Well, the weather of course!  It's currently hotter than the surface of the sun in my 'studio', but I've braved the scorching heat to cheer myself up after that abysmal England performance - yep, football's going home.  Again.

I made a couple of rings - one to match the Lady Luck jewellery set, which you can see on the Rings page, and a simple moonstone one for yours truly.  I also made a new bracelet this week, and a 14mm beaded bead of which I'm inordinately proud!  Yes, I know there are far more complex seed-beading techniques out there, but I'm a wireworker at heart, so any progress in that department is cause for celebration!

Yep, that's right!  After years of dyeing my hair red, about 3 years ago I decided to do the sensible thing, stop wrecking it and dye it back to brown.  Well, 3 years is a looong time for me to be sensible (in any way), so the time had long since come for me to ditch the boring brown locks and go for something a bit brighter.  Which it now is - on the top, at least (gulp).  It's somewhat darker on the ends, but I don't care!!!  Hurray for hair dye! :D

On the jewellery side of things, this weekend I've been working on a commission, and I've also put some sterling silver bow earwires in the shop.  I was thinking I might put some four-leaf clover connectors in there too at some point - they're really useful, and not every jewellery maker has access to their own wire.  Just a thought...

Yep, World Cup fever has seized the nation again - I do enjoy it, but I have every sympathy with those who don't, given that it's pretty impossible to escape!  I managed to pull South Korea out of the sweepstake hat at work, so my hopes aren't high, but they did beat Greece 2 nil today, so who knows - that'd teach them all for laughing at my draw!

I've finally sat down with a view to making something this afternoon - only managed one make this week, which you can see here, but I do like those brass washers.  Good job, I've completely run out of silver wire (boo hoo), so I'll have to settle for a different metal.  I may even try and make a replacement for the snake ring I lost a while ago (is it only my house it's possible to lose a whole bunch of rings in?  And is it just one step from that to unwittingly storing my keys in the fridge, as a friend suggested..?)

Well, I haven't got much jewellery-making done this weekend, although there are a couple of irons in the fire - one of which is an idea for a 'spine' bracelet, which I hope to have time to tackle some time this week.  Decided to forgo the humidity of my 'studio' (spare bedroom!) and take a trip to Burnham Beeches nature reserve.  It's really beautiful, and I'd definitely recommend a visit - keep an eye out for the horses and (huge!) cows roaming free - I got quite a shock, not realizing there was anything more than birds and insects there - including the obligatory wasp that did its best to spoil my enjoyment of an ice cream!

Woo hoo!  My site is up and running at last!  Not much time to comment, what with trying to update the site and making a VERY last-minute birthday pressie this evening (which you can see here), but hopefully I'll get the hang of this blog thing...