Pegasus - SGD 80

The mythical Pegasus soars with a gorgeous blue rhinestone meteor vintage component, goldfilled puffy star, mystic topaz onion briolette with a trail of gemstone pretties and moonstone drop after him. Little colours of the rainbow dot this 18" long goldfilled chain necklace.

Victorian Bows - SGD 40 - Sold

Pretty little adornments for the prim & proper lady in you ... vintage enamel fleurs and brass ribbon charms from goldfilled earhooks. Earrings measure approx. 4.5 cm in length.

Green Phoenix - SGD 110 - Sold

Constructed from a motley crue of preloved vintage components, I especially adore the large emerald green teardrop crystal surrounded by little peridot crystals! I added layers of goldfilled chains, opal pink swarovski chain and some teal blue-green topaz baguettes with deep blue iolite rondelles while a lone brass wing adds flight to this phoenix.

The necklace centrepiece measures approx. 11cm by 6cm and is strung on a 22" goldfilled chain. Though not as chunky as some of my previous creations, this green phoenix still makes a statement with its conspicuous mix of bold colours and is surprisingly easy to wear! Definitely a keeper if you love green like I do :)

The Belladonna - SGD 110 - Sold

Royal blues reign in the Belladonna with vintage fleurs and a glittery regal blue pendant focal... Not for the faint-hearted!

Centrepiece measures approx. 8cm wide and 6.5cm long including crystal drop.
Necklace measures approx. 17" in length (excluding centrepiece) with a lobster clasp closure.

Aurora Spring necklace - SGD 110 - Sold

:: My favourite piece from this series! ::

Vintage lucite and enamel flowers in summery colours with a few new czech thrown in for good measure. Focal is a gorgeous vintage enamel pin from a flea market in London's Angel district. A little buttercreme fleur and petite flying birdie with a swarovski pendant make up the pendant drop. Necklace measures approx. 16"in length (excluding centrepiece) with a lobster clasp closure.

I'm still wondering if I should keep this for myself!!

North Star and Radiant Star - SGD 79 each (Both sold)

* 2 pretty unicorn necklaces! *

North Star has a gorgeous london blue topaz heart briolette with mystic topaz and moonstone onion briolettes and dazzling colours of peridot, pink sapphire, iolite, apatite rondelles on a goldfilled chain. Necklace measures approx. 18" in length with goldfilled components.

In Radiant Star, pretty pinks and plums rule with pink topaz and pink garnet briolettes, mystic topaz and moonstone onion briolettes and equally bright notes of amethyst, pink sapphire, moonstone, apatite etc. Not forgetting the star of cos! Necklace measures approx. 18" in length with goldfilled components.

Galadriel - SGD 85 - Sold

Be the bringer of light with this lovely rhinestone and dove darling... I've added lucite and czech flowers, buttons, pearls and a large opalite swarovski pendant drop to form this glittery rhinestone piece.

Centrepiece measures approx. 11cm by 6cm in size and hangs on a 22" fancy filigree rhodium chain with heart-shaped lobster clasp closure.

Glitter Eyes - SGD 95 - Sold

A rare vintage panoramic owl pin with glittery eyes and tassels from the Portobello market in London, mixed flowers in vintage/new brass and lucite wired together on a goldfilled chain. Necklace measures approx. 16" in length (excluding centrepiece) with lobster clasp closure. One of its kind!

Toadstool Hedgie - SGD 45 - Sold

Another wee forest critter makes a surprise appearance!

Summery vintage enamel fleurs with Mr Hedgie and his old faithful toadstool... Earrings measure approx. 4.5cm in drop length.

Dolce Rosa - SGD 48 - Sold

* Only 1 pair! *

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

-- William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

Gleaming beautiful gems in soft hues of moonstone, peridot, phrenite, citrine and gorgeous plump blush rose quartz briolettes... Gems are AA-AAA quality. Simply ethereal!

Earrings measure approx. 3 cm in length and will come with a complimentary silver polishing cloth :)

All about a little guy

Just yesterday, our bub at home turned 15 months.
How fast little people grow!

12 interesting funny facts about our toddler:

1) His first proper word was "carrot" (don't ask me how or why, it happened in the UK as his grandpa gave him a real whole carrot to chew on). I've got it on video!

2) He can also say "car", "ball", "bubble" (sounds like "ba ball"), "bird", "milk", "flower" and its mandarin counterpart "hua" (sounds like "wah").

