2014

Well it's now the 3rd of Jan 2014 already.
I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year ♥

My eldest is away at her Nans for a few hours and my baby just fell asleep on the tiles lol, so I've just put her to bed. Now I can finish off my housework. So whilst I mop and wait for the floors to dry, I figured this would be a good time as any to do my first post for the year.

I don't do resolutions.
I do goals.
Usually I give myself 5(ish) goals to achieve within the year.
Mostly techniques to teach myself and one goal to reach for my etsy shop.
Just before the new year, I managed to teach myself one last technique:

Prong/Claw setting.
I haven't attempted anything like this before and it was playing on my mind for the last few weeks, so I jumped in head first last week and am super pleased with the results for a first try. I'm even wearing the ring right now.

It's a big ring and it's quite a 'bling' piece. I am very proud of it and absolutely intend to try to make another soon. I've had a few rather large stones like this for a few years now, never knowing if I would ever learn to set them. Now I now what I am doing, the confidence is there to do it again. (not a pink fan really though, but it is a pretty stone)

My shop was closed for a little while over Christmas and I reopened it on the 1st of January. I have 40 pieces listed for the first time ever! One of my goals for my shop is to get to 50 pieces listed and to keep it there....if not more. I have a couple of new rings yet to list, so I'm getting there :)

Again I have revamped my shop with new pictures of my pieces. I am never happy and never sure how to 'stage' my photographs. So I just went with what I personally like and I'm happy with how my shop looks. For now.

Below are a few new pieces I have made. The fox I am yet to list. 

I am working on a few heart pieces for Valentines day, got to get in early. And another enameled fox is in the works. Generally I'm not one to make things that are 'trending' but sometimes I feel it's necessary. My other goal for my shop is to sell 50 pieces this year. And that is going to mean I will need to make current trend items to help bring traffic to my shop. I intend to invest more into my shop this year, as last year I fell way behind.

Well the floors are drying very slowly as today it is expected to reach 37C and that dear friends is getting damned hot. Tomorrow it is forecast to be 40C, the plan for the day ...?... lock ourselves indoors and put on the airconditioning!

I hope the new year so far is treating you well!
Em ♥

Parcel joy :)

I have got my parcels with my new tools and supplies :)

I finally took the plunge and got myself a Swanstrom disc cutter. I've played around with it a couple of times and I'm happy with it thus far. There is some 6ga twisted silver wire, which I am going to make myself some bangles with. Some ring shank wire, earring wire, a charcoal block and some wire screens for my tripod and finally some Vintaj patinas.

I've never used the patinas before, but I have heard (and watched) plenty about them. So I hope once my Ferric Chloride arrives, I can go ahead and etch my own designs and then play around with patinas to help the patterns stand out. As much as I love to oxidize absolutely everything I make, sometimes I like to mess around with colours. It's an inexpensive way to expand my skills and inventory, as mostly I will be using brass and copper for etching, so the patinas will be perfect for that....I hope.

Oh and I also bought a silicone polishing set (you can see that under the charcoal block) I haven't used any polishing things like that before, not really even sure How to use them, but I'll figure it out.

Thus far I have made myself 2 bangles from the twisted wire.
I had to dig out the MAPP gas for that though.

Not a huge fan of the MAPP gas, but needs must. Still have another 2 to make and I might be making one for Summer as well.

Thanks to the new supplies/tools I am dabbling at the bench a little this week. I have some scrap gold (from an old ring of mine) that I am making some nice weighty studs with, just waiting on the solder and stud parts to finish.

Annnd there is a student open day on Saturday the 3rd, at a place that holds workshops and courses for silversmithing. I have been pondering attending a workshop there for some time now, but never got around to it before baby was born. I checked out the website again and saw that the owner/teacher now offers private tuition and studio hire. So I figured now's my chance (well Saturday will be) to see what it's like there and to meet the owner/teacher and see if it really is something I want to go ahead with.

