Another chance to win a beautiful illuminate necklace by Lisa Leonard

It seems that everyone in Blogland loves Lisa Leonard's beautiful jewellery. Check out her website here and if you want yet another chance to win one of her beautiful illuminate necklaces hop on over to 504 Main where Holly is kindly having a giveaway.

My hope is that if I enter enough giveaways then I'll eventually win one - otherwise I'll have to wait til Mother's Day for one I think!

Some fab giveaways

I just wanted to let you all know about a few lovely blogs who are having giveaways. Check out the following for a chance to win some fantastic prizes and to read over some great blogs and get to meet their creators:


Our Suburban Cottage - the chance to win a gorgeous silver illuminate necklace by Lisa Leonard. This is a gorgeous personalised necklace with a lovely crystal dropper.




Design Dazzle - the chance to win a $75 dollar gift certificate to spend on a really beautiful piece of jewellery by Lisa Leonard again. I absolutely love the two necklaces below and would be overjoyed if I won!

Twig - the chance to win a fab retro kitchen clock and timer plus a gift certificate for a lovely shop called Ruche. This clock would look great in my kitchen! It has my name all over it!

Good luck to all who enter!

Hope I win something though!! xx

Kreativ Blogger Award

I've just been given my second award for my blog. I was nominated for the Kreativ Blogger Award by Audrey from At Town Square. You can have a nose around her world just here. She lives in a gorgeous (apparently unpronounceable) town in Northern California and you can see some lovely photos of her hometown on her blog. Even on a sunny day I would choose California over Wales but at the moment with the cold, sleet and snow we've had here for the last few weeks I would sell one of my children to swap houses with her (well, not one of the children but perhaps my needy Golden Retriever, Woody!).

Thanks for the award Audrey x

So, now for the fun part! I have to list seven things people may not know about me (difficult as I'm pretty much an open book).


1. I have been cutting magazines up for over 20 years. I cut out pictures of gorgeous houses and then put them into boxes categorised by room type and on rainy days or when I feel a bit under the weather or when I need some inspiration I get the boxes out and purr for hours looking at houses I wish I lived in! My friends all laugh at me for doing this but they have ALL borrowed my boxes for inspiration.

2. I love films. I don't much care for this British obsession with 'reality' TV shows or people wanting to be instant celebrities so have never seen Big Brother or X-Factor. I'm not slating these programmes or the people who watch them - my sister doesn't even answer the phone when BB is on!! I just prefer to watch films - especially ones with gorgeous houses (or men!) (or both!!) in them. I also really love thrillers. Things with twists at the end that you never saw coming. Other than that I like comedy shows or real reality TV shows like Deadliest Catch - isn't Sig the coolest!

3. I love music. I'm an 80's rock chick in librarians clothing! I love the Foo Fighters and Linkin Park and can't stop playing the Twilight Soundtrack - the song by Mutemath is fantastic!

4. I can't stop making stuff. My creative juices are always flowing. It's a good job people buy my stuff of my cupboards would be bursting at the seams (even more than they are now).

5. I'm a worrier. If things are going well I worry that something bad is going to happen to spoil the moment!

6. I live on chocolate. I'm a terrible eater and rush around so much all day that I forget or don't have time to eat so end up getting a quick fix with chocolate. I'm also a really fussy eater and don't experiment at all. I don't want my kids to be like me so have brought them up to try everything (I'm such a hypocrite) and as a result they are really good eaters and like most things.

7. I can't walk in heels. I wish I could. I'd love to feel all grown up and elegant. I grew up by the sea and wore flip flops or espadrille boots (did you have those in the States?) in winter so never learned to walk in heels. I do have wedges but the last time I wore some I fell over - literally flying!! :( across a dance floor so have been on flats ever since. So I guess my no. 7 fact is that I'm a dork!!

Now I have to pass the award on to seven other fabulous people whose creative blogs inspire me. Step forward - you know who you are:

1. Lola B's

2. Funky Junk Interiors

3. Farmgirl Paints

4. Flowerpatch Farmgirl

5. Knock-off Wood

6. The Idea Room

7. The Lettered Cottage

As a recipient of this award you should:-

thank the person who nominated you and copy the Kreative Blogger Logo to your blog

link back to the person who nominated you for the award (moi!)

List seven things people may not know about you

and

nominate seven creative bloggers and post links to their blogs then stop by and comment on each of them

Well done to all the people above who really inspire me and make me glad I have joined blogland - pass it on!!

Thanks again to At Town Square - this was fun Audrey x

New things listed on Etsy for Valentines Day

Last Sunday I was busy all day making wooden blocks and signs for customers and as my paints and sandpaper were already out I thought I'd have a go at making a couple of blocks for Valentines Day. I also thought that they could make unusual Valentines cards as you can write on the back of them and they would then become a decorative and meaningful keepsake.

I just listed them on Etsy - check them out!

