I now officially have a retail outlet for my jewellery and crafts! I have a wee cabinet in Destiny Antique & Visitor Centre in Scone in Perth. I filled the cabinet on Wednesday and it looks pretty good. My mum is making scarves and wraps with silk ribbons and sari fabric, too, which are adorned with beads and such. We're also making corsages and embellishments. She's selling under the name "Cobweb Creations", so she's quite busy making pretty things. It's all coming along rather nicely - we're an entire cottage industry.



( Clicky for more )

I've just placed a huge order for components and commission supplies as well as new displays for fairs and events. I haven't had a chance to do any updates for the site, and all new stock/repeats have sold already. I didn't even get a chance to photograph the new stock, which is upsetting, but I'd rather sell it than photograph it! I have a few commissions on the go and am manically making stuff for a big three day Fair coming up in July. I also just had a huge order on the site last night, so I'm a relatively happy bunny.

I've been asked to stock my jewellery in quite a few independent gift and jewellery boutiques, but up until now I haven't felt like doing that - I like the control of selling it myself - however I'm coming around to the idea, especially since quite a few places are interested and approaching me, rather than the other way around. If I can stock on a commission basis that would be very wonderful, but if they want to buy at wholesale, I'd not be keen. It's something to think about anyway.

Well, I'm off to order clasps. What's everyone doing this weekend?

Argh, I can hardly move. Mum, my gran and I went out to Dundee to Jimmy Chung's Chinese Buffet and holy Kung Po Chicken do they have a lot to offer a hungry soul. I ate more than I've eaten in ten years in one go, or so it feels like. It was nice, though, and I now love Lemon Chicken with Orange Sauce - it makes me feel healthy with the fruit option - let's forget all about the deep fried coating.

Tom's gone down to HellCumbria for a few days. My dad's gone to Spain for a week. I feel totally shit that I'm not going anywhere and haven't for years. The last holiday I had was in fucking 2002 - I'm well overdue. I've had such a rough time lately that I really need to get away and yet here I am - the only one not away. I was talking with Jo tonight about it and she feels much the same way - if only I had some cash to just book a flight and go and get away from everyone and thing that drags me down. I need to re-new my passport before I do that though, which is like £80 or something. Money issues are kinda piling up. I've had so much expenditure recently, for unforeseeable things that have cropped up that I'm living on credit - it sucks. Even my damn journal and icons are expiring in a couple of days and I've just had to spend £100 on insurance. Meh.

I took my mum to see Marti Pellow at the Concert Hall a few weeks back (don't say a word - she loves him and I have residual early 90s love for him still - oh, how I miss the ponytail). He was singing classic big band stuff but slowed down - my gran nearly fell asleep and spent the whole night waiting for "Love Is All Around" - unfortunately he isn't legally allowed to sing any of the Wet Wet Wet stuff, so she wasn't best pleased at all. She also had a hearing aid mishap and had been unplugged for 80% of the night, and she was messing about with it, tinkling and giving off feedback during one of the quieter moments - my mum and I found it 'larious but the lady next to us was snorting with much annoyance - wretched old bag. I was secretly hoping he would have sung Angel Eyes :(

I made some "Penelope" icons the other day - I can't wait for it to be released on DVD - I loved that film so much.



There are a load over at loopyicons.

Well, it's getting kinda late so I'm going to go get into bed with some tea and delve back into "The Time Traveller's Wife" for an hour.

I don't really want to talk about my last entry. Nothing's ok, but I'm dealing with it more than I was before. Thank you to everyone who emailed me and sent such nice messages *hugs* and I'm sorry for being so uncommunicative lately - I don't mean anything negative by it - I just need a bit of time away, I think.

All I have to say is:

~ I love ice cream with honey drizzled on top and fresh blackberries
~ I love soft spring rain falling onto green polka dot umbrella ella ella's
~ I love freshwater pearls against my skin
~ I love my mum & dad incredibly
~ I love wool
~ I love creativity and creating
~ I love dreams

I've got a 10% sale on at Stepharia Jewellery because I did a re-colour of the layout for a Spring feel - It's pretty. You need to refresh every page in order to view it - my cache keeps loading up half-green pages and old order forms!

