that. I haven't really spent much time at the bench lately either. Still think about it every spare moment, but I haven't the get up and go right now. Though I did get a cuff finished this week! In my Etsy store :)

I have about another 8 lovely new labradorites that I'm looking forward to using. Has to be one of my fave stones. 

Today I got out to the bench, I've nearly finished a bracelet and I'm working on a couple of other pendants. It would be nice if I could just work in there for a few straight hours with no distractions ... maybe Friday :)

Last week I purchased a quick release hand piece for my flex shaft. I can't wait to get it working as it's going to make things a lot easier for me. 

It was our 11th wedding anniversary on the 1st of Dec and hubby chipped in to buy me this chair I just absolutely HAD to have lol

 

I didn't have my normal lens on, only the macro, so I couldn't get a full shot of it, but it's a sofa and it's absolutely stunning and I love it! Been looking for something like this for a very very long time.

Also I'm working on getting a new logo done for my jewellery. But trying to chose something is a nightmare for me haha ... if you want to see what I'm choosing from, head over to my facebook page and you can give me your opinion. 

Going to love you and leave you here :)

Em ♥

On my bench...

For once have some things on my bench...but they're all only half made.

Still struggling with a name change (again) lol...I am very attached to the name I have now. Have used it for many years, for sewing and my card making. I've even got labels for my sewing and a heap of different stamps made with my LCH name.

Like I've posted before, I'm not a very decisive person. I end up just confusing myself further :(

Summer had her 3rd and 4th visit to Kindy last week and everything went really well. 

I got quite a lot done on the Thursday morning, but on Friday my hubby was home off work, so I didn't get anything finished. Then the weekend came and I didn't get anything done again :( Plus it poured with rain all day and night on Saturday. Summer has a cough....this morning it seems to be more raspy, so I'm hoping that it means it's clearing up and off her chest, or she might not be able to go this week to kindy.

Hopefully Summer gets to go and I get to finish my work. My shop is being neglected a little.

We had an inspection on Tuesday (the one where the actual owners come once a year) and 2 real estate agents turned up with the 2 owners (older married couple). Talk about intimidation! My hubby and I worked so hard over the weekend, that the house ended up looking in better condition than when we first moved in!!! Of course, no one said anything. But hey, I get to enjoy it looking so good :)

Now we are focused on whether to sign another lease here or not. 

I'm deciding whether to cut a fringe or not - for myself.

And its time to decide on our furniture we have stashed around.

This was a piece we bought for our dining room a while ago:

Apparently from around late 1800's. I absolutely love it. But it needs sooo much work done to it (if you can see the top is splitting/buckling) to restore it and we aren't sure that we will ever get around to it. 

Also several weeks ago, I won a little antique cabinet off ebay and when we got home we noticed the top was all bubbling and puffy and flakes of veneer were coming off (none of this was put in photos or in description).

 I paid a small fortune for this piece too and now we need to pay another small fortune fixing it up. I didn't see the top needed fixing till I got home as the lady's house that we bought it from was soooo dark and my mum carried it out for me and lay it down in the boot, so it was out of view then too. And it took over an hour and a bit to get there! Sigh....wasn't happy at all .... neither was hubs.

So now we've decided to replace a couple of pieces of furniture with new pieces, that don't need to be restored in any way shape or form. Which is hard for me, as I don't really like modern furniture. Plus buying new means paying more - generally anyway. But it beats having half finished pieces around.

That's it for now. I guess I should probably get on with my mopping etc. Oh and there goes the washing machine....need to hang that out too. Not feeling so great yesterday and today....so it makes it really hard to be motivated, but it's got to be done ..... I need a maid ..... or a nanny would be nice ....

Em ♥

Brrrr

Yes it's certainly Winter here now and I'm loving it!
There is nothing nicer than being able to be in the full sun at the park or outdoors somewhere nice, without breaking out in a sweat or getting super burnt and dehydrated. I love being able to take Summer to the Park or Beach and rug up in a nice warm Cardi or Jacket.

I can't seem to keep up with my blogging these days :( I don't have a lot more on in my day, but Summer is a very full on little girl and constantly demands attention. It's making it hard for me to get to the bench too, as I don't want to plonk her down in front of the t.v (not that it holds her attention much anyways).

We just had 3 tradesmen in our house for the morning, finally installing 2 air conditioners :) That is hopefully going to make Winter/Summer much more comfortable around here! Though our Electricity bills are getting bigger and bigger....which kinda makes me hesitant to use heaters etc. So I try to use them only when I'm desperate.

Below is a piccie of the little Deco cabinet I blogged about some while back. It's not actually Turquoise in colour, it's Teal. My camera won't pick it up :( But it's gorgeous and I love it to bits!

