***REVEAL*** Pine Ridge Treasures Evening Elegance Challenge and Blog Hop

Hellooo lovelies! Here we are at the end of January already! Scary stuff, hey? It's going too fast. 

Anyhoo, the beautiful Lisa over at A Grateful Artist is running yet another awesome blog hop and challenge this month and this is my reveal post. Now, it's been CRAZY around here lately; the kids have had their six week summer break, and I must admit to being very lazy, not creating every day, and basically slacking off. I need to stop that. However, I did manage to pull a couple of pieces together. I'll come back and edit this post when I have photos of all of them, please consider this a "work in progress" post. 

The theme for this hop was "Evening Elegance" so when I received my package of goodies from Lisa, I wasn't disappointed. Lots of faceted crystal and glass, and in some of my favourite colours too: red, black, silver and clear. Gorgeous stuff. Here it is before I made a massive mess of my workbench. Again. 

Pretty yummy, right? 

I did battle a little bit with this challenge; I've been trying really, super hard to move forwards into wire weaving and stuff rather than sticking with stringing, and it threw me for a loop (which I think is another reason for the reluctance/difficulty starting the designing process). I did come up with a little somethin' somethin' though :) This is piece one:

I did run into a few issues with this bracelet. I found that the gorgeous red and black bicones were just too little to go onto the 20g sterling silver filled wire, so I strung them onto the 26g wire and wrapped them onto the bracelet instead. Also, trying to get a bracelet shaped into an oval shape without an oval shaped bracelet mandrel isn't as easy as you'd think, but it's pretty close. I'm learning very slowly to be kind to myself. Wire work is still new to me, and I must remember to stop beating myself up when things aren't "perfect." 

That's all for right now; as I said I'll edit this post with my other stuff tomorrow or Monday with my other pieces. In the meantime, go check out these other fabulously talented ladies and see what they came up with!! 

With love, 

Jacqui 

Your hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Becky Pancake, Becky Pancake Bead Designs

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Marde Lowe, Fancimardesigns

An apology, a belated Merry Christmas, a learning curve, and a goal. Yeah. That's all.

Good evening, my loves!

It's been FOREVER since I blogged, and I'm so sorry for that. I feel like I've been juggling a lot of plates lately and yes, they've fallen down more than once. However, things seem to be on the up. I'm not sure if it's just a New Year thing or what, but I'm certainly feeling a lot more positive this year than at any point last year. Not bad for two days into 2016. I've got a plan and everything, so you'll be seeing a lot more of me this year.

So...before getting into the other stuff, I want to say a HUGE belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a great time with friends and family, spoiled them rotten (with handmade items, of course!) and landed a few awesome gifts for yourselves, too! I got the absolute joy of spending another Christmas with my lovely mum which is always special.We actually went out for lunch this year which was a fab treat; it's getting too hot in Darwin to mess about with turkey and pork lunches, and the best thing? NO clean up! Bonus! Oh and the kids ate enough to sink a small ship for a change (have I mentioned how we have some of the fussiest kids on this planet? No? Okay I'll spare you!)

Next up...a goal. Way back in September, I signed up to the Business Bakery's awesome 100 day Goal challenge, which is an amazing idea, and one I felt I could day really get my teeth into. I lasted three days  before getting sicker than ever, then having each of my five cherubs come down with the same bug one after the other. My goal was a sales one and I basically pulled a number out of the blue without thinking too hard about it at all,  I didn't feel focused. either.I had a half arsed list of actions to take to achieve that goal, and as a result, bombed out pretty spectacularly. That said, it wasn't a complete waste of time. Far from it, in fact. I had the BEST 100 days of sales I've ever had, learned LOADS and along the way did a lot of stuff completely wrong which of course is how we learn the most, right? So when Julia announced she would be running the 100 day goal again in January, I literally couldn't sign up fast enough! We're onto Day 2 now and I'm running on sheer adrenaline (seriously....I haven't slept in 36 hours because I'm so focused on the end goal...I'm not advocating this, by the way....it's actually pretty stupid). But, it's a goal I can see myself achieving, it's one that MEANS something and I'm totally okay with that. The actual goal will remain secret until the end, and I may not even reveal then, we'll see. 

Image found online  - not me, or my work. 

The learning curve...ahhhh, well this is related to my goal news. too. In recent weeks I've become absolutely obsessed with wire weaving! It's my new addiction. It's like the nicotine I sometimes wish I still had  can absolutely live without (*ahem*). I'm soumak weaving all over the place, I'm wrestling a little with figure 8 weave (which probably has a more specific name but I'm such a newbie I can't remember it!) and honestly thought about not paying the phone bill just so I could buy more wire and supplies (but then, I'd not have my phone and internet to show off my new creations on, would I? Okay, dodged a bullet there, then!) It's the most insanely beautiful jewellery and so creative, so individual, that no two pieces are ever 100% alike....it's AWESOME! I'm like a kid learning how to colour in the lines again! I haven't been this excited about anything in ages (well except for polymer clay but I haven't been able to play with clay for ages thanks to the darling  kiddliwinks smashing my work surface tile). 

Anyhoo, I think my adrenaline is running out and my eyes are getting heavy! I'm off to Bedfordshire for the night to dream of wiry things and a beautiful clean workspace ...check it out, that's one more thing ticked off my ever growing to do list! hey...writing this blog is one thing off my list, too! Take that, 100 day Goal! 

Goodnight loves!! 

~ Jacqui ~