Edinburgh jeweller

This week I went to The Make Lounge (I've been a few times before! ) with my friend Claire. It was her first time there and she was impressed. This time we were making lampshades with the help of the fabulous Suzanne. Claire and I studied for our PGCE together but it's been a few years since we've been in the same class. We were able to help each other a couple of times as there are some times when two pairs of hands are better than one! I really enjoyed this class and I am really pleased with the outcome. I think my lampshade looks really stylish and professional. I don't think you could tell that it was my first try. We've already got a Saturday scheduled to make some more lampshades and do some pottery painting so we've well and truly got the creative bug!

A bit of a showery day today so I decided to tidy up my button stash from this To this! I got these little jars (they are only 8cm tall) in one of those hardware shops that sells everything. I'm thinking of using them at christmas for cute packaging for my sweetie bracelets

I have become a big fan of pinterest.com It's a website where you can bookmark your favourite images on different noticeboards that you create yourself. I love all the amazing ideas I get from it. You can see what others have recently pinned to their noticeboards and start pinning them to yours. It is really easy to use and rather addictive! You have been warned! In other news, I now have 1001 followers on twitter! I find that rather amazing. Thanks all

Hatton Garden festival 2011 It was London Jewellery week last week. I've not been before but I thought I would go this year. I was nearly put off by the heavy showers and the tube engineering works but I'm glad I persevered! There was a lot going on in different locations. I went to Hatton Garden first. It was pretty busy considering the weather. The main street was filled with stalls selling jewellery, food, drink, beads - lots of interesting things. I really loved the town crier who was ringing his bell and shouting (probably crying is the correct term!) next to the latest demonstration. A really helpful touch. There were some things for kids to do - a big pirate ship to climb on which looked fun. There were also some tables where you could try things out. I liked that idea. I then went on to the main event - Treasure which was at Victoria House near Holborn. This was an amazing exhibition of so many artists. I absolutely loved floating around looking at all the beau

I've been making and have finally got round to listing some new products I've had for a few weeks. All bracelets! Sweet shop range Firstly, some additions to my sweet shop! My original  licorice allsort bracelet has been my best seller and sold to the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and the US. I decided to do a new version for those that have a favourite colour. You can choose between brown, pink or orange. I've had these flumps beads for a while and have finally made them into a fabulously kitsch pastel bracelet . Perfect for your summer wardrobe. It goes really well with those blush tones that are really big at the moment. Charm bracelets I have also added more charm bracelets after I had some success with them in the past. She sells sea shells charm bracelet Pink crystal flower charm bracelet Butterflies flutter by charm bracelet I hope there's something here you like!

In April I wrote a blog post called Pledging to by handmade . Basically, I decided to buy at least one handmade item each month in order to support a fellow artist/maker. It's been an absolute pleasure to do so and I normally manage to buy more than one thing! Here are some of the things I've bought since April along with the details of the makers. This is Ossie the owl brooch made by UK based Christel of  Little Feathers , @ASmallWorldGirl on twitter. It's a really beautiful thing, much more fab in real life. You can see the amount of work that has gone into the stitching and beading. At the moment I have it propped up by my bed. I think I'm going to put it on a handbag. Clearly I have been into brooches in the last few weeks! I bought this one to get into the British Etsy Team BNR. And also because I love it! BNR stands for buy 'n' replace or buy now replace. I wrote more about BNRs here . I love this brooch from CLS craft creations , also UK based. It

Beautiful limited edition print bought from Victoria and Albert museum shop

This week I have enjoyed two workshops at The Make Lounge . My friend Farzana and I had booked onto the cake decorating workshop a couple of months ago but then I saw the new paper cutting art workshop and knew I had to give it a go. It happened to be the day after the cake decorating but I couldn't go to the later dates that were scheduled so I just went for it! Cupcake decorating Photo by Gary Ullah photography The cupcake decorating was taught by Louise Hill of Love to Cake . Vanilla and chocolate cakes were pre-made, as was the butter cream icing. Louise went through her top tips for making cakes and icing first and then we got to work colouring the icing. We learnt how to ice using at least five different techniques, how to make marzipan shapes and roses, using different coloured icing and edible glitter. It was a really fun workshop and I feel I could confidently do it again at home. Louise is an excellent and engaging teacher. I thoroughly recommend this workshop to