CuddleNum (or The Chicken Formerly Known as Mr Beige)

'CuddleBunny, meet CuddleNum. CuddleNum, meet CuddleBunny. ' If she could speak, Alice would have introduced the two new friends like this.

So, in case you are wondering what all the introductions are about, the lovely Lynsey of SwirlyArts who makes really cute chicken pincushions and doorstops, among other things, and sells them in her etsy store found herself with a grumpy little pincushion Mr Beige who felt he was being supplanted in her affections by newer chicken pincushions. So Lynsey bowed to Mr Beige's demands and set about finding him a new home. Alice and I stumbled across the competition, and she was quite excited by the prospect of a little chicken, so we entered. And we won! And this is the lovely package that arrived this morning -

There were perfectly pleasant introductions all round, and a little cuddle for the newly named CuddleNum from both Alice and CuddleBunny, but then Alice decided that that was enough of the good manners and tried to bite CuddleNum's beak. Naughty Alice!

So CuddleNum has taken up a temporary station on the bookcase along where he can oversee the chaos that is my living room until this round of teething is done. But he isn't alone, because the also-quite-delicate-in-constitution knitted Elefant is also up there and will keep him company and explain what is going on. Alice will be allowed quick cuddles, because she loves the squishyness of CuddleNum, but I am still working on the concept of 'gentle' with her, so she will be properly supervised at all times.

Thanks Lynsey!

Changes to my shop

This week I have changed a couple of elements of my etsy store, hopefully for the better!

First, I have retaken all of my 'first pictures' for my items. I struggle with my photography sometimes (as first mentioned in a previous blog post here) - I never feel I quite get it right. My original pictures mainly had black backgrounds, as I thought you would see the silver of the jewellery better - but lighting is hard, and the silver would often end up with a funny glow.

But after one of my photos, which I'd done on a white instead of a black background, got some compliments in one of the etsy forums, I thought I'd try doing my pictures on white background again, and also be a bit braver with my cropping and close ups. I am (at the moment!) pretty pleased with the results, and also with the fact that for the first time they all have the same colour background!

Here are some before and after pictures -

Second, I decided to try and unify my presentation and packaging of my jewellery. I bought some lovely ribbon in shades of ivory, dove grey and pale blue from etsy seller Overspill, and got some more black pillow boxes ready. When it arrived, I got all over-excited and straight away cut it all up into perfect earring-box sized pieces of ribbon, temporarily forgetting that I don't just make earrings. Ooops.

Still, all the earring listings are updated, and I'll just have to order some more ribbon and get on with the necklaces and bracelets another day.... Overall, I am pretty pleased with this weeks work.

Oh - and I also launched my first blog giveaway! Check it out here - closes October 8th.

Jewellery Giveaway!

Hello! I have reached my 20th blog follower, and also have over 150 twitter followers, which is all quite exciting for me. To celebrate, I'm going to launch my first giveaway!


I am giving away this pair of sterling silver and pearl earrings, made from honey coloured and brown freshwater pearls, handwrapped with sterling silver wire.

There are 3 ways to enter -

1) Leave a comment below

2) If you comment and follow this blog, that's 2 entries.

3) Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway @AneksiDesigns

It's as simple as that! This giveaway is open until 10pm Friday 8th October (to coincide with the UK Etsy Silly Sale!) - it will be drawn on Saturday 9th October, and the winner will get their new earrings posted to them the following Monday. It is open internationally, and the results will be posted on this blog.

It really couldn't be much simpler!

GOOD LUCK!

p.s. if you miss out, there is a very similar pair of earrings in my etsy store.... http://www.etsy.com/listing/55724307/silver-and-pearl-earrings

An Experiment in Oxidisation

Recently I found a forum on etsy about how to oxidise sterling silver with a hard boiled egg. 'Really?' I thought, 'Hmm, maybe I should give that a go.' I am always keen on experiments you can do with household objects!

The sensible thing would, of course, have been to try something small and see what it turned out like - however, I don't usually roll like that (impatience).

So, on Monday I finished a necklace (for me, for once) that I liked but thought was just missing a little something.

'Perfect!' I thought. 'Something that has taken me a while and involves a fair amount of silver. Just the thing to experiment on.'

So when Alice decided to save her afternoon nap yesterday for when we got back home from out trip to the British Library (lunch with a friend and a look at the Magna Carta), it seemed like a good time to try it out.

I got all my ingredients, boiled my egg for about 10 minutes (the problem of impatience again), chopped it up with a big knife very quickly, put it in the box with the necklace and closed the box, also quickly (speed is important, I believe).

I waited for the whole 40 minutes the forum recommended, and opened it up.

