Under the Loupe

2012 BAFTA and Grammy Awards Jewels

2012-02-15T11:38:00.013+11:00

The glamorous Jessica Chastain at the BAFTAs.

It has been another week of Awards functions – notably the BAFTA’s held in more than wintry conditions in London and the Grammys, music’s night of nights held in Los Angeles.

The BAFTAs were reportedly going to be a pretty low-key affair in regards to jewellery and although some selections were restrained, there were some sparkling ears, necks, wrists and fingers to be seen – of particular note, diamonds, golden citrine and onyx made multiple appearances.

Christina Ricci wore substantial and dramatic linear diamond drops by Bulgari and a diamond bracelet to go with her metallic gown.

Emilia Fox, who I fondly remember as Georgiana Darcy from Pride & Prejudice in the 90s wore large gold and citrine earrings which matched her fiery locks.

UK presenter, Fearne Cotton went all out in the jewellery stakes, wearing a bejewelled looking collar on her dress, earrings, multiple diamond bracelets and two cocktail rings, one of which is the seeming popular citrine.

Writer Francesca Gardiner also chose gold, citrine and diamond earrings.

Ex – x-files star, Gillian Anderson wore cognac diamond earrings with her vintage dress.

Actress Hayley Atwell wore diamond studded triple-drop earrings and a studded cuff bangle.

Jessica Chastain (photo at top) flew in from the US and although she must have been freezing looked quite spectacular in her shimmering goddess style gown and long chain of diamonds around her neck.

UK actress Joanne Froggatt chose classically styled long diamond earrings.

The debonair Colin Firth had his lovely wife Livia with him, who was sparkling in vintage Cartier diamond and emerald tassel earrings.

Australian actress Melissa George chose linear onyx drop earrings – a classic if not a sparkly choice.

Michelle Williams favours chokers and collar length necklace and this occasion was no exception.

Naomi Harris wore a large diamond chain and sunburst pendant that was almost overwhelming on her tiny frame.

Another to favour citrine on the night was producer/actress and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia who chose large diamond rimmed citrine drop earrings, matching her warm skin tone and contrasting against her dark hair.

Actress Olivia Williams wore a matching necklace/bracelet and earring set of swirling diamond studded links.

Penelope Cruz chose Chopard vine design earring featuring pear shaped diamonds.

Costume designer, Sandy Powell was another to accessorise with long onyx drop earrings.

English actress Tasmin Egerton looks particularly pleased in diamond and sapphires.

And finally, award recipient Vanessa Redgrave looked resplendent in drop earrings, multiple strands of pearls, one of which sported a diamond enhancer.

After watching the Grammy’s a couple of years ago and being overwhelmed by sparkly mini dresses, enormous earrings and an unusually high level of swearing I’ve avoided them. However the drawcard of the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney performing was irresistible (showing my age I know, but in some measure of defence I was listening to them because my mother did … who was far more contemporary to them than I was, not being born till the mid sixties!) And I must admit to really enjoying Taylor Swift and Adele’s performances too. Jewellery was earring and ring based and I’ve tried to find the best for you to see.

Adele wore De Beers diamond earrings and a Harry Winston diamond ring (and dominated the awards too!)

Carrie Underwood wore drop earrings of white gold and diamonds.

Fergie choose to make a statement in simple, but HUGE, gold hoop earrings by Neil Lane that went with her see-through lace orange gown and black undergarments!

Hilary Scott wore a lovely pair of earrings made with pink sapphire, quartz and diamonds.

Jessie J wore retro styled linear drop earrings to match her disco-ball styled gown.

Kate Beckingsdale, a host on the evening wore geometric diamond drop earrings

Katy Perry wore diamond ascher cut drop earrings and matching bracelet by Norman Silverman.

Kellie Rowland wore large leaf shaped drop earrings of white, grey and brown diamonds by Lorraine Schwartz – along with a cocktail ring or two of grey diamonds.

Kelly Clarkson wore a diamond studded pendant on a long chain.

Opera singer Joyce DiDonato donned an intricate golden floral styled collar.

Melanie Fiona wore a large obsidian “arrowhead” necklace.

Shawna Thompson wore champagne diamond earrings.

Tamara Braun was one of the few to wear bright coloured jewellery with these chrysoprase earrings.

And last of all, Taylor Swift stayed reserved and wore a Neil Lane diamond ring and earrings.

All in all enough sparkle for one week?

Jewels from the 2012 SAG Awards

2012-01-31T13:39:00.007+11:00

The 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards was held on 29 January in Los Angeles. The stars, of course, came out in their all their glamour and I’ve picked out some of the more noticeable jewels that went down the road carpet…

Jane Lynch (above) wore a large pair of amethyst and turquoise chandelier style earrings.

Octavia Spencer wore equally large chandeliers made with the mystical labradorite gemstone with its telltale blue flash. It enhanced the silver/oyster colour of her gown beautifully.

Sophie Vergara wore huge amethyst and diamond earrings that surely must have given her sore earlobes by the end of the night!

Julianna Margulies was one of the few that wore pearls, but wow, what pearls! The large ‘fireball’ pearls made a stunning statement.

Angelina Jolie wore vintage gold and onyx hoop earrings which made a change from her usual diamond studs...

…instead those single round diamonds seem to have moved over to Zoe Saldana’s ears to go with her white gown with jewelled collar!

Emma Stone’s yellow and white gold diamond spiral drops looked lovely and the golden tone went well with Emma’s auburn hair.

Jayma Mays large drops look like a blue chalcedony rimmed with diamonds.

Jessica Chastain wore sapphire surrounded by diamonds that were a lovely match for her blue dress.

Melissa Rauch and Mary Steenburgen both chose classic chandelier styles with diamonds.

Jenna Fischer wore a large pair of gemstone drops by an Indian designer. Information on the stones was non-existent but the focal stone could be rock crystal quartz or a transparent moonstone.

Regina King sparkled in these diamond and gem drops that complement her eyes. The gems look like andalusite.

Tina Fey wore linear diamond and onyx drops that went past her shoulders.

Maya Rudolph wore drop earrings of large ovals of moonstone rimmed with diamonds.

Viola Davis wore linear white drop earrings in a gold setting that looked fabulous with her white and gold gown. The white stone in these looks like white howlite which is more commonly seen dyed to imitate other stones - but I like it in its natural colour!

Fashionwise, gowns were for the most part long and flowing although some showed more structure than others. Strapless was a popular choice (again!) with halternecks and asymmetric necklines favourites as well.

Black and white made a strong appearance but the beige/flesh tones were less in evidence than at the Golden Globes earlier in the month. There was a smattering of blues, reds and greens as well. One stand out colour was “American Beauty Rose” that is best described as a fuchsia tinted pink - and was seen in vibrant and more subdued tones.

So what did you think of their choices? Any you'd like to own?

The Jewels of the 2012 Golden Globe Awards

2012-01-16T19:57:00.006+11:00

Well the Awards season is in full swing in the US with firstly the Critics Choice Awards and then, earlier today (Aus time!) the Golden Globes.

There was a definite flavour of glamour – with mostly fitted dresses. The tops of the gowns were almost all fitted and the bottom half was either mermaid swishes, flowing skirts or sheaths that skimmed the body.

There was a smattering of different colours. Less black was seen but beige/nude was incredibly popular – many with sequins to add sparkle in the absence of colour and cut outs to show some additional flesh. Royal blue was a popular choice. There was also a noticeable smattering of various shades of red, purple and maroon.

Hair was predominately smooth and sleek – long and straight or 1930s with slight waves and a curl at the bottom and upswept ‘do’s. A few look tousled but the effect against all the sleek hair looked rather messy!

Jewellery. Well, once again it was the evening for earrings. But, a few brave souls wore necklaces – some played safe with white diamonds but Heidi Klum (above) went all out with a turquoise bib by Lorraine Schwartz and Freida Pinto (below) wore Chopard diamonds (but they look like they were cognac/canaries rather than white). Apparently the Chopard necklace was worth so much, that a bodyguard accompanied Freida for the night!

Thankfully, there was a break away from diamonds in platinum in the earring department with lots of colour to be seen. Some of the statement earrings matched outfits, some complimented but the effect, at least up close was dazzling!

Callie Thorne’s palest aqua gown was reflected in her earring choice which appear to be lovely linear drops of aquamarine.

Berenice Bejo wore royal blue and reportedly wore Chopard diamonds that appear to be a mix of white and yellow stones that were probably attached to a chain as the earrings had lots of movement.

Debra Messing wore black but brightened her dress up with large drop earrings that appear to be emeralds surrounding amethyst. She wore a matching emerald ring.

Glenn Close wore a dark navy blue and she brightened it up with stunning sapphire earrings.

Jenna Dewan-Tatum, the new wife of Channing Tatum, wore amazing boulder opal and diamond earrings from Irene Neuwirth with her teal dress.

Julianna Margulies wore what looked to be jade and diamond earrings in a lovely pale apple green that complimented her lavender gown.

Julianne Moore wore gorgeous emerald tassel earrings from Fred Leighton which looked so amazing I actually ignored her dress colour completely!

Laura Linney wore a periwinkle blue dress and star burst earrings that look like either amethyst or pale sapphire with diamonds.

Mila Kunis seemed rather quiet on the night, but her delicate drop earrings that I believe were from Cartier were quite lovely and something a little different.

Morena Baccarin wore Harry Winston emerald and diamond earrings and there was a report floating around that one fell out at one point!

Sarah Michelle Gellar was a brave soul wearing a tie-dyed dress (admittedly in a feminine style) that her two year old daughter chose. She matched the blues in the dress with Bulgari earrings of amethyst and possibly darker blue sapphire.

Sharon Osborne is known for her flamboyant earrings and for this event she wore large drop earrings that look like labradorite and diamonds.

Don't you think they made some lovely choices! What did you think of the jewels and gowns?

The Legendary Jewels of Elizabeth Taylor - the auction results

2011-12-21T07:17:00.012+11:00

The Legendary Jewels of Elizabeth Taylor – the sale the world was waiting for, took place this past week. Whilst almost 1000 lots were reserved for the online sale, the 49 largest pieces – those either mentioned or worn in photos by the icon – occurred in an evening sale on 13 November to a packed auction room at Christies. The results were staggering with 100% clearance, new world auction records and a total sales figure of $115.9 million - making it the most valuable private collection of jewels ever sold at auction.

Records broken were:

The price per carat for a colourless diamond – the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond (formerly the Krupp Diamond), the rectangular-cut, 33.19-carat stone that Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth in 1968, sold for $8.18 million to a Korean business buyer, well exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $3.5 million. The world record now stands at $265,697 per carat.

The price per carat for a ruby - the Van Cleef & Arpels 8.24ct ruby and diamond ring Burton gave to Elizabeth for Christmas 1968 sold for $4,226,500, four times the estimate.

The price for natural pearl ear pendants – made by Bvlgari, pearl studs suspend a detachable drop shaped natural pearl with a marquise diamond linking the stud and drops. The earrings were a gift from Taylor/Burton’s attorney and friend, Aaron Frosch. They sold for $1,986,500 four times their pre sale estimate.

The price for a pearl jewel and the price for a historic jewel – ‘La Peregina’ brought the top price in the sale. Found in the 16th century in the Gulf of Panama by a slave (who earned his freedom with the find), the 203 grains/50 carat pearl became part of the crown jewels of Spain before being given to Phillip II’s of Spain’s English bride, Queen Mary I. It returned to Spain in the crown jewels before it was taken along with other jewels by Joseph Bonaparte as he fled Spain. It then went back to England to the Duke of Abercorn’s wife, Louisa Hamilton. Richard Burton purchased it in January 1969 and gave it to Elizabeth for Valentine’s Day. Before it was set into its present ruby and diamond necklace by Cartier, the pearl went missing in a hotel suite – being found in the mouth of one of Elizabeth’s dogs –where it thankfully came to no harm. La Peregrina sold to a private buyer whose $11,842,500 payment broke the previous record for a historic pearl by over $9 million and a pearl jewel by $4 million.

The price for an Indian jewel – The Taj Mahal diamond, found in the 17th century has a persian nscription – the name of the Shah Jahangir’s wife (Nur Jahan), the year of his reigtn.. It then when to the Shah’s son, Mugal Emperor Shah Jahan who presented the gem to Mumtaz-I-Mahal, his beloved wife. After bearing him 14 children she died in 1631 and the emperor was grief stricken. In her memory he built the tomb the Taj Mahal. Cartier set the diamond on a neckchain in 1972 that was made to resemble the silk cord it is thought to have originally had. Burton bought it for Taylor for her 40th birthday in 1972. With a pre-sale estimate of $300,000-$500,000, it sold to an anonymous buyer for $8.8 million. The previous world record for an Indian jewel was $5.2 million.

The price for an emerald jewel and price of an emerald by carat – given to Taylor by Burton on the occasion of their engagement in 1962, the 18.26-carat emerald and diamond pendant brooch by Bulgari sold for $6.6 million, or $360,268 per carat, after a pre-sale high estimate of $700,000.

Eighteen more lots went for over $1,000,000 each:

Emerald and diamond necklace by Bvlgari, a gift from Burton to Taylor on their marriage in 1964 - $6,130,500

Sapphire and diamond sautoir by Bvlgari, a gift from Burton to Taylor on her 40th birthday in 1972 - $5,906,500

Antique “Mike Todd” Diamond Tiara, a gift from Mike Todd to Elizabeth in 1957 - $4,226,500

Bvlgari emerald and diamond bracelet, a gift from Burton to Taylor for her 35th birthday in 1967 - $4,002,500

Ruby and diamond necklace by Cartier, a gift from Mike Todd in 1957 - $3,778,500

Bvlgari Emerald and diamond ring, a gift from Burton - $3,330,500

Emerald and diamond ear pendants by Bvlgari - $3,218,500

Antique diamond necklace, made c.1806 it was purchased by Elizabeth in 1993 - $2,658,500

The Burton Cognac Diamond Ring by Van Cleef & Arpels, the 32.14 carat ring was a gift from Richard Burton - $2,322,500

Coloured diamond ring by Lorraine Schwartz, an intense 27.42ct yellow diamond - $2,098,500

Coloured and white diamond ear pendants by Bvlgari a gift from Eddie Fisher for Elizabeth’s 30th birthday in 1962 - $1,650,500

Bvlgari emerald and diamond flower brooch c. 1960 - $1,538,500

“The Dame Ear Pendants” with coral and multi gems by Van Cleef & Arpels, designed by Elizabeth and worn on the occasion of her investiture as a Dame Commander of the British OEmpire in 2000 - $1,426,500

Antique sapphire and diamond brooch, a gift from Richard Burton - $1,314,500

Prince of Wales diamond brooch, formerly part of the jewels of the Duchess of Windsor, it was purchased by Elizabeth in 1987 - $1,314,500

“The Night of the Iguana” diamond, sapphire and emerald dolphin brooch by Tiffany & Co, given by Burton to Taylor for the premiere of the film The Night of the Iguana in 1964 $1,202,500

“The Burton Diamond Brooch” by Van Cleef & Arpels, a Christmas gift from Richard Burton in 1967 - $1,142,500

Bvlgari coloured and white diamond flower brooch, a gift from Eddie Fisher for Elizabeth’s 30th birthday in 1962 - $1,142,500

The lowest amount realised on the evening was $116,500 for a gold and multi gemstone charm bracelet.

But the buying frenzy didn’t stop there! By the time two more rounds of jewelry had been sold, a record for any jewelry auction had been set: $132 million.

The second evening’s sale on 14 December for 189 lots realised $21.3 million with prices from $6875 for a suite of paper jewellery to $1,482,500 for a diamond pendant necklace.

The third sale also on 14 December was mainly Elizabeth’s haute couture with 67 lots totalling $2,600,750, with a range from $1,375 (a Saks beaded evening top) to $662,500 (Andy Warhol portrait of Taylor).

The fourth sale for fashion and accessories on 15 December had 325 lots from $563 (Emikio Puccio 2 piece ensemble) to $110,500 (Louis Vuitton luggage) and realised $2,941,162.

The fifth sale held on 16 December was for fine and decorative art and film memorabilia including costumes realised prices of $1,188 (an arts and crafts clock) to $386,500 ( large gray scholar’s rock) over 144 lots, with a sale total of $4,441,187.

And finally the online only auction of over 900 smaller items finished with a total sale value of $9,537,900!

It just goes to show that the impossible to price element of stardust was not considered in the original estimates, which were obviously completely blown out of the water by the keen bidding.

The jewels are now to be scattered across the world, Elizabeth’s job as custodian of some of the world’s most stupendous baubles now at an end.

A busy November...

2011-11-01T09:09:00.004+11:00

OK, how did it get so busy all of a sudden. There I was, in post-holiday glow, enjoying slowly getting back in to things and then BAM all of a sudden I have so much on, bespoke orders and pieces to rejuvinate into something else and am surrounded by gems, pearls and all things gorgeous. (Of course, I cope admirably with being surrounded by all the pretties!)

I haven't forgotten about the Italian diaries - I just haven't had time to refine them, but I'll get there eventually :)

The show at Muswellbrook was great fun. It was a manageable drive over there (even if we got home after midnight) there were many other stall holders with different items and the organisers were lovely. A few ladies were thrilled with some new jewels for summer and I think I will be warmly welcomed back in that district.

The "Balabudgee" garden weekend was extraordinary - sublime weather, a garden that all at once made me feel inspired and depressed (inspired because it looks achievable... and depressed because I just know that I won't do it!!), and such genial hosts. It was busy with people both days and lots of lovely ladies got to take home quite a bit of new jewellery with them!

I had planned to attend TAS last weekend (The Armidale School's Spring Fair) but unfortunately one of my girls came down with high temps and a headache the evening before and it just wasn't possible to leave her with someone else the next day when she felt like that. Hubby was off at the NSW Aerobatic Championships in Temora so couldn't be on dad duty. But that's what happens I guess. On a high note, hearty congratulations to my hubby who is now the NSW Aerobatic Champion! Woohoo :D

I have a busy show schedule for November - the Dunedoo Central School is holding its ladies shopping night on Friday, 11 November from 5-8pm. Enquiries to the school. The Tamworth Christmas Fair is on Saturday, 19th November at Tamworth Racecourse from 9.30am-4pm and then I have my annual summer show in Coolah on the 25th November.

The last couple of years I have held my show at the local dance studio, but have been offered to hold it the air-conditioned comfort of Noni B's Giftware this year - given the heat we've experienced in past years, I'm looking forward to a comfortable temperature this year! I will have a special preview the day before (24th November) for clients and will be sending invitations out to people in the Coolah area - if you're outside the district and would like to come, do let me know and I will pop off an invite to you!

I am trying to get to the website this week to update with some new stock - a few technical things are holding me back that will hopefully be resolved soon!