Below is a piccie of a new mirror I got a hold of last week. I LOVE IT! I have been searching for something very ornate to go in our dining area and when this came up on Ebay, I knew I was going to make it mine. I almost didn't get it into my car....but I would have found a way to get it home no matter what. I am now searching for an antique sideboard to put it on to finish the area off nicely. I'm watching one that needs a resto, hopefully it will go for a decent price, as I'm noticing more and more antiques being snapped up here.

And below again are pictures of jewellery that I made a couple of weeks back. Some shoulder dusters (name??) and a pendant.

Whilst the tradesmen were here, I took advantage of getting to the bench whilst Summer followed them around and chatted with them. So I have a few pieces I am currently half way through. Oh and I have purchased some gorgeous pieces of Turquoise and I cannot wait! to get a hold of them! Yum!!

That's about it for now. My floors are a mess from the guys coming in and out of my house and my hubby is on his way home and it's lunch time. I had a pendant featured in the Etsy Finds Email too :) Thanks Amy for letting me know :)

Have a wonderful day all!

Wow time has flown by since my last post.
I have been busy I guess, which is never a bad thing in my book. I have just started to get back to the bench this past week and have gotten a few things done.

There has been a lot of light showers this morning already, it's a bit gloomy outside too...I don't mind that though :) Below are pictures of what I have completed this week from the bench:


2 Rings. I find making the ring bands a bit of a pain in the butt, but I really need the practice, so better late than never!! I do have 2 necklaces waiting to be oxidized yet, but I probably won't get to them till this afternoon. I am working on a few other pieces too, it's just finding the time and getting the creative juice hit that I have to wait around for sometimes.

I ended up ordering some silver sheet when the Silver Price was sky rocketing towards the predicted $50 mark.......it took the company 2 weeks to send it to me and by then, the price had dropped by $50 on the order I had made.....so I wasn't very pleased, especially when the company didn't honour current silver prices. To be honest with you, I hate the customer service, or rather lack thereof that this company gives. I am not the only one here in Australia that dislikes their incompetency and lack of supply in stock too. It's really frustrating that I don't have a choice of people to deal with like in the USA. I could go on and on bagging them out, but the fact remains, I still have to deal with them. Next time though, I won't be so naive. I should have cancelled that order and saved myself the money. But what's done is done and I have learned from it :)

On to a whole other subject, below is a picture of the new look dining room. Complete with the new colour feature wall and dining furniture that we have painted up. I spent over a week painting the dining chairs, hence not working at the bench as my time was wrapped up in this project. I am on the lookout for a little dresser or sideboard that I can do up to put where the dark timber table is at the moment, which I will be selling on. I really love the 'fresh' feel/look that the dining room now has. And having a smaller table and chair setting has given us even more room, not that we needed it lol, but it looks nicer and cleaner and I'm happy with that! We are going to move the freezer into the garage soon too, so I hope to get a nice floor lamp for that corner and perhaps a chair.

I will try and get a picture of the deco cabinet soon as it's been finished up and is living in it's new spot in the house......just waiting for the sun to come out :)

That's it for this post, hope you are all well and having a great week! It's lovely and cool weather here now and I love it!!!!

I hear the rain.........lots of blah ahead

and it's lovely.
Everyone is in bed and I thought I would take this 'quiet time' to write a post.

The price of silver......well, those of you who read my blog probably already know about it. I almost feel as though my hobby will be over before it's barely begun....and I shudder to think about what the price will be a few months from now. I don't need any silver right now, but I feel pressured to buy some, before it gets seriously out of control. It's so depressing. I can only imagine how it feels for those who do silver work for a living.

I wanted to get a repousse set and a rolling mill, but I'm no longer sure that would be a wise investment. Working with copper is obviously an option, or brass as many are starting to do and I feel that if I were to work with those metals more, I would need a rolling mill and repousse set to keep things interesting. It's so hard to know what route to take. Right now I think one thing I can do is work with smaller stones and designs. That way I can continue to work in Silver....for the time being.

As I wrote in my previous post, we had the inspection and all went well. The owners were quite nice and that afternoon, the new lease was in the letterbox, which we weren't yet expecting. And the nice surprise was, they only increased the weekly rent by $5. It doesn't get much better than that. Oh and there is an airconditioning quote guy coming tomorrow morning. So hubs and I have mulled it over and decided that if they are going to put in the airconditioning, we will stay here for another year. I was originally all for moving, but as we only just did that 10 months ago, I don't really fancy doing it again now......I think I will just try and make this place more like a home and put my own stamp on it, as far as I can anyways seeing as we only rent it.

We finally got my little deco cabinet finished. I will put up a piccie next post and we are half way through our new dining chairs and almost done with the dining table. I cannot wait to get it all together and brighten this place up. I have been buying up little things here and there to decorate the house with. Today we went to Freedom (a big furniture store) and I impulse bought a new big clock and a lovely green vase kinda thing. And a couple of weeks ago I was at Target and I picked up a gorgeous big white picture frame, with places for about 6 photos, which I will most likely fill with pictures of Summer. And I have a few other things I've bought too. The revamped deco cabinets colour now means that we will need new cushions (or cushion covers) and a new rug in the lounge room. If I had my way I would get a new lounge suite. I hate the one we have...and I mean HATE lol.

