Money Money Money!

Well since i promised to update my blog frequently I thought I better stick to it, I am absolutely knackered suffering from insomnia for over a week now it is driving me mad, cant get to sleep for hours and then when I do i have to get up again to sort out the kids & the cats. I think it could have something to do with money like everyone I am feeling the pinch right now with everything in the shop's going up, loads & loads of bill's not being paid & worrying about what I am going to do about my daughter's birthday she is going to be 8 she act's more like a teenager but let her off with that as i love her to bit's and she has been through a lot over the last year. Now she wants a party like all her friends I am trying to convince her that a big party in one off those extortionate places is not a good idea & having one at home with a couple of her good friends will be better for her. wish me luck with that one! Also the cats got booked in last Wednesday for there op (castration) but Rory the big one got hit by a car on Tuesday night he is at the moment stuck in a cage in the living room as he will be there for the next few weeks due to his pelvis being the bit that got the most damage thought he was a goner his legs were completely buckled underneath him but luckily the nice vet managed to fix him he has got a check up on wed so hopefully he wont have to go for another op cause I really cant afford another one, cant even afford the one he has just had but the nice vet is letting me pay it up weakly I wish I got the pet insurance offer when we got them. He got castrated when he had his op this one went fine but Toby the little one had problem's went in to pick them up & the receptionist said he has a collar on I asked if he was OK and she asked if I knew that only one of his testicles had dropped so they had to go in to take it out. I mean really do you check to see if your male cat has got 2 ball's or is it just me who thinks that is just wrong! As you could tell by all the problem's with the cats & Hollie's party problem money could well be the reason behind my insomnia let's just hope that all the prices on everything in the shop's start coming down soon or there will be a lot more people out there with the dreaded insomnia!
I did manage to get some bracelet's made they will be posted up in my Etsy shop hopefully sometime this week!

New Ideas

My Internet has been down for weeks & weeks & weeks it has been a nightmare but never mind hopefully now every thing will be fine & i can get on with updating my blog more often(fingers crossed) Since it has been down I have been playing about with new ideas, The candle holders are definitely one of my best efforts thanks to my little baby niece Grace who has been keeping me supplied with baby food jars so there has been plenty recycling going on in my house. Now that Grace has finished with her baby food & on too big girl food & she can finally get jam pieces on her expensive lactose free bread the jars have been dumped. I think it is terrible that if you have an allergy to any sort of food it is more expensive for you, there should be an alternate low price range as well as the expensive brand just like in all the other food that you can buy at the local supermarket which I might add has a very poor range for people with allergies. Anyway that is my opinion! Other than making recycled candle holders I have been trying my hand again at making a new painting for my hall what do you think? It is not actually hanging in the hall yet but it is framed and sitting pride of place on top of the shelves in the living room, but i am getting there slowly! The kids are back at school & nursery now so I am getting a little bit extra time to do more, well that is the idea anyway I just have to put it into practice I have made some cute little painted hearts since they have been back but don't ask me what I am going to do with them yet I was thinking of giving them as free gifts with my orders because I think it is good to change your gifts some times plus I am bored making bag charms. They might also make good little Christmas decorations I you can think of anything just let me know alwayss happy for a little help! I have also been trying out new color combo's for my felt beads so Etsy is not being completely neglected here is some of my new bracelet/bangles. Tell me what you think thanks for looking :)

Now I am back!

Well what can I say I have been having a little bit of family trouble over the last few month & everything has been getting on top off me so now that I have been away with the kids to the beautiful coast I am feeling a little bit better & have decided to get catch up with everything again, hopefully this time I will keep more up to date with my blog ;) The last time I was on blogger Aileen Clark (there is a post about Aileen's fabulous work further down my blog) awarded me with a blog trophy for one of the best blogs she has been reading as I have not been blogging for a while now I have decided to pick it up & pass it on at a later date as right now I definitely don't deserve it!

Even though I have not been updating my blog I have still been busy not as much as usual & I have been neglecting my jewellery, now my little shop on Etsy has only one page which is a bit surprising but hopefully in the next few days that will all change, I have just listed a new felt memory wire bracelet & a new Rose Quartz memory wire bracelet, My addiction for felt is still strong but my old gemstone addiction is heading back through in to my jewellery again so I am going to be listing a few more gemstone creations to Etsy soon! Other than making more jewellery I have been recycling my baby niece's baby food jars & making them in to little candle holders now I have a big collection of candle holders that I don't know what to do with, Any ideas will be appreciated!

