Happy 4th Birthday!

I almost missed my blog birthday again!

I feel like a very neglectful blog mother.

It's not that I don't love my first born (the blog, I'm not actually neglecting any human children), it's just that I seem to have acquired a whole brood and it's hard to devote enough quality time to all of them at the moment.

They are all latchkey kids by necessity right now, which I try (and often fail) not to feel guilty about, which is crazy... as I'm under no obligation to look after them at all, but my first born, well she's special - and she is a she for some reason.

So baby, Happy 4th Birthday, you're always in my thoughts even if I don't make it home in time to write you a bedtime story these days.

Help me share the guilt...

What would you love to devote more time to that you're not at the moment?

Happy 3rd Birthday Curling Stones for Lego People!!

It's been birthdays all round this month; it was only last Sunday that I had this delicious cappuccino cupcake to help celebrate Oresome Gallery's 4th Birthday, and it suddenly dawned on me that a certain blog had been going for nearly 3 years!!

Roll forward one week and yes my hazy memory had served me right, however no time to bake a cake as I've been away on the bus this weekend... I did, however, manage to squeeze a little big pastry on board at the last minute...

Eagle eyed readers might notice that there were actually two of these lovely custardy, chocolate thingies (I have no idea what they were, but they were very nice) and, yes, I did share.

Whilst the night was dark, a bit windy, with lashings and lashings of rain in the early hours, we did at least wake up to a nice sunny day

Time to come home and just in case you were missing out on some birthday bead photos, I've saved something VERY special to show you for such an occasion...

A sneak peek* at my all time favourite set of silver beads from Trollbeads... yes, this is an entire set of the Limited Edition Silver China Beads from 2009, and they're mine!  I've paired them here with my turquoise and striped turquoise agate sets which is how I'm currently wearing them.  Still pinching myself that I'm not dreaming this and I have actually found and acquired the full set.

I will no doubt write about these in more detail at some point; but as it's my Blog Birthday I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day with my feet up looking at the pretties on my wrist.

Happy Birthday

Curling Stones for Lego People

Thanks to everyone who helps to make this such a pleasure,

it's always lovely chatting, at events, via email, private message,

forums, directly on here or any other way I meet you...

Enjoy Your Day!

*okay if you were paying attention I had shown you a side shot earlier this month... this is my sneak peek front/bracelet shot... now I'm wondering how many sneak peeks I can do before they are no longer sneak, or a peek? Answers in the comments...

Happy 2nd Birthday to Curling Stones for Lego People!!

Curling Stones for Lego People has reached it's 2nd anniversary of being in existance and I can't believe how much the blog has grown since last year, let alone this day 2 years ago!

Blooming Sunflowers from my trip down South earlier this month

In the last year I've collected some of my long term wishlist beads (and ones I thought I'd never have), I've had the pleasure of live blogging a Fashion Show with a lovely group of bloggers, met and worked with some amazing jewellery makers & retailers, completed the AtoZ challenge, pimped my bead box, attended my first blogger meet, finally stopped buying jewellery long enough to replace my boilers (yippee and boo all at the same time) and worked to showcase some great new brands whose jewellery just happened to fall into my shopping trolley... oh yeah and in case you were snoozing yesterday, I also bought a bus!

Sunset from the Bus

As you're reading this, I've actually headed off to experience another sunset on the bus, complete with my bus bracelet from yesterday and the number of the breakdown firm!

So raise a glass, a mug or a bottle of water and see you on the other side for the start of Year 3!

What are you most pleased about from the last 12 months,

stop by a while, share a tale or two and spread some joy around!

Birthday Penguin from the Christmas Collection 2012

When Trollbeads released pictures of the Christmas Collection 2012 and it contained a penguin bead I knew then that it was destined to find me as a birthday present from my live-in geek.

I can't even remember when or where the penguin theme came from, just that there has always been one. 

A friend of ours who works with animals sent us some photos of baby penguins that were being reared and we later went to meet one of these babies when he was all grown up.  

Live-in geek was very happy and I had to double check the car before we left just to make sure he hadn't snuck Murphy in the boot!  

It's continued over the years and we often get penguin related presents, not ones for big Christmas decorations we have a tree ornament that's a metal winter penguin that hangs from a window handle all year long... and now is a good time to also confess my love of fairy lights; but that happens all year round, fairy lights are not just for Christmas you know!

  

Sure enough come my birthday we welcomed another penguin into the family.  This silver bead depicting a Penguin and her Baby is beautifully detailed as you can see above, even down to the detailing on the feet shown above right.  

What I particularly like is that the hole for the bracelet has been designed in a sympathetic way to the two penguins so it looks more like a gap between them than a hole.  This does mean the bead sits a little lower on the bracelet at the bottom which may bother those who crave a bit more symmetry on their bracelets, me? I like quirky!