Spring jewellery, shopping and entertaining!

Can you believe it’s spring! We’ve had a couple of beautiful warm days when the when the jumper came off, leaving me in a short sleeved shirt and all the doors in the house were open with a lovely warm breeze flowing through. Bliss. Then the next day it turned Cold (with a capital ‘C’!) and then the rain started. Again. Now as I’m married to a farmer, I can’t complain about the rain at all – but it’s staggering how much we’ve had this year in comparison to the last decade! I’ve even slid sideways down my dirt road to the front gate. Please imagine a look of intense concentration as this was happening LOL. Luckily it dries out fast so we're back to cool but sunny weather and driving down the track is just fine!

I’ve been incredibly busy on the jewellery front thus my absence from the blogging world. I’ve finished the spring-summer collection and have been loading it onto the website, so if anyone was checking in on the site, there’s been lots of new things to look at every day. I’m close to finishing now, just in time for my first spring outing at Quirindi Show this weekend on 11 and 12 September. The following week is Merriwa Show on 17-18 September – so a very busy fortnight in store.

Apart from jewellery I’ve also been a ‘gardening fairy’! I was the recipient of this gardening goodness recently having three wonderful girls come and help me prune roses, weed and plant white agapanthus at the front of the house (which has been kept very bare due to the lack of my gardening talent).

Last week it was time to return the favour – three of us attacked one of the other girl’s gardens, digging up and planting a huge circle of agapanthus (purple this time!), pruning lavender and chopping down and removing the debris from four large (15 foot high) shrubs. We did have her husband’s help with the chopping down part though! It’s amazing how much work you can get done in a few hours with a few of you. Another stint as a garden fairy in a couple of week’s time – the rush is on now spring is here.

We had the pleasure of a wonderful lunch with friends on the weekend. It's been so long since we entertained, I had forgotten what a great time we have getting together. I'm almost considering hosting a Christmas or New Years party, but well, we'll see about that when it all gets a bit closer.

I've also enjoyed the pleasure of quite a bit of online shopping in the past week. With both a beach holiday and wedding to attend in the near future and a lack of suitable clothes available in town (I looked!), I took the plunge and must say I'm happy with my purchases. I can see why people love to buy from me too - the buzz when the mailman delivers and then finally trying the goodies on that you were trying to picture and measure if they'd be right is immensely satisfying!!! And all without going to town. It's times like that when it hits home how the WWW has changed our lifestyle.

Today's pic is from the new Under the Sea range, with soothing colours reminiscent of the seashore or with corals and pearls from a mermaid's treasure box! This necklace is made with faceted aqua amazonite and lots of sterling silver - perfect to make a summer statement!

Blink ... and another week is gone

Gosh the weeks are just blurring together. I always seem to be out and about during the week and before I blink the week has gone with not much to show for it! It seems to be a bit that way though - a frantic week with lots getting made and done and then a week that just whizzes past that I don't even get to my 'urgent & important' list! Maybe that means that next week will be an achieving week??? For some reason I don't think so...

Thanks for the many commiserating comments last week on the state of my weedy garden - it's good to know I'm not alone! The weather has cooled down dramatically this week (a good temperature for weeding - not that I've done any more!) and I've started dropping hints to hubby about 'firewood'. He hasn't taken me up on the hint though. Ah well, it will get cold enough eventually that he won't be able to ignore it anymore.

I played farmer again this week, fortunately only for a morning. Luck wasn't on my side though and my ignorance played against me - I ran out of fuel just after moving the stock. I pushed the bike about a km to the nearest cross-track and then walked the remaining couple of km home. Lesson learned. I'll check the fuel tank next time!

I was reading a post today at Dana's about vintage items and a woman returning a 1960s purse that she was unhappy with as it wasn't 'new'. Poor Dana feels sick about a customer not being happy, and I can certainly sympathise with that - we all want our customers to be thrilled. But I would imagine it's a little hard to find 'new' and 'vintage' unless you come across a warehouse of untouched stock?

I've not really dealt with vintage before - unless it is a restoration job on someone's favourite old jewels, which probably doesn't count! There seems to be a fair population that do though. Do you buy vintage? If you do, I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on vintage - both the positives and the pitfalls - are.

My extra good news this week is that the Mega Mums Giveaway was drawn and one of my entrants won it! Jenny from Mendooran is the lucky recipient and is still stunned by her win. Her husband thinks she's never won anything before except an argument with him, so it sounds like it is well deserved!