When I was on holiday I decided that now was the time to get rid of one off my tattoo's so I have been working on designing a cover up for it. The one that I need covered was one of those one you get when you are in love & very very silly! I am totally stuck been to loads of tattoo sites but never see anything that I really like so by chance if anyone knows anything about foot tattoo's please leave me a comment as I want to get it covered up A.S.A.P!

I have done it!

What a busy week I have had but all my hard work & sore fingers has paid off, Trinket Tree Jewellery is now on sale in a beautiful little shop in Aberdour which is a busy little coastal village in fife. Boho is a unique shop specialising in an eclectic selection of Jewellery, Accessories, Clothes, Handbags, Children's Gifts, Crafts and Greetings Cards. Boho also sells some of Aileen Clarke's (fused fiber artist) beautiful artwork , Boho opened its doors in 2004 by a talented jewellery designer, Anne Buchanan designs & makes one off items off sterling silver jewellery, which is also for sale in her fantastic little shop. You will usually find Anne working away on a new design in the back surrounded by a lot of eye catching goodies! The only other thing I can say about Boho is make sure you have your purse on you as you will be hard pushed to leave empty handed.
This is a few of my pieces for sale in Boho
Visit Boho at 6 Shore Road Aberdour or click the link to visit online
http://www.shopboho.co.uk

I have not been very busy over the Spring school holiday as I thought since the kids are off I am going to have to try and keep them busy so we have been out for walks when it is not raining & painting when it is too wet to go out. I have been concentrating on some experiments, so far I have made this unusual bead,felt & wire necklace, this necklace is a idea helped along by Aileen Clarke (look at Fiber Artist in one of my older posts) I met up with Aileen for a coffee a couple of weeks ago in Glenrothes, we sat and had a blether for a while about of course our work & then Aileen brought out this fantastic book she got with her new felt gadget (I need to get one) The book had a load of great project ideas and a couple of them were jewellery so I adapted one of the projects to make this necklace, I think the next one will not have as much beads but I am happy with the outcome. I have also made a little felt purse which I will try too get some pic's of because I am impressed how well it turned out considering I have never attempted to felt on such a large scale plus my sewing looks good, which is a miracle as I have hardly picked a needle & thread up since high school let alone do fancy stitches! That is me getting chucked off the computer again so I will finish up here.

Stressed Out !!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see by my new photo I have been a little bit busy shopping for more bead caps & clasps, Other than shopping I have been doing nothing much just so feed up with this horrible weather, roll on Spring & Monday morning so the kids can go back to school ! I love them so much but sometimes 5 min peace & quiet would be great . Just need some time out to get on with my work or sit and watch telly or up date my blog & Etsy shop with out having to get of my backside every 2 minutes I am going to scream !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to have to try & up date this some other time as I now need to go and get my son down from the tree, Back later after I have my nervous break down ****************************** I am not normally this grumpy honest :)

Fused Fabric Artist

As I have mentioned before I am now a felt addict & use a lot of my felt beads in my jewellery creations but today I am wanting to tell you about a very talented friend I have met through Flickr who also uses felt & other fibers to make the most gorgeous pieces of art work , Aileen Clarke came across my page one day & left me a wee note , which I am very glad she did as her beautiful work inspires me to try new techniques out & try to incorporate them in to my jewellery. Aileen is a very busy work at home Mum of Two kids who has worked hard to build up a successful cottage industry over the last couple of years, I am going to have to meet up with her for a coffee one day to discuss business tactics as with my two kids I never seem to have any time to myself to build up any sort of business at all, so Aileen if you are reading this do you have any tips for me ? :) The photo above is one of Aileen's creations called Aziba as you can see it is a beautiful mix of different colors & textures , this is just one of the many pieces she has created, Aileen also makes gorgeous cards with fused fiber motifs on them & Beautiful sea scape's which I must admit are my favorite as every time I see one it reminds me of my holidays by the sea when I was a child. If you go & have a look in Aileen's Etsy shop you will see she has a little soft spot for hearts, one of her best sellers is a gorgeous fused fiber heart decoration which looks amazing, At the moment in Aileen's Etsy shop she is also selling a beautiful fused fabric bird which has lots of beautiful detail on it . What else can I say about her work ? You are just going to have to go & visit her to see what you think for yourself , I am sure you will see something you like. http://www.aileenclarkecrafts.etsy.com/

