holidays are approaching....

yey!!!!

So as per usual, i'm flying out to Egypt in just over a week from now, and i cant wait!!!

I'm not one for hot weather, it doesnt seem to agree with me, but a flat situated right across from the medittarenean ocean in the beautiful city of Alexandria is definetly worth putting up with the hot weather. Especially since the sea brings in quite a nice breeze in the evenings.

My whole family this year...excluding my older brother whose working...will be going to Egypt this year, so thats going to be quite interesting i think..

I also have some plans for what I plan to do to change my shop in order to hopefully get more of my jewellery in store, and a plan of how to get myself more sales.

This post recently on the etsy discussion boards has been of great help, http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6229078 and has inspired me to write down my plans and ideas, instead of merely thinking of them which is always chaotic...writing it down is likely to make me think about it all better...i hope.

So thanks to the owners of this great store
nomadcraftsetc's http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6747382 for fantastic advice and inspiration, I wish them many more sales:)

So I got myself a notebook, and i'm going to spend this holiday writing down all my ideas and buying supplies, as most of my beads are finished, and fill up again. And once i'm back i'll be creating again!

Wedding watch

So finally finished and sent off the wedding watch which was an alchemy request!

This is the final piece, with the bird charm which had me stressed at the start of this week....hate sellers who dont respond to messages!!

All has ended well!

Really loved making this watch, especially for someone to use for such a special occasion in their lives. :)

Hope theres more to come!

obsession

The whole swine flu thing has got me obsessed...especially since we're travelling away i really dont want anyone getting ill before we're due to leave!

so keeping away from crowded areas, stopped my daughters from school only a few days before the official holidays...so it's not too bad, carry anti bacterial wipes and gel around EVERYWHERE and make sure everyone uses them at all times, even touching surfaces when not neccessary is stopped! so I hope it all goes ok.

managed to pack up a few of our things...but theres so much to sort out still.

on a happier note, i won an alchemy bid!! yay...to make a beaded pearl and Czech glass wedding watch. so it's almost finished, just awaiting a bird charm to arrive from an ebay seller, but he hasnt responded to any of my messages, so i'm really worried it wont come in time. the buyers wedding is on Saturday, and although she says she doesnt mind if it doesnt turn up, I would really love to create for her exactly what she wants. I would have ordered from etsy, but the buyers with the charms i wanted were all in the US and shipping would take too long...here's hoping that the charm arrives no later than Wednesday morning because it really needs to be sent to ensure it arrives before Saturday.

I'll post pics when it's finished:)

the swine flu story...

I wasnt to be honest overly concerned by the swine flu apademic, the same as i was concerned by the bird flu issue, and this was mainly due to the fact that it always seemed far away from me and people i knew...until now.

Today we received a letter from my daughters school informing us that a child at her school may have a case of swine flu. Its not yet apparent whether he has or not, but that apparently a family member of his has caught the virus and they seem to be worried this poor child may have the virus too. The school seems to have made the necessary arrangements to ensure there is no spread, the child is no longer attending school, staff are on alert for any children with flu like symptoms and the school is kept immaculately clean throughout the day.

But i'm still worried. I dont know if it seems a little jumpy or over reactionary but i dont want my daughter attending the school. this is the last week till the start of the summer break, so i've decided to take her out of school as a precautionary measure.

for more info on swine flu heres the gvt guidlines and NHS guidelines

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/QA.aspx#Whatis

as for the symptoms here they are, and how to check if the symptoms you have could be related to swine flu

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/Sat/Topics/WizardStepOne.aspx?Host=Nhsd&SyndicationPartnerGuid=d19370ea-a100-407d-9695-b73407f701c7&TopicGuid=8c903315-a302-412a-bfae-9cb576d4b4cd

stay safe

Summer sale!

So, i've been trying to sell as much as I can during this month of July in order t totally revamp my shop after I get back from Egypt.

This is because each year I go to Egypt and spend my money on beads and findings, and since opening my etsy store, i also plan of getting my promotional material printed there too since its much cheaper and getting new packaging also.

was thinking of going from black with a teal blue....or an emerald green...something sophsiticated and great looking. but this may well change when i get there!

so here's some of my new sale items:

Mother of pearl charm bracelet and earrings. matching necklace is also available, the whole set costs $28 if bought together!

Also have some other items:

Ruby and mother of pearl bracelet

All earrings are now $5!

Theres loads more, but this adding images on this blog are a pain1 There must be an easier way to put images where you want without needing to shift them after uploading them:S

So check out my summer clearance sale

www.amzjewellerydesigns.etsy.com

check out Erins handmade wedding blog

This is Erins blog, which is fantastic. She's basically wanting to prepare a beautiful wedding where everything is handmade, from wedding invites, to wedding dress to ofcourse my area jewellery.

She has kindly offered to feature some etsy members who make products for wedding to feature, and luckily i was one of many whose been featured. So check it out:)

http://eringetsmarried.com/

Thanks Erin for the feature, I wish you the most beautiful wedding and an even happier life after:)

to me:D

well it was on Tuesday at least.

Had a brilliant time. We dont normally celebrate individual birthdays for adults in our family, since a lot of us fall in the same period of time, we just have one big party!

But my birthday fell on the day of the week where my family were all free, so it was nice.

We went out for dinner, but ended up staying for like 4 hours as we had to wait for my dad to come after a lesson he was teaching....

It was kind of funny, because my sister had bought a cake so that the waiter can light up the matches, close the lights and put on the birthday song as a suprise for me....which it was....a suprise and mildly embarassing at that....except the waiter seemed to assume that it was my dads birthday and thats why we were waiting for him to arrive to have our coffees and the suprise cake...

so as soon as my dad finishes dinner and the table is cleared, we order some hot drinks, and the guy sets about lighting the candles and preparing the cake...turns to me and starts waving instructions at me which i realized later was to ask if it was time for the cake! anyway i was somewhat baffled, but he shuts the lights and this awful tape of happy birthday song comes on and i have a fit of giggles as the guy places the cake in front of my dad! My dads face can say a million words, and everyone is laughing and the poor guy gets confused and embarassed and shifts it down to me....I blew out the candles...which i honestly dont remember the last time i had a birthday cake with candles to blow out! felt like i was a little kid again, which is nice when i've jsut turned 26:)

it was all lovely:)

happy birthday.........