Swiss Side Jewellery etc

Night Out

2012-02-10T09:44:00.000+01:00

Fancy a night out but have no time/energy/babysitter at the moment? Then hop over to Jennifer's blog and read about her night out. I felt as if I'd been there after I'd read it.
Have a good weekend!

Kim's scarf

2012-01-27T08:46:00.000+01:00

Motivated by my post on the Knitted Ruffle Scarf, my good friend Kim from Basel battled against the odds, or rather several wool shops who were out of stock of this particular yarn, couldn't even get it from their suppliers and had a waiting list for it as long as your knitting needles. Not a woman to be deterred, Kim was given a tip by a local market trader, procured the yarn and whipped this up more or less in the course of an evening:

I think it's fabulous and the colours are lovely. Well done Kim!
Have a great weekend!

Recycled tin can

2012-01-20T13:37:00.002+01:00

What do you do with a bored daughter, off school with a bit of a cold? Yep, make something. One (washed and dried!) tin can, some denim and some wool and voilà (don't know why I thought I needed a French word there...):

I'd had this idea in my mind for a while as a solution to this:

This is much more pleasing:

It was really quick and easy and best of all used things we already had. First of all I measured the circumference of the tin, allowing for a bit of an overlap and also the height of the tin from just under the top "lip" to just above the bottom "lip". I transferred these measurements onto the back of my denim and cut out with pinking shears, allowing 1cm extra on one of the short sides

Then turned back that extra 1cm, top stitched it and added the button using a bit of the wool.

I stuck the denim to the tin using everyday white glue, then to finish I glued and wound the wool round the top and bottom of the tin, so hiding the edges of the denim.

After recycling my tin, I found loads of inspiration and instructions (duhh-why do I do things the wrong way round?) about recycling tin cans. You can find some ideas here.Have a great weekend!

Knitted Ruffle Scarf

2012-01-13T11:07:00.001+01:00

When my 11-year old daughter told me they were knitting scarves at school, I expected her to bring home the standard long oblong of knitting, odd stich dropped etc. I didn't expect her to bring home this:

Isn't it fabulous? And I was lucky enough to receive this as my Christmas present this year. You knit with a "ribbon" or "mesh" yarn, only 8-10 stiches, big needles, garter stitch all the way. There's a simple tutorial for this kind of yarn here:

Although I am not a knitter, I decided I would like to try my hand at this as it seemed fairly easy and so we made a couple more scarves for Christmas presents - they are really quick to make, literally a few nights whilst watching TV (photos are a bit naf, sorry, but you get the idea!!)

This yarn had integrated pompoms (!) and was called "Rocio" from Katia.

There's a tutorial for this yarn here:

And this black, grey and white one was made using a yarn called "Rete" from Lana Grossa.

There are lots of different ribbon or mesh yarns around, but you'll find instructions on the yarn label or, of course, from your local wool shop! Get those needles out!

Christmas Cards

2012-01-11T10:43:00.000+01:00

I love Christmas cards - getting them, displaying them and then RECYCLING them - more of that in a mo'. There was a time when I used to make most of my Christmas cards - unfortunately a lack of motivation and inspiration has prevailed of late. Until....two of my Swiss neighbours sent beautiful hand-made cards and I was encouraged to reciprocate. I didn't have any special supplies, but this is what I came up with:

And now to the recycling bit - I always think Christmas cards are too nice just to throw away, so I make labels out of them. Very quick and very easy.Start by cutting out the main pictures from the front of the cards like this:

Then grab a few supplies like this:

Add scissors and some glue and in about 60 seconds you can come up with this:

Alternatively grab a pair of fancy scissors and cut round the main picture like this (10 seconds!):

Back soon!

A Truly Inspirational Christmas Wreath

2012-01-09T15:56:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year! 2011 whizzed by for me with more or less no blogging. Shame on me, but in my defense, teaching and translations plus all the usual family stuff meant that I did nothing on the creative front, so nothing to show on the blog. By the end of November I still had an Easter wreath on the front door, for goodness sake, much to the amusement of various visitors who pointed it out as if I didn't know. Grrr! Yes, I felt I'd totally lost it on the creative front, no inspiration, no motivation and certainly no confidence to make anything. In an attempt to at least put the door thing right I decided to buy a Christmas door wreath this year (shock, horror). I went to Meier's Bluemehüsli, just down the road in Wiesendangen - from the outside it looks like a farm shop, but is full of floral and non-floral decorations for the home and garden. The weird thing is, there is no staff, other than those who are arranging new stock. So you can wander round at leisure and, when you have chosen your item, you put your money in a very sophisticated machine, which also gives change and a receipt if needed. Don't things get stolen, I hear you ask? Maybe, but this is Switzerland, after all....Anyway, this is what I found.

The star background is made of bits of ~~old~~ "repurposed" wood probably glued together and then sprayed with white glittery paint. I just love the colours and all the details and the best bit is - I can use it again next year. I did manage to end 2011 with a couple of creations - more about those later this week. It's good to be back!

Weird....

2011-03-04T14:40:00.000+01:00

Funny how some things happen. Take yesterday for example. As you may know from previous posts, I have recently re-trained to be an English teacher and have been lucky enough to have found several jobs with 2 different employers. I was coming home on the train yesterday after a particularly strenuous week work-wise and home-wise and was pondering whether I really enjoyed teaching at all. I was thinking I would like to do something beady again, but don't have the time right now, not to mention the motivation and anyway, probably my things are no good anyway etc...etc...Suddenly my rambling thoughts were interrupted by a lady who had been sitting nearby and was now about to get off at her station. I thought she was going to tell me off for putting my big, heavy bag on the seat. Instead, she pointed to my bag charm and asked me where she could buy one, as it was so pretty and it was just the thing she needed for a birthday present.

I was so taken-aback, it was all I could manage to tell her I had made it myself and direct her to our local bead shop, where they also sell ready-made charms. But....I think I may just have got my motivation back...

Recycled Christmas card card....

2010-12-22T13:35:00.011+01:00

I never throw away the Christmas cards I receive. They are much too pretty and I often re-use them as labels for Christmas presents. This year, though, I did this:

I started by cutting quite a wide triangle out of a old Christmas card

I then cut this into horizontal strips

I then removed a couple of the strips and arranged the remaining ones a little crookedly on my card. I added a "flowerpot" made of another part of the old card and a gold sticker star at the top

And that was all there was to it really. Here's the finished card again. Quick and easy - just the job!

Customer Service and Serviette Santa

2010-12-10T14:45:00.002+01:00

I experienced a rare thing this week - excellent customer service in Switzerland. Don't get me wrong, Switzerland is a great place to live, but on the customer service front I often find that things are still somewhat lacking. However, I was to be pleasantly proved wrong. Last week I bought winter boots for my son, guaranteed to be waterproof and costing 170.-CHF to boot (sorry about the pun). On Monday, when we had all that horrible slush, said boy came home with wet socks, as in the feet bit of the socks were all wet, not the tops. I felt a bit peeved to say the least. So I trolled off to the shoe shop, young son in tow against his will (wanted to play in the slush, not go to a boring shoe shop, obviously) and prepared for a battle of wills and words with the shop assistant. Not so. The boots were still a little damp inside after 24 hours of drying out and so I was given a full refund. It probably helped that the woman in front of me was also returning non-waterproof children's shoes and had just received a refund in full view of myself. Anyway, we came home with new shoes and, if I ask my son one more time if his feet are dry, I think he will disown me...

And now, check this out

First take a serviette and fold it to look like this:

....

This is what the back will look like.

Then, from white card cut out the beard and head shape with wings and also cut out a wavy moustache as shown below. Then cut out an oval shape to put the eyes and nose on - ours is made from orangey coloured card, but a skin tone coloured card would look even better. Use a hole punch and black/red paper to make the eyes and the nose and stick them onto the oval shape. Glue the oval shape and the white moustache onto the main beard shape.

The side "wings" are folded at the back of the serviette - it's best to try for size on the serviette before glueing, marking the two "wings" with a pencil where they should overlap. Then remove the Santa face from the serviette, overlap and glue the two wings using your pencil marks to guide you, then leave to dry completely before sliding onto the serviette.

TTFN!

Räbeliechtli

2010-11-16T11:30:00.000+01:00

It was our village's Räbeliechtli procession last Friday, a traditional lantern procession signalling the end of the harvest, the lanterns being made out of hollowed out beets with candles inside. The procession takes place in the early evening and the village's streetlamps are all turned off for the occasion. I wasn't able to go to the procession last year, but I knew the score and, of course, had been well-informed about date, time and where to purchase said beets by the village newspaper. So I spent most of Friday afternoon, with intermittent help from my 7-year old son, hollowing out the insides of my beets and "carving" a few star shapes into the sides. No mean feat, given that the beets are pretty solid and your shapes have to be etched into the sides without completely cutting through to ensure that the wind doesn't whistle through and blow out your candle (more about that later). Anyway, despite feeling under the weather that afternoon, we gave it our all and were quite happy with our modest efforts. OK, one or two more shapes might have been nice, but this is how they turned out:

Imagine my embarassment then, when we showed up at the starting point to see that everyone else had probably spent a whole week carving and shaping and etching their lanterns, so decorative they were. There were fancy shapes, wavy lines, zig zags, swirls, even children's names. Feeling rather inadequate, I kept telling myself it was the taking part that mattered, but, to make matters worse, a storm was blowing up and the wind kept blowing our candles out. Cursing myself for using cheap IKEA tea light candles and having failed to bring along spare matches, I must have looked a bit dejected. And here's the thing; no-one else's candles were going out. Then someone let me in on the secret - they were all using BATTERY-POWERED candles in their lanterns....Duh! Fortunately someone had some spare (battery-powered) candles and one of my tea lights took pity on me and decided to stay alight for the whole of the procession. Despite everything, a good time was had and needless to say I will first in line for those battery-powered tea lights next year.....

Children's Craft Idea

2010-09-20T16:34:00.007+02:00

I'm always amazed by the things we make at our Children's Craft Group which meets 5 times a year. Take a look at these covered notebooks:

And here's the inside:

The outside is made from corrugated cardboard, with lengths of wool glued into the grooves. A great way to use up scraps of wool and the children got on with the colour schemes all by themselves. I think they've turned out well and they would make good presents too:)

Scrapbooking

2010-09-02T15:13:00.009+02:00

My parents visited recently and, whilst they were here, they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. 2 weeks (!) before the event, I decided to make them a celebratory scrapbook / photo album, featuring photos of them over the years, from their wedding to the present day. That was the first problem. We have many photos of them, but not necessarily of them together, and that was what I really wanted for the album. Not to be deterred, I organized wedding photos to be scanned and sent to me (thanks Brian) and trawled through all my photo files on the computer looking for suitable candidates. Having absolutely no experience of making a scrapbook, I then paid a visit to Scrapandstamp (www.scrapandstamp.ch), an online scrapbooking business, with a "real" shop/workshop which happens to be only 5km from us. The owner of the shop was very helpful and set me up with what I needed without trying to sell me the whole contents of her shop. So far so good, but we then went on holiday for a week, leaving me 7 days to complete my project. On our return, and with my parents already here, but staying at a hotel in Zurich, I spent many (and I mean MANY) hours cutting, sticking, trimming, thinking, fiddling, printing until the masterpiece was finally completed, on the day of the Golden Wedding, 15 mins before we were due to meet them. Talk about cutting things fine. In the end I was pleased with the finished result, although, had I left myself more time I would have liked to add more detail with, for example, 3d stickers and other scrapbookers "stuff". Here are a couple of the (20!!) pages:

Note to self - perhaps more forward-planning???