The beauty of sea glass

My home is rather dull. I'm not a huge fan of colour. I find bright colours too busy and need a calm home after my always hectic days. My head is always so full of stuff that there's no room for colour. I'm not saying I don't have any colour in my home. I have ivory and red ticking in my kitchen, pale blue in my son's room, raspberry in my daughter's room and little splashes of red here and there (cushions etc) but my walls stay fairly neutral.

I do however, have a passion for green. I absolutely love sea glass.

Whenever I'm on a beach my head is usually bent forward scouring the sand and stones for a jewel. I only keep the green ones. The browns and blues get put back for some other treasure hunter to find. When my children go to the beach they always come back with at least one piece for me. I keep lots of them in a bottle in my bathroom but have others sitting around candles in hurricane lamps and often find loose bits in my bags or coat pockets.

Sea glass is going to be the inspiration for a relaxing, beachy bathroom. Our bathroom is horrible. Really small. Really ugly modern suite. Our priority this year is to save for a holiday but I would also like to redo our bathroom. Old fashioned suite with boat bath. Beadboard ceiling with recessed lights. Beadboard around the walls. Subway tiles. Sea glass coloured walls. I have a beautiful slate photo frame ready to put just above the bath. Hex and dot floor tiles (which don't exist in the UK so if I do manage to save for a holiday I'll be bringing these home in my suitcase). Bleached oak window sill where my sea glass collection will have pride of place. We also have a few jars with sand from beaches we have been to and labelled them with the name of the beach and the year. Free souvenirs.

I have one jar with sea glass I collected from one tiny beach. And what is in this jar is only about one tenth of what I actually got from that beach. Greedy you may say - leave some for other people. Oh no, I earned that glass! I am still traumatised by my journey to get that glass.

It all started when we went to visit my brother, who lives in Majorca, Spain. Majorca is very popular with British tourists and for this reason I have always avoided going there. My image of drunken Brits was impossible to overcome. Anyway, we did visit and were stunned at how beautiful the island is. I mean gorgeous. Keen to avoid the really touristy beaches my husband and I each chose a postcard of a beautiful beach and my brother agreed to help us find them. Off we went to find my husbands beach first. All we had to go by was a cross on a tiny map on the back of the postcard showing the general area of the beach. We did eventually find it after making a few mistakes and finding other equally gorgeous beaches. We had to go through a small gate, through a cactus garden along a cliff then climb down another cliff to get to the beach. The only other two people on the beach were a couple of naked (yes, not a stitch on!) elderly people. Typical, I thought. Trust my husband to choose somewhere so remote!

Oh no!

There was worse to come when it was my turn. It turned out the beach I chose was right at the north of the island and could only be accessed by boat or by a road. The infamous road to Sal Calobra.

The road twists and turns down the highest mountain on the island and goes on for about 12km. At every point you can see miles of road ahead of you and the road is famous for winding up and down and around the mountain so that you can't tell if a bit of road you can see is ahead of you or a bit you have already travelled along. There is only a small curved stone wall stopping you from going over the edge. And EVEN WORSE buses go along the road and you have to squeeze your car up against the little wall for the buses to pass. I didn't know I was capable of squeaking in fear until then! Also at one point the road does a 360 degree turn and you go around in a complete circle and can see a drop in every direction - heaven! NOT!

It took about 40 minutes to get from the top to the bottom and after 30 minutes of nervous laughter my hysteria got the better of me and I started to cry!! Much to the amusement of everyone in the car, which made me worse as I was worried that if my brother was laughing so hard he would lose concentration and we would go over the edge. This only made them laugh more!

Almost there - phew

At the bottom was the tiniest stony beach and it's amazing to think that the road was made for access to such a tiny place.

I did my usual beach combing and sea glass was everywhere! Some German tourists saw what we were doing and joined in then gave me their haul. We half filled a litre coke bottle.

I hope this long winded story goes to explain why I was justified in wiping out an entire beach of it's sea glass and being so selfish. I earned that glass! In case you're wondering going up was just as scary and I cried on the way back too!! I will go back one day but by boat!!

Here are some beautiful images which bring to mind the colour of sea glass or the beach.

All of these pictures, I think, have a really calm feel to them (unlike the ones above!)

Look what Santa (aka my husband) got me for Christmas

When I was researching craft rooms last year I noticed that several people had come up with really good ways of storing their craft products and projects. In my quest to get my craft room/study area organised I came across a lovely metal tiered basket (similar to some that I had seen in other craft rooms) that I really wanted but cost quite a bit so I thought I would wait until after Christmas to see if there was any money left in the pot! I love this basket as I thought it wouldn't take up a lot of room and would force me to try and stick with one craft project at a time instead of having several projects in various stages of completion all over the house (mainly the dining room table). This is one of my many new year resolutions .... along with beating stress (usually caused by me having too many things on the go at once), managing my finances, getting my house organised and finishing the decorating, saving for a holiday to the Pacific Northwest later this year.......



......... I was so surprised to open my presents on Christmas Day and find this basket amongst them. How lucky am I? For once, my husband listened to me and I didn't have to ask for the receipt for any of my presents this year!!