Sometimes you just have to spoil yourself

I make no excuse for this post, it is just pure self indulgence, I know! I also had no excuse for 3 recent purchases other than the fact that they were all bought during the sales. As any girl knows you can never have too many shoes or bags...can you?

The weather recently has been so drab and dull that I decided some treats were in order. I really do enjoy shopping on line..and my daughter had sent me a link to some shoes she was tempted to buy. Always a dangerous thing to do as when I opened up the link I was presented with some rather glorious shoes. Between emails we both chose a style we loved. We are both girls who chose to wear kitten heels when we dress up. I adore high heels but they are just not practical for walking any distance in! As a doctor my daughter walks miles every day; my excuse is that my feet are just a little older now. When I first met my Hb (in 1979..a lifetime ago I know and I was still at school) I used to wear 6" heels. It was not for a few weeks that he realised that I was actually  5' 4" tall not 5'10"" but that's another story! 

After some deliberation at the computer I pressed the buy button and waited.....

A few days later the door bell rang (luckily it was my non work day) and I was handed a parcel by Mr Postie.I was so surprised by the box I unwrapped that I had to get out my trusty camera and show you.

Just look at that for a shoe box!!

I then slid open the box to reveal this gorgeous tissue wrapping paper.

And hidden inside all this....

The most deliciously indulgent pair of kitten heel purple suede shoes with an incredible silky soft lining to die for !!

Even the soles are patterned!
I love my new shoes but I was even more delighted by the way they had been presented, it does make an enormous impression. They are also SO comfy to wear.







And to finish off this rather self indulgent post here are my other 2 purchases.............

We have a Cath Kidston shop in nearby Wimbledon and over the holiday my Hb and I went to Wimbledon Village for lunch. As we walked past the shop and saw the words "Sale" in the window our lunch got delayed a little...well I had to go in and take a look didn't I?

When we had our trip to York in November we visited the Cath Kidston shop there and I admired all the wares but decided it was far too near to Christmas to buy anything.  I had admired this little bag there so when I went into the Wimbledon branch and saw the reduced price tag it just said "buy me"....the rest is history!

My final purchase was actually "earned", I used my Christmas bonus from work to treat myself to a new "everyday" handbag.......

from my favourite handbag brand, Radley.

Naughty I know but as I said to my Hb..........
they were all  in the sale....!!!


Have a self indulgent weekend too, go on, you all deserve it ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x
(Remember to enter my free giveaway here and thank you for those who have already entered for leaving such kind positive comments! It closes on Monday 24th January)

Sleeping giants

Last weekend my Hb and I decided to try to walk off some of the chocolate mound we have been munching our way though since Christmas. As I revealed recently I really love to walk, whatever the weather. It was a chilly day so we needed a few extra layers and gloves and scarves to keep us warm.  Despite it being one of those really grey,cold January days when it never seems to get light at all, I decided to take my trusty camera with me. I was not sure there would be much to photograph but as we entered one of our local parks I was fascinated by the silhouettes the trees were making. Against the grey sky they looked like sleeping giants with their long sinewy  fingers outstretched.

Usually when we walk there are plenty of people around but that day we passed only a few dedicated dog walkers. We had one of those rare times when we almost felt that we had the park to ourselves. Rows of trees stood in total silence.

This tree had just a few lonely parakeets perched in its branches. In the summer they screech around but that day they were quite silent.






These majestic oaks are usually dressed with their leaves for most of the year and you don't really get to see the tangle of branches which lie underneath.

Winter reveals them and I thought they looked quite mysterious. It's not really surprising that ancient folks worshipped them...if you look at the trunks for long enough faces do seem to stare out at you.

Even the birds on the ponds were sitting quietly.

We spotted a few empty nests...

Spring at the moment seems a long,long way off but just as we were leaving I took a closer look at some of the branches...





I noticed that there are some definite slight stirrings going on, yes buds. Although they were tightly shut they were present on many of the branches.So even on the dullest, darkest winter day it seems that mother nature is still busying herself behind the scenes and there  is a promise of spring.






We walked briskly home to the warm and when we got indoors smiled when we saw Billy lying upside down ......Billy often sleeps this way, his family we got him from as a kitten said he was always the one who all his brothers and sisters laid on. Bless!

He opened one eyelid to say hello and went straight back to sleep on his favourite chair. No walking to see the sleeping giants for him...............his thoughts for winter?.....
....stay in the warm and perhaps just dream of the sleeping giants...;0) 

Keep warm,
Bye for now,
Jane x

(PS remember to enter my free giveaway here it runs until 24th January and everyone is welcome to enter)

A new year and my 1st giveaway

Hello again and a really warm welcome back to Jane's Journal. I hope you  had a wonderful Christmas? Ours was so special as we celebrated Milly and Tom's engagement too. We all raised a glass of champagne to them at the dinner table. It was so good to have our family with us. I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope this will be the start of a good year for everyone.

