Merry Christmas!

Hi Guys! I have neglected by blog lately and just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!

My Dad is coming to pick myself and Mark up from Manchester tomorrow and take us back home for festivities. I'm very excited.

Hope you all have fun!

Love Janine xx

Another Year older....

.... yes that's me. It was my birthday on Monday, and my first one without my family since I moved to Manchester.

I had a FAB day with Mark (my partner) opening pressies, shopping, eating and of course drinking! It does feel like I'm getting older now though, I now have to describe myself as late 20's (27) and it feels very strange because I could swear I turned 18 not long ago!
Here are some Fab shoes that Mark bought for me, I love them!
... and here is the Indian restaurant we went to how beautiful are those chandeliers?!

The.... Simpsons...

Love this, I was messing about today and managed to create Simpsons characters based on Mark and me! Visit www.simpsonsmovie.com to create your own!

Don't you just love....

.... hearing that somebody genuinely loves your work, so much so that they are close to tears when they receive it as a gift! I made this necklace for a friend at work who gave me the floral heart bead and asked me to do something with it here's what I managed to come up with.

Her Mother was over the moon when she received it and phoned all of her friends to tell them. It makes me really happy to hear things like that, to know that my design is really appreciated. I walked around with a big smile on my face yesterday :o)

Black Magic

My latest design, Black magic, inspired by the time of year (Halloween) and my love of Gothic design. I have been playing with Liver of sulphur, not usually something I use in my designs but I must say I think it worked rather well with this one as I oxidised the sterling silver so it was a very dark grey colour. It is waiting to be listed in my Etsy Shop, I may have to make another for myself!

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Laura of Beads by Laura

The 'tagging' rules are as follows:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Here's my super amazing facts about moi!

1. I am an only child :o)

2. My Fave music is currently the Old 70's band Roxy Music.

3. I met my wonderful boyfriend Mark on Myspace.

4. I hate speaking to people on the phone, coincidentally I work in a call centre.

5. I walk everywhere since I sold my car and moved to Manchester 4 months ago.

6. My other favourite hobby apart from making jewellery is cooking I try and cook food from scratch whenever I can.

7. I am a bit of a geek and love watching wild life programmes, this usually results in me wanting whatever animal has been on one for example last night I wanted a Penguin.

I can see two people who have not already been tagged

Mandie of Jewellery Craft

Mark of Fault 151

Bye for now!

Photofunia.com

Inspired by an upload on Flickr I just had to check this site out. You use a picture of your choice and the site works it magic and creates unique pictures with your face on. I had lots of fun on this site, these are my two faves! Check it out

Long Time No Blog!

Hidden Treasure

It's been a while I know. I've been left uninspired for a couple of weeks and also came down with a dreadful virus last week so have been inside resting, only daring to venture out these last couple of days.

Yesterday I got out a few bits and bobs and made this Romantic necklace featuring lots of gold trinkets and treasures and an ornate pink and lace bow. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and it makes a great tinkering sound when you move!

How quick is Christmas coming around? It only feels like a couple of months since last year and now I find myself yet again thinking that I'll 'start early' and get it all done before anybody else. Manchester City centre is becoming more and more busy and I don't want to get caught up in the crowds about a week before! I best get my plans into reality!

Oh Joy!!!

I just have to share this with you! For a while now I have been watching and admiring the work of talented Polymer clay bead and jewellery artist Jennifer Morris.

I decided to purchase a pair of her 'Chefs choice super surprise earrings' Each purchase of these means that Jennifer gets to choose the colour of your earrings so that its a little surprise that comes through the post. What a lovely idea!

Today mine came through in a gorgeous box and in a cute little satin pouch! I love them! Thanks Jennifer these were a joy to receive and I'm wearing them as I type!

More eye candy

Bijoux Heart Vintage floral necklace | NET-A-PORTER.COM





Just spotted this stunning necklace!!! Lovely!

Home Sick

Here is my latest design, another charm bracelet featuring Alice in Wonderland trinkets and charms! This was a lot of fun to make and I managed to photograph and edit the pics myself so I'm quite proud. I prefer my jewellery so much more photographed on a white back ground!

I'm going home this next week end I'm missing home, my Mum and Dad and Billy Dog so I'm really looking forward to having a week end back home!!! Can't wait!!

Eye Candy!

Mark and I had a lovely day yesterday. He had a proper wonder around Manchester and looked around some unique shops. In the afternoon I had a hair appointment and then we went and had some Mexican food at Chiquitos, it was lovely. On the way back we nipped into the Urbis Museum and looked at some of the exhibitions. One of them was a Matthew Williamson exhibition displaying lots of his work. I fell in love with the chair above! It's just my style... pity i wouldn't be able to squeeze it into our apartment.
I also love this dress, its so beautiful with it's eastern feel, so much detail its unbelievable! I think I would have a few Charm bracelets to sell before I could afford to buy one though!!!

