Happy Birthday Dear Blog!

Yes it has been a whole year since I began blogging, and I'd like to thank anyone who has been dropping by to read my ramblings! As with most newbie bloggers I worried that I would have nothing to blog about and set myself a target of 3 blogposts per month (because one per week was too frightening!) I see from my tally that I have passed the 40 posts mark, so for the next year I shall try for 50 (still not one per week though!) and see how that goes...

I had a lovely week off work with visits to friends and family. The weather was HOT which is unusual for England in August, but made everything even more enjoyable. Here is a pic from our day trip to Blenheim Palace:

 



I managed a little bead shopping in London, and returned home to find some Etsy purchases on the mat, including these gorgeous dragonfly buttons and cabochons from Ivka, and some of Nicole's Bead Backing so I think my bead embroidery adventures will be continuing soon!

The mother of pearl flowers will also be used in embroidery projects. The little acrylic jewellery box is from Muji, we don't have a store in Norwich and I always find something cool when I look there. This has a lift top and a drawer beneath.

I finished another couple of dichroic glass pendants for the stall I shall have at the canoe meet, Saturday has been forecast to be very windy with thunderstorms so I'll only go on the Sunday, but might sell a few things with any luck...

So suggestible...

I sometimes bead the bleeding obvious!

It had to be done, I'd just received a couple of new cabochons from the States, one of which was my favourite plume agate, the other a similar thin long oval of new-to-me parrot wing jasper. The colours on-line looked more turquoise and teal, in real life there were very pretty apple and lime greens in the stone as well as a streak of oxblood. I stuck it down straight away to a piece of foundation and began to bezel with frosted lime AB, thinking of making a simple pendant.

Then my friend and neighbour posted on facebook about parakeets in her Mother's garden (there are colonies of feral parakeets in Surrey and Southern England, believe it or not I also saw some one early morning in Amsterdam!). So my parrot sense was tingling and before I knew it, this happened:

The head was a solo druk from a mixed Czech/Indian bag and had a lime green to blue 2-tone effect which gives the bird its 'eye'. The beak is a 4mm firepolished bead with copper lining. The 2 beads just worked so well. Even my 14 year old son immediately said 'Parrot' when he saw it, and up to that point 'fish' would have been equally valid!

Because it was Sunday and gorgeous weather, I sat out on our bench and continued with the fun project (even though I have several more urgent projects on the go). I decided my bird needed a perch and some food...

I had only used a scrap piece of foundation so there isn't much scope for extending the scene and finding a friend, but he looks at home nibbling on some fruit. Maybe this piece will end up as a pendant (quite large though), maybe not..

Anyway, I feel refreshed and ready to resume the other projects for the upcoming reveals. I also rattled off a couple of quick pendants for a fund-raiser at my Husband's canoe club.

These use two mini dichroic glass cabochons I bought from a local artist at the bead fair in the Spring, unfortunately I lost her details, but will look out for her again. The pandants are strung on rat-tail cord and have sliding peyote tubes for adjustable length