3) He can say "dada" and "mama" but he likes to wind us up by rarely calling us as such, I'm usually referred to "car". He knows where "mama's nose" is though and will point to the right body part on the right person. Phew!

4) His favourite programme is Hi 5. So now mama knows most of the song lyrics, dance steps and dating history of the cast.

5) He can sign "milk" and will ask for it at bedtime when he wants to go to bed. Some mutant signing of milk at other times just means he's hungry and wants munchies!!!

6) His favourite food right now is grapes and he can eat a whole cup of them while watching tv the way adults eat popcorn. Without looking.

7) He is Spiderman in disguise. When you're not looking, he has already scaled the window as high as your shoulder. Gives me heart attacks. Especially when he does those circus knee hooks across the grilles and gives you the look that he's gonna let go.

8) He knows when it's time for a nappy change and will always run as far away from you as he can. But he will come running back when it's milk time and dutifully sit down without being told.

9) He is one of those kids who likes to embarrass you by lying on the floor in public places, screaming and squirming when we try to drag him away from where he wants to go.

10) He knows it's prayer time before milk and will even remind us by clasping his hands together if we forget!

11) He is the youngest in his playgroup but he is the loudest, noisiest, most restless among his classmates and will almost invariably be the one running amok. This week, he led a mutiny in class and everyone went crazy at the same time!! It's a miracle we haven't been kicked out yet.

12) I think he's gonna be a left-hander. And he's quite deft with both feet! Daddy is already mighty pleased with his footy skills at the prodigy age of 15 months. It's his handbag fetish I'm worried about.

It's amazing how children's looks keep changing too! Nate's hair colour is growing lighter so now I do get asked more often about his heritage by aunties when we go to the market. And maybe cos he doesn't look much like me! Haha! At least I haven't been mistaken for a kid-napper yet :p

a proud mama i am,

Custom necklace - Hermione

A kind lovely lady really liked Tooting Tootsie and actually managed to find an owl pin just like it! She asked me to help her with an owl necklace and pretty much left it to my devices :) I incorporated the adorable tooting missy into this 24" long necklace with vintage lucite flowers, brass leaves, black agate donut, tassels and used lots of different textured chains and hoops for a completely asymmetrical look on the neck. The details aren't very obvious in the pics so she has to take my word for it hehe.

Considering I could only work in bursts of inspiration and time pockets, I'm just glad I managed to finish Hermione before 2010 is up! Thanks for letting me have the freedom in creating, I really like the end result and almost wish I could keep her for myself! :p

Shop update

A quick shout out that some new necklaces and earrings will be put up here at 0900 hours on Saturday (22 May) morning. Just drop me a line with the piece/s that you're keen on and I will get back to you on whether you're the lucky one to snap it up! :) I have not put them in the bigcartel shoppe just cos I am still thinking of ways to revamp parts of the system and we know what a techno-diot I am! Also cos I much prefer not having to convert sgd from paypal funds! Ha!

Thank you for your support and always checking back often! Have a good weekend!

xoxo,

The story of a locket and a ring

{my antique locket necklace}

Everytime we go back to England, I always make sure we go up to London for the flea markets and to meet friends. It was no difference on our last trip back, except we had to drag the bub with us this time. And that takes preparation.

The first time, Nathan was happily snugly asleep on me on the crowded train when he decided to do a little burp followed by a super duper mega 'merlion' and threw up his entire breakfast all over me!! I can tell you it was not a small patch of posset, it was like he had downed an entire crate of Tiger beer!

Thankfully he decided to puke on mama just as we pulled into a station so we could escape quickly instead of having to sit through another 30min to London before having to head back home anyway! I had to hide in the toilet on the train all the way home cos I was soaked to my undergarments in vomit. Ugh.

So that marked our first failed attempt at London. We were grateful that we had a normal trip up on our 2nd attempt, though the weather was freezing and it drizzled loads. You can tell Nathan has English blood in him cos he could sleep through the cold and all in his buggy, and mind you, we didn't have one of those fancy eskimo-sled-looking-padded-covers that he could snuggle under. It was just your regular semi-upright-exposed McClaren. But he slept for hours anyway.

To make up for the earlier drama, I was able to coax the hubster into rewarding me with 2 beautiful turn-of-the-century antique lockets, one of which I used in the necklace above. This heart-shaped floral locket is from the 1900s and made of rolled gold. The other is a 9k gold oval locket with rose motifs from the 1890s and still has the original photo of a little girl in it! Kinda creepy but it was beautiful heh. They came at a price tag naturally and the seller was a no-nonsense East European obasan so it was intimidating enough just looking at the wares. Thankfully the exchange rate was in our favour so I didn't have to work hard at bargaining!

