Time for a change……

Well, everyone says that a change is as good as a rest – and since a rest doesn’t seem likely then I guess a change will have to do!

This will be my last blog post here on the WordPress platform – I will be continuing to blog at www.moonriverjewellery.blogspot.com if you’d still like to keep up with me, I love to see you there!

Best wishes

Heather

St. Valentine’s Day

For many of us, Valentine’s Day is seen as the ‘Day of Wine and Roses’! You only have to enter your local supermarket any day this week to be reminded of this – an endless sea of red petals to fight your way past before you get to the rest of the shop. It’s all fine and pretty unless you find yourself trying to buy a loaf of bread on the evening of February 13th when the scrum for the last few bouquets takes place!

Not a lot is known about the ‘real’ St. Valentine – except that he died on February 14th in Rome. One of the stories to his name is that he was under arrest by a judge and starting discussing faith with him. The judge challenged him to prove the power of Jesus by healing a blind girl. Valentine restored her sight and asked what he should do to recognise Jesus. Valentine told him to destroy all the idols in the household and be baptised . He did this and freed all the Christian prisoners under his control and was baptised along with his family and forty others. He was later arrested again and brought before the emperor Claudius, who rather liked him – until he tried to convert him too. Claudius ordered him to renounce his faith or face execution – he refused and was killed by being beaten with clubs and beheaded.The saint didn’t become associated with ‘love’ until the middle-ages and the reasons for this are uncertain.

The Feast of St. Valentine is still kept by the Anglican church (and others).

Now there’s something to discuss over your romantic meals tonight!

However you celebrate St. Valentine’s Day – I hope you enjoy it x

War Is Over (If You Want It)

I love this song – still praying for a peaceful Christmas for all xx

The World Outside the Window

I keep on referring to our friendship in the past tense

I know to you that makes no sense

But if I feel bitter or blue

I remember what John and Yoko tell us to do

©John de Gruyther 2013

 

So this is Xmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Xmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Xmas (war is over)
For weak and for strong (if you want it)
For rich and the poor ones (war is over)
The world is so wrong (if you want it)
And so happy Xmas (war is over)
For black and for white (if you want it)
For…

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Christmas is coming…….and winter is most definitely here!

A selection of items on this very chilly afternoon – a winter theme felt appropriate!

Fine silver mistletoe pendant

 

Silver Christmas tree ear studs

 

Silver Nativity Pendant

 

Star earring studs

 

Silver Ivy Leaf Pendant

 

Silver holly stud earrings

All these items are available form my Folksy shop at http://www.moonriverjewellery.folksy.com.

And something from Sweden…..

Some of you might know that I’ve just come back from Sweden. I was on an exchange with our parish church – we have a link with a group of churches in Vasteras. I’ll apologise straight away for the bad Swedish names in this post – I have absolutely no idea how to get the accents over the letters (*hangs head in shame at being so English!*).

I had a wonderful time, meeting new friends and getting enthused, but if you ask my daughter what I did she’ll tell you that all I did was look at lots (and lots and lots) of churches. Clearly this isn’t her idea of fun!

So just for her I thought I’d post a photo of something I saw when I was over there. This is the altar from the medieval church in Karbo (spelling again):

What I love about this is that if you look at the top left hand corner, you can see a depiction of the Ascension – but if you look even closer, tucked right up underneath the frame, you can see the feet of Jesus as he ascends:

 

I just loved that little detail!

I wasn’t going to put any of my jewellery in this post, but now I come to it, it seems quite fitting to show you the piece I finished just this afternoon.

In the pictures above we have the Ascension, the end of Jesus’ time on earth – my pendant today is the beginning of the story!

 

Thanks for reading x

MoonRiver on Tour – Lighthouses, sandcastles and rock pooling!

Well I’m writing this on my holidays! Yes, that’s right, my HOLIDAYS!

We’ve taken a week out of the usual rush of daily life and headed for Cornwall – for a week of sightseeing and fun in the fresh air with the kids. Despite the weather forecast being dreadful, we’ve had some lovely sun-shiny days on the beach, albeit slightly windswept – here’s hoping for many more.

We loved walking along the beach and cliffs at Gwithian and Godrevy – Small Boy was highly impressed with the lighthouse on the rock while Little Miss preferred wave hopping.

We had a fantastic time today rock-pooling and paddling at Newquay. Look what we managed to catch – the children were chuffed to bits!

