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Made it store now open.

Online store now open...

'Away with the clouds' earrings

With much excitement and quite a few nerves, my online shop is open! The first two pieces of handmade jewellery have been added!

As well as the designs that appear in the shop, I will be focusing on custom made designs in Sterling Silver and Gold. If you are interested in a personal handmade piece please email me to find out more: christina-lowry@hotmail.com

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and support so far!

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The finished custom made earrings.

Bezel set butter amber and freshwater pearls, set in sterling silver.

I hope my friend likes them.

My Creative Space...

The beginnings of a stitching experiment, inspired by cushions I spotted at a bedding store, this post on Design*Sponge and the wonderful colours of Sashiko.

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More Creative Spaces here.

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"Happiness is the ability to recognise it." - Carolyn Wells

A tiny little thrifted hand knitted sweater that I couldn't resist.

Today is wonderfully rainy and the sky milky grey all over. Another perfect day of pottering around the house, rearranging things, admiring my newly de-cluttered linen closet, drinking coffee and planning some new projects.

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I love hearing Cohen babbling to us and to himself. He often has little 'conversations', mimicking the sound of adult conversations. In a the matter of a week his vocabulary has expanded from Mama, Da da and Bub bub to include the words; more, me, this, these, shoes, juice, stick, why and two. And while I'm sure he doesn't understand every word he is copying, it is so fascinating to watch him picking up on language and being delighted with his new discoveries.

Yesterday we had a wonderful time feeding the ducks with Nana and Pop. Cohen's love of feeding our dog his bread crusts proved to be great practice. Thanks for a lovely afternoon Nana and Pop.

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As I know it's not a wool allergy now, I am back to knitting cables. Slowly but surely.

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In April I mentioned that I had been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, but I had yet to update you on my progress.

After two visits with the specialist my medication has been changed - it was the prescription and not the wool that caused the allergic reaction. There is hope that in two months there will be a marked improvement in my symptoms and in twelve months my levels could be normal. Normal enough for us to be given the go ahead to fall pregnant. Being told we couldn't achieve a healthy pregnancy at this time has been the most disappointing aspect of this illness for me.

Cohen has been such a joy and has really helped us through the difficult times. There isn't too much time for self pity with a toddler.

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Cardigan weather, filling the shopping trolley with groceries together, chasing after Cohen at Grandpa's house, a glass of wine.

Simple is wonderful.

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A pair of custom made amber and pearl earrings are coming along nicely. I should have the finished product ready to share with you soon.

I will try not to turn this blog into solely a jewellery blog I promise.

My Creative Space...

I thought I would share with you my creative space for making jewellery.

The bench is a study desk converted by my father to the right height, with shelves and tray added. The drawers are filled with abrasive papers, files, mandrels, polishing compounds, drill bits, calipers, scales and the like. To the right of my bench is another bench which houses my rolling mill, grinder and pickle pot.

Clockwise from top - vintage medicine cabinet storage, inspiration wall, pencils, hammers, the grey box hanging up is a flexi drive (like a dremel, but the motor is not in the hand piece), seat, tray, solder, files, bench peg, soldering station, pliers, torch, lamp, iriver. Unlike my sewing room, I never leave my bench messy. It is wonderful to sit down at a clean bench ready to create.

More Creative Spaces here.

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I found this dear little hand knitted cabled cardigan for $2 at an op-shop. It had one button missing. Six very old buttons from the stash and ten minutes of stitching later and Cohen has a new cardigan.

Which I would like to show you, but there is one lesson I keep learning.

Inanimate objects = easily photographed. One year old = not easily photographed.

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'I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.'

Claude Monet

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Treasure collected from the beach yesterday and stowed away in pockets.

Broken shells, glass, a float and coral.

Treasures being crafted at my jewellery bench.

The discarded silver to be added to the collected to be melted down and reused.

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Another beautiful sunny day, perfect for spending time at the beach with Cohen. How he loves digging in the sand with his little blue shovel, or grabbing great big handfuls of sand to throw at Mama! He picks up as many shells as he can in those little hands and shares them with us or throws them at the waves.

