This is my entry for EAST's Winter challenge, as you can read from my blog I love being outside so when I was told that the challenge was going to be Winter Wonderland I insistently thought of walking in the woods with my children & being surrounded with trees all sparkling with snow & ice. I love when you go for a walk when everything is frosted & glittery, so I came up with the idea of a wind chime because to me Winter is a magical season ,where everything in the woods looks completely different & magical!. I have made the leaves of my Magical Winter Wonderland Wind chime out of polymer clay & covered them in beautiful iridescent glitter, to make them look like leaves touched by the frost , I think they have worked out well & the added bonus of this wind chime is that there will never be another one like it as each leave is different which is the way that Nature intended. I still have not picked a pic yet to post onto flikr as you cant get the whole effect of the wind chime into just one photo so I am a bit stuck so I think I will post a selection onto my Flikr page & see which one gets any views before I post it to the challenge page so if you like you could pop over to my flikr page & see which one you like best, just click on the flikr icon at the side of my blog & it will take you wright there. I suppose I better go & get on I will try and post back later with my new buys!.

Shopping Rant!

After my experience of shopping today I swear I will not put another foot in my local town center until after this Christmas shopping mayhem is finished !. It was completely mad I was getting shoved in every direction & the amount of times I have been ran into with a buggy is ridicules, I really think there is a group of people with buggy's meeting up every weekend discussing how many people they can upset by running into them, nipping their heals & blocking isles so no one can get passed! don't get me wrong I am a mother of two so I do know how difficult shopping with your kids in buggy's are but I did try and have respect for my fellow shoppers & if I did accidentally run into someone I apologised!. I lost count today of how many buggy's got shoved in the backs of my poor ankles and not one person apologised so as you you have probably read I am not a happy bunny!. Well that is my rant over with just had to let of some steam before I went and maxed out my credit card shopping on line so I will be back tomorrow with an update of my night time shopping!.

Last Week

The last few weeks have been really slow, I have not had a sale in weeks but never mind it has giving me time to get on with other stuff like breaking my computer! I have been without an Internet connection for 3 days now, I have just got it going again this morning! Nightmare! While I have been down I thought someone might have jumped at my Free Shipping to the UK but no, I think everyone is in the same boat with the holidays coming up.!. My beautiful Capricorn moon from cade.etsy.com came on Wedensday & she is even more beautiful than when I saw her on Flikr , What a talented woman her maker is. Other than making the necklace for Capricorn Moon I have been concentrating on making my entry for EAST winter challenge, I thought i would steer away from jewellery this time so I have been working on something a little different for me still with beads but I have also been using polymer clay, I don't want to give it away yet so I won't say anything else just yet. I think the challenge theme Winter Wonderland is perfect their is that many different ways it can be interpreted from walking in the woods where the trees are covered in snow to sitting buy a nice warm fire drinking Mulled wine with friends & family. What is your Winter Wonderland?.

FREE POSTAGE (13 th Nov - 16th Dec)

I don't know about you but the thought of Christmas only being a few weeks away is really scaring me, I am starting to go in to demented Mother mode already! My kids have already started their list to Santa & it dose not seem to be ending. I just worry like any other Mother does at this time of year about, will I be able to get everything on their list? well definitely not everything some things are imposable to buy , Dylan wants a real full size working tractor & a motorbike & Hollie wants a horse, they will just have to do with toy ones unless my lottery numbers come up between now & Christmas Eve. Also if I can't get what they have on their list's ,will they like what I have got them?, At least this year I don't have the worry of over cooking the turkey & making sure everyone is enjoying themselves because we are going to my Mum & Dad's for our Christmas dinner this year which will be a nice change as I have had everyone at mine for the last 5 years, so I am really looking forward to it. As for all my family & friends presents they are going to be getting something from Etsy because I want to get them something that I know they will like & they won't get from anyone else. If you are shopping for your presents on Etsy come in to my shop & I will make it a little easier on your pockets as of from today until noon on Sunday the 16th of December all postage & packaging is free to anyone in the UK. Wherever you decide to shop I hope you get what you are looking for & it is as stress free as it can be at this time of year, Happy shopping everyone & I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas when it comes!.

My busy week

Well it has been a busy week last week with Halloween being my daughters 7th birthday, Halloween party's at school & play group, plus trying to get organized for a jewellery party on Saturday night. With all that going on my little shop on Etsy has been a little neglected so has my blogs this one & my newer one on indie public, so this week I am definitely going to be working harder to keep up with everything. Last week might have been busy but it was good fun too especially when I got a convo on Etsy from Cade who was wanting to do a swap as I had all ready fallen in love with her Capricorn Moon it was a easy decision to make so now my milliefiori Christmas decorations are on their way to a new home & Capricorn moon is on it's way to me, I have been a fan of Cade ever since I joined Etsy her moon's & sun's are beautiful you should pop in & see her wonderful work for your self, you will find her here http://www.cade.etsy.com/ . Last week I also bought a gorgeous wallet, which I did buy for a Christmas present but it has managed to find its way into my bag , I have posted a photo of it so you could understand how I really could not part with it, you can find more gorgeous wallets here http://www.thisgalissewcrazy.etsy.com/ I also bought a set of natural bath & beauty products from Tamara at http://tamarasherbes.etsy.com/
in the set was the most delicious smelling products I have came across yet especially the brown sugar body scrub which makes your skin so smooth, as you could properly guess they were meant to be for presents too but I had to try them & all I can say is I am glad I did & Tamara if you ever see this thank you for converting me, from now on I will not be buying any more body products from the supermarkets. The bath tea is also great so relaxing. I gave a little pouch of the bath tea in my hostess goodie bag along with a little bottle of wine, one of my hand made decorations, a lovely smelling votive candle & a bundle of business cards from some of the wonderful people on Etsy who sent me their cards. The party went well & I got a lot of sales, everyone was really nice & interested in my jewellery. It is always a bit scary wondering what people will think of your work but I suppose everyone worries that their stuff might not be liked & when it comes down to it you cant please everyone, can you!

