Something New and Blue

For Christmas both my sons gave me some books - a set of fiction books and four jewellery making books. I had fun making something from one of the jewellery books earlier this week. (I had finished  reading the fiction set).

The book I used was written by Sabine Lippert called Beaded Fantasies (see the last photo). There are lots of interesting patterns in it and I am looking forward to trying some more. 

Changes!

Wow! It has been over two years since I have posted on here, time flies when you are having fun 😊

I have been so busy with my family, my day job and going to markets it has been amazing. This year I have decided to step back a little from doing markets. For three years I have coordinated the monthly Snug Market with a fellow maker/designer. That experience was incredible. I have met so many clever, kind, sharing and talented people through that community market but it is time to move on to other things. 

I am looking forward to focusing on jewellery design and learning new techniques and styles. This was what interested me in jewellery initially. 

Over the last couple of years I have learnt some chain maille basics and played around a little with bead weaving and bead embroidery. I have continued to make an occasional glass bead and made lots of pieces of jewellery using simple wire work and stringing.

Here are some pictures of some of the pieces I have made using different techniques.

Until next time smile and enjoy life to the maximum.

Lee-Anne. 😊

To Do Lists

I am always making to do lists, which I seem to loose. The last few weeks I have started to use the notes app on my phone to make my list. Most people make the lst and cross things off as they are completed. My list just grows!!! For every job that gets crossed off I seem to add two, three or even four more it just seems never ending.

My to do list isn't one where I record all the housework or the running around for my family. It is purely the things that need to be done for my jewellery business, my teaching job and for organising the Snug Market each month. I don't even include the social networking activities that help keep both the Snug Market and my jewellery in front of people.

Is there something that I am missing? Am I making some error in the way I try to organise myself? Or am I simply lazy and that is why the list just keeps on growing? I don't have an answer and don't expect one, maybe one day life will stop being so busy and I will have time to complete everything on my to do list.

So looking forward to the day when my list actually gets smaller!

Oh well, time to get back to working on completing those jobs on my to do list.

Until next time (whenever that might be) take care and keep smiling! :)

Dilemma...

Life has become so busy!  It is incredible. 

I thought as my children got older I would have a little more time but I am finding that I seem to have even less!  I seem to be soooo good at filling every minute of every day with things to do. I give up one thing only to take on soemthing else in its place. I think I am trying hard to spend more time at home but I usually end up filling that time with something, whether it is filled with craft, planning for my class at school, working on new jewellery, filling orders, organising the Snug Market or running the Facebook pages that I admin for. My latest thing  is exercise which I tend to become obsessive about, currently it is walking/running with my dog for about 5km every day and attending 5-6 Jazzercise classes each week.

So what I want to know is how anyone juggles what you want to do, what you would like to do, what you have to do and still maintain sanity...

The view at 6am while walking my dog

Whoops!

I know I said that I was going to be regular with my posts but... Well... Umm...

Ok no excuses really, I just have been missing in action, spending time with my family, working fulltime, making jewellery and cards, going to a few markets and spending time with friends. Not much to do really, whoops I forgot to mention I have become obsessed with my latest fitness craze, jazzercise doing up to 9 classes a week! I really don't know why I haven't spent more time writing my blog, hehe.

So here I go again and I will try to be more consistant 😊

Holiday ~ Kuala Lumpur (KL)

KL was incredible.  The shopping was so brilliant! we stayed at Melia Hotel which was quite nice but not to the same standard for service as Park Royal.  The location of the Melia Hotel was perfect though.  It was right opposite the Berjaya Times Square shopping centre and within walking distance to the Petronas Towers, Central Market, China Town and Menara.  We rarely used transport at all.  The food was fantastic with so much variety to choose from.



While in KL we mostly wandered around the city and found thousands of places to shop (although that might be just a slight exaggeration). I did manage to find one shop with beads!

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I returned home relaxed and just a little tanned.

Holiday

My husband and I have now settled back into routine after a wonderful and restful holiday.  We spent 7 days in Penang, an island off the coast of Malaysia and then 4 days in Kuala Lumpur.  It was fantastic and just what we both really  needed.

We stayed at Park Royal Resort, which was perfect.  It was right on the beach with lots of water sports right outside the hotel.  there was a gorgeous pool and the hospitality was amazing.  There was easy access to a huge range of food choices and a night market on the doorstep of the hotel.  There were hotel organised tours (if you wanted them) and plenty to do.  Most of the time though we spent lazing around the pool and  going for walks in the local area.

In Penang, we visited the Botanical Gardens and the Butterfly Farm.  We went to the most incredible temples and wandered around GeorgeTown and the Little India area (the goldsmith shops in Little India were amazing with the jewellers making at the front of the shop so you could watch how they made the intricate pieces of gold work).