I started writing my blog last July and I have enjoyed meeting so many lovely people. Please never feel too shy to leave a comment, I really enjoy hearing from everyone. Reading your comments makes writing my blog so worth while, thank you all so much.

To kick off 2011 and to thank everyone for visiting me here I have also decided to hold my very first giveaway. This post will be a stand alone post and I will not leave my usual replies to all your lovely comments so that when I pick the winners from the hat I will not interfere with the results. I will close the comments to this post  on Monday 24th January at 4pm. So you will have plenty of time to enter. I will post to the winners world wide so please do not worry where you live.

So what are the prizes then? Well as many of you  know I am a physiotherapist working hard for the NHS but my paid hobby is my jewellery making. I mostly sell my jewellery at parties which I hold in the South East of England or at my home. I do have an Etsy shop which up until now I have mainly used as a "shop front". This year I have decided to reopen it with not only more of my jewellery but also some of my hand made cards. I have shown some of my cards in previous posts and spurred on by your positive comments I have decided to list some in my shop. I have 2 prizes on offer. The first prize will be one of my handmade necklaces and cards and the 2nd prize will be 2 of my handmade cards.The necklace will be presented in a little organza gift bag. You can either keep your necklace or you could send it to a friend with the card......a ready made birthday gift!

To enter my giveaway I would like you to give me a little help with some feedback on my jewellery and cards - I am going to show you 4 photos of my handmade necklaces and birthday cards. They are labelled  under each photo A-D.
I would like you to put the necklaces and cards into your order of preference with your favourite first and write them  in the comments box.

For example you may write;
Necklaces: 1.D 2.C 3.A 4.B (meaning your favourite necklace was D)
Cards; 1.D 2.A 3.C 4.B (meaning your favourite card was D)

If you would also like to give me some ideas of colours/styles etc of jewellery and cards that you like to buy , not even necessarily mine, I would really appreciate you taking the time as it gives me a better idea of what sort of things to sell. If you want any further ideas you will also find photos of some of my jewellery in my Flickr album, the tab is on the right hand side of my posts.
I have also put a few new things in my Etsy shop if you want to take a peep.

So here are the 4 necklaces:-


Necklace A

Necklace A has tiger eye semi precious beads. It is 19" long and has a feature central part with unusual tiger eye daggers.
All my jewellery is finished with a sterling silver clasp.

Necklace B

This necklace to the right (B) is made with rose quartz round beads and chips. It also features 4 red carnelian round beads and in the centre is a one of a kind handmade lampwork floral bead. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. This is a shorter 17" necklace.

Necklace C

 

Necklace C (left) has purple tones  made with one of a kind lampwork glass beads and Czech fire polished and Picasso beads. It measures 19" long.














Necklace D

The last necklace (D) is a slightly longer 20" necklace. It has a central black lampwork focal bead in a fancy bead cap together with an assortment of black onyx, glass and haematite beads.










On to the 4 cards; Some have birthday words on the front but all are blank inside. I sign the back of all my cards with my initials in either gold or silver pen at the bottom edge.

Card A

The first card (A) features a smiley girl with a cupcake topper. The backing paper features birthday cakes and birthday wishes. All the cards I sell measure 5X5". It has a creamy/orange backing card with a matching envelope.

Card B

Card B (right)  features butterfly die cuts on purple floral backing paper. The background card is pink and it has a matching pink envelope.This says  happy birthday on the front.

Card C

Card C features a high heeled shoe topper.The backing paper has girlie bags and cocktails detail . The background card is yellow and this has a matching yellow envelope.

Card D

Card D has a die cut silhouette lady with a deep pink hat and handbag on black and white retro backing paper. The base card is a white card with a matching white envelope.The words happy birthday are on the front.







The first name pulled out of the hat after the closing date will win their 1st preference necklace and card.

For example if they put;

Necklace :    1.C 2.A 3.B 4. D
Card:            1.B 2.A 3.D 4.C

they will win necklace C and card B as shown above.     I do hope this all makes sense!
The 2nd name out of the hat will win their 1st 2 choices of card. If the 1st prize winner has already chosen one of their 2 choices I will try to remake that card but please remember that no 2 cards are ever identical as they are handmade by me and I can never replicate one exactly! That is of course what makes them so unique.

So please have a look at the above and list your 2 orders of preferences in the comments box at the bottom of this post. I would really value any other suggestions you would like to leave with your choices on my comments.

Feel free to (don't feel obliged to) share to this with your friends, everyone is welcome to enter. There are no restrictions at all but please only comment once. I will announce the winner on my blog soon after the closing date so remember to check back to see if you have won.

Looking forward to sharing a new blogging year with you all.
Good luck,

Bye for now,

Jane x

(P.S I will continue with my normal posts whilst this giveaway is on).