Fabulous Feedback!

Recently I have made a few creations for a lovely lady that emailed me with an earring challenge just after Christmas. Since then we have spoken quite a lot via email and Blackberry Messenger. I love to keep in touch with customers to see how they are getting on but have been thrilled by the results for Sarah and her family.

The other day she sent me three fabulous pieces of feedback and I would like to share them with you as I am very proud.

"I've wanted beautiful earrings for a while and 'nothing was doing it for me' in many, if not, all jewelers! I thought "this isn't right...I can't find ANYTHING, not even at Tiffany's!"

I started to become attracted to crystals and becoming more and more intrigued by their beauty and healing properties. I stumbled on Anna, The Crystal Lady's website and by looking through her creations I was certain, "this is for me, this is perfect"! I contacted her straightaway. I loved filling out her questionnaire and discussing different styles with her. My earrings are truly beautiful. I get compliments each time I wear them. The whole experience has been wonderful. Anna is such a warm and considerate person. Her creativity shines through in her pieces. The lovely wee pouch and booklet my earrings came with made it all the more personal and special. I know that I would love to have a collection of her creations, most definitely."

"After receiving some beautiful earrings from Anna, I really felt the benefit of wearing them. With this belief and my wish for my hair to grow a bit longer, I bought Anna's gorgeous Unakite hairclip. I've worn it almost everyday for 2 months now, and I've really noticed a difference, not only in length, but in quality and shine too. My hair is much more healthy! My hubby even noticed a difference! I can't thank Anna enough for wearing something that's beautiful but also beneficial too...Result!"

Not only did I hear from Sarah but I heard from her husband David too:

"For Valentine's Day, my wife gave me a personalised crystal keyring from Mystic Earth. It was something really different and unexpected which really appealed to me. I've found it really convenient carrying it around in my pocket. I've also felt a real benefit from the crystals' properties especially whilst at work."

UPDATED! Comic Relief Jewellery Auction!

Morning all!

I will be auctioning off some of my handmade jewellery over the next 2 weeks to raise money for Comic Relief!

The first piece to go up for auction on this blog is:

This beautiful 'Happiness' Bracelet is created using Carnelian, Sunstone and Citrine Gemstones and highlighted with Swarovski Crystals.

The bidding will start at £1 and run until Midnight on Friday. 

Please leave a comment with your bid on this post and also your email address if you would like me to contact you if you are the new owner. If you would prefer not to leave your email please look out for the announcement on Saturday. OR leave a bid on the FB post for this item as we already have one for £5 for it :) Find the post here

Dig deep guys as ALL of the money goes to the Charity, you can see my official charity page here http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/mysticearth

There is also a Facebook auction going on for this gorgeous Sunstone Bracelet.

Join in with this auction here 

Update! Another auction has started on Facebook which runs until Wednesday 20th March. Find it here 

I would appreciate any shares on blogs or Facebook pages/Twitter etc so that we can raise as much money as we can.

Happy Bidding!

Have you ever clicked on that 'Next Blog' button up left on your blog?

Have you ever clicked on that 'Next Blog' button up left on your blog?
Because this afternoon (whilst I was supposed to be working) I did!
Now at first you think it may be totally random, but then you realise that there is some method to its madness. From what I can tell the 'next blog' has some loose (and in some cases incredibly loose) connection to the previous one. As you progress through blog after blog it is quite astonishing how far 'off the point' you can go! Eventually you just have to go back to your own blog and start again. Now where will this wonderful adventure take me this time, and so it goes on...

Shall we go on one right now? OK then, off we go ...

Next Blog ---

An Etsy seller who loves sparkly things, I can see the connection here. ;)
You can find Olive hue designs here

Next Blog ---

 

A bead lover from Malaysia, yes I can still see the connection.

You can find Chatterbeads here

Next Blog ---

Another beady one! This is going way better than the last adventure I had. That one ended up in a foreign language I couldn't understand!

You can find Bead Art Originals here

Next Blog ---

Aha! I spoke too soon! We seem to have veered off course somewhat to a blog dedicated to a Danish model!
You can find it here

At this point I ran into a dynamic blog template which for some reason removes the next blog button so am forced back to start again.

This was quite a tame adventure, we will go for another one next time and see where it takes us.
Or you could indeed go on your own, do tell me if you end up somewhere exciting!

Not enough to say so just look.....

I can't decide what to write about so I am going to share some lovely and unusual images with you instead. Just sit back and feast your eyes.

"Green Vision" by Marc Adamus. Aurora borealis reflected on a frozen lakeshore in the Yukon Territory. Stunning.

 

Tunnel of Love, Ukraine

I hope you enjoyed looking at these beautiful images as much as I enjoyed finding them for you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Thank you for joining me again. (And yes, I know, where have I been?) Well, what can I say - its been super hectic. I won't promise to be here more often like normal as I know I won't. But I'm here now! YAY

I wanted to share a wonderful photograph with you that I saw on Facebook the other day.

Isn't it fantastic! Now I don't know about you but I often feel like this. Hanging on by my fingernails! This tree is determined not to fall though isn't it.

Things may get tough but just keep on hanging in there as you never know what is going to happen in the future.

Join me for a handmade Christmas!

Like so many of you out there, money is a rather large issue this year! So I have decided that where possible Christmas will be completely handmade. I will be making as many gifts for the boys as I can and what I can't make I have a plan for! The lovely Garreth from ScENT has started a swap shop on Creative Connections here. This is where crafters like myself can trade my items with those lovingly created by fellow members. This should hopefully keep costs down. 

