Exciting news! Cherished Trinkets now Available at Bang Bang Vintage!

OK, I'm very excited! The wonderful vintage store 'Bang Bang Vintage' located in Sheffield now features some of my pendants for sale! Yay, my stuff is in a real life shop! I've sent a nice range over including some Alice In wonderland pendants along with some other vintage inspired pieces. If your in the Sheffield area please drop by and take a look in the shop they have some wonderful clothes and accessories to drool over! You can also take a look at the website here!



For more pictures of my range and the items featured at Bang Bang Vintage please visit my Flickr Gallery

Mochachino Cupcakes- Cupcakes with chocolate and coffee!

A little bit more baking from me! These look so indulgent! Certainly cakes to spoil yourself with!

Meeting Mark soon so that we can renew our tenancy for the flat. Can you believe we have nearly been in Manchester a year now?! I can't believe how it's flown! After that I'm meeting my friend Lisa for a girly chat and some food... and no doubt some wine as well!

Ooooooh my gorgeous blue Butterfly!

Look what fluttered its way into my post box yesterday. This gorgeous butterfly clip thingy, a gift from Laura Sparling. Its sooooooo me! Bertie (it just seems to go) is hanging out on my bedroom blinds looking out over the city. Thanks Laura for this wonderful gift!

Super Hero Me!

After popping over to Laura Sparling's blog the other day I just had to check out The Hero Factory. Here you can invent your own super hero based on yourself! Of course mine had to include the colours pink and purple and own a pair of wings! He he. Thanks Laura!

Christian The Lion

You may or may not have seen this before! I love it, and it always manages to bring a smile to my face... and the message is so true!

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

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!

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!

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!!!

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!

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'.

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!

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!

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!

Happy Easter!

Here is the wintry scene that awaited Mark and me as we went for a walk along the beck around the corner from where I live. Not exactly spring is it?

My parents have gone away to Ireland for the weekend. Mark and me are looking after the dogs... Sasha, who is quite old now for a dog (12 years) is a little bit under the weather. She struggles keeping food in her stomach... lets put it that way, so we didn't want to see them put in kennels for the weekend.

I've had a little bit of time to catch up with jewellery making and we're hoping to update the site today, which I'm really looking forward to, feels like it hasn't been done in ages!

Blogging? Again?

Ok so I only have 2 people to give an award to, and one is my boyfriend... I know its sad but this is the problem.... I wanted to give numerous people awards but they already have one.... and also I spend far too much time lurking around on blogger without having the courage to actually talk to these people from fear of being laughed out of blogger town. Silly I know but I'm a 'face to face' kind of person. I am therefore going to make a concious effort and talk to people and get to know them better!

so...

1) Mark of Fault151 I award you a 'you make my day award' How funny is that?
2) Clare of Clarenicolson.com

To pass the award on you need to
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo.
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

Now above is my latest piece, made last week I must admit, but I didn't get round to posting a picture yet. I 've made a rather simple (for me) charm bracelet featuring lamp work from Laura Sparling. Laura named these beads Raspberry Pavlova and I adapted this my turning them into Raspberry ripple as that's what they reminded me of when teamed with the cream freshwater pearls. I really do struggle not to cram bracelets with lots and lots of bits and bobs so I'm very proud at having stopped here on this one. I must admit that in this case less is more as you get to see much more of Lauras gorgeous beads! This bracelet for sale on my site or my etsy store.

Today I'm going to have another go with that pesky PMC, I wont let the bugger beat me this time!

Turkey....

Yes I'm just squeezing a quick blog in whilst I wait for my turkey curry to cook! Here's a gift that I made for my Mum. She has many a time sat and adored the work of Glass artist Claire from Rowanberry Art Glass. Particularly her beautiful trees which are just to die for. I therefore decided that I would make her some jewellery using one of Claire's wonderful beads... and here's the result. Mum loved it when she opened her gift on Christmas morning and to my relief I don't think she's taken it from around her neck since!



I received a PMC kit for Christmas, which for those of you who don't know is a clay which after being worked and fired with a torch (yes I know its scary, I'm hoping I'll keep my eyebrows)turns into beautiful precious silver. So I can create even more unique and one off jewellery with charms, pendents etc! I'm hoping to have a go tomorrow and shall post the results!!!

Hope you all had a FAB Christmas!!!

Janine