Did you think I wouldn't be back?

When it comes to blogging on a regular basis, it turns out I'm completely pants. My last blog post was New Years Eve. Come on Val! Time to pull the socks up! 

I actually just so happened to check the Blogger homepage tonight to see what was going on with blogs that I follow, and I spotted that I had 16 page views today! I decided that since someone (in the U.S. apparently) still enjoys reading my blog, I should keep on chugging away with it! 

As I've been away from this for so long, I've actually got lots of small bits and pieces to write about. Since the start of the year I've moved away from jewellery from time to time, and have been inspired by my friend Anneka, among others, to get my craft on.

I guess I should begin in January. I didn't have a whole lot of time off work, and Christmas was definitely hectic with my lovely sister around for our best friend's wedding! After all the excitement died down in the new year, I managed to do a few bits and pieces. 

The first thing on my agenda was to finish a pair of scarves for my friend Caitriona's two children. I used the ends of the wool from Jess and Anneka's scarves to make a really pretty woolly scarf for Saoirse, while I used nice muted stripes for Joe's scarf.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and Joe and Saoirse looked so cosy!

Anyone who knows me, knows all too well that I love to have a little fun when I'm painting my nails, and in the gloom of January, I decided to cheer up my nails.

The paint job is particularly messy around the edges, but I really loved having my nails like this, and it lasted a surprisingly long time.

Following these departures from my usual carry on, I decided to go back to basics and make a few trusty bracelets. Seeing as it was early January, and we still had the Christmas runner on the table and decorations around the place, I chose rich reds and sparkly golds for my pieces.

Because these gold beads are hollow, they make a lovely little metallic jingle as the bracelet moves. FUN!

As I mentioned, super-festive. That said, I love these colours regardless.

After all this excitement, I hit a bit of a slump. One day, while browsing around Aldi, desperately hoping I'd find more warm fuzzy wool, I came across a book on learning to crochet. Now, you've all read about me "crocheting" things for my friends over the years, but as far as I've been told by those in the know, what I'm doing isn't actually genuine crochet. Obviously, I invested in the book, and got to work right away!

Exciting, huh?

I didn't get a whole lot of this done in January, I just tried out the different basics. I must get back into this because there's some beautiful patterns in here, and it really isn't too tough, it just requires patience to make sure everything stays even and lovely.

Now, that brings January to a close. Onto February, a.k.a. Birthday Month! 

Okay, I'll be honest. I did very little in the way of making things in February. I must have been preoccupied with getting old! The only picture I've been able to root out of my stash from then is one of two more bracelets I made. 

Alright, not the most exciting, but still pretty and elegant in my humble opinion.

Oh, while I think of it, I may as well tell you about a project I embarked on this year. Did I ever mention my friend Jess's 365 project that she began on her 23rd birthday, and completed on her 24th? Yes? No? Maybe? This year, with the exception of one or two days which I may have forgotten, I've been taking a picture every day. I had a look through them last night, and to be honest, there's a lot of skies, candles and cats. Boring, perhaps, but I've found that I'm remembering my year so much more vividly when I look back through my photos. I've also found it's sort of great to always have a camera to hand, as you'll never know what sort of beautiful photo opportunity you're going to come across. Within the next week or so I'm going to try to update my Flickr account with my first 6 months of pictures so you guys can check out my vast array of candles. A sight to behold indeed.

Now, getting back to March. Let me see... 

Ooooh! I did lots in March! It all began with a charm Anneka got me for my birthday. I decided I needed a necklace to wear it on, and hey presto!

I vividly remember what I was watching when I made this. In fact, I believe I watched two films that day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Big Fish. I'd like to think some of their whimsy and colour rubbed off on this.

Myself and a few friends had a weekend away in a lovely Kerry town called Kenmare planned for March, and seeing as Anneka's birthday was coming up, I decided to get crafty. I thought about making something for her to hang bits and pieces up on. It doesn't technically have a name... I'm still not entirely sure how well this project worked out, but I like to think it was a starting point.

I started off with an old laminated chunk of chipboard that Dad found for me, and I sanded it down to make a better base for acrylic paint to take to.

Ideally, if I was doing a project like this again using acrylic paints, I'd use an unlaminated board as I think the finish could have been a lot better. However to keep the weight down, I used chipboard as opposed to solid timber, so I'd have to look into materials a lot more.

I picked up a few mismatched hooks in Homebase and screwed them into that bad boy. 

I tried to scalpel off little bits and pieces on the board to give it a weathered look without being contrived. Again, more thought would have yielded a better finish both for the board and the actual paint job.