I'm not in any better a mood or personal state, but thank you so much for all the emails, comments and messages offering your support - I appreciate it incredibly.

♥

Last week was very difficult.

I was supposed to have my wisdom teeth removed on Friday but the surgeon is sick and I've been re-scheduled for eight sodding weeks time. I've been in a hell of a state this week, trying to build myself up for it. It won't be a standard extraction and I'll have to sign this form because it's going to be a very complicated procedure. I can't have the usual anaesthetic or pain meds because of my diabetic control issues. Now I have the thought of it hanging over my head for another eight weeks. This is the third time they've cancelled now. Great.

I'm thankfully over my flu and am feeling a bit stronger. The whole period thing hasn't abated, but I'm taking vitamins and I ate steak last night - Perhaps I won't have to resort to vampirism just yet.

I'm in the middle of re-designing the graphics for my site again - something Spring-like is in the offing.

My mum and I went to see "27 Dresses" last week. I won't even review because it was so disgustingly bad. I only went because my mum thought it might be full of lovely clothes, but it wasn't and I'm not fussed on any of the actors in it, either. Seriously, don't waste your money going to see it. If I wasn't too tired to move I would've walked out of the cinema. Also the cinema was full of 13 year old's on school holidays, who were screaming and laughing and throwing sweets at people (as most of you know I despise kids, so I was having a lot of internal debate about whether to risk a jail sentence and behead them all), and the floor by my seat was sticky and my new boots stuck to the mysterious stickiness and I was thoroughly disgusted and appalled. I shan't be back to the cinema until the Sex & the City film is released.

Jo and her mum were up a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to see them both and we all had a very nice time. Lots of lovely food was eaten and shops visited and much chattering was had by all. I was exhausted afterwards but it was a nice change to have house guests again.

I have to make a huge decision tomorrow and I'm absolutely bricking it. I'll release more details when I'm sure. It's simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

Right, I'm off to listen to some Imogen Heap.

Urgh, I'm so sick - I've come down with the most wretched flu. I had my first Craft Fair of the season on Saturday and I had to cancel :( I'd busted my gut getting loads of new items, repeats and displays sorted out only to be struck down on Friday evening. Tom has had a cold all week, but that's all - just a sniffle. I obviously caught it off him, and with my immune system having gone on holiday years ago, I'm left close to dying. I've managed to get out of bed, check for orders (they'll be out ASAP, I promise) and such, post this and now I'm going straight back to my bed with Gucci (who hasn't left my side - he's been looking after me well) and hot milk with honey.

I will get to all comments that I'm owing soon, but for now I must go and cough up a lung perhaps.

Hope everyone has had a far better weekend than I have!

<3

I'm going to be doing a Spring clean of my f-list tomorrow. I'll be removing people whom I do not talk with very often, or at all, people I don't really like (lol), and that about covers it.

I won't be removing brand new people and my actual friends, so no fears there, but if you would definitely like to stay, then leave a comment.

Also, if I remove you and you think I shouldn't have, then please say - a few people have changed their LJ names and I'm not quite sure what they are, so don't throw baby alligators at me if I remove you by accident!

Ah-thank-yah.

A long overdue update for March!

Less items, but a couple of the bracelets are pretty special, if I say so myself! I'm completely in love with Melusina's Vision.



Stepharia Jewellery



I must update my journal soon - not that I have much to say, heh, but there are a couple of pictures and things to include :)

I decided to change my journal layout on a whim. I'm really pleased with it. It's very pretty and girly, with a touch of melancholy thrown in for balance. I'm totally in love with Kate - guh.

I did come across the most disturbing image when Google Image Searching for new pictures of Kate - I'd say green doesn't suit you, sir.

I watched "LOST" tonight - wow, that was quite an episode. Desmond is heavenly, but I've noticed he does suffer a bit with CrazyEye Syndrome - his right eye was all over the place tonight! I feared it was going to make an untimely exit from it's socket. He must keep an eye on that - I'm amazing with humour. He's now named Desmond CrazyEye LOST. Despite his crazy eye moments I still want to be Mrs Steph Desmond CrazyEye LOST. I also want to be Mrs Steph Triangular-Sloping-Shoulders Sawyer.

