Bead Shops are Like Sweet Shops!

I love bead shops, they're like sweet shops for people who don't eat sweets!  We used to have a lovely little one in Long Melford but sadly it closed.  I love getting a little wooden bowl and filling it up with goodies, mentally planning necklaces and earrings as I add to it, so I was thrilled when I discovered one in Cambridge earlier this week.

When I got my treasures home I started rummaging in my seed bead boxes to find small beads to go with the larger ones I'd bought; laying them out in different arrangements.

After lots of arranging and threading and adding ends I ended up with 3 new necklaces with matching earrings:

a blue and white set (reminiscent of delftware I think),

a yellow and green set (a perfect match for my lovely work jacket)

(no I didn't make the jacket, Hobbs did),

and a lovely green set with gorgeous acrylic patterns beads.

All in all the 3 sets cost me £27, which is a darn sight less than I would have to pay if I'd bought them ready made, and I had the all the fun of stringing beads onto thread and wire :-)

Sunshine!

Today the sun came out, little white fluffy clouds danced across the blue sky.

In the garden spring is arriving:

crocuses and grape hyacinths have emerged,

hyacinths are in full flower, 

there are daffodils of all colours and shapes,

and the chaenomeles is in flower.

The pond is full of frogspawn :-)

And I have a new front door.  Gone is the warped, tired, wooden one that needed the postman to lean against it at times in order for me to open it,

replaced with a smart new black, composite one.  Looks like wood but won't warp and swell and doesn't have gaps for the wind to whistle through.

Hope you're all enjoying some sunshine too.