Sunday Flea Market and Cobweb's Necklace

Well, today's flea market did not have any treasures for my jewellery/found object/supplies, but I did manage to find a couple of things I will use otherwise.

Indonesian batik inspired print fabric

Don't know what I am going to do with this yet, but it was calling my name! Then it said: show this to Christi!! LOL


I just adore old "tools" - these are going to be put to work with my art supplies.

I have finally finished a commission for a wedding necklace! The bride loved it and so I am happy. Working on a commission has pros and cons. While it is great to make something special for someone; I do find it a bit limiting to work within the narrow boundaries of someone else's vision.
But now I am free to work on my own pieces again and I finally had a breakthrough with Cobweb's Necklace. You might remember, another fairy from A Midsummer Nights Dream. It was half finished, but for some reason, I just couldn't get past that point. But this weekend, it all just came into place and below, Miranda is modelling the necklace for me.

Cobweb's Necklace, modelled by Miranda


This is a longer necklace; made of copper, antique lace, Czech glass, seedbeads, freshwater pearls and a fantastic barley corn chain.

Winner of the giveaway!!!

Well, I promised I would pick a winner today, so let's go to it! I have the random generator here and will now generate a number between 1 and 20, as I received 20 comments on the giveaway post. May I have a drum roll, please....

And the winner is: 12 - Pattie from The Joy of Nesting!

Congratulations Pattie! Please get in touch with me about the surprise!

I am such a technical misfit, I couldn't get a screenshot of the random generator. And the widget just doesn't keep the generated number. Sorry about that!

Thank you to all of you that left your oh so kind comments, I truly wish I could send everyone a surprise. But I promise I will do this again some time soon.

Tuscan memory

This is one of my beach pebbles from Tuscany. I polished it and drilled a hole through it and combined it with a copper spiral. I love to hold these stones, they are so smooth! And I just love the colours!! This one is about 3.5 cm in length. I strung it on a piece of leather and have been wearing it the last couple of days...

There is still time to enter my giveaway, if you haven't yet! I will be picking a winner tomorrow. Just comment on my giveaway post here !

Sunday Flea Market - new treasures

Those of you that stop by here regularly know about my flea market obsession and that Sunday is the day! Today was a particularly wonderful day at the fleamarket and I have lots of treasures to prove it! I just wish I could take the rest of you with me when I go hunting. How much fun would that be?

some buttons and a spool of thread

These are not so very old, but I liked the pattern. And I adore old wooden spools of thread!


a little box of 92 guitar pegs - that's what is says on the box, at least!

I was absolutely smitten with this little box! I have no idea at the moment what I will do with these wooden pegs with the mother of pearl inlay. I will give it some time for an idea to germinate.

old enameled watch faces

I found a whole collection of these in various stages of, shall we say, shabby chic? I am looking forward to using these!!

more treasures, possibly silver

Will you look at that piece of souvenir bracelet from Paris! Isn't it fantastic??!

more bits and pieces of old jewellery

doll parts from Thuringia

My highlight of the day! Old doll parts from Thuringia, in not so bad condition. These are rather small ones, the doll torso measures just a wee bit over two inches. The dealer had a whole selection of larger dolls, maybe about 5 inches tall, complete with arms and legs, too! Too big and too expensive for my purposes, but wonderful to look at. And will you take a look at those glass doll eyes! So amazing!!

What a great flea market day! We saw lots of other wonderful things also - today, there were alot of violins and violas. Also, fantastic old furniture - but I don't have any more room for anything large in the house (thank goodness)!!

Giveaway and thank you!!

Yes, I do collect just about everything!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I was overwhelmed by the fact that the followers of this blog hit the 50 mark while I was away on vacation. I would like to thank everyone for caring and for their support!! I never dreamed that blogging would give me such a feeling of being connected and encouraged!

So, I would like to celebrate this occasion with a giveaway! Please leave a comment (one per person, please) on this post, if you wish to enter. I have not made a decision of what the prize will be - I think this will be determined with the winner of the draw. I will select the winner on Thursday (just don't forget, I live in Europe, so Thursday will get here a few hours sooner for me than for you).

Thank you once again for your support, encouragement and caring! It means alot to me!
Good luck, everyone!

Beachcomber

Thank you so much for welcoming me back!
My spirit is still trying to find its way back from Italy. Or maybe it is not so much trying... I'm finding it difficult to get back into normal mode.

I thought I would share some of my beach treasures with you. What do I love most about the beach? Beachcombing, of course!!!! I could spend the rest of my life just walking along the beach picking up interesting stones and things - really. I love beachcombing. Even if August is not really the best month for beachcombing in Italy (most of Italy is on vacation and at the beach in August), I still manage to get an hour or two of beachcombing into our vacation. I infected my husband with this bug early in our relationship, so we do this together.
What did we find? Take a look:

some driftwood

beach treasures

more beach treasures

Maybe I should have gotten the pebbles wet before taking the pictures, the colours are more intense then. I think these pebbles are just as beautiful as any other semi precious stone. I am thinking of how I can use them in my jewellery...

While I was away, the number of my blog followers reached 50! I am humbled; that so many of you think it worth your while to stop by here - thank you for your support!!
I think this calls for a celebration of sorts! Too bad I can't invite you all over for a glass of wine! But maybe a giveaway is in order!? I'm just not sure what to offer - I will give it some thought this week. Suggestions, anybody? Stay tuned, I think we will do this on Friday.

By the way, my kitties seem to have missed me, while I was away. Now they are robbing my sleep, because they keep bringing in mice for me to play with - live mice, loose in the house. OMGoodness!!

Italian impressions

I'm back from Italy! Well, at least partly. I don't feel as if I am really here yet.
Here is a just a selection of impressions:

Just arrived

Cicada

Butterfly

Pebbles on the beach

Sunset at the beach