Dandies Ruffle Feathers and Return

I've neglected them I know ...I do feel guilty, but they're back now, fluffed and prettied ....some have even made it to my Etsy shop.

the egos have landed ...


no. 37 available here


no. 36 available here

The Revival

I'm really pleased with this garland - it was fun to get back into colour after a summer of pale hues and mirror glass. It ties a little differently at the end too - with the end stars and rosebuds not actually forming part of the hanging ties. This one has the feel of rather bohemian Victorian boudoir. Patchouli oil and gaslight optional :)


The Revival is available here

The Desperate Romantic

The re-stocking of my Etsy shop continues in earnest. I best make hay whilst the sun shines and have time to make and list. The end of year 'holiday' shopping period always rather inconveniently clashes with family holidays (my parents arrive end of September/early October, there's the delayed trip up to Loire, a trip to Galway/Dublin to see family and friends , and Aaron's birthday trip - we've been chatting ..... it could be New York .... he hates long haul trips ...and shopping.... but you know this year's history so I have chips to cash!! but I also know that until I've fastened my seatbelt and switched off the mobile phone I shouldn't get too excited)

So, anyways, here is a new mirror garland complete with beautiful handmade millinery flowers from MaryNotMartha

The Desperate Romantic is available in my Etsy shop here

Some boudoir mirror gift sets ...

Just a little boudoir mirror .... and romance ring gift set available here

I added these to my online shop this week in hope that holiday shopping starts early this year!! The mulberry and green one has started me on a little frenzy of crafting this weekend - every magazine I pick up seems to have purples, greens so expect some richly coloured garlands v. soon!!

Just a little boudoir mirror .... and dainty aqua blooms earrings gift set

100 years - a fairytale mirror and bobby pin gift set

I've decided to offer gift sets of mirrors and jewellery pieces for the holiday period. It's a natural way to combine my 2 shops (The Vintage Bell Jar is currently shut whilst I work out what I really want to do with it!!!) and it's fun to match pieces together. I possibly might include an antique hankie or maybe a vintage item in some sets.

The first one has just been listing in my Etsy shop - the mirror is more fairytale than boudoir. I'd like to continue with this design but I've only one more little vine branch (used on the bottom edge) left and the supplier is out of stock (I hope not permanently!!!)

you can find it here

Happy in Their New Home :)

When you create anything you always put a little bit of your soul in it too. I've had some enquiries from would-be buyers in the past that made me think "Y'know, if you don't get it, please don't buy it!" They want things changed to the point that I would no longer put my signature to the piece ...and in the end, what is the point to that?



So when some of my work was purchase by Christina aka Esmeralda Design (she sent me a great Etsy convo about the perils of hinting to your husband about your ideal birthday gift and I could empathise straight away lol) I was very content that my glass was going to a good home.



This week she sent me some photographs of the pieces hanging in her period New York home and studio and I wanted to share them here. I love the floral finial for the wings (I might try making something similar for some pieces!!) and the Island star in her studio window is facing out in the direction of her fav. island of Iceland (poetic or what?)

If you aren't already familiar with Esmeralda Designs then you must check out her fab organic and ethereal jewellery pieces. These are a few of my favourites

Tangled Up in Tangier

eowyn ring

breathe

Show Me!!!

If you have purchased some of my glass and would like to have them featured on my blog simply send me an Etsy convo or contact me here.

My Creative Space Today

This morning our visitors left for to fly back to Ireland. The house seems very quiet - I haven't been alone here for a couple of weeks! The quiet was calming and the studio too hot to solder so I decided to work on some more oil washs into the backgrounds for my mirrored canvas'.

You can also see a garland (Cinders) hanging up half finished - just need to hang some crystal prisms onto the ends and work out how best to tie the bow ribbons in the middle of the bunting. This is one of the garlands inspired by corsets that I mentioned a few weeks ago.

There's also a work in progress stained glass panel lying on cardboard on the floor too - gathering dust at the moment :)

If you would like to see more creative spaces or show your own -check out Kootoyo's blog here!

Dreaming of Snow in a Heatwave

It's mega warm this summer - at least for an Irish girl like me. Up here at 3000 ft we were at 33 degrees yesterday - and it was 40 just below in the valley. I was thinking of the cold winters this morning and kinda thinking it would be nice to walk barefoot in some snow right now to cool off! anyway, I decided to look at some old winter pics - this was taken in 2004 - me looking a complete dork as usual, standing outside my studio door. only about 13 weeks before we can expect some snow again - I guess I shouldn't grumble about the heat :D


blame Aaron for the hat - he bought me it!!

