Karenza

In my last blog post I promised you a peek at my new range and here it is.
Karenza - featuring semi precious gemstones and Handmade Karen hilltribe silver heart beads.

This colourway features the gorgeous blues and greens of blue flourite interspersed with tiny silver beads.

So far, there are bracelets, earrings and pendants available and I have plans to introduce some handmade silver bangles next month. These are for sale on my website with free first class postage included.

Karenza is currently available in the flourite and in clear quartz crystal and will soon be available in a lovely autumnal smokey quartz too (I gave the smokey quartz set to a good friend of mone for her 40th birthday before I took photos - sorry).
Unlike my lampwork items, which are all one off pieces, this will be a limited edition range.

Catching up.

Well, the last you heard from Beady Pool was back at the beginning of April.

I can only apologise, I have no idea where the time has gone to be honest. It's not that we've been idle doing nothing, time has just well, flown by.

Since I last blogged we've:

seen the Gruffalo at the theatre

said bonne voyage to some close friends who have moved to Australia

had loads of kids birthday parties

planted summer flowers and veg in the pre-school garden

helped make cheesy caterpillers in pre-school

been to sports day

been camping in France

and been feeling generally a bit icky.....yep that's right I've been feeling a bit icky however there is a reason, baby Parker no 2 is due the beginning of December. I'm now at 16 weeks and thankfully most of the sick feeling have passed.

Since I last blogged, Beady Pool has:

Had a fab time listing with the April Fools and had a good amount of sales from joining in

Taken part in the Henley Arts trail (More on that soon - promise)

Made a set of hair pins for my sister in laws wedding

Made 2 out of 4 tiara's for the same wedding

Started to make silver clay pendants for the same wedding

Oh and started a side line of girly hairclips and jewellery making kits.

Phew when you write it down like that I have been kind of busy really.

I can't show you pictures of the wedding items just yet as I would hate for the husband to be to be reading my blog as it would spoil the surprise. However I will leave you with a picture of the jewellery making kits I have been making with the help of Pussy Galore's design skills.

Creme de Mure

And the gorgeous purple frit beads by Rachel Dawes became......

Creme de Mure earrings

Creme de Mure Necklace

Both are available now in the Beady Pool Folksy shop.

Belated Folksy Friday

These gorgeous red polka hearts have just been sold from my Beady Pool shop on Folksy. So, to celebrate here are some more red polka dot finds from the talented Folksy Folk.

A lovely puffball bracelet from Laura Lou, perfect to compliment the current nautical trend.

Or how about a polka dot hair clip from Once upon my dream?

I know a few girls who would just love this cupcake bunting from Nickynackynoo

And finally how cute are these? Utterly adorable baby booties from Betty P

Right I'm off back to the baking...it's wet and grey today so we are making sausage rolls, fairy cakes and saffron buns - nom nom

Edit - Saffron buns are more brown than golden as I was busy writing this! Let's hope they taste ok.

Sold.....

Just a few pics of some new items that sold before Christmas but, they are so lovely I just had to share.....

Nebula featuring beads by Annelyse Taylor

Smokey quartz and hilltribe silver heart earrings

and a gorgeous charm bracelet....Hope you like x

Reveal - opening evening

I am not sure if I am nervous or excited.
Today is the opening of the first weekend of Reveal - A Christmas Showcase of handmade craft and Beady Pool is going to be there.
I am currently putting the finishing touches to my stall and finding where I need to park later to set up.
Reveal opens this evening with a preview from 5pm-8pm, please join us for drinks and nibbles if you can. It would be lovely to meet you. If you can't make it we will be open from 10am - 5pm Fri 4th, Sat 5th and Sunday 6th.
Reveal will also be raunning next weekend as well from 10th - 13th December.
There will be fantastic selection of ceramics, jewellery, glass, photography and more all making ideal Christmas gifts for loved ones or you could just treat yourself.
For more details of the artists who are taking part and a sneak preview of the lovely handmade goodies that will be for sale check out the Reveal Website - hope to see you there.

And the winner is.........

Drum roll please.........

Nifty Knits

Apologies for the picture......a huge thank you to all who entered and to my lovely son for picking the winner.

Nifty I will be in touch to ask what you would like as your prize and in which colour.

And the winner of the facebook/blog follower giveaway is.........

Leanne Woods.

I added all the followers from each site up - 189 in total and utilised the good old random number generator. For the life of me I cannot work out how to copy and paste the random number integer -sorry - but it was Leanne's number that came up.

Again I will be in touch to get your address so I can send you your prize.

I just want to add a huge thank you to you all for your continued support of Beady Pool and for being here to be entered.