Cottage Garden

Remember the polymer clay flowers I made a few weeks ago? this is the outcome, a rather charming choker style charm necklace. It reminded me of some of the beautiful gardens you see outside the little cottages in the country side. Its available in my Etsy shop right now.

Cherished Trinkets is undergoing some quite drastic changes at the minute with lots of new ideas and a new web site in the pipe line. Mark, may partner is working on new designs as we speak. I am hoping to have a site that I will be able to update myself so that I don't have to rely on Mark so much. The result should mean that there will be more jewellery. Yay! In the meantime all my new jewellery is being uploaded to Etsy although there are still some designs on my site.

We're off to the market now to buy ingredients for a stew I'm making. Can't wait!

She sells sea shells

I first saw Laura Sparling's wonderful shell beads about a year ago and yet again fell in love! I then waited and waited for some more to come up for sale and vowed that if they did they would be mine!!! And so they were, quite a few months later. Then I got scared, because they are so beautiful I wanted to do them justice. I teamed them with some more of Laura's beads and turned them into this super long necklace. I love the result!

New design

[Molly]

Here's one of my latest designs featuring a copper look bow. You may have noticed that I've been experimenting with my pictures. The truth is that I would really like to be able to take my own pictures and having the white back ground makes it too hard for me to edit. My partner Mark usually does them for me but I want to be able to do them myself. I'll keep having a practice!

Hot hot hot!

Romance

The weekend proved to be a hot one didn't it?! It was Marks birthday on Saturday so we went for some lunch and was out and about. At night we indulged in some drinks on our balcony.

I was at work today still doing lots of training ready for getting on the phones and speaking to real life people on Wednesday... feeling very nervous indeed!

Above is one of my latest designs featuring a cute little picture frame with some script writing in there. I may have to make one for myself too!

....and the winner is...

Candice Suter! Well done Candice the 'Sweetness' earrings are on their way to you :o)

Competition!

I've been meaning to have one for a while, I've made these super cute 'Sweetness' earrings with Swarovski crystal, sweet satin ribbon and sterling silver. I am giving them away! All you have to do is email me at sales@cherishedtrinkets.co.uk with the title 'Earrings!' Please include your full name in the email. You're name will go into a draw. I will do the draw (out of a hat) and announce the winner next Sunday at 7.00pm here on my blog.

Everybody is invited to enter so what are you waiting for?!

Good Luck everybody!

I'm no longer a bum!!!

Yes it's true, no longer shall I be watching Jeremy Kyle, Loose women and Daily Chefs challenge every day. I am to enter the world of the employed! I was called today with two job offers and a chance for a second interview and all this happened within the space of an hour!!

The job I have accepted is in the collections department for GE money (the people who supply credit cards etc) and guess what? I start tomorrow for training! I'm so happy, I really hated not having a job!

On to jewellery, my paradise bracelet went down a treat so I thought I would adapt the design to a glamorous white crystal version. I've also been working on another project which I should be able to show you in a couple of weeks.

New Tricks

As I have had a bit of time on my hands I decided to try something a bit new. I purchased some Fimo clay and had a go at making some of my own beads. I love to use polymer clay flowers in my work so I decided to make some larger ones. They are not as easy to make as I thought they would be and I got very very frustrated! Here are some of the finished beads, I'm hoping to make them into something pretty soon!

Yum Yum

Mark made me this lovely lasagne last night and it really did taste as good as it looks! Mark's nanna is italian so he learns all her special tricks when it comes to cooking italian food. Gorgeous!

Poorly Feet

O.K all this walking is not agreeing with my feet they are so poorly and sore and every day I get a new blister, sorry if this sounds gross but its so upsetting :o(

Anyhow onto brighter things here is my latest charm bracelet 'In Bloom'. I don't think I could fit anything else onto it even if I tried!! This can be found in my Etsy shop and on my website when my glamorous assistant Mark finds the time!

So Funny!

I was chatting online to my Aunty Jo from back home in Scunthorpe yesterday. She sent me this you tube video from Flight of the Conchords. I couldn't breath from laughing. Just sums up my recent 'move'.

Vintage Finds

I found these wonderful earrings on Etsy and fell in love. I had to order them! They are from a seller called Vintage Fabulous, and I adore so much in their store I've had to stop looking for now. They have lots of original vintage finds!

Had quite a busy week this week, been out and about visiting recruiters and a couple of interviews. I really really hate interviews... I get so so nervous! I did quite well though I think although I narrowly missed out on one job. Still waiting to hear about a second interview for the other one. Both were with well known banks.

I also had time to make some jewellery today, I have lots to show. Just need Mark to photograph for me. Shouldn't be long now.

Paradise

I finally got around to making some jewellery last week. There was only so much Jeremy Kyle I could stand and thought I would be better using the time to create something new.