I am chuffed with how far I have come on my own.
But I feel I need some guidance and help to further my skills and private tuition every now and then would be great for that! Also I would like to hone the skills I already have so that my work can be better.

I am getting sick again :(
Summer has had a cough for quite a while now, if it doesn't disappear in the near future, we might have to take her to the doctors and go down the medication route - which I don't like to do. That's the only reason I hate Winter time, sickness. It's everywhere and it's so contagious too :( I can deal with it, but the thought of poor little baby getting sick again makes me very anxious!

Okie Dokie, I don't have much else to write about today. Not sure if you've noticed, but I have been blogging more lately?! Off to look at cabochons (and to buy a few lol). Have a great week.

Em ♥

Not Cleaning Today :)

Normally Mondays are when I'd do some big house cleaning for the week. But today I have decided, I don't want to do that today :P

The house doesn't look any worse for wear because of that decision, so I figured I can probably get away with it today! I am going to try and work at my bench instead.

Below are a couple of pieces I've finished this past week:

♥ SOLD ♥

I am only working on 1 more pendant and a pair of earrings for my shop at the moment and a little brooch for my mother. So hopefully today I can get a few more pieces started. I also want to do something for myself. I don't really make things for myself, but I want something like the piece above, but without a stone and with a back. Hope I can have that done before baby arrives.

Above is the latest addition to my techniques 'to do'. I haven't ever attempted this wax carving before, but it is something I have been intending to try for about 9 months now, so finally with my latest Rio order, I got a box of wax tablets to play with. I also would like to pull out my repousse kit and give that a go too, but I think I need another kit with a different pitch in order to do a whole piece. So I have to investigate a little more into that and maybe order that with the next purchase from Rio.

Well I had better leave it here and get on with my day. I have to finish the chain on the owl piece above and get that posted out and it's nearly 10am, so only a handful of hours left before I pick up the kid :)

Em ♥

Not Long Now ...

I haven't been very devoted to posting of late.
So I thought I had better pop on by and say hello.
Not long now until baby comes. Under 6 weeks and it will be here! If all goes according to plan anyhow (not that that ever happens!) :)

I have decided to renovate my blog.
It's still simple, but I like the colour change and I have added my Etsy and Facebook and Pinterest to the links in the header and sidebars.

There hasn't been much going on bench wise lately. I'm just not feeling very creative - though I do have several pieces almost finished. It just takes me a lot longer to create at the moment. When I'm at my bench, I have been enjoying the show Downton Abbey. I'm up to season 2. It's funny how not much really happens, but enough goes on to make you want to keep watching :)

Below is a pendant I've recently finished and listed in my store:

And below are some earrings I've recently made and listed:

The pieces I'm working on now are all pendants.
Isn't it great news that silver dropped??!!!!! I was so happy. I needed to make an order and the price drop couldn't have come at a better time. I didn't go crazy or anything, but I ordered enough to keep me going for a little while. I don't imagine that I'll be making much for a while once baby arrives, but we'll see. Once in a new routine that includes baby and Summer, I might get more time to myself.

We have an inspection tomorrow. I hate them. But it does give us a chance to do a good ole spring clean. Which is exactly what I've been doing with my spare time of late. I have sold some clothes and books and stamps and have cleared out a lot of stuff from the spare room that baby will be eventually going into. It's a nice feeling downsizing things and even better if you can make a little cash on the way.

Well I have a hospital appointment this afternoon with an Endocrinologist. I'm hoping I don't have to wait around long. I'm tired of waiting around there.

Have a lovely day
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 ♥

Been a Big Week.

Wow, just like the title says, it's been a busy week here in our household.

My mum came to stay for a couple of nights. 

Summer is now enrolled in a Preprep program (kindy) and I spent a few hours there at the centre with her, so she could get a feel for it all and meet the other children.