Back soon.

Children's craft tip

2010-06-24T13:08:00.000+02:00

Together with the rainy weather and a certain little boy being grounded, it's been a wearing time recently. In times like these, it's amazing what you can do with an empty toilet roll:

I found the idea for it here

Anyway, the weather is improving by the day, so I'm off to tackle the garden....

Making a cushion from an old T-shirt....

2010-06-22T13:00:00.000+02:00

Yes, I know. Those of you who know me will be pretty surprised at the title. That's because, when it comes to sewing, I am seriously challenged. That's challenged with a capital C. In fact, even thinking about getting the sewing machine out makes me break out in a cold sweat. By the time I have got it out, my hands are trembling...and not with anticipation or excitement. No, unfortunately I'm not the kind of woman who can rustle up a ball gown from an old scarf and a length of elastic. Alas. So, why on earth would I want to embark on a sewing project, I hear you ask? Well, maybe it was the lure of re-cycling something I had enjoyed wearing, or maybe I know deep down that I must, one day, get to grips with my sewing phobia.
Here's the T-shirt before...

And here it is after my efforts...

Phew - it's actually turned out ok. I drew around a dinner plate to make a paper circle pattern, then pinned the circle over the silver writing on the front of the T-shirt, leaving the T-shirt double and then cut through both layers of material to get a back and a front to my cushion. I then used the sleeves for the strip around the middle. After sewing it up (only broke the thread once :))I hand-stitched the silver cord around the front seam (takes forever if you are me) and finally added the buttons at the bottom to hide the join of the silver cord, as I couldn't think of another way to hide it!

If you have recycled / re-purposed old clothes or fabric and written about it on your blog, why not leave me a comment with the link to that post. Or, if you have come across a good idea for recycling fabrics, please add a comment and the link.

Off to rummage in my sewing box now...

Children's craft tip

2010-06-10T09:08:00.004+02:00

I help out at a children's craft group, which meets 4 times a year and this is what we made this time:

This is a really quick project, with no specialized materials, great for a rainy afternoon. We did it with 6 to 9 year olds.

Materials
Coloured card
Old catalogue
Small piece of holographic paper or tin foil
Glue stick
Scissors
2 x wobbly eyes (if you don't have these, you can draw the eyes on)
Piece of string

First, use a template to cut 2 fish out of coloured cardboard. These will be stuck together, so decide which 2 sides are "outside" and mark the tail of each fish with a small cross.
Next, take an old catalogue and cut out small circles for "scales". You will also need a small amount of holographic paper, as we used, or silver foil, to add the silver scales. Next, starting at the tail end of the fish, using a glue stick, stick the paper scales row by row on to the fish, overlapping them a little and moving towards the head with each "row". Don't forget to randomly intersperse the catalogue scales with shiny silver scales. Add a wobbly eye. Complete a second fish in the same way, making sure you check which side to stick the scales to. Finally, glue the 2 fish together with the scales on the outside, sandwiching a thread between the fish so that you can hang it up.

Bookworm

2010-06-09T09:24:00.006+02:00

Although I've been pretty busy recently, I've still made time for reading and here are the last 3 books I've read:

I've read a couple of these Shopaholic books and they are always fun and light-hearted. Next came something a bit more spine-chilling:

This is the third book in a series with the hero Ben Hope, the first two being "The Alchemist's Secret" and "The Mozart Conspiracy". It's an action-packed thriller and hard to put down, but alot of blood is spilled - not sure if I could stomach this as a film.

Finally, I've just finished this book:

I always enjoy her books. The story is basically how one girl meets a new man and another breaks up with her man and their friend's struggle to come to terms with his cancer. However, the character portrayals are astonishingly detailed, very credible and at times, rather poignant.

Right, off to find a new book now....

Normal service to be resumed shortly...

2010-06-04T13:06:00.008+02:00

I've been a bad blogger recently and deserve to have my wrists slapped accordingly. But I can explain! Shortly after finishing my CELTA course, I was lucky enough to be offered a couple of hours a week teaching. That has come to an end now, but I have enjoyed it immensely. In addition to this, since moving here last August, I have made such an effort to make friends and join in things, that suddenly, everyone wants to be MY friend. I've found myself inundated with things to do - coffees out, people coming over for coffee, Nordic walking, children's craft group and preparation, meetings for end of term presents for teachers etc, etc. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but it has meant that the blog and anything vaguely crafty have had to go on the back burner for a bit. Anyway, now I'm back with a vengeance and, to coincide with my very first pay cheque in Swiss Francs, I'm going to be ordering some supplies with which to re-commence my creative dabblings. Oh, that is, after I've deducted my speeding fine from my pay cheque...Note to self - continue to drive like a grandma - it's easier on the purse.

Bookworm post coming tomorrow....

Progress report..

2010-04-28T10:38:00.000+02:00

We spent a very sunny Saturday at Spieleland, near Ravensburg, Germany. Paradise for kids and pretty enjoyable for the parents too! At the moment it is open from 10 a.m. til 5 p.m., with the "Grüne Oase" section near the entrance/exit open until 6 p.m and you really do need all day to get round everything. On the way home we stopped off for dinner at Immenstaad on Lake Constance and spotted this fabulous ship.

On the crafty front, I have managed to make this bag charm

If using wire to make these charms, sooner or later it becomes brittle from all the swinging back and forth and snaps. If you don't notice, you lose all of your beads, so this time, instead of using wire, I have threaded the beads onto cord. Hope it lasts a bit longer. Any bag charm experts out there - please feel free to leave your tips/comments.

Finally, on the job front, I have been offered my first student by a small local language school. I applied to them in January, pre-CELTA course and they contacted me last week to say they had a potential client for me. I am meeting with him tomorrow, so fingers crossed all goes well....
TTFN

Other people's stuff!

2010-04-22T14:28:00.003+02:00

I've been a bit lacking in the creative department lately - not that teaching isn't creative, of course, but you know what I mean. For that reason, I'm going to show you some things that my nearest and dearest have made recently.
My daughter made this cute pen holder from a tin can at school.

I searched around a bit and found that you can do all sorts of things with tin cans. Look at this and this.

Just before Easter the Mummies were invited to Kindergarten for the afternoon. Any visit to a Kindergarten in Switzerland will involve doing some crafting (Basteln) at some point. And this visit was no exception. Look at what we made:

This started life as a plastic envelope. Draw the basic shape of the chicken with black marker pen on the plastic envelope. Then, before cutting the shape out, put about 3 staples around the black line. This stops the plastic from slipping away from you and disappearing underneath the table when you cut out. Next cut comb, wings, feet and beak from felt. Add all these but the beak by "trapping" them between the 2 layers of plastic with more staples. Glue the beak on the front. Draw the eyes with black marker pen. Finally put a few white feathers in the "body" of the chicken and staple up any gaps in the plastic. We added a thread to the top and our chick is happily hanging in my son's bedroom window.

And last but by no means least, a lovely project from my very talented friend Monique. I know Easter is over for another year, but I am definitely doing this next year.

Monique has kindly provided the instructions for this project:

*Fill one corner of a classical sandwich plastic bag with Plaster of Paris (liquid Gipsmasse/Giessmasse)

* Hang it to dry so that exactly that shape stays

* When dry, paint the chicken in any colours you like

* Cut the beek out of red paper and stick it on the chicken with glue

* Paint eyes or glue on shop-bought funny moving eyes

* Glue feathers to the back

Back soon!

It's not Paris....

2010-04-20T11:16:00.008+02:00

....but it's pretty good! We had planned to go to Paris this weekend. A treat for finishing (and passing) my CELTA course and the children's first city break. However, the cloud of volcanic ash meant that our flight was cancelled, trains were full and we didn't fancy driving, so we stayed at home.

On Saturday we visited the thermal baths at Schinznach , nice, if pricey for a family and definitely more for adults than children. On the way there we bought 6 dining chairs here, something which we've been meaning to do for about 8 months! On Sunday we bought 9 O`clock passes on the Zurich Transport System (11.50.-CHF each with Halbtax, kids free if they have a Junior pass). What great value this was! First we took the train from our village to Zurich main station. Then we rushed over to platform 2 and onto the S10 which took us up the Uetliberg.

Spectacular views from the top despite the murky weather - or was it the volcanic cloud? Then back down into Zurich again, a walk along the Bahnhofstrasse catching the children's parade for Sechseläuten, Zürich's Spring festival. At Bürkliplatz we were drawn to the boats on Lake Zurich and, discovering that our passes entitled us to get on them, on we hopped. An hour later we got off the boat at the lakeside town of Küsnacht and took the train back along the lake to Zurich and then back to our village. Phew! What a lovely day!

Yesterday we had a relaxing day visiting the little town of Stein am Rhein, then continuing along the shores of Lake Constance. We stopped off for ice cream and a paddle and more or less had the lake to ourselves

Then finally dinner on the island of Reichenau before the short drive home. A word of warning, the sun is stronger than you think and my husband and son both got a little sunburnt yesterday. Time to get that suncream out, I think...

All over this weekend, we kept listening to the reports of suspended air traffic and thought of all the unfortunate people stranded at airports. We were grateful that we'd been able to stay at home and still enjoy all these things on our doorstep. I'm sure we will go to Paris sometime, but for now, we'll be checking out our local attractions....

It's nice to get back to blogging - will be showing you some crafty things later this week!

Things

2010-01-20T11:29:00.006+01:00

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately - a whole month without a post. Tut, tut! In fact, one of my old school friends (old as in former, not elderly, obviously!) asked me if she had accidentally been de-registered from my blog updates. No, after 2 weeks in Austria over Christmas and the New Year, I'm now busy Celtering - as in doing the CELTA course in Baden. It's both fascinating and very challenging, as we have to teach real, live language students. Every Friday sees me catching the 6.37 a.m. train from my village clutching my TP (Teaching Practice) materials for dear life. The first time I did my TP I was so nervous, I was literally quaking in my boots! A couple of weeks on and it is still extremely nerve-racking, but somehow good to force myself out of my comfort zone after 9 years of Domestic Engineering. Thank goodness for our fabulous tutors, who are knowledgeable and experienced, motivational and just, well, really nice! The course lasts until April, so normal blog-service should return around then. TTFN!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum.....

