Saturday 21 December 2013

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

It's been a very strange run up to Christmas for me this year...

Having been nursing a broken ankle since early November I haven't done most of the things I would normally do in preparation for the festive season. On the upside I didn't even have to consider braving Bricks and Mortar shops - that would just have been silly however, not getting out and about much and being preoccupied with the healing of my ankle has also meant that Christmas spirit has been a bit thin on the ground.

Not any more though - I had my cast removed last Wednesday and replaced with a fracture boot which means I can walk again - Yay! I am also able to walk without the boot although it's rather stiff and a little sore but I'm doing my exercises and it's improving every day.

This is a great relief because I've been invited to spend Christmas with friends in Edinburgh and I was dreading the travelling if I'd still been in a full cast, but now I am busy getting myself together ready to fly up there on Monday and I'm so excited I can't wait!

Edinburgh Castle
All the time I've had on my hands has not gone to waste though and I have a head full of all sorts of bead and jewellery ideas that I'm eager to get to work on after my break...so much time to make up.

Until then though I would like to say a very big thank you to all my friends, customers and followers who've supported me through the good and the bad this past year. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season however you spend it and look forward to seeing you back here before the new year.


Take care and have fun!

Lesley

Monday 2 December 2013

AJE Component of the month - November Reveal

The components we got to work with for this months challenge were a pair of the beautiful beaded beads made by the AJE 'Queen of Seeds' Kristen Stevens...


I chose a pair of lovely cinnamon coloured beads but I was also fortunate enough to do a little bead swap with Kristen so I actually received a whole selection of beads in beautifully coordinating tones and, because they went so beautifully with one of my patinated bronze leaf connectors I decided to use some of these too.


The beads reminded e of hedgerow fruits in various stages of ripeness and I wanted to try and portray that sense of abundance your get when everything is coming to fruition. I decided on a double strand necklace and combined Kristen's beads with a selection of matching Czech glass, including some gorgeous vintage bronze faceted glass barrels.


The back of the necklace is made up of 2 strands of farfalle beads in a dark aubergine and olive green and a handmade bronze wire clasp. the final touch is a tiny flower bead hung from the bottom of the leaf connector.


I apologise for the photos not being the best in the world...for some reason I had great difficulty getting 'unfuzzy' photos and I can only put it down to my broken ankle...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I hope you'll join us in our little blog hop to see what the rest of the team and our guest artist did with Kristen's wonderful beads.

Special Guest
Alice Alice Dreaming
AJE Team

Lesley