Diverted to Sicily

One of the joys of running your own business is supposed to be the convenience of fixing your own work schedule .... well not in this house! I've moaned previously about my 40th birthday trip in April getting cancelled due to Aaron's work schedule ...and then our 21st anniversay in May getting cancelled too....and now our short summer vacation to the Loire area to look for a new home location was cancelled too at the last minute :(

So it was either go nowhere or travel with Aaron to Sicily for 5 days. I chose to go to Sicily (stupidly). My flight cost could have bailed out several small central American banks. We drove the 2 and a half hour drive to Turin airport for the 2 hour flight south to Sicily.

There was mayhem at the carhire portacabin - too many people and not enough cars! We'd pre-booked.... and left the airport feeling smug in our cute little white Fiat 500 (the Fiat is on my list of possible new cars this autumn )

(the rather fancy Italian chandelier in the hotel lobby)

We stayed at the Excelsior Grand Hotel an oasis amongst the heat dust and chaos of the city of Catania. They played Betty Carter, fixed great Margaritas, and produced one of the best desserts EVER (top ten for sure!!) Iced Black Cherry Souffle.

(the beautiful Teatro Massimo Bellini )

That was the good stuff ....Aaron had to work everyday of the trip, the heat/humidity in the city was really unpleasant (to put it mildly) - as usual I prefered the city at night, the baroque buildings in the city centre looked even more beautiful lit up. Unfortunately all the interesting artisan shops, cafes and restaurants were shut for their summer vacations - travelling anywhere in southern europe in August is a bad idea!!!. Also, first night at a restaurant I got bitten - by fleas on my right ankle, and by a mosquito on my left, which caused my foot to swell up like a big red balloon. Second day I slipped getting into the shower and whacked my right leg off the side of the marble bath - now I had a black and blue leg to go with my swollen foot and spotty ankle. ho hum. I read. and watched the clock until it was time to get the flight out.

I should have stayed at home.

I'm being diplomatic.

(door knocker in a village up the north coast road )

A Little Black Boudoir Mirror Back in Shop!

available here

Under The Willow Tree

new in my Etsy shop here

New - Little French Butterfly Mirror

I'm going through a butterfly phase again although I've got bored with my old glass flutterbys (I may bring them back someday) . This little mirror is decorated with white frosted lucite rosebuds and glass, lucite and acrylic beads in white and smoky grey and the body is wispy white glass. As ever, I've tried to give it a lived in olde world vintage look with patina. I think I'll play around with the shape a little more (I might hang the ribbon from the wings so I can add vintage diamante antennae) and make some other butterfly types - I like the idea of hanging a display of these together.

Look Who's Talking

I few weeks ago I found out about great site SocialMention.com where you can discover who has been blogging or tweeting etc about you.

Last night I found a really cute post on Candice Kebber's interior design blog that made me smile :)

Normally I find out if my work's been featured when the blogger contacts me directly - like Aline from super stylish blog Bailey and Meister , or Anna from Anna's Jewels and Artsy Chic Designs with her blog Designer Chic Thank you all very very much for featuring some of my glass - I really appreciate it!!!!

I haven't been blogging just as much as I'd like too recently - a mix of work orders, house guests and wonky internet has kind of pushed it off the priority list .... must do better! Hopefully next week we'll be taking a short trip back up to central France to again look for potential house locations, I'll try and fit in a few chateau visits while I'm there and post some pics :)

OMG!!! I never thought I'd see the day!!

I'm throwing Mr Lawrence in the air and popping open the champagne (well not really, Mr is on the desk here snoring and it's a little early for champs, even for me, but you get the picture .. because folks ...... WE HAVE ADSL *****WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH******

For those of you lucky enough to live in an area of the world already graced with 21st century devices this may not seem like a big deal but believe me this is going to ...to.... well it's even better than the day we got a dishwasher ...enough said :)

No more messages from my Mum, Aaron, friends complaining that I was on the internet while they were trying to call (It's all neccessary work stuff - no celeb goss - much) and I can even peruse Your Tube Face like the rest of the world - I feel human - HURRAH!!!

To celebrate here's a photo of some Carnival Stars :)



P.S pic loaded before I even decided which photo to upload - now that's quick ;D

I think I need to lie down now .......