First Day Back...oh dear!

Today I properly started back working on my Etsy and Madeit shops and as luck would have it getting back into the swing of things has not proven easy. It seems that when I am on holidays I am far to optimistic about going back to work. As I lounged around the pool last week, white wine in one hand, small chocolate fudge square* in the other, it all seemed so easy. But now that I am back in the land of reality, suffering from a slight sugar craving and missing the wine it is proving to be a lot more difficult. Lucky for me, I was browsing Etsy this morning and came across this particularly fantastic booklet by Orangebeautiful which provided a nice kick up the booty.

The result was the following new necklace for my Etsy shop. Phew, I'm back in the saddle!

* an alarming number of small fudge squares were consumed during the course of the 2 days binge we call Christmas Day and Boxing Day , each one I swore would be the last...but lets face it...it's fudge...and it's small...and most importantly it's chocolate. I rest my case.

The Perfect Gift

One of my bestfriends is about to get the following present from me for Christmas. It consists of one of my necklaces (which is ofcourse a mandatory gift for close family and friends!) and a gorgeous obi belt from Loobyloucrafts .

Marmalade? Or Apricots?

After listing my newest necklace in my Etsy shop a conversation with my One a Day Challengettes ensued about the unpopularity of marmalade in the US (yes we only talk about REALLY important things). The more we talked about the naming of my necklace (Marmalade versus Apricots) the more I went looking for other gorgeous creations on Etsy to satisfy my marmalade craving. Here are a couple I found...

Curlysue's beautiful Firefly necklace


This gorgeous mixed media collage by Books On Tape



This is possibly the most serious and contraversial blog topic you will ever have the pleasure of reading, I hope you enjoyed this visual feast!

A Handmade Tradition

There are not many traditions that my family and I follow at Christmas. Apart from eating too much, spending too much and being incredibly grateful for having such a wonderful bunch of odd balls to call my family there is one other special thing that my step daughter Maddy and I do a few weeks before Christmas. We go out and peruse the shelves of Spotlight for bits and pieces to make Christmas decorations with. Generally we come out with ribbon, cardboard, glitter and paint. Well this weekend we upheld that tradition and got creative!

Here are our efforts. For a slightly morbid touch to our creative time, we watched Edward Scissorhands whilst we worked...Maddy's choice. We still have a bit more to do, but it will have to wait until next weekend!

These are all of Maddy's creations...I mainly mixed paint and complimented her work. Note the gorgeous little photo of her and Loui as a puppy....awww adorable!