This morning I took in all her enrollment forms etc and then we did a little grocery shop together. She won't be starting there for another 2 weeks, as school holidays start now. So we have 2 weeks left together....it's going to be so strange not having her around everyday.

I'd be lying if I said it doesn't bother me a bit.

Anywho, my hubby did my bench for me pretty much straight away.

It's so big!! Here is a picture of my new bench:

It's a bit hard to tell just by looking at this, but if you look at the old bench picture in my last post, you can gather an idea of the size if you see where my soldering board is, compared to where it is on my new bench. It's probably a bit too big a bench...if there is such a thing?? lol

I got myself a new sheet of silver this week and some more gold filled wire and a new tool!! 

I have seen several others with this tool. A facet stone setting tool. And they've sung the praises of it, so I figured I would invest in one, considering I want to use a lot more of these stones in my work. I haven't tried it out yet..(typically). But perhaps I will get around to it this weekend. 

Hopefully soon over the next week, I will get to try out this new bench and see how I go working at it for a prolonged period of time. I might need to get a new chair yet, but hoping I can get away with my old one as it's really comfy to work in.

Alrighty, I should probably get on with my housework etc, though I don't much feel like it.

Take care 

Em ♥

Gem Show, New Bed And Spring Cleaning

It's just after 10am, Friday and I've been spring cleaning my morning away.

We have an inspection coming up in 2 and a half weeks time, so I thought I would make a start now, by spring cleaning the day away :)

This weekend there is a gem show on. 

In fact it happens to be the same one I went to last time and it was really disappointing. But they are so few and far between, that I feel like going again anyway. You never know, it might be better this time around.?.

We are getting a much needed new ensemble base this weekend. Which means it's time to look for a funky headboard! Yay! I have seen a few DIY headboards and have saved them to Pinterest. But seeing as I need to get a new workbench made, I can't see us taking the DIY headboard route right now.

I got to the bench this week and I actually sold a few pieces this week, which was awesome! I made these:

I also made these:

My dilemma with the above earrings is - the stone on the right is darker over the top half (click on the image to see it larger) and I'm not sure whether I should sell them and if so, should I say that one of the stones is darker across the top? Or should I let the photo's speak?? Or should I sell them at a discounted price perhaps?? What do you think??

Em ♥

Almost Autumn

It's the 2nd last day of Summer here and I'll be glad to see the back of it. There has been lots of rain this Summer and lots of overcast days....today is one of those days, (though now I'm editing this post - the sun has come out). I am finally getting back to my bench, slowly but surely. 

I finally got a couple of little things made this weekend and I am doing the finishing touches on them today. I really haven't been dedicating the time to making, like I want to. Making new things always occupies every spare moment of my thoughts. I have finally taken to sketching down rough ideas of my thoughts lately. I can't draw to save my life, but, it's a good way of keeping those ideas safe and not forgotten. 

 

Above is the newest addition of colour to my work area. I splashed out and bought a 2012 calendar from Umberdove

It's gorgeous and so lovely to look at :)

Next on my agenda is to design and make a new bench for my work area. The one I have, has been awesome up until now. It used to be a massive medieval bed I had custom made when I was about 17 or 18 years old. It was chunky, dark, with a really high base like the beds from that era and it was 4 post with canopy and it had huge cast iron fleur de lys/studs wrapped around it. Well I got sick of it after a while and stupid head me asked my dad to hack it to bits and make a little bench out of it. (I still to this day do not know why I didn't take any pictures of it/or what happened to the left over wood) Yes - I do regret that decision, to hack it to bits. But I was young and didn't always think things through.

So it has served as an entertainment unit and then when I discovered smithing, it became my bench. It has served me well. Very well. But now I want something a little more well designed for the purpose. I decided against a proper jewellers bench. I am used to working with the kind of bench I have now and I don't think a proper jewellers bench will suit the way I work. 

Now I need a bench with more space, that is higher up and we're going to cut out a spot for my bench pin (like a real jewellers bench) and there are a few other things I want to custom make for my bench so it is exactly how I want it.