2009-12-19T22:59:00.012+01:00

I was recently amused to read Chantal's story about buying a Christmas tree. Yep, can relate to the ins and outs of that. Having grown up in England, I was used to having an artificial tree with a string of lights on and for me, that was really Christmassy. 21 years ago I moved to Austria where Christmas trees are the real thing, for goodness sake and you only bring them in and decorate them on the 24th, not put them up at the end of November and have them jollily twinkling away for the whole of the Christmas period. I always found it a bit of a chore to go and buy a real tree, transport it home, attach it to its base, remember to add water or else the needles would fall off sooner than they already did etc etc. Not to mention the fact that I always missed the date when you can dispose of your tree, so therefore had it forlornly hanging around outside for months. Oh, the memories of that uncomplicated, artificial tree. However, living in Austria and now in Switzerland, I felt it would be unheard of to mention the word "artificial" in the same sentence as the words "Christmas tree". Especially as some people in Switzerland (and I have experienced this) go to a designated area of the forest on a special date and CHOP DOWN THEIR OWN CHOSEN TREE. Imagine my surprise and delight, when, a few years ago, I went round to my ex-neighbour and good friend Monique's house for a coffee around the beginning of December and saw that she had a lovely artificial Christmas tree. Oh, how lovely, I exclaimed. Yes, she said, isn't it. We've had it for years now and always put it away carefully so that it looks nice year after year. No apologies for it not being real, no excuses about not wanting real candles on a tree with 2 small children around. Well, I thought that was my license to buy, so I went out a few days later and purchased an artificial tree. My husband was shocked (he is Austrian), but when we put it up again this year, he did comment on how nice it looked....And Monique? I met up with her last Saturday and asked her if she had her tree up. No, she said. After 18 years of an artificial tree, we thought it about time we got a real one!!

And talking of Christmas trees, how about this easy decoration to make with the kids:

Cut out a Christmas tree from corrugated green paper. Cut out a hole large enough to accomodate a Christmas bauble - our hole is a bit wonky, but you can maybe help with the cutting out. Cut a smaller hole above this hole. Take your bauble and 2 lengths of thin ribbon in green and red (or other Christmassy colours). Thread ribbons through the hook in the top of the bauble and then thread the 2 ribbons first from front to back through the large hole and then from back to front through the smaller hole in the Christmas tree. Tie the four ends of the ribbon in a bow at the front so that you can't see the smaller hole. Add star stickers to decorate if you wish. Pierce a small hole right at the top of the tree and add thread to hang up.

Have a great Christmas everyone. Back in the New Year!

In the interest of integration....

2009-12-11T09:40:00.001+01:00

As you might know, we have recently moved from Basel to our present address near to Zürich. Keen to meet new people and integrate into the community here, I always say yes to any invites I receive and I never cancel. This week one of my neighbours had asked me if I wanted to go with her to Aquafit at the school swimming pool. As this is only a five minutes' walk and as I do like water etc, I saw it as a good opportunity to do a bit more, well, integrating. I thought it was going to be like keep-fit, or aerobics, in the water - you know something jolly and a little bit sporty. Instead it was extremely, excruciatingly embarassing. First of all, we had to put on what looked like a huge, black nappy thing, velcro strips and all, to help us stay afloat. Then the whole "lesson" consisted of jogging round the pool, with a couple of minutes of other exercises in the middle. Have you ever tried jogging in water? It feels a bit like that dream, you know when you want to run away from something, but you can't get away fast enough. Well, the others had all had 8 lessons, so knew the technique but I just ended up feeling self-conscious and ridiculous and wishing I could get out. We spent a good half an hour going round the pool, jogging, I should say, in a figure of eight and had to criss-cross with other people in the middle. Well, I was almost always too slow and consequently constantly missed my "gap". The crunch came when, for one part of this figure of eight circuit, we had to take 2 polystyrene floats, wedge them under each arm and, well, flap with them whilst still jogging. I have no idea what the point of this exercise was, I just knew that I was doing it wrong. As soon as I "flapped", my whole body catapulted upwards and out of the water like Superman or something. But, get this - when the others did it, their bodies stayed in the water. How weird is that? I'm actually having delayed hysterics writing this! No, not my thing. The lesson to be learned here? Integration is good, but there are limits:/

Don't judge a book by its cover and CELTA, I'm in!

2009-12-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

Actually, that's just what I normally do. So when I received this book from my Uncle Brian I was bemused to say the least:

To me the cover promised Mills and Boon romance, definitely not my scene. Anyway, I gave it a go and it was actually a good read. It is set in France and America, with the main character, Mischa, returning to France in later life to conquer his demons.
BTW Santa Montefiore is Tara Palmer-Tomkinson's sister, just FYI.

I also recently read this book:

This was terrific. If you like Dan Brown, you'll love this book. A real thriller, faster-moving than the Dan Brown novels. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyway, that may be the last of my leisure-reading for the moment, as I am busy ordering books on teaching English as a foreign langauge. Yes, I made it onto the CELTA course in January, so my reading matter will be more theoretical for a while. The interview went well and was not as scary as I thought it would be. I've got to complete and pass the course now - keep your fingers crossed for me.....

This is for Juanita!

2009-11-26T10:33:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to a party this week with my husband and children. I got talking to my husband's newest male collegue and the inevitable question arose. "What do you do?", he asked. My heart sank. All too often I've said I'm a stay-at-home Mum to see people's eyes glaze over and it's also a complete conversation stopper. At this point, may I say, if you are guilty of your eyes glazing over when faced with this reply to your question, please learn a couple of useful sentences to get yourself over this, something like "Yes, well that's a very worthwhile career" or "I bet you could tell us a story or two", or something like that. But, I digress. So, yes the dreaded question had been asked. This time, quick as a flash, I told this chap that I was a Domestic Engineer. He was suitably impressed. "Oh, oh, yes, I see," he said. Then a frown formed on his face. "What is that, exactly?", he asked. "Well", I said, "you are probably more familiar with the term Hausfrau". At this point he laughed so much that I thought he was going to spill his drink. And I had to laugh too. And Juanita? See her blog and more specifically her profile. Thanks for the tip, Juanita!

Recycling rules OK!

2009-11-25T15:28:00.009+01:00

I was invited to a party last night with my husband and children. Fortunately I had a fairly new top to wear, but it needed a necklace. As I had to pop into Wintherthur (Winti) on Monday morning, I thought I would quickly stop by the Bead Shop and pick up some beads in the colour of the top and make a necklace. Not so. Both the Bead Shop and the Craft Shop in the same street are closed on Monday mornings. Duhh! Probably to compensate for being open on Saturday and, anyway, who on earth wants to buy beads on a Monday morning ? Apart from me, that is. So I came home and rummaged in my bead stuff and found a necklace which I had made some time ago, but never worn, as I found it too purple in the end.

However, I did like the pendant on this necklace and had made it by re-using the amythest nugget and chips from something else and reworking them onto sterling headpins and a large sterling silver jumpring. And the stones were just the right colour for the top. So I just detatched the pendant and added it to a ready-made cable choker and Bob was my Uncle, if you see what I mean...et voilà:

That all took a couple of minutes - quickest piece of jewellery I've ever made..

Jewellery Organiser

2009-11-12T13:33:00.017+01:00

I'm always looking for ways to organise my stuff and have finally got round to finishing off this necklace/jewellery holder. It is hanging on the inside of my wardrobe door:

Not that it was rocket science or anything - just that anything involving sewing causes me to break out in a cold sweat - I'm actually a bit scared of my sewing machine - I have to psyche myself up to use it. First of all I found a coat hanger, the kind which you can hang trousers over, like this:

I then took an IKEA cushion cover that I no longer used, cut it down to size and hemmed it (is that the right terminology) from the wrong side around all 4 sides, leaving a big gap to turn it to the right side and then hand-stitching the "gap" from the right side. I think it's good to use a thickish material, as this cushions your necklaces from banging against the wardrobe door when you close it. Next, decide which side should be the front and fold the top over the bar of the coat hanger. I added a velcro "spot" to each of the top 2 corners and 2 more spots a few centimetres underneath to be able to "fold" the top few centimetres over the coat hanger and fasten. You could also sew it on. After this I hand-stitched some old-fashioned hooks and eyes onto the front part. I used the same colour thread as the cushion cover for this, but it would also look great in a contrasting colour. You have to play around a little bit with the position of the hooks and eyes - if they are too close together or too close underneath each other your necklaces will not have enough room to hang without getting tangled up with each other. The final stage was to decorate the upper part of the coat hanger - for this I used buttons, press-studs and glass stones that I had in my stash.

I then used a self-adhesive hook from TESA to hang it inside my wardrobe door.

Obviously, pieces of jewellery made from silver or other metal which could tarnish should be kept in air-tight containers, but this is fine for jewellery made from wire, cord etc.

The total cost was a few Swiss francs for the hooks and eyes -all other materials I already had. So now I can take my jewellery out of the shoe box I have been keeping it in since we moved house - hey, maybe I can use that shoe box for something! Watch this space.

CELTA interview

2009-11-10T09:26:00.004+01:00

I have applied to do a CELTA course at the beginning of next year. CELTA is the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. Having now been a stay at home Mum for nearly 9 years, I feel it is high time to edge my way back into the adult world and I am hoping that this qualification will enable me to teach English here in Switzerland on a freelance basis and so fit in with the school schedules of my children. My application for the course consisted of a fairly lengthy pre-interview task - grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation questions, a proof-reading task and a 500-word report. My application has been successful and I have now been invited to an interview this Friday, which will last for 4 hours (!) and consist of general information on the course, a group task and a one-to-one interview with a tutor to discuss the pre-interview task I submitted. Getting an interview does not mean that I have a place on the course. I have worked out that the last formal interview I had was in 1995, so naturally, I am feeling a little apprehensive, let alone the fact that I don't have anything really suitable to wear - obviously can't pole up in my normal "uniform" of jeans and a fleece! So, wish me luck and, if anyone has any comments, information or the like on the CELTA course, I would be really interested to hear them.

New necklace

2009-10-31T20:35:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago I spent a very pleasant day in Zürich with my friend Jennifer, whom I know from Basel. Zürich is a throbbing metropole, with shops everywhere. In fact, I felt that my head was on a swivel, I didn't know what to look at first, and that was even before I'd got out of the railway station! I need to get out more! Anyway, alot of chatting was done, quite a bit of walking, several minutes admiring the lake, a nice lunch and then a wander around the narrow streets. It was there that we chanced upon the Bead Box bead shop and thought we might as well pop in (well, it would have been rude not to). A few beads were purchased and this is what I made with them.

