A bit of Bruce and a bit of beading: The adventures of a Cavachon

My life as a lady of leisure feels so much more complete! Had a bit of a unsettled start to our first night with Bruce. I settled him in his crate at about 11pm, was awoken by him "howling" and whining at 12.....then 1am! He seemed so tired but must have been so lonely without his mum and siblings to snuggle with.

After that he woke me just before my alarm went off at 6.30am. It was so lovely to be greeting with his bright eyed and waggy tail attitiude!

It's been a funny day, had a few visitors, not to see me though........I was just an excuse for my Mum and my neighbour Lesley to get their hands on the fluff ball we now know as Bruce.

We have ordered some more puppy goodies online but it was obvious we need something more for Bruce to chew on, as his favourites at the moment seem to be the pom poms on my slippers. I have taken a large carrot from the fridge as a bit of a deterrent until more puppy toys arrive.

It is lovely to see his confidence growing already, so funny last night when he galloped out of the front room following me, only to realise he had no idea where he was and did a sort of weird backwards bunny hop back into familiarity. Today he has been like my little shadow, sat on my feet whilst I did the washing up and following me from room to room  as I moved around downstairs.

This afternoon my little Bruce curled up at my feet whilst I managed to do a tiny bit more beading.

A ladder stitch wrap bracelet with Tila Beads. Almost finished now.

Fingers crossed Bruce will be a good boy after his visit to the Vets tonight and I may even be able to complete my bracelet later! 

Bye for now!

Adele

xXx

Meet Bruce!

Our nine week old Cavachon puppy.

We picked him up this morning and I was very impressed by his behaviour in the car on the way home. He has used the paper several times, and also had a few near misses. He goes from bouts of madness as he explores his new home then just seems to drop off for a nap. He seems to love games and snuggles and although he is use to being in a crate with his mum and siblings, I think I am in for a long, sleepless night tonight.

A very beady addiction!

Yeah, finished!

Quite pleased with it and I am eager to start something new.

Wrap bracelet with Miyuki Magatama and Drop beads

On my beading board today I have started another wrap bracelet, I got the idea from here  but mine doesn't look anything like it! I did add an extra bead type and rather than a complete random order of beads, I have followed a repeated pattern.

Again, I am not sure of my work and it's all going to be trial and error for a while until I decide what type of styles and techniques I like best.

Not quite finished but I thought I'd take a few photographs before I lost the light.

Going to get back to my beads, my cuppa tea and carrot cake now.

Bye for now.

Adele

xXx

Czech Mate and Super Duo Bracelet!

Yeah, FINISHED!
I managed to complete this last night...I had to make some alterations to the pattern I used to suit the toggle clasp. Not perfect but happy with my first attempt.

note to self MUST BUY NEEDLE THREADER THINGS!

.....and perhaps a few more beads! A girl (or old woman in my case) can never have too many beads!

Right, what next?

On my bead mat today!!!

 I promised myself that today I would actually make some time and use some of the scrummy, new beads I am....errr...."collecting!" Problem was that I took so long dithering around as which ones to use and what to make!

Eventually I decided to make a bracelet using some colours other than the turquoise, teal, green tones that I seem to be obsessed with at the moment.

As you can see, I have not completed it yet. I have never done any real bead work, only a few Shamballa bracelets and a few Ladder-stitch wrap bracelets and as I was starting this, I must admit I wondered if I would ever get to grips with the pattern. Being left handed I struggled to follow the diagrams and kept turning the work over.

It didn't take long before I wasn't needing to follow the pattern at all so I was quite pleased with my first, simple bracelet.

I am still not sure about the colours.

Beady Retail Therapy!

STILL full of flu, still seriously lacking sleep but my mood was lightened when MR Postie arrived today with one or two new beads!

OH MY!!!!

Such pretties, which are your favourites?

Beads galore!

Still full of flu! Got a very heavy head this morning, not helped my the fact that poor Chris had another 3am start. At least I was lucky enough to go back to bed and dose for a while!

Still, another day curled up with the cat, Olbas Oil and some beads! Can't complain!

Here is another pic of the earrings I made earlier this week, the lighting wasn't great on the original photographs. LOVE these, will definitely be make some more like this.

Tuesday I made a very simple necklace. It came in a kit but I added a few different gemstone chips and beads to give me enough "spares" to make a bracelet to match. I didn't think the length of this was great for me, I do like a longer necklace, but it was lovely to make, I'll certainly make more of these too.

Here are a couple of the Kumihimo braids I have made. The silver one is made with satin cord and the larger turquoise is leather. I am still trying to figure out the measurements for these to avoid wasting to much stringing materials.

I have finished re-beading my bracelet.....

 ....and here is my next little project. I am sort of making it up as I go along 

so I am prepared for mistakes!

Can you spot a colour theme going on here? LOL 

I obviously need to buy MORE beads in different colours.

Bye for now.

Adele

 xXx

Superduo bead earrings, a first attempt

I am feeling a bit sorry for myself today. I have had a lovely Birthday Weekend but the Monday blues certainly hit hard this morning. I am full of flu!!!!

In an attempt to cheer myself up I played with some of my new beady stash this afternoon.

I ended up making a pair of earrings using my scrummy Super-duo beads. They are far from perfect but as a first attempt, I am quite pleased with them!

I used the tutorial from Linda

I feel this beading lark could be quite contagious! 

What next????

Adele

xXx

Easing myself back into crafting with Jewellery disasters.

VERY SLOWLY!

I have been a lady of leisure now for a few weeks but having Half Term last week sort of threw me off track a bit. My blitzing, cleaning and de-cluttering has slowed down a tad but I am pleased that the areas I have done, I am maintaining and adding a few new areas to my list each week.

The area surround me on the sofa is certainly not a clutter free zone as I am surrounded by boxes of beads and a large cardboard box of books, DVDs and games which are next on my list to sort.

Right, let's get creative!!! OR NOT!

My feeble attempts at creativity have done a huge belly flop and I was tempted to pack all my beady stuff back in my craft room and bolt the door. Here is how it's going!

Now back at the beginning of the month an inspiration challenge was posted over at Crafts by Carolyn's using this pic start with. I am not a purple person but using the braid theme I stole a friendship bracelet kit from Amelia and set to work.

I had never tried Kumihimo before so it was a good reason to try it out.

Progress was quite slow as I was only using the embroidery silks provided in the kit which was aimed at children. I was please with what I had done but I have left it unfinished as it wasn't really to my taste and I was keen to try other things!

SO, next I tried Satin Rat tail. I scoured the internet trying to find out how long to cut the lengths to for a bracelet. Eventually I found somewhere that suggested you take the length of the required bracelet, double it and add 12 inches. I went for it! 

Loved how quickly this braid work up and was really excited, yes, I know it's sad!

Once finished I was disappointed that the braid was too fat to fit into the super cool magnetic clasp which was 6.2mm! Arghh! I was not disheartened and put it all down to inexperience and trial and error. Upon saying that I looked at the braid and noticed how much it stretched, so much in fact that the length was  no longer suitable for a bracelet for myself! I am glad I put this to the test but don't know how to get around the issue.

Yesterday I decided to re-bead a wrap bracelet I made a few years ago. I had only used  embroidery silk to bead it and it had broken. With my newly arrived beady supplies I set to work. Love these colours and once again I felt like a kid in a candy shop.

Until 3/4 of the way through, snap! The Superlon Bead cord broke! ARGH!

What to do next? I want to make jewellery that will withstand good wear and tear not stretch out of shape or snap! HELP PLEASE!!!!