My Crazy Life... All the B's!

Life on in with Mars can always be a little chaotic but these last few months have been more so than usual...

Being a Secret Santa

This week I've been a Secret Santa - well once I found a pineapple (it's a cocktail thing) and as my partner lived nearby I turned up in person complete with a Santa Hat with bells on, well once I'd found out where she'd moved to... I did say it was chaotic didn't I?  So glad she was in; I could never have got that pineapple through the letterbox!

My Secret Santa lives in France, and after a chaotic week at work (hunting pineapples in strange cities before meetings), it was just the best thing to sit down and open a whole host of very carefully selected goodies - my partner knows me so well!

I am in love with how France Italy* packs it's Trollbeads, it was the most beautiful packaging and such a lovely gift unwrapping experience...

Italy just has the coolest Trollbeads packaging...

Lucky spoilt me received the recent glass Halloween Bead - Trick or Treat, and the new Love Dragon which is clutching a little heart.  I love asymmetric beads, so the dragon has found a very happy home here with me and I can't wait to incorporate the glass onto a bracelet for next year.

*although my Secret Santa lives in France, she shared with me that she bought my beads in Italy and it's their fabulous packaging; so my apologies to the Italian retailers... it's your packaging that ROCKS!!

Bead Buying Bonanza

I've been very naughty with my bead buying, I think I lost sight of my budget at the back end of the Summer - I've actually forgotten what I've told you all about and what I haven't!

There was a glut of artisan beads, both glass and silver, from some of my favourite designers and some newly discovered artists too.  Brand wise there's been Elfbeads, X Jewellery, Story, the fabulous new Black Friday beads from Trollbeads (Midnight Brilliance) and quite a few preloved Trollbeads stones and the odd chain thrown in for good measure.

Some of the new beads that have made it onto a bangle!

The downside to all of the chaos is that I've had very little time for bead play, so I have a ridiculous amount of lovelies just sat waiting to be made into bracelets and put onto bangles.  Apparently it's not just me as I have a few friends who are in the same position - although I am partly to blame in one case...

Bead Making Bonanza

...because I've been making too many beads that have found their way into her hands.

I'm really enjoying playing with glass; currently I'm learning how to finish my beads by manually lining them with silver tubing in one solid core, rather than gluing in two end caps.  

I can be a bit shy with showing my beads, but I really love the photo I took of this bead using a new bit of photography kit - here it is before I put the silver core in...

I think I actually held my breath when I cored this one, as it was one of my favourites out of the last big batch of beads I made.  Erm, I must confess I've lost a few beads along the way whilst I'm practising.

Blogging

I'm away with work and quite busy in general at the moment, so poor old Curling Stones for Lego People is having to take a bit of a backseat at the moment.  So please know it's not a lack of interest on my part, as I love writing and chatting with you all - it's just that my daily life is getting a little too chaotic to keep to a regular writing schedule at the moment... but there will always be something to read at least once a month!  Even if that is how busy I am!

Would you like to know more about my journey with making beads?

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

I'm having a Victor Meldrew moment here... a glorious 5 days of feeling much better after Lurgy 1.0 finally gave up defeated after our epic month long battle, and then I went down with Lurgy 2.0 on Friday...

An unexpected visitor who came to see
what I was up to last week... I think he heard about
my new Redbalifrog Lock!

So far it appears to be a faster, quicker version so I'm hoping it's also a shorter version and that I might be sane & healthy by the weekend.  I really don't fancy another 4 week stint - I have plans and a life to get back to!

As a result of Lurgy 1.0 I indulged in my Redbalifrog Wishlist starting with the Dragon Lock that's been at the VERY top of my lock wishlist for years.  This was shortly followed by the Frog Lock from the 2014 Me'Lange Collection and two of the charms from the Myths and Legends Collection that debuted earlier this year: Book of Spells and Cyclops Skull.  Which you might notice is doing a headstand for the photo, bear with me, it's been one of those weeks!

Look what happens when you're stuck at home ill!

In the background you can see I'm catching up with my rubber links from X Jewellery, the not so new but gorgeous Khaki colour, with more on the way now I've seen the colour in person!

I also wanted to show you what's been on my wrist this last week or two, a slightly belated delivery of beads that have gone straight from parcel to bangle.

Scott Bouwens Glass Beads

Two gorgeously deep red and black beads from Scott Bouwens - if the name sounds familiar to Trollbeads fans, Scott was the designer of the Rocky Beach Kit!

These weren't the only beads that arrived, nor my only Scott beads... but it's time to have another Lemsip and I'm flagging a bit.. so I'll leave you with just these for  now!

What new things are you looking forward to?

Trollbeads Newport aka Jeffries Jewellers Event Saturday 21st March 2015

I seem to be developing a habit of being fashionably late with event posts at the moment... however this is the last one, so definitely a case of last but not least!

Invitation from Trollbeads Newport

This was an event I'd been looking forward to for several months, way before I even knew what the Trollbeads Easter 2015 Release would be - back then like many others I thought it would be another variation on bunnies & eggs, so I was far more focused on the trollbeads community side than the actual beads.

