Finding it hard to stay awake?

Well, this should keep you going for a while! Created by my husband to roast bigger batches of coffee than your standard household needs. And why should we want this, you ask?

Well, rocknwrap is going to be selling its special blend of home-roasted coffee beans at the BiDM on Saturday. Going to have a busy night before to churn out all we need for the day. Hope they're a hit!

So come along and get your hit of freshly roasted coffee, medium roast with floral, citrus and cocoa flavours, smooth and creamy and chocolatey. Mmmmm!

Missed it

The flying foxes got this one, but graciously left us half. How kind!

And my climbing Double Delights continue to delight and delight and delight! HOT day today. Hope you're keeping cool wherever you are.

Bead reamer arrival

Whoopee! My bead reamer arrived today (well, actually yesterday - it sat on the front step all night) and I finally got a chance to make those pesky holes in the labradorite beads big enough to put wire through. Huzzah!

One week until the BiDM, and things are happening, but I haven't got anywhere near my table setup yet.

I have a small child on my left, in her highchair, gumming a slice of vegemite/cheese toasty finger into submission, and a husband on my right installing a light for me under my little shelf to light my little workbench. Life is good.

Double Delight

Climbing roses are in full bloom today! This photo is taken from the ground, but the best view is from the Moo-Ma's window! Hope she appreciates it when she's older!

Just can't seem to focus!

With the Brisstyle Indie Designer's Market coming up in a week and a half, I should be building up my regular stock, right? But nooooooo, now is the time that I decide to experiment. So contrary is my creating mojo. I also want to make sock monkeys. The days are too short.

I finally got a ring mandrel, so I just HAD to try out a ring.......
And some hooped earrings...................... put some of those littler stone beads to good use!

Pearl

Facetted garnets

Aquamarine

And my first ever facetted stone pendant. 10ct of ametrine. I'm pretty darn proud of my claws. Even managed to get them even, what a miracle!

Well, perhaps tomorrow I'll get back to my pendants. There's this new ornate ring idea I have though.............

And the winner is.....

Well, the deadline has fallen and thanks to The Hat, the randomly picked winner is Sarah! I'll send you an email and you can pick the style and the stone!

To all those people who entered, thank you so much, I have got some wonderful insight and ideas from your comments. Thank you for letting me pick your brains!

I hope you all have a great week, I've got to get all my goodies ready for The Handmade Expo this Saturday. Pop in and say hi - Ipswich Turf Club, Bundamba Rd, Bundamba 8am-2pm. It's shaping up to be a lovely weekend, not as hot as the original forecast (phew!).

Come down and get your Chrissie presents wrapped up.

Obsessed

I've been obsessing about this earring design over the last few days, thinking about it when I should be sleeping, blah blah blah. It's the same basic idea, but has endless possibilities.

In the studs, I want them the drop to hang just below the earlobe, so they're contained and elegant.

These are my favourite, little ruby drops.

And amazonite drops, certainly not as little as the rubies, as you'll see in the pic where they're all together.The hooks hang a lot further down, but are still quite contained. These ones are carnelian.

These are all prototypes, and some won't get further than that. But I'm hoping to get a heap up in this style up and running for the BiDM. Gosh, so close!

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Crunchy

Today was granola day. Homemade granola, a la Nigella.

Mmmm, golden syrup, almonds, hazelnuts, honey, oats, seeds - soooo much delicious crunchy goodness.

Great for snackies by the handful. And with yoghurt. And on icecream. And I suppose you could use it as intended for breakfast cereal, but I can't say that I've ever tried.

I think I hear some calling me now.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Mammoth effort

Well, due to a paltry amount of rain, my garden has put out a mammoth effort and Spring has sprung!

The hippeastrums have new growth and flower spikes. I thought we were going to miss out this year.
The walking lillies are flowering in abundance. Their flowers only last one day, so I've got to get out each day to catch them.The bromeliads actually have water in their core. And teeny tiny flower buds ready to rise.The worms are munching their little butts off in the worm farm.Mr Frog is keeping a close eye on the garlic chives, which are green instead of wilty and pale.And his little monster (I think it's a spider, I wasn't going to poke it to find out, it's fierce-looking) has taken up residence in the roses. Rain makes everything good.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

First ever giveaway, yippee!

Well, to celebrate my new-look blog, I thought it was definitely time for a giveaway! My ear candy earrings have been immensely popular, so why not win a pair for yourself, or as a gift to give away for Christmas? Perfect!

