Spending time reading...

OK, time to ‘fess up. I’ve read Twilight. When all the hype about it started last year I was missive of it – it was teen fiction and vampires… well, really! So I decided to put it off till I was totally bored or someone gave me the book to read – but I was NOT going to go out and buy it myself. So, what happened?

It all started about 10 days ago when I was really rather unwell. The children had gone to Grandma’s, hubby went to watch the rugby in town and I curled up on the couch under a blanket in a semi-comatose state. To take my mind off my aches and general misery I watched the movie ... and in my weakened state it was quite good. A bit of sucker for a romance and on-screen chemistry I was taken in, hook, line and sinker!

So, when I was in town late last week on my six-weekly visit (not local town, but big town, with more than 2 shops!) I found myself in the bookstore and looking at the novel. Everything I had heard about Twilight said the novel was better than the movie, so I bought it. And while I was there I bought the rest of the series too.

I put off starting reading for a couple of days until I had a somewhat ‘free’ afternoon and in I plunged. I found the first couple of chapters didn’t really grab me, but shortly after this I was pretty well hooked and I’ve been on quite the journey with the characters since. I’ve just finished the final book in the series – 4 books in 4 days. Hmmm. Yes. Not much jewellery work getting done at the moment!

Have you read the series? What did you think? Teen trash or a good story?

Of course I always find the time to browse around a few favourite blogs, regardless of how much time I seemed to spend this week with my head in a book, and I found this on the EP Designs blog and it just made me grin:

“If I spent as much time doing the things I worry about getting done as I do worrying about doing them, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
– Beryl Pfizer

Makes sense to me!

By the way, if you want to read a lovely, family oriented and uplifting blog, pop over to I’m Still Standing – make a cuppa first so you’ve got an excuse to stay a while!

Needless to say, since I’ve spent all my week reading instead of creating, the pic above is just a simple strand of beautiful wine-red garnets - aren’t they stunning, just as they are?!

Till next
Annette :)

A little about Swarovski crystals

Another week has come around and I find myself, once again, asking what I did with the last week!? I know I have been reading alot. Even hubby has started to comment. I've really only read about 11 rather thick books since Christmas... I have trouble finding time to read the rest of the year so I've got to cram in as much now as I can before I go back to work properly :D

I'm still working on gemstones and getting their information typed up - I imagine it is not a job that is going to happen as quickly as I first imagined. So I'll just keep plugging away at it.

I was asked to be part of a Valentine's Day promotion this week. I don't work that often with Swarovski crystals since gemmies are my 'thing' and I generally prefer to work with natural stones, rather than manmade. But in celebration of the event I have made a small selection of Valentine inspired pieces with Swarovski and silver. You can see them all on my website under Valentine Selection. As you can see from the picture above, they are very pretty and very sparkly!

Swarovski is named after Daniel Swarovski, who invented the first crystal cutting machine in 1892 and founded his crystal business in Wattens, Austria in 1895. The popularity and quality of crystal continued to increase and Daniel's business also branched out into Swareflex (road safety products) and Swarovski Optics (precision optical instruments).

In league with Christian Dior, Swarovski created the famous aurora borealis finish for crystals in 1956. In 1976 Swarovski started making crystal decorative objects and shortly after chandelier components. They have continued, in the years since, to be a world leader of created crystals. Perfect for anyone who likes a bit of 'bling' to enjoy!