I have been meaning to make something like this for a while and thought that knotting a bit of cord around a few beads would be mega straight-forward. But, actually, it was quite fiddly, as I kept thinking of things to add and then having to undo all the knots I'd made. Duhh! Still very enjoyable though.

You can see what Jennifer made with her beads here.

Happy Halloween!

Hunting

2009-10-26T09:56:00.007+01:00

I'm posting this story (apologies to those who have heard it), as it is typical of the sort of thing that happens to me. As you may know, we have recently moved to a new area. A few weeks ago, we invited the neighbours round one Saturday evening for drinks. We just invited our "row", which was the lady next door and the couple from the other "end" house, with their 12 year old son, so very small. I knew the man at the end house was something to do with hunting as, having been in their house briefly, I have seen they have antlers hanging on the wall etc. So I asked him if he had a hunting lodge (Jägerhütte), knowing this would fascinate my son Alex. BTW I thought a Jägerhütte was one of those things on stilts that hunters observe from. Anyway, yes he had a Jägerhütte and after the first drink he invited us all up to the Hütte the next evening to do some shooting (!?). He also mentioned he is often called out when deer are hit by cars and has to look for the deer to put it out of its misery. Bear in mind that we are now in Züri Duutsch (Swiss German, but Zürich area Swiss German) so I am not sure if I am getting the right end of the stick. So the invitation was accepted and times were arranged etc. I was beginning to feel a bit apprehensive about this shooting thing and also if it was suitable for children. I thought we might have to dress up in plus fours and camouflage etc, not that I have any plus fours, but you know what I mean. So, next day, late afternoon the neighbours came round to check that we were ready and said they just had to get the guns ready etc! CRIPES!! We set off in convoy, drove around 7km down country lanes and through sleepy villages before arriving at the hut in the forest. It was a proper Hütte, a little wooden house with benches in, a kitchenette etc. So now to the shooting part. Imagine the look on my face when 2 tables were set up. One for us to sit round with drinks and snacks and the other one with the AIR RIFLES ON, with little targets set up in the space in front of the Hütte......

The moral of this story - although I have lived in Switzerland for over 8 years and think that I am quite proficient at understanding the language, I still don't always get it!!

I was pretty relieved tho' ......

Castles and Cakes

2009-10-13T09:16:00.005+02:00

The children are on the second week of their Autumn half-term holiday and we have quite a busy week planned, as it is my son's 6th birthday on Thursday. We are off into town today to spend his birthday money - when I asked him what he wanted to spend it on, he cooly replied that he would see what he could get for that amount! Logical really. Then tomorrow we are making the Birthday Cake for the party on Thursday. Now, as I have mentioned before, I am not naturally domesticated and things like making a birthday cake can, quite frankly, send me into a flat spin. This time last year was a good example. I asked my son what kind of cake he would like for his birthday, thinking along the lines of chocolate or carrot. "A Knights' Castle one", he replied. Aha. So I thought about it for a while and reckoned I only had to make 2 loaf cakes to make a castle with 2 towers. I had got the 2 cakes in the oven when I had a horrible thought. I had cleaned the oven the day before and realized now, when the cakes were beginning to rise, that I had forgotten to clean the stuff off the oven door!!! Well, that was that. I couldn't use those cakes and risk poisoning 8 children. So the cakes were dumped and the oven door was scrubbed to within an inch of its life. Now, at this stage, a normal person would have just gone out and bought 2 loaf-shaped cakes, cut them up and decorated them. However, 2 of the children coming to the party had a wheat allergy, so I had to make the cakes again myself using non-wheat flour. Duhh!! It took me until 11pm and then I spent the whole morning decorating the cakes to make them ressemble a castle of sorts.

After all that, my son, over-excited by his presents and his friends, barely gave the cake a second glance. And the wheat-allergy kids? They didn't want a piece of cake. I can assure you that this year's cake will be a simple affair with 6 candles...

Back from our hols

2009-10-12T11:25:00.010+02:00

We have just come back from a fabulous holiday. Did we go to the Med., Disneyland or do a sophisticated city break? No, we went to the Bregenzerwald. Booked true to style just 2 days before going, the Bregenzerwald is a mountainous region situated in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, which is the western-most province in Austria. Less than a 2-hour drive from home, we had booked accomodation on a farm. This was a first for us, as I have always imagined these farm holidays to be pongy and rather dull. NOT SO! It wasn't pongy, but peaceful and it wasn't dull, but delightful. Our accomodation was a very comfortable apartment on the first floor of the farmer's home. These were the views from the apartment:

Our Bregenzerwald card (included in the price of the accomodation if you stay for 3 nights or more) entitled us to ride free of charge on various mountain lifts (cable cars and chair lifts), so we did and marvelled at the spectacular views:

Every evening there was "children's entertainment" in the form of watching the cows being milked in the modern cowshed and feeding the calves and pigs. Bliss for our 5-year old son. Plus we watched cheese being made, went to see how traditional wooden tiles are made to insulate the houses and dangled from ropes in the trees in a specially build adventure playground. Dull? Definitely not!

Am I missing the point?

2009-09-21T22:55:00.004+02:00

Do you ever flick through a magazine, see a piece of jewellery and then the price tag and wonder how an earth it can cost that much? I don't mean the pieces crafted from gold and precious stones, but things made from plastic, wool, cotton, wood etc. I was looking for a tutorial on how to make a ribbon necklace when I stumbled across this from Jessica in her blog Happy Together. Basically Jessica spotted a ribbon and pearl necklace in a magazine for $1,320. Well, I'm sorry if I'm missing the point, but how an earth can a couple of lengths of ribbon and 4 pearls add up to that much money? Unless the pearls were really valuable? Anyway, in the tutorial, Jessica makes more or less the same necklace for just a few dollars and it looks great. In fact, her blog is really worth looking at for the diversity of creative ideas up there. Right, off to find some ribbon now...

Obsessed with Constance

2009-09-15T19:33:00.010+02:00

One thing we hadn't considered when we bought this house is the proximity to Lake Constance. It's a half hour drive. As we haven't had a seaside holiday for a couple of years, that water has become a bit of a magnet to us. The lake is bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Austria and is Central Europe's third largest, after Lake Balaton and Lake Geneva. It is 63 km long, and at its widest point, nearly 14 km wide. Lake Constance (Bodensee in German) provides fresh water for many cities in south Germany.

There are lots of things to do there. So far we have taken a pedalo out on the lake, wandered around the narrow streets of the town of Constance, taken the ferry across the lake to Meersburg, taken the speedy catamaran

across the lake to Friedrichshafen

where we visited the Zeppelin Museum and, most recently, swam in the Thermal Baths which are fabulously warm and situated directly on the lakeside. When you swim out of the indoor pool into the very heated outdoor pool, you have the sensation of swimming out into the lake and you can watch all the sailing boats and pleasure boats go by. BTW we didn't do all of these things on the same day!

As far as domestic matters are concerned, we are still trying to furnish our new living room, which is a funny shape and a bit tight for size. For weeks now my husband has been saying we should move our largish sofa over to the other wall. I have repeatedly pooh-poohed this idea, coming up with a host of reasons why we shouldn't. At the beginning of the week we consulted an expert in a rather nice furniture shop and presented him with a plan of our living room and a little paper cut out (yes, really!) of our sofa. Imagine the look on my face, then, when his very first comment was that we needed to move our sofa onto the other wall. Duh! Well, we took his advice and moved everything round as soon as we got home and it has really opened up the room. Said husband tried (and failed) not to look too smug after this. At least he didn't say "I told you so"......

Parents are usually right....

2009-09-08T10:11:00.005+02:00

My parents insist on carrying 2 different credit cards - in case the first one doesn't work. I have always scoffed at this - why should a credit card NOT work? Well, I was made to eat my words the other day. I had a free morning and the car and decided to go to a shopping centre I had spotted on the outskirts of our new local town. Not a fan of shopping centres usually, but I needed kids' clothes, toiletries and food and all that was available under one roof, with parking underneath and I reckoned I could do all of that door to door within 2 hours. Not so. In the first shop I stocked up on all kinds of toiletries and went to pay with the (ONLY) credit card I had brought along. It was refused 3 times. I knew I had paid the bill off in full, was not therefore over my credit limit and that I had informed them in writing of our change of address. I was really embarrassed and ended up using all of my cash to get out of the shop with my purchases. As I had no other means of payment on me, the only thing I could do was go home, fuming, where I had to raid my swimming bag for a few coins to go to the local shop to get some stuff for lunch. What a palaver! An irate 'phone call to the credit card people shed light on the matter. It was a technical fault which would be sorted out by early afternoon. AARRGGHH. The moral of this story? Always carry 2 different credit cards, IN CASE THE FIRST ONE DOESN'T WORK!!!

On a more light-hearted note, I made this card yesterday for a friend who wanted our new address, but who wouldn't be fobbed off with an email or a text message containing that info. No, she wanted a good, old-fashioned card. As most of my craft stuff is still in boxes, I was a bit limited, but managed to come up with this:

I have to admit, it is much nicer than an email and I had fun making it - spot the copycat - have copied the design my daughter did in her art lesson at school.

Right, off to cook the kids a gourmet lunch - joking, obviously, more like rustle something up in the kitchen that they will actually eat....

When in doubt, ask a man?

2009-08-26T19:34:00.010+02:00

Hmm...not my usual tactics, but it worked for me today. After having moved house 13 days ago, I thought it about time to go and fetch the new license plates for the car. Those of you in the U.K. don't have this problem when you move house, as the number plates stay with the car, but in Switzerland, if you move Kanton (which is like a county or a state) like we have, you have to have the appropriate car number plate displaying the relevant Kanton. Having enquired what I needed to take along on the Internet and on the 'phone, I felt relatively confident of being able to get it sorted. Obviously, crucial to the whole process is the act of giving in your old license plates. Before I left I had a quick look at them and had no idea how to remove them from the car. Well, that's obviously because it's fairly dark in the garage, I thought to myself. Guided by the lady in our navigation system, I found the office with no problems and then set about the removal of said number plates. But even in very bright daylight I could not see how to remove them. As I have said before, and will say again, I can be a bit slow at times. Never mind, I thought, there's bound to be some kind soul inside who knows the solution to this small but crucial problem. However, inside there was a very long queue and numerous counters, non of whom I felt I could approach with my "problem". So, feeling more than a little conspicuous, not to mention defeated, I slunk outside again and decided to go home, with my old license plates and ask someone for advice. Seeing as how I don't really know anyone in my new village and my husband is away on a business trip, I'm not sure whom I thought this "someone" would be. As I was pulling out of the car park I noticed a woman trying, to no avail, to work out how to remove her license plates!! I quickly re-parked the car, jumped out and promptly accosted said woman (nicely, of course) about how to get them off (if you see what I mean). She also had no idea and was completely baffled. At this point, initiative was called for and, noticing 2 young men out of the corner of my eye (being mid-40s, any man under 30 is a "young man"), I called them over to help. In the blink of an eye (well, about 30 seconds) they removed both license plates. Just like that!! I had failed to notice some slidy bit which you have to, well, slide??!! Duhh. Thanking the 2 Young Men profusely, I dashed over to Baffled Woman and triumphantly showed her the slidy trick. To cut a long story short, I now have the correct license plates and feel quite proud of them too.

