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Murano Heart Necklaces

09 Mar in Brides, Jewellery | Comments (0)

Billy and Desiree were married on Saturday. Desiree wanted necklaces for the 5 special girls from their families who were included in the ceremony in various ways. In the end, Desiree decided on 4 Murano hearts for the older girls and a little czech heart for the little one in the group. Instead of suede I used a contemporary silver chain to hang the hearts on.

Kirstie's Lost Ring

03 Mar in Brush Cottage, Jewellery | Comments (0)

Kirstie Allsop – from “Location, Location, Location” has lost her engagement ring and has set up a website to try and find it.

I know I would be devastated if I ever lost my wedding band. When I got married we couldn’t afford a diamond engagement ring and it never really bothered me as I prefer coloured stones ( I can’t tell you how happy David was about that!). For our 10th anniversary David designed the most beautiful ring for me as a surprise, it has 40 small diamonds set into a rose gold band – I could never imagine a more beautiful ring. Isn’t it funny how there are some things that are so precious and sentimental.

Kirstie, I hope you find your ring.

Flowers for Bookmooch

02 Mar in Brush Cottage, Flowers | Comments (0)

Have you come across Bookmooch.com yet? If, like my family, you are readers then it’s worth looking in to.

Bookmooch is a site, where you can list books that you own, but no longer want. Other members can then “mooch” your books from you and you can “mooch” any books you might want. It is all based on a point system, so if you mooch from someone in you own country, it costs you a point, but if you mooch from abroad, it’s costs you 2. If someone from abroad mooches from you, you get 3 points.

You don’t have to agree to post abroad, set up your profile carefully as there are various options you can choose.

I have been a member now for a couple of years and love it. We all read a lot and while I think the library system is amazing here, sometimes I like to keep a copy of a book. I earned a lot of points posting abroad – I always say that I will only post by surface mail, as it’s much more affordable and that postage will take 6 – 8 weeks but it’s been lovely to see more people from the UK joining and using Bookmooch.

Briolette Pendant

01 Mar in Jewellery | Comments (0)

Normally when I buy semi precious beads I buy a whole strand of them. Because you are buying something that was created naturally it’s unavoidable that there be flaws and imperfections in it, unlike things made in a mass production factory, where everything is churned out “perfectly”.

Unfortunately the Briolettes that I buy for my Smoky Quartz Briolette earrings are often a bit too irregular or the stones have scratches, and because I think that earrings components need to match perfectly I end up with stones that I can’t bring myself to use for this particular pair of earrings (sometimes as many as a quarter of the strand!)

It’s such a waste – these are still very lovely stones – I made this pendant last week, out of a less than perfect smoky quartz briolette, and an explosion of a cluster of really unusual matt green Swarovski crystals.

Chesil Rectory

11 Feb in Brush Cottage | Comments (2)

Dave took me to dinner this week, at a very special restaurant in Winchester called Chesil Rectory. The building that houses the restaurant is the oldest house in Winchester, with many of the original features.

Now, while I love globe artichokes, I am a bit nervous about Jerusalem artichokes.

However the starter that I had at Chesil Rectory was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, a winter salad of green leaves, Jerusalem artichokes, dried tomatoes and rosary goats cheese, embraced with a heavenly dressing.

Does anyone out there know the Head Chef – Damian Brown? Because I am begging for the recipe!

Are we in Narnia?

07 Feb in Brush Cottage | Comments (2)

Linda, very kindly shared some of her photo’s of this weeks snow with me. I have to post them as I have just loved seeing them.

This one is exactly as I imagine Narnia to be…..

These must be the best snowmen I have ever seen. Linda and Sue don’t know who made them, but I think they are awesome!

Linda and Sue are from St Neots, and have enjoyed this weeks snow as much as I have.

Images courtesy of Linda and Sue

A winter wonderland

03 Feb in Brush Cottage | Comments (2)

The UK is experiencing the heaviest snow falls in decades. The economy – already fragile – is losing £billions a day, schools are closed and public transport has come to a standstill. There is nothing else you can do, but bundle up, and go out and enjoy it! Dave and I went out this morning for a walk, come along with us……..

The cottage at 9.30 am, surrounded by pristine whiteness and us without a toboggan…….

There is a lovely walk we do, which takes us out of the village and through the fields and woodland, we thought it would be the perfect walk to do today.

I love the way the snow collects on the bare branches.

We are lucky to live in a village which is surrounded by farmland, this field is covered with inches of snow and the backdrop of this row of trees is a spectacular sight.

There – you see, I did actually venture out of the house!

And so, whew, an hour later, here we are back in the village, at the duck pond which has frozen over.

Poor ducks!

Quick and Crafty! magazine

15 Jan in Flowers | Comments (0)

What a lovely suprise earlier today to have an email from Quick and Crafty! magazine drop into my inbox. Every month they feature a blog in the publication and they are (hopefully) going to feature mine in their April issue! How exciting is that!?

Shell Pearl Earrings

06 Jan in Jewellery | Comments (0)

These very elegant earrings are made from some silver shell pearls, topped with a little bit of sparkle. Apart from the silver pictured here they are available for sale on the site in Peacock Blue, and Green. Any Twinkleberry earrings can be made using studs or leverbacks – contact me for more details

Christmas Decorations

22 Dec in Christmas Decorations | Comments (0)

I love christmas, when we have chosen our tree and unpacked the decorations. These days I don’t get to do any of the decorating, but that’s okay, because I love watching it being done as much as I enjoy doing it. Every year I try and find just one or two special new baubles to add to my collection. My worst nightmare would be buying new decorations every year. I have some, which might not have been very expensive, but that I just love seeing on my tree from year to year…….

I bought these handblown glass baubles last year, they are a plum colour with beads of gold – and lets face it, you can never have enough gold at christmas time!

A handmade red glass star. An absolute classic.

This is a glamorous fabric and bead creation, handmade by a very talented sister-in-law.

These were a dime a dozen a couple of years ago, but I still loved mine, it’s such a whimsical Santa and his shy reindeer.

A dragon – what do you mean you don’t have a dragon? It’s a must, an absolute must! Trust me – go an buy yourself a dragon now! Every tree should have one!

The most beautiful angel on my tree – a vintage, handmade lovely, bought for me, many years ago by a very dear friend.

I bought these beautiful feather birds many, many years ago at the fabulous V&A gift shop (an absolute must when in London) – they are much, much nicer than the ones you can buy now.

And lastly, a child for whom Christmas is still a magical time!

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