Something colourful for World Colouring Day

I really should be abed - I have the show in Scone tomorrow, but I realised I hadn't blogged this week and with the show Saturday, Mother's Day on Sunday, plus a jaunt out on Sunday afternoon for the children's eisteddfod rehearsals, it's now or never ... but I will keep it short!

I've had a wonderful creative week and so its been very satisfying. It didn't start off that way and I spent many hours trying to make it to the bench but was either too busy, unwell with a rather nasty case of the flu or just not feeling in the mood (creative types can be so annoying eh?!). But eventually I just sighed and sat down to finish some half finished earrings off after the kids left for school and the next thing I knew the kids were walking back through the door and the day was almost over.

Naturally the muse took me where she will and I ended up with a variety of styles and colours, but I've learned to take this in my stride these days. Do you find that you have the desire to create anything - a piece of art, craft or even just doodling or making dinner and you end up doing something completely different from your first idea? Yep, that's me ;) Of course, this tendency plays havoc with custom orders where I have to fight my instinct and stay on track to what the customer wants!

Did you know that one day this past week was World Colouring Day? According to the Business Mums Blog it was May 6, so if you did something colorful, or your children did, good on you! Even though I've officially just missed it by a day, I've decided my contribution to this day can be my photo for today's post - a bright combination of red, yellow, black and teal blue. It's a long chain linked necklace with bright red bamboo coral, black agate and lava, yellow aragonite, citrine and honey jade and blue-green Xianjiang and Hubei turquoise. And of course, masses of sterling silver. It coloured my day, how about yours?

Hope you have a lovely weekend and Happy Mums Day for Sunday!

Till next :)
Annette

MIA from the blogging world

I've been MIA (missing in action) from the blogging world again! You would think given hubby's return and my release from farming duties I'd be back in the swing of things. Far from it though.

Hubby has been busy with rock picking, cutting hay and now sowing and I feel like I've not quite got away from the paddock - even if it's just keeping him company. As well, there have been further incidents of farming jobs that involved me - such as the whole family going rock picking for a day last weekend. The kids coped remarkably well with manual labour - maybe they're not as soft as I thought!

Perhaps I need to have a guest blogger on hand to keep everyone entertained in such absences. Have you ever had a guest blogger on your blog? Or perhaps you've been one? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

I've seen guest bloggers occasionally but haven't really taken much notice. Then two blogs I check in on regularly have been talking about them. Your Cheeky Monkey had a guest blogger to talk about photographing children. As Monique's blog is connected to her business which caters to a lot of children products this is perfect! The other blog was the Business Mums Blog that was talking about the pros for both the blog and the guest blogger. Food for thought for when we're too caught up with other things?

Naturally, with everything else keeping me busy, not much has happened on the jewellery front. I've been busy with orders and remodelling jobs so I've only had time for a couple of new pieces. The necklace pictured above is one of the new ones - lava, freshwater 'stick' pearls in a natural pink / lavender tint and sterling silver. (I must apologise for the bluish tint in the photo - the light was a little past optimum.)

I have visitors arriving from the US this Friday for a short stay and in my mad dash around the house in cleaning mode, I tidied up my bench....so that's ruined any creativity until I can mess it up again. LOL.

Till next
Annette :)

First show for 2009 and an award

My first show for the year has been and gone and I had a great day out. The occasion was the International Women's Day in the Warrumbungles Shire, and they had an amazing number of speakers - all interesting women from within the Shire. Speakers included a local doctor, a resident originally from South America, an aboriginal elder, a herbalist, a previous shire councillor, a local choir ... and more. There were a small collection of booths from local concerns, all run by women. Everyone was extremely friendly and I was glad to see the men had been put to work in the kitchen ;) - they were profusely thanked, after all, we don't get them in there very often!