Still lots of boxes to unpack, kitchen half-finished, lamps to connect etc - beads have been located but at the moment I am more concerned with making sure the children are settling in and working out how I can get more adult conversation into my day. Our local town is really nice and has a bead shop and a craft shop in the same street - for future reference.....

The only creative one at the moment is my daughter - I was amazed when she brought these cards home from school the other day, made in her craft lesson...

The photo is a bit flat, the cards look much more 3d in real life. I'll be copying this design myself for sure.

Back soon!

Book reviews and blog-resting

2009-07-25T18:28:00.008+02:00

It's been a while since I posted - the reason being our imminent relocation. It's been a painful process, coming to terms with moving away from everything and everyone here, but I think I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel - and it's not the train! We finally found a house, after 6 months' searching and, although it is not the dream house I imagined we would be buying, it is very practical - near to the schools, shops and train station, so I am hopeful it will all turn out OK. We are having a wall knocked down to make an open-plan living area, so that is quite exciting...

A couple of book reviews

This was a really easy, light read - perfect for the beach, if you are going.

And this one was a brilliant read. Not the kind of book I usually choose - normally I am put off by the word "spy" in the title, but it was full of suspense and had a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but I can be a bit slow at times! Anyway, I can recommend it and will be looking out for the sequel by this author.

Due to my preoccupation at the moment for all things removal-related, I have absolutely no desire (or space in my brain) to create things. I will therefore be "resting" my blog until after the move and will hopefully have some things to show in the Autumn. Have also got my eye on an Art Clay Silver course in my "new" local town:) I got my tools out one last time this week (before I pack them safely away in one of the many boxes that our house is "growing") to do a couple of repairs and make a new bag charm for Cathy, as she was visiting this week and kindly helped with a fair bit of packing.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog so far - comments always welcome.
Back soon!
Vicky

Look at this!

2009-06-27T15:50:00.006+02:00

Isn't this just fab? It was given to me yesterday by my friend Martina as a leaving present (more about leaving another time). She bought it from a shop called "Eigen Art" in nearby Rheinfelden. The owner, Anita Klaus, makes much of the jewellery herself -you can look at the shop's website here (go to "Schmuck" to see the jewellery) and she also sells pretty accessories. Think I will have to check it out in person. No time to create at the moment - kids off school now, then it will be nose to the packing boxes...Back soon!

The Other Side

2009-06-17T13:32:00.005+02:00

Always try to see the other person's point of view, especially when the other person is 5 years old! I had a situation a few days ago, where it was the end of a long day, husband away on business trip, 2 children to get ready for bed, kitchen to sort out, 2 pairs of roller blades plus knee, elbow, hand pads to put away, lawn to de-clutter of toys and "tools" - I'm sure you get the picture. When I came into the house, I found the living room covered in Lego "projects" from one corner to another. "And this will all have to be put away", I barked, non too sensitively I might add. "But I need it", wailed said 5 year old son. "Well, tell me which bits you need and we'll put the rest away", says I, quite reasonably I thought. "But I need it ALL", was the answer. Voices were raised, tempers were lost, hair was nearly torn out etc. When we had calmed down, I got to thinking - how would I like it, if I was in the middle of some beading project and someone told me I had to put it all away!? Well, I wouldn't be too pleased would I? So, I left all the Lego out thinking that if a messy living room was the price I had to pay for a contented, happy 5-year old child, then so be it. And I left it like that for several days. Who cares if the only way to get onto the settee was to launch myself, Superman-style, to avoid treading on the Lego train track circling the coffee table? My son was happy, that was the main thing. In the middle of all this chaos I managed to make this:

I've also been dabbling in making paper beads - more of that another time. TTFN.

Comments

2009-06-03T17:12:00.005+02:00

I have been a bit down lately over the lack of comments on my blog. I realize I need to get more pictures of jewellery up there, but am on a go-slow at the moment in most areas of my life, for which I apologize. I'm sure it will pick up. Hopefully sooner rather than later. That aside, I did get to thinking about the act of leaving comments on peoples' blogs and I realized that I too have become a bit lazy about this. I used to be much better, actively proffering my comments and (most importantly) encouragement wherever I could. Now, those of you who read blogs but don't write one will not necessarily know how important your comments are to us bloggers. Without them you begin to wonder if you've got a cyber form of B.O. or if your waffling really has a future. So, to all you blog readers out there, sign up for your free Google account asap - this enables you to leave those all important comments. You can sign up by clicking on the comments link after this post and then clicking on the link to sign up. Happy commenting !

How our lives change.....

2009-05-27T22:05:00.000+02:00

It'll be 9 years this Autumn since I gave up work - by work, I mean "paid employment outside the home" of course! I was reminded how much my life has changed by a phone call I received a couple of weeks ago. The nice lady on the phone said she was ringing about the trailer I had ordered. I couldn't think what she was talking about and, seeing as I had been surfing on e-bay that morning, wondered what I had done now. Bear with me, as this call was in a foreign language and sometimes I am a bit slow to catch on. Ahh, now I remembered. The lady was from a toy shop in town and was talking about a very specific toy trailer which I had ordered for my 5 year old son. She was just ringing to confirm the price and the fact that one lying down cow was included. At this point I had to stifle a giggle and those who know me will know that that can be tricky for me at times. Heartily, I joined in the conversation and said I was glad to hear that one lying down cow was included, as it was important that the accessories were the correct scale. As I worked in tourism prior to having children, my phone conversations used to be about double and single rooms, meal plans, cancellations, prices, contracts etc. But thinking about it, I think I would rather talk about toy trailers and lying down cows. I think I need to find a job. Soon.
BTW I have been tagged by the lovely Sam of Saffie's Blog. Will get my 8 things together and post them here asap !

Uncle Brian

2009-05-16T18:13:00.003+02:00

It's great having an Uncle Brian. Not only does he pass on loads of books to me, sometimes with witty notes in the margin, and send me silly jokes by e-mail, but he also provides me with EASY RECIPES! I'm not a whizz in the kitchen and anything with more than a handful of ingredients makes my eyes glaze over, so the following recipe is right up my street:

Uncle Brian's Caribbean Chicken

1 tablespoon oil
2 chicken breasts, skinned
1 onion, chopped
1 green or red pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons of flour
1 small tin of pineapple chunks (watch out, these get very hot, take care when eating)
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 teaspoons curry powder
half pint of chicken stock (stock cube is fine)

Heat oil and fry chicken until brown. Transfer to casserole dish. Fry onion and pepper. Transfer to casserole dish with the chicken. Mix rest of ingredients, add to pan and bring to the boil. Pour over chicken, onion and pepper and cook for one and a quarter hours at 180°C. Great served with rice.

And why am I telling you all this? Because it's his birthday today.
Happy Birthday Brian!

Book review

2009-05-14T11:37:00.005+02:00

As you know, I am a bit of a bookworm. I've just finished reading this book, which my Auntie lent me during my last visit to the U.K:

I'd never read anything by Marcia Willett before and I must say, it is a really good read, very well written and one of those books you keep wanting just to read a few more pages of to see what happens (cursing yourself next day for not going to bed earlier!). The story revolves around Lizzie and her search later in life to find her mother's former lover, who became like a father to her, but who ultimately went back to his wife. It is set for the most part in Dunster, a picturesque village on Exmoor and this was a bit of trip down memory lane for me too. As a child, we used to drive down to North Devon from the Midlands for a week each Summer. As we set off during the night, we used to have a breakfast stop in Dunster and I can still picture the Yarn Market. What a lovely surprise then, this week, with the book still fresh in my mind, to receive a postcard of the Yarn Market, Dunster from my Auntie and Uncle who are on holiday in Devon this week.

I'd be interested to know if you find these reviews useful/interesting :) Off to find a new book now.....

Purple

2009-05-12T17:32:00.003+02:00

In the end I made a casual necklace - here it is:

I faffed around quite a bit with it, before leaving it fairly simple. The large amethyst stone and the amethyst chips on the dangle (which you can only just see) have been recycled from an old necklace, so feeling a bit green as well as purple...

New Features

2009-05-11T08:44:00.004+02:00

Hope you all had a happy Mother's Day ! We went to the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen. A bit smaller than Niagara, obviously, but stunning all the same. We took a boat ride right up to the Falls and felt the spray - very refreshing on a hot day !

I have added 2 features to my blog to let you keep up to date more easily. The first is the "subscribe by e-mail" feature, which you will see to the right of this post. Just enter your e-mail address in the box, press subscribe and you're done. Scroll further down and again, on the right, you will see the "Subscribe in a reader" icon. Both features are quick and easy to use and mean you are notified each time there is a new post on my blog.

I have made a start on the purple jewellery I mentioned last week, so should be posting that soon.

Have a great week!

An Important Subject

2009-05-06T11:46:00.003+02:00

How To Recognize A Stroke

Here is a translation of an e-mail I received recently. Especially as many of us have elderly relatives, this could be important:

During a BBQ a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit pale and shaken up, the rest of the evening passed without incident. The woman's husband called later to say that his wife had been taken to the hospital - a little later she died. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ - had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke she may have been saved.

----- A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within 3 hours which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

3 steps. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. . It is sunny out today)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call the emergency services immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

*****************************************************

I also found these criteria from the American Stroke Association:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

If you or someone with you has one or more of these signs, don't delay! Also, check the time so you'll know when the first symptoms appeared. It's very important to take immediate action. If given within three hours of the start of symptoms, a clot-busting drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can reduce long-term disability for the most common type of stroke. tPA is the only FDA-approved medication for the treatment of stroke within three hours of stroke symptom onset.

A TIA or transient ischemic attack is a "warning stroke" or "mini-stroke" that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage. Recognizing and treating TIAs can reduce your risk of a major stroke. The usual TIA symptoms are the same as those of stroke, only temporary. The short duration of these symptoms and lack of permanent brain injury is the main difference between TIA and stroke.

**********************************************************************
I, for one, had no idea how to recognize these signs, nor that time is paramount when seeking treatment. I'm making every effort to commit these steps to memory.

