Totally out of control

I so wanted to write up my trip - time runs away from me - I'll try and catch up later with more tales of the trip.

We've moved house, studio and shop and it's been hectic to say the least

Now my darling little Chiquita Chihuahua passed away last week, I felt I wanted to mark her passing. This sweet creature came into my life almost 14 years ago when I was really hurting after the breakup of my marriage and my children were going for visits to their Dad for around 3 days out of every week. The lonely days became much more bearable with Chiqui. She was pocket sized literally in those days and I would carry her in my coat pocket when I went for a walk. Probably this is the reason why she never would walk on a leash!

There are many stories to tell, I won't fill up the page with them now, but my favourite is that she was very fond of men, particularly my son and my father. One day when Mum and Dad were visiting she tried very hard to go home with them, but was not big enough to jump up into the car. (that's loyalty for you!) Her nicknames varied from Chiqui (Cheeky), Chipolata, Chook-eater (friends Chris and Gail called her that such a hoot of a name) Micromutt, and my normal names 'Bubby' or 'Darling'.

She's buried in her little bed, in the garden of our new abode - a beautiful garden, and she has a miniature LillyPilly over her to protect her. This week a tiny figurine of a Chihuahua just like her arrived and I'll mount it on a rock and sit it with the bush. Rest in sunshine dear little friend.

The best sort of holiday....

Less than 24 hours after commencing on the cruise, I was convinced that this is the only way to have a holiday. Our hosts, Nick the captain and tourguide and Irene the cook, deck hand, (you name it she did it with ease and skill) not to forget dear little Megan the border collie, made us feel welcome. I loved the walking pace of the boat. The countryside was beautiful and I totally loved that I didn't have to cook and shop and so on. In fact although I brought some jewellery projects with me plus sketch book and so on. I hardly did anything during the 10 days as I basically gazed out the window and took photos. We did of course leave the boat to do excursions, Bill also helped with the locks.

Here are some more images....

Beginning 10 days of leisure on a Narrowboat

We met up with our hosts (for the next 10 days) at Northwich which is not far from Chester.

After a short briefing so we knew how to work the various "bit's'n'bobs" in the wee little bathroom (very cute) and stow the gear we set off to have a short cruise up the river Weaver toward the Anderton Lift.

This was an amazing lift which takes the narrow boat (or indeed any vessel within the size range) from one level to the other. See snapshots below.

Chester

We had a day in Chester before commencing our Narrowboat Cruise. I was very taken with the lovely tudor buildings. I'm only sharing a few of the snaps don't worry.

I loved that there were bits of Roman wall and old architecture married with later periods.

I also fell in love with this hat shop. I'm such a sucker for hats.

After this we joined our cruise and had 10 extraordinary days relaxing away our cares.

What I did on my holiday....

Ha Ha, this reminds me of first day back from term holidays and we have to write an essay.

Well I have a month of holiday to share and soooooooo many photos I thought I'd just share a few and begin with the most relaxing part of our time away. So what I'll do is enter a post for each section.

We left on a cold sort of Melbourne day and arrived in lovely sunshine after long hours of travelling at Manchester airport and went directly to the Manchester Picadilly Station to catch our train to Chester for our first night. So here are two shots, of the station the lines interested me so they're a bit unusual in their aspect.

Still playing with bails

I had a really relaxing play last night.  Having spent the day head down tail up on the computer doing all sorts of things I HAD to do, I felt justified in spending the evening at my bench.

So .... using a strip from the other piece of

 metal that was the "sandwich" of watch parts through the mill, not sterling silver this time but I think guilders brass or something like that, it looks like silver but it's really hard. (I'll have to find out tonight in class) 

 I formed another bail and decorated the front with a reversed bead cap in brass and a crystal rondelle.   Now this was a lot trickier than I'd counted on, as the wire going through the crystal had to be really fine - around 22gauge 0.6mm but I'd drilled a bigger hole (yes silly me - but I thought I was going to do a plain connection until I 

had the idea of putting in the crystal) anyway 

problem solved using a small cog from one of the watchparts I used in the rolling process.  

I got these sweet little bits in a collection from Dani of The Whimsical Bead, thanks Dani.

Anyway... long story shorter.. here's the result.  (seeing it in closeup I can see I still need to sand off 

a few file marks - oh dear)

With an influence of steampunk

I completed another pendant last night.  This style is totally different for me.  I quite like the steampunk look and this big bail has been created with that in mind.  The sterling silver was rolled in a rolling mill with watch parts, doodled apon with the dremel and stamped with some letters and numbers.  It has been bent over to form the bail and once again I've used rivetting as my connection device. The stone pendant is a jasper (I think). The viking wire weave chain was made by my husband Bill.