Do you ever wonder what you actually do in a day, a week, a month? I frequently ponder and occasionally get a bit distressed at how much time I spend doing 'nothing', or at least 'nothing productive'. At least I'm not alone. In my regular visits to my favourite blogs I see that Nicole of the Modern Goddess Online is wondering where the last two months have gone, and Terry of Magical Beadstalk has actually dissected her day to try and work out where the time goes LOL. Of course we all really do achieve things - they're just not always glaringly apparent! That's my story, at any rate, and I'm sticking to it!

I've feel very honoured to have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger award twice in the past week - once by Theresa of TiLT creations and by Jennifer of It's A Beauty Filled Life! Thank you so much ladies :)


Now, the rules of this award are to list seven things that I love, and to then pass this award on to seven bloggers that I love. I must also make sure to tag them and let them know they have won. So, here we go....

7 Things I Love:

1. chocolate - I'm sure I've mentioned this one before, but nevertheless...it deserves to be said again!
2. the colour green. I can't help it. Long term readers will know of my penchant for green jewellery. Maybe I need help.
3. my herbalist
4. blogging friends
5. warm sunshine on a cold day.
6. Jane Austen
7. Trinny & Susannah

7 Bloggers that I love:

1. Mariam of Angelshair. I have only just found Mariam's blog - she has some beautiful images of her work and some profound thoughts.
2. Ann of Ann Again...and again - always an entertaining read
3. Trisha Funky Food Allergies - because she HAS to be creative with toddler who has multiple food allergies.
4. Andrew of Chainmaille by BMOI - a new artist I have met who creates beautiful handpainted glasses and incredible chainmaille.
5. Elizabeth of La Toriana - beautiful quality children's wear - its enough to make me wish my children were younger!
6. Giggle Smile Designs - children's wall decor - another blog that makes me want to wind back the clock.
7. Lori of Pretty Things - because she always has great pictures and something interesting to say!

Today's picture is a necklace of lava and silver that sold at the show last weekend. Full of contrasts - rough/smooth, dark/light, matte/shiny all added up to alot of impact even though it wasn't that large a piece.

Creativity and Inspiration

After an extended holiday my creativity has returned in force and I have so many new pieces from the last week. It had been hard to try and sit at the bench and create when I just wasn't ready and so I didn't push it too hard - and success is the result!

Many of the new pieces were sitting in my 're-do' pile. I hadn't been happy with how they turned out the first time round, or had grown bored with them before I'd even finished. The pile was getting a bit wobbly it was so high, so I am pleased I have decimated it now!

It can be difficult to stop yourself from repeating your first error when you are re-making a piece, so I found I had to deconstruct each one completely before looking at it with a fresh viewpoint. Some are so entirely different and I love the new looks I have come up with.

Of course as these are pieces from quite a time span the colours aren't necessarily seasonal, as I should be working on my winter collection. And there is an awful lot of green. But as I love green it was really no hardship to work with them ;) But I shall have to pull out the muted tones and rich colours soon otherwise my winter collection may look decidely spring-like!

One of my new creations is pictured above - a mixture of lime green chalk turquoise, black lava, freshwater pearls, peridot and sterling silver. All combining to make one eye-popping statement necklace!

Long term readers may know I had a 'fling' with Etsy. Sure enough, I found I didn't have enough time to do all I had to do as it was, so I haven't had any items listed there for ages. However I still SHOP there :)

A very talented maker of vintage inspired stationery, Kelly of Retrocrafted Paper Goods posted about a great giveaway she is participating in for a group on Etsy. Head over to her Macaroni & Glue blog to find out all about it - it sounds easy to enter and wow, what prizes!

Inspiration is such an intangible thing. I actually have no idea why I became so inspired over the last week (but I'm awfully glad I did!) Some people get inspiration from nature, from art, from music. I often get inspiration just looking into stones. Jenny from Assential Scrapbooking has been inspired by some new products she can use in her business and sounds as excited as me! I'd love to hear what inspires you?



P.S. I am pleased to report the bushfires in Victoria have calmed down with no further outbreaks. The cool change has definitely helped. An outpouring of generosity has been received from the Red Cross reporting over AUD$100million in donations received - now the hard work of rebuilding lives begins.