Missing but not AWOL……

Well I’ve not posted for a while and must apologise for that. But I have been really busy with a big birthday celebration earlier in the year but more on that later.

Beating the 9-5 blues away.....

by working at my bench sawing and filing the stress away.......   If only I could spend most of my time here, listening to music drinking good tea and taking solace and inspiration from my 'work in progress' garden.  But until that day arrives, when I can spend the majority of my time here. There is one thing that could make it even harder to walk away from my bench and that would be a window into the garden.

Practice makes perfect.....

as they say. So, I thought it was about time that I bit the bullet and did some stone setting....gulp!! It's not that I'm afraid of doing this, well actually I'm scared of wasting precious resources by marking, scratching the silver and stones beyond recognition therefore condemning the piece to the scrap draw!!!

But you've got to start somewhere and at some point in time, plus I need to stretch myself and learn new skills, as another great saying goes 'you really do learn from your mistakes' which has applied all along to me in my 'self taught' journey into jewellery making and silversmithing.
Most of which I've really enjoyed but it can be very frustrating and I end up behaving like a toddler having a tantrum because I can't do something.... I just have to walk away have a break with a cup of calming tea, take a deep breath and try again maybe with a different approach.
What I do love though is being out somewhere or reading a mag or having a conversation and my brain will suddenly spot the answer to my workshop conundrum. It really is like a eureka moment. Wonderful, joyful moments. Which certainly makeup for the meltdowns.....

Here's my very first attempt at setting a stone. A Garnet and sterling silver ring setting both purchased from  https://www.kernowcraft.com/  I still have some filing and finishing off to do on this to get it to where I want it to be.

Would love to hear about your Eureka moments?

Green Eyed at Green Fire.....

The Boodles Green Fire collection that is.......I finally

Dallas Dash.............To Stock Up

Unfortunately, it seems (so I've been told) that one of my favourite blusher's/bronzer, well all rounder really is being discontinued.

Crafty Mothers Day Gift.....

My mother doesn't really want me or my bliss to spend loads on a Mothers Day gift and so I was racking my brain on what to get to show her my appreciation and love. I was flitting around on the Internet and Facebook when I came across this lovely page Paper Panda and ordered the Mum Heart cut out template to frame for her.

This is how I got on:-


First tentative cuts

 

I thought I'd make my way with all the 'whole' areas initially

 

Getting tricky now so carefully does it.

 

Can really see how it's going to look now.

 

Completed. No I just have to frame it.
 

Now when I received this kit the instruction's did say that you should first, maybe buy the practise kit which comes with a craft blade and a self healing A4 cutting mat which is well worth investing in. As I'm a keen crafter and already had experience of cutting my own stencils so, I felt comfortable diving straight on with this template but I did order the practise kit as I wanted to do the templates that were provided with this kit also.

I've loved looking around on the blogsphere and pinterest (my guilty pleasure) at all the great Mothers Day gifts to make and create.

Now I'm off to find the right fame for it.

I'd would love to hear about or see your finds.

Well it’s arrived…no honestly, it’s here!!

Spring that is!!Well it should be this weekend so the weather man says.
It seems to have finally turned up in my garden this week too, and it’s brought with it a general uplift in my spirits. So with l eagerly ordered some nest boxes to go up in the garden, so when they arrived a couple of weekends ago MrC and I set about sighting the new prime bird real-estate around and about the garden.

I hope our regular garden visitors fall in love with the models I’ve picked for them as much as I did when I saw them on line at Amazon.co.uk. We have 2 Reed nesting pockets and a beautiful ceramic Bird house. No colour choice available when ordering the ceramic one but they all looked lovely and the one I received was Lilac in colour which made it an easy decision on where to place that one in the Berberis.

Des Res in the making

 We put one Reed nest pocket in the Apple tree on the very outer branches as we have quite a few cats in the neighbourhood. Our own, Meg is a grand old lady now and doesn’t often venture down the bottom of the garden where the apple tree is unless of course escorted by one of her very own personal guards….. myself or Mr.C. She mainly spends her time outside on the deck sun baking or under the table cover dozing. But her sister Mim (who departed November 2012, a very sad time) was quite a different matter and loved the garden, wherever MrC or myself was she was somewhere nearby in the undergrowth or on the Shed roof or up the Apple tree calling to either one of us, ahh, loved her. She would have ventured up the ladder to supervise MrC’s handiwork had she still been with us.

Mim

The other Reed nest pocket went in the Leylandii (which I dislike intensely as they block out so much light) quite high up as the cats can easily climb these internally, they must just be like a spiral staircase to them. As Meg, when she was a lot younger climbed to the very top of one of these and sat on the top ‘stump’ as it had been trimmed down by about 4-5ft, to survey the gardens. Really made me giggle when I spied her, she stayed there quite a while!!

It was while we were busy sorting out the nest site’s around the garden that I noticed how much has suddenly come into bud. The Lilac should look lovely this year I’m hoping and judging by it’s bud’s, and the snakehead fritillary should look beautiful underneath it. At the moment there are a few scattered Crocus and some Tulips making an effort.
Everything is slowly waking up and peeking out to check all’s clear for a full on reveal over the coming weeks.

So, I’m hoping that by the time the Easter bank holiday comes around that some early birds will have taken up residence and will be enjoying the garden along with me and MrC.

Has spring arrived for you?
Would love to see and hear about your spring stories.