Next weekend I am off to the Scone Grammar School's annual Fete. I have attended the last two years and last year already had some 'regulars', so I'm looking forward to catching up with them again. They have changed the set up this year with lots of outside vendors so it should be a fun market-like atmosphere. If you're in the vicinity, drop by to the school on Saturday between 10am and 3pm.

Today's photo is of a handmade chain of sterling silver, dusky rose rhodonite nuggets, chocolate jasper ovals, big rectangles of rose quartz and huge white freshwater pearls. It's a long necklace with chain at the back but as you can see is easily doubled to a chunkier shorter style.

Till next :)
Annette

My gardening wall of shame!

Another week flies by and lots of average excuses for posting this late! I won't bore you with them all though ;)

Hubby and son returned from their Boy's Own Adventure, crossing the continent and back, covering 3500 miles and with thoroughly sore rear ends LOL. I survived being Farmer Piper again (apart from a seriously trying morning moving cattle with two 9 year old girls helping - I'll leave that to your imagination!) - luckily the split water pipe didn't appear until the morning after hubby's return as that's really something that I couldn't have fixed!

I started the mammoth job of weeding my rose garden last weekend. And if you wonder why, after a week I've only weeded half of it, I will now post a photo on my 'wall of shame'! I need a lot of coercion to get into the garden at the best of times so I ignore it all through summer, apart from watering if required. Well this year we have been blessed with regular rain, so I haven't even had to do that. This is the consequence though.



Yep, that's a tangle of weeds folks, and in the centre of this photo is supposed to be a path - you can see it at the top of the photo, in the half that's weeded. No, it's NOT a pretty sight. My keen-gardener-mother-in-law has to force herself NOT to look when she visits as she is totally appalled. Amongst some very spiky rose bushes there is a mixture of 'paddy melon'-like vines, kikuyu and rye grasses, lucerne, a variety of burrs and thistles and the odd nasty patch of 'sticky-beaks' that are even taller than the roses!

It's taken quite a bit of persistence on my part to get as far as I have. If you had been watching me I'm sure you would have opened your eyes just a tad wider at my numerous vocalisations, which basically centered around the word 'OUCH' and the odd, colourful adjective. Luckily roses are hardy and some lovely blooms are still coming forth in what will be probably their last flush before the cold weather closes in. This is a David Austin double pink with a terrible, rangy habit, but gorgeous scented flowers.



I'm feeling a little floral at the moment ... the roses in the garden, photos of spring blooms at every turn on the web and my girls have been making paper flowers which currently have pride of place in a vase on my dining table.

Have you ever made flowers with some sort of medium? I've made some floral designs with gems in the past and I saw today that Phersmay had posted a photo of some organza flowers that she has made to attach to headbands, brooches and hairpins.

Totally NOT floral, however, today's jewellery piece is a wonderful long, long (did I mention it was long!?) strand of lustrous peacock freshwater pearls in semi-baroque, stick and coin shapes. It's so long it makes a decent length 2 strand necklace or a brilliant shorter length 3 strand. I've added in a sprinkling of amethyst, iolite and tanzanite gemstones to enhance that purple-blue hue that I love so much, and a gorgeous starfish sterling clasp. Do you like it?

Till next
Annette :)

Gardening, cooking and renewable energy...

Another week has flown by. I'm getting worried. I'm sure I'll turn around in what seems like a couple of weeks time and Christmas decorations will be up! Someone told me the other day that it was only 130 days till Christmas. Since that wasn't TODAY, its even less now....

We have continued to have quite glorious winter weather here - lots of blue skies, sunshine, soft breezes and mild temperatures. I have spent more time in the garden planting gazanias (I think that's what they are - ask my neighbour - I just do as I'm told!) underneath my roses to help keep the weeds at bay. The knowledgeable neighbour assures me that they will form a thick mat and choke out the weeds. BUT I have to be very conscientious for the next few months and water them regularly (not my strong point, I'll admit). Oh the responsibility! LOL

I also seem to have spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking - brought on by an abundance of eggs from my mother-in-law's very happy chooks (chickens). Everytime she pops in, she brings another couple of dozen eggs so I was up to NINE dozen and really had to step in and do something with them as the odd boiled egg or omlette just wasn't enough. So I've made an almond and carrot torte, a mega-sized chocolate mud cake with chocolate glaze and two slabs of chocolate brownie. That used up two dozen. Then we had a crustless quiche one night and I made double to have for lunches so there's another dozen gone. The torte and cake have already been eaten, so no doubt the family will want me back in the kitchen cooking as soon as the brownie is polished off!

