New tooth?

Just a quickie today to show you my cute new little bracelet for tiny little wrists belonging to gappy smilers!

It's been so long!

I am ashamed!

I've thought about writing something often, and I've not stopped making jewellery, it's just that I've never seemed to have any time just lately - and to be honest, I don't really know if anyone reads this actually!

But anyway, school has broken up, I have six long weeks stretching in front of me - hopefully with some good weather! - so I thought I'd catch up a little!

So, what's new? well, I'm moving away from chain a little and onto cord (waxed cotton, ribbon, silk, rubber). A lot of my items have it as the core of their strap.

At the moment this is my biggest seller - lots of GLEE fans out there! It's threaded onto a black faux suede strap.

This little PUNK necklace has a rubber/PVC cord. I love the safety-pin charm!

The CUPCAKE bracelet has 4 1mm waxed cord strings - this is actually on sale at Etsy for less than $5 because of the oopsie 'U'!

Back to Alice! Bought this cord for Halloween bracelets (coming soon!) but the colour just lent itself to the 'tea' theme.

A really nice set - popular with girls finishing school or holiday clubs - can be made pretty small for skinny wrists! the pink faux suede is luscious!

Sunbathing!

What a gorgeous day! The sun was shining, my grass was cut, the birds were singing - and my two deckchair loungers arrived just before lunch on the back an extrememly unhelpful ('not over the doorstep!') delivery man's van - hooray! Lunch involved reclining and slurping water melon and magnums (the ice cream, not anything large and bubbly!) whilst Leo moaned that his chair didn't go back as far as mine, and tipped his feet up, and it was too hot, and he wanted to watch TV anyway and not sit outside...school holidays eh?!


But nothing could keep me away from my hammer for too long and after much tapping I have this little bracelet to share with you. This is a quote - and title - of one of Leo's favourite books when he was little...before he got into vampires, werewolves and other gore! - I love it - I love it so much that I made two - one for Etsy, and one for me.

This is another little bracelet that I made this week. I have a very good friend who is fighting cancer at the moment and my Mum lost her fight almost 13 years ago, so this is inspired by them. I like the pink bead just sitting at the side dressed with two fuchsia seeds. It has a heart toggle too.

Both on sale now at Etsy

I love Alice...

Just a quick post tonight - it's late, I'm tired and I promised myself an early night (failed again!)

I just can't seem to leave Alice alone. This latest bracelet is showing off the results of my fab gift from my dad - a metal hole punch with various sized holes...hours of fun! Perfect for my little rabbit and stylised Alice to crawl through (or at the very least dangle from!)

On sale in my Etsy store now.

School days

I realised today that I'm counting down to the end of the school year (9 weeks, not including half term!) I guess that means that my little munchkins are growing up and getting ready to move on and probably so am I! Any time now they start to get a bit bolshy and realise that they only have a few weeks left to be the biggest and eldest on the playground before they have to move up and it's another four years before they reach the giddy heights again!

That in mind I made a couple of school-themed bracelets - great gifts for graduation, teachers or end of year. It's always nice NOT to get chocolate or scented candles once in a while you know (I speak from experience! The amount of chocolate that I gorge through at Christmas and the end of the school year is disgusting...but it'd be rude not to!!)

Both of these bracelets are on sale in my Etsy store now!

Bank Holiday

Don't you just love bank holidays?! Going to bed on Sunday night knowing that you have one more lie-in before work - another whole day stretching in front of you with nothing to do?! Of course, I'm not going to get a lie-in - it's Leo's first day of his paper round and he has to be there at 7am - that means SOMEONE (?!) has to get up at 6am in order to make sure that he gets there on time! And I certainly don't have nothing to do (cleaning, shopping, planning, amerking...) but the theories sound!

the long weekend has given me chance to make some new bracelets, and show them here too.

This is the ''New Mum' bracelet - American or UK spelling, pink, blue or white beads, plus a year, date or name tag dangle.

This little bracelet is ideal for a gift for the lady gardener - grandma, aunty, mum, wife - just to acknowledge their position out there!

All these items are listed on Etsy now.

Scorcher...!

So it said in the paper today as we reached an amazing 16 degrees!! Honestly, a bit of sun and we all go crazy (although I admit I was secretly a little pleased to hear that we had better weather over Easter than Leo's friend in Malta, and my friend's parents in Lanzarote! What a jealous mare I am!!)
Today was the sort of day when you're pleased to have a dog! All those months of sulking about going out for a walk in the rain and snow (and that's just the pooch!) went out of the window today. Walking over the hills by our house it really was just beautiful, and reminds me why I came back from London to live here where I grew up. Even when I was living down there I'd have to come back every few weeks just to see some fields - now I'm surrounded by them and I'm loving it!

My house is down there...