I was extremely irked the other day. I was going to attend the Scottish Bead Fair last Sunday, but I totally forgot about it (plus I was sick, so I couldn't have gone anyway, but still ... >:E ), but thankfully I'm going to another one next week, which will have two of my favourite wholesalers there, so lots of lovely pearls and Czech crystal *cheers*.

I saw a trip to London for £99 for two nights accommodation and rail travel included. I'm so desperate to get away for a bit - even two nights! Just somewhere a bit different. Can't get much better than London, either. I love it there.

Argh, it's late! I must get to bed, but I think I need to pay some attention to my icon community - I haven't made any icons for months and I also need to change the layout ... Hmm, might do that tomorrow.

iSleep <3

Whee, I've finally finished the site's new design and it's up and running (after a tumultuous moment with my FTP program!).

I'm really happy with it so to celebrate I'm offering 10% reductions to everyone on LJ!



Stepharia Jewellery

Remember to F5 or reload your screens a few times to see the design and updates!

*happy dance*

I'm having a really rubbish day.

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely dire. So sick with terrible pains in my stomach. I ended up vomiting a huge amount of bile and then falling back into bed and slept until 2.15pm - a totally wasted day.

I also passed out last night from a diabetic related incident. Argh, it's been a shit weekend health-wise.

I've been re-designing my site and I've just done something monumentally bad, which has fraked everything up and I can't fix it.

Today is made up of terrible amounts of total fail.

I went to see "Penelope" on tuesday with my mum. We loved. It's such a sweet film. Yeah, it's naive, silly, not brilliant, but very watchable and offers plenty of escapism. I couldn't believe that she actually has the same shoes as I do! Pea Green Mary-Jane's! They're my favourite shoes. Penelope and I are shoe twins. You can see them if you go to www.penelopethemovie.co.uk and watch the trailer - if you have absolutely nothing else to do lol. The clothes were gorgeous! I wear pretty much the same sort of stuff, so it was nice to see it reflected in a contemporary film. I adored the sets and locations - it was all magical, but not too Disney. Christina Ricci = <3 x infinity, also. James McAvoy was loooooovely, too, but has very nasty nails - rather disappointing. It's very much in the "Ever After" category - stick it on on a cold afternoon, get wrapped up in a blanket and have hot chocolate and copious amounts of chocolate biscuits and just lose yourself for a couple of hours.

Graham was visiting from Hawaii last week, so I met up with him in Dundee on Wednesday - it was very fab to see him again!



Hope you had a good flight back and I'll email you soon <3

- Valentine's Day -

I started off the morning getting my hair dyed again. I decided to go dark again and my hair is now a very dark shade of brown - it looks black in low light. I like it - it reminds me of how I looked in 2004 - I was 24 then ... oh youth, how I miss thee. Anyway, I'll post some pictures of the hair later.

I met Tom after he got out of work - he was waiting outside of Marks & Spencers with a dozen red roses for me. Aww!



We then went on to a restaurant for dinner (the only one that wasn't fully booked!) and had Mexican food. We exchanged gifts. Tom got me "Atonement" on DVD, a lovely little jewelled trinket box and a gorgeous card. I got him a poetry book, champagne truffles and I made him a photo card of us being "spethial" i.e retarded on one side, and sickly sweet on the other - I even gave us Photoshopped sparkles in our hair - for shame.

The desserts were so fab at the restaurant, though ...



Tom had a kiwi fruit palm tree in his ice cream!



I had Pecan Pie with some kind of parrot or rabbit made of kiwi and pineapple and blackcurrant coolis. The pie was delicious.

We then went on for a drink and to the cinema. The only film showing at the time was "National Treasure - Book of Secrets", so hardly romantic and not very good, but it was silly entertainment. Not one of Helen Mirren's finest choices!



Tom isn't drunk - he was just very full of food.

It was a nice night, though, and our first Valentine's where we went out on a date, so that made a nice change.

