It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It's Spring)

And the British Winter is currently doing what it does best - sending us rain, wind and gloom.  This is not a favourite time of year for most people (myself included) - that long stretch between  the sparkle of Christmas and the zing of Spring.  However, my imagination always makes up for it and takes over my creative output almost as if this grim period didn't even exist.  Spring has arrived in my head, so I'm thinking daffodils, bluebells and sunshine.

I love Spring - walking in our beautiful woodland, seeing the buds burst from the trees and the flowers begin to bloom is quite magical.  I don't enjoy the heat, so I love springtime - including the rain!

And my creative output is focusing on bright Spring colours rather than the grey of a miserable January.  Here are a couple of recent pieces.

 

I even bought my first bunch of daffodils today - I LOVE daffodils!

Is anyone else finding their inspiration has skipped forward a couple of months? :)

Furry Friends ...

So, I was giving some thought to the things that enrich our lives.  Obviously family, friends, quality free time to indulge in what gives you pleasure, holidays etc. all feature fairly highly.  But also, many of us have pets.  I'm not lucky enough to be owned by any currently, but they have played a major part in my life in the past.  When I first moved in with my now-hubby over 20 years ago, we weren't allowed cats or dogs in our flat.  So we had mice - named Cobweb and Swift after characters from my favourite novels - and hamsters, Bilbo and Punk.  (Punk was the coolest hamster you ever saw - he really did have a streaky mohican.)

Sadly, I don't have any photos of our lovely rodents.  And the photos of our first cats, Sherbet and Cornflake, are all pre-digital, so I've had to scan them.

(Cornflake and Sherbet, probably the only time they ever sat together.

  Check out the tasteful cushion and chair ... )

They were an absolute menace, those two - especially Sherbet.  We had to remove all our ornaments, but still between them they managed to wreck the curtains, the wallpaper, the sofa, the carpet, two lamps, a table, a plant pot and a hatstand.  Yes, really - we found Sherbet in the wreckage of the hatstand after an almighty crash in the middle of the night.  When we first got them, they were so tiny they used to sit on hubby's feet looking up at him (this was usually a prelude to shinning up his body with claws like needles, but it looked cute!).

(Cornflake, who liked nothing better than to roll in as much dust as she could find, then come in the house and shake it all over you.)

After Sherbet and Cornflake came Socks, then Blue.  Socks had the most amazing quack, and you could hold a whole conversation with him.  He loved to sit on anything that clearly had anti-Socks warnings on it - most noticeably a whole tray of marzipan fruits which had taken yours truly five hours to make for presents one Christmas.  He was not popular that evening ... He was arrogant and affectionate, and most definitely a character.

(Socks, who knew he was a king.)

And Blue was a very different character.  Terrified of most things, and probably the most unphotogenic cat in the world, she absolutely loved hubby and used to tear across the room to meet him every single day.  She was a solid lump of a cat (probably due to the fact that she never ventured further than the garden, where she could often be seen, hunched over in the pouring rain - definitely a cat after my own heart!).  One of the funniest things I ever saw was the day one of the other cats knocked her into the tiny pond and she tore around the house in a panic, spraying foul-smelling pond water everywhere. ;)

(Blue, who did love her daddy ... )

Anyway, now I've rambled about our pets, I want you to tell me about yours.  We're a nation of animal lovers, and I know many of you share your lives with a furry/feathered/scaled friend or several.  Ours gave us much joy, amusement and sincere heartbreak, and the fact that they were 'only' pets does not diminish the way we felt about them.  I'm hoping this will be the year we find ourselves owned by another one.  If not a dog, most definitely a cat.  I miss my moggies!

New Artwork Creations ...

Just a quick post about what I've been up to over Christmas.  I hope you all had a fabulous time, and that you aren't all mourning the utter lack of sparkle the way I'll admit I am, just slightly ...

If you follow my blog, you'll know I've only recently picked up my pencils again after a hiatus of many years.  I've been having lots of fun drawing, and it was suggested to me that I might like to make some of the drawings into cards.  So I did. ;)

These are the first batch, and a new batch of (different) cards are on their way.  Anyone who has ever seen their artwork professionally printed will know how thrilled I was when I opened the box.  It's the first time it's ever happened to me and it was almost like looking at someone else's work on those smooth, high quality cards - incredibly exciting!  (Way more exciting to me than anyone else I showed them to, I'm sure!)

Then one of my lovely customers and followers mentioned that one of my drawings would look nice as a pendant, and that got me thinking ... a few supplies (and a right gluey mess, naturally - as it's me) later, and I now have glossy glass and silver encased miniature wearable artwork, like so:

Exciting, huh?  Fear not (unless you hate my wirework), I'm still obsessed with my many - many! - reels of wire and still experimenting with it every chance I get.  It's nice, though, to have one creative interest lead (back) to another.  What diverse interests and hobbies do any of you have - and are they much more different to each other than mine? :)

And the winner is ...

Anne Jones, whose heroine is the vicar of Dibley!  Please contact me (via Facebook is fine) with your address, and I can get the pendant packed up for you, ready to send tomorrow if you're in the UK, or after Christmas if not. :)

As is traditional with my giveaways, all names went into my straw hat and my impartial hubby selected one. 