Lola contemplates a rabbit hole

As it was so lovely I pottered about my garden, pulling up the odd weed and poking at the soil in random places! In the end I couldn't keep away from my hammer and stamps so brought them outside and created my new bracelet there! I've already listed an 'Eat Me' bracelet and necklace on Etsy and wanted to make a matching 'Drink Me' set, but couldn't find any bottle charms that looked right. Last night I had a revelation - I could 'make' one using beads! well, I tried it and I really like the way that it looks. Added a skull key for a really gothic twist and it was done! I listed it on Etsy and it sold in a matter of an hour so. Because I like the design so much I've made another one this evening (but inside this time!) and listed that too! If you get chance check it out.

Dream...

The holidays are rapidly coming to an end and work looms large on Monday. It's a heavy term for my littlies coming up - assessments, assessments, assessments!

I've just booked my Summer holiday - very excited, we're going to Kenya, and going on a mini safari whist we're there. Can't wait (but of course I have to ...grrr! Still, it's something to keep me going through the long weeks of...marking!) Probably because of all this I've been inspired to make this 'DREAM' necklace. I'm so pleased with the way it's turned out - I really like the single letter tags (although quite fiddly to make!), and the vintage chain looks lovely. I tried adding beads and charms but decided it looked better without adding anything - what do you think?

It's listed now on Etsy.

Chocolate thieves and keeping your cake.

This year for the first year in ages I actually got an Easter Egg - it sat on the top of my bookcase for several days whilst I looked at it longingly! Eventually I could resist no longer and tucked into the two packets of rolos that came with it (giving Leo the last one just to prove I love him...although that was the only he got...he did have umpteen eggs of his own so I wasn't being THAT mean!)

Even then I couldn't quite bring myself to crack open that gorgeous choccie egg...and that was my undoing - I should have just eaten it there and then, little did I know that someone else had their eye on it...

Lola, our chocohlic whippet had spied it...it really is scary how high she can jump and/or climb...or maybe just bribe our cat Alice to knock it off the shelf for her - whatever, she stole it, stashed it at the bottom of the garden, and polished it off before I realised what was going on - the sugar-rush lasted 24 hours, but her disgrace is ongoing!

So, whilst still in mourning for my delicious egg I was inspired to make this tasty little bracelet. the dog is not interested but I think it looks yummy - my mouth is watering even now...perhaps Leo hasn't finished ALL his eggs yet - and I DID give him my last rolo...!

On sale in my Etsy store now!

Curious?

I just thought that I'd show you my latest little bracelet - I still haven't got to the cinema so am working out my Alice in Wonderland frustrations in bracelet form...

Perhaps we'll get there tonight?!

In the mean-time this bracelet is listed in my shop on Etsy - see the link at the side of this page.

Phew!!!

Well, setting up this blog was one of the hardest things I've done for a while! I thought I knew a bit about ICT but this nearly beat me. So, I'm tentatively up and running although I don't yet look too attractive - still, with time I should find out how to pretty things up a bit!

So anyway, who am I? Good question! well my name is Suzy and I'm a single mum living in a pretty village called Milford in Derbyshire, right in the middle of the UK. This is the view from my front window...

...see, told you it was pretty!

Now, next question, what am I doing here? Well, you see in my spare time (I've not got much - I teach infant children full-time, and have a just-teenage son Leo, who demands running from one social engagement to the next!) I make jewellery and I thought you might like to see it. I've just gone off in a new direction. I've always made things with beads from old jewellery but have now taken recycling to a new level by using scraps of metal and adding them to my pieces. It started off with me raiding my Dad's shed but having emptied that I'm now trawling skips and junk-yards for things that I can cut, hammer and stamp - it's SOOOOOOO satisfying - especially after a long day of little (and big) children moaning, arguing and fighting - I can take out all my frustrations on my little bits of metal - poor things! Still, it's much better than taking it out on my little kiddies!

I've just started listing things on Etsy - my user name is suzyandleo (Can't change it sadly much as I would like to, so am stuck with the name I used for my Christmas Shopping account - Oh don't you love all the gorgeous things on there? So many bits I bought for my friends have never left my house!). I'm also listing on Ebay - THAT acount is called 'the*hills although that one I CAN change - and will...eventually!

So would you like to see some jewellery? Go on then, here goes!

This pretty bracelet says 'El Dia De Los Muertos' - the Day of the Dead' - hand-stamped on three copper tags. It has carnival colours, little 'sugar-skull flowers, and of course a nice silver skull and angel wing on either side of the copper tags.

I love this peaceful little bracelet. It says 'just breathe' great advice - I should take it myself sometimes! It has vintage beads in apple green, white and earthy brown, with a pretty butterfly and leaf dangle.

The tags read LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE and it has pretty dangles in pinks, lavender and frosted white, with black and silver contrasts. This one has angel wings and stars too.

Leo is a real Tim Burton fan and has been pestering me for weeks to go and see Alice in Wonderland. My car is in the garage having a snow-sliding bump repaired so until I can get out to the theatre this is my 'Alice' offering. I love the caterpillar - he's just so ...laid-back!

So that's me - hope you liked what you see - I'll pop back again soon and let you know what I've been up to, in the mean-time - have a great Tuesday!

Suzy

xxx