Love is in the air...

Well, it's not really in the air for me, but seeing as it's February and Valentine's Day is coming up, I will be indulging in adorning myself with heart-themed accessories, like this gorgeous two swallows with a blue heart necklace, which costs just under £18.

As my heart doesn't belong to anyone, I don't think blue is an inappropriate colour for hearts on Valentine's Day. This delicate light blue open heart necklace is the same price and also gets a vote from me:

If you're a die-hard fan of red and pink for the dreaded V-Day, then you might like these silver plated hoop earrings, which come in pink as pictured below and red. They cost just over £15, plus £2.30 postage.

These pretty handmade finds come all the way across the seas, from US Etsy seller Small Blue Things. You can connect on Facebook  or Twitter with this clever little crafter.

How to cheer yourself up

Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit blue, I write myself little pep-notes and hide them to surprise myself with at a later date, which are supposed to make me feel better. Something along the lines of:

Dear Nom, 
In case you forgot, you're totally amazing and lots of people think you're SUPER COOL.
Love,
Nom

or

Dear Le Nome,
You're too awesome and busy to be confined to a relationship right now and there are plenty of years to go before your ovaries turn to dust, so really it's a GOOD THING that you're single and free.
Peace out,
Nombles x

This usually works, unless I'm really down in the dumps, in which case I'll probably just end up hating on myself for being such a loser as to write myself pep-notes.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that sometimes we all need a little reminder that we're great. Just a little something that you can look at and think 'Huh, yeah, I forgot about the fact that I'm awesome. Yeah maybe I am chubbier than my best friend, but actually, people still love me so it's not the end of the world.'

That's where this necklace from Finest Imaginary off of that Etsy comes in. It states the facts. Plain, simple. Capital letters. GOLD. Under a tenner. It's ticking a lot of boxes for me right now...

Fancy a cuppa?

Tea.

Glorious, marvellous tea. Every morning I have a cup of soothing, warm, wonderful tea. Sometimes I like to start with an EG (Earl Grey, duh), sometimes a Yorkshire Tea (it's good for hard water, which means you evade the accursed 'London Scale', that revolting scum that floats on the top of your brew and makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable). I always feel better about anything after I've had a cup. It's like totally affordable and not-illegal-when-you're-taking-it-recreationally liquid Valium. When I was wee, my Nana Rose used to make us tea in those 80s brown glass mugs, really milky with a sugar in, and we used to dip buttered toast in it whilst we watched Sky (old school Sky - it was ALL about the Rugrats, Sister Sister, or maybe Alex Mack).

Did you know that over 80% of the UK population enjoy tea?*  The remaining 20% hate it and will only drink coffee. Don't get me wrong, I love coffee, but tea? Tea is like that old cuddly toy that you've loved so much that he's become real, like the Velveteen Rabbit (mine were called Snugglebunny and Brian The Lion. They're still in residence at Bullivant Towers).

Anywho, the reason I'm chatting so much about tea is because of this brilliant designer I discovered on that there Folksy site I'm so mad on. Her name's Jess Broad, aka Cuppa Tea and Cake and if you're crafty like me, I'm sure you'll be as thrilled by her designs as I am.

Take for example this wooden wool brooch, which costs £5.

Jess illustrates her designs and then uses the magic of lasers to cut the image into the beech brooch. Which sounds pretty high tech to me.

I also took a fancy to this nice tea love badge, which is made by drawing directly on to shrink plastic. It costs just £2.50.

Like what you see? Why not pay her blog a visit, or follow her on Twitter. And whilst you're at it, follow me too!

*Don't call me on that, I'm not a Statistician and I have no actual money to put where my mouth is.

A feather for each wind that blows

I used to make jewellery, but I haven't made anything in years, since I got interested in photography. I do love looking at handmade jewellery though. Some of the time I look to see what kind of designs people are creating and to see if I think I could make the item quite as prettily. Other times it's for presents. If a design is really unique or beautiful, I love to make a gift out of it. When I give a lovely handmade gift I've sourced, I get a smug feeling, as if I've discovered treasure; plus it brings me a little added happiness that I've helped to support an artist.

Dear Oh Deer's designs, available on Etsy, are just such delicate treasures. I adore her range of feathery earrings, simple chains adorned with bewitching semi-precious stones and pretty pen and ink drawings. It's like she's been on a ramble in the countryside, collecting natural treasures and carefully taking them home to create something ethereal.