What do you think of renewable energy? Specifically wind power? We have two companies in our town at the moment attempting to sign people up for wind turbines. The turbines are an impressive 80 metres high - and that's just to the hub - plus the blades on top of that! Massive. They came out to visit us today and we find that we're not quite high enough, although we could be considered for a secondary development once the main wind farm is established on a nearby ridge line. There is lots to consider though, one of which is our very scenic views will change quite radically to very scenic views with masses of wind towers. I like the idea of green energy but I'm not 100% about having it surrounding me every time I go outside.

I have also spent some time at my bench although I haven't got as far as taking photos of the new pieces yet. But there are some bright and fun pieces for a lighthearted touch of summer. I really struggled doing the first one - it is a completely different mindset to doing 'bright and fun' compared to 'understated elegance'! But after hours upon hours of moving stones around I achieved the first one and the rest just happened :)

I've been busy loading some recently made stock onto the website now that spring is just around the corner too. AND I've been on facebook, but I'm keeping it under control. I only pop in for a half hour in the morning. I'm happy to say I've already exceeded 100 fans in a week which I'm pretty impressed with!

Today's picture is of a very pretty bracelet - I try to avoid the word 'pretty' as it is just so easy to use for so many things, but it just suits this piece! Palest pink faceted rose quartz and mauve-pink freshwater pearls linked together with 12ct goldfill.

Holidays and vacations seem to be in the air in blog land - two new blogs I've started to check in on recently - Critical Mass and Shwanda.com have both been away and there are lots of wonderful holidays snaps to admire. I love seeing what people go to see and do in other countries!

I also saw on the Michabella Creations blog that she won a print - it's just the most adorable little dachshund picture! I've seen old family photos and recall stories from when my parents had one of these cute (if somewhat strange looking) little dogs.

And continuing the "green" theme - Cherry Mag has a great articles Top Tips for Keeping Green Around the House which has some great, sensible advice.

Ooops, nearly forgot again!!! I have been very remiss in not mentioning a recent award I received! Thank you to Super Mommy to the Rescue for a Friends Award :)


the Rules:

This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. deliver this award to six bloggers who must choose six more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. I will pass this award to some of my bloggy friends that I find exceedingly charming…

I would like to pass this award onto:
Julie at Momspective
JenJen at Gotta Love Mom
Jackie at 3 Little Ones
Tess at Six Feet Under
Jennifer at Its A Beauty Filled Life
Tammy at Cappucino Confessions

Till next :)
Annette

Coolah Spring Garden Festival and a tagging game

Well the Coolah Spring Garden Festival was wonderful! I was at the delightful "Pilca Butta" garden and my hosts Ian and Liz were wonderfully accommodating and helpful. Both days were bright and sunny (the second day got a little too warm!), the garden was in full bloom and really couldn't have looked better, and all in attendance had a marvellous time. Here is a pic of my set up on part of the homestead verandah:



I had beautiful old-fashioned lilac and snowball bushes right near my display - can you see them? Here was my view from my 'perch':





Don't you wish you were there!!!!?

Now last week I mentioned I was tagged and given an award :) Firstly, thank you to Commotion from the Ocean of Life for this award!



Now how special is that!!! I love reading this blog - always something different to read about! Thank you so much - I guess that will make me comment some more ;)

Then Olivia from Piktorize tagged me. Do check out Olivia's blog - she has a photo of the week which is often amazing and she honoured me with featuring my ring photo from last week too!

Now the tagging game rules: Share 7 things your readers may not know about you and tag 7 others to do the same thing, then include a link in your blog back to the person who tagged you.

OK, 7 things...(having done this a couple of months ago, this isn't so easy....)

1. My favourite pets have been golden haired dogs. The first one, when I was a little girl, was an Irish Terrier called 'Goldie' and the second, as an adult was a labrador x red cattle dog called 'Sunny'. Yeah I know, original names, lol.

2. We have a very bad record with keeping cats. We're up to number 5 in about three years. Mostly they just disappear one day although the last one we think met with a snake :(

3. I HATE snakes. Like REALLY HATE. They make me squirm and scream.

4. I hate spiders. Not as much as snakes but then again, they're not as big!

5. My Dad took me out of school at the end of year 6 and we travelled around Australia for a few months. They were going to make me repeat since I was too young to go to High School, so he thought travel would be better than doing the same work twice. Go Dad!!!

6. I travelled around Europe for 8 months in Year 7 with my schoolwork never quite catching up with me! When it did though, all I did was WORK! The trip prior to that was fun though and I saw a lot of the world from the window of a Bedford van!

