Busy times.....

Since the end of April Mr. M and I have been working very hard painting and renovating the house. Every spare hour for almost 2 months was spent scrubbing, scraping, sanding, hammering and painting until at the end of June we were done with the ground floor. We still have the upper floor to do. That treat we are saving until August/September due to sheer exhaustion! But we are happy with the results so far:

While all this has been going on, my bead business has been going from strength to strength. Yay! The rainy summer has possibly been good for business as people seem to be staying indoors and creating. Some of my bestsellers at the moment are my flower cabs and the colorful skull beads that I got in a few weeks ago (almost sold out!)

coral, gold, pink and more

My recent bead purchases, along with the sunshine we had last week, inspired two pairs of earrings in coral and gold:

These colorful stone beads, which I have had for years, finally turned into a project.

Sort and organize

The lovely spring-like weather we've been having recently has inspired me to spring clean my workroom and organize my beads and findings for a better workflow. So pleased with the new storage boxes I got from my local DIY store:

Bead candy

Sorted by finish: my bronze box

Bead addiction

Some of my lovely new aquisitions:

The above two gorgeous color mixes I bought from Millefiori in Gothenburg.

Swarovski beads in the new shades of Denim Blue (bicones) and Padparadscha (lg heart) and sweet lilac foiled rocailles from Canvas, Gothenburg

These beauties are HUGE. From Westers in Jönköping.

New paper and a flower shape cutter. Paper roses from Toytime, Habo.

The glass rocailles made a lovely heart for my friend E's birthday.

A Good Read

Just finished reading one of those books that you never want to come to an end. A brilliant read. It was this one:

Day in Gothenburg

Alice and I had a great day out shopping during the half-term break in Gothenburg recently. I visited several beads shops and Alice bought clothes and crystals. There are so many cute, boutique-style shops in the Haga district:

Millefiori on Linnégatan is great for beads, and Canvas is just around the corner (lots of seed beads and Swarovski). We also stocked up on Cadbury's Cream Eggs at the English Shop.

 

Recharging our batteries with tea and hot chocolate...

When the shops started to close, we trekked across town to the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Göteborgs Konstmuseum which was open till late that day.

It's hard to convey in a photo just how huge this exhibit of a plaster-cast rotating pole-dancer was. I would guess about 15 ft high....

 

 

 

All in all, a great day!

Hope Street

One of my favorite photos of Alice, taken on a trip to the UK, Dec 2011.

Random buys and my first wholesale order...

I'm now on the craft show circuit until Xmas and something I like to do is buy a souvenir from each craft show I do. The first is a cute little ceramic bird that I couldn't resist, bought from pottery artist Majlis Elgåker at Konstfest Spinnet, Habo. He now resides on my bead-room window sill:

My neighbour at the YMCA craft show last weekend in Bankeryd Carines Virkade Kakor sold gorgeous crocheted cakes. I had to treat myself to the most Swedish of cakes, a princess cake:

On another note, my first wholesale order has now been delivered to Fröken Frö, Habo. I'm so excited that my jewelry is going to be sold there! The shop has now moved to the high street in Habo so the address given on her website here is the old one. Here's a little taster of my items: