Making and Walking

Well here we are, 2017.   I've had a lovely few days off, in the period between Christmas and New Year when no-one knows what day of the week it is.

First of all I build some wooden covers for my wheelie bin.  They used to be hidden behind a screen fixed to a pergola but the pergola was rotting so I decided to take it down before it fell down.

I thought it would be a quick job to put them together but it actually took all day.  They are very sturdy though.

Next I've been making some jewellery.  A few months ago I bought some limo (polymer clay) and yesterday I made beads - it's very therapeutic!

Today I had fun laying the beads out and finding other beads to go with them.

Quite pleased with the finished result - I'm especially pleased with the marbled blue beads.

While I had the beads and bits out I decided to make another necklace with some beads that I'd bought ages ago.

But it's not all been building/making - I've had 2 lovely walks.  One day Celia, her husband and I went to Mersea Island off the Essex coast.  We'd seen a Channel 4 program called Britain at Low Tide a few months ago and they'd shown the earthworks of a tudor blockhouse  which was commissioned by Henry VIII in 1543 to protect the strategically important Colne estuary.

We found it!  The triangular earthworks are all that remain, and eventually, due to the changing coast line here, even these will probably be lost forever.

The other walk I did was on New year's Day, when it was grey and murky but it wasn't raininng so I walked down by the river to the mill on the water meadows.

The reeds were rustling in the wind and I watched a kingfisher darting about for ages.

Finally I walked home through the town, past this little gate, which was open but clearly not used much.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2017!

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 :-)