Christmas Day 2021

I managed to sleep in on Christmas Day which is unlike me! We were at our house but we had already taken some presents to my mum's, so we just needed to pack our stuff and the cats and their stuff, and head over to my mum's. We were determined to make all four cats be friends - mine just want to investigate Ruben and Millie, but they're older cats and seem to dislike mine. Millie sulked the whole time. Ruben cuffed both of mine into submission but then they all seemed to get along, which was really nice. 

We had some Bucks Fizz (the M&S one with clementine, which is delicious!) and opened some presents. About 1pm we had our 'starter'. I had some smoked salmon AND some smoke salmon pate, both of which were absolutely gorgeous. I usually eat vegetarian but every now and then I have some fish and I think that's fine - and I did really enjoy it. I got some gorgeous presents. My mum bought me a dolls house which I'm looking forward to putting together and decorating. Lee bought me some furniture for it to start me off - a little sofa and a little dresser! They're both very cute.

My mum had also decided to treat us all to a special gift. She says that as we've had a rubbish couple of years, she wanted to spend some money on each of us. She wanted to get my stepdad a steel guitar, so Lee helped her to find that. Lee decided he would also like a new guitar, so he found himself one. And I got a sapphire ring. I have very beautiful diamond and ruby rings, and a small but cute emerald ring, so I wanted a sapphire one too. We found a lovely one in a pawn shop in Stretford Mall when we went shopping at the end of November. I love it - it's such a dark sapphire and surrounded by tiny diamonds. My cousin is a jeweller and my mum had taken it to him for resizing, and he said it was a lovely piece. I love it - I'm a big believer in wearing my fancy jewellery so I've worn it quite a few times since Christmas!

We had our 'main course' at around 5.30, which we often do. My mum had bought me a vegan sausage and cranberry wreath for me instead of turkey, and it was absolutely delicious. Plus there was loads left for the days after! We had our dessert at about 7.30. It makes for a nice and relaxing day. It was nice just the four of us, too! 

I had bought a dress especially for Christmas Day. I saw a friend who had bought it for a wedding back in November, and asked her where it was from. It was from Joe Brown's at Simply Be, so I bought it on Black Friday which meant I got 40% off it - a bargain! I love the colour and of course it matched my new sapphire ring! 

The ring in question, isn't it lovely? I love vintage jewellery 

Jasmine and Ruben and Poppy trying to decide if they can get along with each other

The table all set for lunch

Oh yes my mum bought me a Libertines t-shirt! I've never had one so I'm excited to wear this

Sam managed to find festive Harry Styles wrapping paper for me, haha

My gorgeous dress - it's velvet on top and then this beautiful paisley pattern on the bottom. The hem is asymmetric and it's just generally a lovely dress

Vegan sausage and cranberry wreath - it was from Lidl and I would recommend it!

My lovely dinner, I added gravy afterwards. I am also one of those people who've learnt to like brussels sprouts as they've got older

All eighteen books that I got for Christmas - a bumper haul I think!

Ruben was having treats and look at Poppy - she is so fascinated by him

My mum had bought these very cute chocolate cups when were in Helmsley. My stepdad and I had Baileys in ours!

Jewellery Making

Recently I pulled out my jewellery making supplies to make some things for myself and some friends. I have a lot of beading/jewellery supplies, but it isn't something I do often because I'm not overly good at it and I find it takes a lot of time. Plus dragging all my supplies out is a bit of a pain! But Lee helped. 

I've been collecting beads for over half my life now - I have liked making jewellery for over twenty years. When I was 14/15/16, I worked in a small hippy type shop in Wakefield, where I grew up. It sold tumbled crystals, geodes, handmade jewellery, ornaments, jewellery fixings - all kinds of things. I grew to hate the job but I loved learning about crystals and started buying some. I absolutely love fluorite - I have some really really pretty pieces of it. Back then, I made jewellery using fishing supplies, and even sold them at a few fairs! 

Over the past few years I've got some better tools, and a ton of better storage supplies. I have several of those large plastic boxes with dividers in them, and I try to keep everything sorted out. I sorted the beads by colour and somewhat by size, which was very pleasing. They need sorting out again, which I think Lee and I might undertake as a job soon. 

