Hooray for light tents!

Still need some practise with dh's new camera but I'm pretty pleased with these photos I could not get a good one of the flower though. I will try again.

Sarah.

We have a winner!

Thanks to the two people who commented! I duly wrote your names on bits of paper & put them in my 3yo's cowboy hat, the winner is Diana from the Lone Beader, congratulations I'll be e-mailing you soon!

I haven't been at the computer much lately as I seem to be super busy. I am doing a bit of kniiting, the weather has really cooled down here lately and so I am cutting my teeth on my 1st lace shawl, it's the wildflower pattern here http://www.poshyarn.co.uk/patterns.html it's pretty simple and easy to follow & the pattern is very pretty, the only thing I'm not thrilled with is my yarn choice, I bought a self-striping yarn on sale and its just not right for this. I will carry on though as I will use it round the house and buy some zephyr laceweight for my next one.

I haven't done too much beading this week, I'm still beading my swap gift, that's shaping up really nicely & I have been experimenting with another necklace made with lots of sections of different stitches, I'm learning a lot from it but it definately won't be for wearing, more of a sampler to see what works and what doesn't.

My dh bought me a light tent & I cannot believe the difference it makes! I am hoping to get some time to play around with his new camera this week as I have my 2nd flower brooch to post, only eight more to go.....

Blogiversay contest.

Happy 1 year blogiversary to me, to celebrate I'm offering 1 lucky reader their choice of one of the dichroic cabs in the photo above, all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is comment to this post, the contest will close 18th September 2007 & I will then write the names of all commenters on bits of paper & pull one out of the hat. Good luck!

Sarah.

Almost a whole year gone by.

Wow, tomorrow will be my 1 year blogiversary. The year has gone so quickly, I can barely believe it! I started out with such good intentions of being a regular and insightful blogger, lol, it did not take me long to realise that I would be lucky if I could blog once a week on a regular basis.

I have been having a think about what I want the blog to be, at the moment it is a sporadic record of completed work that I can be bothered to photograph and I'm not really satisfied with that, so at least I know what I don't want it to be, that's a start. I think I'll start trying to include some of my favourite things and what I like about them & maybe do a few personal challenges where I can document the failures & successes of a project, those two things are probably enough to start out with.

This flower is the 1st in a series of flower pins that I am making for the many young women in my family for Christmas, 1 down 9 to go, yikes! I used the pattern by Louise Smith which appears in Dec/Jan 07 Beadwork. It is made with peyote stitch using my absolute favourite delica colour DB029 and size 11's miyuki 352. I enjoyed the pattern very mush, it took a while but was well worth it this little flower really glows in real life, I will be sad to give it away at Christmas, I do have the beads to make one for myself though, but after 10 I may not ever want to make another one again!

I have 2 beaded projects on the o at the moment, another flower for which I have slightly changed the shape of the petals and a challenge project for the UK beaders forum 10 bead challenge.

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow, there may be a little something up for grabs to celebrate my 1st year of blogging!

Sarah.

Another crystal rosette bracelet

I finished this a few days ago but haven't had chance to post, it's been a really busy week, I used a sort of midnight blue matte ab seed beads, matte ab is my favourite finish at the moment. I apologise for the purpleness of the background, I was trying to make my photo's less boring, but I have the feeling that this background colour is just a little too interesting! I also made a tassel necklace for myself but haven't got around to taking pics yet. I am dithering about what to make for my mil, it's her birthday Saturday so I'd better get my butt in gear, but no doubt I will spend too much time reading blogs when I should be beading!

Sarah.

Crystal Rosette Bracelet

The weather is terrible here, raining & very bleurgh, so I am blaming that for the terrible pictures of this lovely bracelet I just finished yesterday. The medallions are based on Marcia DeCoster's crystal flowerette earrings. It combined 2 of my favourite things to do, making small components to create a larger piece & using up leftovers from other projects, I have another planned using black seed bead & some fancy finish swars, hopefully I can get that done this weekend. I am still trying to decide on what my next embroidery project should be, a cupcake or a bird, any ideas?

Sarah.

Bert the beaded alien

Poor Bert, he only has one visible nostril, how's a poor alien supposed to assimilate the smells of planet earth with only one nostril? I beaded from the outside in on this one & things in the middle got a bit squished. Never mind, my son loves him!

Sarah.