Craft fair!

It is getting close to Christmas and if you are stuck for ideas for presents why not visit Rawlins Craft Fair in Quorn, Leicestershire? I will have a jewellery stall at Rawlins Christmas Craft fair on Sunday 16th November. This will be at Rawlins Community College, Loughborough Road, Quorn, Leicestershire,LE12 8DY.

The fair will run from 10.30am to 4.30pm and will feature over 70 stalls of hand,ade crafts and food, plus refreshments and children's craft corner. Entry is £1 and 50p for concessions.

Last year was a resounding success- especially for families as they had something to entertain young children too. Some of the crafts on sale were beautiful from unique ceramics to custom handbound books.

Fashion frenzy

I took part in an interesting style workshop yesterday with stylist Susanna Kelly. She went through the basics of how to flatter your shape, using accessories to your advantage and the importance of colour. She had a wonderful manner which put everyone at ease, and it was interesting to find out just how many women aren't sure of how to dress with confidence. It was a great opportunity to glean knowledge from one who dresses the stars as well as networking with style conscious women. It helped me get some ideas for jewellery designs so it was very worthwhile.

Website revamp

I have been wanting to redesign my website for a while now and after being inspired by Steve Pavlina (what a motivational writer!) I have got my act together and almost finished. Please feel free to wonder over there and let me know what you think. I will be adding jewellery which can actually be purchased on the site.

I am looking forward to catching up with family and friends over Diwali, so I'd better get a move on and complete as much work as I can to scrounge some leisure time for myself.

New work

I have been pretty busy recently and have been enjoying every minute. New jewellery designs are made using reclaimed silks, wool, gemstones and more. My current popular item are the wrapped bangles which are very bright and unusual. I have used rare salk fibres hoarded over the years (some are offcuts of saris that were adjusted to fit me). Beads and sequins are also reused from fabrics to offset the fibres I use.

My personal favourite is a turquoise bangle covered in silk fibres accented with a jade gemstone and teeny tiny reclaimed glass pendant bead.

Each piece of jewellery is one of a kind and I take commissions to your specifications. My next craft fair will be at Rawlins Community College in November where I will be selling many of these designs.

Butterfly heaven

My garden has attracted an array of butterflies, many of which I have never seen before. I went out with the camera today trying to get some photographs.

Although it was a mission to get close to them I managed to get a couple of shots. I love to see them bask in the sun, the colours of their wings are beautiful. I like the different wildlife that visit my garden (well the non-furry kind lol).

Recycling (my new obsession!)

Over the last few months I have been so busy that I have missed a few bin collections, meaning I have been forced to be very discriminative about what goes in the bin until the eagerly waited next collection. So I have been recycling everything- plastics, tins and glass. I am usually good with glass and tins but plastics can get overlooked. I am lucky enough to have a composting bin and now am meticulous with recycling greens.

So why recycle? UK households created 30.5 million tonnes of waste in 2003/04, and only 17% of that was collected for recycling (stats from defra.gov.uk). There has been a lot of publicity geared towards recycling lately but how well has it worked? It is obvious that there is still a lot of waste which could be recycled that ends up in landfill sites.

Not only is recycling an excellent way of saving energy and conserving the environment it can get you becoming healthier, and save you pennies too. For example I don't eat ready made meals, and rarely get takeout to minimise on packaging. Well okay that isn't really my reason- I don't really like either of them and becoming more green has helped me cut both out. Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled, and around half of waste in the average dustbin could be composted. I was surprised to read that £36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year.

My current bug bear is the way supermarkets pack everything in plastic, and I notice that most vegetables cost MORE when buying loose rather than in those awful plastic bags. I am now trying to buy as much fresh produce locally as possible. Food tastes far yummier when it is homegrown rather than when flown over from Egypt.

Anyway I have found a really cool site which I must tell you about- remarkable.co.uk.
This site sells fun recycled items that are well-designed and made using only UK recycled materials. The company has got it spot on by showing recycled products can be fun and not dull at all. My favourites are the pencils made from CD cases, they are really cool and if I was going to buy any stationery that is where I would go.

Better late than never.

Every time I go away anywhere I have good intentions of recording it by writing a blog/ diary/ taking photographs. Unfortunately the minute I set foot off the plane everything goes out the window.

A good example is my recent trip to Amsterdam where I have some photographs, funnily enough I am not in any of them. I have a slight contempt for posed grinning photographs in front of landmarks. Why are people so desperate to show other people where they've been? I like to categorise photographs due to my secret OCD-like tendencies. I love to organise things and am an avid list maker. Ask me to do an itinerary and I feel like I have won the lottery. Try to take my picture and I will punch you in the face.

Anyway I digress, here is one of my favourite photographs that I took on my most recent escapade. If you want to see more check out my Flickr photos link. I was astonished at the massive number of push bikes in Amsterdam, but the Dutch have it right with the prices of fuel being hiked regularly. My next holiday will be somewhere hot...