These red pheasant earthy feather earrings cost £15, plus £2 p&p. The red beads lift the natural brown colours in the feathers to make them bright and interesting, they remind me of little hawthorn berries. They'd look so pretty on ears framed by tumbling locks. It almost makes me wish I hadn't cut all my hair off two years ago...

The Valley in Autumn, creamstone bead necklace is quite simply gorgeous. I love fine gold chains, and this would look so dainty; if paired with a plain coloured t-shirt it would really dress up a casual look, it only costs £10, plus £2 p&p.

Finally I'm going to show you one of those pretty little inkings I was telling you about. Dianne has three owl pen and ink prints available.  I rather like this barn owl print.

I'm thinking that she must be selling them off once and for all, because the listing states that they cost but £3, reduced from £8. These A5 prints would make a perfect present for an owl fan; I know a certain person in particular who may well enjoy one, do you?

Angel Eden textile brooches

I really enjoy looking at things that have a sort of happy-hotchpotch-jumble feel to them; as if someone got so excited about prettiness that it just exploded out of their imagination into whatever it is they've lovingly created.

These brooches from the Angel Eden textile rage feel like this to me. At just £20 they're a brilliant way to express your individuality and love of craft.

This bluebird textile brooch feels quite romantic and uses vintage lace, charms and carefully chosen small buttons.

This is the Apple and Wheelbarrow textile brooch; I love the bright, fresh colours.

What I like about this green teapot textile brooch is that the jewelled flower has been 'rescued' from a broken necklace, and is stitched lovingly into the rest of the piece, complimenting the silver teapot and teacup charms perfectly!

Each unique piece is handmade in Derbyshire using a bespoke selection of sterling silver charms, vintage components and recycled textiles. If you spot one you like, you'll have to purchase it sharpish, as they come from a bespoke, continually developing collection!

If you'd rather make your own, they stock a range of craft kits, starting from just £5.50.

Lego lovelies

I love Lego. I think I inherited this from my mother, Rosebud, who used to get us big Lego sets for Christmas, but wouldn't allow us to play with them until she had built them first. Now my siblings and I have mainly fled the nest, she has an entire room set aside for Lego. Sometimes when I come home I find her sitting in said room, playing building the sets on the floor. She has ALL the Harry Potter ones.

Kookiemonkey on Folksy has made a set of 18 inch necklaces featuring Lego bricks for the bargain price of £10. Perfect little gift for the geek in your life.

I like this little Taxi  necklace, which is made with a vintage Lego brick:

This Fangs necklace has got me racking my brains trying to remember what set it came from originally:

And this vintage i-mac vs Pc necklace reminds me of the old Acorn PC we used to play on in Year 5 and 6 in primary school. There was this game with a turtle, I think it was called Logic or something and it came on floppy disk.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Leather lovelies

Back in June I celebrated London Jewellery Week by visiting Hatton Garden Festival with my beloved buddy Ellie in search of some new pretties that I could croon 'My Preciousssss' over in my very best (which is, incidentally, pretty lame) Gollum impersonation. It was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Saturday, walking along a street full of British craftspeople, watching them create and talking to them about their work. I guess some people might not do the whole talking part (mon Dieu, you don't speak to strangers, this is LONDON), but me being me, I obviously did. And I enjoyed it too, so there.

It was on this delightful wee free day out that I met a jewellery designer called Amma Gyan; her brand of leather accessories and jewellery, Me, really stood out as beautiful and unique. 

These pretty turquoise and leather dot rings cost £30 and are lovingly crafted with soft Italian leather and gold clasps. They come in red leather (shown above) and plum. If you're not a turquoise girl, there's a gorgeous onyx black dot ring (shown below) and a pearl and tan version available for the same price, and for £21, a selection of gold dot rings.

There are two types of necklaces to go with the ring, if you like to be all matchy-matchy with your accessorisation, the dot necklace, for £56 and the Cleo, for £45.

I also rather like this Natasha necklace. I'm loving the way Amma has casually paired it with a white t-shirt in the picture. What a lovely way to dress up a simple white tee! Delicate yet bold, I think it's really pretty. It comes in white or yellow leather (pictured) and costs £85.

