Poppy Pendant Winner

Lots and many of you entered the prize draw for the Poppy pendant!

I wrote all the names down, gave them a spin in the Lego tombola and then Buster came along to 'help' me pick a winner. What is it with cats? They're so nosy inquisitive. Anyway, my furry purry friend helped me draw a name and the winner is Jenna Eyres of Stitch Itch . Well done Jenna! Please email me with your address and I'll get your pendant in the post to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered the draw - you've all given me lots of potential flower bead ideas. I'll do another bead giveaway soon so do stay tuned.

Oh yeah, while I'm on the subject of cats, I read this interesting article on the BBC site today. Apparently cats are quite the manipulative little scamps. Like we didn't already know that .....

Ask Me

I've just had an idea.

I get lots of emails from people asking lampworky questions - how to do this, where to get that etc etc and I thought that it might be a plan to answer some of those questions here on my blog. That way, everyone can read the answers!

If you have any lampwork/bead-related questions for me then zap me an email at ask@beadsbylaura.co.uk and I'll do my best to answer them.

'Monochrome+Pink'

This set of beads was going to be bigger. Thing is, I had to have the door open while I was making them as it was really muggy. It was quite breezy too and my flame kept blowing about. I burnt my finger and I also singed a bit of hair - only a couple of strands but isn't the smell of burning hair just so horrid? After that I thought I'd leave the set at just five beads. Who knows what may have happened if I'd carried on .....

Anyway, these beads are glossy black and white accented with raised dots in hot pink. I think they look quite cosmic. I know it's sad but I'd like to think if Darth Vader had a missus then she would wear these beads!

'Lovely Lizzi' Charity Auction

This pretty pink necklace was made by Mel Poxon of Kookie Designs and she is auctioning it to raise money for the Princess Alice Hospice. The piece is called 'Lovely Lizzi' and is named after Mel's close friend Lizzi who sadly died earlier this year.

The beautiful focal in the necklace was made by Rob Johnson and the dark pink nugget beneath it was made by yours truly.

Please click here to read more about the auction being held in memory of Lizzi and for details of how you can place a bid for this gorgeous piece of jewellery.

Roll up, roll up! It's giveaway time!

I realised yesterday that I haven't done the name-in-the-hat thing for ages, have I? Thought I'd better rectify that.

The prize this time is a pretty Poppy pendant. The bead is quite chunky, very tactile and comfy-to-wear. The pendant is ready to be slipped onto a chain or ribbon. All the findings are sterling silver.

If you fancy a shot at winning it all you have to do is leave a comment, or email me if you prefer, telling me what your favourite flower is. I'll also need your full name. (Last time I wrote that a few people gave me their middle names as well which isn't necessary but if you feel like sharing your middle name with me please go ahead and do so!)

The prize draw is open to anyone anywhere in the universe but it's only one entry per person, folks.

I'll put all the names in the Lego Tombola on the evening of Monday July 13th and I'll draw a winner and announce who that lucky person is here on my blog.

Good luck!

What was I thinking?!

I've just had the most disgusting lunch ever.

You see, every weekend (except for the ones I'm with Chris because we eat all proper and civilised then, or try to) at some point I always have to have what I call a 'childhood meal'. These meals consist of things that I used to have on a Saturday or Sunday evening as a kid. Saturdays were Mum's day off from cooking and we'd have sandwiches for lunch and a light meal such as soup and bread for dinner. Then Sunday was roast lunch day and we'd have something like buttered crumpets at tea time because we would all be full up from Mum's lovely cooking. I have fond memories of sitting in front of the telly on a Sunday evening after my bath, watching Hi-De-Hi! in my nightie (a 100% nylon Pippa Dee one) munching on a toasted Marmite sandwich while Dad dried my hair ready for school the next day. We would turn the volume up loud so we could hear the hilarious jokes on the telly over the noise of the hairdryer.

So now every other weekend I have things like Heinz Ravioli, bacon sarnies, cheese on toast, crumpets, Heinz Hoops on toast or eggy bread. I know what you're thinking and I know it's a tad childish. But it's nice.

When I was in Tesco the other day I was about to grab a can of Heinz Ravioli in tomato sauce when I saw some Heinz Spaghetti Bolognese and I thought 'I haven't had that for yonks! Dang, that used to taste nice!' and I swiped a can off the shelf and triumphantly put it in my basket.

I've just cooked that spaghetti.

And that was such a mistake.

It. Was. Rank.

Either my tastes have developed since I was about eleven or they've changed the recipe. I suspect that the former is the case. I tell you, it looked horrid and it tasted ten times worse so I'll be sticking to the ravioli and hoops in the future.

I'll tell you what hasn't changed, though. Weekend evening television. Bar Casualty, which is now yawningly boring, the telly schedule is so lame it's untrue. The Graham Norton fest that is Totally Saturday is just unspeakably awful. I think I'd rather watch re-runs of Hi-De-Hi!

Brian May No More

Agh! Photos of myself - I hate them! But it's about time I updated the one on my website so here you go. Yours truly in situ at BBL HQ sporting my newly done 'do.

A lovely girl called Krystyna at Exclusive Hair Design in Abingdon did the cut. I told her she had free reign to do whatever she wanted to make my curls look better. And she certainly did! She gave me a little side fringe thing which I really like. I no longer look like a badly-coiffed poodle. Yay!