Some other interesting acquisitions this time include a very victorian emerald cut garnet ring and my favourite, a 1950 18ct gold and platinum diamond solitaire ring:

{vintage solitaire ring}

I love the mix of gold and platinum, and boy does the diamond bling!

I wear it as my 2nd engagement ring now, next to the princess cut sapphire ring I received 5 years ago :) Ooh how I love treasure trawling! You never know what you'll gonna find!

Coming soon!

Been working on some necklaces on-off amidst other things... it's so annoying when you're on one project when the inspiration for something entirely different hits and you just have to stop what you're doing to start something new! I have unfinished projects sitting on my table for aeons until inspiration strikes again and I am satisfied with how it looks. Guess that explains why custom orders are my Archilles' heel and take forever to complete (yikes!!)

I had originally planned to upload some new necklaces today but taking decent photos and basically just the act of listing always demands more time than you think. So yeah, yet again another bout of procrastination. Bleh. This time however, I am hoping to pack each one of them up first so that they are ready to go out the door once they have been snapped up. Maybe this will turn out to be a more efficient system? Let's wait and see.

Watch out for more details of when the new pieces will finally be available!

(though probably not Tuesday cos it's playgroup day for the little man :p )

xoxo,

Nathan traces his English roots - Easter 2010

I have been bugged by friends who complain about this blog needing more updates! (i know i know) So here finally are the pictures from our trip back to UK, like erm almost 2 months ago. Haha! It was Nathan's first time back in England since he was born as we had to postpone the trip at the height of the H1N1 epidemic. He'd only met his grandparents once when he was 2 months old and now it was time to meet the rest of the family!

Spring came late this year so it was still winter wear for us in late March/April.

Nate adjusted well to the cold weather but not his weakling of a mummy who spent as much time as possible indoors and under covers. In front of the telly with Bargain Hunt and Move to the Country. And Top Gear. Hee hee.

They start them young on footie in this family.
He is turning out to be quite the kicker too!


Inquisitively checking out the garden


I just love this shot of him :)


So this is what being a mummy of 2 feels like!

(thrashing and writhing included)

Going to Odds Farm with Nathan and his 4.5 yo cousin Liam

Nate patting an unsuspecting goat


feeding the young lambs milk

Can you spot Nate?

The Easter hunt is on!


Boys will be boys.

Bruises and cuts aside, he also suffered a nasty graze by his left eye while playing.
Liam was not much better. They always looked like they'd been fighting!

The little man grew up loads during our time there and began to demand feeding himself at mealtimes.

And us too, unfortunately.

In case you didn't know, Nathan is one bub who will try anything.

He joined his grandparents in their gardening and basically tasted everything there was - grit, twigs, leaves and all - except worms. Then again, we can never be sure what happens when your back is turned.

And a very scummy little boy crying when we stopped him from lapping up the rest of the suspicous-looking murky birdbath water. SIGH.

Guess we can be consoled in that he's building up his immune system! :p

Merlot Rose - SGD 58 - Sold

* Only 1 pair! *

Burgundy roses, textured goldfilled frames with vintage swarovski drops, and gorgeous black spinel dolphin briolettes topped with petite garnet briolettes and clusters of luscious gems in peachy rhodochrosite, kyanite, rhodolite garnet and amethyst. All the defining colours of sophistication! Gems are AA-AAA quality. Earrings measure approx. 4cm from goldfilled hooks.

I had acquired some spectacular gemstones just a while back but never got round to using them much until now! I am still busy working on some custom orders (which I am unable to accept anymore, sorry!) and finishing some long-overdue necklaces. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to have them up by Monday! So watch out for the update as to when the necklaces will be ready :)

Thank you so much for your continued support! I am working, really!

heading out for ice cream with the bub and godma now,

Leticia - SGD 55 - Sold

* only 1 pair! *

Delish wine pink roses with rare vintage rose cameos from my fast depleting stash, chalky purplish-blue-hued chalcedony teardrop briolettes, shimmering midnight blue keishi petals with moonstones, pink amethyst, rhodolite garnet and opal white swarovski chains as adornments.

Earrings measure approx. 3 cm from goldfilled hooks.