I've had a bead subscription for a while. I used to use Crafty Creatives, which sent quite a lot of charms as well as beads and fixings. However, I got fed up with them, although I don't remember why, and stopped for a while. In January 2019 I subscribed to Deborah Beads box, which is cheap and still lovely. Every month you get a few beads and some fixings, enough to make a few projects each month, so I find it good value for money. I'll probably keep that up for a few months yet, until I get fed up or something.

So anyway, I pulled out the jewellery supplies with the intent of making some earrings and bracelets for some of my closest friends. I wanted to send them all a little care package with some other bits in. Then I sorted through some of the Deborah Beads boxes that had accumulated over a few months, and as I was doing that I found some beads I really liked so made some things for myself. I didn't get photos of everything, but here's what I did get:

These were out of my subscription boxes. I've never used metal cups under beads like on the ones on the left before, and I like the effect. I like the antiqued bronze fixings here, too. I LOVE the green beads on the ones on the right, you can't see very well in the photos but they change colour and are really pretty

These fixings and beads came from my subscription boxes. I don't often wear gold jewellery, but I like how the black beads look against the gold. I have never done a join in the middle before, but I really like the effect - it makes the earrings swing and be nice to wear. I wore them when I saw my family and showed them off to my aunt, who also makes jewellery

A shot of when I tried them on

I love the beads at the bottom of these - they almost look like amber, although I'm sure they're just glass. I paired these with some beads from my stash. I have ton of earrings like this

The big faceted beads here were out of a subscription box. I used rose gold wires and fixings here as I thought they set the beads off nicely

I made this bracelet for my friend Laura. She doesn't have pierced ears so I went for a bracelet. I cut a piece of chain and put a clasp on it. Then I chose some beads I wanted to use for Laura especially. I love the painted blue one in the middle. I thought she'd like a star charm. The small red beads on the very left are garnet, and the small purplish ones on the top fourth from the left are fluorite. Everything else is just glass I think. Laura received this and really liked it, which I'm pleased about

Finally I made this bracelet for myself. It was very complex and fiddly and took quite some time. First of all I made all three strands separately. The small blue/green/white beads on the left two strands are beads I've had for around FIFTEEN years. I got them in a swap I did with someone and there's loads of them. I made a strand (the middle one) that was just a mixture of all the beads - I didn't even look as I picked them up, I just threaded them. The strand on the left is all the blues, so I did pick them out. Then I had these green shell beads and thought they looked nice with the small green beads, so I put them together on the third strand. 

These were fiddly because I strung them on wire and wanted to use one of the fancy clasps I have, instead of using stretchy elastic to string the beads on. So I used horseshoe shaped wire guardians at the ends of each wire, and used a crimp bead to keep that in place. I'm really pleased I persevered because it look really nice. I'll get better, I'm sure. I love the silver clasp I used too. 

What I Wore 29th August and Lunch Out

On Thursday the 29th of August I was due to meet a friend for lunch so I got up and had a shower. My friend wasn't feeling too well so she cancelled, but I was feeling a bit cabin crazy so still wanted to go out. Lee said he'd go out for lunch with me to Meadowhall. He works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so could take an hour or so off to go with me. I offered to buy sushi for both of us, so off we went to Yo Sushi.

I've always liked it, but Lee doesn't like the raw stuff, so since they've brought in more cooked dishes he's more keen to go. He had chicken ramen and some other bits. I am really loving Yo Sushi since I went vegetarian as it's made me branch out in what I'm trying. They've got a bunch of new vegetarian and vegan dishes. I had pumpkin katsu, vegetable gyoza, and a bunch of other stuff. There's a new vegan roll that I really liked with vegan mayo and sriracha, and I love their fries (which are vegetarian if you ask for them without the bonito flakes).

After lunch we wandered into Accessorize. I saw some faux marble slides in there back in May when we were in Harrogate, but didn't buy them, and I've been thinking about them ever since! I was hoping they were still in stock, and they were. I also treated myself to some rose gold earrings, I've been wearing them loads since.

I had just put on this dress to go out, nothing really special but comfortable and cute enough for a casual lunch. It was a nice couple of hours!