Today's photo is of a stunning pair of amethyst and mixed gemstone (blue topaz, pink topaz and peridot) earrings.

Till next :)
Annette

Italian Inspiration

2011-10-21T15:38:00.003+11:00

I've been busy, busy, busy creating - particularly bracelets, petite pendants and lovely high quality gem earrings.

Italy certainly has had a wonderful effect on my inspiration. I made a video (its actually a slideshow to music) that shows some of the photos from our trip and a few of the pieces that have been inspired by the colours and textures we saw...

I promise to continue with the tale of our Italian adventure soon.

In the meantime, I have two shows this weekend - Muswellbrook tonight (at the PCYC 7-10pm for the Muswellbrook Preschool A Night Before Christmas Shopping Night) and then the weekend in the courtyard of the beautiful Balabudgee garden, Frog Rock, near Mudgee.

Till next :)
Annette

Elizabeth Taylor - The Auction

2011-10-05T10:16:00.005+11:00

Fantastic video by Christies on the upcoming auction (December) of Elizabeth Taylor's jewels, art and memorabilia.

Italy part 1 - Rome

2011-09-28T20:34:00.006+10:00

Ahh, Italy. It was a fabulous trip. I’d go back tomorrow if I could!

We arrived in Rome at around 7am to a cloudless sky and the promise of a hot day. As we had left a wintry Australia this was a welcome change… so far! An easy trip by train to Termini station and we even found our hotel with not too much fuss (though we were extraordinarily early!).

After a refreshing introduction to gelati, we decided to walk and see where we ended up. And that would be LOST. But all roads lead to Rome, and sure enough we eventually ended up at the Roman Forum, the centre of the civilised world 2000 years ago.

I must note here that in the first hour we were almost run over numerous times. We discovered later that you must OWN the road (or at least look like it) and then the cars will wait for you. But if you look rather startled and worried as we did, then I’m sure they aim for you instead!

The Roman Forum was fascinating, as was the Roman Soldier we met on the street outside (plus he was funny) and the day stayed clear and got hotter.

The choice by hubby and I to stay in jeans and sneakers for the day was proving very unwise, as I gazed longingly at other tourists in light summer dresses and sandals!

As with many of the ruins, they are low down – as in below the streets around so the air is even more stifling. Plus we discovered that ruins all over Italy rarely have trees dotting them for shade as I gather the roots would disturb the ruins more. So, after the lack of sleep, dehydration from the long flight and the change from 10 to 38 degrees, I basically went into a form of heat stress and said “enough”, which the children were immensely grateful for.

We escaped the crowds and sought out a café discovering granita – the Italian version of a slushie or snow cone – and in particular the menthe flavour which was so refreshing I felt able to keep walking back to the hotel.

However, our map was a free one and didn’t have most of the streets on it. Hubby’s normally excellent sense of direction was all upside down being in the northern hemisphere, so we got lost. Again.

But, on the positive side, we got to see parts of Rome that many tourists probably don’t. Like the entrance to the Juvenile Prison.

We eventually trudged back to Termini, found our hotel, had cold showers (the only kind in our hotel) and lay on our beds in a daze for the remainder of the afternoon.

A 5am start the next morning and feeling energised after a good night’s sleep, I opened the windows and shutters of our room and let the magnificent scent of fresh pastries waft into the room. Our room was on the third floor, over a narrow street of shops and restaurants that had apartments above them.

This day we went in a different direction, enjoying the cool, narrow streets and their shade as we sought out the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately the fountain was being cleaned and wasn’t on, but the children threw a coin in anyway … perhaps they’ll return to Rome one day, as I did (having thrown a coin in when I was 12).

The Pantheon was our next stop and my first visit. It is an immense building that was originally a temple to all the gods and supposedly built to plans drawn up by Emperor Hadrian.

It is as high as it is wide, with an oculus that provides the only light inside. The fact that the old building is in such good condition (unlike most of the ruins which are, well, ruins and stripped of their grandeur by earlier generations for building materials) is due to the building being thought of as inhabited by devils by early Christians and converted into a church, which it still is today.

Piazza Navona was just a laneway or two away. This used to be a 1st century stadium of Emperor Domitian and it still retains the shape of the track once used for chariot races. Full of wonderful baroque fountains and features.

We kept walking, although the heat was rapidly turning the walking into trudging again, and eventually arrived at the Colosseum. Thank goodness we had purchased a combined ticket at the Roman Forum as the line waiting to buy tickets was huge. In the intervening 30+ years since my last visit, quite a bit of work has been done on the Colosseum. A museum has been installed on one side, part of the floor has been reconstructed showing how it would have looked above the labyrinth of passages that lay below it used by the actors, gladiators, animals and so on.

On our descent from the top of the Colosseum, I managed to fall down a couple of the steep stone stairs which proved rather embarrassing and resulted in a slightly strained ankle and bruised tailbone. OUCH!

Having learned from our errors the day before, we headed off in the correct direction this time and made it back to the hotel for a late siesta. A couple of us nipped out for a spot of shoe shopping (!!) and we all managed to be awake for dinner at a little restaurant downstairs where hubby seemed to already have a relationship with the waiters who spoke a little English, due in no doubt for his extraordinary need for coffee.

I noted hubby's Italian vocabulary had also expanded from cappuccino, gelati, ferrari and ducati to include caffe Americano (long black coffee), birra grande(large beer), si (yes) and grazie (thankyou). (Mind you it didn’t expand expotentially on the time we were there. I think by the end of 3 weeks he had only also mastered scusi (excuse me), uno (one), due (two – as that’s how he ordered coffee , two at a time as they were small), cinque (five … since that how many there were of us), il conto (the bill), buona sera (good afternoon) and aqua naturale (non fizzy water)! His pronounciation however remained appalling.)

Before leaving Rome I attempted some shopping inspired by the fantastically presented Italian women that were everywhere. Unfortunately my bust size as well as my overall size 14 (Australian size) body was too grande (big) for the Italian fashions. Disappointing but true – they are quite petite as a ule and their bust size is substantially smaller in general. However, my feet fell well within their average sizes …

Have you been to Rome? What was your favourite thing about it? If you haven't been yet, what would be top of your "to do/see" list?

Next stop …. Pompeii (once we made it out of Rome in a car of course!)

Jewels at the Emmy's 2011

2011-09-21T14:56:00.006+10:00

Sophia Vergara and rather large earrings made with Columbian emeralds and diamonds

The Emmy’s have been and gone and we’ve had our sparkle dose for the week. The stars came out in jewel shades, red and of course the safe option, black. Bright blues and aquas which were showcased as colours to wear next spring showed up on some , along with gem-shades of amethyst and emerald.

The ruby girls - Kellie Osborne and Lea Michelle.

Most stars stuck to the safe (but a little boring!) with diamonds - as usual. A few lashed out with rubies and sapphires and some semi precious stones were given an airing in more unusual earrings and sometimes rings.

I quite like these big druzy earrings worn by Aimme Teegarden!

Anna Torv and her semi precious (probably phosphosiderite and/or treated agate) earrings.

Earrings varied from studs to statement drops, chandeliers and slim, linear styles. Necklaces were occasional, these stars (or their fashion advisors) need to get over the bare neck look and be a little more daring than a chunky cuff of which there were a number seen.

One of the rare necklaces seen on the night.

Heidi Klum and her chunky mixed stone earrings and ring.

Most of it was all a bit *ho-hum* really. I always look forward to a glittering night but this time I’m left feeling rather underwhelmed.

Elizabeth Moss and Jane Lynch on the chandelier style bandwagon.

I promise to write more about our adventures in Italy - once I get over the jetlag and organise the photos a little more!

Till next :)
Annette

A note from Italy ...

2011-09-03T19:24:00.005+10:00

A quick post, all the way from Italia! (At least I currently have a good reason not to blog regularly!)

I’ve been here about 10 days now and having a fabulous time – the first week was hectic with lots of sightseeing, walking, getting lost and coping with the heat after leaving a chilly Australia!

We've spent some time in Roma, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast (pic above), Paestum, across the country to Matera and Alberobello and up the Adriatic coast.

We’re currently settled into our accommodation at the Residenza Paradiso at Santa Maria in Valle near Trevi in Umbria, a working olive farm, and being looked after by the genial Emiliana and Alfredo.

Our house, the Casa del Contadino, is a restored 17th century farmhouse that just oozes history and charm. The views are magnificient over the surrounding Umbrian countryside and the picturesque town of Trevi. The stone houses, narrow streets and melodic Italian language just washes over you in delightful waves!

I’m constantly inspired by the stylish Italian women. I know we hear of French women being the epitome of style but the Italians must give them a good run for their money. I love their fashion sense and colours. I met a lovely Australian woman who is living in nearby Spello – she was looking very Italian (completely chic), but with the wonderful Australian accent – and it is a great mix!

All the hisory, varying landscapes, the cool lanes and the hot sun have got the creativity flying and have some great ideas brewing for new designs when I get back home and start playing with my gems and pearls!

But, the trip isn’t over yet – another week here in Umbria and then a few days around the northern parts of the country including Venice and Milan.

Till next :)
Ciao
Annette

Turquoise 101

2011-08-10T22:32:00.005+10:00

Turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Mine (USA).

Spring is just around the corner and nothing speaks of warm weather more than turquoise and other gorgeous blue stones like amazonite, Peruvian amazonite, apatite and aquamarine.

Turquoise is also perennially popular – everyone it seems is attracted to that gorgeous colour that makes you think of brilliant blue skies and red semi-desert landscapes. Or if not, then obviously I’ve watched one too many cowboy & indian movies!?) But really, it is even a colour in its own right – it appears in architecture, decoration and fashion and is thought of as the colour of calm.

Prized for thousands of years in many cultures, its current name comes from the 16th century Old French world for “Turkish” as it was from that direction that Europeans first got to see it. However it has had other names – eg. “Callais” (Ancient Rome) and “chalchihuitl” (Aztec). Popular for millennia it had a revival of sorts in the late 19thcentury in the Egyptian Revival fashions. As the birthstone for December and a reputation as a bringer of good fortune it remains a popular choice usually in cabochons or chunky necklaces.

The most readily recognised turquoise is the bright blue-green sometimes with brown or black veining and perhaps some white flecks or spots through it. Opaque and with a hardness of only 6 it is a relatively soft stone yet it takes a good polish. Cryptocrystalline in formation it is found in masses with no visible crystal structure (it's hard to even find a crystal structure under a microscope).

Treated blue turquoise from USA

Found in mostly arid regions it is mined in typically shallow excavations. A greenish turquoise was mined in Egypt 4000 years ago and is still found there occasionally. Persia became an important source of blue turquoise 2000 years ago and parts of Iran are still mined.

Natural green turquoise from the Kingman mine (USA) (with black spinel)

The southwest of the USA is well known for its turquoise (blue, bright green and yellow-green) and quite a few small scale mining operations continue. Among Native American peoples of the Southwest, turquoise is especially prized, with blue stones symbolizing "Father Sky" and greener ones evoking "Mother Earth."

Blue-green turquoise from China

China is also a large source of commercial turquoise these days although this tends to be in the blue-green, green and apple green colours. Turquoise is also found in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Chile and Turkestan.

Green turquoise from the Hubei district of China

Turquoise can change colour with time and handling – usually from absorbing moisture and oils from your skin.

After being mined for so many years, it is harder to obtain a nice quality natural turquoise. Instead, lower grades of turquoise are mined and these are usually treated to enhance the colour and to stablise the stones to make them harder and more robust. A traditional treatment is waxing and oiling.

A mix of treated blue and blue-green turquoise (as well as amazonite and aquamarine).

Low grade turquoise is called “chalk” turquoise – this is treated with permanent dyes and stabilisation procedures. Sometimes it is even ground down and rebuilt. This turquoise often has a lack of the typical veining and can come in numerous colours – lime and pink are popular new colours. Whilst still technically turquoise it has been fairly extensively altered.

The scarcity and cost of turquoise has also led to many imitations in the marketplace. Jasper, howlite and magnesite are three that are frequently colour treated. These are still natural gemstones – but treated to look like turquoise.

"African Turquoise" Jasper - dyed to look like turquoise yet still a gemstone in its own right when identified correctly.

Then there are synthetic imitations – made from porcelain, plastic, and various copper and aluminium compounds. Most of these synthetics will only bear a slim resemblance to natural turquoise.

If you have turquoise, it does require special care – it is sensitive to cosmetics and perfume which will damage the finish and may alter the colour. It can dehydrate and discolour if left in strong sunlight for a long period of time. So, put it on AFTER you’ve done your makeup/perfume/ sunscreen/hairspray and don’t wear in a beach/pool environment. Clean it with a soft cloth and store separately in its own bag or box to avoid scratching.

Another gemstone imitating turquoise - this is treated magnesite.

Lastly, buyer beware! If you like the colour and look of turquoise and decide to buy some, be sure to ask questions if descriptions are lacking or vague terms are used. A lot of affordable turquoise will be treated to some extent and this should be disclosed by reputable seller, jewellers and gemstone dealers.

Of course, this isn't an exhaustive dissertation on turquoise (!) but I hope I've covered the basics. If you have any specific questions about turquoise, post a comment and I'll get back to you!

Till next :)
Annette

School Holidays and a Cookie Recipe

2011-07-18T19:36:00.006+10:00

A blogging friend of mine recently called herself a very bad blogger. I think I have beaten her in the lack of regularly posting arena by now though.

Monthly trips to Sydney, increased community and family commitments have made my life more crazy than usual and I feel like I just don't have time to stop, otherwise things don't get done. Opportunities to squeeze in some time to indulge in creating seem few and far between, more's the pity.

The children go back to school tomorrow - a few days of relative normality before it all goes pear shaped with yet another trip to Sydney. Since I moved out of Sydney in my 20s, I've never been back there so frequently and I reckon after this year is over I won't be keen to venture forth in that direction for some time.

The first week of the holidays involved a dash to Sydney (see what I mean!), a sleepover upping the normal child tally a bit for a couple of days and a family gathering. I was cooking potato bake and warm vegetable salad for the gathering of 25 people, but had to cook it and get it there warm and ready to eat. I had a slight hiccup or two. The oven decided it was just too full and took forever to cook the vegies. Then I tipped one bowl of the warm vegetable salad over - luckily the foil and tea towel I had covered it with, caught it all and it just looked a little more "tossed" than the other bowl.

The past week however has been blissfully quiet - the girls won't get their heads out of whatever novel they're currently reading so its all quiet there. With the weather so cold, everyone has endeavoured to stay inside near the fire as much as possible but son, at 13, can't help himself and sure enough the delicate household balance goes awry. So there has still been the occasional fight and a definite need to let of steam and energy - followed closely by my declaration to "go outside NOW and run around for at least half an hour"!

I celebrated the end of the holidays today by cooking numerous batches of yummy food. Totally required of course with school due back and a cupboard bare of lunchbox type foods. So I got in and cooked chocolate brownie (above) (I posted the recipe for here it a couple of years ago), a double batch of choc-apricot cookies, a double batch gingernuts (below) and an apple cake. All were made with our own eggs (yay to the chooks finally growing big enough and starting to lay!) and the apple cake was made with Grandma's crisp apples.

In the absence of a piece of jewellery this week, I'm going to share my choc-apricot cookie recipe (pictured at top). I've made these for well over 20 years and they always work out. They were actually tasted by a food editor for an Australian foodie magazine who was visiting my house a few years ago - and she asked for the recipe so they must be good!

CHOC-APRICOT COOKIES

125g butter
1/3 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup coconut - dessicated or shredded
200g chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Beat butter and sugars in bowl with electric mixer till light and fluffy. Beat in egg til just combined. Stir in flours, choc chips, coconut and apricots and mix to a firm dough. (If using your mixer, change the blade to a dough hook, as its a heavy mix).
Please level tablespoons of mixture about an inch apart on lightly greased oven trays and flatten slightly (or just throw them on the trays - they flatten a bit by themselves!). Bake in a moderate oven 20 minutes or till lightly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Notes: makes about 20-25 biscuits, so make a double batch, otherwise you'll look around and they'll all be gone! Heavenly still warm but watch out for apricot pieces - they retain the heat. The mix is a great basic mix - feel free to swap the choc chips and apricots for something else.

OK, back to the ironing board - I promised myself that I would get it all done these holidays and I've still got a pile to go and only hours left!

Till next :)
Cheers
Annette

A trip to the Sydney Opera House

2011-06-20T11:45:00.006+10:00

Last week just whizzed by – nothing new I know, but this time I was actually OUT rather than IN (and just distracted by everything that comes along so that I'm busy!)

The long weekend was very chilly long weekend – which the children and I spent inside the majority of the time, with books, near the fire (actually I seem to recall quite a lot of ironing getting done and not much reading for me).

Hubby had taken off to Qld for an aerobatics competition on Friday and wasn’t due back until late Monday afternoon, so son and I had to round up the cattle that were going to be picked up to go to sale and put them in the yards. Apart from one snorty bull who we managed to go around (he wasn’t supposed to be there!) the cattle were very well behaved and actually followed the fence instead of spearing off into the centre of the paddock as they often do. We got them into the right corner, up the laneway, through the holding pen and into the yards, just as hubby flew over and half an hour before the truck arrived. Son and I were rather chuffed it all went according to plan.

Tuesday morning involved heavy monitoring of the children cleaning the car (I seem to remember being able to wash and vacuum a car, why can’t they?) and getting ready for a drive to Sydney leaving lunchtime. Hubby was off checking cattle and of course arrived back earlier than expected (it’s always either early or late… never as expected) and was ready to go before anyone else in the house. Typical. But we all managed to get dressed up and ready for our outing.

Five hours later we arrive in Sydney, looking only slightly rumpled, at my sister-in-law’s house. A quick spruce up and bite to eat and we were off again to our final destination of the evening – the Sydney Opera House! (Thus the photo at the top of the post!)

As the children study classical piano with their concert-pianist-trained teacher, we decided an evening of listening to one of the world’s best pianists was in order. After huge sums of money were sent to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, we obtained tickets to hear the renowned Lang Lang play at the Opera House. The whole experience was marvelous. We found our way to the northern foyer, listened to a talk on the music that we were going to here then found our seats in the magnificent Main Concert Hall. Hubby and I recall going there as a child but only for a tour, so this was a first for us too. This was the main concert hall (it looks like we're wayyyy up the back, but we could see everything quite clearly - close enough to see smiles on performer's faces) :

The Sydney Symphony played the first two pieces (Mendelssohn and Sibelius) and then Lang Lang came on and with a flourish began to play Tchaikovsky’s with the Orchestra. It was all wonderful! Even the children enjoyed it although one of the girls said she was too tired and just wanted to go to bed! I gave her a look that said “not on your nelly, girly” and she sat there, waking up sufficiently to enjoy it.

