Woohoo! It's Friday :)

It's an absolutely gorgeous day again today. I adore Winter time for days like this. If it were to stay like this forever I would be so content.

But if you know me, then you already know this and know it well haha.

It's almost 11am and I've finished all my housework, I have washing in the machine and my daughter is making an awful racket out in the lounge room and it's driving me CRAZZZZY!!!!!!!!!

:s

Below is what's on my bench today:


The ring at the back is my first custom order, it's almost finished.

I finally got my parcel of Turquiose cabochons. I am never going to get things posted with USPS Priority again if I can help it. It took almost 2 weeks more to get it and the tracking they do is DREADful. So I am going to get things sent with Express like I was going to initially. It costs more, obviously, but it's peace of mind and reassuring. I love the stones :) I got some Kingman, #8, Crow Spring and Pilot Mt. And I think I am going to get some more lol. You all know the disease that seeps in when you buy stones hahaaha.

Below is a pair of mismatched earrings that my mother generously gave to me. They are natural Emerald and Rubies set in sterling from India. I have already popped them out of their settings and am realising I will probably need to teach myself a pronged setting for them. They're gorgeous :)


And below is a little glass/wooden case that I purchased at a furniture shop last weekend, whilst browsing for a bed for Summer.
It needs dusting out and I am thinking of putting in some felt on the bottoms of each square.....if I ever get round to it!


I ordered myself some new packs of PMC3 yesterday, which I probably wont' get until Monday now, but I am looking forward to making some new embellishments with it for my jewellery. Hubby told me to get some as he thinks it's a nice touch to make the little decorations by hand as well :)

On a completely random note, my birdie is having a yawning attack out in his aviary and it looks so funny (that's if birds yawn?) lol he's still going....
We bought him and his little girlfriend a new cage this week and we put it together last night. I was afraid he wouldn't take to his new surroundings considering he's had the other one for his whole life with us....like 10 years now. It's his bed cage. He comes in every single night and he sleeps in it till morning, when I put him back outside in his aviary...spoilt much? His girlfriend is a bright yellow budgie - he is an Indian Ringneck Lutino (bright yellow). Strange friendship I know, but it works so well. They're just like a little married couple :) Anyway, they were a bit bewildered in the new cage at first, but by the time morning came, they were loving it!

Okay, I think Summer and I are going to go and get some lunch as a treat and sit at our new fave spot at the duck pond to eat it as it's such a nice day in the Sun. Have a wonderful weekend everyone! :)

Em

Beautiful Day.

It's a beautiful day, shame the same can't be said about my mood.
Summer is driving me crazy today. I've got my first custom order for an older lady in Brisbane and I just can't see me getting a chance to get it started till Summer goes to bed....but by then I'll be too tired. Woe is me. lol.

My sale is going okay. I hardly get to the bench anymore now though so I barely am able to add any new work to my shop. Everytime I see someones blog post/fb post about how much jewellery they have in the works I get kinda envious. I would give anything to have a regular day once a week just to work selfishly at the bench without any issues/interruptions.

Below is our latest antique we are going to restore to put under our new mirror in the dining area. We are having troubles deciding the finish we want on it though, we both have different ideas.

I have a busy busy week ahead of me, but on Saturday I am hoping to go and visit some markets, as a potential place for me to have a stall there. They're the biggest markets around, having approx 25000 visitors per weekend (it's near a big tourist area/beach). They apparently supply you a table and tent and the prices are pretty reasonable considering. So hopefully the weather holds out and I can give it a look see. Hubs and I have an idea of how I can display my works without anyone being able to pocket anything, so if all goes well, that will be our next project.

I am going to attempt to make my first ever batch of Cheese & Onion Scones soon. A recipe that my mother used to use when I was a kiddo, from my grandmothers recipe book that must be over 50 years old.
And I am going to attempt my first ever meat pie on Friday...yep you heard right...I've never made a meat pie before lol.

Well I am going to prob do another post on Thursday as I have some nice bits n pieces to blog about. So take care all till then :)

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!!!!