I have also started having ideas for some gifts. I will probably make cuddly toys for each of them (if I find time) as I have done that for years and they seem to like them. I will update you on this when I discover what they want. This morning I also picked up a couple of chocolate moulds on ebay. One for dinosaurs and one for Christmassy shapes. The plan is to make some festive chocolates for them, sound good?

Another idea I had was to fill some nice jars with some of their favorite sweets. Yes, I know it sounds like lots of confectionery but it is Christmas! Here are the jars I got (plastic)

 

Now I need gifts that aren't edible. Any ideas?

Keep Calm It's nearly Christmas!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! Well, actually it isn't all that bad. I say this because I totally miss out on Christmas sales EVERY YEAR! Usually because I am too busy with CRAFTfest and Creative Crafting. By the time December comes along and everything slows down it is way too late to actually think about getting Christmas Sales from my jewellery.

Well, not this year! Oh no, I am going to be prepared. STOP LAUGHING! I AM!
I am so prepared (I need the money, I really do!) that I have opened a WowThankYou shop and listed a few bits on Etsy. I will also be actually taking all of the advice (if I get time) that we give out during the CRAFTfest events about internet marketing. Sad isn't it that we give all the advice but don't take it ourselves. Sad or downright stupid! So, I am going to actually make an effort to have Christmas sales this year. I shall let you know how I get on.

Now, has anyone actually got to grips with Google plus as it seems a handy platform that people are flocking to from Facebook but I'm having an issue with it? I can't stay on it for more than five minutes before the boredom kicks in. Anyone?

Right then, I am off to continue with the mission. I shall leave you with a little inspirational message.

There are WAY too many dinosaurs in my house!

There are WAY too many dinosaurs in my house! The small boy loves them - along with bugs! Eww!
We have hundreds of toy plastic and rubber ones, cuddly ones, pictures, books, magazines, computer games, you name it! And I have also discovered that under foot they are even more painful than small cars! Ouch!

Now when he has a bath he often takes a couple of the small ones and the odd bug or two in with him. So when I asked him the other day to choose a dinosaur to take in with him that is what I was expecting! How wrong was I!

It took a while but I did manage to talk him out of this one. I shall be putting him in the bath again later! 

Wish me luck!

Before I forget. The August issue of Creative Crafting came out today!
Enjoy!

Some mornings it takes more than that cup of coffee to get you up and going!

This was how I felt that I looked this morning!

I'm hoping that in reality it wasn't quite so bad but you never know. I couldn't sleep last night and decided to read from 1am hence the green around the gills look. I did eventually drag myself out of bed however when a friend and work colleague sent me a text message asking if I was OK! It was only 8.30 but that is late for me. No rest for the wicked. ;)

Anyway, I'm not going to apologise for not blogging since the spider incident as I do that all of the time and it never helps so I intend to just blunder along as if I've been here everyday. (What me! Neglecting my blog! NEVER)

So what am I up to? Well, now that you ask, quite a bit. I have the usual stuff, the next issue of Creative Crafting publishing tomorrow, The Professional Crafters Guild, the odd bit of jewellery for Mystic Earth. I really want to totally revamp Radiance Crystals site with a totally new range but am struggling to find time to do it.

Of course the bulk of my time is taken up over at Creative Connections Crafters Network getting everything organised for the next two CRAFTfest events! This time we are taking bookings for our Anniversary event in September and also the MEGAfest in November for Christmas! So don't miss out if you want a very reasonable way of promoting your business and making new friends at the same time. It is a networking MUST!

On other fronts, it is of course the Summer holidays! So although I am loving having both of my boys home with me it does make getting any work done rather challenging. Partly because I get interruptions every five seconds but also because I would much rather be playing games and watching DVD's with them.

I thought of so many funny stories to tell you all today and I can't remember a single one of them now! So here is a cute picture of an owl in a hat! Just because ...

I was also thinking that Mr CL should take up writing his blog again. Well, I was actually thinking this as I was listening to him the other evening reciting a very long conversation with someone at work word for word! How does he do that? I'm lucky if I can remember it just after it's happened. I think it is a short term memory thing. (I refer you to the paragraph above the owl, what owl? oh that owl)  Mine died many years ago (my short term memory, not my owl, that isn't mine!), if I ever indeed had one! Now ask me what I was wearing on a Tuesday in May in 1991 and I could probably tell you but not what I had for tea last night. That is a huge blank hole in my mind. Strange huh!

I may never sleep again!

OMG! OMG! The most awful thing happened last night! I need to share as an alternative to therapy which I'm sure people have for things like this.

Last night I was sat in bed reading, as you do. I was perfectly happy until Mr CL came to bed. (That sounds bad doesn't it but read on) He pulled back his side of the duvet to get in bed and exclaimed "OH WOW, LOOK AT HIM!) Yes, you guessed it, I wasn't alone! There was a huge, black, bulbous spider in bed with me! Well, I shot out of there like I was on FIRE!

Mr CL disposed of the interloper and got in bed, then spent ages trying to convince me to come out of the corner. I'd like to say that he fully understood my terror and was nice about it, but he preferred to go down the route of "Get in bed quick! I think there may be more on the floor!" (Evil, evil man!)

I did eventually venture back between the covers, only to spend the next several hours itching and stressing about the intruder. I was tempted to ask Mr CL which direction it had been facing so that I could console myself that it hadn't actually come from MY SIDE! But I didn't, which is probably a good thing.

I'm not sure how I'm going to face going to bed tonight. Fresh sheets? (of course), full body armour? Perhaps. Valium? (If I had some!)

I trust you all slept far more soundly than I did. I hope I haven't made you all itch as well.
But just remember....
Before you get into bed tonight! Check between the sheets! ;)

It was like this one, only black, and bigger!!!