Unbeknown to us, it was Lang Lang’s birthday and the orchestra had organized a birthday cake after the concert – at 29 years old, this young man has the classical music world at his feet and he hammed it up on stage whilst the Sydney Symphony played and the audience sang “Happy Birthday”. One wag in the audience called out ‘speech’… and Lang Lang obliged! After an encore performance, he was presented with bouquets of flowers, one of which he pulled apart, presenting a flower to each female member of the orchestra. Lang Lang taking a bow :

Post concert the parking station was at gridlock, so instead we went for hot chocolate and a selection of treats (huge jam biscuits and incredibly rich chocolate pots!) at the Lower Concourse which houses bars and cafes with a magnificent view of the harbour bridge.

A photo opportunity or two was snapped (the above one blurry, but courtesy of the waiter in the cafe!) before wending our way back to sister-in-law’s house and a well earned rest.

More things to do in Sydney on Wednesday, including a visit to the orthodontist for the children and then the long drive home.

A day off on Thursday (well, housework and associated timewasters) and then Friday was the Zone Cross Country held in town where I worked all day for the P&C on the cappuccino stall. End result – very tired and windburned.

I finally made it to my bench this past weekend to do some orders and I'm hoping for some creative 'me' time there soon!

Till next :)
Annette

Mice, sparkling gems and an award!

2011-06-09T19:30:00.009+10:00

Yet again, I continue with my very poor blogging habits. I seem to remember blogging each week up until recently – how did I find the time!? I must be lacking in organization at the moment…

I thought about posting about the mice we have here on the farm. There is one in particular that consistently steals food out of the cat’s bowl. A fat, glossy little mouse he is ... and very careful to come out ONLY when the cats aren’t around. And when there is only one, a mouse can be pretty darn cute.

But some mouse stories aren’t so nice when they’re at, whilst not quite plague proportions, at least far too many of them. And the rats! Luckily we have bush rats, which I’ve found, at first hand, look just like massive mice. (And along with huge Bogong moths last month, I secretly started to wonder if something very strange was going on that was growing monster wildlife!)

So instead, I thought I’d stick to the jewellery front and what I’ve been up to.

I’ve been busy recently with a show and orders, but have also been sidetracked into my box of special gems. "The box" is getting so full that I decided I either needed a bigger box or had to create some jewellery to share these beauties around. Since shops are few and far between out here to find a larger box, I went with the latter choice and made some pieces with the sparklies!

Th pink amethyst, pink topaz and rock crystal quartz sterling silver necklace at the top of the post is one. Scrumptious, isn’t it? Rather springlike considering we’re in full winter here, but that’s the muse for you – she takes you where she will!

I made a wintry necklace too – with smoky quartz, petro tourmaline and vermeil. Rich and luxurious.

Then I got started on earrings ….

With everything from muted shades of pink and blue with rose quartz, pink topaz, pink tourmaline and iolite...

To rich red garnets and pink topaz reminding me of cool days and warm fires...

To colourful amethyst, peridot and blue topaz ...

And more ... like my favourites - these one made with swiss blue topaz, peridot, pink topaz, green topaz and apatite ...

See why I like my “special box”!? And, it’s a much nicer post than one about mice!

In other news, I was recently honoured to receive The Versatile Blogghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifers Award from the wonderful Kelly of Vital Traditions all the way over in Washington State. I had the pleasure of being the roomie of Kelly at a conference a couple of years ago in Queensland, and she is honestly one of the very nicest people you could ever meet! Oh, and her all natural body products are THE BEST!

As part of receiving this award I need to pass this on and I've selected some of my daily reads for the award (check them out, you may find a new favourite!):

BushBelles
Gifts of Serendipity
Write Expressions
The Laurel Hedge
Cattle, Kids & Chaos

And, lastly before I sign off, I want to give a shout-out to Paula K and her new Smart Woman venture. Paula started the amazing and popular Connect2Mums site a couple of years ago and I've known her since those early days - she's a fantastic mentor and businesswoman, so if you're in small business (or thinking about it), pop over to her Facebook page and say hello!

The Jewels from Cannes

2011-05-21T22:08:00.009+10:00

The 64th International Cannes Film Festival has been on this month and as it is heavily sponsored by Chopard, the couture jewels on the red carpet have definitely been worth watching!

It was nice to see it wasn’t just diamonds at this event – coloured gems definitely made their presence known and it was a lovely change from white diamonds.

Uma Thurman (at top), on this year’s jury, wore these chandelier earrings set with 34 pear-shaped emeralds for a total of 54cts together along with a more understated emerald bracelet. The emeralds just glowed even from a distance and gave some colour to her all white ensemble. Another day, she wore this little diamond cuff. (I’m not jealous, really, I’m not… much!)

Model Bianca Balti went the green route as well, wearing this amazing De Grisogono emerald necklace. I adore the intense colour - she carries it well.

In the sapphire brigade were Fan Bing Bing wearing Cartier and Jane Fonda wearing Chopard.

Rosario Dawson had a showstopper necklace by Faraone Mennella of aquamarine and diamonds and look at the size of those rocks!

The co-president of Chopard, Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele wore a peacock bracelet set with diamonds, emeralds, tsavorite garnets and sapphires with matching earrings. I’m not a fan of this ensemble, but to each their own!

Former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai wore Chopard diamonds - 12cts of pink diamonds in her ears and a whopping 53ct emerald cut diamond on her hand.

Linn Ullmann, Norwegian writer and critic wore a more low key Chopard oval diamond necklace totaling of 46cts. A nice little row of sparkles :)

Penelope Cruz showed great taste wearing these rubelite and diamond earrings. Gorgeous.

Salma Hayek wore pearls with her diamonds in a cuff bangle and earrings.

Although hardly well known in Australia, Italian fashion blogger, Chiara Ferragni wore this Chopard mixed gemstone bracelet and earrings. I love the delicate colour of the gems yet the overall substantial size – I think this might be one of my favourite jewellery sets seen on the red carpet this year.

Till next :)
Annette

Busy Days, Olive Picking and Olive Oil

2011-05-11T11:59:00.006+10:00

I know, I’ve been a VERY bad blogger. I’ve posted very sporadically and I can’t seem to get back into the ‘groove’.

We had a very social April with lots of family coming and going and even some non-family social occasions. I’ve had two shows on since my last post … and only someone else who does shows can appreciate how much work and time they take up beforehand! I’ve also been busy running children around – to Sydney, to piano lessons, to school events. Hubby has been no better, he’s been to travelling off to seminars and meetings, having teleconferences at home (which I somehow ended up taking minutes for!?), attending the National Aerobatics Comp (he came second in Advanced) and the rest of the time busy on the farm.

The latest in the long line of things to do was to pick our olives. We have a few hundred olive trees planted on the property. Some are dryland and planted in tree lines (above), some are irrigated in the house yard (water makes SUCH a difference, the latter are huge). The photo below is post-harvest, we obviously missed a few but they are up high and we forgot the step ladder (oops).

There are some jobs you can automate, but olive picking isn’t one of them. So yesterday, hubby and I picked, by hand, our 6 heavily laden mature trees, in about 5 hours, stripping them fairly well to a height we could reach, onto sheets spread out on the ground. After tipping the sheets into tubs, we spent another hour or so picking through the 50 odd kilograms of olives and removing the branches and leaves. They looked so pretty in their tubs – a lovely mix of green and black (deep purple really) ovals.

I had to dash off into town then so hubby took them down to a neighbour who has an olive press to extract the oil. He then took cattle to the saleyards in Mudgee and returned via the neighbour with 4 very large (2-3 litres each) jars of olive oil. Its the first time we've made oil, usually I just pickle the crop for eating.

Considering the amount we use, I reckon these jars could do us for a couple of years. Note that these are almost opaque as they are unfiltered. They need to be stored for a while to let the sediment drop and then the oil is decanted from the top down. The green colour is a also a sign of fresh, first press, virgin olive oil.

To say yesterday was tiring would be an understatement. I’m so pleased to have the next couple of days at home, even though I have a ‘to do’ list that seems a mile long.

Taking off my farming hat, today’s picture is of a pair of limited edition freshwater cultured ‘keshi’ pearls, garnet and 12ct gold fill earrings.

To celebrate autumn (my favourite season of the year), I’ve decided that every purchase made up until 30 May 2011 will go in a draw to win a pair of these. What’s even better is that I will customize them completely to your preferences – peacock or white keshi pearls, a selection of coloured gems to chose from, and either sterling silver or gold fill.

So, if you’ve been thinking about a pre-winter jewellery purchase, now might be a good time and perhaps you will win a pair of earrings too!

Right, now back to that list….

Till next :)
Annette

A Glimpse into a Country Show

2011-04-16T17:03:00.007+10:00

I recently attended the local agricultural show which is about 45 minutes drive from my home and thought some of you (particularly those who don't live in a rural area - or even Australia) might like a peek into my day.

An "ag show" here has horse events, cattle and sheep showing, competitions in poultry, wool and produce, art, cooking, handicrafts and flowers. And probably more that I didn't see!

I attend up to four ag shows a year with my jewellery and at Dunedoo I had an area in the ladies pavillion. Needing to be there from 8am on the last day of daylight savings (which is at least 6 weeks too long at either end) meant that the sun still wasn’t up when I left home. The sun did come up on my journey there though

and the countryside looked lovely bathed in the early dawn.

While I was waiting for the steward to arrive I had time for a quick look around some of the pavillion’s exhibits before it opened to the public.

There was a constant stream of people through the pavillion all day, admiring all the talented ladies (and some men's) work … and a bit of my jewellery too! (I was wedged between the flowers and the photography).

It quietened down a bit over lunch so I took some shots from the pavillion entrance. Here is a glimpse towards the carnival side of things … go a bit further down here and you would arrive in side show alley.

Some weary looking competitors in a horse event - they look like they need lunch and a shady tree don't you think?

Children find out some of the perils of the pet show - so exciting for the competitors at one end of the leads I think.

But a lot of the show is about catching up with friends, whether you're young, or not.

The show went on til evening when the pavillion turned into a frenzy of people packing up (including me) and collecting their items and prizes. As I wearily headed home into the dark night, my rear view mirror caught a few fireworks lighting up the sky.

A lovely end to the day - hope you enjoyed your outing to the show!

Till next
Annette

PS I will be in Mudgee next week, Easter Saturday at the Makers Market in the grounds of St. Mary's, pop in and say hello if you're in town!

Vale Elizabeth Taylor - a life of jewels.

2011-03-24T08:43:00.010+11:00

Elizabeth Taylor has passed away at the age of 79. It is the passing of an extraordinary and passionate woman who had many husbands and philanthropic interests. She happily admitted to her love of jewellery, feeling herself the custodian of some fabulous pieces and even designing a line of fine jewellery sold through Christie's. She once said, "my mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring. I was hooked."

Here are some of the fabulous gems she owned and a little about them:

A diamond and ruby suite by Cartier, given to Elizabeth by her third husband Mike Todd for swimming laps in the pool. Mike showered Elizabeth in gifts and fine jewellery. A favourite pair of earrings with paste stones he replaced with diamonds as a surprise (photo above). Amongst his many gifts he also gave her a 29 and 7/8 carat diamond engagement ring, as to quote Elizabeth, “Mike insisted I say 29 and 7/8, because 30 would have been vulgar.”

The Grand Duchess Vladimir Suite, by Bulgari was given to Elizabeth by Richard Burton. Comprised of diamonds and emeralds it contains a brooch (Richard’s engagement gift to Elizabeth), ear pendants, a necklace, and a bracelet. The suite was worn at her 1964 wedding to Richard at the Ritz-Carlton in Montréal.

The Krupp Diamond was given to Elizabeth by Richard Burton in 1968. The Krupps were a German family that supplied munitions to the Nazis and "helped knock off millions of Jews", Taylor wrote in her book "Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry". "How perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it. In truth, though, there's nothing funny about the Krupp. When I look into it, the deep Asscher cuts—which are so complete and ravishing—are like steps that lead into eternity and beyond. With its sparks of red and white and blue and purple, and on and on, really, it sort of hums with its own beatific life. To me, the Krupp says, 'I want to share my chemistry—my magic—with you.'" At 33.19-carats, it was a favourite jewel that Elizabeth wore in a ring.

Not limiting herself to diamonds alone, another gift from Richard was the La Peregrina Pearl. Found by an African slave at Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama in the mid 16th Century (who was rewarded with freedom for the find), it was given to Phillip II of Spain who presented it to his English bride, Queen Mary I. After her death the pearl returned to Spain where it remained a part of the crown jewels until Joseph Bonaparte, one time king of Spain, fled the country taking the pearl with him. It passed from the Bonaparte family to the Duke of Abercorn who purchased it for his wife, Louisa Hamilton.

A heavy pearl, it apparently fell out of its setting twice once in a sofa in Windsor Castle and the next time during a ball at Buckingham Palace. Luckily it was recovered both times! It stayed in the Hamilton family until sold in 1969 to Richard Burton for $37,000 who gave it to Elizabeth for Valentine's Day. It continued its disappearing tricks and went missing in their Suite at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. After a thorough search by Elizabeth, she saw one of their puppies chewing - opening their mouth, there was the pearl, unhurt! It was later redesigned by Cartier into a necklace with more pearls, diamonds and rubies. La Peregrina remains one of the largest perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped natural pearls in the world.

Richard Burton once said, "The only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari." He gifted her with a diamond-and-sapphire sautoir necklace featuring a 321-carat Burmese sapphire pendant in 1969.

Probably the most well known gem owned by Elizabeth was the Taylor-Burton diamond. Found in 1966 in the Premier Mine, the 240.80ct rough was cut down into two stones, under TV spotlights, by a diamond cutter in the employ of Harry Winston, who had studied the stone for six months deciding on the best way to cleave the stone. The larger stone was cut into pear shape eventually weighing 69.42ct.

Sold initially to Mrs. Harriet Annenberg Ames, the sister of the American ambassador in London during the Richard Nixon administration. Two years later, she sent the diamond to Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York to be auctioned stating she just couldn't wear it and rather than languish it a bank vault it should be sold. After furious bidding it was bought by Cartier for $1,050,000, the highest price ever paid for a diamond at auction at the time (1969). The losing bidder was a representative of Richard Burton. The diamond was quickly named "The Cartier".

Determined to obtain it however, Richard got on the payphone in a well-known hotel in southern England, and spoke to Cartier's agent. Richard negotiated for the gem while continually dropping coins into the phone and patrons would have heard the actor exclaiming "I don't care how much it is; go and buy it." He was successful and it became the "Taylor-Burton". Elizabeth wore it for the first time in November of that year to Princess Grace of Monaco's 40th birthday celebration.

Following her divorce from Richard in 1978, Elizabeth sold the Taylor-Burton for $5,000,000, the proceeds of which went to build a hospital in Botswana. It was purchased Henry Lambert, a New York-based jeweler and is now owned by Robert Mouawad.

The Taj Mahal Diamond also given to her by Richard Burton on the occasion of her 40th birthday in 1972. A flat, heart shaped stone it has an Arabic inscription that says "Love is Everlasting". The original silk cord was replaced and it was set with rubies and diamonds in a yellow gold rope-pattern necklace.

"I would have liked to buy her the Taj-Mahal," Richard remarked, "but it would cost too much to transport. This diamond has so many carats, its almost a turnip." Then he added, "Diamonds are an investment. When people no longer want to see Liz and I on the screen, then we can sell off a few baubles."

This gem was owned by Shah Jahan, who was given the diamond by his father. Jehan then gave it to the woman who was the favourite of his wives, Queen Mumtāz in 1621.

Vale Elizabeth Taylor, a true ambassador of fine jewels!

The Muse, To Do Lists and New Creations

2011-03-20T09:31:00.004+11:00

Have you ever had a couple of weeks that leaves your head spinning? You can’t think straight, keep jumping from thing to thing and not really feeling as if you’re getting anywhere (even if you are)? No time to stop, take stock and dare I say, smell the roses? If you have that makes me feel MUCH better, as I’m there at the moment!

I can identify one reason – the muse came to visit. Now when she comes along, everything just has to stop, the creativity flows and all is right with the world. Well, in my little sphere of my studio all is right!

Unfortunately, the rest of the world keeps marching at its own pace. The family still needs to be fed, the house kept at a respectably clean level, and the laundry done. The husband still needs a lunchbox packed and jobs done while he’s busy farming. The phone still rings, orders still come in and have to go out. The school term still rolls on, homework has to be supervised, piano lessons attended, and even a little trip to the hospital to pick up son who had been hit in the face with a cricket ball at a school match was thrown in the mix.

The consequence is that every time I surfaced from my studio the “to do” list just got longer as those “urgent & important” things kept taking precedence. So, when the muse departed earlier this week (although sad to see her go and hoping for her return soon) I’ve spent the time since desperately trying to catch up. Throw into the mix my new duty as the school’s P&C secretary and I’m feeling so far behind in some things (like the mountainous pile of ironing … which I’m at least glad to say, my children are now too big to be crushed under should it fall!) that I’m doubting if I shall catch up – at least in the short term.

Please tell me you’ve had times like these and got through them!?

On the positive side I’m absolutely thrilled with the new pieces I’ve made. There’s a gorgeous lapis lazuli and freshwater cultured pearl bracelet (photo above), a natural pink freshwater pearl necklace, a necklace and bracelet in red, white and black, a scintillating necklace of smoky quartz, petro tourmaline, citrine and vermeil, a torsade of pearls and gems in green, silver and berry colours, a necklace of greens in pearls and aventurine, a soft neutral toned pearl and amethyst necklace, a silvery peacock pearl necklace scattered with amethyst, aquamarine and iolite, plus some earrings to match some of these too. There is also a very special pink amethyst and pink topaz necklace that’s almost finished and is sure to gain many admirers!

I need to get all this lovely stock ready for my next show, which is at Mendooran this coming Saturday … oh dear, I’ve just remembered that means even more things to do before then *sigh* . I guess I’d better get started!

Hope you're achieving more than me!

Till next
Annette

Academy Awards 2011 ... The Jewels!

2011-02-28T18:39:00.006+11:00

Ahh the Oscars – a ray of glittering jewels on an otherwise overcast day! Not such a rare beast today, there were a number of jewels that stood out. Come with me on a tour:

Anne Hathaway looked stunning on the red carpet in a red “archival” Valentino dress and a lovely big diamond necklace and matching earrings from Tiffany. Her numerous dress changes (8!) during her stint as host of the Awards (apparently she acted on the advice of Shirley Maclaine who told her to change outfits frequently) throughout the night also showcased a diamond collar of diamonds and pale amethyst from Tiffany & Co., with a grey and black Vivienne Westwood gown and a large pair of tanzanite sapphire drop earrings with a bright blue sheath by Georgio Armani.

