Everything has a story

On our last day in Temora the 30 knot winds blew our tent down and one of the poles actually snapped (!), so we spent our final night in a B&B (guest house) at the airpark. The hosts are expats from the USA and they had us giggling far into the evening with stories of their lives.

Throughout the house was an eclectic range of beautiful things - artworks, heirloom pieces and the like. The bedrooms had handmade quilts that were absolutely incredible to look at and I was told that our hostess's mother had made them over 40 years ago, yet they looked brand new. They reminded me of the beautiful quilts that Karen from Cherished Dreams makes. Everything in the house had a story. It made me consider my special things - everything does have a story, but sometimes its only a little story - so far.

The piece photographed above has actually already found a new home recently, but it has a little bit of a story already and I'm sure the new owner of it will add much more to it!

The stones were bought from a company that I had never dealt with before, and obviously on-line where you rely on pictures and descriptions. I was merrily ordering away and thought "Hmmm, soo-chow jade 16mm rondelles, well, I can certainly throw some of them in my designs. Yes, I'll get them." And added them in.

The parcel duly arrived a few weeks later and I thought, "Gee, I must have ordered more than I thought, it's rather heavy." I opened it up and was absolutely struck by these MASSIVE soo-chow jade rondelles. The measurement for rondelles is usually done across the widest part of the stone but these were 16mm WIDE and 30mm across! What the ???

Whilst gorgeous in colour and finish they were just so big and heavy that I didn't think I would ever end up using them. Just over a month ago I took the plunge and sat down with these beauties to think what on earth could I do with them to make them into something wearable. The answer was to use less of them of course so they needed spacing out which I did with (very large) sterling silver balls.

The first time I put them out they drew a lot of attention and on their second outing they sold. Just goes to show....

I have an extra busy couple of months ahead of me - I will be at the Pilca Butta homestead at the Coolah Spring Garden Festival, the WHHC open day at Binnaway, the Cassilis Fair, hopefully the Tamworth Handmade Market, a private showing in Orange, and my usual Coolah showing. Plus I am still trying to find time to work on the website and get it live asap.

I am so busy that I won't have a motivational problem, but sometimes I do. I found a great article on motivation recently on the Pink Heels blog that you may find interesting if you have a problem in this area on occasion (don't we all!!).

Well, speaking of being busy and motivation, I have to go, go, go. I have a busy day ahead and need to get into it :D

Have a great day!