We went rock hopping and found amongst the sea and sand jelly fish washed to shore and an Osprey with it's catch.

A wonderful way to spend the day.

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My sister, my husband, our little boy and myself spent the day in the City, eating French food at the Festival, drinking tea at Three Monkeys and haunting the book shops in West End.

We discovered guerrilla knitting at a bus stop, a new Bill Bryson book and that the poetry section is always hidden around a corner.

We stumbled upon this interactive artwork in the grounds of Southbank, a 'Peep Show' wall with a different piece behind each eye.

I particularly loved the Ferris wheel. Hope your having a wonderful weekend too.

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'Home is where ever I'm with you' earrings.

My first project at the bench in quite some time, so I've started with something simple.

A cloud and house pair of earrings for my sister.

Excuse the lint on the house, I snuck in a quick photo while Cohen was playing in the yard. I think I need a light box.

My Creative Space...

I started knitting more cables this week and was stopped in my tracks when the itching all over started again.

This may be as far as this project ever gets if wool is indeed the culprit of the allergic reaction.

I'm moving on to cotton and an allergy specialist I think.

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More Creative Spaces here.

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I find the work of Anthony Roussel fascinating. The layered sheets of wood, the organic forms and the sculptural beauty.

"Roussel pushes jewellery as an Art form, seeing the body as a veritable canvas. The jewellery he creates function as sculptural objects as well as wearable pieces of body adornment in their own right."

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Fresh scones and hot coffee. Bliss.

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A rather slow day of catching up after a night away for a wedding. How does so much washing accumulate after merely one night?

A day spent chasing a toddler and removing him from small spaces, removing his hands from the dog and removing chalk from his mouth.

A day spent reading a little more of The English Patient, drinking coffee with a friend and eying my stash of wool suspiciously, lest it be the cause of my all over itching attack.

And the day that I finally share with you my beautiful new scarf, knit by the talented and lovely Melissa.

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Something to remember.

Cohen's chalk drawing progress.

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Flowers, my weekly compensation for grocery shopping.

The fragrance drew me to these immediately. Even walking back to the car, with my trolley full and the flowers laying on top, strangers commented on their lovely smell.

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My first ever knitted cable, with thanks to 'Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Knitting and Crochet', and a lovely friend who insisted on their simplicity.

She was right.

Now back to trying to knit this vest and perhaps a cable scarf like Leonie's.

My Creative Space...

You may know that I am not a knitter. My Mum taught me how to knit and purl when I was a child, possibly during inclement weather on one of our long holidays at the beach. It was a little tricky, her being left handed, me being right. A few scarfs latter and I still haven't made much progress on the knitting front. But I am determined to try.

This is about my twelfth attempt at casting on 52 stitches and knitting simple ribbing. Cohen has successfully removed at least two attempts from the needles. The double strand of yarn has accounted for a few failures. As has the ribbing pattern itself. Why knew you had to alternate each stitch on the following row?

Now that I have the ribbing accomplished I need to practice my increasing. The only problem is, when you increase on a row of ribbing, do you do a purl increase or a knit increase? Does that even make sense?

This might take awhile.

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More Creative Spaces here.

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Loving...

A quiet overcast day and a bit of knitting.

My twin sister's blog.

Making cheating look so good.

This little vest.

Jodie's patterns.

And I'm loving that my camera is working again, even if I don't know how long she'll hold up.

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Possibly the last photos our Lumix will ever take, due to an unfortunate incident involving the nappy bag, Cohen's soy milk and the camera.

These photos were taken after the incident and though the camera will turn on and display an image on it's screen, it will no longer focus or take photos. Important things to do if you are a camera.

With a little luck she will be repairable.

What to do without a camera in the meantime?

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Yesterday we had a Winter's beach almost all to ourselves, to share with Cohen the joys of digging in sand and waves rushing up to ones ankles.