In the meantime, if I can find a bench already made or something similar that I can alter to suit, then that would be great too. I have been looking. But nothing much ever pops up around my local area :(

Well I have just finished up a few pieces and I will have to photograph them this afternoon and get them into my shop. I also have a couple of pieces to shorten chains on and then post out tomorrow. 

Thanks for dropping by :)

Em ♥

Back At The Bench.

The sun is out and shining! Finally! It feels like forever since I last saw the sun for this length of time. It's been a few weeks almost. So this morning, I took my little munchkin out to the pond to get some much needed Vit D.

We're back home and I've put the air conditioning on to keep the humidity at bay. 

I have actually made some new things at the bench this past week. 

Honestly though with the lack of sales in my shop, it makes me feel like giving up. Though on the flip side of that, I just bought some more tools and a book and silver tubing lol.

I figure I will keep at it. For now.

On my list of things to learn, I want to try my hand at setting another large faceted stone. I bought one a while back, so will have to take a picture of it before I try and make a setting for it. Hopefully this one works out without any issues and I can list it in my shop. I finally bought the Creative Stone Setting book, which might help me the second time round with this setting. I also want to give flush setting a go. I have the burs coming and I have a few very small stones I can practice with, I just need to make a small burnisher first. There are a couple of tutorials out there that show you how to go about making one. 

Above are a couple of simpler things I have made for my shop.

Thanks ladies for giving me your opinion on my new background. I am going to keep the Turquoise box for the big earring shots and the other background for everything else. It keeps things interesting in my shop.

Sadly I am almost out of silver sheet. Which isn't great, as silver prices are on the rise again. Should probably weigh my scraps and see what I have....I've got quite a bit again.

Really I should buy myself some ingots and crucibles and melt it down myself....actually I think I will buy them in a couple of weeks and give it a go!!

I have the scrap and I have the mill, so it makes sense doesn't it?!!

I guess I should go and make some lunch for all now, it's almost lunch time.

I will go and read some blogs now :)

Take care

Em ♥

A Good Start.

It's Friday morning and I've just finished all of my housework. 

Typically I went and put on Summers washing and it started to rain. 

It's been terribly hot here the last 3 days and just yesterday the heat started to dissipate and we got a bit of relief and today it's not too bad again. So I haven't really gotten to the bench - except to finish things off and photograph them ready to list in my shop:

I think I'm getting a bit sick of seeing the blue box in my background lol.....

It's lovely, but I think it's a bit overpowering to have in every single picture....I may have to start putting pictures like the 2 above in as the first picture of my listing, just to keep it looking different?? I dunno haha.

I've only sold 1 thing in the last month and it's getting hard for me to be upbeat about making things. I really really want to keep making things, but I don't know if I am prepared to have sales anymore to get sales. It's hard. I keep getting faves for my shop and items and I get added to circles and sometimes I am in treasuries. If I'm honest, I don't really promote my work. I guess that's something I will have to work on this year. And I really should be spreading the love on Etsy with others more, by making my own treasuries and promoting others work - but it's just so time consuming. I hope things pick up soon :(

Well the hubby has just arrived home, so I will leave it here.

I hope you've all had a great month so far!

Em ♥

Muggy Much?

Feels like it was just Summer time only a moment ago and here it is upon us already. And I already hate it lol....but whats new???

I am not overly looking forward to the new year. There is a new law that the government here are supposedly bringing in and it will affect my husbands job. His work situation has already become a bit sketchy of late and I've been pretty stressed about it all. 

Anyways - my daughter is now starting to play with her toys properly and interact with them and I love hearing her!! It brings me back to when I was a little girl, playing with my toys and how I used to use my imagination to have fun. I love my little girl so much it makes my heart ache!

