Home-made jewellery

These are a few of my first attempts, very basic and easy for me to start off with! This pendant below is a simple shimmery gold bead, with smaller gold pearl beads above and below. I used silver wire to connect them all together and made two loops... mainly for decorative purposes but also for a chain if wanted to be worn on a necklace. 

The large rectangular bead below is part of a gift for my cousin. She's very in trend and loves chunky statement jewellery. I decided on the brown large bead as brown can really go with any colour clothing, and the silver wire I used pliers to create the zig-zag effect. I also made the cameo ring - again simply by purchasing the ring, background piece and cameo itself separately. 

Below is a gorgeous round gold bead which I encased with silver wire and using pliers, managed to create the spiral effect almost hugging the bead. This is definitely my favourite piece I've made so far... I have also made a blue and pink flower vintage style window charm for a friend but I forgot to take a photo :(

The first jewellery box was from a previous gift I received... a recycled box you could say! The other two boxes are from ASDA at £1.50 each! Absolute bargain, and perfect for Christmas. Hopefully by next Christmas I will be creating more imaginative and complex jewellery pieces.

I did go in to Dunelm today in aims of finding some bargain material in the sale to make myself a make-up bag. As I rifled through I found a gorgeous floral vintage patterned pillow case! But after going to the till to find out how much it was... £7.99! Not the bargain I was after! Does anyone know of any websites I could have a gander at?

Wedding gift ideas...

 For a friends wedding gift, I want to decorate and personalise a plain photo frame so they can use a wedding photo in it. Using ideas from a previous project at college (Art & Design specialising in Graphics) I want to use lace and other cutesy materials - she is very in to Laura Ashley style items so I could even pick up some wallpaper in the sale and incorporate that in somewhere...

She is also very in to home-made things which works to my advantage as we have very little disposable income! I'm thinking of possibly making her some jewellery, but is that a typical wedding gift?

Has anyone else ever given a hand made present as a wedding gift? I need other ideas!

Whilst I'm browsing the internet I need a home made Starbucks latte! Ahh...

Vintage things...

For Christmas this year I received these two beautiful hanging hearts from my mum. They are currently hanging just above my fireplace - as I feel they make enough impact on their own without adding them

to a photo frame (which was my first idea!)

I bought this large vanilla scented candle in Next just before Christmas for £2.99, absolute bargain! I did want two either side of my fireplace but the other candle had a huge crack down the side :(

I also bought this vintage style butterfly candle holder from Matalan last October. I saw one in Laura Ashley for about £30 but without the butterflies, and the same day when visiting Matalan saw this beauty! It was only £8 and I much prefer this one - I have a thing for butterflies :)

These are just a few of my favourite things, I'm slowly adding to my vintage style collection and hopefully redecorating mine and my partners bedroom (boutique style - he doesn't mind!) and our kitchen - which hopefully means a whole new haul of kitchenware!

Any one else redecorating this year?

My Beetle!

So I travelled with my family all the way down to Devon in the summer of 2010 to pick up a 1302s VW Beetle I had bought on eBay...

My family have had VW Beetles and Bay Window Camper vans, so I knew what I was looking for, and judging by the listing the seller didn't know he was selling a bargain!

Upon arrival the Beetle was a gem especially at only £1300, it could've easily gone for £2000!

So I drove my little Beetle to college then work for about a year, then I fell pregnant and for space reasons had to revert to a Rover 25 (which I had no problems with!) and my parents sold their blue 1300 Beetle and adopted mine. 

Now my daughter is 17 months I have decided to give my Beetle another go - I have always missed it, especially when me and my whole family (Coventry based included) descend upon The Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway and other VW festivals.

As of tomorrow I will have insured myself on my trusty little bug (tax exempt too... hell yeah!)

Does any one else own a VW car? My parents are about to purchase a VW Fastback which is also exciting!

Here's my beauty with our Puck (caravan)...

As you can see there is two tones of orange (I think it adds character!) And below is my parents bay window camper...

Family holidays to be posted! :) xxx

Another thing...

How cute is this!?

1st blog... again...

So I have written this '1st blog' several times and never written any more to join it, so THIS time I will try and post as often as I can!

I have a wonderful little family consisting of myself (Toria 23), my fiancé (Dan 22) and our daughter (Amelie 17 months)

I am a stay at home mum whilst Dan is a full time bench joiner - although I am trying to find a job which will suit evening hours - so I am also stirring up a hobby of making my own jewellery, mainly vintage style. I want to create my own brooches, rings and necklaces, possibly some other accessories but this is where I want to begin!

I thought by creating a blog it would be kind of like an online scrap book, where I can write down ideas and thoughts, and also gain some ideas myself from other peoples posts.

I am also interested in vintage style clothing, beauty, baking and home improvements! I am trying to be as thrifty as I possibly can, as being a mum waste is just not acceptable! Unless it really is rubbish!

Speaking of baking... I've just whipped these out of the oven...

...so I am off to decorate these babies! I will try and post on here as often as I can, even if no one reads these it'll be good for me to look back on!

Ciao! x