Breast Cancer Awareness Month

While reading through Bust Magazines Blog I saw this cheeky little reminder for getting the ladies to check their boobs. Such an important message and done in a way that made me chuckle, so I thought I had to share it ;)

Such a Girl...

I've had an evening of utter girliness tonight and it has been spent mostly watching cats do silly things, lions behave like kittens and looking at pics of cute kittehs and lolcats.

In the spirit of generosity, I thought 'I know, I need to share these little kittehs while the blogoverse' :)

I hope you enjoy the vids and links: -
From I can haz Cheezburger:

Kitteh Yoga



One of my favourite girly, fluffy kitteh blogs
The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

For hysterically true tales of owning a mad cat there can only be Simons Cat

And some handy tips to assist you in finding out if your cat is plotting to killing you

And the short vid that had me weeping quietly to myself and almost wanting my own pet lion. Its the story of a couple who brought a lion cub from Harrods because they were unhappy about the way it was being kept. They eventually released him back into the wild and then went back a year later to pay him one last visit. My first thoughts were, this is not going to end well. I was wrong and seeing them reunited was so moving. I hope you all enjoy it as much as me.

I've Died and Gone to Beading Heaven :)

All the goodies I won in the competition on CO&K arrived today at work and I'm so excited. I normally get most of my jewellery making stuff second hand and have learnt most of what I know about making jewellery from taking apart old or broken jewellery so having some brand new and proper jewellery making things is about as exciting as it gets! Its even come with instructions on some items I can make with my new stuff. Here's some piccies of my new stash :)





Now I'm off to play :)

Latest Makery

I've been on a bit of creative roll this Christmas holiday and have made quite a few new bits of jewellery. I've been having a play around with some pink wire I picked up from Hexton earlier in the year and have made been making my own head pins and eye pins. I'm pretty chuffed with results.



Also, while scouring the charity shops for bargains before Christmas I also spotted this cute Miffy pencil case for 25p. Its absolutely perfect for my crochet hooks and assorted paraphernalia and so unbelievably cute :)

Scavenger Kat's Treasure Trove :)

I had an amazing find this weekend. I found these two big, yoghurt pots of broken jewellery. Both were going for a fiver each. I wasn't sure when I first how much I'd be able to use but once I got them both home and emptied out on my desk I was beaming from ear to ear :D
I've already made one pair of star earrings from an old broken necklace I had and from some broken earrings and broken chain in my new stash. They're up in my shop if you want to take a look.

Makings & Tidying

I've been having a bit of a creative spurt recently and have been working on some more jewellery ideas for the shop. I've been using some stamps I picked up last year and using them with fimo to make some new pendants. I've used pearl effect fimo and then coated the cooked pendants with a smear of water colour paint, a coat of glitter glue and a coat of varnish. I'm pretty pleased with how they are looking so far. I plan to hang them on ribbon and managed to pick up a mix of colours today from TKMax.
I've also been doing a second round of clearing the wardrobe and ironing pile. So far I've gathered a binbag full of stuff. I want to get my wardrobe back to a basic level so I've got space to pick up the odd nice thing if I see it. I've also been trying to simplify things. I've been partly inspired by the Uniform Project where one dress was worn everyday for a year. The clever bit was how the dress looked different every day. Sheena, the original blog author, uses all manner of accessories to create a different look. This is a bit too fashiony and girly for me but it did get me thinking. I don't need thousands of clothes, just a few basic bits. I've got a ton of jewellery and other bits and bobs. It would also save me a whole ton of ironing, which I hate with a passion. This can only be good :)
In other news, I've finally got round to finishing 'Two Caravans' - that was such a brilliant read. Every bit as good as 'A History of Tractors in Ukrainian'. I've now started my new Sean Stewart book. He's probably my favourite author and I'd been putting off getting Cathy's book for ages as it was a change of direction for him and I wasn't sure if I'd like it. Its written for teens and so far I'm really enjoying it. I decided not to write it off just because it was written for a different age group, Before I Die was too and that was amazing. Exceptionally moving but brilliant.

Vintage Shopping

I've got some annual leave this week and next so I've been having a nice chilled out day in the charity shops and vintage emporium. The Vintage Emporium is great - only discovered it recently through boyfriend and its like Aladins' Cave. It enormous and stretches on for miles! Well, maybe a slight exaggeration but you get the idea :) I bought a few bits - some beads to feed my addiction, a pretty necklace for my neice's bday and lovely brown maxi dress with a massive, stretchy, sequined band at the top. I'm going to take some pics in a bit to add to this. I'm really chuffed with it. I was originally going for another dress I saw, another maxi dress but black with a white embroidered design up the side but when I tried it on it was not a pretty sight - :( It had two side splits and when I put it on the splits seemed to create arrows pointing to my belly! Not really where I wanted the eye drawn to! The other dress I got is much better as its all sparkley round the top \o/
I've also been making some more jewellery for my shop. I made a monochrome beaded necklace and a brown, wooden beaded necklace. Both were made from beads that I picked up when we went to Hexton.
I also finished the top I was making. I hasn't turned out how I was hoping so I'm going to take it in a bit so its more flattering . A piccie is on its way though. The gold around the top though looks great against the yellow.

Mad Hatters and Red Queens

I spent yesterday dressed as Alice for an Alice in Wonderland themed Tea Party and can safely say that I have consumed somewhere near my own body weight in cake. There was so much cake! I bought biscuits but I think everyone else bought cakes. They were yummy though and I still felt stuffed until about 4 in the afternoon today. The party was at fellow CO&Ker Aimees' and for the occasion I made myself some Alice themed jewellery and an Alice band for my hair.
The Cheshire cat earrings were made from fimo and were extremely fiddly to make but I was really chuffed with how they came out. The oversized charm bracelet was made from odds and sods I had around the flat. The pocket watch was made from the old outside of a real pocket watch which I bought for about 50p ages ago at a charity shop. It had no innards though as my bf had tried to get it working and then couldn't get it back in its case so I had to make a clock face to go inside out of fimo.
Today has been spent mostly napping and catching z's. It was really warm so I didn't go out until quite late and bought myself a maxi dress for the summer from New Look. A bit naughty as I've been trying to save up for a holiday later this year but its really comfy and cool. Its shocking pink and strapless :)

The Sun has got his hat on \o/

Its been really summery today so I've been out and about getting my 10,000 lux, which is apparently what causes you to feel happy on sunny days. I had a good potter about the charity shops in Borehamwood yesterday and had some great finds. I bought a pretty, strappy summer dress for about £4 and some chinese balls (the ones which chime when you move them round in your hand). I also got a ball of some really cool purple wool - its really light and almost looks like something out of an art deco pic as its made up of two thin strands with little dots of colour every inch or so. Its really unusual and looks like it could have a lot of potential for making cool jewellery with. I also got a really pretty beaded bracelet for 99p which appears to be made from pearls and rose quartz.
Last night I also found a really cool tutorial on Mooky Chick on how to make 1940s hair dos. I had no idea how simple they are to do. The secret is apparently using foam rollers. I've had a play around with some foam strip that I had collected from some packaging ages ago. It was great fun :) I was also watching a whole load of tutorials on you tube on how to do 1940s make up. I don't know how I ended up looking at any of this stuff but it was amazingly interesting.
I've also been invited to a Alice and Wonderland themed tea party. This should be cool. I'll have to have a poke around the wardrobe and see what I can wear. I don't know if I have anything wonderlandish but I'll see what I can do :)