I have been neglecting my blog lately due to felt over load & very sore fingers , I have been making lots of new felt beads & bracelets thanks to a fellow Etsy seller who has the most beautiful color combinations of Merino wool roving, plus she is a UK seller so I didn't start having withdrawal symptoms by the time my order arrived, ti came very quick & they were all gorgeous bundles. I will definitely be back visiting her again soon ! This is her shop http://www.fibrespace.etsy.com/ other than wool roving she also sells gorgeous felt bags, felt greeting cards & jewellery, so if you are a felt addict like me please pop in to her shop and have a look . The pic is of one of my new felt bracelets that I was struggling to name but thanks to all the response I had when I asked for help on my Flikr page My Blue Universe is now listed in my Etsy shop. I think my head is too filled with felt ideas I am a bit stuck for doing anything. I am going to go and get my needles out & start felting again so I might have something new by the next time I blog !

My new felt addiction has taken a turn away from my usual jewelery side of things not a far of the road turn just a little swerve to the supplies side of things!. I have been thinking about starting to sell some of my felt beads & leaves that I have been making a lot of recently, the only problem is I don't know where to start, how much to charge, to sell them in groups or sell them on their own etc, so if any one who reads this please leave me a comment as I am a little bit stuck!.

The last few weeks have not been to great we have all been ill with a bug , this year so far has just been one sickness after the other , I am blaming the weather it changes so much you never know what you are going to be waking up to!. Between crappy bugs (literally) and my washing machine & tumble dryer bursting on me so far this year has been terrible, plus I have only had one sale on Etsy so far this year so if you are popping by Etsy please pop in & tell me where I am going wrong there, prices, pics etc. http://trinkettree.etsy.com/

Dentist Hell!

I did start of well with my New Years Resolution but once I tell you about how great my Birthday went you will realize I have had other things on my mind!. It all started about a 2 weeks ago I started to get a little pain in what I thought at the time was Ear ache, I know ear ache is really sore but by I would be able to cope with that , then as the days passed the pain started to get worse & I realized it was tooth ache, I have never experienced a pain like it!. By the time it came to my Birthday last Thursday I was walking about with a hot water bottle stuck to my cheek & biting every ones head off, I was that bad every time I walked into a room where my children were the would automatically run out screaming so I did not have a very good Birthday lots of gorgeous prezzies but a mega sore face, mouth, head & Ear!. Friday came & I finally gave in realizing it was not going to go away I thought I would phone up my Dentist to get some help, then I found out my lovely Dentist no longer took NHS patients, after lots of swearing & phone calls I eventually found a willing Dentist to save me but not until Monday afternoon. After LOTS & LOTS of pain killers Monday finally came & I was even smiling even though I knew I was going to probably get a filling (boy was I wrong). I arrived at the Dentist at 12:15 & got taken straight away, got asked all the usual health questions then I got some X-rays taken all was going fine then she told me that my Wisdom Tooth on the bottom that was not even completely through was to come out!. I thought she would give me some painkillers & an appointment for the Hospital where I have been told that is where I would have to go if my wisdom teeth were to come out. But I was so wrong she disappeared for a minute & came back with the senior Dentist, He told me it was causing me to much pain (REALLY) & it had to come out NOW, this was at 12:30 so 7 shots of that yucky tasting numbing stuff a lot of screaming from me & a very worried looking young Dentist (which really never helped me)I was finished with a very numb swelling face, burst lip & shaking like one of those hairless dogs on a snowing day, I finally managed to get out of the surgery after getting talked into another appointment next week to get a filling (So looking forward to that!)got back into the safety of my Mum's car white as sheet at 1:45, Mum goes to me are you felling OK I just burst out crying & told her what had happened she said come on we will take you home for a cup of tea (which I burned my self while trying to drink with a numb face). I honestly thought I would go get it sorted & come out felling great, I was so wrong . I am still in pain not as bad as yesterday but at least I am managing to get some work done, doped up too the eyeballs on strong pain killers but I suppose it is getting better don't think I will be making that appointment next week though!.

This gorgeous collection of hand made soaps is from one of my fellow EAST members on Etsy. Stephanie bought my Winter Magic wind chime last week so to thank her for giving me my first sale of the year I am promoting her shop , not that she needs any help as her gorgeous soap's speak for themselves!. Stephanie is a very busy Mum who lives in one of the places I would love to visit , Florida. So she might be getting a visit one day!. Stephanie has been making her soaps, lotions & potions for seven years so she has had a lot of experience in her craft if you would like to catch up on her new additions to her shop & other info this is her blog http://heartcrafts.blogspot.com & this is the link for Stephanie's Etsy shop where you will see for yourself how gorgeous her hand made goodies look & sound! http://seaspritesoaps.etsy.com Please pop in & have a look!

