A New Baby and Some Bits.

Firstly i have a new grandbaby,Seth James Wolfgang White,my son and his partner produced a beautiful baby boy,i am 51 and have 3 grandchildren who i love to bits.
I have been knitting a top in 100% bamboo by Cleckheaton,its the softest loveliest yarn and i am a slow and doddery knitter but its nice to do.
The crystal bracelet was on the cover of beadwork and caught my eye,i get my crystals from abovefashion on ebay and picked all the colours and sizes needed,then went back and got more to make 2 xmas presents.
The necklace of crystals.....well nearly 2 years ago i bought a poodle puppy and the father dogs owner gave me her grandmothers crystals as she liked my jewellery and wanted me to do something with them,easy huh! No way! i have struggled with every colour bead,silver/gold ,pendants drops etc,and finally have decided on this monochrome deco style,now i know why i have seen these always strung together at antique stalls and shops,the are weird to work with as some things deplete there colour,others dull it,some of the colours take over etc etc,not sure whether to email her the pics before sending,or front up with them and hand them over,the pendant would look better and sound less clanky if it was one peice but i havent seen one,(or i would have bought it lol).
The blue set is a london blue topaz,a topaz hit with heat and it goes that colour,as i was born in London and love the colour it was bought for me as a present from OMG Tourmaline on etsy,the other blues are glass,its cute and light to wear and clashes beautifully with my vampire red hair.

INTERMISSION..........

Well i have been away,not physically but mentally,my beads stopped talking to mr,my muse escaped through an open window,and the worst of it was after the panic i didnt care.
I have never gone for long without my hands crafting something,so i bought some crochet patterns,found some free ones and knitting ones and joined some crochet groups and a fibro group.
So i have made a scarf,(yet to block it)kept up with the posts on beading groups,and finished this.
This pic was in Diane Fitzgeralds calendar,i have her book,i Love her book,so made this,with a glass cab eye,small enamel blue scarab,some brass pharoahs,chain and a snake toggle.It felt great and i got lots of feedback on the net and real life.
I was only well enough to leave the house twice for short times in 7 weeks,i think that and that i was racing to bead,buy more,find more patterns and doing nought else made beading a bit job like and i burnt out,i have lots of unfinished projects and thats not me.
I did read SIG"S chapter of her book at beadedbear.com and that made me feel better,and while i am knitting ideas for the jungle challenge are pricking at the back of my brain,i am not in a rush i'll wait and see.
The cicada,snake metal mesh necklace,and turquoise sticks are all etsy buys.

More Art Nouveau

I came across this pattern at Beadcoop,by Beadholden aka Lesha McPherson,and just had to do it.I changed two colours of beads and think the silver lined crystal really makes it pop.The toggle wasnt a toggle at all but a silver stamping and i used a toggle bar as well.
The weather here in oz is lovely,bright sunny autumn days,cooler nights and as usual i have a fluey type virus thing and am doing not much,my beads arent talking to me and i have a few new goodies from Etsy as i have been buying while the dollarAU is worth 90c US.

NEPAL bracelet and earrings

I am really thrilled with how this came out,its for a turquoise challenge on Beaddreamz group,i had some beads but found the nepal bead on Etsy for $4,and the copper/sterling ones i bought from Szarka at magpie turquoise,go and check her out if you want to max the cash,she has so much you'd like to buy.
It was hard to get a clear pic as its drizzly and grey most days latley,and i have been very ill and had an eye infection,so at least this makes me feel i have done something this week.

New new new nouveau

This is my latest offering and one i enjoyed immensly making.I used to do decoupage and this was a bit like it.I used rivoli's for the first time but instead of beading them i used settings i bought from Etsy,againlol.
The title is for Dr Who fans,in an episode where the Dr and Rose land in the future opposite the city of new new york,the doctor explains that it has actually been rebuilt 15 times so should be called new,new new,15 times york,new new york for short.I love the art nouveau style though my big love is Deco,if i was rich i would collect deco everything.

Bouquet Cuff

This is a simple garden bracelet i just did.I used wine/red 8 delicas as a base and then just added the flowers and leaves,glued stitched onto aluminium blank covered in ultrasuede.I love the tri colour flowers.
The other pic is my 8 week old grandson Chester,i didnt make him,he looks just like his mother,not as she did as a baby but right now,should be fun watching him grow up.

John William Waterhouse mermaid

I love Waterhouses art work and saw a pendant similar to mine in a mag a while back,i used to do decoupage so no problem doing the pendant and all the bits came together as Etsy finds came in and just slotted into place.
I am enjoying the fashion of mixed metals especially silver and copper,this is simple but nice.