On the jewellery front, I haven't really gotten much made. I have a few pieces I am working on, but since all this painting and moving business, I haven't had much space in my head for creating.

Well that's enough for now. It's nice n cool and I very much want a hot hot hot cup of tea now :) Thanks for reading :)

I hate renting.

Yesterday I was getting myself and Summer ready to go to the shops to buy some things for Winter, when there was a knock at the front door.

It was the Manager of the Real Estate we rent our home through. And he had an older couple with him. To cut a long story short, he was here to show them through the house and he made out that there had been a letter (notice of entry) sent out to us. But I haven't had any such letter. So I basically said they couldn't come through because I wasn't ready for any 'inspection'. So they are coming back on Thursday morning. Turns out, if I didn't get 1 weeks written notice, I didn't have to let anyone in at all this week. But I didn't know that either.

I figure that he never sent a letter out at all. (The couple were here from the UK and only were going to be down here for a few more days) And I think he was hoping I wasn't going to be home or that he could just push his way in here thinking I wouldn't say anything.

I originally thought he was bringing a couple through the house because he had put the house up for sale. When my husband called him to find out what was happening, the Manager said that it was the actual Owners of the property coming to do an inspection and apparently they do it every year!!!! Well in all the 9+ years my husband and I have been renting, we haven't ever heard of such a thing!!! I am furious to say the least. I think when the renter is still in the property it's rude and intimidating for them and the manager to come through and pick on everything!!!!!!! Besides only a couple of months ago (if that) we had our quarterly inspection with the real estate. So I am stressed out since that visit as I know that they are going to be super fussy and forget that this house was left in an absolute state when we moved in.

The lawn was not mowed and the manager at the time didn't send anyone out to do it till weeks later. The house was covered in fleas the day we moved in and it had to be sorted by pest control. The window panes were filthy, the security screens were filthy, the window tracks were caked in black gunk. The floors were filthy, there were cobwebs everywhere all over the house in every room. I could go on and on with what state this place was like...but I'm sure you get the picture.

I can just see tomorrow morning when they come, they are going to gang up on me and start questioning things and picking on things. And if they do...they'd better watch out. I'm ready for them...picture proof and all!

Sigh.....

Boring post, I know...but I had to get it off my chest a bit more. Only cause I am so frustrated and wary of the visit ahead.

So aside from all that drama, below is a picture of our dining setting we are trying to sell....It's not gross. It's just boring and too big. On Saturday we picked up our new dining table (thanks Ebay) and on Sunday morning we got our new dining chairs (thanks Gumtree). The table and chairs need doing up and I want to paint the setting too. I still haven't painted my little deco cabinet. But I at least have decided on a colour now :) I can't wait to get this inspection done with so I can spend the Easter holidays making over the new furniture.Again, if you got this far..great!! :)
Thanks for stopping by! :)

Come Back Winter!!!

I can't stand this muggy weather.....as I am sure I have told you that mannnny millions of times before lol. It's muggy/humid right now, but I know that down south they are getting it much worse than us. So I am grateful that we don't have a heatwave.

It 4pm and I am in the middle of making Bolognaise for dinner with Garlic Bread. I was going to cook a meat pie with mash n veg, but it's too hot to be hovering round a stove/oven, so I took the simple option.

I sent in my silver scrap to my metal supplier just before Christmas and it took soooo long to get it processed and for me to get new silver supplies (I received them this afternoon). So now I have loads of silver sheet, but no mojo haha...again.

I don't push myself when it gets like that tho...cuz that's how I end up making mistakes or making something I don't particularly like, so it ends up a waste and we all know that mistakes/waste is too expensive nowadays. Below is a picture of what I have made so far this year...it's not much.

I haven't listed any of them yet...but hope to soon, just have to pay my fees tomorrow and then I will. One thing I am finding frustrating about Etsy, is the lack of feedback I am getting from customers. I need that feedback. But I don't want to push people to leave it for me either :(

Below is the cabinet that my hubby and I finally finished a few weeks back. We love it. I am on the lookout now for a dining table and chairs (don't have to be a set) that I can do up for when we move this year. I am hoping for a dining table with Queen Anne legs and dining chairs that I can reupholster the seat part.


I am also on the hunt for a proper but basic jeweller's workbench. I know that RioGrande have them on sale right now, but I don't know if they will post it to me and how much it would cost if they do....so I've emailed, just waiting for a reply. I emailed a Jeweller's Supply shop in my local city too...I hope that they get back to me with something reasonable.

Well that's all for now. I really would like to go and play with my new supplies, but it's too darned hot and it makes me extra lethargic and I just want to flop in front of a fan and not move all day... :P

Hope you are all having a great start to 2011!!!