Amma is on twitter @MebyAmmaGyan and she also has an interesting tumblr style blog here too.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Swanky accessories

Do you ever have one of those days where you're just insanely busy and nobody is adoring you and everything is going wrong and you're pretty much just like AAAARGH? Of course you can't actually scream that out loud, because people might think you were unhinged or something, so maybe you just stick to thinking it or tweeting it. Or maybe you wear it around your neck to subtly remind people to give you a freaking break:

This AAAARGH necklace costs £22 from jewellery designer Swank, aka Becky Wignell. Based in Otley, Becky's designs are often made from recycled material (the chain on the above for example and her range of recycled Lego-themed necklaces are pretty squiffy geek-chic too), which means you can feel happy about what you're hanging round your hooters.

Also worthy of note are her really cool plane-related necklaces, which come in silver, gold or black-backed perspex. You know me, I love black and gold, it's so opulent and trashy:

Seriously cool, non? The F1-15 Fighter Jet necklace costs 30 smackeroonies and can be located by clicking this link here.

And then there's the Grumman Wildcat necklace, which also costs £30.

Lastly I want to show you my favourite, because it's named after a song which never fails to make me giggle and it's also AWESOME:

The Rock Lobster necklace costs £18 and comes in red, pink or gold perspex. Seriously cool. Which one should I choose, red or gold?

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Woof - Woof, by Meow Girl

Do you like dogs? I know people are usually dog or cat people, but, just to be my usual awkward self, I'm both. I love Geoff, my big fluffy ginger cat, but as you may remember from my previous posts, I'm a firm believer that 'one day my Fritz will come'.

As Fritz, my short-haired miniature daschund currently only exists in my mind, I do so like to see things that remind me of him, be that homewares or clothes or jewellery. So I was quite frankly elated when I was looking at Aussie shop Meow Girl's collection of painted miniature pooch necklaces and spotted dearest, darling Fritz on the end of a silver chain for a mere AUS$45 (£29.52 at current exchange rate, thanks expiate).

There's a whole host of the funniest little pups, including Ria's imaginary Pug, Pierre, for AUS $39 (about £23):

And Bill Sikes' dog Bulls Eye! Bulls Eye costs AUS$39, which is about £26. I know they are sort of ugly looking, but I quite like English Bull Terriers. Look, he's having a little sit down:

Also worth mentioning is the Chihuahua (ooh isn't that funny to write) for AUS$30, the Dalmatian, AUS$39 and the little Jack Russell AUS$39!

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Guns and 'taches

Tammy Wynette was so right when she sang 'Sometimes it's hard to be a woman'. It IS hard to be a woman, especially when you're giving all your love to just one man and he turns out to be a cheating rotter who really just deserves a swift kick to the plums. Hey, it's not that I'm a man hater, I sure do love men, especially ones with deep gravelly voices and a nice, shiny moustache like Tom Selleck - and by the way, have you guys been watching Blue Bloods? Tom Selleck is a major fox. I don't know what this means for me, because he is like, an OLD man now, but is he not the personification of manliness? Little boy Bieber can do one, Tom Selleck's masculine presence would have me weak at the knees. I'm pretty sure if I met him I'd literally quiver in the face of his manly power. My voice would be all wobbly and I’d feel all light headed and totally embarrassing stuff like that.

Anyway, I can't remember what I was writing because I drifted off into some kind of Three Men and a Baby fantasy, except there is me, no baby and only one man, and that man is Tom Selleck, but it's true, being a woman can be hard. So, inevitably as we get older we toughen up a little bit. Not too much, I mean I’m never going to be a body builder or a lady ninja (although being a lady ninja would be really cool) but I’m no longer the fragile little nymph of my teenage years. And if you’re going to be a little bit tough, then you should probably give people an indication of that, just you know, a little heads up, don’t mess with me sunshine, because I’m like Pammy in Barb Wire to the power of TEN when I’m in a bit of a huff, and I will DESTROY YOU IF YOU MESS WITH ME SUCKAAAAAAA! Ahem.

So that my friends is where this cute little Gun Necklace by Love Your Silver from Not on the Highstreet for £55 comes into play. I love gun themed jewellery, but I find it's rather hard to find items which aren't vulgar and/or hideous. This is sweet and pretty, with a slightly aggressive edge to it. A smiling assassin for the jewellery box. It will almost certainly say, in a polite manner, look mate, I might well be pretty and girly, but I’m also totally fierce on the inside buster, and if you cross me, you’re gonna be so-rry.

N.B. 4 T.S. 

I.D.S.T.