7. A young man tried to buy me in Morocco for a camel, a donkey and something else I can't remember. I was 13 and the perfect age for a bride (!). My father kept reminding me for a number of years that he turned down a camel that would have been worth a fortune!

OK, this time I'm going to tag my Skwiggazine friends:

1. Designing Hilary

2. Tulip's Talking

3. Michabella Creations

4. Inspired Designs by Teresa

5. Daydream Art Studio

6. Cherished Dreams

7. Who Says 8 Is Enough?

Speaking of number 2 above, check out the pics from Lily's fishing trip and sequential sunrise shots.

Ooops, almost forgot about the pic at the top of the page. Don't you just love the sparkle and the impact of the black onyx and the red jade. Yum! Definitely a statement piece.

I made this one after a client had asked me to make an asymmetric necklace of red white and black (by the way I don't do asymmetric easily, so it was a real challenge!). The strength of the contrasting colours encouraged me to make this necklace - all the sparkle you would need for a night out, don't you think!?

Roses, gardening and lots of other things too!

Yet another busy week has passed (when are they NOT busy these days)! My back is stiff, my hands are sore...and no, jewellery isn't that hard a job most of the time :) The cause of all this discomfort is the rose garden - it has now been pruned, somewhat weeded, fertilised and mulched!

We have a formal rose garden at the front of the house that contains about 70 rose bushes, mostly hybrid teas and old fashioned roses, all scented. The smell in summer is quite divine (when I don't have hay fever that is lol). Divided into quadrants and with five rows - the outside is white, the second row in pink, the third and fourth rows are red and the centre was supposed to be red but we made a little mistake so its actually red AND white.

They put on a lovely show and I really am very naughty at taking care of them. They get pruned heavily in late winter (now), they may get a spray for aphids (should they arrive in plague proportions) and they get another light prune in summer. They get mulched every 3 years and weeded maybe 3-4 times a year.

I have lost a couple of bushes over the years and a friend who is an avid gardener and owns a nursery asked me how often I feed them. "Feed them?" I say. "Hmmm" she answers as she notes down her favourite fertiliser and instructions on how to give the poor suffering plants a little bit of tender loving care. So I left armed with instructions and a beautiful pair of leather rose pruning gloves. Yes, I know. The gloves weren't exactly a necessity, but my they're lovely. And I really haven't bought myself anything new in ages :)

So, a HUGE sense of achievement at having it done, but it couldn't have been done without a good friend's assistance (what a trooper, coming to face 70 odd roses!) and of course hubby who did the heavy work (aka shoveling!).

Whilst my hands survived relatively unscathed - thanks to the gorgeous gloves - I did take them off and replace with normal gardening gloves when I was clearing the mulch and doing some weeding. So they are looking a little worse for wear. I saw this wonderful looking Wild Citrus Grove body butter, hand balm and soap on one of my favourite online gift stores, Tonic Gifts. Perfect for a gardener's hands I would think!

Well, what else has been happening this past week? Ooooh, I was featured in the eSMArts blog last week - a whole article just on me :) And I got to write an article there this week on statement jewellery. Very much my thing!

Speaking of eSMArts, one of the wonderful eSMArts artists, Kari of Novel Approach Designs tagged me. But as I am SURE I can't think of another 6 things to tell you all, I am sure she will forgive me for not completely following through!

I also tidied up my bench. I was glad to see a recent post by Teresa of Inspired Designs had the same problem with her bench mysteriously filling up and becoming messy ;)

She has the most brilliant quote which I have now stuck to my desk:

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." A. A. Milne.

Love it :D

My son received a new puppy - a little smooth coated border collie who is so happy and so intelligent. He has been dubbed "Patch" and it suits him perfectly.

The other HUGE piece of news is I found the MOST brilliant web designer who has built me a site!! Emma does limited edition and one of a kind e-commerce sites and has a real flair for what she does. She's super friendly too and I would highly recommend her if you are after a boutique e-commerce site but don't want to break the bank to do it! And please ask her if you have something in mind but can't see it there as she has other designs not up yet. I still have quite a bit of work to get stock in and refine it somewhat to how I want it to look, but it's very exciting. I hope you like it when all is revealed!

My goodness, I HAVE talked a lot today - look at the length of this post!!! A quick pic for today. A pretty, summery pair of freshwater pearl earrings to remind me of the gorgeous colours that will bloom in that freshly pruned rose garden in a few months time!

Have a great day!