Amy Adams wore Cartier – a diamond necklace with a large hanging emerald pendant on her sparkling blue-purple dress by L'Wren Scott. Amy loves necklaces :)

Nicole Kidman wore her trademark white sheath this time by Dior, with a diamond collar (although I'm not a fan of the oxidised (black) look around the stones). Interestingly, it follows the same idea I had with my 'back necklace' that I posted about back in 2008.

Annette Bening wore large emerald earrings with her pewter dress.

Reese Witherspoon wore emerald earrings and matching ring with her black and white gown and Barbie hair (!).

Susan Downey (wife of Robert), wore large imperial topaz earrings, matching cuff and ring that she said were designed by Angelina Jolie. When interviewed with her husband she was very excited about the jewels and her spouse exclaimed that the best part of the evening for her was wearing the earrings!

Natalie Portman who has recently sported necklaces, this time went for long tassel earrings that matched the tone of her plum Rodarte gown. My guess is that they were either plum ruby or rhodolite garnet in the tassel and diamonds above. I loved them!

Gwyneth Paltrow sported an interesting pair of earrings with coloured stones that appears to include such gems as peridot, amethyst, citrine and garnet. She wore a matching brooch on her hip too!

Helen Mirren went traditional and wore a long diamond necklace from Cartier with her dark grey gown by Vivienne Westwood.

Susanne Bier who won for the best Foreign Language Film wore a lovely diamond collar and bracelet and one of the few blue dresses of the evening.

Celine Dion wore a diamond and emerald necklace on the red carpet and appeared on stage later with a diamond collar and cuff.

All in all a great show of jewels don’t you think?

Regaining a sense of calm, the BAFTA jewels and back to the bench

2011-02-17T08:33:00.004+11:00

Good news - I'm slowly getting back into a routine here - some things have fallen off the everyday list though (like exercise oops!) but on the whole, there feels like there is more balance and every so often I even gain a sense of calm.

It is blissfully quiet today. Hubby left early in the plane, the kids left for school, the farm cats are napping, the working dog is quietly watching all, the cattle are in the distance happily eating. Apart from hearing the light breeze move in the trees and some distant bird chatter, all is quiet. Ahhhhh......

I caught up with the recent Awards ceremonies this week - the BAFTAs and the Grammys. The Grammys didn't do it for me - once again, all cuffs and dangly earrings. I guess these just aren't my 'scene'?

I did have high hopes for the BAFTAs, but perhaps the rainy weather got them all down as there weren't as many glamorous jewels as I had hoped for. They did have a couple of highlights - namely Jessica Alba who looked amazing in a flowing electric blue gown and wore a stunning collar of blue/green, perhaps made of azurite-malachite. Miranda Richardson wore a lovely pair of blue-green (possibly aquamarine/emerald) earrings and Thandie Newton a timeless emerald necklace. The rest was all a little ho-hum!

On the creating front I had a lovely day earlier this week with my muse perched on my shoulder whispering all sorts of great ideas. New jewels include exotic wood bracelets set off with a single big gemstone ; concoctions in amazonite (teal/aqua blue)or apatite (neon blue) and smoky quartz (brown); and a couple of pieces in deep amethyst (purple) and pink tourmaline. Then I did a couple of pearl earrings with some little sapphires to set them off. I finally went to bed close to midnight, still full of energy and wanting to create but knowing I really needed SOME sleep! I hope to get back to the bench today to do some more :D

The Connect2Mums network has recently launched a new AusMumprenuer magazine. They did a feature on Rural Mums and interviewed me as part of it. So I'm there (photo and all) on pp 28-29. They also selected some of my jewels in the fashion pages too. How exciting!

Right, best crack the whip and get back to the bench! Today's photo by the way is one of the new pieces - earrings with unusual diamond shapes of smoky quartz with a chequer facet under a mass of blue apatite gems.

Till next :)
Annette

Normality and Routine vs. Reality

2011-02-10T11:24:00.006+11:00

I WAS hoping for a bit of normality to return to my life after the kids returned to school, however it seems that 'normality' is far from happy to return - it's off being itself somewhere else and I'm just running around from one thing to the other and not getting anything done.

The children, on the other hand, seem to have settled back into the routine of school ... the routine of not wanting to get up in the mornings and the routine of rushing off to the school bus with seconds to spare. Not to mention the routine of not wanting to do their homework.

I've been told by the girls in no uncertain terms that they'd much prefer to stay home and read. (Good for bookstores and libraries but not so good for their school reports I'm sure).

Perhaps we all need a little more R&R (six weeks obviously wasn't enough...) and my R&R is more likely to come when the children are at school and peace reigns over the house. But then a phone call from MIL, or SIL or a request from the accountant or a job to do for hubby because he can't do it - he has to go and plough ... and next thing you know the day is gone and the kids are walking back up the hill after being dropped at the front gate by the school bus. *sigh*

I HAVE made an effort with son though - his performance (at school) dropped off quite a bit towards the end of last year. Our idea that he should be made responsible for his own work (getting homework done in time, projects finished in a half reasonable state etc) kind of failed. In a world of sink or swim, he definitely sank. So now, each day after school I sit down with him at the dining table and get him to show me what he did that day, asking him to explain it to me. If he can't, I endeavour to lead him through, kind a bit like revision on a daily basis. I look at his diary, make sure his homework/project due dates have been notated and make sure he packs the correct books for the next day. I think he's entered that teen fog where they see and hear nothing that doesn't interest them, so I feel I have to do this. Otherwise he may just fall off the planet and not realise.

The girls have been fine with their homework and seem to understand everything so far, so I guess I should be grateful for small mercies.

On the creative front, I did manage an afternoon at my bench recently and made some lovely heart jewellery to celebrate the imminent occasion of Valentine's Day (the photo above is one - its a gorgeous lemon citrine pendant and chain - a whopping 1 inch across, it's big and sparkly and very desirable!

Are you expecting anything for Valentine's Day? My hubby isn't big remembering Valentines (although I do recall a bunch of long stemmed roses that arrived at my work from him one year). But he will go and pick me a red, red rose from the garden on the spur of the moment - just like he did this morning:

And that's worth more than anything, don't you think?

Till next :)
Annette

Hot Weather, Sydney, Shops, Peaches and an Award.

2011-01-29T13:49:00.007+11:00

It has been so hot the last few days - everytime I moved an eyebrow I broke out in a sweat. (I could say perspiration, but, no.... it was sweat). I'm really not made for the hot weather but this last week has been a scorcher.

We were in Sydney for a few days and I don't think I've ever felt that hot in the city before - usually there is a sea breeze, but not this week. The skies were constantly blue, the sun was hot and the humidity completely did me in. I can take the heat if there is relief in the shade, but with humidity there's just no escaping it. When we got home to the farm on Thursday night, the house was so hot it was like walking into a dry sauna. Apparently it had been 44C that day and with the house locked up it was STILL 44C.

Sydneysiders seemed to be enjoying the hot weather on Australia Day and the city - in particular Circular Quay and Hyde Park - was packed with people enjoying the entertainment. After our satisfying walk around the city in December, we decided to do it again. Here's a pic of Centrepoint Tower, taken as we just got out of the train station at St. James.

Now that all the Xmas decorations were down and the need for pressies was less, I came to the conclusion that there were too many shops in the city selling 'women's stuff' (as my husband so eloquently put it) and the prices most were charging was astronomical. Obviously people in the city get paid better than farmers. I do envy Sydneysiders their access to choice - often in regard to furniture and so on but I can happily say that our country shops do a sterling job on the 'women's stuff' front.

Naturally, we can't always GET to these shops regularly. I need to travel over 100km to get to a clothes shop, but when I do, these boutique owners really have to buy well - they can't afford to purchase and then not sell it. Of course, I do still use online shopping - it's so easy, always open and I don't have to drive an hour or more to get there!

We are fortunate in our little town to have a nice 'stuff' shop though - I have watched the owner expand and refine her range and move into larger and larger premises as people appreciated her selections.

On the farming front, things are drying off with the successive hot days. I've even had to resort to watering the roses and some trees! Our peach and plum trees had some gorgeous fruit this summer. For the last couple of weeks, we've been going out every morning and picking a few pieces of fruit for the day. The blood plums have been huge and so juicy. The peaches have been the same - making one peach a nice handful.

I've been keeping an eye out for parrots, waiting for them to find the fruit trees - so that I can leave them on the tree for maximum ripening but save enough for us! It appears that they took advantage of our absence for a few days as I've returned home and hardly a peach was left. This one managed to be missed by both the parrots and the children.

I did manage to get back to my bench for a couple of days last week and now that the kids will be back to school this coming week, I am looking forward to creating again. After I've covered all the school books of course. Not looking forward to that one.

On a high note, the gorgeous Julia from BushBelles awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award last week. As part of accepting this award I need to share 7 things about me that you probably won't know and then pass the award on to three other stylish bloggers ^^.

So, here goes:
1) I'm starting piano lessons next week. We have a gorgeous grand piano that we bought for the children and frankly I'm completely jealous that they can play and I can't.
2) I'm allergic to most cats - they make me sneeze. Of course, that doesn't stop the children owning outside cats - that I pat and feed and worry about.
3) Snakes completely freak me out. Totally. Even seeing them on the road makes me cringe. (Yes, I know, I make such a suitable farmer's wife).
4) My son, at age 12 has just pipped me in the height stakes. How am I supposed to be a disciplinary force when I have to look up at him?
5) I'm a voracious reader and love the classics. I started reading Austen at age 9 and Dickens at age 11. Hmmm, must give them to the girls to read.
6) I often break out in song, much to the disgust of my son and the amusement of my daughters.
7) I dreamed about my hubby about 2 years before I met him. Fate?

Now, to the new award recipients!
Millie from The Laurel Hedge. Her blog always has gorgeous photos - I love to hear about her renovations and enjoy her view on the world!
Melissah from Scrapbook who, even though she is only a new blogger, is inspiring new people every day.
Melanie from Whimsical Creations - this is one talented woman, have a look for yourself!

Well, look at that, they're all M's!

Till next :)
Annette

The Golden Globes Jewels

2011-01-18T15:25:00.007+11:00

I had fun last night watching the Golden Globe Awards and all the stars in their finery. Did you watch it too?

First, the gowns. The ladies certainly dressed up for the event with so many colours - citrus brights, shimmery whites, glamorous golds, timeless black, deep blues, bright reds, neutral nudes, soft, dusky and coral pinks (and a couple of bright pinks too) and rich shades of green. There were an abundance of one shouldered styles, open or plunging backs and many shiny or beaded/sequined fabrics and details.

Angelina Jolie garnered much attention for her beaded emerald green, long sleeved and low backed, dress. Not quite the statement that her big emerald earrings from the past made, but at least she wasn't in black!

There were many fabulous gowns, but of course, I only watch the spectacle for the jewels ;) Apparently there was over $14,000,000 USD worth of jewellery on the stars - just a bit of bling!

Whilst there was the usual (at least in the last couple of years it has been de rigueur) bare neck, long earring and cuff bangle combination, I was so happy to see the stylists finally realise that necklaces are 'fashionable' again. Yes folks, the drought of bare necks finally broke at an Awards ceremony - albeit mostly in diamonds.

The lovely Helen Mirren sparkled in her Cartier diamond necklace, Natalie Portman (winner of Best Actress) glittered in Tiffany & Co diamond multi strand necklace, Julianne Moore wore a Bvlgari diamond collar that appeared to hold her dress up, Sarah Hyland wore Mikimoto pearl and diamonds around her neck, Diana Argon wore a diamond net necklace and a woman at the table of 'The Kids Will Be All Right" movie (I've yet to find out who she was or a photo of her) sported a glittering double strand of lovely green gems.

On other jewels of note it was nice to see some colour appearing in rings, bracelets and earrings - Kelly Osbourne wore a stunning pair of agate druzy and diamond earrings with a matching cocktail ring and Jessalyn Gilsig wore jawdropping multi coloured sapphire and diamond earrings by Chopard.

Of course, the necklace drought has only just broken, but there's still much headway to be made! Bring them on for the Oscars ;)

Till next :)
Annette

A trip to Norfolk Falls

2011-01-08T13:43:00.008+11:00

The twin's birthday has been and gone. Reaching the momentous age of 10, they're now into double digits and asking for things like having their ears pierced! For this landmark birthday they wanted to go somewhere and do something that they had never done before.

Hubby came up with the idea of going to our local national park - Coolah Tops - specifically to Norfolk Falls. The girls were thrilled with the idea of seeing a waterfall in real life and bounced around for days in a state of excitement.

The day dawned clear and bright and we ventured down the road then up the hill, and continued up and up... and up. We arrived at the parking/rest area and while hubby proceeded to light the barbie (bbq), I headed off to the top of the Falls with the kids.

It was only about a 600m but that distance included 500 stairs! Of course, going down wasn't too hard :) We took off our shoes and paddled in the shallow stream that a few scant feet away fell 120 metres straight down!

This direction looks safer!

Eventually we had to haul ourselves away and climbed up those 500 stairs whereupon I gratefully sank onto a picnic bench!

After lunch we ALL ventured forth again, down the 500 stairs, had another paddle in the stream and then went cross-country down a very steep hill to the base of the waterfall.

Although we live on a farm, the countryside is really very gentle and we only have a few small rocks worthy of clambering over in a couple of distant paddocks. I wondered how the children would take such a challenging walk but they loved it. They scrambled down the slope, following what appeared to be bits of trails now and again, climbing over fallen trees, past small orchid like wildflowers and using clumps of native grass as handholds.

The waterfall was magnificent and the pool at the base of the waterfall looked inviting. There was a constant cool flow of air (from the falling water) but we were still ready for a quick swim. There were some shallowly submerged sharp rocks making it a bit tricky to negotiate, but we managed and boy, was that water COLD!

Can you see hubby and one daughter here close to the spray from the falls?

The walk back up that slope might have only taken 20 minutes but I can honestly say I felt like falling down when we reached the top. My legs were shaking and my breathing was more like gasping for oxygen. Of course I'm totally out of condition - too much sitting down creating jewellery last year methinks! Another paddle in the creek and then up the 500 stairs... again!

Needless to say, I hardly moved the next day as my body recovered. A few days of normality and then yesterday, we picked up Meri's new kitten. Isn't he cute!? He'll be keeping us on our toes for a few days yet, I'm sure :D

Till next :)
Annette

Farewell 2010 .. Hello 2011!

2010-12-31T10:24:00.005+11:00

It's here - the end of the year 2010. Another year gone and a few scant hours to get everything done that I said I would this year. The pressure, the pressure!! Then again, maybe that's asking a bit much - perhaps my to do list is just already half done for 2011!

The hot summer weather finally hit yesterday - we've had days in the last week when we've all been back in long sleeves and sweaters, but yesterday dawned clear with one of those typically bright blue summer skies, and today was no exception. We're back to opening up the house as much as we can at night and closing everything up into semi darkness (hard at our house with all our windows and glass) from about 7.30am with the ceiling fans valiantly moving the air around.

The pool comes into its own in this sort of weather and we all live in our swimsuits as we dive in, have a quick splash and then get out walking around in wet cossies and letting nature do its evaporative cooling on us :)

I've had the opportunity to get out on a few walks in the last week - they brought back to me WHY we moved out here a dozen years ago. The fresh air, the smells of the bush, the peace, being surrounded by nature, the fresh air and the togetherness that was possible in such a setting. I'll relate:

On Christmas Day while the kids were busy playing at Grandma's hubby and I escaped for a walk. Grandma lives closer to the highway than we do but being Christmas Day there was nary a car on the roads, so the distant rumbling of trucks and cars was unusually silent, there was no quad bike humming nearby, no tractor roaring away either near or in the distance (everyone who still had harvest to do had stopped for Christmas) and no fumes from any of the vehicles mentioned. Many varieties of birds were chirping, cicada's buzzing, the sun was warm but the air was cool. It felt so wonderful to be outside amid it all.

As I walked down the track in between the dry oat stalks (from harvest a few weeks ago) on an early morning walk this week, a light breeze started and the stalks rattled together, clicking and tapping, making an odd but delightful sort of music.

Last night I had to drive hubby down to collect the header from where he had been doing some late contract harvesting. The paddocks he had done were WAY down a little used track. As we entered the track there was a section of 'scrub' or 'the bush' - native trees and grasses - that we had to drive through. It had the most incredible smell - evocative of the walks I used to take myself on as a child on our farm on the north coast of NSW. When we finally got to our destination it was about 7.30pm the sun was low and not as hot, and we were able to appreciate the stunning vista before us, before turning homeward and back to reality.

So, do you all want move to the country now? :D

My girls will be 10 years old tomorrow, so whilst the rest of us reflect on the past year later tonight, they'll just be bouncy and happy waiting for 01/01/11 and their birthday! No doubt we'll be off in the land of nod by the time the clock ticks midnight - New Year's Eve parties are a thing of the past for us these days.

So, here's to a fabulous year - let's see all the new and amazing things 2011 brings to us all!

Cheers
Annette

Sydney Christmas Magic

2010-12-18T14:56:00.008+11:00

I haven't been to Sydney in ages. After living there in my late teens/early twenties, I very much agreed with Banjo Patterson's lines in the famous poem, Clancy of the Overflow :

...the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city ...

not to mention

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste...

So, we usually bypass the city, concentrating just on what we have to do. We stay out of the city and avoid playing 'tourist'. I also usually go into sensory overload when we hit the city outskirts - the noise, the people, the cars, it's just too much for this country girl!

But after a quick visit there with hubby and the children earlier this week, I must say that Sydney can really turn on the magic at christmas time!

Firstly, we caught a train to St. James Station - it was just after peak hour so it was fairly quiet but we were greeted in the tunnel walkway with melodious notes from a busking flautist. We gave the children some coins each to put into his case, and he rewarded us all with a gleaming smile, a happy christmas tune and as we left his sight, a lighthearted trilling.

After helping some young mothers and their prams up the stairs at the end of the tunnel, we walked over to the famous David Jones store with its christmas windows. I remember visiting these as a child myself and wanted to share some of this with the children. This year they had marionettes singing various christmas songs in different settings.

A kind young man told us that there was carol singing going on in the store at that very moment, so went into the store and listened to the last of the carols. I can honestly say there's nothing like the Sydney City David Jones anywhere else in Australia. Something that every female should experience as part of growing up :D We veered off in different directions at one stage and agreed to meet back at the piano. Yes, DJ's has a pianist employed to play for the customers all year round on a lovely little Steinway.

Next destination was a wander up Pitt Street Mall. But on our way we took a slight detour into the Swarovski Shop in the new Centrepoint complex. Wow. Crystal chandeliers, a crystal curtain and some breathtaking crystal steps! Just standing near them made you feel like a princess in a fairytale. I wish I would have thought to take a photo!