Because of the humid weather we have had, we've been getting more and more ants in our house. Ants are fine...when they're outside...but when I start getting lots of them walking around my kitchen bench and random areas around the house, I start to get pretty annoyed. I spent most of yesterday afternoon spraying them and wiping them up. And just when you think they're gone, a new little trail of them appears. Sigh.

Well here are the latest pieces I finished up last week:

I've already listed them in my shop, which I am usually pretty lazy doing. 

I am still digging my backgrounds. I love seeing my shop all fresh and colourful. I did try my background out with another coloured box, but it just didn't look right, it looks better when it's all the same background, but just alternating the positions and bokeh etc, makes it not look too samey same for every shot. You are right Amy, Turquoise really does work :)

Well it's hot and I don't feel like working at the bench, I desperately need a screen door (which I'm still trying to get the hubs to see to). Way too many flies and mosquito's and wasps get in when I have the doors up, but it's so hot in there really need the breeze (something we get a lot of at this house!!).

Hope you are having a wonderful week thus far 

Em ♥

Working Hard....

I am trying really hard to promote my Etsy store/work.

The last couple of months have been almost dead as far as sales go. Only just this past week I have sold a few things and it's certainly brightened me up!

I want to get my shop with at least 2 pages full by the time I have my Christmas sale, but it's hard to get going (nothing new there!). Just last week Summer had a super bad fever reaching temps that were going to make us head to hospital. Fortunately she got over it after a few days and then hasn't come down with anything since. So we're not really sure what was wrong.......

I am so glad for modern science and remedies.

Summer and I spent the day at my Mothers yesterday. It takes me about 2 hours to drive there and then 2 back.....so it's a big day out for us. But it gets us out and I get to spend some much needed time with my mum and Summer gets to play with the parrots and see her gram & pops. It's worth that long ride.

This is my latest piece:

I am still enjoying my new background and look of my shop.

Still wasting time on Pinterest lol....

It's been overcast here for days now....humid and no rain.....well there was a little rain the other evening, actually it looked like it would storm, but it didn't. It's great for my photography!!

Going through some stresses at the moment, but I have to remind myself that we are fed, clothed and have a roof over our heads and we have each other and that is a heck of a lot to be happy about! And I get to have a hobby like this. It's hard sometimes to not get caught up in a bubble of my own trouble. Thinking of Jo  right now .... hope you get better hun ♥

And I hope everyone else is well too!! Sending out much love to you all 

Em ♥

To Roll With The Mill.

(for some reason, everything I write is going to be underlined and I have nooo idea how to remove it)

Well it seems like everyone is getting a rolling mill lately! I've been talking about buying one for ages now. My Etsy sale went so much better than I expected it to and now that I have funds again, I am pondering the ever pondered question in my brain...to buy or not to buy. I'm hesitant only because it's a largish sum of money to spend on one tool and not knowing what the future brings financially/hobbywise I am in 2 minds about it (as I am about pretty much everything in my life lol).

So I will think about it this week and hopefully make my mind up quick smart.

In the meantime, below are pictures of what I have made lately:

And below is a picture of a gorgeous tree stump my hubs surprised me with last week. I love it! It needs a bit of work to flatten and smooth down the top to make it completely steady, I am starting to think I might like it for photography lol and not for hammering on. I hope to have a proper blacksmiths anvil one day :) I've found the perfect one....and it would look so pretty on the stump :P

The weather is all over the place lately. It's been quite Spring like in the day time. And the night time hasn't been quite as cold, but it has been a bit more windy than normal. I am not looking forward to the Summer. Really not.

I have a lot of family in the U.K so I'm

sending out 'keep safe' vibes to those in the U.K who are affected by the riots.

Silver Smells....

Well the price of it does at least! I don't regularly check the price of silver, but every now and again I do and I couldn't believe it was at $40 again last night. I don't want to get all flustered again and go and buy a whole heap, for the 'just in case it rises' situation, but I can feel the pressure mounting again...as I am sure every other person who works with this metal feels.

Enough of that depressing chatter ....