Winning and Giving away

A few weeks ago, I entered a competition on Scarlett Butterflies blog and won. Below is a pic of the scrummy magnets I won and I have to say they are the strongest magnets on my fridge and are currently keeping all my little mans pics very firmly attached.

Go and check out Maria's shop as well, it is full of gorgeous girly gifts.

Well that's the winning, what about the giving I hear you shout??

I have decided it is time for another Beady Pool giveaway......but I can't decide what to give away. Should it be a bracelet, necklace, pendant or a pair of earrings??? I really can't decide.

So, as I can't decide - you can, this is what is up for grabs.

Either a bracelet and a pair of earrings, a pendant or a necklace along the theme of this and this. I don't have a pendant or bracelet to show you but they will be along the same theme of "He loves me". When you win, I will give you a choice of colours to choose from and I will then make your item and send it out. What more could you ask for?

So, what do you have to do??

Take a look around my website and my folksy shop and let me know which item you like the best and leave a comment below or on facebook or email it to me.

For a second chance to enter get a friend to either follow this blog or become a fan on facebook - let me know that they are your friend and you get another entry. Each new follower or fan is another entry.

Closing date is Saturday 31st October at 8pm.....so, what are you waiting for, get entering.

Sneak Peak

Well, the summer hols are flying past and our feet seem to of hardly touched the ground what with visiting Cornwall then Essex and then Stoke. We have had a few days though at home and importantly I have found time to make some jewellery and to buy some more beads! Here are just a few sneak peaks for you.

Delphinium - necklace, bracelet and earrings featuring stunning lampwork beads by Isabelle Anderson with freshwater pearls, rose quartz and hilltribe silver.

These lovelies and more will be up on the website in the next few days.

5000

Yep 5000, well actually more than 5000 now.

That is the number of visitors I have had to my website since I started it.

To celebrate all you lovely visitors I am offering 20% off all my jewellery until Tues 22nd July at midnight.

That's 20% off everything

If you want to buy anything, please just email me and I will alter the price accordingly.

My website can be found here and my Folksy shop here .

Go hit the shops!

An the winner is....

Moira.

I can't work out how to show the random number generator thingy I used but I did use one. It came up with the number 10 and Moira was the 10th person to sign up to Beady Pool's facebook page.

The Flow pendant will be on it's way to you early next week. Thanks to all who have signed up and become fans of Beady Pool already. If you haven't, what are you waiting for? If we get near 100 I may just do another little giveaway.

An the winner is....

Moira.

I can't work out how to show the random number generator thingy I used but I did use one. It came up with the number 10 and Moira was the 10th person to sign up to Beady Pool's facebook page.

The Flow pendant will be on it's way to you early next week. Thanks to all who have signed up and become fans of Beady Pool already. If you haven't, what are you waiting for? If we get near 100 I may just do another little giveaway.

Facebook freebie

Beady Pool now has a facebook page .

http://artist.to/beadypool

I am planning on uploading new photographs onto the Beady Pool page regularly as well as doing a few beady giveaways.

Here is the first, a gorgeous pendant featuring a teal green lampwork bead, turquoise stone rondelles and a sterling silver bicone. The pendant comes supplied with either a 16 or 18inch Sterling Silver snake chain.

If you fancy winning this gorgeous pendant all you have to do is go to the Beady Pool facebook page and become a fan - when Beady Pool has 50 fans then I will put those 50 names into a hat and pick a winner - simple as that. If it goes well I may do another at 100........

Facebook freebie

Beady Pool now has a facebook page .

http://artist.to/beadypool

I am planning on uploading new photographs onto the Beady Pool page regularly as well as doing a few beady giveaways.

Here is the first, a gorgeous pendant featuring a teal green lampwork bead, turquoise stone rondelles and a sterling silver bicone. The pendant comes supplied with either a 16 or 18inch Sterling Silver snake chain.

If you fancy winning this gorgeous pendant all you have to do is go to the Beady Pool facebook page and become a fan - when Beady Pool has 50 fans then I will put those 50 names into a hat and pick a winner - simple as that. If it goes well I may do another at 100........

Takes after his mum

I went to pick my son up from preschool this morning. As he is one of the younger children he is in a little antiroom rather than the main hall for collection. Usually we go to the doors, one of the teachers calls out his name and out running like a mad thing comes my son all excited and uaually needing a wee LOL.

Today however the teacher wasn't on the door, as she was talking to another mum, so in I went and my son was sat on the mat with the other teacher. I crouched down, held my arms out and said hello to my little man.....but he didn't move. I went over to him and did it again but yet again he didn't move. He just sat there fiddling with his joggers telling me about his birthday card, but not getting up. I looked at the teacher who was in the room and she looked at me. I then asked my son why he wasn't getting up. Full of logic he said "lady hasn't called my name out". So dutifully off I went to find the other teacher to call his name out so we could go home.

