Chowder bum

Sorry I've been a bit quiet this week. I've been spending a lot of time with Chowder, our little Netherland Dwarf house bunny. It occurs to me that I've not introduced you to Chowder on here. She's also known as Chowdie, Chowder bum or just bum bum. She has a big bottom, with a cute white fluffy tail.

Anyway, she went in to get spayed on Tuesday and she was in a bad state up until Wednesday afternoon. She also had the added trauma of being wee'd on by a tomcat at the vets after her operation so they had to give her a bath. When she got home she just sat under the table and refused to eat and every time I stroked her she would shiver, which was probably down to her being wet and cold from the bath. She also stinks now.

She still wasn't eating on Wednesday morning and if a rabbit doesn't eat for 24 hours it can become life threatening so I was getting really upset and felt so guilty for putting her through it all. Thankfully she did eventually start eating some paper and by that night she was back on carrots and pellets.

So I've been the doting "mum" this week and spending lots of time with her and feeding her her favourite foods. She's much happier now and is hopping around and licking our faces again :o)

Here she is digging into the Sky remote, one of her favourite snacks:Falling asleep on Nick:
Sniffing around my feet:
Asleep on her bean bag in the sun:
OK that's enough bunny pictures me thinks.

Off to count some beads now. x

Silverstone

Today was a gorgeous day, so if I had to pick a day to go watch Nick drive around a racetrack in an F1 car (are they still called cars?), today would be a good one. It's been a beautiful week, weather wise, and I thought that sod's law would mean that today, on my one day off of the week, it would have to be raining but yay, it held off and is apparently due later this week.

So, like I said, Nick got an F1 driving experience for Christmas so we headed down to Silverstone today. As someone who is not remotely interested in cars or racing or any of that kind of thing, it was a bit boring to me, but I still really enjoyed the glorious sunshine and conveniently located ice cream van.

As it turns out, Silverstone Village is a beautiful little place full of old stone cottages and then quite a few newer buildings made to look like old stone cottages. But it all looked lovely.

And there was not a cloud in sight, apart from this one:

And some pictures of the cars:

and Nick in one of them:

He had a great time driving round and round at high speed and I had a lovely time sitting around in the sun.

Off to beddy byes now. x

Ariel

These were actually the first design that started this romantic, feminine style that I like so much at the moment. It was about 2 years ago when I was trading under the name "mazama", which didn't last long and was followed by "mymiyel"...I wonder how long Paper Halo will last...

As you can see they feature my favourite colour combination - pale pink, light aqua and ivory. The earrings are made from seaglass picked from a beach in Hong Kong, salmon coloured freshwater pearls and natural shell daggers. Everything else is either sterling or fine silver.

I hope you like them. They'll be appearing on Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda in the coming days.

Off to write some to do lists now. x

Workspace

I must admit it's lovely to be making things again after a 6 month or longer break. It's nice to be blogging about things that I do now instead of constantly working on things for the shop and not really feeling like I'm getting anywhere. Maybe the blog has made my daily productivity, although small, feel more tangible. Even since the re-making started about a week or so again I've been feeling generally more positive and optimistic about things, and I really need that because a lot of the time I just feel exhausted and overwhelmed.

So, the next step now that I'm making again is to create a inspiration space in which to make. At the shop I'm lucky enough to have an area for an office and a separate area for a studio/workspace. Nick wants to make the studio into his games room...maybe I'll give him a games corner. But I think, given my track record, it would be a good idea for me to have a place where I did paperwork and "official business" and another place where I could bead and cut and sew and not have to tidy up afterwards or have to balance the laptop on top of bags of beads and pliers. So I'm going to go ahead and keep the two things separate.

Anyway, enough words. I've been looking for some ideas and inspiration and have found these beauties:

Tamar of Nest Decorating's corner workspace.
Tamar has a beautiful home in the Vermont countryside. One of those blogs that makes you sigh and say "wouldn't it be nice?"