It is true it really does seem to rain all the time here! So to lift my mood I decided to create something light and summery and crammed full of girly goodies of course! This will be available in my Etsy shop and my website soon!

Still job hunting, and walking all over Manchester city centre and yes I managed to locate 'The Bead Shop' in Afflecks palace and spent a good deal of time in there on Saturday much to Marks despair. I think with all this walking I should be a size 4 in no time! Yeah right!

Settling In

Well we're here and we're settling in quite nicely! I must say that at the minute it does feel rather like I'm on some kind of holiday. Above is the Manchester Wheel which is literally down he road from us, we haven't been on it yet though!

Mark started his new job here in Manchester city centre last week and he loves it, he's getting to do some very exciting work already and I'm enjoying hearing all about it when he gets home. I am also enjoying having the time to cook for us both and have tried out a couple of recipes. I think that Mark is quite surprised that I haven't poisoned him yet!

I am looking for a job myself. We only got the Internet properly yesterday as BT managed to loose all recollection of us having an account with them (although they did still manage to take money from us) so I have been having a good nosey at what is out there today.

Everything is so big and more impressive here compared to little old Scunthorpe back home, I have been forcing myself to get out and about so that I don't rot in the apartment. I do suffer quite badly with nerves so making myself do things can be quite tough at times but all in all I'm enjoying it!

On Saturday Mark and me went for a wonder round and looked at the the wonderful clothes and other possessions that we would love to buy, even more excuse for me to get a job isn't it really??? I could spend all day just buying things from this wonderful place. I also don't think that I have had so much coffee from Starbucks!

The Big Move!!

Today Mark and I are moving our belongings to our new apartment in Manchester! it's been a very busy and quite stressful week as we've been trying to visit people, go to work and pack. I have the day off today so that we can sign relevant things and take our gear over ready for Saturday! I just can't believe how fast everything is going. My Mum is already planning for when her and my Dad can visit, she's so excited but I can feel there will be tears on Saturday when my parents actually take us there!

I have loved buying all the necessary bits like a new iron (pink of course!), pans and plates etc! We are hoping to get broadband installed straight away so hopefully I won't be without the Internet for more than a couple of days. Hurrah!

I had one of my leaving celebrations on Saturday night involving lots of lovely Chinese food and drinks. I had a brill night and it was great to get all my friends together at once!

Update!

I've just added free postage on Etsy for all my lovely customers! I'm also giving away little free gifts with each order! Hurrah!!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade CherishedTrinkets.etsy.com

A New Start

I fell in Love with Laura Sparling's beautiful Easter focals when I saw them and decided I must have one or my life would be incomplete (This is how beads get you sometimes!). Last week, was a strange one, what with loosing Sasha and various other life changing events that I will go into in a moment, I just had to calm down and relax with some jewellery making. This pendant must have taken me about three hours to make and my hands were so sore!!! I teamed the bead with sterling silver and a gorgeous Rose quartz drop. I love it and it's mine! I wore it all last week and lots of people commented with 'oooohs' and 'ahhhhhs'. Lovely!!

Mark had some brilliant news last week. He has just been offered a job for the massive web design company based in Manchester called Lightmaker. I am so happy for him as he is so passionate about his design work! After much thought we have both decided to move there. Manchester is about 90 miles away from us, so it's pretty far! I had to inform my boss on Friday which I was so scared about, but she was lovely and very supportive.

Mark and I went to Manchester on Saturday and found a lovely apartment which we secured, so now we're trying to sort that out too. It's all go!!! But we both fell in love with it, can't wait! Part of me is very very scared to leave everyone and everything behind, I am an only child so I'll miss my parents so much but they have agreed to visit as much as possible and of course there is no excuse not to keep in touch these days what with email and texting and goodness knows what else!

I also had a nice surprise yesterday when I looked at the My Vintage Charms blog and found a post dedicated to my jewellery, such nice words to say about my work! I love their website as their charms and findings are so unique, so thanks for featuring me guys!!! Click here to see their post on Cherished Trinkets :o)

A bit quiet...

I've been a bit quiet since the weekend. During my days off work our poor family dog Sasha took a turn for the worst and we had to make the terrible decision to have her put to sleep yesterday. We're all heart broken and the house just doesn't feel the same without her. Every time I walk in it feels like there is something missing. She was too old to operate so the vet said it was for the best. I hope she's at peace now.

Our other dog Billy looks a bit lost without her, but at least we have him to cheer us up. I'll try and get a decent picture of him to put up! He's a very cheeky fellow indeed.

Above is Sasha how I like to remember her best, in her pink T shirt which just summed her up... it had 'Minx' written on the back and a Minx she certainly was!

A few days off!

