Free as a Bird or I will be soon

Gee I haven't posted here since Tuesday, how bad is that?
Well I do have an excuse, been a little busy getting ready for this week-end as I'm hosting my annual Xmas party. Of course then there's the family Xmas lunch that I'll be once again having at my house... well that'll be another post. I've still got to work out the menu, shop and run around again.... Oh fun, Oh joy, Oh Humbug!

I've spent most of this week running around organising food, drinks, jewellery displays, of course I had to enlist the help of my loving husband, who very graciously moved furniture, riffled through the under stair cupboard for folding tables and our camping esky. I hate going it there, its like going underground, dark and mysterious and you never know when a Christmas Tree might lurch up, grab you by the leg and drag you back to its lair, kicking and screaming... uhhh don't mind me, you should have the picture by now!!

I'm starting to wish I had a bigger house. Those that know me will laugh at that, because I already have a big house. Two storey, 3 verandahs, heaps of cupboard space, which always seem to be full. Reminds me of that advertisement on TV, you know the one, where the garage door gets opened and out pours all the bits and pieces stored in there. This morning I got sick of my Tupperware cupboard and had a bit of a purge, now the rubbish bin is overflowing, seems I can't win...

I'll post some pics of my jewellery display when I take the dust sheets off the tables. With the weather as is it here in Brisbane, ie drought conditions, we're now on Level 6 water restrictions, everything gets dusty so quickly. I seem to be forever cleaning.

The pic on this post is one I took at Wivenhoe Dam on the way to Toowoomba. We decided to check out the water levels a few months back and have a family picnic whilst we were out in the country. I always love photographing birds and animals. This little guy I managed to photograph just as he was taking flight. Hopefully in a few days I'll get to be free like him and have a short break. Well here's hoping. Have a great weekend.

Speaking of Pearls

Just realised that I don't have much in the way of Gold Filled earrings so made a few pairs up whilst waiting for Hubby to come home for dinner last night.
These are all around $20 per pair. Ummmm like them all as they are all fairly classic designs, and would look great for any occasion.

What a Pearl

On the weekend I was visiting my mum as it was her birthday. The whole family always gets together to celebrate birthdays. I happened to be looking at all the photographs mum has on display, one in particular I've always loved. The photo is of my beautiful mum Lucy when she was around 19 or 20 years of age and bridesmaid for my Aunt. The dress was made by the Brides sister. I did however forget to ask about the Jewellery she was wearing as I love the look of that long strand of pearls knotted at the throat. Just goes to show that Pearls never really go out of fashion, regardless of what people think. They're classics and will be around, I hope, forever.

Land AHoy...

A few weeks back I was madly sewing costumes for a party, well finally the big night arrived and I must admit to being very excited about getting dressed up just for the fun of it. I wore a hair piece with curls and false black and glittery eyelashes too. The eyelashes alone took me half an hour to fix in place, not an easy feat. I'm definitely getting myself some fold down eye magnifier glasses. Guess I'll be searching Google tomorrow in order to do some shopping...

Our lovely friend Jaclyn whose birthday it was and who is indeed a "Wonder Woman" (check out the photos) underwent a complete heart and lung transplant a couple of years back. That's yours truly on the right.


Anyone know this scary looking guy?
If I were that parrot I would indeed be worried...lol
He (not the parrot, folks) even managed to win best costume and promised to share the bottle of champagne that he won with me; and so he should. I was afterall the brains behind his winning masterpiece...lol


I took this next of shot of the two of us using the timer mechanism on my camera and with the camera attached to a tripod. I don't tend to use the timer and had to look up the instruction manual on how to get it to work. This camera, as much as I love it, has so many functions, that not even I in a whole lifetime will get to know them all off by heart.


More pics coming...

Customer Commission

I just finished this piece which a customer commissioned a little while back.
Her brief was for something pink, but when she looked over my Swarovski stash, it was decided that pink, white and crystal were to be the embellishments.
The fine wire wrapping took me approximately 4 hours, but that was ok, as I occupied myself by listening to the American Music Awards on Fox 8 at the same time.
I really don't mind wrapping wire, its actually rather therapeutic!

My Challenge Winner

You may have notice a little blue and white challenge winner badge over to the right of my blog. Recently I decided to try my hand once again at another challenge on the Australian Beading Forum. The theme was "Masquerade". Great theme. Of course lots of ideas later and a bit of doodling on paper, this mask which I named "Venetia" is what I came up with.

It now also features on my new business cards. I plan to frame the piece in a 3D photo frame too, so I can hang it with my certificates etc from previous competitions.

Medieval Queen

I made the base of this piece a while back, then left it sitting in a box, forgetting all about it whilst I got on with other things.
One of the reasons I put it aside was because my original idea for embellishing it didn't really workout, so I figured inspiration would hit sooner or later.

My idea for a recent Wire work/Chain Maille Beading forum "Medieval" challenge was for a gold headdress littered with gems, Pearls, Rubies, Emeralds and Diamionds, as was popular with Kings and Queens of the day, but in my case I used Swarovski crystals and pearls.

Decided to add the basic chain maille in order to fit the period, not that I've actually been able to find any headpieces of the day with CM dangling in this manner, so it's just my take on a theme. Its worn with the chain down over the forehead sort of like a circlet.

Chained Butterfly

I made this set yesterday morning. I picked the colour scheme from some fabric that I have, which is white, mauve and copper toned. Really happy with the way it turned out, really does make a bit of a statement. The large FW pearls are a deep mauve and I added some white opal AB swaros to add a glint of colour. The Butterfly is Hilltribe Silver, plus I also used up some bits and pieces I had lying around including the chain. Matching earrings complete the piece. For sale on my website.

Copyright or Not

Just recently I had the unfortunate experience of some-one try to copy one of my wire Tiaras.

I spent hours perfecting this particular design, won an award for it and placed highly in another competition for a another model only to find my absolute thrill taken away by a non thinking individual.

That brings me to question copyright laws, I studied these closely. If you happen to see unauthorised pics of my wirework floating around on the net or copies of my work in shops, please let me know. These individuals are probably breaking copyright laws.

Please respect the work of Artists, ask permission before copying anything and if permission is granted, reference the orginal Artist. Play nice.

Izzy Liz Pics

For those of you who know Izzy Liz, my friendly backyead Eastern Water Dragon, she had an accident recently and lost most of her tail.

These pics are for the lovely folk on Aussiepython.com forum who have helped answer some questions for me regarding her recovery.

Thanks very much for all your help guys it is very much appreciated