Trying to be one step ahead!

As I am new to selling my goodies on the Internet I thought I better try & keep up with all the special occasions like Christmas, & now Valentine's Day plus trying to keep ahead of the changing seasons!, so I have been working on felted hearts, so far I have only managed to make 1 Valentine pin with a genuine Swarovski crystal to give a little sparkle & 1 heart keyring I thought this would be good idea for the bloke in your life as a wee token of your love!. I have also been preparing for Spring with my felt beads again but I have also added the luxury of pink pearls, I have just finished them tonight & thought I would share them even though the photo is poor quality, hopefully it wont be blowing a gale tomorrow & I can maybe manage to get some good photos, even though it is my birthday I don't mind standing out in the freezing cold !.I really had no idea about how hard keeping my new plan was going to be, it is only coming up for 10 days into the new year & I am knackered all ready but saying that I have managed to keep up my resolution of posting something new ever day on Etsy & keep up with all my new creations, so being a little sleepy is worth it. I also got my first Sale of the New Year yesterday but I will tell you more about that later as I have to try & get some sleep since it is my birthday tomorrow, I know I am going to be another year older but I really don't want to be walking around looking like the living dead! .

As you can see I have a new past time I am at the moment addicted to needle felting. This is one of the first things I have made using my felted beads, I think it has turned out not bad. I love felting it is so therapeutic except for the hundred holes in my fingers, the amount of plasters I have used is unbelievable but all the same it is great if you have a lot of built up tension just think of something (or someone ) that has upset you & you will have a perfectly felted ball in minutes The only down side except for the sore fingers is I don't want to get on with my other stuff I need to get done like making a light box so I can post some new stuff on Etsy. We had our fist proper snow fall yesterday & the kids were all excited Dylan is not that keen on it he says it is to cold! I could not get Hollie to come in all day today except when she went rushing to her room to get changed then she was off out again. The snow is nearly all gone again but I hope there is more soon as I promised to take the kids sledging, we never seem to have much snow here anymore, the last few years there has been very little, I can remember getting a week of of school nearly every Winter & my Mum panicking that we were going to run out of food as we were snowed in & it was a long walk in the snow to get any thing from the shop. I miss those cold snowy Winters!

Handmade Pledge

............................ Grace's new shoes.............................

......Dylan's Pirate Monkey...................................................... Hollie's Rose Monkey.......

These are just some of the presents I have gave as gifts this year as I took the Handmade pledge everyone got at least one thing Handmade which I thought to start of with was going to be a little complicated but everyone was really happy with there gifts. Don't get me wrong I was still trailing the shops hunting for Transformers & a specific computer game thing! It would have been mayhem in my house if all they got was handmade toys, I don't think they would have been very happy with Santa if that was the case, Do you?, but they were over the moon with there new Monkeys. Dylan has never went to bed without Pirate Monkey, he has not got a very good imagination when it comes to names yet!. I think Hollie is happy with hers if she could just pull herself away from playing her game thing & listening to her music, Rose is sitting on her bed so I take it she does like her. Hollie has turned seven but I swear she is getting more like a teenager every day!. The gorgeous Monkeys were from a very talented seller on Etsy who sells the cutest rag dolls, cats, monkeys & if you are talented with a needle & thread she also sells the patterns for them so you could have a go at making them yourself, just click on this link to go to her shop http://bitofwhimsyprims.etsy.com/ . I also bought a really cute pair of baby shoes for my little niece Grace, who has the smallest feet I have ever seen!. They are so soft & cozy, my sister says they fit perfect so that was good because she has trouble trying to find shoes to fit her properly that look like little girl shoes. They were also from another talented seller on Etsy who has a beautiful selection of needle felted (my new past time) items from gorgeous baby shoes to Jewellery & Accessories. At the moment in her shop there is a beautiful pair of baby shoes that would be ideal for the spring so if you are looking for something special for yourself or your baby please click on this link & give her a little visit http://plumpuddingbyjenn/ . I better finish this of here as it is starting to look a bit like a novel, as my New Year resolution (one of them) is to keep up to date with my Blog I promise I will try to keep it & try to post at least 3 times a week, so I will be back to tell you about more of my purchases & about my new past time.