Making boxes from old greeting cards

2009-05-05T16:58:00.003+02:00

Check out this tutorial - it's a great, recycling idea.

Clothes

2009-05-05T16:17:00.008+02:00

I'm not very good with clothes. By that, I don't mean that I walk around like a scarecrow - it's just that I never know what suits me. Being short, I tend to feel frumpy and dumpy in everything. Then there's the question of colour - do I need to go for pastels, cool black and white, brights or pattern ? Hmm. I often try on half of the shop and non of it is any good. So frustrating - is it just me I wonder? Anyway, no-one was more surprised than me, when, the other day, I managed to buy 8 tops in one morning! Yes, 8. And 7 of them from the same shop. According to all the magazines (well, OK then, Marie-Claire) we should be going for bold blocks of colour this season. Good job then, that a number of my tops fit this bill. Phew ! Usually, by the time I've got the message what might be in fashion and psyche myself up to go out and buy it, it's out of fashion. I must say that I am well chuffed with my purchases and this little spree caused me to go through my jewellery to see if anything would go with the new clothes or if I would have to make new pieces! Surprisingly, I had necklaces to go with most of the things, except for the 2 purple tops I had bought. So next I got my bead stash out and this is what I found:

Come back soon to see what I made.

And the winner is....

2009-04-28T22:11:00.002+02:00

Thanks to those who left comments for the giveaway earrings. The winner is ...Heather!! Could you drop me an e-mail on swissside.jewellery@tele2.ch with your full name and address and I will mail you those Lemon and Lime earrings asap :)

Lemon & Lime Earrings Giveaway

2009-04-21T16:47:00.013+02:00

We popped over the border to Germany a couple of weeks ago (like you do!) and I remembered that the town had a little bead shop. "I'll only be 10 minutes" I told my husband and children and left them finishing their ice creams in the town square. By the time I got to the bead shop I only had 5 minutes left (duuh), but managed to spot some lemony, limey round beads before I thought I really should be getting back. I've been in this shop once before and know the owner is struggling to stay solvent. It seems that she is selling her stock off now. Standing to pay for my few beads, the owner said "Oh, just stick those in your pocket dear !". I couldn't do that, so I left the money on the counter and in true Arnold Schwarzenegger style said "I'll be back (when I've got more time)". So where is this tale going I hear you ask. Well, this is what I made with the beads:

They are quite dainty as they are only about 3cm long including the (sterling silver) ear wires. I actually made 2 pairs, so, to celebrate getting to over 25 posts on my blog, I am giving one pair away. If you would like to receive these earrings, please leave a comment after this post telling me which of my posts you have found most interesting/entertaining/useful AND/OR which piece of jewellery I have featured so far that you like best. I will put the names of those who leave a comment into a "hat" and pull out the winner next Tuesday, April 28th. Right, off to rustle up something for dinner now. Hey ho!

Revamping

2009-04-17T10:40:00.002+02:00

I like these earrings. With beads bought in Italy, I made them when I had just learned a few basics and following the method used by my local bead shop where I did an evening class. Basically, they make earrings by threading a piece of beading wire through the loop in the ear wire, then folding the wire double and passing the double wire through the beads, then finishing with a crimp. The method is quick and easy, but I never felt happy with the crimp at the bottom of the dangle. Since I've discovered headpins (!), I've moved on from the above method and now that I can make ear wires from sterling silver wire and bash them to work-harden them, I thought it was time to revamp those earrings. This is how they came out:

Apologies for the naff photos, due to too much sun (not really complaining) and having to use my old digital camera which doesn't like photographing small objects ! Mind you, these are the second pair of ear wires I made. One of the first pair flew off when I decided to cut off the headpin and add a second bead. I have not seen that ear wire since and, as I work at the dining table, I am slightly concerned that it will end up sticking in one of the children's bottoms, when they are playing Lego on the floor. :(

Hammers

2009-04-16T16:41:00.003+02:00

A few weeks ago I said to my husband "I need some hammers". "We've got hammers in the cellar", he said. "Yes, but not the sort I need", I said. He probably rolled his eyes at that. But it was true. When following wire-work instructions, I always had to ignore the bits that said "now work-harden on your steel block" or "now flatten with a chasing hammer". Duuh ! Anyway, my 5-year old son was very impressed when Mummy received a parcel from Beadsisters, containing 2 hammers and a steel block. And since then I have been able to bash things (metal bits, I mean!) and very satisfying it is too.

I have been sensibly using craft wire to practise, and, as you can see from the photo, this is very wise, as it takes a few goes to get the shapes right and also to find out which lengths of wire work best. Never thought I would buy myself a hammer, though......:)

Ups and Downs

2009-04-07T09:09:00.006+02:00

I've had an up and down couple of weeks -which is why I haven't posted. Ups have been provided by my friends and their positive support and the laughs I have with them and also by the funny things my children say. Downs caused by the sheer uncertainty of the months ahead due to our relocation, the fact that we still have not found a house, the negotiations on the house we wanted not having been successful and by doubting the whole sanity of moving 2 children and myself from somewhere we like for the sake of one husband's job. All this and a mega dose of PMT and I'm sure you get the picture. When I read this I feel ashamed, as there are so many people with far worse on their hands. This kind of mood completely blocks my creativity - I just don't feel inspired. I have read so often that people use creativity as a kind of therapy - I wish I could learn to do that. Anyway, enough of this. The last 2 days have been glorious weather-wise and, clichéd as it might sound, I have been cheered up by the sight of things starting to grow in the garden and the fact that yesterday it was so warm we didn't need to wear socks ! I also managed to get this finished:

I was also surprised and cheered up to see that my blog is being read in several different countries. As well as the U.K and the U.S (thanks to all of you for reading and also for leaving your comments), and my friends in Italy, Switzerland and Austria, I see that I have readers in Thailand, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, France and Belgium. I'd love to hear your comments too !

Right, feeling better already. Back soon.

Austrian Jasper

2009-03-25T11:29:00.004+01:00

This is one of my favourite pieces as it goes with everything and has a story.
My husband is from the south of Austria and on a visit there a couple of years ago we visited the Turracher Höhe to take the children down the Summer Toboggan Run. By chance we discovered a shop / museum of gemstones - alpin + art + gallery. Gemstones from all over the world are displayed inside and outside and have been left in their natural state, made into jewellery or sculptures. It was difficult to have a good look round with 2 energetic children with us, but before we left we bought the above 3 beads - red jasper and rock crystal, all found locally. I had all kinds of ideas what to do with the beads, but in the end just strung them on a deep burgundy leather cord. I have worn it lots, but alas, the leather is now beginning to look a bit worse for wear - I have plans to restring those beads - watch this space....

Awards

2009-03-24T20:31:00.009+01:00

I'm feeling rather chuffed, as I have received 2 awards this week ! The first is this one, the Marie-Antoinette Award, from Ali at All About the Beads. According to some information I found, the award is for "regular people posting about their everyday life". Crikey ! Ali's was one of the very first blogs that I read - I was blown away by her jewellery and find the other "bits" really interesting too. Ali was also kind enough to give me tips on good online bead sites, most of which I have subsequently used. Thanks Ali !

The second award, the Lemonade Award, is from Kristin at K.S. Jewellery Designs.

Kristin nominated me along with 8 others for having, as she put it, "a positive attitude towards others and their blogs". Wow - I am really thrilled, as I have only been blogging since November, so this is a real boost. Thanks Kristin. I am, of course, keen to pass these on.

Here are the rules for the award:
1.Put the logo on your blog or post
2.Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude.
3.Be sure to list and link your nominees within your post.
4.Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5.Nominate your favorites and link to your post

Here are my nominees, for the reasons listed above, but for also being a constant source of inspiration, motivation, entertainment and, at times, amusement:

Debora - Beadin' by the Sea

Leah - Michon Jewellery Blog

Contrariwise ramblings

Ali - All About the Beads

Jo - Daisychain Designs

Magriet - Babushka Jewellery Design

Veryan - Beady Pool

Lesley - Coburg Crafts

Manda - Jewellery Craft / Silver Storm

Heather - Bumpy Beads

Barbara - Wildberry Jewellery

Back tomorrow with a jewellery pic.

Happy Birthday to Me !!

2009-03-18T17:16:00.006+01:00

Yes, I'm 44 today :) I must say, I celebrate my birthdays enthusiastically. Who cares if I'm one year older, as long as I'm happy and healthy. I've had a lovely birthday so far. My husband baked me a cake late last night, with a little help from the children and we sampled it this morning for breakfast, candles and hundreds and thousands and all. Then my friends took me out for a little retail therapy and a coffee. Not only did they egg me on to buy some (much needed) shoes, but they also gave me this lovely bead for my Pandora bracelet:

Thanks to Kim, Lou and Jennifer for all that.

Back at home I found a present waiting for me from Cathy in Turin:

Funnily enough, I got out some green beads yesterday afternoon, but decided they were too dull to make anything with. No excuse now !

And finally, a very rare picture of me, because it is my birthday and because I have washed and dried my hair, am wearing a smidgen of make-up, a nice necklace and a top which doesn't have any spots of spaghetti sauce on it:

Off to have a glass of wine now. TTFN.

Gotcha !

2009-03-10T11:18:00.003+01:00

How cute is he ? One of a pair of goldfinches that visit our bird table daily. Before we had the bird table I could just about identify a blackbird, so that just shows you're never too old to learn. Kids back at school and Kindergarten now, so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet in the mornings. Still loads to do re moving, but, we have found a house !! Not quite doing somersaults yet (more kind of forward rolls) as the price is over budget and the bank have to approve it yet etc, but a girl has got to have hope :) Have a good week.

Snow Time

2009-03-03T11:28:00.006+01:00

We're back from a week's skiing in a tiny Swiss resort called Mörlialp. This photo was taken on one of the runs down. Beautiful, isn't it ? We hadn't planned on having a skiing holiday this year, then friends offered us their lovely apartment there (thanks, Kim and Andy for that). Mörlialp is situated about 40 mins from Lucerne, at the top of a 12km windy road. You literally can't go any further and all the accomodation is right at the bottom of the slopes. There are 2 restaurants, but no shops, not even a supermarket, so our week consisted of skiing and eating ! Oh, and due to no computer or Internet, I got to read this book:

It's a good read, really funny.
When we went to hire our skis, we had to give our weight to get the bindings set up right. I was rather indignant to discover that the ski shop's scales showed my weight as 3.5 kg more than my scales at home !! However, I was wearing boots and carrying my bag when I weighed myself. When I got home, still feeling a little bit ruffled, I decided to weigh said boots and bag. Brilliant. (You can just imagine me doing this, very surreptitiously I might add). Anyway, these added up to 1.6 kg, leaving just about 2kg "unaccounted for". I reckoned I would ski this off anyway. And the moral of this story ? Always weigh yourself on the same set of scales ? Don't bother with scales at all ? Take your pick. Needless to say I have not weighed myself since coming home:{
Another thing I noticed - after 4 days my 2 children can ski more effortlessly down a steepish slope than I can after 20 years ! Kim would say it is all to do with their centre of gravity....
It's taking me ages to write this as I keep getting called away to play knights and castles - kids have this week off school. This, plus the fact that we are RELOCATING (aaagghh!!) means that time for jewellery making is a little thin on the ground at the moment. Yes, we are moving from Basel to Zürich, so still staying in Switzerland. Good job that, or I would have had to think up a new blog name...So at the moment we are feverishly looking for a house to move to around the beginning of July. We will be leaving behind some very good friends and neighbours, so it will be a bit of a wrench, but we will hopefully find our feet sooner rather than later.
This has turned into rather a mammoth post, so TTFN.

