Shopping fun!

Evening all!

I've just purchased some last minute advertising on ownthehour.com. Since I am a bit stupid when it comes to timezones, I'm not exactly sure which hours I have gone for, but I've popped up my most fantastical Christmassy things, my Spangly Stocking Stuffers, and hope to get a few days before the end of December 5th, the final posting day for UK-America!!

I went shopping today in Swindon, at the Outlet Centre, and I went a bit loopy! My lovely nan bought me some fabulous leather boots for Christmas with a great heel and in a lovely burgundy colour, they are really the best bots ever, my old ones were getting really ratty after three years!! I also bought my little guy some awesome toys from Hamleys, the best toy store in the world. They sell bottles of bubbles 50cm high with a massive, million-bubble wand, and I love seeing Ramseys eyes lighting up when a stream of bubbles hit him. I also got the biggest pack of card from The Paper Mill, You get this box, and you get to fill it with paper and card. From a massive selection of sheeny, shiny, lineny, matt, thin, thick, mulberry, corrugated paper and card! I got a pack full of brightly coloured cardboard for my packaging over the next year! I'm planning two different colours every season up till next Christmas, when I will use the lovely silver and sheeny navy card. What a fun day!

Now, I am sitting up at 9.20pm on a very old laptop watching I'm a celebrity. The parents have gone to bed, the baby is in bed and I'm pretty bored. I may continue trying to read The Catcher In The Rye again but it's pretty hard going!

Shrink Plastic Joy & Busy, Tired Times

Here I am at work on Saturday, basically the only time in the week when I have the time to post a full blog entry.

First, BIG twinklyspangle news! You will no longer be able to access my blog through http://www.twinklyspangle.com/ or http://www.twinklyspangle.co.uk/ instead these sites now lead to the draft version of my new website. The website will be ready to fully launch on September 1st 2008. Until then you'll probably see a variety of old and new goodies as we get things working, test things out and generally start trying to work through getting jewellery up there for sale. Meanwhile, you can still carry on purchasing lovely, delicate jewellery at my two shops:

• http://keepsakekatie.etsy.com/


• http://twinklyspangle.folksy.com/

I have been working on a new range of shrink plastic jewellery recently. One of the problems with shrink plastic is that it can look a little tacky and cheap. Now, I know I'm no fine jewellery artisan, but I do like to think that my designs mean you can wear plastic kitschyness with a little bit of class. So, shrink plastic was a difficult medium for me to tackle. I'll be launching a new range of rock, colourful bracelets and necklaces in my shops this week, but for now, here is a sneaky peak at the kind of thing I have been creating:

What do you think? The connector charm is coloured in watercolour pencil using my own, swirly, colour mixing designs. Then layers and layers of clear glossy varnish are applied, drying between coats to present a clear, glassy finish. They look pretty delectable, and I can't wait to start listing my fab new pieces. I've been wearing mine all the time, and I bet you will to!

Sadly, I am currently sans photographic equipment due to small accident involving my camera and a very destructive little fellow. My son loves anything with buttons and dials, and screens. He practically climbed up on the table to get it, and promptly knocked it on the floor. Cue much screaming. He was pretty sad too, although I consoled him before looking at the damage. One smashed lens, one broken flash and a pretty pissed off Mummy. I will be buying a new camera on Friday, so that will be fab listing day. I will probably run a little sale of some kind on some less recent designs, I'm trying to clear out my massive pile of jewellery making supplies, and I have a bunch of stuff I have only been able to create once, so a truckload of unique pieces will be appearing on Folksy soon - keep your eyes peeled!

I think that's it for today, I'm off to try and keep my eyes open whilst slumped over my desk at work.

Let me know what you think of my latest pieces, the state of the world, your boyfriends new haircut, or anything you like, really, using the 'comments' option.

Newest Earrings & A Fab New Design!

I took some gorgeous photos of my newest earrings yesterday, the colours look amazing, the new camera is working out really well. (Thanks Dad!)

So I've listed those, and a new bracelet I created. Now this is something special, I think. I adore the colour combination, the look of the bracelet and it's general jangliness! It used about 100 charms beads and buttons, and I'm really having to resist wearing it, because it's so fab! It's up for sale on Etsy, and I have had loads of lovely comments about it. Let me know what you think!

Lee came back last night with a whole bunch of stuff for me to make more fab jewellery with. He already bought me these beads;

Which I have made some snazzy bracelets with, but the stuff he bought me yesterday was immense; giant heart and kitschy diamond charms, gorgeous ribbons, raspberries and butterflies, and loads of faux pearls and enamelled heart embellishments. I can't wait to start creating with them!

Gastro-Entroritis

You know this is going to be a glamorous entry with a title like that, eh?

Well, me and my little guy have both been struck down with a nasty tummy bug, there's nothing like throwing up over the side of the bed at 5 in the morning to really get those creative juices flowing.

I got a cool package from my parents this morning though, packed full of beads and a new digital camera! Well, it's not new, but it's their old one, and it's new to me. So I am going to spend tomorrow taking new pics of all of my jewellery and relisting them on Etsy.

I have made two funky new bracelets and a new ring, although the ring is based on a prototype I made a few weeks ago that sold without 3 minutes of being listed!

I have also spend three hours this evening attaching charms and beads to a stretchy bracelet. It's my wackiest design yet, all in shades of red and blue, and I can't wait to take photos of it tomorrow and get it listed. Hopefully this bug will have cleared up by then too.