After I'd put the board together, I stuck some bits to it... 

Pretty, right?

And I made a few bits to hang off of it...

I heart pom-poms. And I heart hearts. Obviously.

Confession time. I didn't make either of these hearts, but I did customise them, so it totally counts.

Some teeny-tiny heart cut-out bunting. It's seriously tiny. 

If I knew more about Blogger, I'd try harder to rotate this image. But it's late. I'm ever so sleepy. Forgive me?

So, all in all, it's no Sistine Chapel or Golden Gate bridge. It was an experiment. Anneka was very lovely, and didn't give me any funny looks when she pulled it out of the bag, which I probably deserved. She's too kind, especially since she's a master crafter. The woman is insanely talented, but that's for another day's story-telling.

You know what lads? It's getting pretty late, and I'm still only half-way through the year so far. What I think I'm going to do here is finish up for the night, and pick up where I left off tomorrow evening. Sound like a plan? Can y'all get on board with that? I sure hope so! 

À demain...

Jingle Bell ROCKS

Right guys, I've been hounded by a certain someone *cough* Caoi *cough* to make lots of new stuff and to blog about it! It was a bit tough doing that when I was around 190 miles away from all my supplies... But now... NOW I'M HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! Arrived two days ago, and it almost feels like I've never been away. Almost. Except for the fact that our pest of a kitten has become bigger and bolder... She's too adorable to stay mad at for long though.

Benny in all her now-female glory (we thought "she" was a "he" for quite some time...)

So, now that I'm back in front of the fire with a belly full of home cooked dinners with my faithful mascot by my side, I'm flying back into making more shizzle than I can handle. I actually launched back into it after a MEGA nap on Saturday eve after my train home. Wrecked doesn't cover it. Final year is all sorts of tough, and I would say "half way there, woo!" but this has been the easy half. Very much so. Oh goodness. But now's not the time to be worrying about that! Now's the time to talk about beads!! So, Saturday night I decided I wanted to make something seriously, incredibly festive, and possibly a little gaudy. That's just my style. So, straight away the red and gold beads came out, and a section of chain because I decided this work of art DEFINITELY needed bits hanging off of it.

I know this pic is mostly arm and tree, but deal with it, right?

Yes, I wore my new piece of bling on Sunday to decorate the Christmas tree. The festive celebrations didn't start til I arrived home, which meant that I had to decorate the whole house. Not that I minded. If decorating Christmas trees is a chore it's the most awesome chore ever. 

I ended up covering the tree with red, gold and silver baubles. Mostly because they were the ones that came out of the attic, but it does look rather delightful so that's a win-win-win situation right there. 

Amazeballs, right? Thought so. Ha, accidental pun right there!

So, Sunday, obviously enough, didn't feature any making and do-ing at all. Instead I sprinkled the house with Christmas cheer (wearing a Santa hat, because there's no other way to do that sort of thing), and then I had a visit from the most amazing and incredible Jess! I'm actually so gutted, I bought some deadly penny farthing charms in Dublin a week or so back, and I was planning on making wee Jess a savage Christmas present featuring a teeny tiny bike, but I've had to put that plan on the back burner cos I left the charms in Dublin. Argh. Anyway, to ease the pain of that, we ate lots of yummy food and we started our Christmas session of HP. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone is so much better when my gal and I quote along with it I'll have you all know. The only word is wow, I mean it! 

Started back to work today too. Life's all go these days. Bet you're all mega jealous. Not. Anyway, I decided to unwind after a long day in the office with some music and sparkly things. I decided I wanted to make a little something for my long suffering mother for under the tree as the rest of my family and I have all gone in together to get her a big present. She's not a red & gold gaudy jewellery lady though. She loves blues and greens, they're colours I always look for when trying to find things to suit her. Anyway, I still liked the dangly sort of thing I was doing with the chains hanging off my bracelet on Saturday, so this is what I came up with. 

It's still got a bit of bling to it, but I think it's a little more subtle. Not a lot. But a little.

I was really in the zone at this point. I was well into my playlist (still grooving and shaking to The Airborne Toxic Event), and I was in no mood for wrapping up for the night. I had a bracelet that I'd been promising to fix for her for a LONG time, actually one I bought her yonks ago. So I did that. Then I decided that my sparkle-tastic bracelet from Saturday needed a sister, a twin, to guide her through the party season.

Extreme close-up...

They look super with my knuckle-duster even if I do say so myself...

And then there were two!

