August Competition

Well, as promised, I'm going to have a little competition to win one of my 1" cuffs.  All you have to do is tell me what sort of pattern/theme you would like to see as a cuff and I will then design and make it for you.  Obviously it can't be anything too detailed as I only have a 12/13 beads wide strip to work with but other than that anything goes! :oD

Just leave me a comment with your suggestion/s and I'll see what I can come up with.  You've got till August 15th to get them in and I will then pick a winner at random and get it stitched and sent out before the end of August.

Here are a few more of mine:

Moroccan Cuff

Floral Cuff 2

Autumn Flowers Cuff

Leopard Print Cuff

Have fun deciding!

Cuffs Galore!

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post.  I've been thoroughly enjoying not having to go into work and instead settling down with my beads and thread making up more of my cuff designs so that I can photograph them ready for the tutorials.  So far they have all been 1/2 inch width but I'm planning on doing the 1, 1 1/2 and 2 inch sizes too.  Here are a few of them:

Zig Zag Cuff

Heart Lattice Cuff

Floral Cuff

I've got 15 or so designed already - but only 8 of them stitched so far.  I guess I'll be busy again this week!

I've got a bracelet to design and make for a swap over on the OTTBS blog and a couple of pieces to come up with for a collaborative effort over on Bead Buddies to raise money for the Disasters Eergency Committee who are working to help people affected by the famines in Africa.  I might send them a couple of my cuffs. :o)

Work on the studio is still on hold while we wait for the door and window.  I'm getting fed-up of waiting now and I know my regular group of beading ladies will be too, especially now that I'm not in the shop on a Saturday.  They're coming round to the house in a couple of weeks for the afternoon instead but that means making a concerted effort with the housework.  *Booooooo*  I hate housework!  Still, it has to be done and it'll be nice to have everywhere tidy for once.

In other news, Kieran left primary school on Friday.  My little boy is all grown up and off to big school in September.  Where does the time go?  We had to go to school for his leavers' assembly on Friday afternoon and everyone was in tears.  We've seen all the kids grow up together for the past 7 years and now they're all going off to different schools. :o(  I made a couple of pieces for his teacher to say thank you:

Forget-Me-Not Cuff

Bookmark

I hope she likes them!

If any of you have a particular theme that you'd like to see as a cuff design, let me know and I'll try and come up with something.  In fact, I might even run a competition to come up with the best idea, with the best idea being made up and presented to the person who came up with it.  Watch this space for details and, in the meantime, get your thinking caps on. :oD

My last day at work

It was fun today. :o)

I made cupcakes (lemon, vanilla, choc and choc/hazelnut) and designed another kit for my final beading demonstration.  It's a zebra cuff done in peyote stitch and then stitched to a cuff blank. 

I'm slowly building up my collection of kits and will hopefully be able to get them listed for sale soon.

My colleagues bought me a beautiful orchid, bottle of wine, chocs and gave me money to buy myself something with.  I also had some really lovely cards.  Almost made me wish I wasn't leaving.  Almost.

So what am I going to do with my time now?  Well tomorrow I'm going to be glued to the telly watching the Wimbledon men's final even though Andy Murray isn't it.  I'm hoping that Rafael Nadal retains the title.  After that, who knows?