Fasnacht

2009-02-16T17:02:00.003+01:00

This is what the villages all around the city of Basel look like at the moment - all decorated ready for Fasnacht (Carnival). It is a mega event and I couldn't even begin to explain about it here. The Fasnacht of Basel will take place this year from the 2nd to the 4th of March and in the surrounding villages next weekend. For the children the Fasnacht starts this Thursday afternoon, when they take part in a parade in their villages, all dressed in costumes they have often made themselves at Kindergarten and school. My son's Kindergarten will be owls this year and they have been working hard on their costumes. The parents don't get to see the costumes until perhaps one day before the parade, when they proudly bring them home for a final fitting. For my son it is his first Fasnacht parade, for my daughter her fourth - in the past she has been a flame, a mouse and a penguin and this year she is going as a witch. I'll be posting some pictures of the event at the end of the week. Take care til then:)

Messing around...

2009-02-15T16:34:00.007+01:00

It's been a bit quiet on the jewellery making front recently, but I managed to grab half an hour last week and make this pendant:

I did it freehand by bending the wire around a marker pen and was amazed that it came out the right size for the Swarovski and glass beads. The downside - as it was only a practice piece, I made it with craft wire and I'm now kicking myself I didn't use my sterling wire. Still, that gives me a little project for next week :)

Still on the theme of hand-made ear wires, I tried this:

I love looking at dangly earrings and I love them on other people, but when I wear them myself I feel self-conscious and, well, dangly ! I remembered the pearl earrings I bought for my wedding were this style, with the ear wire coming directly out of the pearl and therefore not so long (bet there's a proper name for that !), so I had a go. They are really comfortable to wear.

Finally, I made this for my keyring

This just needs a silver charm hanging from the bottom to finish it off, but not bad for half an hour, eh ??

That woman

2009-02-03T11:05:00.002+01:00

This is for all of you with kids and for those of you who haven't got kids you will know what I mean. You know when you go to the supermarket, there is always that woman ? You know, the woman who can't control her kids ? I should know - I have been that woman many times, but no more. Since my youngest has now started Kindergarten, I can shop alone. I can browse, I have time to deliberate which brand of flour to buy, I am silent. I'm not saying that my children are badly behaved, just that trolling round a supermarket for an hour bores them silly and brings out the worst in them. Oh yes, I have cried in the car on the way home, so cross ,frustrated and humiliated I have been. However, today that woman was someone else. Someone else's kids were running down the aisles whilst another woman was trying to keep it all together and get out as soon as possible. You know what - I didn't feel smug, nor did I feel superior, I just felt RELIEVED that this time it wasn't me. School holidays in a couple of weeks' time though.....

Where did you get that hat ?

2009-02-02T10:34:00.000+01:00

A funny story to start the week. First off, I am not a hat person. Which means, in other words, I look pretty awful in a hat. In my defense, I think it has to do with the fact that I have short hair i.e. no nice romantic tendrils sticking out of the sides to soften the face etc - well that's my excuse anyway. However, just before Christmas we had snow and cold weather and, as I leave the house at 8.10 a.m. to take my son Alex to Kindergarten, I decided I really needed to wear a hat. Wrapped up in my thick ski jacket and thick boots and said hat, I stood at the door of the Kindergarten helping Alex knock some of the snow off his boots. Along came one of the girls, Naomi, and gave Alex a book to take home. As I was going straight home, I offered to take it with me there and then to save Alex carrying it at lunchtime. Naomi eyed me rather suspiciously, but said OK and handed the book over. At this point in the story, I should point out that, at 43, I am obviously no longer a slip of a girl, but am not wearing too badly either thank you ! At lunch later that day, Alex said, "Oh, Naomi said something really funny today". "What was that then Alex, " I replied, as ever interested to learn about all the goings-on at Kindergarten. "She said, don't forget Alex, I gave the book to your grandma". OMG!!! I blame the hat.....

On the mend

2009-02-01T11:40:00.005+01:00

Back again ! Actually, I've been here all the time, but bogged down by a flu thing for the best part of the last 2 weeks. First my son was off Kindergarten for a week, then my daughter off school the next week and in the middle of that I got the flu thing, husband away on a business trip in the States and of course no parents or parents-in-law to call on. Arrggghh!! Thank goodness for friends and neighbours ! Anyway, we're all better now (in my case thanks to paracetamol and no housework) and in the midst of all this doom and gloom I decided to make some earwires out of a couple of gold coloured headpins.
I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out, although I definitely need more practise. Having no hammer to work harden them, I let my son tap them with his wooden hammer ! The reason there is only one earring ? Whilst doing the second one I got carried away tucking the wire in and squeezed the pliers so hard I smashed the little spacer bead at the top of the earring! Duh! So I will have to re-do it, but, typically, have no more gold-coloured headpins. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week and I can pop into town for some supplies. Hope you've all had a great weekend :)

Bookworm

2009-01-21T13:16:00.004+01:00

Please excuse the absence of jewellery at the mo' - I am psyching myself up to order a load of sterling silver - wire, beads, headpins etc and need to have a good think about what I want to make, what gauge of wire etc. So I thought I'd write something to do with the "etc" bit of my blog title.

I am a bit of a bookworm (or Reading Rat, as it is in German!!) and these are the last couple of books I've read:

"The Shadow of the Wind" was not the kind of book I usually read - I love my chick lit - but it was brilliant, really gripping. I finished it on the plane back from Barcelona in December and that was really fitting, as the novel is set in Barcelona. "A Weekend in Paris" was a lovely light read and made me laugh. Thanks here to my Uncle Brian who passes loads of books on to me and had added some humorous comments in the margin for my deliberation...

I always have to read a few pages in bed before going to sleep, to switch off my mind, I suppose. Poor hubby - reckon I'm going to buy him one of those visors people wear in a casino (?) to stop my reading light disturbing his sleep. It's worse when said husband is away on business and I have free rein to read for as long as I like and end up reading until the early hours and am well and truly shattered the next day. Sigh. Will I ever learn ? Probably not :)

Of course the other type of book I love to read are jewellery-related books. Here are my 2 favourites:

The Linda Jones book, "Creating Wire and Beaded Jewelry" inspired me to try wire work and I was truly amazed when the things I tried out looked exactly as they do in the book. The pictures and instructions are brilliant and I still refer to it often. The "Stringing Style 2" book, by Jean Campbell was a Christmas present to myself and I love it. I find myself dipping into this book in the daytime (cripes), when I've got 10 mins to spare and the children are amusing themselves instead of bickering. Many of the pieces shown in this book are truly breathtaking and inspirational. The book is aimed at the more experienced jewellery-maker, so the instructions for each piece are not particularly graphic, but perfectly clear and the list of components is great.

BTW, I do all my reading in English. Being surrounded by German all day for the past 20 years has meant that my English is not as good as it was, which sounds ridiculous, as it is my mother tongue. For example I have already had to check the spelling of several words in this post - I had got them wrong:(

This has turned into rather a long post, so I will leave it at that. Back soon.

Swiss parcel

2009-01-13T14:37:00.000+01:00

I made these earrings for my "new cousin" as we are sending a "Swiss" parcel to them (including Pokomon cards in German !!??). At our recent meeting I noticed she was wearing some rather stunning earrings and, as I have managed to fob off my efforts on every other female member of my family, I though she should be no exception ! Hope she likes them. Are you like me and tend to forget what clothes people were wearing, but, if they are wearing an unusual piece of jewellery, that can stick in your memory for years?
Anyway, whilst doing the wrapped loop on these earrings, I decided to continue wrapping the wire almost into a spiral shape at the top of the bead. I got this idea from Leah's blog - she makes these gorgeous pearl earrings with a spiral at the top that looks like a bead cap. Sigh, oh to be able to make neater spirals...Her blog is v. interesting too.
As I seem to be in earring mode, I'm definitely going to have a go at making my own wires. Here is a great tutorial about this which has motivated me to have a go ! Have a good week !

Xmas cards

2009-01-08T08:37:00.000+01:00

After taking down my decorations (doesn't that make the place look bare ?) I carefully cut up the lovely Christmas cards we had received to use as labels next year. I've been doing this for many years now, as I think it's a shame to throw away such pretty cards. Frankly, though, I've always felt a bit of cheapskate for doing it. However, I now realize I'm not mean, but GREEN ! Check out this site for all the things you can do with your cards.

Brrrr...minus 10 degrees here, but I'm treating myself to a morning in town. Might have to go to the bead shop...

Back to normal..

2009-01-05T17:01:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year ! OK, a bit late maybe, but we were away until Jan 3rd:) We had Christmas here in Switzerland - here it's actually all about the 24th of December, presents are opened that evening, so our children were up until 11 p.m. playing with their toys. We then went to the U.K. for New Year - our last visit was Xmas 2006, so it was about time to go back. We stayed in a lovely converted barn just outside Ashby, near to Burton on Trent, where I grew up. It was interesting for me to revisit my past, as I haven't been back there for nearly 25 years - my parents moved to rural Shropshire nearly 25 years ago, so that's where all our visits have been. Whilst we were there we got together with one third of our family whom I had never met before. It's a long story, but here is a shortened version: my Mother and her older sister had another younger sister who, for various reasons, was adopted at birth. They had no contact with this sister at all and I only learned the whole story from my Aunt in 2005. A chance comment from my Mother in 2006 made me realize that she wanted to find the "lost" sister, so I went on Genes Reunited to have a go. I was unsuccessful as I had very little information to go on and these things are only successful if the people you are looking for are actually registered. A bit fed up I decided to abandon this attempt, but before I signed out, I started to put in my family tree. I only got as far as myself and my parents (including my Mother's maiden name) before I got fed up of that. I thought I would try again at a later date. In March 2007 I got a message through Genes Reunited from a Kathleen, asking if my Mother also had an older sister. Yes, you've guessed it. She had found us ! I felt a bit nervous admitting to my Mother and my Aunt that I had been meddling, as I wasn't sure how they would feel after all this time (66 years, to be precise). But they got in touch with her straight away and found that they didn't live too far from each other. Since then the 3 sisters and their husbands have been meeting up regularly. On Dec 29th we all got together and I met for the first time my "new" Aunt and Uncle, my 2 "new" cousins and their 5 children and partners. It all went really well and I hope we will stay in touch.