Oh goodness, I almost forgot to tell y'all about my class pub crawl last week. We were told (and rightly so) that Christmas wear was essential. DISASTER, I didn't have a naff Christmas jumper! My options were splash out on a geansaí and not drink for the night, or come up with a plan and have a hum-dinger of a night. I think you can already guess which option I chose. Trotted down the road from college to the €2 shop and got myself loads of those red velvet bows and some super glittery, gold snow flake decorations. I rooted out an old jumper of my mothers from the good auld 80's and I swiftly got to work. I totally won the best jumper prize... A high five from the coolest guy in the class. Enough said about that already. Want to take a peek?

I was beyond chuffed with it, it must be said.

The pub crawl was a big, fat success anyway. We all had the craic and the lolz I do believe and some much needed boogying was done. Oh, and I got complemented on my Spanish accent which always gets a big thumbs up in my books!

Right. So. Last story, I swear! I bought something. An accessory. For my bike. On a different visit to the €2 store. Several of you have heard about this purchase A LOT already, but for those of you who haven't...

No. You're eyes aren't deceiving you. I bought a bike horn for my bike. I don't think I've been so excited about something so silly in quite some time (although many of you may argue that fact). Bottom line, I'm dying to come across a careless pedestrian or a dismissive driver or something. Fact is EVERYONE will be able to hear me! 

Hasta luego bbz...

True Blonde

I got my hair done at the weekend... I was feeling a little bored of the auld brunette thang, so I've got a bit of blonde in my hair now! And I'm loving the new series of True Blood that started last week... Sookie is mine!!!!

I've not been doing a whole lot of jewellery making of late. I'm not quite sure why. Work just has me a little exhausted, which is quite annoying but that's a whole other discussion, and it has nothing to do with beads! I've been having a real Incubus moment lately too, they've a new album out next week which I'm MEGA EXCITED about... Guess that's what's getting me going these days!

I've started making a necklace, it's a work in progress, I want it to be a striking, heavy multi-strand kinda job, but at the moment there's just two chains done.

I'm thinking of keeping the colour palate in the greens and browns arena...

The trouble with some of the stuff I make is that I tend to make for myself. I use bits and colours that I really adore, and that means I end up wanting to keep the jewellery a lot of the time, and that's not a whole lot of good to me when I want to sell some stuff at a huge profit! I think I just don't have enough supplies... I reckon that if I start to buy my lovely bits in bulk I can make something that I really like, and then duplicate it... I think that's the way to go. I hope. Cos it's the only plan I've got!

So last night I was in the mood for a session with my pliers. I decided to use some shining beads that I purchased a few weekends ago on a trip to Cork. My friend Maura brought me to a terrific shop called Vibes and Scribes, and they had a lovely collection of sparkly bits and pieces, along with gorgeous wools, and more books than my head could handle! 

I started off with a silvery metal tassel that I got in a big bag of broken bits from Kate way back in February for my birthday. I decided that I wanted a rich colour like red to go with it. I also wanted the tassel to be the focus, so I made it the right size to be able to slip on and off my hand without needing a clasp. 

Good, huh??

There. Used some of the first lot of beads I got in Cork. But I couldn't not use the other ones! They'd feel ever so left out. So I rummaged through my bags of bits, found some really cool bronze coloured beads with a sort of Aztec pattern on them, and I incorporated them into another wee bracelet.

I'm not sure which I prefer. 

Here's a small close up, just to try to show off the pretty beads I was using!!

Close-up, modeled on our cats-paw oak table... Cute, huh? 

I feel like I'm at a bit of a loss for words this evening. The rain and work of the day has kinda zapped my energy. I got Cosmo (August issue) yesterday, kind of just because it had a cool aqua-blue nail varnish free with it... That's about the only thing pepping me up right now! I've lots to do as regards housework at the moment, along with trying to come up with new and exciting things for us to have for dinner!

My new nails with my new bracelets. 

I feel like a very boring blogger after this! I haven't written in almost a month and this is possibly one of my skimpiest posts to date! I will say now, I have decided to dedicate this entry to my wee little scarf model Radley who sadly didn't survive the being-silly-and-eating-plastic incident. The house seems really quiet without her. She was one of the good ones...

I'm going to stop blogging now, before this becomes a cat-astrophe! 

Back to basics

It's been a very long time since my last blog post, and for that, I'm sorry! It was a hectic few months with exams and such, but all of that is in the past now! At least until the results come out next week... Oye.