Trollbeads Bag owned by a lovely collector,
please can we have some of this in the UK?

I've been writing about Trollbeads Newport aka Jeffries Jewellers for a while now, they were brought to my attention by another collector who was singing their praises and I've featured them a few times since... I've always been impressed by the lengths they go to for their customers and my dealings with them have always been exemplary.

Trollbeads Easter Collection 2015
Photo credit: Trollbeads Stock Photo

So, given that the Easter Release was finally revealed as Dragon themed and I was going to Wales to buy Dragons and meet people I've "known" for a long time but I've never met in real life; I was super excited!

There was only one snag... the dreaded Bead Budget, now I had been saving up for this trip as I knew Jeffries would have some special deals, and I *really* like dragons, so I had set aside quite a stash so I could plunder the booty - actually I'm quite well behaved so read "plunder the booty" as "legitimately buy in a legal sense some pretty beads".

However, I also really like my Bus... and she was misbehaving at the MOT station at the time and with plans for the Summer I had to divert the majority of my stash to steer my ship, er, I mean, my bus!  So with reduced budget, but enough money to make the trip itself, I set sail for Wales! In the car.  As the bus was in the garage.  Do keep up!

Pirate Cake

I have to say upfront that I have very few photos from the day itself, when I arrived, super early I thought, the shop was already heaving with customers... apparently they had been queueing outside for half an hour before the shop was due to open!!

Serious business of choosing beads by a collector

So after a chaotic start, I kid ye not, I had to fight my way to the till!  I was able to choose my own beads, take part in the Lucky Dip, pick up a unique and also received my half (lock and silver) of the Good Luck starter bracelet from a Trollbead friend - despite my lowered budget I did come away with quite a haul!

My treasure from the day!

My bracelet was free as part of one of the many promotional offers that Jeffries were running that day as I had bought the Dragon lock from the Easter Collection - buy a lock get a bracelet free.  I also picked up the lovely little Dragon as I had to choose between this and the egg due to budget constraints.

My second lock and silver were from the Good Luck Starter Bracelet that I had split with a friend earlier that month, (pre MOT) but we decided it would be fun to try and meet up to exchange rather than do by post, so glad we did!

Some of the booty... aka the Lucky Dip!

I picked up a black armadillo bead in the Lucky Dip (free Lucky Dip bead with any purchase) and bought a rather nice peacock unique... I'd no intention of buying anything other than what was on my list, but I'd wanted a second peacock bead for a while and this was such a nice example!

Tea anyone?

There was time for tea and lots of chatting, and of course we managed to get in a wrist shot or two, I did mean to borrow some photos from the day, as others were far more efficient at photographing the event, even bloggers sometimes have an off day ;)

Wrist Shot!!

After all that shopping we nipped out for a spot of lunch and managed to catch the Rugby game which the rest of the pub had come out to watch, the group got split up for lunch but this gave me a chance to catch up with Kay, who I've known for years but only "met" in person at Cambridge and ditto Tracy who I was "meeting" in person for the first time, as Tracy and I keep missing each other at previous events (sometimes by minutes) so it was really nice to get the timing right this year!

Time for cake!

Back at the shop it was time for a bit of last minute shopping for some, browsing the beads whilst it had got a bit quieter and of course, it was time for cake and fizz!

I said my goodbyes and ran to catch the train from Newport Station, yes, yes, I drove to Wales, but then got a lift to Newport and the train back... I think I was seeing just how many forms of transport I could shoehorn into one blog post!

I had a fabulous short weekend in Wales, many thanks to Jeffries Jewellers for hosting the event and in particular Liz for all her fab organisation, and of course Scott for opening up early!

Lastly thank you to all the lovely Trollbeads aficionados who were there on the day, it was so nice to meet so many of you and I really enjoyed chatting with you all, especially all the Forum friends from Trollbeads Gallery... so much so, I forgot to take photos for the blog!

I'm curious, is it just me who gets carried away when I'm enjoying myself?

What have you enjoyed so much that you forgot to do the obvious?!

Eske Storm Dragon Claw for Sue

In the past the posts that have marked the 100s have seen me looking at the links between jewellery and something more meaningful than just the "ooh shiny" part of enjoying jewellery.  I've decided to carry on the tradition for Post No. 300.

Back in 1992, I bumped into my Uncle who, being only 4 years older than me and growing up only a few doors down, has always been more like an older brother to me than a uncle.

I was really taken with the lady he was sat next to.  Spiky blond hair, nails you could cut steak with and she was wearing the most incredible silver jewellery.  

Yes, my ooh shiny habit has been with me for many years!

Sue was sassy, warm, interesting, had a twinkle in her eye and a beautiful Welsh accent.

When she went to the ladies, I leant to one side and in a conspiratorial whisper said "I really like your new girlfriend" shortly followed by "Whatever you do, do not let this one go!".  They had such a spark between them.

What I didn't know, is that they weren't a couple, they had literally just met.