I love Yo Sushi, it's filling and delicious and fun

Aren't those slides so gorgeous?! They're pretty good even in my fine hair, too

Scarlett & Jo dress, I've worn it a million times, but I do love it

A Tour Around My Jewellery

Recently Lee and I sorted out all my jewellery, matching up pairs of earrings, mending some things that were broken, and throwing out or donating some things that I didn't want any more. It took ages - we took it all up to the attic room and spent ages detangling necklaces and matching up stud earrings. I have a lot of jewellery. A lot of it is costume, but I do also have some very nice bits that I've been bought over the years. My mum loves jewellery too; I get it from her.

For ages I had a noticeboard with pins stuck in from which I hung necklaces, but this had stopped working for me as things fell off a lot. Then Lee bought me one of those jewellery or shoe hangers and I've had that for ages, on the wall next to the bed. But that wasn't really working out either, and honestly, I just wanted everything sorted out.

So once we'd sorted everything out I bought a few things. I have a gorgeous lilac leather jewellery box that my mum bought me from House of Fraser about ten years ago, so I obviously wasn't going to get rid of that, but it also doesn't fit much in it, so I needed something bigger. I've seen those jewellery armoires before, so ended up ordering one off eBay for the bargain price of £41. They have lots of different combinations of insides, but this one worked best for me. It arrived flat packed but it was really easy for Lee and I to put together. The front of it is a full length mirror, which I don't have, so that's nice and useful, with diamantes round the edge which is a nice touch.

I also ordered a couple of black plastic stud holders from eBay for a few quid each. Once everything arrived Lee and I spent quite some time putting everything in the right place. I have a system - my "best", most precious pieces are in the leather box, and everything else is in other places. I came across loads of jewellery that I'd forgotten I owned and it's been nice wearing stuff I haven't worn in ages. We were also "helped" by Ivy who enjoyed playing with necklaces that were dangling in front of her!

I thought I'd take some photos - it turned out to be quite a lot but I think they explain better than I can in words!

First of all here's some new jewellery that I got on holiday, in Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio. I've got lots of upcoming posts about my holiday, but I've been battling a horrible dental abscess and haven't got round to writing them up yet. My mum bought me the knot earrings and the Fleur de Lys, and I bought myself the Tree of Life. I love buying jewellery on holiday because it adds to the memories I think.

The inside of the armoire as a whole. It fits really nicely into this gap next to a chest of drawers.

The very top is for rings, which I didn't realise at first. So in here I've got more costume rings. The dots at the bottom left are nose studs I haven't worn yet

The main necklaces, this is for longer necklaces. There's some silver here among the costume stuff

Little shelves underneath the necklaces where I've put pendants that have no chain, and cards of earrings

On the left, here are all my dangly earrings (I can't say 'dangly earrings' without immediately going into a Victoria Wood impression - "have you seen me friend, Kimberley?"). I love dangly earrings but don't wear them often enough. Lots here are ones that I've made or that others have made for me

Under the dangly earrings are these two lots of costume necklaces. I love so many of these fun necklaces, especially my Hello Kitty ones!

Over on the other side of the room is the rest of my jewellery. These are all pins, they don't fit perfectly into this tray but I already had it so decided it would do!

One of my two earring holders - these are the more 'fun' earrings. Don't they look like I raided Claire's Accessories?!

This is the other earring holder, with some more precious earrings in the top. Some of these are sole earrings, too. When I was a teenager I used to wear six odd earrings at once, and although I don't usually do that anymore I can't bear to get rid of some of these! 

My bracelets all live on a kitchen roll holder, it's really useful for them! The only bracelets that don't are my charm ones, which live in a dish along with charms I have.

This is my gorgeous jewellery box, and these are my more precious rings, including the claddagh ring Lee bought me for my birthday and many others

One drawer of the box. Those pearls mean an awful lot to me - they were given to me by my uncle when I was a bridesmaid for him in 1989! I had them made a bit longer a few years ago so I could still wear them.

Here's my precious earrings and pendants, including a ruby elephant that my mum brought back from India in 1996. I love it. The two bracelets on the right are two I love a lot, too. I bought the amethyst one when I was 18 with the first paycheck I got from my first 'proper' job!