And a fantastic sandcastle was built by Small Boy to round off the day.

 

We’re up for more fun tomorrow and for many days after – we’ll have to go back to reality sometime I suppose, but not just yet!

Autumn is definitely here!

I went on a brief walk today, not far, just outside my door and along the road a little way, in search of a few leaves to work with. The sun was shining so I didn’t bother with a coat, but I hadn’t got very far before I wished I had!

Anyway I walked far enough to gather a selection of leaves – some hawthorn, silver birch and ash (complete with its keys) – which I’ve already started work with to create some new jewellery pieces. There will be some pendants and a couple of pairs of earrings too I think.

I also started work on some other new ideas – I can’t wait for the first stage of the clay to dry out so I can crack on! I just want to see how they turn out.

I love autumn – the colours of the turning leaves are inspiring and that lovely smell in the air puts a spring in my step. But sadly it means that the leaves will start to fall too – which in turn means no more leaves for my jewellery for a while! What will I do?!? Looking around today I noticed that the oak is still holding on to its leaves well whilst the silver birch is loosing them very fast indeed. If you’re after a piece of jewellery made from leaves at all – now is the time to speak up. At least I’ll still be able to use holly and ivy though:

But then comes the spring and we can start all over again! But now I’m just wishing the time away xxx

Folksy, Folksy and more Folksy!

Well, the lovely team over at Folksy have been busy little bees! They have been working hard on the new shop design for all their sellers and the first shops went live this week. As was to be expected, there were a few minor hiccoughs along the way but, all in all, it seems like most people seem to be quite pleased with the changes.

I just took up residence in my new shop this evening – banner re-jigged, profile picture re-done, social media links added and new collections and featured items chosen. I’ve had a lovely browse through the shops of some others who were kind enough to post their progress on the forums – this gave me some much needed pointers on how the new banner was going to work! I thought that tonight I would share some of these shops – I hope you like what you see!

I am loving the delicious looking cake pincushions over at Lily Lily Handmade:

The banner at Glamglass Gifts really caught my eye:

I saw this fabulous book cover at Whimsey Woo Designs:

And these fantastic flowers at Ffflowers:

If you feel like it, you can always have a look at my very own shop too:

What do you all think about the changes?

Gloucestershire Makers are Glorious!

For those of you in the know it will come as no surprise that I now have a space in the wonderful Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre!

If you haven’t discovered it yet then I urge you to pop in and have a look around – whatever your taste there’s bound to be something that catches your eye, from paintings and photography to jewellery and ceramics and much more besides.

What makes it so special though is that all of the items are produced in Gloucestershire by local independent makers and artists. It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to meet some of the people too as the shop is manned by the makers themselves. The shop also holds regular classes and workshops ranging from photography and painting to jewellery making and willow work.

I’d love to write about all of the makers and artists, but there are so many! Here are just a few – selected purely on the basis that I happened to have their business cards to hand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shop can be found at 4 College Street, Gloucester, GL1 2NE (on the approach to the Cathedral) and is open Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm. Pop by and say ‘Hi’ soon.

You can contact the shop by phone on 01452 307161 or by email on  info@glosartscrafts.co.uk

http://www.glosartscrafts.co.uk/index.htm

 

 

Trials with Technology part 2!

Now, I can find my way around a computer, a phone, the internet etc. and all the other trappings of the modern electronic age. Yet I still know absolutely nothing really about technology. I grew up as the technology did – yes we did have a computer when I was at primary school, but there was only one single BBC one to share between the whole school. When I was at senior school we had enough for one between two for a class of 30ish. Now my daughter’s primary school has enough for a whole class to have one each during I.T. (sorry – I.C.T.) lessons! And we have two computers at home AND two mobiles that can view the internet. The upshot is that things have definitely changed!

Normally I don’t mind – I like being able to use the internet and my phone whenever I want. But if it comes to specifics I’m lost. I started looking into taking card payments at fairs and shows – what an enormous can of worms that was! So many options and so many specifics. Should I use WorldPay, Mpowa, PaypalHere (or more to the point NOT here!)? Should I use swipe and sign, chip and pin, manual entry? Izettle, WorldPay, or some other things I forget the name of? Which phone will these work with? Which version of a phone do I need? What coverage will I have at events? Agggggggggghhhhhhhhhh – it all adds up to a huge headache and several wasted hours.

I’m going back to making my jewellery – it’s much simpler! I think I’ll go back to using beans as currency instead!