I've been unpacking all my belongings from Dublin for the last two weeks. Turns out I have a lot of stuff. And I've hoarded SO much over the years. What was I thinking? I've been holding on to utter rubbish! No more of that sentimental fluff, minimalism all the way... For the most part. I still want my room to feel a little cosy. Shouldn't be too hard. It's fricking tiny! But despite how brutal I'm being at the moment, one of the things I still refuse to throw away is old jewellery... It's the best! I dismantled many pieces this evening, both stuff I'd bought, and stuff I'd made yonks ago that was, quite frankly, awful.

I've been watching episodes of The Office end-to-end... I secretly wish my office was like that, but it really isn't. At all. To scare away the boredom, I decided to make myself a super simple bracelet, something dainty and understated that I can still wear when typing at a computer all day! Seeing as it's Summer (according to the calendar), I decided to go for a nice bright yellow.

I'm back to using my trusty bead board for modelling stuff, my desk has been dismantled in recent weeks.

So, that was me sorted anyway. This brightened up my day no end. Which was awesome, because my day was pretty dull! Turns out I miss the auld engineering job I had for the last few summers. If nothing else, I kind of had my own office... Although it was referred to as The Creche. Now I'm back to hopping desks on a daily basis. It's cool though. Keeps things fresh. Also means that I get to sit opposite loads of different people, and maybe take a few ideas with me!

One of the ladies in my office is turning 60 tomorrow. She's one of the super nice ones, always makes a fuss of everyone. She even bought me stuff and decorated my desk for my 21st. So I figured the least I could do is to make her a present that hopefully won't break before I finish this job again in September. That would be embarrassing. So far I've only heard of one piece of jewellery I made biting the dust. And I'm sure Gordonka wasn't being as careful with it as she was leading me to believe... Quite the little imp so she is! Replacing that red number from a few months ago is definitely top of my to-do list this summer anyway.

Back to the birthday present though. This lady tends to wear really bright colours, and she always coordinates her jewellery to her outfit. Again, I'm trying to make pieces simple so I can keep colours strong. 

www.blogger.com is being a bit of a pain this evening and keeps rotating this image. Truth is, I'm a little too tired and disinterested to be bothered figuring out how to make it not do this. 

Apologies.

Right. So, I'd made two pieces and I was feeling good. I get a bit lost in all the pretty colours after a while, and time sort of flies by, but at some point this evening, not quite sure when, I decided to fulfill a promise I made to one of my friends at work that I'd make her something. I asked her what colours she liked, because as you well know, I have a list. Must take a picture of it sometime, but not tonight Josephine. Anyway, she said I was to surprise her. Initially I put aside some sea-blue and turquoise beads, but I think I'll save those for another day. Instead, I stuck to rounded shiny beads. With the exception of my earlier lemon creation, I'm feeling the tendency to steer clear of seed-beads. Instead I'm opting for chunkier, and again, stronger colour palettes. Based on what she tends to wear on a daily basis I came up with another multi-strand bracelet (I'm really feeling the bracelets this week, I hope you'll forgive me. I've got earring plans in the works, I swear, and I've already found myself an ear model.) that I think will work quite well with her other wrist-wear. 

Wahey. This website has redeemed itself. 

I hope I'm not boring everyone with this post. I'm trying to ease myself back in to the jewellery game. I know I'm kind of playing it safe, but I find, when looking through the pieces I wear most, that simple is best. I used to love fancy, sparkly stuff, but now I find I prefer to wear classic, unadorned things. Less patterns, more colour blocking. But, for my last piece this evening, I decided to go nuts. Sort of. I had these beads, they're a bit mad looking, and I found they were far too heavy to thread onto the standard nylon that I tend to use, plus the clasps were getting lost in them! So, I salvaged a hoop of wire from an old item, and bundled them on to that. Despite the mad, fussy colours, I think I might wear it. For one of those days when I'm feeling a little wild. Which, in Kerry, should be any day now. 

Unfortunately the colours haven't come up as vividly as they could have... I might try to take a fresh picture in day light one of these days. If those grey clouds ever clear...

This has been about the extent of my creativity of late. Although, there is one exception. All my Facebook buds will have seen this already, but I'll throw it up just in case any strangers happen to stumble across this some day. I got a canvas as part of a watercolour set (I think!) yonks ago. I painted lots of girlie swirls and patterns on it a few years ago, and the 'rents liked it so they hung it up in my room while I was away at college. I was looking at it when I came home, and my new, simpler tastes, required something a little different. So I channeled Mr. Rothko himself, and threw a load of slightly shimmery acrylics down... 

Don't forget about Prize Bonds... The risk-free money investment! Stay frosty guys.