So I went with the hubby and child to the Markets I wrote about in my last post. And to be honest and to the point....they STANK. Really. Yes they were very large markets, but they were not what I am looking for. They were great if you like inexpensive jewellery or knick knacks, clothes and so on. But it wasn't a 'craft/handmade' type market. I had to go and see, as you never know and it gave us a reason to get out of the house and go somewhere new. I was terribly disappointed.

Anyway, it has helped me make up my mind what I want to do. There are some actual craft markets about 10 minutes from where I live. They are held on Sundays only and I think I am going to give them a shot. Right now I don't have anywhere near enough inventory, so I am going to have to work on that first and foremost. I contacted the market people last night and they said you basically have to supply everything yourself and you just pay for the space allocated, which was about $33...not too bad. This of course means now I have to buy a tent/marquee, table, display stuff, a sign, table cloth and you get the idea :) Gotta spend money to make it huh.

I can't, unfortunately, get away without a tent as the sun here can get too hot and I don't want my jewellery to get really hot and burn someone and I don't fancy sitting out in it either (even though it's Winter still). So I have a lot to sort out if I want to go to these markets. There are some other markets about 15 minutes away from here too...so they are always another option if this place doesn't work out :)

So I have lots to plan for.

My custom order was received this morning and the lady was very happy, which has made me happy in return. She now wants to commission me for 2 more pieces!! I've also finished a few new things for my shop, will have to wait for the sale to be over before I list them.

That's all folks....

Em

Got My Mask On......

Not the kind you are probably thinking of.
I have a nice peel off face mask on.
It's Winter and I have to keep my skin fresh and I enjoy a good face mask :)
More so I enjoy peeling one off lol.

Tomorrow it's the 1st of July. I am having my first sale of the year.


I have no idea how well it will go.
But I'm hoping after the recent 'Etsy Finds' plug I will do okay.
It doesn't help that the Australian dollar is more than the US dollar. I haven't sold a piece in a while now and it's very crushing to my creativity.

The weather here is so strange today. It will get all gloomy and then rain for a few minutes and then the Sun will show and it looks all blue skies for miles and then back to the gloomy weather all over again. In fact it's been like that for a couple of days. We just bought Summer a new Trampoline, but she can't get a break in the weather to get outside to use it lately.

I got to the bench last week and made myself a new ring and made a pair of earrings for my Etsy store. I am halfway through a few other pieces, but I am finding it extremely hard to get there and stay there....for many reasons.
I think I need to learn new things and I need new tools to open that opportunity up to me, but that has to wait for the time being.

Well I'm off to read some blogs and make some lunch for the kiddie. I wish it would rain all day.....

:)

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!!!!

Things to do...things to do....long post ahead.

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, not a whole lot has been going on.
I have rejoined 'Twitter' this past week...I tried a long time ago, but didn't really click with it, so I'm trying again under 'littlecherryhil'.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me. My hubby and FIL are clearing out 'stuff' from our garage and we are having a bit of a 'throw out' session and taking some rubbish to the dump. Then we are going to reorganise the garage and then I want to start on my new antique/deco cabinet (pictured below)

I have no idea what colour I am going to do it yet....I am leaning towards a duck egg grey kind of colour. I'm not one for making quick decisions :(

I am getting a new table today that I want to do up. I will do a post on that another time. And then I have to find some new dining chairs to go with it...I sometimes love Ebay!

