Folksy Friday!

I have a day off today, and plan to get out in the garden to get it nice & tidy (as long as it stays dry!), so I have a gardening theme this week.  Click on the pictures for more information.

The London Marathon

What a fantastic day I've had, supporting my friend Christina, who has just run the London Marathon in 4 hours and 45 minutes.  She ran for Great Ormond Street Hospital, in memory of her granddaughter Kacie, who would have been 10 this year - you can find out more on her fundraising page  I was supporting her along with her daughter Jodie, as part of the official GOSH team.  It was such a brilliant day, cheering on all the runners, and making sure anyone with a GOSH vest got an extra loud cheer!  I just don't know how the runners find not only the physical, but the mental strength to run that distance - I'm in awe of every single one of them!

The GOSH Cheering Post

Amazing!

Christina at 17 miles - stopping for jelly babies and a hug from Jodie!

Christina and Jodie

Big Bead Show

I've been at the Big Bead Show today, sponsored by Bead Magazine at Sandown Park Race Course.  It's about an hour's drive around the M25 from me, and although I got stuck in traffic, it's worth every mile!  I have to make sure I take only cash, and once it's spent, that's my lot - I'm out of there! 

I buy a lot of the beads and findings that I use online, but there's nothing like getting your hands on the beads, and seeing the colours and designs for real.  I thought I'd share some of the beauties I bought today with you.  Can't wait to get started making beautiful jewellery with them!

Folksy Friday!

Welcome to my first Folksy Friday! I've been fighting the urge for chocolate all day, so I'm giving into it with this lovely selection box!

Please click on each image for more information.







Thanks again to Haptree and her excellent Blog Treasury tutorial on Craft Blog UK

How It All Started

I’ve always liked ‘making stuff’ and whenever I had pocket money to spend, it was always on things to colour in or stick together. One of my favourite kits, probably in the early 70s, was called Pompom Pets – does anyone remember that? Winding the wool round the plastic widget, cutting through they layers and lo and behold, a pompom to be decorated with plastic eyes and bits of felt – pure bliss! Another thing I loved was to buy an Airfix model aircraft and put it together – I was never really interested in the end product, just the putting it together!

My Mum sews and I tried my hand at dressmaking but found that quite frustrating – there was always a bit of material that just wouldn’t fit! I’ve also knitted in the past, but stopped that when it went out of fashion. Hmmm, perhaps I might think about giving knitting another try if I ever find the time.

So, how did I get into making jewellery? Well I was reading the Sky magazine at the end of 2007 and it had a feature called something along the lines of ‘Learn Something New for the New Year’, and in it was a feature about Claire Aristides jewellery school, and something about it immediately appealed to me. I decided I was going to book myself on a course, and was discussing it with a friend one day, only to find out she had also booked a course, so we decided to do it together. Unfortunately it wasn’t until June, and I was far too impatient to wait all that time, so I started digging around on the internet, looking at bead stores and the magpie instinct just kicked in!
I bought myself a book, bought some tools and beads and off I went!

Here’s a picture of my very first creation – it’s very basic, and I like to think that my skills have progressed somewhat since then!

Identity Crisis

After many weeks of telling myself 'I will start a blog', I find that I have some free time this Easter weekend to do just that!   So I sit down and think about where I am going to start.  I've read Haptree's Craft Blog UK and have lots of ideas about what I want to write about, but first things first, what am I going to call it?  And there was the problem.

I sell on Folksy with a friend under the name of Sorcery & Sparkle but I've recently set up my own website to sell my jewellery under the name of Bright Sparkle Jewellery, and I really wanted this blog to link to both of them.

So after much deliberating, I've sort of come up with a compromise and this is an amalgamation of the two of them - the name from one, the logo from the other, plus a pink theme to join them both!

I hope you like what I've done so far, and would love any comments.  I've got a list together of things to write about in the weeks to come, and I'm looking forward to taking part in some Folksy Fridays when I get to grips with Haptree's tutorial (although it might have to be a Folksy Thursday evening for me!)

Thanks for reading, and here's to more blogging!