New bench, new work..

Hello! I wanted to show you my amazing new workbench, made by amazing other half, Dom.  I have been wanting a "proper" bench forever but couldn't justify the price.  After searching, a lot, I stumbled across one made out of an Ikea kitchen island.

"I have one of those in my kitchen!" I thought.

 So that is what it became, my new jewelers bench and it is the perfect size and everything. :)

Here is the original Ikea island

And what it became, the perfect jewellery bench!

...and me working at it

Here is a new necklace I have in my shop, all sterling silver.

Finally a first look at a new brooch I made for the Brooch a Week challenge

Thanks for reading :)

EtsyMetal blog carnival: Where do you live?

Welcome to our EtsyMetal monthly Blog Carnival!

Blog Carnival is about a group of our members sharing their experience on a common topic.

Where do you live?

I have moved around a lot, my Dad was in the army so I moved more than the average child anyway.

I am currently settled and I live in the Alsace region of France, it is right on the border of Germany and Basel, Switzerland where I work. I have been here for 3 and a half years and I have no plans to move back to the U.K right now :)

Here are some pics!

Strasbourg

Strasbourg again

Basel, in the summer we swim down this river, the Rhein

Walking in the woods

Looking out of my living room window

Keeping this one short and sweet, this is where I live!

See where other members live.

Laura Jane Bouton

2Roses

Inbar Bareket

Laney Clark

Abella Blue

Cynthia Del Guidice

Rebecca Bogan

Erin Austin

Deborah Lee Taylor

Anne Walker

Theresa Kwong

EtsyMetal charm swap 10

I took part in the 10th EtsyMetal charm swap and my charms are complete and shipped off.  I am now waiting to receive 20 charms back all from different members of the team, I can't wait!
Here are some pics of me making them, hope you like them :)

If you are interesting in a charm, you can also purchase one from my Etsy shop too.

New!

Just a quick one to show you a new pair of earrings I have made, I love them!

EtsyMetal blog carnival, Pets!

Welcome to the EtsyMetal blog carnival

Blog carnival is about a group of our members sharing their experience on

a common topic: "Pets"

I love this months topic as I have a lot of pets! 

They are not everyone's cup of tea but I have 10 rats.  I did have 15 at one point too, it's quite a funny story.  So when my partner and I moved to France I decided I would like 2 pet ratties, I have had them before and they are great fun, so we got to little ones called Bella and Bo (who are now in ratty heaven, RIP little ones).  

We then decided we would like 2 more to add as we were getting this BIG cage, so off we went to get them and my partner says, "ohh I really want that big black one too!" I said okay, so we came away with 3.  Two days later The 'big black one' gave birth to 10, yes 10! Of course we didn't know she was pregnant and me being me I couldn't give them away so we kept them all, 15 in total.

Here are some pics

Bella

All the babies a couple of days old

8 days old

Here they are at 4 weeks

Unfortunately we have recently lost 3 of the babies who are now over a year old, to illnesses and we now have 10.  We had 5 girls and 5 boy rat babies which meant we had to get all the boys neutered and they are now huge! I must take some new pictures.

This year in January we welcomed another baby into the family, our little Yorkie puppy called 'Brutus'

He is the coolest dog ever, here are a couple of pics.

A very young Brutus

As he is now.

I hope you enjoyed meeting my pets, take a look at other participating members of

the EtsyMetal team blogs and meet their pets too :)

 Laney (silentgoddess) 

Beth Cyr 

 2Roses 

 Evelyn Markasky 

 Erin Austin

 Rebecca Bogan 
 Victoria Takahashi/Experimetal
Cynthia Del Guidice 

EtsyMetal blog carnival 6/8/12 "The Five Senses"

Welcome to the EtsyMetal blog carnival

Blog carnival is about a group of our members sharing their experience on

a common topic: "The Five Senses"

I think it's quite hard to describe the 5 senses, we just take them for granted I think...

Taste is probably my favourite, as I love to eat! When I was at college I studied cooking for 3 years which was a lot of fun.  I love to cook and I love to bake and I try and do it as much as possible although my waistline probably wishes I didn't love it so much.

Smell, what would we do without it, has it's good sides and it's bad sides but I am glad that I can definitely smell! Some of my favourite smells are freshly cut grass, new born babies, thyme, fresh flowers, cinnamon and vanilla.

Hearing and sight, I always used to think about what I would choose if I could only have one of these, I think my choice would be sight.  That way I could still see the world, still work with my hands making my jewellery and cake toppers and still see my beautiful family.

Touch is important, without it we wouldn't know if something was hot or cold, if we were in pain or not and pain receptors are probably the most important.  Apparently we have more pain receptors than any other, sometimes I wish this wasn't true :)
Without touch, blind people wouldn't be able to read braille so for some people touch can be the most important.

They say if you lose one sense another sense is heightened.  I for one am definitely grateful that I have all of mine.

Check out what other EtsyMetal participants have to say about the subject

Beth Cyr

2 Roses

Victoria Takahashi

Cynthia Del Guidice

Rebecca Bogan

Inbar Bareket

Abella Blue
Quercus Silver

EtsyMetal team and a new piece

I am very happy and proud to say that I am now a member of the EtsyMetal team, if you don't know who they are they are a group of International metalsmiths from all over the world who create amazing work and have shops on Etsy.  Just put etsymetal into your search bar to find out about the Team.  You can also visit the EtsyMetal blog which is updated regularly, and also our shop on Etsy.

I also have a new piece in my shop tonight, it's the Tiny Heart necklace, perfect for everyday wear.

I hope you like it :)