Bead Soup from Sarah

My favourite part of the bead soup blog hop: receiving the beads :-) It's always such a treat to open the mailbox and find a package from my bead partner. Since I order the majority of my jewellery components on-line I get lots of packages in the mail, but receiving the bead soup is always different, more personal and therefore more significant.

My bead soup partner Sarah from Stringing a Song of Sixpence sent me a gorgeous selection of beads in deep shades of purple, lavender, soft pinks and charcoal grey. She sent me this incredible selection of lampwork beads, amethyst, Czech glass leaves and hematite as well as a pair of mother of pearl beads shaped like a shark's tooth.

the toggle clasp

The toggle clasp design is Sarah's favourite so she went and got one just for me. I was so touched! And the lizard charm is just adorable. I decided to pair it with a kangaroo charm from my own stash.

Kangaroo with the baby in it's sack and the lizard

The colour palette for the bead soup is particularly challenging for me. I've always been drawn to the subdued shades of purple but I was never  able to get the balance between the soft colour tones and  feminine feel this palette conveys. My jewellery pieces were either too bland because the contrast between the components wasn't strong enough or I used some bright coloured beads to give it more contrast and the jewellery ended up looking odd as if a colour blind person selected the beads.
As a result I have amassed quite a few beads in this lovely lavender / pastelcolour that have been patiently waiting:

soft pinks and lavender from my stash

Bead soup 2013 - meet my partner Sarah

It's bead soup time again! My favourite annual  jewellery and beading blogging event and I'm always so excited to check out all the blogs from other participants to see what beads they've received and the great jewellery pieces they've come up with.
This year my partner is the lovely Sarah from String a song of Sixpence. Sarah is a bead stringer with a great eye for colour and texture. I was particularly surprised at all the colours she works with since most jewellery makers prefer only a select palette. Sarah is also a  first time participant of the bead soup party.
I've included a photo of a necklace which Sarah pointed me to saying it was one of her favourite and a pair of earrings I was drawn to because of the ingenious mix of shapes and colours:

First steps away from symmetry

Stealth earrings

Sarah is also a  first time participant of the bead soup party. We hit it off immediately in our e-mail correspondence. She was excited to send some of her most cherished beads across Europe to meet new bead friends :-)

As it turns out I had the exact same thing in mind when I sent her my bead soup choice because the beads as well as the ribbon and organza flower are some of  my favourite components put together from my jewellery and sewing stash. I can't wait to see what Sarah comes up with it!

 

Bead soup for Sarah

Why is it always something?

This is a photo of our darling car Marley being loaded onto a tow truck after being hit hard from both ends. Mr. C who was driving to work yesterday morning suffered a minor bump on the head but other than that he's in perfect shape :-) and the doctors gave him a thorough examination to confirm it too.
Marley however is a different story, our mechanic confirmed his worst suspicions. Apart from the broken and bent exterior the inner axis has been severely bent and broken in places. Such a severe damage to the car's core integrity components are impossible to repair without having to deal with great costs and a residual effect on the passangers' safety since the structural integrity will never be the same as before the crash.
So we made the heavy yet the only logical conclusion to buy a new car. It will be another Opel Corsa since we like the brand and the model and it's the perfect car for our needs, small, easy maintenance, low fuel consumption... it's another logical choice. But the untimely car switch (Marley was only 4 years old and our plan was to keep it for another 8, basically until the end of the car's lifespan) makes for a hefty chunk of money that we'll somehow have to come up with and will completely hack up our 2013 budget plans. And aside from dealing with the emotional aftermath this is probably going to be one of the most uninspiring car shopping experiences ever.
Focusing on the happy things in life: we are all healty, I'm still drinking the icky tea though and Rufus is in fine spirits ever so excited with the abundance of snow which he loves to play with.

When fantasy and reality collide

Burda magazine skirt pattern no. 105 09/2012

Winter weather really kicked in hard this week: snow, drizzle, ice and temperatures below zero. My master plan for coping with this dismal weather: get my hair cut to my (shorter) summer length and pull out (ahem, buy new) lightweight fabric and start making summer clothes. As if all this would somehow magically make the winter end sooner. Alas I have to report my attempts so far have been dreadfully unsuccessful, it's still cold and icy outside and on top of it I ended up with a mild bladder infection.

Amended master plan: drink some icky tea to fight the infection and continue sewing. My current project is a super cute skirt that combines a striped jeans fabric with my newly discovered passion for yellow. I used the yoke piece from the Burda magazine skirt pattern and drafted the skirt pieces myself. I've designed it so that the left front section will have a channel for two parallel grosgrain ribbon strings that can be tied to achieve a ruched effect.

As an afterthought I decided to use some of the many buttons I've accumulated over the years and sew a buttoned heart. The first heart had all blue buttons which was nice but something was still missing. In a flash of inspiration I decided to add one yellow button. I got a really nice coconut button with yellow enamel.

blue mother of pearl buttons & yellow thread; yellow coconut button & blue thread

 I've also made an underlining using plain off white muslin. It is my opinion the skirt will "sit" better with underlining. And since this is a summer skirt, I wanted to make it very breathable so I opted for cotton muslin instead of the classic poly/rayon lining.

right side of the skirt with yellow stitching

inside the skirt, the white ribbon will be used to attach the underskirt to the ruched skirt piece

Discovering yellow

I've always been a great fan of yellow despite the fact that it does not suit my complexion. In fact wearing yellow makes me look like I'm dying of consumption which is sad really because yellow is such a bright and cheerful colour. As with all colours I don't look good in I try to steer clear of yellow, but its energy and radiance fascinates me.

yellow and emerald

I've recently taken some time off and went back to doing the things that make me happy: sewing and making jewellery. I decided this was really the time to push my boundaries and overcome the scare factor some colours evoke. So I decided to pull out my yellow beads and make something pretty with them.
Once I let go of the fear, the creative process was so spontaneous and fun and I came up with these two pairs of earrings:

colourful and happy

I've also been experimenting with other colours that used to scare me with surprizingly amazing results: next up the colour grey and a new dress!

Marilyn was on to something

Over the past year I've started to notice a steep decline in the quality of clothing from the brands I used to rely upon. At first it was just the little things, like the occasional button falling off or a loose thread. Lately it has reached unthinkable proportions: brand new knits piling after the first few washes, colours fading and items stretching out. I was annoyed to say the least but then the latest incident had me bouncing off the walls.

Vienna public park December 2012

I got the coat in the picture for Christmas from Mr. C. The label is Desigual, a Spanish brand known for their youthful and fun colourful patchwork and applique designs. This coat is all about fun. Therefore I was willing to overlook the poor fiber composition, since I already have a solid classic coat and a rainproof winter parka.
I've had it for three weeks and in this time I've worn it maybe a dozen of times when I started noticing fraying at the cuffs and the hems of the coat. I was bewildered. Seriously?! A frayed hem after a handful of wears? And I'm not talking about a subtle loose thread here, this was serious and visible fraying. We took the coat back to the store and got a refund for it. This was my second shock. The sales assistant offered a full refund on the spot and told us in a matter of fact style that refunds were a common occurrence with Desigual clothes. Consumerism mentality at its worse.

closeup, very difficult to get a good picture

After returning the coat, Mr. C took me to my favourite jewellery store to purchase plan B Christmas gift: a simple white gold and teeny diamond pendant. It's such a sweet design, not too flashy and perfect for everyday. They also have matching earrings and since this is part of a permanent collection, I can afford to wait and get the earrings whenever I'm able to afford them.

the pendant worn with a necklace I got for my 18th birthday

The best part: the pendant cost just 10 € more than the coat but I'm sure it will prove more durable. So I'm taking a cue from Ms. Marilyn Monroe here, diamonds are indeed a girl's best friend!

Overcoming yourself

Lately I've been stuck in a bit of a rut. It seemed that the weight of 2012 came crashing down and though the world didn't end on December 21st it sure felt like it on occasion. It's nothing too serious but too many things happening at the same time, some good, some bad, some really bad which taint the rest, making everything appear drab and grey.

As much as wanted to spend the day in my pajamas and contemplate the drabness, I had to get up get dressed and head out into the snow storm.
Mr. C is away on business, so I'm left holding down the fort which means I get to do the things he usually takes care of. The car is very much Mr. C's territory since I enjoy the happy and carefree life of a pedestrian.

When I got down to the parking lot our car was covered in 50 cm of snow. Not good. I have shovelled snow before but never completely on my own, there was always more of us working in pairs. This time it was just me and a borrowed shovel.
I got the car clean and cleared a pathway which wasn't only great exercise but a valuable lesson in what people can achieve when we set our mind to it. Instead of lounging around in my pajamas feeling sorry for myself because it was Monday, the sky was grey, yadda yadda.... I took charge and did what needed to be done.

Substitute

I love the English language because of it's frequent and encouraging use of the passive. Give it up for the Brits with their unparalleled manners to come up with such a diplomatic and exculpatory language. This way I don't have to write: " We, he, I, they... lost the wedding ring." I can simply write: My wedding ring got lost.