Thank you so much to all who entered - I've had SO much fun reading all your comments!  Thank you for sharing your heroes and heroines with me. :)

Until the next giveaway, then.  Merry Christmas!  I hope you all have a good one, and that next year is a fabulous one for all of you. xxx

It's Giveaway Time! (ends 18th December 2013)

Yay, it's giveaway time!  A short while ago, I passed the 2000 likers milestone on my Facebook page and I promised a giveaway as a big thank-you.  It's a big deal to me that two thousand people have bothered to press that 'like' button, and I want to give something away to say THANK YOU.  Thank you for liking my page, following my ramblings and commenting on them so I don't think I'm talking to myself and start licking the walls or something ... Thank you to those of you who follow this blog, the lovely people who share my work, and of course a HUGE thank you to every single one of you who has purchased a piece of my work.  From the lowliest headpin to the biggest commission, each sale is incredibly valuable to me.  Many of you are artists and craftspeople too, and you will certainly understand that there is nothing in the world like the knowledge that someone appreciates your work enough to pay for it.  I never take it for granted, I can promise you. x

So, without further ado, here is the piece of jewellery I shall be giving away - many of you will have seen it before, as it's a festive piece and quite dear to my heart - my Christmas Fairy Door. 

It is a pendant intended to be worn on a necklace, but if you don't wear jewellery you could always use it as a Christmas ornament. :)

Okay, the rules:  the giveaway is, as always, open to all of my followers, wherever in the world you may be.  There will be no substitutes for the item - what you see is what you get.  This will be shared on my Facebook page, but is not endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook.  All you need to do to be entered is to answer my question and comment HERE on my blog - entries on my Facebook page will not count.

To make this fun for all of us, I'd like you to answer a question - your answer will count as your entry.  Only ONE answer will be allowed per person, and you must include your NAME in the answer.  Anonymous replies will not be entered.

Here is the question:

Who is your favourite fictional hero/heroine and why?  You may choose a character from film and television if you don't like to read.  PLEASE ONLY CHOOSE ONE - this is part of the fun, that you need to whittle it down to one favourite.  You have time to think about it, the giveaway won't close until a week today (18th December).

So, to recap, here is how you enter:

• Enter by commenting here on my blog.
• Choose ONE favourite hero/heroine and state why you love them.
• Include your name in your entry.
• Enter by 18th December.

I will announce the winner here on 18th December.  The prize will be sent out after Christmas.

Good luck! :)

Christmas-themed Jewellery

So my immersion in all things Christmas - I'm still in the middle of decorating anything that doesn't move - has me thinking about seasonal jewellery.  I'm generally very bad at anticipating seasonal occasions - yes, I know they come round at the same time every year! - but the one I can throw myself into with ease is Christmas.  It would be nice to pretend I'm a shrewd marketer (stop that sniggering at the back), but the truth is it's no hardship to put together some pretty pieces with plenty of sparkle in Christmas colours.  I've always loved festive jewellery - I was always the one at work with the flashing earrings and necklace! - and I've been making it since I very first started.  I have several pieces that come out with tedious (for everyone else, I fear) regularity at this time of year.  This is one of the first Christmas necklaces I made:

And I wore another early necklace of mine on Sunday when I was decorating my tree and wailing along with all the usual cheesy classics:

Earrings are a perennial favourite of mine to make:

And of course I like to sneak in the odd wirework pendant:

What are your thoughts on seasonal and occasion jewellery?  I'm very inspired by the seasons and the weather, so I enjoy making pieces that epitomise the feeling in the air, especially winter and Christmas with its cold snap and warm feeling.  And I love to decorate myself along with all those things I mentioned before that don't move.  Spring will be no trouble, although I may struggle with the occasion that is Valentine's Day - I'm going to set myself a challenge to make a few Valentine's themed pieces next year! ;)

Bring on the Sparkle!

Given that it will be the 1st of December on Sunday, I'm surely allowed to mention the C word now?  As I've been making Christmas items for weeks now, I feel that I'm already well-immersed in the festive spirit.

This is not a problem for me - I love this time of year.  From the moment the leaves start to fall and the air begins to taste cold, I'm readying myself for sparkle.  I always make myself wait until the 1st to decorate my trees (yes, plural!) and to start playing my many Christmas cds.  This year, I will have a tiny tree in my workroom (bedroom) and I will as always be decorating hubby's workshop, too.

I have been trying to support handmade artists even more this year - as we all know, sadly not everyone appreciates a handmade gift, but for those who do, there is such a wealth of talent out there.  I, like everyone else, was spoilt for choice!  (Can't show any of them here, though - presents, and all that.) ;)  I still have a few to buy, and then I can enjoy wrapping them on the floor of our living room, with a wee dram of something festive, while the tree sparkles in the corner and a Christmas film plays on the telly.  (And I try to pretend my knees will in fact see 40 again, and aren't going to make me pay for hours of sitting on the floor.)

And we may even have snow this year - having struggled to work several years in a row, the glamour of snow has almost worn off for me; it is a nightmare for travelling, in this country, at least!  But it is pretty - and it brings sparkle to dull days, which surely can't be a bad thing.

How many of you will be trimming your tree (not those of you who have real ones, of course - unless you want a pile of brown needles and a stick come Christmas Day)?  Think of me if you are, unwrapping my precious tissue-wrapped glass baubles and having a little sniffle as it reminds me of loved ones long gone.  I hope you are all able to enjoy the festive season this year.  I'm sure this won't be the last time I mention it, but the countdown is starting - bring on the sparkle! :)