So there you go, just a quick look through some of my jewellery!

Punkypins sale splurge!

My BFF Sam has bought quite a few pins from Punky Pins over the years and recently let me know that they were having a sale. I went on the website and found loads of stuff in the sale, from 83p! Eighty-three pence! Gosh. I went a bit mad and bought fifteen different things, which with postage came to around £18. I think you'll agree that that is a bargain!

First of all these are all the brooches/pins I bought, plus a pair of dangly earrings.

A nautical star pin, one that says "Be awesome", one that says "Be yourself", and one that says "Wild and free". Then these gorgeous tattoo art style dangly earrings in the shape of swallows. I need to put some of these pins on my jacket!

And here's the eight pairs of earrings I bought, plus a very cute deer necklace. The earrings are bees, more swallows, clouds, teapots, strawberries, birds, mushrooms, and blue anchors. 

Now the eagle eyed amongst you might be able to see that there's only fourteen items here but I bought fifteen. That's because one thing went off to my friend Lucinda as a present... Hope she likes it!

Printed wood necklaces from Life's Big Canvas

I have this amazing friend called Pesky Chloe. She is an artist; she has made jewellery in the past and now she makes badges and origami. She's always thinking of things to do and make and I love how much she pushes herself forward.

Her husband Ian is also a really talented artist - in fact he's one of the Mouth and Foot Painting artists and his work can be seen on their website here. Chloe decided to combine their skills and had these printed wood pieces made, which she has then made into necklaces and brooches.

I got all three because I just couldn't choose my favourite. I love the colours, the shapes, and the size of them - they're not small so they make quite a statement!

You can buy them here on Chloe's shop, which I strongly recommend taking a good look around. I'm wearing the poppy one today along with a peach t-shirt!

Which one do you like best?

Pookledo Giveaway!

My friend Sarah has a jewellery business called Pookledo. She's self-employed now and running the business full time, so I try to support her as I believe in supporting women and small businesses! I've recently bought three pairs of Christmas themed earrings, for the bargain price of £5!

Sarah offered me the chance of a giveaway item to run on my blog, so we decided we'd give you the opportunity to win a £10 voucher. That way, the lucky winner can choose what they'd like! £10 will get you 6 pairs of earrings or three friendship bracelets!

This is a Rafflecopter giveaway which is really easy if you've never used it before. It is open now and will remain open until the end of November. I will need your email address if you win so Sarah can send you the voucher!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Every Day in August - Day 6

Today's theme is about restaurants and although I could write about some, I never take pictures of food - usually too busy eating it! Instead I want to share some photos of some things I bought at Style XL on Saturday.

Iridescent Jewellery was there and the owner Samantha was such a lovely lady. The jewellery was really my style - statement pieces in gorgeous colours and styles, at reasonable prices too. There was a special offer on - buy one get one half price - which made the prices even more reasonable. Sam also accepted card and had a groovy app on her phone to do it with (as well as a card reader) - as someone who never carries cash this is a godsend!

I got these two pieces for £17. The bracelet was £12 and the ring was £10, but £5 on the half price deal. I think that is pretty good!

This ring is more copper-toned than it appears in this photo. It has 'love' engraved on it. I'm a big fan of things with hearts or the word love on them :) 

It's quite thick, too. It fits on my right ring finger. 

This bracelet has some really pretty bluey greeny beads on it, as well as that gorgeous dove. Sam had already added an extension chain to the bracelet, and had more with her to extend anything that a customer asked for. 

Here's a close up of the dove. It matches my dove tattoo! I love it. 

What I Wore 25th September

I've been out today with my friend Leanne. She's one of the loveliest people I know but we haven't seen each other in ages, so we went for lunch in Wakefield. It was yummy, we went to the Handmade Burger Co, I had a lamb burger with feta and tzatziki, Greek style.

Here's what I wore:

Swallow print top, New Look

Skirt, Yours clothing

Leggings, H&M

Cardigan, New Look

This was my necklace, I bought it in Evans last night for only £3 in the sale! It's really blingy and fun.