Oh.
I don't know what you think, but to me it just looked like I'd left it in a box for a couple of years. Less nicely oxidised and more nastily tarnished. At this point, I began to berate myself for my impatience. Why didn't I try a small pair of earrings first?

However, all was not lost. I dug out my salt and baking powder, put a lining of foil in the plastic container and boiled the kettle (another 'household' method of cleaning jewellery). You put the jewellery on the foil at the bottom, put a bit of both of the above in (2tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt - or in my case, a shake of both containers) and pour the boiling water on. It goes 'FIZZ', and like magic it cleans your silver.

As you can see, it didn't get my necklace back to it's original condition, but it cleaned the chain up a treat and left the flower with more of the effect I was hoping for.

Overall, then, a qualified success. I will have to wear it a bit and see what I think of it. And maybe try something smaller next time!

I Knit Weekender

Last Friday Alice and I got the train into London, and the bus to Victoria, to meet my Grandma and go to the I Knit weekender. Alice's favourite part of the whole day was the bus ride (which took in Oxford Street - lots of stops, lots of people). This is how she spent almost the whole ride -

Her conversation isn't great anyway, I tell myself - and at least I got to admire her lovely cardigan (not hand knitted, I'm afraid - from Zara. Not that I usually buy her stuff in Zara, you understand. This was just too nice not to.)

The I Knit weekender itself was in a really interesting venue, The Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre, which was super Art Deco and had an unusual clock -

The Weekender was full of lovely, chatty, people, and gorgeous yarn. We were especially taken with the Illusion Knitting stall. I can't quite believe I'm considering it when I haven't finished the Blanket of Doom yet, but they have an ace pattern for a baby blanket with a teddy bear on it that I would really like to try! Who do I love enough, is the question....

This is my purchase for the day - two skeins of Araucania Toconao in a fabulous purple colour, bought from the Woolfish stall. Yummy. It is so soft and smooth! I have balled it up, and have plans already for it.

I could have bought a lot more, if I hadn't looked at my budget just the day before (boo hoo). There were so many gorgeous colours on display, it was sometimes hard to know where to look.

The only disappointment of the day was that the I Knit design competition, whose entries were supposed to be exhibited at the Weekender, was not in evidence. I wasn't expecting my pattern to win a prize, or anything, but I was looking forward to seeing it on display (as was my Grandma, who had kindly tested it for me). Not sure what happened there.

Overall we had a nice day out, but a bit more information would have been nice.

Work in Progress - The Blanket of Doom #2

So August has been and gone, and as predicted in a previous blog post, Joe and Laura's blanket is not yet done. But it is coming along...

It's just taking me a loooong time. I am even starting to get a bit worried about getting it done in time for Christmas! Especially as I am also trying to make as many Christmas presents as possible this year.

This is a detail of the pattern - I am really pleased with the way it is turning out, even if it is taking me forever!

Not the post I was intending...

Hello! It has been a while since I was one here - we went to Cornwall to see my brother and his girlfriend, and then I got tonsillitis which I haven't had for about 18 years and that was quite nasty. But I am all better now! Hooray for antibiotics.

I was going to blog about the Cornwall trip, but I have realised that in transferring my pictures to my mum's computer to show her, I somehow deleted them from my camera as well. The Cornwall trip post will have to wait. Instead, I want to show you the housewarming present I made them. Obviously, I am still working on the Blanket of Doom, which is now hopefully going to be their Christmas present and is the main present. I just wanted them to have something from us to celebrate their new jobs and new house!

Joe and Lau have just moved into a 3 bedroom place, which happily means that Alice sleeps in her own room when we are there - yay! They have 8 nephews and neices between them, and I decided that, although they don't have a sofa or rugs or even a bedframe at the moment, what they really needed was a name tag to go on the 3rd bedroom door for when the family come to stay! Obviously. Who doesn't need one of those?

So I went to Hobbycraft, and found these bits of wood -

Next I superglued a dowelling peg to the circular backboard, and sketched my ideas out. I am often very bad at planning. I tend to just 'do', and see what happens. This is what happened -

A few nights later (no painting in the day - can you imagine what a 12 month old would do with paint in the living room? I am bad enough, and still ended up with paint on my phone, clothes and me) I was done.


Poor Nadia ended up more brown than purple (an unfortunate consequence of the night time painting) but other than that I am quite pleased! The idea is that the name plates hang off the round backing and you swop them round depending on who is visiting.

My brother has had many years in which to practice his 'Thank you very much for this lovely handmade present' face, and he pulled out a blinder on receipt of the gift ;) Which is mainly what makes it worth it!