Christmas Decorations

I have been making more Christmas decorations this week but i can not get any nice photos of them because the weather has been dark & miserable here for the last two days. I have took this one of my Christmas Moon so you could have a sneaky peek of what I will hopefully be posting in my shop soon.... I really need to get a light box. I have also started my Christmas shopping on Etsy (of course), I would show you what I have bought, but it is for my sister & no doubt she we be having a nosey to see if I have let any thing slip. But I will show you all my handmade gifts I have bought from Etsy after Christmas because I am buying a lot of my presents there. Have a look at my favorites from Etsy at the side to see if you like anything & if you do just click on the picture & it will take you right to the sellers shop, please have a look. If you would like to see more of my Christmas decorations just click on my link at the side. All my Christmas decorations are on SPECIAL OFFER buy 2 get 1 FREE!.

A Walk in the Woods

We have all had a terrible cold & sickie bug for the last couple of week's but today we were feeling a little bit better plus it is the school holidays & I am going mad trying to keep them happy so we thought we would go for a walk. We are really lucky because we stay right across the road from a beautiful woodland. The only thing wrong with it is the irresponsible people who walk there dogs & do not clean up after them, that really really p####s me off. especially when your little boy falls in it (which happens to Dylan every time we go). When we go for walks I always have to take a bag for the things the kids collect I don't know if you have to do the same but they are always picking up leaves, stones, bark of of the trees everything so at the moment the kitchen table is covered in all their findings, I took some photos when we were out to post on to my flikr page because I thought it needed a wee change, I did get it to advertise my jewelry but now I want to use it for every thing, I am thinking about getting a pro account but don't know if it will be worth my while yet as there doesn't seem to be much interest in my photos there but there is time with any luck it will pick up. Here is some of my photos from today..

Leave it to the Artists

Well I thought I would have a go at some drawing so I went away to the shops all geared up to buy some art supplies to broaden my artistic flair and I came back home with a load of stuff, some of it I don't even know what to do with it, but never mind I will work on that one later. I am always doodling away at something or other and I did really like studying Art at school (I just wish now I had stuck at it) , So I thought what the hell go for it. So I did!. This is my photo of my attempt its not brilliant but it is a start! . When my daughter saw it she just laughed and said the lady has got no clothes on. (That was not the worst bit I had to explain to her friends mum why I had left a picture of a naked lady lying around my kitchen). So what do you think? Do you think it is not to bad or should I just give up and leave it to the Artists?.

Second Sale

Woohoo! I got my second sale tonight & I was not even logged on I was watching Dirty Dancing with my daughter, she is only coming up for 7 but she enjoyed all the dancing, It was a return to my teenage years for me, great fun. Anyway i thought i would post about my 2nd sale I am so Happy! This is my first ever sale abroad my Happiness earrings are going to be going to a new home in the US, The lovely lady who has bought them has a lovely shop on Etsy selling beautiful hand made card's this is her shop http://teenytinycardco.etsy.com/ please have a look.
Here is a photo of my Happiness earring's. My first sale was a couple of weeks ago, i was in the forum on Etsy at the time and the kid's were just finishing there tea when i got the news i jumped up and started jumping around the living room, the kid's thought i had gone mad, anyway my first sale was to a fellow UK member of Etsy, she sells gorgeous shoes & other beautiful goodies. This is her shophttp://bunny.etsy.com/ please drop in to her shop & have a look. Here is a photo of bunny's new Tiger's Claws bracelet. From now on every time someone buys from my shop I am going to post a link to their shop here on my blog. I like the idea of helping them to get their shop promoted, Not that my blog gets a lot of views but every little helps. It would be great if they even got a sale out of it. If you do buy from any of the shop's please tell them about where you seen them advertised.

This is a photo of me & my kid's, not a really good one of Hollie as she was going through a stage where she would not get her photo taken, She is not like that now every time the camara comes out Hollie is there in front of it. Dylan was over the moon he had just been on a tractor for the first time, as you can see with his big cheesy smile. I thought i better put a photo in just to show everyone what i look like, I love being able to see the face behind the writing.

Beach Comber

This is my first blog! so bear with me & any help or info will be very appreciated, Anyway this blog is all about my little shop on Etsy, http://trinkettree.etsy.com/ , the Ups & Downs of trying to start up selling my jewelry on & off the net & trying to do it all while being a single mum of 2 gorgeous kids. So as you can see there will probably be a lot of bad times & hopefully good to come....I am going to start of with this picture of a necklace i made the other day as i can't find any nice pictures of me & the kid's, (well none nice ones of me, i am a bit camera shy unless i have had a few whisky's.) This necklace is called Beach Comber as the idea for it came as i was having a walk along the beach with my children , while they were hunting for sea shell's & chucking stones in the sea i was looking at all the beautiful colors of the crushed shell's, pebble's & sea glass left by the waves. When we got back home & got some heat in us (Scotland in Autumn is not a great time to be walking along a beach) I grabbed my bead's & gemstone's, put all the color's i saw at the beach together & came up with this lovely necklace i think it worked out well, what do you think?