Miscellany

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind: a birthday, chicken pox, a small knitting breakthrough and our village May Fair (washed out I'm afraid). The jewellery-making has been a joy recently, with several special and very lovely commissions and lots of teaching. It's an old story, I've spoken of it before, but as I get a little busier I'm in danger of neglecting the silverpebble blog.

I thought I'd stop worrying about having a particular story to tell and instead log in and simply share snippets of what we've been up to. I hope you'll forgive the mish mash.

I passed *that* landmark birthday last week. The Mr and Eldest bought the most exquisite posy of flowers for me (see above). I'm hoping that my birthday boots (Fly, Let II) defy the onset of middle age, just a little. They are the upside of the dreary weather.

As part of my birthday weekend I went to the Peacocks Tearoom with five good friends. Delicious things were brought out on cake stands. There was a spot of pink champagne and a mahoosive number of scones. It was wonderful.

I was thrilled to be asked by Stephanie from the blog Millefeuilles to make one of her daughter Heloise's sixteenth birthday presents. We settled on a silver bell design: church-style rather than sleigh. They ring, in a tiny silvery way and Stephanie has written a lovely blogpost about the necklace here.

I'd heard over on twitter that the sixteen-year-old Teen Granny was to hold her very first knitting workshop recently. There was no doubt I needed help. I had been flummoxed by the Baktus and had all but given up. I was so glad I was in London that day because the workshop was excellent. I was taught new ways to cast on, re-learned long forgotten casting off skills and came away with confidence I didn't have before. Huge thanks to Scarlett. I promptly knitted one of Julie's teeny tiny rabbits (see top image). I was so excited about this success that I did a small dance. I had to make the bunny a pink swarovski tiara, to celebrate.

In a couple of days my blog reaches its fourth birthday. Here is my first ever post written just weeks before I gave birth to littlest, and this is one of the first images I ever uploaded. So much has happened since then. I will be marking the occasion next week...