Next stop was the Strand Arcade. I recall this being re-opened when I lived in Sydney and I recalled its old world glamour so I dragged everyone in for a look. Here was a fairyland of lights and christmas cheer. Gorgeous.

A short walk up to the Queen Victoria Building was next. I also remember this being opened (I must have lived in Sydney at a grand time!) and as we wandered up through the levels and took a ride in the old fashioned elevator, the feeling became more refined and we were rewarded with this gorgeous Christmas tree in the centre of the building, that went between floors.

Above the tree is a magnificient stained glass dome. Mind you taking this picture made me feel quite dizzy !

Even though we only did a small part of the city, it was such a wonderful morning. I think not having 'jobs' or shopping to do helped us to enjoy it even more and it was easy to ignore the gritty city and the hurrying people - we were just a family enjoying some of Sydney's christmas magic :)

Wishing you a sparkling festive week!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit!

2010-12-02T12:29:00.006+11:00

Well, it's here. December! No ignoring it now - I'm getting into the Christmas spirit! No, the tree isn't up, and no the letter to friends and cards haven't been written, nor is the shopping finished. But it's been hard to resist the Christmas music, tinsel and glitter, red dresses and imagining fun filled parties and gifts.

If you want to get into the spirit of the season too, do pop over to this picture post on Bush Belles - and have your sound up so you can look at the wonderful pictures along with perfect music. It's so uplifting - guaranteed to make you smile!

Working with the red Christmas theme, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday photographing - trying out different sets, angles and jewels for a December front page photo for my site. I'm really happy with the shot I eventually chose - what do you think?

And then I made a bright red necklace (top) - I've had so much interest in red bamboo coral the last few months that I keep selling out of them, so thought I'd better have one to hand - this one is bamboo coral and sterling silver.

My open day last Friday in Coolah was fantastic and there are going to be lots of little white boxes with violet ribbons under the trees around here this year!

Since the weekend though, all it has done has rained. Has it been raining where you are? We've had well over 7 inches so far and today the sun is struggling to put in appearance. The highway has been cut by floodwaters in numerous places although we can still make it into our local town (much to the children's disappointment since they've still had to go to school)!

We had temporary waterfalls as the water ran down the hill and over the top of the retaining wall near the pool - the ag drains just couldn't cope with the quantity of water that fell in a storm that lasted about an hour.

Our dam is so full it is overflowing and the road near the gate is a few inches under water with water streaming out our front gate. Our sandy drive has washed away and left rocks in its place and I'm positive the cattle are happy the farm is on high ground!

I was planning on attending the Mudgee Art Vine Christmas Art Fair this Saturday - hopefully the flooding will subside so I can actually make it in there!

Till next :)
Annette

Jewellery news dominated by diamonds ... and an engagement ring!

2010-11-24T17:07:00.006+11:00

And the last week of November rolls around.... *sigh*. At least I've started my christmas shopping. All this week's efforts have been online purchases - such a great way to do it ... and no sore feet ;)!

I had a wonderful time at last weekend's Christmas Fair in Tamworth. It was such a great group of exhibitors too - there was a lovely vibe to the whole day! Many customers sought me out from last year's event - I just love to hear how their enjoying their previous purchases.

I have my open day in Coolah this Friday and then next week my last show for the year in Mudgee at the Art Vine Artisans Christmas Market. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break from shows, but there will be plenty to keep me busy after that on the family front!

There have been a few things happening in the jewellery world the past week.

We have the world's most expensive pink diamond: The extremely rare 24.78 carat flawless pink diamond smashed the price record for most expensive diamond (and piece of jewelry) sold at auction (Sotheby's), where Laurence Graff paid the princely sum of $46.16 million and has already named it The Graff Pink. (He already owns the diamond with the previous title of most expensive diamond sold at auction, for which he paid $24.3 million - and all this from a lad who came from the streets of London and left school at age 14!)

Speaking of princes: Prince William announced he would marry his long term girlfriend Kate Middleton next summer. In a touching gesture, her engagement ring is the sapphire and diamond ring that Princess Diana wore. A little old-fashioned some may say, but its still a ring to be reckoned with - the sapphire is 18 carats of top quality stone with 14 nice diamonds around it and has a current value of approximately $500,000.

Rare emerald: A rare 9.27carat square cut emerald from from the legendary mine of Muzo, Colombia, brought a price of $835,682 at the recent Christie's sale. Gemmologists claim its vibrant hue class it amongst the world's best.

If you like to fossick for gems: Perhaps try your luck at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. A fellow last weekend had a bit of a fossick and ended up going home with a 2.44ct brown diamond. Definitely worth the $7 entry fee!

The legendary Hope diamond : The Hope diamond has had a new, modern setting designed for it by Harry Winston Inc., to celebrate its 50th anniversary of being donated by Harry Winston to the Smithsonian. Set into a necklet with 340 baguette diamonds, that took 8 months for jewellers to create, it will only be in the setting for a short time before returning to its original Cartier setting.

The other piece of jewellery news is more of an oddity, really. I saw the headline of 'world's largest pearl' and when I investigated further, found they were referring to a six ton ball of blue-green fluorite from Mongolia. As it glows in the dark it is referred to as a 'luminous pearl' On sale for an estimated 88,000,000 GBP if you want a five foot high night light?

In honour of all the lovely gems in this week's news I thought I'd better post a special piece - and this one surely is! Made with top quality amethyst and citrine and 14ct gold, I just love it!

Till next week :)
Cheers
Annette

What Price Beauty?

2010-11-19T06:28:00.005+11:00

I'm sitting here the day after a HUGE shopping trip to Dubbo. We left yesterday before 8am and we got home last night at 9.30pm! The drive each way is close to 150km (so a 300km round trip) and it feels like I walked the whole way my feet are that sore. Why are they so sore? Well, it kind of comes down to what you wear to town. I'm in the country and going to town still entails an element of dressing up.

This means wearing a dress or skirt and heels or the route I usually take which is dressy jeans or trousers. Presentable but not towering high heels, a nice top, necklace and earrings completes the look.

Since I'm only average height and not as slim as I used to be, I don't want to encourage the chunky image, so I like to wear a low heel to give me extra height. I bought some fabulous dress boots (like riding boots but with a small block heel) last winter and these look great with my bootleg jeans and give me that much needed height. The fact that they are pretty comfortable too and I had done a day of walking around Mudgee in them before with good results helped this choice along. Of course I forgot in this equation that Mudgee is MUCH smaller.

On arrival we spent the first hour car bound as hubby found workshops and machinery supply shops. Then, the first main street stop, the girls and I went off to find a hairdresser (the girls in dire need of a new cut) and the boys went off to the barber. Naturally we parked near the barber. We only had 45 minutes before the orthodontist appointment, so off we rushed. Three blocks later we had found a hairdresser that could fit the girls in - but not till the afternoon. So we briskly walked back to the car, doing a spot of retail therapy on the way ;)

Back in the car and off to the orthodontist. Hubby left us there with the agreement to meet us back in the nearest shopping centre in about an hour and a half's time. The orthodontist took about 3/4 hour with the wonderful news that my son is due for braces. Right. Great. Do you know how MUCH braces cost!? I'm strongly encouraging any of my children to become orthodontists as a future lucrative career at this stage....

I digress.

The shopping centre was five blocks away. And I should mention that the blocks in Dubbo are NOT small. We made it back to the shopping centre with a few minutes to spare. A quick bite to eat, more retail therapy even if it was rather rushed and then we thankfully got driven near to the hairdresser (within a block) as hubby and son went off in another direction. A pleasant hour or so later (and a big thumbs up to the crew at Rave Hair Studio - thanks Sam and Mel!) we walked another three blocks to the appointed rendevous point. My feet were starting to feel rather uncomfortable but I did my best to ignore them.

Walking another 3 blocks, we completed the main street's retail offerings and had added to our shopping tally. Back to the car, to another shopping centre and another hour of trekking around. By this point I've sworn off ever taking children shopping again as its just "I want..." "Can I have .... " "Muuuuuummmmmmm". Replied by me with "have you got your money, no? well, you'll have to miss out today" "No" and "Yesssssss?????"

A final stop at the toy shop. I thought. I dutifully wandered around with each of the children in turn as the gazed longingly at the shelves and picked out their sibling's christmas gifts. Back to the car where I melted into the back of the seat blissed out with sitting down.

"I think we'll go to the park" says hubby. What? It's 5.30pm, no one's eaten, it's an hour and a half drive home and I'm fragged. But before I can say anything over the happy squealing in the back seat, we're at the park. I DID get to sit for 20 minutes and chatted to hubby who I'd hardly seen all day, then we ventured to the playground (another walk) on the far side of the rather large park. By this time my feet were burning. Not a good sign.

"Let's go and have some dinner" is the next gem from hubby's mouth. Well at least I'm in favour of this one. And grateful when we get a parking spot just across the road from the restaurant. A slight maze to actually get to our seat, through corridors, up steps and so on, but we all had a lovely meal. When I stand up after an hour off my feet - ouch. I get back to the car and we begin the journey home. I take off my shoes. Ahhh. Home. Put the shoes back on to get back to the house. Mega ouch. I'm limping into the house. Shoes kicked off immediately. I'm still limping. It really hurts to walk. The balls of my feet are soooo sore and I have an unbroken blister too. Kids to bed and me too.

And now, here I am the next day, still with sore feet, a busy day ahead and a show tomorrow in Tamworth (the annual Christmas fair) where I'll be on my feet all day.

I'm now strongly questioning the reason why I feel compelled to dress up to go to town. And for my children to have straight teeth. (Well, I guess I do understand the last one).

What's your solution to going to town? Do you dress up or dress down? What shoes do you wear? Are they comfortable to walk around in for a few kilometres or miles?

In honour of 'dressing up to go to town' here's a pic of a nice little black onyx and 12ct gold fill necklace....it goes well with heels ;)

It's creeping up on me.... Christmas!

2010-11-12T16:54:00.007+11:00

Arrrghhh! Christmas is starting. I can feel it. It's there in the FIRST christmas card of the year (it's always by my ultra-organised friend Lynda) that arrived today; in the holiday music and people in Santa hats I saw in on TV yesterday; in the email that my sister in law sent me giving me this year's Christmas draw ; in Monique's post with her rum balls recipe ; in the fact that my jeans are getting tight (and that's just after two recent functions that weren't even Christmas related... can you imagine what another month will do - eeek!); in the weather - it's finally heating up, although with all the rain its just kind of steamy; and last but not least in the children asking when they can write to Santa..... (not much gets past them LOL).

I think I've just been too busy to even contemplate it. (Having a show every week is wearing me out - this weekend it's a private party at nearby Leadville. There's going to be shoes (I love shoes!) and me with jewels. Plus some champers to sip on the day. What more could any woman ask for?? )

The Christmas cards that I was so pro-active in getting TWO MONTHS ago, haven't been touched and absolutely no presents have been purchased (actually they haven't even been thought about yet!)

So, how are you going on the Christmas front? Are you being bombarded already with Christmas images and music or is something more subtle reminding you it's getting closer? Alternately, are you blissfully unaware and determined to stay that way a bit longer?

OK, what photo for today? I think I might go a bit glamorous with these stunning AAA grade rock crystal quartz earrings - soooo sparkly and perfect for Christmas parties!

OK, off to ignore all the Christmas things, well at least for another few days ;)

Till next
Annette :)

Shows - the trials and tribulations

2010-11-05T11:03:00.006+11:00

OK, I think I need to just stop. For a few minutes anyway.

This time of the year is unbelievable - even one of my girls last night asked when my next show was, and the next, and the next and the next.... Her eyes got bigger at each one I mentioned. Luckily they're kept busy at school and when they're home they're playing together, doing piano practice and reading. Lots of reading (I think I gave birth to book worms not children sometimes!). And I have a husband that is flexible enough to look after them (and if he is not available, then, thankfully, there is always Grandma!).

I love doing shows - I love getting out and about and meeting people, sharing my passion for gems and pearls and hopefully brightening people's day with some 'pretty' jewels. Even better when I can extend that happiness by having someone take something they love home.

I have another outing this afternoon - just a small one, in my neighbouring town, Dunedoo, about 45min drive away, for a 'ladies afternoon'.

Last weekend I wended my way to Armidale with my friend Trista in tow (to keep me awake as well as help me at the show) for the TAS fair. We had a wonderful time, met some lovely people and sold some jewels, but, as often happens, there was just too many people selling jewellery for any of us to do really well and the poor people attending the show had glazed eyes at the literally hundreds of strands of necklaces that must have been there. Of course the quality, material and styles varied immensely, but at first glance, all people saw was "more jewellery".

This, I must admit, is one of my pet peeves about doing shows. I realise that these shows are organised by time-poor volunteers, but as organisers they CAN and SHOULD dictate what people can sell. In the case of last week, two stall holders mentioned they sold jewellery amongst a myriad of other things (such as clothes, shoes, homewares etc.) but they displayed mostly jewellery. The result is that the show isn't as successful as it could be - the stall holders don't sell as much as they might if there were less of the same category there, and the attendees get limited variety and boredom sets in early.

Of course, some shows are very well organised in this department and they are usually very successful and enjoyed by everyone. These go on to run year after year and I'm fortunate to be a part of some of them. I noted on the Business Mums Blog a week or so ago that some of the markets/shows in Melbourne do great promotion for their participants too. Ah, sometimes I want to live in a city and get those sort of benefits. But then, I love my peace and quiet and rural life too much!

I also noted on the Busy Mum blog, that she's wishing for summer to hurry up and come. Given the cold weather we keep getting here, I'm wishing for a bit of summer too!

Well, I must dash and put my busy hat back on. I still have to finish packing for my outing this afternoon and I only have an hour and a half left before I leave! Today's photo is of pearls - I've felt a bit 'pearly' the last week or so, so made this strand up a few days ago. Rich dark brown pearls with a peacock sheen, enhanced by the addition of some rhodolite garnet, amethyst, iolite and peridot. Yum!

Till next :)
Annette

A Weekend out at the Gardens

2010-10-28T10:02:00.009+11:00

Wow, what a week! I've been go, go, go and I'm starting to get dizzy!

I was at the Riverlea Open Garden outside Mudgee last weekend (picture of my set up above). And what a stunning garden it was. Relatively new (the current owner expanded it about 4 years ago) she has done such a lovely job. This was my view for the weekend - not bad, eh?

The weather on the Saturday was idyllic - warm temperatues, light breeze, bright blue skies. Perfect for browsing around gardens and even though it clouded over in the afternoon, the spits of rain held off until well after the garden viewers had gone home and we even managed to have a sociable drink and chat on the gravel drive :) .

Sunday, however, was miserable. It was cold, wet and windy. Only the most die-hard gardeners came out on a day like that (not being one of those gardeners I know I would have stayed at home!) and we shivered through the day. I don't think anyone thought the worse of any other person there when we all packed up a little early.

I did, however, meet some of the lovely people of Mudgee and surrounds and managed to catch up with a few clients who I only see rarely. One woman who mentioned that she had been meaning to get some of my jewellery for years but really had no idea what might suit her. I love that this lady actually told me this, as it CAN be difficult to know what to go for if you're unsure of colours and style, particularly if you've been a chain/pendant necklace and stud earring wearer for many years.

We ended spending about an hour trying various colours and styles on. She was surprised to see some brighter colours suited her and colours that, although she loved them to look at, really didn't do her skin any favours. She ended up with two lovely necklaces - a special amethyst one for wearing out and about and an everyday one of black onyx and white pearls for when she didn't have to think of what might go with what. She was also so thrilled she wore the amethyst one immediately and I had so many comments from other people about the "lady who had just bought a gorgeous necklace".

I had numerous other conversations with ladies about what might suit them too and they were excited to learn more about jewellery - what to wear with different necklines, what went with their face shapes, what suited their personal style and more. I do have quite a bit of this information on my site too - if you want to know more, click here to go to my Style Tips page :)

All in all (if we ignore the inclement weather on Sunday) it was such a lovely weekend. I have since run into some of the ladies I met on the weekend and they've all expressed how happy they are with their new jewels, which I love to hear!

I am off to Armidale this Saturday where I will be at The Armidale School Razzamataz fete in the TAS Emporium (situated in the Hall). I will have to leave at around 4.30am to get there in time to set up since it is just over 3 hours drive away. The fete is open from 10am to 3pm, so if you're in that area, please come and say hello.

OK, better get back to putting that nose on the grindstone - always so much to do at this time of year!

Till next :)
Annette

Spring, Gardens and News from the Gem World

2010-10-21T10:13:00.004+11:00

Wow, what a week its a been! We've had gale force winds, rain, snow (albeit 'sago' snow), icy winter temperatures as well as the expected sunny skies and pleasant temperatures that spring brings. Luckily we got through the wind, rain and snow BEFORE the open garden that I attended with my jewels on Sunday. It was still rather chilly though and the garden presented beautifully, even after the inclement weather. Everyone had a fabulous time and lots of money was raised for CanAssist.

On the downside of the spring weather though, all the girls in the house have succumbed to hayfever, so we really can't get out and about and enjoy it. The Coolah valley is renowned for its ability to give people who have never had it before, hayfever, so we've really got no choice in the matter! My next show (this weekend) is at the Riverlea garden at Mudgee that is open as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme. I know Tamara will have a beautiful garden and if you're in the district, you'll find me in the courtyard, possibly sneezing!!! The lovely Julia of Bushbelles has some information on this garden and the other Mudgee garden (Mullamuddy Park) open this weekend in her post here.

I've been catching up on my gem news and there are so many fabulous things happening in the gemmie world at the moment!

If you're near New York, did you go to the Christie's Jewel Sale yesterday? Included in the auction was a Vanderbilt diamond necklace that sold for $626,500; a Mouboussin sautoir pendant that went for $1,106,500; a 17.86ct Harry Winston diamond ring that sold for $1,818,500; and a Bulgari vivid blue diamond ring that sold for a whopping $15,762,500, which was an absolute bargain as they had hoped to go as high as $50 million! See a short video on these jewels here or click here to see the whole catalogue on the Christie's site.

Christie's is also hosting a gemstone sale in Dubai on 27 October. This twice yearly auction is apparently a highlight of the Middle East's social calendar (and rightly so!). Included in this sale is a private collection of more than 40 parures (jewellery suites), the largest selection ever to be sold at auction. Highlights of this collection include a 26ct Kashmir sapphire ring, and two Ceylon sapphires of 180ct and 130ct. Another highlight of the sale is the second largest orange melo pearl to be offered at auction (only 9 of these have ever been auctioned). The melo pearl, named after the mollusc melo amphora, is found in the waters of the South China Sea. For the Emperors, who wore the Imperial colours of yellow and orange, a Melo pearl was highly prized and its image is often found on Imperial robes with the symbol of a dragon chasing an orange or melo pearl. Another rare gem on offer in the sale is the Paraiba tourmaline. First discovered in the Paraiba State of northern Brazil in the early 1980s, it has a unique turquoise green colour not found in any other gemstone. There will be a ring and a pair of earrings made with this gorgeous electric blue stone in the sale. Click here to see a slideshow of the sale pieces.

