Go Big or Go Home, by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello folks, it's nice to be back - I hope you've missed me. I took a couple of weeks off to help refurbish the website - this time with the help of an IT professional from Firstep Web Design. David has consulted with me every step of the way and I think the website looks much more professional now - well, duuh! anything would have to be better than my cack handed efforts over the last 10 years, and this is a phenomenal improvement. I thought Caprilicious deserved a gift this year and brought David in. We are due to finalise the website on Friday. It helps that he lives in Rugby and is happy to drive up to see me, as well as work with me on WhatsApp video calls. 

---

I cleaned up my work table - I can finally see a bit more than six inches of space, but now it's so tidy that I'm loth to use it - I can't win! It may appear like I've just pushed everything to the edges of the table, but trust me, after 3 hours of wiping all my tools down and putting them away, I most definitely did not. My mother wouldn't agree with my idea of tidying up, but as she's not likely to see the slattern I've become, I can stay with my slovenly ways.

Before

After

For the first couple of days, I was content to play with editing photographs to David's instructions on my laptop, but soon my fingers hankered to play with beads and create something - I know I have an addictive personality, but I guess this is a nice addiction to have as long as I don't go bankrupt from buying beads at a rate that outstrips the movement of pieces of jewellery off of my website. I thought a couple of pairs of earrings wouldn't hurt - but then of course as with all things jewellery in my hands, the size of the earrings grew and their complexity increased. These are all stud earrings, backed with leather or Ultrasuede with earring backs that give them support so that they stay in place on the ear.

The donut shaped one was particularly tricky, but also extremely fun to make. The beads are iridescent and appear blue from one angle and sea green from another.

The sun came out and played ball which meant the garden exploded into action and we spent time with early pruning, weeding and deadheading, slug control and generally enjoying the greenery around us.

I made up a little pot of succulents and I'm quite enjoying them. I hope they have a long life - Mike, the houseplant murderer has been forbidden to water them on pain of death as he tends to waterlog all my plants and kill them off. I don't have any houseplants for precisely that reason. My heart sinks when well meaning folk give me gifts of houseplants as they are usually dead within a couple of weeks.

I went down to London one Friday to visit a friend who was unwell - the way to his house in Ilford by Tube was so tortuous with so many changes that I decided to take an Uber - I've never seen traffic like it! I spent an hour and ten minutes on the train each way from Nuneaton to Euston and back - the journey from Euston to Gant's Hill took two hours each way. I found out about the taxi drivers life stories, and even had time to go as far back into their ancestry as their great grandfathers, I took pictures through the window as we crawled through Shoreditch and Bethnal Green. I love kitsch, and nobody does it better than the East End of London.

That's me for today. I've enjoyed our one sided chat, but if you feel like answering me back, do feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx