Christmas Round Up

I've had a lovely, relaxed and peaceful Christmas. We've had quite a lot of snow so I haven't used the car since last Friday. The steep hill leading up from our close to the main road is like an ice rink and I've seen too many cars skidding all over the road to even attempt it. So Bailey's daily walks have been limited to the green at the top of the road.

But today the footpaths aren't even safe to walk on, so the poor lad has only been in the garden. It has rained a little tonight, so I'm hoping it will help to melt the ice. My son very kindly did the food shopping at 7.00am on Christmas eve morning... he caught the bus there and back, so I really have had a lovely stress free break.

Snowy garden


Christmas tree and fireplace garland


Sepia Christmas


As far as my jewellery is concerned I haven't been very productive lately, but here's a necklace I made recently:

Lemon Sorbet Vintage Lily Pendant


I made these earrings today. Not very festive, and more reminiscent of balmy summer days by the sea. But I figured if exotic holiday adverts are shown on Boxing day, then why not. Anyway I have customers in Australia to think about!

Ocean Drops



Happy New Year to Everyone! xx

Topsy Turvy Seasons

Browsing the internet for autumn colours for 2009, I came across Under the Loupe, a blog by jeweller Annette Piper, and in particular an article concerned with selecting stones and beads to compliment this years autumn fashion colours. This piece was written way back in March, and I was impressed by her forward thinking, wondering perhaps if I should have been planning this seasons designs and ordering supplies many months ago.

It was only when I saw her most recent post, concerning spring shows, that I realised she was in Australia and her March piece about autumn colours would have been written as they were entering autumn!

The reason I mention this is because I recently went through my Etsy shop collection changing and updating my tags to reflect the upcoming seasons of autumn and winter and deleting all references to summer. Bad mistake! I have potential customers in Australia, and have sold to someone there already. It must be really frustrating for them to be constantly bombarded with references to seasons months ahead of theirs and offered jewellery that is totally at odds with the colours they are wearing.

So, I shall pay a little more attention to my tags and promote some of my more summery colours, because many potential customers will be looking forward to the lazy hot days of summer while we're heading into winter, not to mention those who choose to spend their winters in warmer climates.