OK, enough drooling over all the Christie's goodies!

If you like historical jewels and artifacts and are in the UK, check out the "Buried Beneath the Beaney" exhibition at the Museum of Canterbury. The archaeology exhibition showcases nearly 2,000 years of history after Canterbury Archaeological Trust conducted a major dig in, of all places, the High Street! Highlights in the exhibition include a Roman gold bracelet and a Turkish carved gemstone. Wouldn't it have been a thrill finding these.

In other news, The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), touted as the world's largest diamond trading centre, opened at Bandra-Kurla complex in the Mumbai, India, yesterday (20 October).India is already a world leader in the export of cut and polished diamonds.

Tanzania has temporarily lifted the ban on exporting uncut tanzanite till next year to give their jewellery and lapidary sector time to establish themselves. I just love tanzanite - its a pretty purple-blue stone and there is a small one in the photo above (along with pink topaz and rock crystal quartz)... ok, they're not anywhere on the same page as the Christie's beauties, but hey, I've got to be realistic!

Whilst nothing at all to do with gems, I loved this post by Monique of My Cheeky Monkey on "Why doesn't an igloo melt inside?" - if you've got younger ones, check it out! And a shout out to the Business Mums Blog - a great resource if you're a small business.

OK, I must drag myself away from the computer (and the Christie's site... yes its still open!) and get to my bench.

Hope you're having a fantastic day!
Till next
Annette

Back from holidays

2010-10-14T10:21:00.009+11:00

I'm home from a wonderful, relaxing holiday in Queensland *sigh*. I was full of energy first day back, yesterday I hit the post-holiday low and then today I'm feeling a bit more 'normal' LOL!

We drove north west (instead of north east) and went to visit family in Bollon (west of St. George) in Qld. They live on a magnificent property "Woolerina" where they run sheep, cattle and horses. Last time we visited it was dry and dusty no matter where you looked, this time it was green! We're farmers and graziers but their operation is at a whole new level. Typical outback living and we all enjoyed our short stay immensely. The children can't wait to return.

We then turned east and eventually north-east and made our way to Woodgate and the beach.

There was lots of time for all of us to read, time to play games with the kids and daily walks along the beach. I saw dolphins which was a real thrill, hubby and son saw sea turtles and the twins are cross they didn't manage to see either!

I even managed some exercise - a bit of a shock to the body I'm sure! I was up every day around 5am and off for a jog. The warmer weather (but not hot) made it easy to commit to doing this daily!

The kangaroos were often entertaining too - if you haven't heard me talk of Woodgate before it's a rare town, situated between the beach and national park and there are kangaroos everywhere - on the streets, in the yards nibbling the lawns, on the beach in the mornings. Usually they just look cute (or in the case of the big males, rather intimidating) but these pair were having a fight in between our house and the neighbours...

The weather was consistently warm - even on the one day it rained it was still warm (very bizarre having come essentially from winter here on the farm) and the clothing layers reduced to one light one.

I even got to go shopping in a big town - with lots of shops yippee! - weekly. Such a rarity for me.

The weather a couple of hours drive south of us was atrocious with falls of 200mm in 24 hours. This was our destination on the return journey as my brother in law was getting married. The day of the wedding was gale force winds and rain, so the wedding moved indoors and the pool party became a normal party watching the rain sheet down!

So, I'm back in the saddle now, as they say, and have to wait patiently for another year till we can get away again.

I have a show (eek), this weekend, at the "Mayfield" open garden at Birriwa - a fundraiser for CanTeen. Lots of people say they're coming so it may be a very busy day - the gardens are supposed to be gorgeous and cover 3 acres, so it will be lovely to see!

Till next :)
Annette

Shows, an Airshow and now its almost holiday time!

2010-09-21T08:35:00.005+10:00

I’ve been a very bad blogger. I’ll admit it. I’ve been going along at a 110% (which we all know is totally unsustainable) so things started to drop off. I miss being online. I feel like I’m falling behind by not keeping up to date in my fellow blogger’s worlds!

And just to compound my discomfort offline, I am off on our annual holiday in a couple of days time. YAY for the holiday – lots of reading, lazing around, beach walks, bike rides and family time. But BOO to no internet coverage!

Since I last wrote I’ve had two, two-day shows. Quirindi was the first. The show was great fun and many husbands said “oh no, not you!” but their wives smiled widely :D . The second show was at Merriwa with gorgeous weather, lots of familiar faces and ladies keen to look at and partake of the new collection. It’s so lovely to be welcomed by the ladies so warmly!

Country shows are great fun and as I’m situated in the ladies pavilion, I get to see all the local talent – the green fingered ladies with their flowers, the cooks with their cakes and preserves, the patient ladies with their needlework, embroidery, sewing and knitting, the artists with their paintings and sculpture, the budding younger artists with their drawings and the avid photographers with their creative photos. It’s always great to see the men having a go too – Merriwa always has a brave gent or two competing in the cooking arena and lots of them in the fresh produce department.

Naturally there are the horse events, cattle judging, pet parades and more. Merriwa had a ute muster and with all their big lights and myriad of aerials, I assume these young fellows are very lonely and scared of the dark! They also had a roving magician as part of the entertainment and I had my own private little show at one stage with some incredibly good card ‘tricks’ – a polished performance, I still have no idea how he did it.

We finished the weekend off with a visit to the RAAF Williamtown Airshow. The last one we attended there was in 1985 and when I told this to one young airman he made me feel incredibly old when he told me he hadn’t even been born then!

The show was quite spectacular, starting off with Matt Hall, of Red Bull Air Race fame; two incredible formation flights of aeroplanes from different eras (the poor old Neptune at the front must have been going flat out compared to the F111 in the same flight!); the last public performance from a F111 that was awe inspiring and made everyone jump when he sneaked up on us all; and a fantastic solo by an F-18 that showed so much skill and control in such a powerful machine. Of course there were many more air displays that we all enjoyed but the ones above were amazing! All in all a fantastic day, although it was soooo long with a three hour drive each way added on to a full day at the show. Truly memorable though and worth it.

So, please forgive my absence, including one for the next couple of weeks. But I promise I will think of you while I’m walking along the beach, playing games with the kids, reading a huge pile of novels and snoozing regularly … well, maybe a passing thought now and again ;)

Till next
Annette

PS. Today’s pic – this one found a new home last weekend - from my Beach Party Collection, it’s fun and bright mother of pearl shell, sterling silver and freshwater cultured pearls.

Spring jewellery, shopping and entertaining!

2010-09-08T13:54:00.006+10:00

Can you believe it’s spring! We’ve had a couple of beautiful warm days when the when the jumper came off, leaving me in a short sleeved shirt and all the doors in the house were open with a lovely warm breeze flowing through. Bliss. Then the next day it turned Cold (with a capital ‘C’!) and then the rain started. Again. Now as I’m married to a farmer, I can’t complain about the rain at all – but it’s staggering how much we’ve had this year in comparison to the last decade! I’ve even slid sideways down my dirt road to the front gate. Please imagine a look of intense concentration as this was happening LOL. Luckily it dries out fast so we're back to cool but sunny weather and driving down the track is just fine!

I’ve been incredibly busy on the jewellery front thus my absence from the blogging world. I’ve finished the spring-summer collection and have been loading it onto the website, so if anyone was checking in on the site, there’s been lots of new things to look at every day. I’m close to finishing now, just in time for my first spring outing at Quirindi Show this weekend on 11 and 12 September. The following week is Merriwa Show on 17-18 September – so a very busy fortnight in store.

Apart from jewellery I’ve also been a ‘gardening fairy’! I was the recipient of this gardening goodness recently having three wonderful girls come and help me prune roses, weed and plant white agapanthus at the front of the house (which has been kept very bare due to the lack of my gardening talent).

Last week it was time to return the favour – three of us attacked one of the other girl’s gardens, digging up and planting a huge circle of agapanthus (purple this time!), pruning lavender and chopping down and removing the debris from four large (15 foot high) shrubs. We did have her husband’s help with the chopping down part though! It’s amazing how much work you can get done in a few hours with a few of you. Another stint as a garden fairy in a couple of week’s time – the rush is on now spring is here.

We had the pleasure of a wonderful lunch with friends on the weekend. It's been so long since we entertained, I had forgotten what a great time we have getting together. I'm almost considering hosting a Christmas or New Years party, but well, we'll see about that when it all gets a bit closer.

I've also enjoyed the pleasure of quite a bit of online shopping in the past week. With both a beach holiday and wedding to attend in the near future and a lack of suitable clothes available in town (I looked!), I took the plunge and must say I'm happy with my purchases. I can see why people love to buy from me too - the buzz when the mailman delivers and then finally trying the goodies on that you were trying to picture and measure if they'd be right is immensely satisfying!!! And all without going to town. It's times like that when it hits home how the WWW has changed our lifestyle.

Today's pic is from the new Under the Sea range, with soothing colours reminiscent of the seashore or with corals and pearls from a mermaid's treasure box! This necklace is made with faceted aqua amazonite and lots of sterling silver - perfect to make a summer statement!

The pre-spring merry-go-round

2010-08-25T10:23:00.005+10:00

Life is a merry-go-round at the moment. And that merry-go-round is spinning faster and faster and won't let me off! Even blogging suffered when I couldn't find time to sit down and write here for an hour or so last week.

I've been totally caught up in creating for the past couple of weeks - designs have been flying out of my head and I have to get them down on paper before they flutter away! I've been making as many up as I can but even I have my limitations - too many late nights and overloaded days and I turn into a grumpy mother and wife, regardless of how well the design side is going along!

I still have a few things I want to try but the majority of designs for spring and summer are basically finished. There are summer brights in pink, green, yellow and purple; bold statments in red, orange, black and teal, stunning red-carpet worthy creations in sparkly aqua, straw yellow, lavender, white and icy clear; some solid pieces in earthy tones and some lustrous pearl and paua designs too. Sheesh. No wonder I've been busy!

It can be pretty full on in this pre-season rush to be ready but I guess I make up for it at other times of the year when I wind right back - its just hard to remember those times at the moment! I also want to re-organise my existing pieces into collections in line with the new stock and to change my display quite dramatically according to these collections. Considering my first spring show is less than two weeks away, it might not happen that way unless it's at the last minute (or even while I'm there!)

I'm glad to see, however, that others go through similiar things - we all get busy, don't we and hurry through before some sort of deadline? I love to read Amanda's blog Busy Mum 2010 (aptly titled!) and my life seems positively tame compared to hers!

I've done a bit of a sneak peak on my spring/summer range in the photo above - there are so many new pieces its hard to choose just one to feature this week!

Right, I need to get my nose back to the grindstone!

Till next :)
Annette

Moods and Creativity

2010-08-10T19:37:00.007+10:00

I've had a lovely couple of days working on my spring/summer collection. In fact I have the whole week scheduled for nothing else!

Monday I was into the turquoise blues as it was a sunny, bright day. But Tuesday it was raining most of the day - everything was soggy and with the low clouds things were dim. But I put myself in mind of spring rain rather than winter rain and ended up working with the wonderful watery-looking stone, aquamarine. A sneak peak at one of the pieces above!

It's funny how your mood/surroundings will be reflected in what you create. Monday I was trying to get things done in between unexpected visitors, telephone calls and housework. The clear skies and warm breeze did lift my mood (luckily!) from harried to 'getting the job done'. The pieces I created when I eventually got to my bench were consequently also more 'energetic'. Easy to wear, eye catching, low maintenance - I could see people throwing them on as they rushed out the door for a busy day - not thinking about them until it was time for bed after another busy day.

Yesterday, however, with the wet weather settled in, I enjoyed the peace of the constant thrumming of rain on the roof and enjoyed the calm in my quiet, warm studio. When the rain started during the night I started to think about a particular aquamarine strand that had been sitting, patiently waiting for me to have some inspiration about it. I sat down with it in the morning and it all came together beautifully (I just love it when that happens!) Looking back at the day's work, the designs from yesterday are serene and unfussy - someone will put them on with care and thoroughly enjoy them.

I wonder what today will bring?

Can you believe we're well into August already? That means spring is just a couple of weeks away! And now we're well into the second half of the year many people I know have started to do things for Christmas. One girlfriend, incredibly, has already FINISHED her gift buying!!! Incredible. Monique from Your Cheeky Monkey has started on her Christmas crafts. Even I have not been immune - I have already designed and received my Christmas postcards! Considering I left it till the last minute last year and paid a premium for the rush job, I must have learned my lesson! Have you started thinking about the "C" word yet, or are you already in denial?

Till next :)
Annette

Inspiration and Music

2010-08-04T15:46:00.009+10:00

Spring is in the air again today with bright blue skies, a light breeze and warm sunshine. Of course, this follows some miserably cold days, wet days and even minor local flooding! I'm again working on my spring/summer collection inspired by the warmth and finding myself drawn to bright, bold colours - pink, blue and purple, citrus colours with saffron yellow and lime and lovely bright and rich reds. Of course, gems DO limit my ability to work with bright colours as they're not really found that way in nature. But I have some plans with one of my favourite stones - icy clear rock crystal quartz which should cool down the hottest summer day!

It IS hard to get inspired though at times and I find a little escape can be great for kicking the inspiration into gear - a drive outside your immediate environs (as I did for the show in Scone last weekend) can be great. I saw countryside, rich in varied shades of green and brown - the paddocks with bright green oat and wheat crops, rich chocolate soil laying fallow, light brown paddocks of old native grasses. Add to that the rushing, turbulent brown creeks after the recent rain and the fresh green grassy banks next to the creeks. It gives you a fresh perspective, as Michelle mentioned recently on her blog.

If you're stuck and can't get out and about though, I also find a good book where you can escape into a different life; a movie where you can live vicariously through the storyline and even music can inject some lift into your step!

Speaking of music, I'm a fan of classical, jazz and the standards as a rule, however I find I'm getting more and more drawn to what I term 'light classical' or 'contemporary classical'. My children's piano teacher describes this sort of music as desert, whereas true classical is the main course! Since I've always had a bit of sweet tooth, this analogy is probably pretty right :)

If you'd like to try out some contemporary classical, do have a listen to
*Ludovico Eindaudi, a classically trained pianist from Italy who is very popular in Europe and the UK for his compositions and concerts. I love his CD "Echoes - The Einaudi Collection" which has a great selection of his work - I find the songs quite uplifting.
*Yiruma, also a classically trained pianist from Korea. His work is quite well known, even if you don't think you know of him, as he has written scores for films. My favourite CD of Yiruma's is "First Love" - just gorgeous music to listen and relax to.

OK, so now I've set you up for listening to some beautiful music, I'd better tell you about today's pic :) This bracelet found a new home in the Scone district ... along with its matching necklace and earrings. Mother of pearl shell in a gorgeous soft mid-blue with sterling silver balls and faceted iolite gems.

Till next :)
Annette

Massive jade boulders, wet weather and thoughts of spring

2010-07-28T16:10:00.006+10:00

Do you know how some things happen (almost) in your backyard, but it takes a news story from another region or even country to bring it to your attention? Case in point - the Jade Buddha of Universal Peace. I had no idea that this 8 foot high 4 tonne gem quality 'polar' (nephrite) jade carved statue even existed, let alone an Australian sculptor had a hand in the design, it was blessed by the Dalai Lamai in Sydney and its eventual home be in Bendigo, Victoria!

But there you go - a newspaper article in a Canadian paper alerted me to its existence and I've now discovered more about 'polar' jade as well. I have previously heard of and had some 'BC' Jade from Canada which is a dark translucent green nephrite jade, however in the late 1990s a new find of jade was made near the Yukon border in Canada.

Inspired by its surroundings this find was called 'polar' jade. When tested it was found to be harder than normal nephrite jade and could be polished to a high shine, making it very desirable for jewellery and objects d'art. In 2000 an 18 tonne boulder of 'polar' jade was found and the noted gemmologist, Fred Ward admitted it was the largest gem quality nephrite jade boulder found to date. The planning for the statue started in 2003 and it was finished in 2008 and is valued at a whopping $5 million! The face by the way, has been painted in gold, in the tradition of buddha statues in Tibet and Nepal.

I then went on to discover that a 35 tonne jadeite (not nephrite) boulder from Myanmar was purchased by a Vietnamese businessman who plans to also have it carved into a statue of Buddha that he hopes will be approximately 16 tonnes when completed.

All I can say is WOW - they are two darn big rocks, eh!?

On the home front, it is currently wet. Very wet. I worked at the local saleyards canteen today (the school runs the canteen) and the cows and people were all soaked. Dry old drizabones that looked very stiff, had been dragged out and I'm not sure how much protection they afforded those who were wearing them as I'm pretty sure their waxed finish had well and truly gone LOL.

However we have had some lovely mild sunny days and I started to get all excited about spring and found myself working on my spring collection with lots of lovely bright colours in mother of pearl and freshwater cultured pearls. But naturally the dull weather has made me lose all interest in that. Maybe next week will be sunny again and I can take up where I left it all!

This weekend I have my last outing before spring - at the St. Luke's Fair in Scone, on Saturday from 9.30am to 2.30pm. If you're in the vicinity I'd love to see you there!

Today's pic - well I was sure I had a photo of the BC jade necklace I made once upon a time, but after almost an hour of looking I just can't find it! So, instead here's a pretty necklace - mossy quartz which has, from a distance, a slight lavender tinge is matched with silver and iolite.

Till next :)
Annette

Silence really can be golden!

2010-07-21T16:09:00.005+10:00

Peace has returned to the house (well, between the hours of 8.30am and 4pm it has) as the children returned to school this week. The silence truly is golden and there's one thing to be said for the holidays - it has given me a new appreciation of solitude and quiet LOL.

As we settle in for another term at school, the children have to switch from holiday to learning mode (never an easy thing) and unbelievably, as the year is well into its second half, I have to start thinking about my spring/summer collection. Eeek! It's never easy when its cold outside with heavy frosts every morning, frequent rain showers and dull skies. But we have been fortunate to have some days of brilliant blue skies and warm winter sunshine and its not too hard to think of spring then! (But at night I'm gravitating straight back to that fire!!!)

The Connect2Mums 2010 Conference is on at the end of next week. I went last year and had an absolute blast, but timing is off this year with heifers calving left right and centre here on the farm (and therefore needing round the clock watching). But I have sent along a huge box of special things for the goodie bags they're giving to everyone who comes along, and also a prize of an amethyst, rose quartz and silver necklace (pictured above). If you're interested in going to the conference (held in Brisbane) there are still a few places available, so check it out here.