These are from Yvestown's beautiful blog.
She also has a stunning home. I'd love if my shelves and/or desk would look anything like this. I might have to post a pic of what kind of conditions I usually work in.

I found this wall hanging boot rack on NotontheHighStreet.
Except I'd probably use them to hang chains and wires rather than wellies.

These are from the dotcomgiftshop.
I feel that they're a must have to help me stay vaguely organised and tidy.

Off to smash the piggy bank now. x

Pretty gift boxing

I'm still having way too much fun and spending way too much time playing around with branding and packaging options! The next project was the gift boxes. I'm really miffed that here in the UK we have a postal system that charges according to the size of what you're sending. This had always made me preferential to keeping packaging minimal and as flat as possible but you know what?! I like gift boxes and I want Paper Halo pretties to travel comfortably and arrive in style so I'm gonna do it!

I had so many different ideas for the boxes but I'm leaning towards this one:



What d'ya think? I had to really fight the urge to somehow incorporate ribbon into it because I do love me ribbons but I'm trying to stick to less is more for this.

Off to make s'more now. x

Rhian

I got these brass swallow charms a while ago now and thought the colour would look lovely with some rich opulent type colours so, going once again towards me favourite greeny blues, I paired them with some beautiful deep teal glass beads and some ivory freshwater pearls and wire wrapped them to some gold filled earring hooks.

They're quite simple, but I like them that way. And the way the swallow dangles from the bottom gives it so much movement, just like birds should have! I've only made this pair for now. Am going to try and make some more in other colours. I'm sure I'll keep you posted though.


Available on Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda, of course.

Off to do some ironing now. x

Calla

I just love the way light blue, ivory and gold go together so here they are together! An ivory freshwater pearl, faceted aqua quartz and gold plated filigree bead on a gold filled earring hoop. I love the delicate and intricate filigree bead and don't think it needs too much around it to distract from it so I kept the earrings quite simple. I hope you like.

I think I'll only be making 3 of these. So if you want a pair, make sure you hurry to Folksy, Etsy or Dawanda!

Off to get ready for bed now. x

Pelagia

This is one of my favouritests! I'm a real blue girl and can't help but be drawn to the beautiful aqua shades of amazonite. So here it is together with ivory freshwater pearls and a pretty little silver branch charm. I finished it off with a Swarovski crystal and salmon pearl and a lovely silver plated rose bead.

So it's available in all my online shops: Etsy for $, Folksy for £ and Dawanda for €. I'm only making two or four of these (not quite decided yet...) so don't miss out!

Off to make up some bead mix boxes now. x

May Day continental market

The continental market was back in town this weekend for the May Day holiday. It comes a few times a year and is always a happy event in my calendar - mainly because there are loads of food stalls from all over Europe. On the day I usually don't eat and then go and pig out on the various offerings. I usually then come home with tubs of olives, anchovies and several types of cheese.

Stalls along our main shopping street, Fargate:

The plant stall and some sunshine!:

Love the colours on the pick & mix stall:


Today's pick - Potatoes Provencal & garlic mushrooms (they were yummers):

And here's a pic of our beautiful Town Hall:

Ah continental market day, until next time...

Off to have a nap now. x

Hello and welcome!

Hello out there. It's Yvonne here starting afresh with Paper Halo Designs. I'm hoping this blog will be a place for me to track my creative adventures and discoveries and tell you of any exciting news.

I spend my days in my little bead shop, Jam Jar Beads, surrounded by lots of colour and pretty things. I try to make things when I can, sometimes it's a bit busy and I can't but I'm always thinking about it.

It's all still early days at the mo so there's not actually anything to really blog about...but I can show you these little sneaky peeks of some bits and pieces I've been working on with the help of my mum's old Silver-Reed typewriter:


Strange to use a typewriter when you're so used to typing on a computer. Several minor injuries sustained from getting my fingers stuck in between the keys but it will (hopefully) be totally worth it. Don't worry, I will be revealing all soon enough...

Off to make a cuppa tea now. x