Should I worry that my son is turning out to be a little bit like me, having to have thing right and organised? Actually I think he may be more like his dad who always follows the rules. Then again maybe he is a mix of both.

On a jewellery note, I made four, yes four pairs of earrings today and two necklaces for the Beady Pool Treasure Chest. I will try to get them photographed and online later this week.

Takes after his mum

I went to pick my son up from preschool this morning. As he is one of the younger children he is in a little antiroom rather than the main hall for collection. Usually we go to the doors, one of the teachers calls out his name and out running like a mad thing comes my son all excited and uaually needing a wee LOL.

Today however the teacher wasn't on the door, as she was talking to another mum, so in I went and my son was sat on the mat with the other teacher. I crouched down, held my arms out and said hello to my little man.....but he didn't move. I went over to him and did it again but yet again he didn't move. He just sat there fiddling with his joggers telling me about his birthday card, but not getting up. I looked at the teacher who was in the room and she looked at me. I then asked my son why he wasn't getting up. Full of logic he said "lady hasn't called my name out". So dutifully off I went to find the other teacher to call his name out so we could go home.

Should I worry that my son is turning out to be a little bit like me, having to have thing right and organised? Actually I think he may be more like his dad who always follows the rules. Then again maybe he is a mix of both.

On a jewellery note, I made four, yes four pairs of earrings today and two necklaces for the Beady Pool Treasure Chest. I will try to get them photographed and online later this week.

The beads what I made......

Well, here they are the earrings I have made myself with some of the beads I made during my lampwork lesson with Laura Sparling. I have added a Karen Hilltribe daisy spacer and a faceted amethyst rondelle. I am really pleased with them and am wearing them as I speak. I cannot start to describe how impressed with myself I am - I made the beads and then the earrings whoo hoo :)

The beads what I made......

Well, here they are the earrings I have made myself with some of the beads I made during my lampwork lesson with Laura Sparling. I have added a Karen Hilltribe daisy spacer and a faceted amethyst rondelle. I am really pleased with them and am wearing them as I speak. I cannot start to describe how impressed with myself I am - I made the beads and then the earrings whoo hoo :)

Spots

Well, my poor little man still has chicken pox so the celebrate (probably not the right word but never mind) here are a few spotty items to grab your fancy.

Yesterday we made choc crispie cakes in spotty cases with speckled eggs. Yummy :) There are not too many left I hasten to add.

I also added this gorgeous spotty lampwork bracelet to my website. I have a matching pendant that I am hoping to list this weekend.
Spots before my eyes - available in the new Beady Pool Treasure Chest more about that in another post.
This morning I ordered another new arrival from the Warren to be a friend for Twiglet, this is a scrummy red polka dot bunny. Anna's other shop on Folksy sells these gorgeously fun handpainted fish. Check out her spotty fishes - Half an Acre , there are also some lovely snakes and lizards.



A couple more from Folksy. I have one of these handmade purses by Natalie Farrell and they really nicely made, perfect for popping into your handbag. She has lots of different colour combos to choose from.

Whilst browsing, I also found this cute apron - Posh Pinnie, Miss Winnie - Milk and Jam. There are days when I wish I had a little girl just to have an excuse to buy pretty things like this. Shame all the birthdays are nearly done with as well. May be next year.

Off to give someone a little TLC, hopefully by the time I post next the spots will of disappeared.

Spots

Well, my poor little man still has chicken pox so the celebrate (probably not the right word but never mind) here are a few spotty items to grab your fancy.

Yesterday we made choc crispie cakes in spotty cases with speckled eggs. Yummy :) There are not too many left I hasten to add.

I also added this gorgeous spotty lampwork bracelet to my website. I have a matching pendant that I am hoping to list this weekend.
Spots before my eyes - available in the new Beady Pool Treasure Chest more about that in another post.
This morning I ordered another new arrival from the Warren to be a friend for Twiglet, this is a scrummy red polka dot bunny. Anna's other shop on Folksy sells these gorgeously fun handpainted fish. Check out her spotty fishes - Half an Acre , there are also some lovely snakes and lizards.



A couple more from Folksy. I have one of these handmade purses by Natalie Farrell and they really nicely made, perfect for popping into your handbag. She has lots of different colour combos to choose from.

Whilst browsing, I also found this cute apron - Posh Pinnie, Miss Winnie - Milk and Jam. There are days when I wish I had a little girl just to have an excuse to buy pretty things like this. Shame all the birthdays are nearly done with as well. May be next year.

Off to give someone a little TLC, hopefully by the time I post next the spots will of disappeared.