On to other things, my wonderful, talented and go-getter neighbour (she really is - the woman built her own combined chook shed/dog pen, a hanging cradle for her youngest, gardens like there is no tomorrow and cooks the most divine food that makes my mouth water just thinking about it!!! Anyway....) she introduced me to the world of bamboo clothing a couple of years ago. I had never heard of it before then and couldn't believe it could be so soft and luxurious. If you have a little one, or know someone who is having a baby, I can highly recommend these babyjo bamboo wraps from Your Cheeky Monkey. My girls (now 9) still play with their wraps from their babyhood (very good for wrapping up your toys in, as well as putting around your shoulders as a cape or even just wearing as a scarf!) so its a long-term gift, rather than something they'll grow out of and not be used again.

Ah, it had to happen, I've left this too long and the peace has been shattered by the return of the munchkins.... school is over too quickly some days!

Till next :)
Annette

Term break stresses, gem snippets and a pretty fluorite necklace

2010-07-14T20:17:00.007+10:00

The children are driving me crazy. Can I sincerely request that the teachers cease their holidaying and open the school doors so I can get some peace and quiet? My children don't know the meaning of those words, it's all about noise, noise and more noise! I even had to shush them when we were walking down the street in town the other day. They were talking so loud it was almost as if they were yelling! Ah well, at least school is back next week, so I'll just continue stoically on (I wish!) in the meantime.

I attended the new Mudgee Upmarket at the Fairview Artspace last weekend. The weather was absolutely miserable with a heavy drizzle most of the day so the gallery owner brought us all inside - I was in the entry/coffee shop (yes it smelled of great coffee all day long!) along with a sculptor displaying her 'ladies'. The rest of the artisans were scattered throughout gallery rooms, wide hallways and verandahs. There was a steady stream of people that came regardless of the weather and lots of visitors from Sydney and interstate.

When I've not been the taxi service or peacemaker with the children this past week, I've been busy finishing orders, so there is not much new in the wild flights of fancy department a.k.a. my bench! But I have seen some fascinating gemstone trivia - well, trivia might even be too grand a word, lets just use 'snippets':

New York, the city that never sleeps, has introduced gemstone facials. One spa has a preference for amethyst - that pretty purple variety of quartz - which they use as a serum, eye cream and powder. They say it reduces skin inflammation and radiates infrared rays in order to stimulate healthy cell growth. The skin is supposed to be instantly firmer and brighter and all at a mere $275USD.

Another spa uses emeralds, rubies, sapphire, citrine, and gold. Emeralds are used to correct skin tone imperfections; rubies and gold are supposed to hydrate and smooth; citrine is supposed to plump lips; and sapphire is supposed to lift. The treatment supposedly leaves a shimmer on your skin and also runs at $275USD.

Yet another spa recommends their exfoliating paste of pearls - apparently to prevent dark spots on the skin by slowing down the growth of melanin. Compared to the others this treatment is a bargain at only $120USD!

So, okay, you don't want gems pulverised and put on your face (Wise woman. Much better to wear them!) But perhaps you might like to visit a house in Texas that reportedly has a turquoise kitchen sink!?

OK, enough with the truly reported, but rather silly state of gem news ;)

Today's photo is of a newish necklace (made a couple of weeks ago) and it gathered many lovely comments at Mudgee last weekend. Little fluorite cubes in green and purple shades and lots of sterling silver.

Till next :)
Annette

Gem Mineral Found on the Moon

2010-07-08T10:49:00.006+10:00

Life has been hectic with children on holidays but relatively quiet on the jewellery scene - because of the children! We're still in the midst of a cold snap and the sunshine is watery at best. Good weather for reading a book near the fire!

To break up the monotony (hardly!) of the term break, I have a show on Sunday at the new Mudgee Upmarket, held quarterly at the Fairview Artspace. It will be my first outing there and I'm looking forward to it.

Even though I haven't had much time to play at my bench, I'm always on the lookout for new information on gemstones. And I was fascinated to read a report earlier this week that mentioned the mineral olivine - of which peridot (pictured above) is the gem member of the family - has been recently identified on the moon in a large impact basin. Amazingly, I went on to read, abundant quantities of olivine have been found on Mars and that olivine is also a constituent of comet dust. Olivine as well as peridot itself has been found in meteorites too!

I've never really thought of gems being found on other planets but if you let your imagination go, you can't but help consider the amazing and wonderful possibilities of new gems on new worlds! I'm imagining stunning colours, colour-change stones, incredible patterns... how about you!?

A winter's day of sunshine and cooking

2010-07-01T10:57:00.006+10:00

It's another gorgeous winter day here on the Great Dividing Range. There are bright blue skies, not a breath of wind, but the air is bracing and there was a big frost this morning. The type of day when you just want to sit outside and soak up the warm sunshine and read a book (which is exactly where I'm going after this post!!) I hope you're having lovely weather where ever in the world you are too!

Thanks to everyone for the wishes on the show and the hints on surviving outdoor venues. Unfortunately it wasn't as successful as I would have liked - poor positioning meant no-one had reason to come near the traders area, unless they specifically wanted to have a look and there weren't too many of those! I would have been lucky to have had 100 people walk past in total over the whole weekend. But you live and learn and at least I got to see the showjumping, which was fantastic.

This means that all my work at my bench last week basically went unseen, however it holds me in good stead for two little shows I have coming up in the next month. Maybe I will take it a little easier as the children start their term break tomorrow and life is no doubt going to be busy as each of them vie for my attention. It will be time to change my name from "mum" by the end of the break I'm sure!

On the farm, the 70+ heifers are due to start calving this weekend so no doubt hubby will be in a grumpy mood for the next six weeks LOL. This doesn't always relate to problems the heifers may have, but just the general tiredness that comes from frequently checking out cow's rear ends. After six weeks it really takes it toll and hubby is due for a holiday!

I have also been doing lots of baking recently - I stumbled upon a cute little blog on 'sweet treats' (that I've since lost!) and wrote down their recipe (handed down from the blogger's grandma) for oatmeal cookies. I made them this week and the children are consuming them gusto. A neighbour's banana muffin recipe also got the thumbs up and our favourite apricot and choc chip biscuits were happily monopolised by the boys of the house. I just saw a great looking recipe on Your Cheeky Monkey for a muesli slice too which looks pretty yummy. Maybe that will be the next one I have to try out!

Well on that note, I think I will grab my book and head out into the winter sunshine. Ooops - almost forgot - the piece at the top is a bit scrumptious too - a necklace of black spinel and Kingman green turquoise faceted nuggets with silver.

Till next :)
Annette

Pre-show frenzy, the piano arrives and a pretty paua bracelet

2010-06-21T12:46:00.005+10:00

I'm in full headless chook mode (aka running around trying to be productive but not really making it!) as I try and get ready for a three day show this weekend.

Out of character, I have committed to an outdoor event, it's currently cold and wintry and the thought of leaving my tent up for three days in possibly gale-force winds is not comforting. If you have any hints or tips on outdoor events, particularly in reference to tents and keeping them down, please comment NOW! All will be very gratefully received!!

The battle with the elements is one of the reasons I prefer indoor shows. However, I was asked by a client to bring my jewels to this event (it's the Gunnedah Showjumping Festival) and how could I say no when she told me others like her would be there!

Although only a few years old it's already a fairly big event in the Australian showjumping circuit with over 200 competitors booked. Add on their support crews / families / friends and of course other people just coming for a look and you can see its not a small get together. When the ladies are tired of the horses and associated products they can come and refresh themselves with looking at some pretties! So, fingers crossed it is successful for me as well as the festival itself and the wind and rain stays AWAY for the duration of the show!

As you know, the search for the perfect piano (well, as perfect as it could be within financial limitations!) was pretty consuming for a couple of weeks. It all culminated in it's delivery on Saturday afternoon and we celebrated by having the piano teacher and her family over for lunch so she could check it out and hopefully tell us we did OK. (We did! *phew*)

There was much excitement as they brought in the pedals, then the legs, then the lid and finally wheeled in the piano.

Hubby had taken the railing down off the verandah and their truck had a ramp that could be raised or lowered to various heights so it rolled out with hardly a worry (well a small delay as it inched forward as it only just fit between the ramp and the roof of the truck).

They put it together in minutes, moved it slightly to the desired spot and it was all done! Ahh, the joy of professionals!

The children drew straws as to who would get to play to first and they were followed by the teacher :) Here is Langdon trying it out:

And here is the teacher, Telly. She is really the one who deserves a grand piano rather than our children in their current stage of musical ability, but hopefully having a good instrument will spur them on to greater achievements! If you want to see a very short video of Telly playing it, you can see it on my facebook page. (20 seconds of her playing Ballade Pour Adeline). Her fingers just FLY!

Needless to say the children have been fighting over who gets to practice on it first. If its not one thing, its another....

Before I go back into my frenzied mode in getting ready for the weekend, at the top is a photo of a bracelet I made yesterday (before the headless chook mode struck and post piano excitement) with sterling silver, paua shell and freshwater cultured pearls in blue, green and purple to reflect the glorious colours in the shell.

Cheers!
Annette :)

The long weekend, a blue necklace and some favourite photography sites

2010-06-15T09:57:00.006+10:00

Well, I ended up running so late last week, some things just had to give and the blog post was one of them. But I'm here now :D

The long weekend passed in a blur, as it does when you have three children running around driving you crazy. I really don't know where they get their energy from but they're constantly on the go. They compete for the spotlight as far as attention goes (from anybody - not just me!) and the uneven factor (3 verses 2 or 4) means that there is often one trying to be painful to at least one of the others. *sigh* Hubby went off to the Queensland Aerobatic Championships for the weekend so once again in my guise as Farmer Piper I took the reins. All fine though - short bursts of farm responsibility are OK :)

I've also been dragging myself out to the gym every couple of days. Obviously I'm too far from town to pop into the gym but in my garage I have a step machine, rowing machine, bench and free weights that have just been collecting dust for months. The time has come however - I've obviously taken it far too easy since summer (first because it was too hot, then because I was too slack) and need to clear the cobwebs and get some reasonable level of fitness back. It's hard work (even though they're only short workouts so far) but I'm sure I'll feel better for it soon. Well, perhaps once the muscle soreness goes away!

On the positive side, this past week I had a creative burst that lasted days (it is usually only a day or maybe two) so I have lots of lovely new finished jewels scattered around my bench plus a couple of orders I'm still working on.

Today's photo is one of the new pieces. I was in the right place at the right time to get these beautiful royal blue ultra smooth kyanite ovals :) They're not big, but the colour is absolutely spectacular! It's easy to think they're really sapphires in the most desired blue. I've made them into a fine silver chain with the addition of some gorgeous tanzanite that I've been hoarding for a while. Tanzanite has always been a favourite of mine with its delicate periwinkle blue colour. Yummy!

I'm a big fan of lovely photos - I have quite a collection of macro photography books weighing down my shelves, but I love great photographs of all sorts of things and find them very inspiring. I follow quite a lot of blogs that have gorgeous photos although most are photos that others have taken - they present them to a theme or idea and they are wonderful to look at.

But if you like to look at original photos too, check out these few sites - most are professionals but there are a couple of amateurs included. Maybe you'll find one or more that you'll love too! (I've got my eye on one of Clark Little's amazing wave photos for our beach house!)

Where I live
The Satorialist
Clark Little
Deceptive Media
Accessible
Chromasia
Creative Outlet
Jeff Lynch
Deblurr

OK, enough getting distracted at those sites... I'd best get to these orders!
Till next :)
Annette

Pianos, a creative burst and a birthday!

2010-06-04T12:44:00.004+10:00

Another busy week, but at least I feel like I've achieved more than my usual level recently.

We went and looked at the baby grand piano but son wasn't too fussed. It wasn't in as good condition as we were led to believe and son's lack of interest meant we needed to keep looking. We spent all the next day in Newcastle looking at every grand piano that was for sale. Typically all the children loved the best (aka most expensive) one we saw. It was three times the price that we originally set out to spend so we didn't say 'yes' on the spot. Consequently I've spent a few more restless nights dreaming of pianos and more time on the phone - to Sydney this time - to find out what is available down there. Naturally we have to go down there to actually see and try out what is available so I guess we'll get there eventually!

I also have had the dubious honour of turning 45 this week! The day before this momentous occasion I took the dye bottle in hand and got rid of all that grey hair that was pulling me down every time I looked in the mirror. It's amazing what a little bit of colour can do. ( I feel so much better as a brunette rather than a brunette with a badger streak!) Hubby took me to town for the day (big town - not the local village!) and we had a very pleasant day going to a couple of coffee shops, visiting some friends and doing a spot of shopping.

On the jewellery front I'm glad to say that the creative streak came out in full force and for one day I hardly moved from my bench from 11 in the morning till 12.30am that night. I could have kept going but I knew I wouldn't be able to function on any level the next day if I didn't go to bed then!

The weather has been constant cloud and drizzly rain so I haven't got the camera out yet to take any photos of the new pieces. There is a nice mix of bold colours (black, white, red, silver), soft greens and muted pinks coming up though! Instead, since quite a few people have wanted to see the farm where we live, I thought I'd show you a photo (above) of our house taken from the next paddock.

This is a more distant shot - taken from the same spot but without the zoom on, so you can the setting a little better. Rather peaceful, don't you think? (Well it is when the children are at school and there are no cows over my back fence!) So when are you coming to visit!?

Before I go, if you have little ones, why not pop over to the Australian Handmade Cooperative 4 Kids who are running a Mega Giveaway. Mon at Your Cheeky Monkey gave me the heads up on that one - she is super lucky when it comes to winning in draws that it would be a good idea to follow her around!

Till next :)
Annette

Eisteddfod Success!

2010-05-27T17:17:00.004+10:00

I've been distracted most of this past week - firstly because my kiddos did so darn well in their eisteddfod (basically a competition for non-professionals in dance, speech, singing and instruments for those who asked!) then the 'high' of having won followed closely by a commitment to buy another, better piano for them.

Firstly, the eisteddfod. Well, our teacher definitely knows what she is doing and I can clearly say that her students were the best prepared out of any there. They played note perfect, their style was lovely and each was truly a little 'performance' rather than just 'playing'.

My heart was beating so fast as each of them went up to play and until the whole class was over and the winner announced the adrenalin was pumping! Of course the children themselves were fine and relatively unconcerned.

Of course, very proud parent here as you can tell (sorry!). If you know me, I am NOT one to talk about how amazingly talented my kids are - they've have never really been achievers so it has been a wonderful boost to everyone to have this success under their belts!

As they did so well, Hubby gave approval for the expenditure on another piano for them. The teacher has been warning us for a while that their skill has exceeded the capabilities of our current 80+ year old Beale Elfin (a small Australian made 'parlour' piano). So there's been lots of phone calls around the State looking for pianos.

Tomorrow we are off on a two day sojourn to look and try out an 8 year old baby grand. Hopefully it will be wonderful, we can get it and I can get back to something a little more productive than having a phone dangling from my ear and dreams of pianos!

I am sure I will need a dose of inspiration to get back into creating next week - and I think one of the best places for that is at the Additions Style blog. Valerie always writes posts that pushes my brain into 'what if I did this ....' I highly recommend a visit there if you need a creative push!

Since I haven't created anything brand new this week, I thought I'd show you a piece that I made just before the Scone show earlier this month that found a new home while I was there. It's a lovely mix of freshwater cultured pearls in cranberry, wine-purple, lime and khaki green with a sprinkling of peridot and garnet. Yum!

Endless eisteddfod preparation ... and a touch of glamour

2010-05-20T10:32:00.007+10:00

Its a cold, dreary sort of day here on the Great Dividing Range. We've had some gorgeous autumn weather of brilliant blue skies and sunshine and its been lovely to soak up some of this milder warmth - but it gets a little chilly when there's no sun out. Like today! A good day for staying inside near the fire and doing 'inside jobs'.

It's been a bit of a manic week with lots of running around - the children have had daily piano lessons in preparation for their participation in the eisteddfod and when you live 25 km out of town, daily trips there add up pretty quickly!

I'm sure I'm more nervous than they are - they seem remarkably unconcerned. Although they've done a small concert last year, tomorrow is their first competition and I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing all the talented young pianists out there.

It's been an alternately exciting (when they first master their song or play it perfectly ) and frustrating (when they can't be bothered or have had enough) ride getting them up to the expected standard, but I must admit I'm looking forward to hearing some new songs next week. Perhaps Bach, Haydn and Dvorak can take a breather for a week or so!?

On the jewellery front, for a good dose of bling we need to move to Europe for a while! I saw some fabulous jewels (and some rather over the top ones) photographed at the Cannes Film Festival that is currently running. Diamonds, a few more diamonds and the occasional emerald and ruby. Oh and I did see one big amethyst necklace that was spectacular. For a nice change there were statement necklaces everywhere. Plus a liberal helping of cuffs and bracelets, huge rings and even bigger earrings. One could say they were dripping in jewels and you wouldn't be far wrong!

But there must be an element of excitement for all the guests - choosing dresses, jewellery and shoes. A bit like an overblown prom I'm guessing! I saw this great post on Tiffani's blog about her daughter's prom and I just love the photos she posted showing a very glamorous young lady in her gown and jewels!

Today's pic is of some delicate drop earrings with gorgeous green peridot gems suspended under 12ct goldfill chain. Perhaps not in the Cannes bling category, but certainly enough to add a touch of glamour to most mere mortals!

Till next :)
Annette

Rose Quartz and a bit more about Creativity

2010-05-14T08:32:00.008+10:00

I had another brilliant day last weekend at the Scone Grammar School annual fete - lots of stallholders this time and a real market feel to the whole event. People kept milling about and there was a real reluctance for people to go home! I caught up with lots of clients, some ex-Coolah residents and sold lots of jewels. It's wonderful to watch people see "the" one piece of jewellery for them. (Of course, I have a couple of clients who find "the" one, each time they look LOL. Addicted to beautiful stones - what a way to be!)

I've had a few questions recently about specific stones and realised I haven't really written about the stones themselves for a while. So this week I thought I'd do a run down on rose quartz since I use it quite a bit in my designs.

Rose quartz, a member of the quartz family, is found abundantly in Brazil, Madagascar, India, Mozambique, Namibia, Sri Lanka, the USA and in smaller quantities elsewhere in the world. Of course, the grade of rose quartz varies considerably and it is often crackled and usually turbid rather than transparent. Some higher quality rose quartz is softly glowing pink and rather than completely clear it is often as if it's just a bit misty. With a hardness of 7 it is a sturdy stone although care should be taken to avoid hard knocks or impacts as these can cause conchoidal fractures - which will look like 'chips' to the naked eye.