Here's what you need to do to enter:

1. Write a comment below, telling me what you look for in a piece of jewellery (eg simplicity, bold colours, etc)


2. For an additional entry, blog about my giveaway and spread the bloggedy blog love!


3. And if you're keen on a third entry, follow my blog! Surely that's no hardship ;)

Make sure you leave a comment below to let me know what you've done, and links to where you've done it.

Then the winner (yay!) can choose their own style of sterling silver ear candy - stud or hook, and whichever semiprecious stone you wish featured. There are plenty to choose from.

This competition is open to all countries, so tell one, tell all!

Ends Wednesday November 18 2009, at midnight AEST. Good luck!

Million Gazillion Hours

I wanted a look for my blog that I was happy to spend time looking at. And after spending, yes, a million gazillion hours yesterday I believe I might have it.

I am the yellow ball.

Really annoyed!

I've got to figure out how to use this damn blogger thing. The post on november 2 was actually finalised and posted today. Why does a draft backdate to the date you started it? Grrr.

So for today's post, visit here.

Delicious yummy gemmy beads!

My ship came in yesterday, and brought me lots of lovely, lovely beads! As we'll have to watch our spending very carefully next year, this will be my last big buy-up for a while.

As I was cataloguing them, my 'helper' enjoyed herself immensely!

What are these?

Ooo, sparkly!

Can I eat them?

Plum-tuckered out from rolling around in my lovely lovely gems.

No beads were harmed in the making of this photo series.

The Handmade Expo Giveaway Extravaganza!

The lovely ladies at The Handmade Expo are doing a giveaway to celebrate 100 followers of their awesome blog!

Now, you need to get over there and put a comment on the blog, because the more comments on the blog, the higher the monetary prize!

Come on, click here all you south-east Queenslanders, what would be better than having $100 to go towards Chrissy presents (or yourself ;)!!!?!!

Babushka and bushki-minis

I saw these recently on the Brisstyle blogpost, and I think they're just adorable. Mumma and Bubba Bushkas by mygirl

I have to find some way to justify buying them, and getting them into the house without my husband finding out.

Actually, I have a plan: When Moo-ma goes fish shopping with daddy to restock our aquarium, she waves in the general direction of a tank, and voila, those fish are our new pets. I intend to try this technique with the Babushka dolls. Only trick will be getting said husband to go to the markets.

I'll work on it.

I want those dolls.

For my Moo-ma of course.

Not for me.

Creativity mojo is running amok

I'm loving being a stay-at-home mum. Before, by the time I'd get home from school, my brain would be sucked dry by all those kids' needs, and I'd have barely enough brain power left to put one foot in front of the other, let alone to create something new and exciting.

But now, I'm finding I can't sleep because my brain is so full of designs and creations that I want to make. This is so exciting! Like the cuff in my post yesterday, it's inspired by the Twilight bracelet, but it's design is entirely my own.

My shipment of beads came from the US, and I'll be making some more of my necklets with the double-terminated focal stone. And I've got some new earring designs that I'm trying out. This one is earringsbyerin design, from this tutorial. Click here to see what they 'should' look like. My first attempt was with square wire for the curls, and it was a slightly bigger gauge than it should have been.

This unfinished pair are with the correct sized wire - I think I prefer the bigger square gauge, myself.And the pair on the left are designed by silverknuten from this tutorial. I don't plan to make any more of these, I just wasn't fussed by my end result. The pair on the right were an experiment. Not sure about them either.I'm also playing around with my market table for the next Handmade Expo. Lots to do, lots to do.Oh, oh, before I finish up, a creature strange is having a giveaway of one of her fabulous new iphone holders. They are in gorgeous colours and materials, I really love her style. Pop on over to her blog and have a look.

Twilight Inspiration - Can you sparkle in the sun?

I was approached by a friend to make her a bracelet/cuff like the one Bella wears in Twilight. It's very pretty - simple and charming - and I can see why it's so popular.

However, unfortunately, what I made could only be said to be loosely inspired by this bracelet. It's gothic, to say the least. It is far from simple, but still charming, I think ;) The stone is labradorite - everyone's favourite - and everything else is sterling silver.

As this one isn't really her cup of tea, I'll have another go at a simpler version when I get some more of the correct gauge wire, and try to sit the stone inside the front of the cuff, rather than on top.