BTW, my New Year's resolution is to make more jewellery...watch this space!

Putting off housework

2008-12-22T09:58:00.000+01:00

Right now I should be cleaning the house - instead I am tinkering on the computer and thought I would quickly post up a picture of the beads I purchased on my recent jaunt to Barcelona.

As you can see, I was quite restrained and didn't buy loads of things - it's difficult to justify it as I am only making pieces for myself, family and friends for now. I do have a few ideas brewing for these beads tho and would be interested to hear what you would do with them....
OK - can't put it off any longer - gotta go and chase that dust....

Dabbling...

2008-12-19T17:06:00.000+01:00

The reason there is an "etc" in my blog name is that I'm a bit of a dabbler. Sometimes I see things and think "I could make that" and then have a go. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it's just a disaster. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was walking through the haberdashery department of a large store en route to the toy department and I saw this wool. It jumped out at me and said "buy me and make a scarf with me". Now, I am not a knitter. In fact I haven't done any knitting for about 20 years, basically because I was never very good at it. Knit one, purl one, drop one, that's me. And once they've been dropped that's it, if you see what I mean. Game over, so to speak. However, I now found myself accosting the shop assistant about what size needles to use and how many balls etc and here's the story so far:

OK, so it's not rocket science or anything, but I am really chuffed with it. The wool is lovely - it's called Saltado from Schachenmayr and it changes from fringes, to chenille to bobbles so you don't have to join new wool all the time. Brilliant - this kind of thing wasn't around when I last did some knitting - the most exciting thing was mohair - and I'm really enjoying doing it.

Apart from the usual Christmas things I've made a couple of pairs of earrings:

Funny colour for Christmas, I hear you say, but they are for a birthday celebration and I happen to know the birthday girl loves these beads...And then there's:

These ones are the commission I mentioned in my last post. The request was for plain and simple, to match a rather lovely jazzy necklace, which had these black beads in it. Wishing you all a stress-free run up to Christmas :)

A bit hectic

2008-12-11T22:37:00.000+01:00

This is what it looks like here at the moment. It's been snowing for the past couple of days and that means our afternoons are taken up with playing in the snow. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours helping to build snowmen and sledge runs and generally standing around in inappropriate clothing until I was freezing. Of course, the children had all their gear on. Today I was better equipped and spent a couple of hours helping to pull various sledges back up the hill. It was good fun. This and the fact that my daughter will be 8 tomorrow has made for quite a busy week. I've got children coming for lunch tomorrow and other people coming for tea and cake in the afternoon and the "party" on Sunday will involve taking 6 children to the theatre followed by pizza and yet more cake back at ours. Now, I am not that domesticated. Despite being a "stay at home Mum" at the moment, I'm not very good at "rustling something up". So, last night I had a thought and asked my daughter if they still took birthday cake into school in the second year of primary school (surely not, I was thinking, hoping..) Of course, she says and don't try and palm me off with something savoury, we did that last year. Sigh. So, today, another trip to the Co-op to buy more cake ingredients and 2 trays of Brownies and a sponge cake later...that's quite an achievement for me.

So, with all this activity, no time to make any jewellery, although I did buy a few beads in Barcelona last weekend - just waiting for some better light to take some photos. BTW, the information on the bead shops from Daisychain Design's blog was spot on and I spent a lovely couple of hours exploring before meeting up with my friend in the evening. A good time was had - we didn't do any of the tourist "sights", as we did that last time we were there - just alot of walking, talking, shopping, eating and drinking.

I've also got a small commission to do - a dainty pair of earrings to match a necklace. Unfortunately I've realized I'm out of headpins - sure sign that I should do a silversmith course and learn to make my own. Still haven't managed to find one in Switzerland yet......watch this space !

One of those weeks....

2008-12-04T14:53:00.000+01:00

I've had one of those weeks. Where you race around and chase your tail trying to buy things or get things done and you can't buy what you want and you can't get things done. Right, that's that off my chest now. Or almost - I also could not make jewellery this week - try as I may. First off I was repairing a necklace for a friend and could not get the cord ends to go on to save my life. One of those foldy box things. In the end I had to put the whole thing down and tell her I would drop it round when it was finished. Later this week I attempted to make a bag charm as a Christmas present. I fiddled and crimped and threaded and fiddled some more, but it was just pants. Does anyone else have these "phases" or is it just me ? Anyway, I finished said bag charm this morning and it is OK - not the best thing I have produced, but still, here it is:

But it's not all doom and gloom, as I am off to Barcelona tomorrow for 2 days. Olay ! I've been a few times before, but never armed with a list of BEAD SHOPS !! Thanks to Jo of Daisychain Designs for that. Wishing everyone a great weekend !

Ex-pat life

2008-11-30T22:34:00.000+01:00

As it's December tomorrow, I was reminded that I have been an "ex-pat" for 20 years now. I left England in December 1988 to go and work in Austria as a ski rep for a Winter season. Well, that one Winter season turned into 12 years, before moving to Switzerland, where I've been for 8 years now. However, I still think in English and prefer to read and write in English too. My children speak a different language to me (well, don't all children, I hear you say !) - I mean their mother tongue is different from mine. I try to speak to them in English as much as possible, but they nearly always answer in German and speak to each other and their friends in Swiss German....Strangely, they do have certain words they say in English - only the other day my 5-year old son was telling me he was playing at being a Mini Kick. Thinking this was some new mutant I'd not yet heard of, I nodded non-committally, then it dawned on me that he meant GUINEA PIG ! Duuhh ! Anyway, enough of this and more of this:

This is "Blackie". Wearing it as I write. I had great fun practising wrapped loops with this - made one afternoon for the evening, when I realized I had no jewellery to go with the top I wanted to wear. Still not completely happy with the photography, but I thought it was interesting to see the reflections the clear crystals produced. There is a word for that which I learnt in Physics many moons ago and escapes me for the moment. :) Have a good week.

Need some help..

2008-11-24T11:43:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I built myself a light tent - thanks to a link on Contrariwise's blog , an excellent blog, entertaining and very informative. In the past I have taken photos on my patio table in natural light, but, now the days are darker, taking photos is proving a bit difficult. Anyway, the light tent looks pretty much as it should, but I'm not sure I've got the lighting right. I'm using one lamp with a daylight bulb of 8W/40W and I've a feeling I should be using more lamps and stronger bulbs. Any tips here would be very much appreciated:)

Below are a couple of fun pendants I made very quickly in the Summer. I bought the synthetic cord at a haberdashery dept. and some of the beads are the children's wooden ones ..again..I've left the cord long so they just slip over your head, but have added a slider bead to the end to alter the length if required. I've actually worn them alot.

As you can see from my efforts so far, I have used inexpensive materials while I practise my skills. I am desperate to start working in sterling silver, but must admit not really knowing where to start. Wirework would seem the obvious, as I have done quite a bit of wirework using craft wire. But would I need to tumble everything? I can't find a silversmith course in my area otherwise that would be a good starting point - hammering, soldering and piercing all sound like heaven and I really would like to be able to produce my own components. Hmm...help !!

Cathy's Bag Charm

2008-11-18T14:30:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year I spent a very pleasant weekend with my friend Cathy in Nice. We have been on many trips together and always have a good time, as we like to do the same things i.e. lots of exploring on foot punctuated by regular coffees, a bit of culture (small dose), shopping (large dose) and sampling local food and drink (generous dose)! We had been to Nice before and there is a lovely jewellery shop on Ave. Jean Médecin called Perrusset, where I always manage to part with a few Euros. On the last day we took a short train trip down the coast to Villefranche, where we found a craft fair on at the castle. We always seem to sniff these things out - funny that! Anyway, there was a lovely stall selling glass pendants and we had to have a couple (well, it would've been rude not to!!) and here's mine.

Strolling round, Cathy was ogling some bag charms. Oh, I'll make you one, says I, as if I am an expert on such matters and actually never having made a bag charm in my life. Ok, great, says Cathy, in bright pink or electric blue please (not one for subtle colours, our Cathy). Anyway, here it is -

I had great fun making it and she was pleased with it. So much so, that she has "ordered" another one for Xmas. Which means a trip to my local bead shop.....again...tee hee.

Need more sleep

2008-11-13T11:30:00.000+01:00

But, actually, have only got myself to blame. I am a bit of a night owl and, instead of getting myself to bed at a decent hour, ready to face the early morning scramble of getting 2 children off to Kindergarten and school, I mess around surfing the Web or flicking through the TV channels. Then I still have washing to hang up or put in the dryer or the kitchen to tidy up ! Grrrr.. Still, I have had a relaxing morning to myself, so can't complain. The children come out of Kindergarten/school at 11.55 a.m. What ? I hear you say ? That's life in Switzerland for you. There are advantages and disadvantages of this system, but overall we are very happy with it. Getting a job will be a bit tricky, especially when you don't have Mum or Mum-in-Law around the corner, but will cross that bridge when I come to it. One of the advantages of having the afternoons largely "free" is that the children can play with their friends or do other activities.

Thought I would show you this. I liked the colour combo of these beads, but they were on a memory wire necklace which I found uncomfortable to wear. So I re-cycled them and made this bracelet
Anyway, enough for today - will get an early night tonight. Promise !

Feeling a bit nervous...

2008-11-11T14:35:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog ! I've been thinking of starting one for a while now, but kept hesitating, worrying whether a) I'd have enough to say (not usually a problem for me !), b) if anyone would read it and most importantly c) if my "stuff" is really good enough to post up on it. Hmm. Anyway, I've done it now.

I've only realized I have a creative side since having my children, although I was creative as a child. With the children I started making cards and other simple projects and found it very enjoyable. I've always loved jewellery, so when, a couple of years ago, I discovered our town has a bead shop and that there are books and tuition on the Internet, I was hooked. I've been reading various jewellery blogs over the past year and am totally in awe of the beautiful things people are creating. I am nowhere near that stage yet! So far I've made a few things for myself, friends and family, but my goal would be to have my own shop online. As my youngest child has just started Kindergarten and I haven't yet re-entered the world of paid employment, I am finally enjoying a bit of "me" time. Hopefully I'll be able to put it to good use and practise my jewellery making skills - tips and suggestions welcome !

This bracelet I've called "Berries". The children had been given these wooden beads so I commandeered a few (bad Mummy !). I just wanted to practice doing wrapped loops but got carried away and before I knew it had a bracelet. The wooden beads make it lovely and light to wear.

Back soon !