Only 2 months now till our lease here is up. That will go quickly! So in the meantime I have to pack and replace some furniture and have big clear outs and find a new place to move to!! Some of the reasons we want to move are, it's a 2 story house and there are only 3 of us...it's too big. It's high maintenance because of it's size...and I just don't want to waste time looking after space we don't use, I can think of many things I would rather be doing :)
I hate the tiles!
I hate the carpet!
And because we rent, we cannot change those things. (I'm not fussy, I just want both the tiles and carpet to look clean...and they don't.....ever....no matter how many times a week I clean them)
And last but not least, the main reason is money. I don't think we have ever had a year since we have been married that rent hasn't gone up. And I'm sure this year will be no exception. So we want to downsize and save some money to boot! Trouble is...I'm kinda picky with lots of things, like I said before, I'm not fussy, but I do like things to be a certain way. So it's not going to be easy to tick all the boxes for the price we want to pay. Another reason we need to move is petrol. Petrol is going up allll the time and we live out of town. Not super far out, but far out enough that if we moved closer, we could save more money just from not using so much petrol.
I will miss it here. I love the high ceilings and the ensuite and the indoor laundry and the bush/rainforest across the street and the space we have downstairs and many other things, but I would be happier to simplify my life.

Below are a few things I have made this past fortnight...I'm not sure of the second piece...I think I might scrap it, I'm undecided. And the last picture is of some of the cabochons I just received yesterday. I have a few more to come and I want to buy more again, but am going to wait....

Well I guess I will leave it here for now. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading :)
Have a great weekend everyone!

A little Change

Yay! The weather has finally taken a little turn towards Autumn! I am so happy and so looking forward to the months that come. For some reason I always feel like I can do anything when the cooler weather comes along.

I have taken a small advert out with a little handmade directory at mumswhomake
it's only for 1 month, but I thought it's time to start spending a little on getting my work 'known'. Now with the weather changing for the better, I should be able to get more things into my shop soon. Below are the 2 latest pieces I have listed this week...

I would like to make more sawn out pieces like my bird and the Silhouette pendant I sold. I like solid silver pieces that can go with anything you want to wear.
I have had a couple of lovely messages to my Etsy Inbox about my work...it's nice to know people can see the love and effort that goes into it.

There are a couple of pieces on my bench right now. One I'm almost finished with and another I'm half way through. I can't wait till I can afford some new stones. I'm bored with what I have (not all...but quite a few). I bought them hastily when I was new to cabochons and got carried away and bought stuff I know I will never use.
Not sure what I will do with them...maybe I will give them away.

That's all I have to write about for now...thanks to everyone who replied to the question I asked in my last post. Sometimes, if someone compliments me on my jewellery I will tell them 'thank you' and 'I made it myself'. Sometimes I end up having big long convo's about jewellery making with that person...sometimes I end up feeling like a total tool having said I made them myself...I am not sure if people believe me or what?! Other times I just thank them and go about my business. I figure that you only have one life and so you may as well get your work out there anyway you can when the opportunity presents itself and sometimes that has to be through self promotion I guess.

My posts lately seem to be all about the Summer weather and how much I hate it. Unfortunately this post will be much the same.
It's now Autumn and has been for 3 days...but you wouldn't know it from the weather we are still having. It's as hot as an oven. Well maybe not quite that hot....but sometimes it's all I can think of to liken it too.

Right now I am hiding away in our bedroom, with the air conditioning on and a fan and I am on my laptop, whilst chatting to my mum on msn. I really really want to get to my bench to make stuff, but it's not going to happen. Oh and I stuffed my torch up already. I am going to clean it out and change the head and see what comes of it.....it's my own fault too. I just hope I can fix it, seeing as I have hardly used it.

I sold my 'Flowers in Her Hair' silhouette pendant to a lady in France. I was so excited!! I have only sent to USA and within Australia thus far, so it was nice to know a piece was going somewhere different. I can't wait till she gets it. And I hope she leaves me feedback, cuz no one else is...

I have a few pieces in the works at the moment...as I said before it's just too hot to create..so they will have to stay in their half done state for a bit longer. Though tomorrow supposedly, we are going to have heavy rain all day long. So maybe I will get to finish them sooner than I think?? I can only hope.

A question for you......
When someone compliments you on your jewellery (if you wear pieces you've made yourself as I do) do you tell them that you made them yourself?? Or do you just thank them for their compliment and leave it as that??