White Opal Lotus

This is one of my etsy finds again a sort of lotus flower with side bits.I knew what i wanted to do right away as i love white opal swarovskis and i buy lots of 4mm from abovefashion an ebay seller,around $4 a hundred,bargain i say.I didnt want to put silver beads inbetween and so it shines like mad.
The ring is part of a birthday lot paid for by my partner.Its mingj on ebay and you can buy ring settings there and cut gemstones ,just match the sizes,add a bit of glue,bend prongs,designer ring.The base was $8 and the peridot,which is brilliant cut round like a diamond was $20,another bargain,for a woman with not much money i look expensive haha. 51 tomorrow wow how did i get here lol.

Early Birthday Present or "look what i got"!

I received a cute little box from a beady friend in NC USA,i had an idea what is was but wasnt going to open it till my birthday,so while reading her blog i came across a post Julia's Sea Star and there it was,my present ,so off came the paper,open the box and look what i got,Aryd'ell made it for me and its amazing.
This is the first beaded thing i have been given,and didnt make myself and i love it.
I think the pattern is made by a woman called Lidia who hopefully will be selling it soon,as i won't to make one too.
The colours are fantastic and it looks so realistic,i am thrilled,thanks girlfriend!!

Bead Like An Egyptian

I spent the last couple of days making this just for the fun of it,i wasnt to bothered where threads and knots went and if i couldnt go up or down a bead as it was full of thread i did another bead,as happens when i bead for myself with no worries it came out great.It was originally a Toika Bridges RIP pattern but her wings were half the size and looked to small for the scrab and i wanted an OTT bezel around it.
I had just finished it and was so rapt but thinking its so typically egyptian like everyones egyptian work when a male friend of Daves came to visit and announced that my native american necklace was good,(he already has glasses) and that native americans use turquoise and silver like that,????,well then there you go not to egyptian after all,dare you to find coral,silver and turquoise in it,haha!

PHEW its over.

Yah xmas is over for another year,ahh its awful here,to hot,to noisy etc.This is a picture of my buddha i got for xmas,it is called meditating buddha but i think of it as resting,so lovely.
I finally finished Jaycee's pattern Firestorm2,which is lovely.I just have trouble with peyote with lots of colour changes,its me and though i get things done its always a long frusrating journey.
Strangely enough my most unfavourite colour of all time ORANGE!!!!now features in both my latest works,this one being a simple bracelet row of crystals.The pattern is at Rubys Beadwork,the herringbone bangle and i just used black 11's and fire opal 4mm crystals.As a helpful hint i inserted a chenille stem to help it keep stiff and bend nicer and used the trimmed metal ends of the stem to hook around the button magnetic clasps little holes,it held on much better and was easier to bead.I made it on new years eve and i think it looks like fireworks against the black sky,i buy most of my crystals from abovefashion on ebay.
My new grandson is due in 4 days and his mum is very fed up,its hard to be very prenant in the heat.

Julia's Favourite Brand

I bought this pattern from Claudia at Happyland,as a painful non-smoker i thought it was cute and funny and a perfect present for my fagging friend.The first one i made 2 small,2nd one proper size,they are fun and easy to make.

Xmas faery etc

No its not the xmas faery,well maybe to me,its my granddaughter Cleopatra in her faery dress that we bought her and doesnt she look rapt.
This is also the hot air balloon ornament i made her for xmas,its a Muridar Gardiner pattern that i have had for years,simple netting and a square stitch basket,hope she likes it.

Ahhhemm

Have been absent for quite a while now,my beading muse collapsed and my get up and go got up and went,i couldnt see anything i liked,couldnt see the point of beading anymore stuff to keep in my room for the occasional time i went out.
Sometimes life just becomes so small when you are permanetly ill,go nowhere,see and talk to no-one.
Lucky i had reluctantly signed up for the beaded hand challenge on BDZ,and had to finish it,i ran out of beads and had to send to the US for more,however finishing it felt so good,and i am slowly getting back on the horse.
I called my hand Maharani,i thought a female sultan but thats a sultana wasnt calling it that,hopefully it will be appreciated,my UK cousin asked if it was a real hand haha,a compliment i suppose?

Nacre

I found this pattern in a copy of bead and button magazine,i kept getting drawn back to it,which is odd as its not my usual style,or colours,pastels arrggg,so i decided to make it with the delicas i had on hand.I picked a transparent pink and a pearly white.
I learnt a lot making this,bead cages for the fire polished beads and just how you can be drwan to things,i decided it was because its so organic in style and flow,and i love Biwa pearls.I named it Nacre after the coating that is laid down by the oyster to make a pearl,it reminded me of the film Dr Doolittle i saw as a child when he goes inside the snails shell.
It is a spiral herringbone tube,with caged firepolish crystal beads,branch fringe and Biwa pearls,