I have a few days off worked booked, so I'm not back there until Thursday now. Hurrah!! Mark and me are going to Sheffield tonight to a club where The Prodigy are performing, we're very excited... I feel we may need some glow sticks!

Above is a pretty, feminine necklace made with a beautiful Karen hill tribe silver Orchid and fresh water pearls.

Seaside!

All of this glorious weather inspired me to use these fantastic beads by Laura Sparling. They really remind me of the fabulous holidays I used to go on with my parents as a child, usually local mind like Scarborough, or sometimes even as far down as Devon. I used to love them! I really wanted to keep these as they really do make me smile but they are currently for sale on my website and Etsy.

I love bank holidays!!!

Green With Envy
Oh I do love them!!!! I had lots of time to spend with Mark (my fella) and also to make jewellery. I left Mark playing with wire on Sunday (don't ask), and settled down to some serious jewellery making. I even borrowed my dads drill and made some home made twisted jump rings for the above bracelet made with gorgeous beads by Isabelle Anderson. It was hard work as I find wire work really daunting but I think it looks OK! Well I hope it does :o)

I was so proud that I went on to make a matching pendant! Hurrah!!!

Earrings!

Lemonade

A couple of pairs of earrings, that I 'whipped up'. I'm loving the gold look at the minute it has a certain class about it I think, and a vintage 'feel'.

Hopefully some more designs over the weekend!
Treasure

Happy birthday Mum

It's my Mum's birthday today so we're off for an Indian meal tonight, yummy my fave!!! Had the most awful day so far, started off with being trapped in the house as birthday girl Mum decided to hide my car keys in a random kitchen drawer and I couldn't find them anywhere!!! Nobody else was in and I couldn't get hold of her at work so I was running around for about 3/4 of an hour trying to find them! I rang my supervisor at work crying "I can't get to work!" he suggested getting a bus if there was absolutely no other way. Then then it dawned on me that I don't actually know how to catch a bus!!! Argh! Luckily I found them not long after and ended up being an hour late.... not good!

Here's a new creation 'Cream Golden Glow, I love this bracelet so much that I want to keep it... but it will be for sale on my website and on Etsy soon enough!

Cool Waters

Just been taking a peek at Bead artist Laura Sparling's blog. I must say I am in awe of her work, as she's added a link from her bead making demo at the 'Flame off' at Towcester at the weekend and it's amazing. Here is a set that I created with some of Laura's beads. I've had them a while and have been wondering what I should do with them. I just love the colour of blue that she's used, they remind me of lovely cool water with their silvery bubbles glistening in the light.

Summers Blush

I can't seem to help but make jewellery with a nice summery feel, maybe it's because the weather is so terrible, and cold!

Here is a necklace that I made from one of the wonderful beads that Mark bought me for my birthday last year made by the fantastic Jan Jennings.

More pictures to come.... so watch this space!

The big 50!

It was my Dad's 50th birthday yesterday so my family celebrated with a little get together at my Nana and Grandads House. I'm suffering from it today! Why do I never learn not to mix my drinks?! Bleugh!

Made a few bits as well and I'm also hoping to make some stuff with some of my bead stash particularly with some of Laura Sparling's magnificent beads! Can't wait!

....I'll hopefully have some pictures soon :)

Sasha

Don't you just love animals? Even when everything is getting to you and you feel hopeless they are always there to give you that reassuring look that just says "hey I love you all you have to do is feed me and treat me nice". This is the reason why I was so worried when my dog Sasha was feeling under the weather lately. She is actually my parents dog but she'd been around for 13 years now and I love her to bits, and as I still live at home I spend a lot of time with her. Every time I come home from work she's there welcoming me with a wagging tale and a big doggy cuddle. So when she barely had the energy to look at me never mind get out of her basket I felt more than concerned. She was also bringing up blood (and from the other end) and my immediate thought was that she had something terrible like cancer.

My parents took the poor little mite to the vets (much to the distress of our 5 year old dog Billy who also idolises Sasha) and after prodding, poking and blood tests were told that she seems to have some kind of infection and a stomach ulcer. She's eating special food and lots of drugs (Kate Moss eat your heart out) and thank goodness she is looking so much better. I just hope she carries on perking up. I couldn't bare the thought of not seeing this furry little face when I come home from a hard day at the office!

More jewellery in the pipe lines! I have so many ideas right now that I just don't know where to start! It's just a shame that I don't have as much time as I do ideas.... I'd be well away if I did!

Website Update!

Alice in Wonderland


Roses are Blue


Rose Bud


Darling Rose Bud
Still bits of snow around here! How annoying I want it to be all spring like as we've just updated my website with a nice spring feel to it! I've also uploaded some of my latest work for sale. Thanks to all of you who very kindly left me lovely comments on my Flickr gallery! I've had a bit of spare time over the weekend and have enjoyed making a few bits for the site, especially the Alice in Wonderland charm bracelet!

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday Monday!