There isn't as much time in the world as i thought!!

I do believe i have come to a point in my life where i need an extra day in my life. Between two small children a nearly full time career and our jewellery making 'hobby' which has turned into another nearly full time career and the usual life things that you have to do but take up a lot of time like eating....sleeping...etc life has gotten out of control. I remember the good old days as a student when i could stay in bed or in a pub all day if i wanted but now.... well i guess i don't want that and i enjoy my life being out of control.... i just wish we could afford a cleaner to control that side of things as i didn't factor that in time wise!


Snow comes to Stradbally

We never get snow in Stradbally due to it's proximity to the sea. I've been here ten years and have never seen it lie on the ground. During the cold snap over the last three weeks we had one glorious day where it snowed from morning till night and to make things even better it was a sunday so no work and we all got to make the most of it. Conor (our two year old) made his first snowman and Ken was out having snowball fights....two big kids! I got to put the carrot on though. As Conor came inside for his dinner he said 'see you later snowman'!! Little did he know his new pal would be just a hat, scarf and carrot the next time he saw him.... Bless!





Stay away from our snowman!!









Delights we found on Etsy this week..


Even with life so busy i still got time to browse through Etsy this week and found a wonderful little shop called http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueJeanBlanketsPlus

She create the most wonderful things. Beanies, bags and my favorite a blanket made from recycled Jeans!


BlueJeanBlanketsPlus has a givaway on a the moment too. To win a free tote bag click on this link...
http://bluejeanblanketsplus.blogspot.com/2010/01/free-tote-bag.html
Hope you like her shop as much as i do!

Ps... The bride seems to have gone AWOL.

Featured artist of the week Little Sun

My Favourite


A beautiful selection of handmade cards. Unique and personal.
A little sun has appeared in almost all my drawings for the past 15 yrs.I'm adding new items all the time their just an inspiration away!
Thank-you for stopping by my shop. Hope you smiled at least once! Make the cards your own use them as thank-yous, get well
or just to drop someone w/out email a note.I write to everyone prisoners, service people, my mom, etc.
"If you do this unto the least of these you have done it unto me"--Jesus in matt. 25:40
Have a look at little suns blog http://www.littlesunii.blogspot.com

Ouch!

Has anyone had their swine flu jab yet? Ken, Conor (our two year old) and me all got ours the other day. I have hardly been able to move my arm since. Getting no sympathy at home though so if anyone's got any to spare send it my way!
I haven't heard much about it on the news lately. Does anyone know anyone who has actually had it! I thought a pandemic might have reached the outer limits of our tiny village but Stradbally seems to have an immunity blanket wrapped around it. I'm not complaining i just want to know did i get a dead arm for nothing?

Can you see the blanket?












Wedding Jewellery
wanted.


We've been asked to create some pieces for a wedding that's on in England on St Patricks day. We love getting commissions of course but wedding ones are always that little bit stressful! I guess a lot of it depends on the bride and we're lucky that this one is the most laid back bride i think I've ever met.
Being Irish she's ordered a couple of pairs or our Hurley cuff links















A Must have for an Irish Wedding!

She's not going for the traditional dress though, it's scarlet with sequins and diamante bling. The necklace and earring designs have been left in our hands so we'll keep you posted and post photo's of the finished product.
Wish us luck!

New Year, New Blog!

It's taken a while to get around to writing this blog. The 12 day Christmas market we did was simply CRAZY!(in a good way). We underestimated Christmas shoppers and had to spend every night after market making and polishing pieces. We gave ourselves no time to recoup from the long, cold ,market days and were completely wrecked by Christmas Eve.... It was great

For the new Year we are stepping things up a gear to try and boost sales, we'd love to give up our day jobs! We have opened up an ETSY shop. For those who don't know, it's an online haven for buying and selling all things handmade. We have added a Badge direct to our Etsy shop if anyone wants to have a look!


Our Wedding Day
Three years ago now..
Ahhh memories


Too Much Chocolate!
Never thought I'd say that I'm glad Christmas is over. Started healthy eating regime on Monday. Just me, Ken was blessed with a high metabolism. It's hard to be creative when you are starving and cranky from lack of Carbs but we have managed to make some new pieces this year already. I even managed to pose for a few pics (sucking my cheeks in)!


This piece is 'Leaf' from the pebbles collection.
It has a very dramatic texture on it. Some people say pebbles, some say it reminded them of water droplets on the leaf. Either way, i think it's quite an unusual effect. We did it by melting different sized, small pieces of silver until they formed balls and then hammered the hell out of them before soldering them onto the petals.... Very therapeutic, especially if you've had a row with your other half, saves you hitting them with the hammer instead!



A Closer look....




We promise to blog regularly and would love to hear your comments on our pieces, our blog content and anything else you might like to say, just be nice!
Claire and Ken