I *really* didn't believe this, as if Disney had drawn animations around them - it would have been all cupids shooting arrows, animals bounding around and big hearts appearing like bubbles.  I've never actually seen two people fall in love in quite such glorious technicolour.

Over the years we've often spoken about that night and told that story because I was *so* disbelieving that they weren't already a couple.

From that point on they became inseparable and spent a very fantastic 22 years together, travelling, emigrating, travelling and generally just being there for each other.  I'd always described them to friends who'd not met them, as... if the world were to fall apart, and they were the last two humans on the planet, as long as they had each other they would be fine.

And then the world did fall apart, only they weren't the last two humans left.  Sadly Sue died very unexpectedly last October and left the rest of us behind in shock.

In the days that followed we spent a lot of time catching up in the UK; we talked about life back then, now and in the future and I was asked to choose myself a piece of jewellery in memory of Sue.

I've been thinking long and hard about this gift.  The plan was to buy a bead, however I couldn't quite find anything that really spoke to me enough with regard to Sue - plus I change my bracelets around quite often and didn't want something to be sitting in my jewellery box between bracelets.

Finally I turned away from the bigger brands and went back to more artisan designers and decided on a piece by Eske Storm.  The female dragon claw was a perfect fit for what I was looking for.

I'm currently wearing this on a Trollbeads Leather Necklace but expect to see this appear on bracelets and bangles in the future!

My Eske Storm Dragon Claw for Sue

My gift covered more than just the claw... I wasn't sure what to do with the rest until I saw Ohm's Rawr release, Sue will now also be remembered by helping to fund some dinosaur skulls in silver... Given that she once bought an actual human glass eye as a ring... I think she would have approved of my choices.

Have you ever bought jewellery in memory of someone?
How did you choose what to pick?

Elfbeads - A Sensational Launch Offer!

Elfbeads really started to gain momentum in 2014 and it the was the launch of the brand in the US at Great Lakes when I finally decided to join in with all the fun.

Elfbeads bracelet & lock (view is of the bottom of the lock)

4 beads duly ordered to qualify for the amazing promotional offer of a free bracelet, lock and Limited Edition Dragon bead and I was away.

Double helpings of Midnight Flames and Stardust Dunes were ordered and these have already featured in my Spirit in the Sky Bracelet and complementary bangle last month.  However what you won't have seen yet is the middle bead below which was a gift from Great Lakes due to a longer than originally anticipated wait for the order.

My first 4 Elbeads with an unexpected free bead!

I really didn't mind waiting as both Great Lakes and Elfbeads had been very clear that if they opened up the promotion to those online (originally it was only ever intended to be an in store promotion) then the wait could be very long indeed as they promised they would honour all online orders by making extra beads, dragons, chains and locks, no matter how long it took... given how popular the promotion was I'm surprised they managed to meet all the demand before Christmas!  Do you think they actually had to employ real Elves to achieve this?

Midnight Flames and Stardust Dunes in use on my Spirit in the Sky Bangle and complementary bangle.

I don't have many navy beads (they are nearly all on this bracelet and bangle) so it was quite unusual for me to start with the blues, but I adore the Elfbeads blue beads.

My favourite use of them so far is in this Bracelet that was put together by Victoria over at Endangered Trolls using Alex Cramariuc's Octopus.  I foresee there may be a few more blue bracelets in my future, and hopefully some of Alex's fabulous work too!

So what about the Dragon?  Well as you know if you've read Curling Stones for any length of time, or followed my A to Z series, I'm rather fond of  Dragons, so a dragon in glass curled around a bead as a body was definitely going to be a hard one to resist.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my lovely glass dragon, now called Idris, but I never worry about where beads will ultimately end up... it generally all works out in the end!

Finally the lock and bracelet in more detail.

The Elfbeads system is similar to my Karma bracelet in that you have a hinged lock that closes around the bracelet end, but different in that the bracelet is completely free of the lock (like other modular jewellery systems) so that it's completely interchangeable with different locks, or will be once Elfbeads move on to their next design.

Elfbeads bracelet - beads are loaded on the smaller end and the cap at the larger end stops them falling off.

There is 1 lock design currently, the Elfbeads Treasure Chest.  Mine is clearly in silver... but this has also seen a version in Gold that debuted at the Great Lakes launch.

The lock also has two separate sides to open, the trick is to remember which end the beads come off so you don't open that one first!! (A common issue for charm enthusiasts)

Elfbeads Bracelet and Treasure Chest Silver Lock

There are 2 different ends to the bracelet, the smaller one is where you load your beads on and the larger one stops your beads falling off.

Elfbead bracelet ends in detail

What makes this bracelet and lock system interesting is that the lock completely sits on the bracelet as a bead in it's own right.  I'm really looking forward to what lock they make next!

I'm hoping they'll make some stoppers as well... and I've definitely got my eye on some of their silver beads... but one thing at a time!

Have you discovered Elfbeads?

What do you think - have you indulged, want to, or will you pass?