It was one of those absurd, nonsensical situations that have like a 1% chance of a disastrous outcome and by some twisted chance, call it a bizarre constellation cluster, bad joke or just faith, my ring got lost. We were at home, I was cleaning the apartment and Mr. C was putting a protective coat of rust proofing on the meteorite inlay of my ring. I guess somewhere in between all this the ring fell into the sink, got taken out with the trash, got eaten by a metal eating squirell (not that I ever saw any in the apartment). It's a mystery.

I'm not even angry or sad, most of all I'm just really frustrated because I'm such an organized person, I take such care of my things and then something like this happens. I guess if God really exists he must have one hell of a sense of humor.

Without giving it too much thought a replacement ring was ordered (see, I'm using passive again) and paid for. In the mean time, I still wanted to have something to wear, if for no other reason than a good conversation piece. So I asked Mr. C to implement his DIY skills extraordinaire and whip up a substitute. So he did: it's a Turk's head knot ring in a sapphire blue twisted cord.

Wedding photos

They're finally here! And it was well worth the wait. Our photographer, Špela did an outstanding job and it was pure torture having to scale the photos from 650 to about 150 for the album. Our the course of the past weekend Mr. C and I did several rounds of eliminating photos each one becoming increasingly more difficult as we had to delete several great pictures.

We wanted Špela to really capture the feel of the wedding. Which meant a lot of candid photography and a lot of pictures of the wedding props, food as well as paying close attention to what the people were doing and trying to get it all on camera.

Bellow are a few, just a few of my favourite photos from the first section of the photo album: the preparations for the wedding and the "formal" photos. The second, more personal portion of the album will consist of photos of our family and friends as we dance, eat and drink and have loads of fun. For reasons of privacy these photos are kept off the blog.

Our wedding day

The single white rose was a token from the florists who did my bouquet

Was a culmination of a 10 year long journey. And as such we wanted the ceremony and the entire day to reflect who we are as people and to really emanate our personal aesthetic. Mr. C and I have often discussed our wedding day and like true perfectionists we've been making plans, tossing together a collage of ideas, adding and subtracting details. But the prime directive was and has always been the one location rule. Traditional Slovene weddings include many customs and rituals which take place on several different locations throughout the day which can be very uncomfortable and exhausting for everyone. It was precisely this that we wanted to avoid at all cost. If the was one thing we wanted to skip this day was all the drama and the stress. So we opted to have our civil ceremony at Ljubljana Castle and the wedding party at The Castle restaurant (where I celebrated my 30th birthday as well).

What's a party without ballons?

Imagine the pure luxury of waking up at 8 am on the morning of the wedding, slowly sipping coffee and watching an old episode of Lost. Then came the hairdresser, photographer and make up artist. Since we had done a test look the week before I knew exactly what to expect and I just sat, chatted with everyone and time passed slowly interrupted only by the sound of the hair dryer or the gentle noises of a kabuki brush as make up was applied.

More flowers

Mr. C's best man arrived as agreed at 1 p.m. looking sharp with his tie perfectly straight while we were still in our lounge wear getting ready. We departed for the Castle about an hour later, had our photos taken in the beautiful park that surround the Castle and then I guess the only thing left to do was to actually get married. The ceremony was beautiful: sweet and meaningful. I even remember laughing at one point.

Wedding bouquet

 All in all it was a perfect day. Everything went smoothly, we could really just relax and enjoy ourselves. Our guests were a select group of close relatives and dear friends thus making it in the words of one of our guests: "A very intimate, warm and personal event." I was overjoyed to hear this because it was exactly what we wanted our guests to experience.
I'm still waiting for the official wedding photos, in the mean time a couple of snapshots I took  with my tiny pink camera just as a sneak preview.

Party favours, make up essentials, wedding rings and flowers and a check list

One of my favourite moments (apart from the getting married bit, of course) was the introduction of the guests. A ritual we borrowed from my cousin's wedding. It's quite simple: somewhere after the initial start of the party, but preferably early on, the groom stands up and introduces himself and asks the guests that as the microphone travels from one guest to the next that they stand up introduce themselves and briefly explain how they know the bride or the groom. Imagine a room full of people beginning the sentence:" I've known them for many years, decades, all my life,...) expressing their joy and sharing anecdotes from our mutual past. It was very moving to say the least!

Vintage enamelled brooch

The brooch in the last picture was a wedding gift from a dear old friend. I can't even put into words how very deeply moved I was when receiving it. It comes with a bit of a history and a lot of sentiment. My friend had bought it over a decade ago and  I had been pining over it ever since. He said he couldn't imagine a more suitable gift for such an occasion and I couldn't agree more. It serves as a reminder that dreams do come true, you just have to be patient.