Rose quartz is named after its pink colour and this colour is thought to come from titanium. Although its crystal structure is trigonal, it is usually found in a massive form (so found in chunks rather than crystals).

A popular stone, its use in jewellery goes back to 7000BC in Mesopotamia where it has been found in the form of beads. The Assyrians used it during 800-600BC and the Romans used it for seals.

Many cultures believed in its metaphysical properties, notably for love and matters of the heart. Egyptians believed it prevented aging (quick, give me some!). It is still used by crystal healers in a variety of ways, predominately to restore calmness, balance and clarity to the emotions.

All in all a pretty stone with nice connotations!

On to other things, the topic of creativity has featured prominently around here lately. I worked with the local preschool on a mother's day project where the children could make a bracelet for their mum. I took in a vast array of beads and my not-good-enough-to-use-in-my-jewellery gems and pearls, some memory wire (it springs back into shape) and my pliers. Over the course of a week, the children strung their selections onto the wire which I then made into bracelets. The results were incredible. There was the occasional mish-mash and the occasional child that obviously wasn't really interested, but most of the bracelets were amazing. There were some real stars too in the colour combination category! The feedback from the mothers has been overwhelming - the preschool teacher even called me last night to tell me how thrilled the mums were.

Is this creativity innate or do you think it's inspired by things they see or their play? Do you think it fades as we grow older or it just needs topping up?

I saw a great post on the Heart On My Sleeve blog about a couple of university graduates being so inspired by the often colourful washing hanging on lines that they took photos of clothes lines in over 22 countries! Some of the pics ARE inspiring too, particularly with the varying backdrops. And if creative play inspires, then I think the cute little knitted finger puppets at Your Cheeky Monkey would be just the thing to get the children in the mood.

Given the run down on rose quartz, today's photo is of a rose quartz and freshwater pearls sterling charm bracelet. Very feminine and very spring inspired (even though we're going into winter - like I said, the muse takes me where she will, regardless of what's going on around me! *sigh*)

Till next :)
Annette

Something colourful for World Colouring Day

2010-05-07T21:34:00.005+10:00

I really should be abed - I have the show in Scone tomorrow, but I realised I hadn't blogged this week and with the show Saturday, Mother's Day on Sunday, plus a jaunt out on Sunday afternoon for the children's eisteddfod rehearsals, it's now or never ... but I will keep it short!

I've had a wonderful creative week and so its been very satisfying. It didn't start off that way and I spent many hours trying to make it to the bench but was either too busy, unwell with a rather nasty case of the flu or just not feeling in the mood (creative types can be so annoying eh?!). But eventually I just sighed and sat down to finish some half finished earrings off after the kids left for school and the next thing I knew the kids were walking back through the door and the day was almost over.

Naturally the muse took me where she will and I ended up with a variety of styles and colours, but I've learned to take this in my stride these days. Do you find that you have the desire to create anything - a piece of art, craft or even just doodling or making dinner and you end up doing something completely different from your first idea? Yep, that's me ;) Of course, this tendency plays havoc with custom orders where I have to fight my instinct and stay on track to what the customer wants!

Did you know that one day this past week was World Colouring Day? According to the Business Mums Blog it was May 6, so if you did something colorful, or your children did, good on you! Even though I've officially just missed it by a day, I've decided my contribution to this day can be my photo for today's post - a bright combination of red, yellow, black and teal blue. It's a long chain linked necklace with bright red bamboo coral, black agate and lava, yellow aragonite, citrine and honey jade and blue-green Xianjiang and Hubei turquoise. And of course, masses of sterling silver. It coloured my day, how about yours?

Hope you have a lovely weekend and Happy Mums Day for Sunday!

Till next :)
Annette

Blink ... and another week is gone

2010-05-01T17:02:00.005+10:00

Gosh the weeks are just blurring together. I always seem to be out and about during the week and before I blink the week has gone with not much to show for it! It seems to be a bit that way though - a frantic week with lots getting made and done and then a week that just whizzes past that I don't even get to my 'urgent & important' list! Maybe that means that next week will be an achieving week??? For some reason I don't think so...

Thanks for the many commiserating comments last week on the state of my weedy garden - it's good to know I'm not alone! The weather has cooled down dramatically this week (a good temperature for weeding - not that I've done any more!) and I've started dropping hints to hubby about 'firewood'. He hasn't taken me up on the hint though. Ah well, it will get cold enough eventually that he won't be able to ignore it anymore.

I played farmer again this week, fortunately only for a morning. Luck wasn't on my side though and my ignorance played against me - I ran out of fuel just after moving the stock. I pushed the bike about a km to the nearest cross-track and then walked the remaining couple of km home. Lesson learned. I'll check the fuel tank next time!

I was reading a post today at Dana's about vintage items and a woman returning a 1960s purse that she was unhappy with as it wasn't 'new'. Poor Dana feels sick about a customer not being happy, and I can certainly sympathise with that - we all want our customers to be thrilled. But I would imagine it's a little hard to find 'new' and 'vintage' unless you come across a warehouse of untouched stock?

I've not really dealt with vintage before - unless it is a restoration job on someone's favourite old jewels, which probably doesn't count! There seems to be a fair population that do though. Do you buy vintage? If you do, I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on vintage - both the positives and the pitfalls - are.

My extra good news this week is that the Mega Mums Giveaway was drawn and one of my entrants won it! Jenny from Mendooran is the lucky recipient and is still stunned by her win. Her husband thinks she's never won anything before except an argument with him, so it sounds like it is well deserved!

Next weekend I am off to the Scone Grammar School's annual Fete. I have attended the last two years and last year already had some 'regulars', so I'm looking forward to catching up with them again. They have changed the set up this year with lots of outside vendors so it should be a fun market-like atmosphere. If you're in the vicinity, drop by to the school on Saturday between 10am and 3pm.

Today's photo is of a handmade chain of sterling silver, dusky rose rhodonite nuggets, chocolate jasper ovals, big rectangles of rose quartz and huge white freshwater pearls. It's a long necklace with chain at the back but as you can see is easily doubled to a chunkier shorter style.

Till next :)
Annette

My gardening wall of shame!

2010-04-24T19:48:00.005+10:00

Another week flies by and lots of average excuses for posting this late! I won't bore you with them all though ;)

Hubby and son returned from their Boy's Own Adventure, crossing the continent and back, covering 3500 miles and with thoroughly sore rear ends LOL. I survived being Farmer Piper again (apart from a seriously trying morning moving cattle with two 9 year old girls helping - I'll leave that to your imagination!) - luckily the split water pipe didn't appear until the morning after hubby's return as that's really something that I couldn't have fixed!

I started the mammoth job of weeding my rose garden last weekend. And if you wonder why, after a week I've only weeded half of it, I will now post a photo on my 'wall of shame'! I need a lot of coercion to get into the garden at the best of times so I ignore it all through summer, apart from watering if required. Well this year we have been blessed with regular rain, so I haven't even had to do that. This is the consequence though.

Yep, that's a tangle of weeds folks, and in the centre of this photo is supposed to be a path - you can see it at the top of the photo, in the half that's weeded. No, it's NOT a pretty sight. My keen-gardener-mother-in-law has to force herself NOT to look when she visits as she is totally appalled. Amongst some very spiky rose bushes there is a mixture of 'paddy melon'-like vines, kikuyu and rye grasses, lucerne, a variety of burrs and thistles and the odd nasty patch of 'sticky-beaks' that are even taller than the roses!

It's taken quite a bit of persistence on my part to get as far as I have. If you had been watching me I'm sure you would have opened your eyes just a tad wider at my numerous vocalisations, which basically centered around the word 'OUCH' and the odd, colourful adjective. Luckily roses are hardy and some lovely blooms are still coming forth in what will be probably their last flush before the cold weather closes in. This is a David Austin double pink with a terrible, rangy habit, but gorgeous scented flowers.

I'm feeling a little floral at the moment ... the roses in the garden, photos of spring blooms at every turn on the web and my girls have been making paper flowers which currently have pride of place in a vase on my dining table.

Have you ever made flowers with some sort of medium? I've made some floral designs with gems in the past and I saw today that Phersmay had posted a photo of some organza flowers that she has made to attach to headbands, brooches and hairpins.

Totally NOT floral, however, today's jewellery piece is a wonderful long, long (did I mention it was long!?) strand of lustrous peacock freshwater pearls in semi-baroque, stick and coin shapes. It's so long it makes a decent length 2 strand necklace or a brilliant shorter length 3 strand. I've added in a sprinkling of amethyst, iolite and tanzanite gemstones to enhance that purple-blue hue that I love so much, and a gorgeous starfish sterling clasp. Do you like it?

Till next
Annette :)

Watching children create

2010-04-15T19:30:00.005+10:00

Another week has flown by and school holidays are coming to a close. I waved my hubby and son off at "O-dark-hundred" this morning as they took off for Perth and the Red Bull Air Races. They left 13 hours ago and in another hour they will have crossed the continent and arrived in Perth - which I find mind blowing in a small, two seater aircraft! They have phoned me at every stop - Broken Hill, Ceduna, Forest and Kalgoorlie. They will be gone for about 5 days so it's all girls in the house which the younger two are thrilled about. It also means that my guise as Farmer Piper has reappeared - I'm almost getting used to it!!!

In an effort to have some time with the girls yet still be productive, I let them loose on my bench today and let them create a piece each which I then made.

I am constantly surprised at what they come up with - their sense of colour is superb and they keep that while thinking outside the square. I watched with amazement as they went through boxes of stones looking, collecting and discarding. The results were combinations of 1) black lava, golden topaz and grass green peridot with a sprinkling of gold and 2) red bamboo coral, Peruvian amazonite and silver. They also chose the clasps and length and stood at my shoulder making sure everything was just 'right'. I remain impressed!

I'm a member and ambassador of the wonderful Australian group Connect2Mums. We had our inaugural conference last year and what a fun time we had - the ultimate in social networking! There was much laughter and lots of dancing at a nearby nightclub after hours that had fantastic duelling pianos. The 2010 conference is coming up at the end of July - Monique has blogged about it and put up a photo of the C2M leaders from last year's event which I've copied here

I'm third from the left - it's rare that anyone gets to photograph me but at least I'm all dressed up here ;)

If you want a dose of colour inspiration, check out Julie's site where she features lots of scrapbooking layouts. The colour combinations are just fantastic :)

Today's picture is of some golden-wheat coloured freshwater pearls in a funky stick shape. Eye catching and different, yet light and easy to wear.

Till next :)
Annette

A late bunny story, Sydney jewels and hectic holidays

2010-04-09T15:44:00.007+10:00

It's been a busy week with Easter and the associated family gatherings, children's piano lessons (even though school is on holiday, piano definitely isn't!) and my rostered morning at the local saleyards canteen (and the baking of the fresh blueberry muffins before I had to leave). In fact I can't believe it's already Friday - half the term break gone already!

I know Easter is past, but I couldn't resist sharing this photo and story that I stumbled upon a couple of days ago.

This is the world's biggest rabbit. Named Darius, he is just 12 months old and at 1.3 metres and 22kg hasn't finished growing yet! Apparently he eats 12 carrots, 6 apples and 2 cabbages a day. Geez, I hope his owner lives on a farm and grows her own veggies, otherwise this big boy would eat her out of house and home rather quickly!

In jewellery news - if you like looking at gorgeous mega dollar jewels (in particular diamonds), then Sydney is the place to be this month. Sotheby's is hosting an auction on Monday 12 April of Australian Argyle diamond and other fine jewellery items. Then, at the end of the month, Bvlgari is opening a retrospective of their jewels in their Castleraegh Street store from April 28 featuring more than 60 masterpieces from their archives. A visit to Sydney is sounding VERY appealing about now!

In my other wanderings around the web, I was inspired by Melanie - she normally makes bags, fobs and purses but she has recently taken a slight detour into needle felting and has been showing her readers the most adorable toys on her blog recently.

And if you have a blog but, unlike me, don't feel comfortable just chatting away into the ether, then have a read of Melissa's blog where she has some great suggestions on how to find something to blog about.

I did manage some creative time in these hectic holidays - it was night and silence descended early with the children watching an early movie and then going to bed. I just beavered away at my bench, a bright glow amongst the darkness. The photo at top is one piece that was made that night. Although its design is plain, the dark agate stones are just gorgeous - rich, glossy and totally desirable!

Till next :)
Annette

A big week for jewellery

2010-04-02T21:34:00.006+11:00

Days are dashing past lately faster than I can keep up with! I hope this isn't an indication of life in general and getting older though...otherwise things will get pretty blurry as they speed past soon! My eldest has just turned 12 - we've already started the moodiness, the switching off (my voice just becomes a background buzz I'm sure!) and the attitude. I gather its only going to get worse so I'm taking it all one day at a time.

We've had more rain this past week - quite incredible after years of drought to have this regular rainfall. The pastures are responding beautifully and the cows, I'm sure, are feasting on the feed. Hubby has gone away for a few days flying aerobatics (at the National Aerobatics Competition) and so I'm back on duty as Farmer Piper. Fingers crossed I don't have any 'stories' (aka problems!) to relate to you on that front next time I write ;)

I had a fantastic day at Mendooran Show last weekend. The ladies were incredibly welcoming and fitted me into their pavillion beautifully - just like I was meant to be there. It was a bit on the hot side, made worse by the uniquitous Australian tin shed we were in - very practical, but hot in summer and cold in winter! But regardless of the heat lots of ladies went home with some new jewels and big smiles which is just the way I like it :) The photo above is of a piece that found a new home - lashings of freshwater pearls in all shapes and sizes and colours.

In fact its been a big week on the jewellery front. I've been very busy doing orders, remodels and sitting down designing with clients. One remodel was different - to turn a bracelet full of Pandora charms that the client no longer wears into a necklace. It is actually looking rather lovely with the charms mixed amongst black lava.

One client came over and choose a pair of elegant citrine and gold earrings to go as a gift to Italy and ended up leaving with a gorgeous pair of pink amethyst earrings for herself as well. I like the way she thinks - "one for a gift, one for me... "

I also had a wonderful meeting with one client who in her younger days (1950-60s) worked for a jewellery house in the city. She regaled me with her wonderful 'tiara' story - lets just say the tiara - which had also been designed as a necklace - got a night out on the town unexpectedly and she got to look literally like a million dollars!

Sometimes jewellery can be a fascinating field to be in - you get to meet wonderful people, hear riveting stories and get to touch on people's lives all over the world :)

Till next :)
Annette

Wonderful visitors and a fantastic prize draw

2010-03-23T08:55:00.007+11:00

Well, its been a very eventful week! My computer has gone to the doctor for a check up as I couldn't connect to the net and no matter how many virus scans I ran nothing worked - very distressing!! So I've nabbed hubby's laptop for some covert surfing and an update ;)

We had some wonderful visitors last weekend from the US. I have known Marilyn for many years online and she is currently touring around Australia with her husband. In approximately four weeks they are covering Sydney, Coolah (of course!), Lightning Ridge, Anna Bay, Melbourne, Adelaide, Coober Pedy, Perth, Albany, Broome, Darwin, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef! Thats literally from one corner to the next and from top to bottom! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! It was brilliant to meet someone you've only known online and she was just as sweet in person as she has been as words on a screen :) Her husband was just lovely and was so interesting ... its not every day that you meet a nuclear physicist! Even though they've said otherwise, I think my three very loud and rather bold children were a shock. (I seem to remember they used to be reticent around strangers.... what happened!?)

I'm sure you would like to win over $1000 in prizes just in time for Mother's Day? I was asked to be a part of this wonderful promotion and it starts Thursday (25 March)! Make a qualifying purchase from the businesses involved (for example, any purchase over $35 from my site) fill out the form saying why you would like to win (eg. Coz I want it all!!!) and you're in the draw!

Up for grabs is:
A variety of Ahava Dead Sea products valued at $125 from Dead Sea Source Australia
A handbag and purse valued at $100 from Baubles Bubbles and Bags
A mineral makeup starter kit valued at $125 from Southern Cross Beauty
4 atomisers of top selling fragrances valued at $128 from Perfume on Tap
Greeting cards valued at $100 from Think Cards
A 4 week on-line personal training program valued at $135 from Glow Womens Fitness Online
Soy scented candles to the value of $68 from Dream Candles
A personalised budget plan valued at $145 from the Budget Bitch
An $80 gift voucher from MooWoo Handmade Cards and Gifts
And of course, something from me!

My prize into the hamper is pictured above. You could pay $145 for it, or you could just win it instead!!!

It's a stunning ocean jasper and rutilated quartz, chain linked necklace in 12ct goldfill. This will be perfect for autumn and winter with its golden brown tones. (And will still look stunning in summer against white). The stones in this necklace are gorgeous - I'm a big fan of ocean jasper and these stones have some wonderful markings and patterns and such rich colours. The rutilated quartz has incredible needles of gold and red rutile - honestly, you could look at these stones for days and always find something new to admire!

The giveaway ends on April 25 so that you will receive it in time for Mother's Day, so get shopping ;)

I will soon have to get organised for my display at Mendooran Show this weekend - I'll be in the Ladies Pavillion if you're going to the show :) so,

Till next :)
Cheers!
Annette

MIA from the blogging world

2010-03-16T21:04:00.006+11:00

I've been MIA (missing in action) from the blogging world again! You would think given hubby's return and my release from farming duties I'd be back in the swing of things. Far from it though.

Hubby has been busy with rock picking, cutting hay and now sowing and I feel like I've not quite got away from the paddock - even if it's just keeping him company. As well, there have been further incidents of farming jobs that involved me - such as the whole family going rock picking for a day last weekend. The kids coped remarkably well with manual labour - maybe they're not as soft as I thought!

Perhaps I need to have a guest blogger on hand to keep everyone entertained in such absences. Have you ever had a guest blogger on your blog? Or perhaps you've been one? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

I've seen guest bloggers occasionally but haven't really taken much notice. Then two blogs I check in on regularly have been talking about them. Your Cheeky Monkey had a guest blogger to talk about photographing children. As Monique's blog is connected to her business which caters to a lot of children products this is perfect! The other blog was the Business Mums Blog that was talking about the pros for both the blog and the guest blogger. Food for thought for when we're too caught up with other things?

Naturally, with everything else keeping me busy, not much has happened on the jewellery front. I've been busy with orders and remodelling jobs so I've only had time for a couple of new pieces. The necklace pictured above is one of the new ones - lava, freshwater 'stick' pearls in a natural pink / lavender tint and sterling silver. (I must apologise for the bluish tint in the photo - the light was a little past optimum.)

I have visitors arriving from the US this Friday for a short stay and in my mad dash around the house in cleaning mode, I tidied up my bench....so that's ruined any creativity until I can mess it up again. LOL.

Till next
Annette :)