Busy Summer

Highland Adventures!

I've had a long busy summer trying to entertain the kids and not getting much else done in the process - it's good to have a break from the normal routine though! We started off our Summer break on the Isle of Mull in Uncle Jim's Cottage which is converted from an old water mill. It was the perfect place to get away from the hectic routine of Urbanish life!

An old Mill Stone

Scottish Thistle

Beautiful deserted beach!

Let's not forget the lovely Tobermory (but let's keep quiet about the childrens' tv programme filmed here!)

I did take a little project with me! I couldn't go all that time without being creative so I decided to revisit Viking Weave. The process is to weave the wire onto a dowel as shown in the picture (left). Next you remove the wire from the dowel and pull it with all your might through a drawplate and you end up with something quite pretty and pleasing!

The one I did first was a single weave and the result is shown in the picture on the right. I eventually turned this into a bracelet with Silver end cones (below)

En route home from Scotland we made a pit stop at my parents' in Cheshire. We always make a point of visiting an ice cream farm (Cheshire is big on Dairy!). This time we went to Snugbury's where they have the added attraction of a Straw Sculpture - each year they have a different one. Check out pictures of previous years on their website! This year it was Big Ben - London's famous clock. The clock on the straw version really works too!

Today was a bank holiday in the UK. We took the kids for a ride on The London Eye where we had a great view of the real Big Ben!

Jolicious Blog

Hello everyone. I'm new to the world of blogging and this is my very first one!

My name is Jo and I have 3 boys - age 7 and 4 (twins). I am a stay at home mum but increasingly filling my time with Jewellery making. I'm finding it very hard to find the time to get any jewellery made with the boys running around and being glued to the computer wading through all the different sites that are out there!

It's half-term and I'm at my parents in Cheshire for some much needed respite. I'm going on a course tomorrow to learn how to make beaded tassels at a place called The Bead Trail at Blakemere Craft Centre in Cheshire. I love going on courses and have been on quite a few recently; I learnt how to do Fingerprint Jewellery at the Dulwich School of Jewellery . I really enjoyed working with Precious Metal Clay and a whole new world of possibilities had opened up to me! I plan to do even more courses there when I get time.

I also have few courses lined up with Jean Power, editor of Bead Magazine. One course is learning Chain Maille and the other is Viking Weave. Her courses are great fun and really informative - I'm lucky enough to have been on two already. I'll let you know how I get on.

Will post a few pictures when I return home as I'm on my new laptop and it is bare!

Well slowly I am catching up with everyone else in blogging, twittering, facebooking, Flickr etc etc. How does anyone find time to Create???? I have so much to learn!