Two Mermaids

I haven't blogged in aaaages but I have good reason, I've been busy getting to grips with social networking and setting up an Etsy shop! I've dabbled in making jewellery as a hobby for a long time and this year I've decided that it's time to try and properly make an effort to make a dream come true by making this a real venture. So, the sky's the limit, if I don't try I'll spend the rest of my life regretting it, I also wanted to show my little girl that you can live a dream doing what you love doing if you try, so here we go!

I've named my shop Two Mermaids, after my daughter and I, it sums up our love of designing and making jewellery together and our love of the seaside particularly at beautiful St Ives.

You can find us at the following:

Two Mermaids Facebook page

Search for me on Twitter as twomermaids@twomermaidscafe

Two Mermaids Etsy shop

Please follow, favourite, share and whatever else you can think of to help us get off to a good start! Who knows, I may be able to give up the day job one day. Thank you for sticking with me through the quiet times x

Challenge of Colour Blog Hop 3

Today is the 3rd Annual Challenge of Colour Blog Hop hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz and Brandi Hussey. Always an exciting challenge to take part in and this one is the best yet.

Erin chose two colour palettes for me and I was feeling brave so I decided to use both of them!

The first one is called Demini River and includes beautiful greens and purples.

I chose to make a bracelet with some gorgeous peridot chips, Czech fire polished crystals, more crystals and a lovely green glass bead made by Ray Skene of Celtic Glass.

The second colour palette is called North America. This palette has earthy amber and brown colours.

I've made another bracelet with black crystals, carnelian chips, black agate ring beads and the most beautiful large facetted carnelian beads.

I really enjoyed this challenge, thanks to both Erin and Brandi for being fabulous hosts. Make sure to check out the rest of the participants, you can find the whole list by linking to Erin's reveal post at Tesori Trovati blog here.

Postcards from the past

Whilst we were out for the weekend, I spotted a vintage postcard fair so we decided to have a quick look. Not really something that floats my boat but then I found some postcards of St Ives (favourite place in the whole world!)

I was amazed to see that despite the postcards dating from at least 60 years ago, not much has really changed. Then I started to read the backs....an interesting insight into life from times gone by but one thing in common with the present day, everyone loves St Ives! I loved the thought of getting a snapshot into someone's life and wondering what the rest of it was like.

I can understand why this is such a popular collecting pastime, in years to come, there will be few postcards for later generations to see, our generation will leave a legacy of Facebook posts, emails and tweets - quite sad really. It's really important for the handmade market to thrive - keeping old traditions alive in a time of mass production and I'm proud to be part of that.

Find April

Little April Jones, aged 5, was abducted from outside her home on Monday night, the support across the UK has been phenomenal. People have come from all over the country to join search parties looking for her and the momentum is huge. A man was arrested 24 hours after and whilst he is in custody being interviewed, she has still not been found.

April's mum has asked for everyone to wear pink ribbons to show that their thoughts are with April, her favourite colour is pink for a little princess.

The whole country is waiting with bated breath to hear that she has been found.

The latest news is here.

As a mother of a little girl, I can't imagine what the family must be going through, I can't put it into words. I can only hope and pray for April to be returned home safe and sound, and my daughter and I can wear our ribbons to show we are thinking of April every minute.

Girly Gothic

I've been planning to make something with the rose quartz skull beads I've been coveting for almost two years and have finally made a necklace with one of them! The skull beads come from Buffy's Beads at Carnaby Street, London. Buffy's supply great gemstone beads and I loved the skull beads as soon as I saw them and have never seen anything like them again.

For this necklace, I've taken inspiration from the designer Rosantica who make beautiful long gemstone necklaces, as seen on Net a Porter

I've designed a very long necklace so taking a picture of the whole piece was a bit tricky...

I'm off to make some earrings now, I'm enjoying having some creative time...finally!

I hope you're having a great weekend too!

Even the longest day...

I'm sad, sad and miserable today, it's been one of those days when you wish you could have stayed at home all day. One of those days when I wish I could make jewellery instead of having to go to work...sooo, I'm posting pictures of my favourite things to cheer me up...

My beautiful girl enjoying herself at our favourite place in the whole world!

The cutest kitten..having a rest!

My favourite piece of my own jewellery...this year so far!

My favourite wine in my favourite place!

Ok, feeling better now!

Tomorrow can only be an improvement....!

New beads from The Beads Nest

I've been caught up in buying rather than making lately, which is perhaps not good when you look at your bank statement afterwards :-)

I bought some gorgeous beads at The Beads Nest in Cardiff. The ladies at Beads Nest are always friendly and helpful, they have recently moved to bigger premises a few doors away and that can only be good for everyone!

I'm feeling unusually organised and have started planning for Christmas presents and parties already. In fact, I knoooow I should have bought some of the huge jewel coloured pearls, perhaps I will visit again next week...

Having checked out the latest trends, I'm going for red and black. I'm especially loving these resin coated stars, awesome for children's Christmas jewellery.

I also bought some beads which reminded me of summer, still not quite ready to say goodbye to summer after spending a week in St Ives very recently.

These orange beads are so not me but they were so bright and sparkly I decided to try something new. I'm thinking they will look great paired with the blue beads.

Also, some purple jewel coloured crystals of which the picture doesn't do justice unfortunately.

If you're ever in Cardiff, make sure to visit the Beads Nest for their great selection and helpful friendly service - you don't often get the two hand in hand unfortunately!

Hope you're having a great weekend!