We went to Broughty Ferry (close to Dundee) on Saturday for a little wander by the sea. I bought a book about the supernatural. I wish I hadn't. It's freaking me out. I was on the computer on Saturday night and the book was sitting behind me on the kitchen counter. I was convinced something was going to rise from the pages and grab me, so I eventually had to put it in another room. I've also convinced myself that I've now been cursed by the book. Why do I do these things?

One last thing - there are a couple of special offer deals over at my website all in honour of Mother's Day here in the UK, on the 2nd of March - there are loads of bargains, so check it out if you like :)



Stepharia Jewellery

I finally plucked up the courage to drag Tom along to a Ceroc dance class. Ceroc is basically Modern Jive, which is reasonably easy to learn and is for all levels of fitness and age. Well, we were both pretty much bricking it before we went in, but once we did it, went through the membership process with Colin (lolz), and got sat down at a table, we settled our nerves. Then we had to get up on the floor for the beginners class. You have to rotate partners every few minutes, so that you can learn more by dancing with people who're more experienced etc. That's a really good thing (despite Tom and I thinking it really definitely certainly wasn't, to begin with), because as soon as we ended back dancing with each other, after about 30 other people, we completely frakked up the routine. However we managed to learn it all and were even asked to dance for the "Freestyle".

Tom was asked by the best dancer woman in the whole place, which I found h i l a r i o u s! Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy my observation of his immense discomfort and terrible, desperate feelings of inadequacy as a dancer properly, as lovely-but-very-enthusiastic-Colin (now known as Lbvec - sounds east European) asked me up to do some 'stylin' (oh yeah, girl - watch me bust some damn fine Tyra moves on that floor - ahem). Lbvec decided to deviate from the routine - the routine I had only just secured in my mind moments before, and swizzled it all around, throwing in a shoulder drop here and a push spin there when it wasn't supposed to be there. I had no idea where I was going - I was still spinning three hours after we got home. I'm really pleased we went, though, and what is intensely surprising is that Tom enjoyed it and "wants to learn more - yeah! *high five*" (I didn't make that up). So, we'll go back and learn three more out of the 18 beginner's moves - holy hell.

The only negative about the dancing is that it's pretty much wiped me out health-wise. I'm really not in a good place physically right now, so it's had a lot of repercussions. I think I just overdid it a bit - we were dancing for three hours, so considering I'm nearly unconscious due to high blood sugars most days, I don't think I did too bad.

Have I ever mentioned that I despise printers almost as much as I despise Gwyneth Paltrow? Dude! Seriously. My old printer had just become friends with me after three years, then it packs in and goes loco on me. I go get a new one and it messes up immediately! I called the support line to get help on Thursday morning and still no call by today, after promising me a call within 48 hours! I've been incensed! Anyway, I finally lose my rag this afternoon, call them in a hell of a temper (unlike me because I'm usually a bit of a mouse when I have to make phone calls - but so strong was my fury), only to be told by Roberto "I'ma sorry, Misses Stepha, you have faulty preenter and you musta take backa to da store for 'mediate, ah, replacement, yes?" ERM, NO! I've waited nearly a week for that? I could've told you that last Thursday, dickwad! I was raging. Anyway, I'll take it back tomorrow and no doubt end up with squat. I really do have the very worst luck with printing equipment indeed.

Can I just say that I love the Monsoon 75% sale. I just got two cardigans, a dress and two skirts for £25. I totaled it up to be a regular price of over £375, so mucho pleased. Oh, and Tom bought me the Prettiest Skirt In The World from there last Tuesday because I have to have my Wizzie Teeth removed: read below.

I went to the hospital to the dental part to have a specialist look at my wisdom teeth last week. Unfortunately an x-ray revealed that I need to have one extracted from the top and bottom on the left side. I'm absolutely terrified. The man explained that there's going to be some complications, too, due to my diabetes, so I'll have a local rather than general anasthetic. The healing time is usually a week, but because my healing process is trashed it'll be more like a month. This means I'll have a swollen face and bruising for a month - I want a fucking high octane face lift for that kinda side-effect! Bloody hell, that's just not on at all. Consequently I'm panicking internally for 67% of each day, and will continue to do so until the morning of the 28th, when I have the surgery, then I'll be very, very visibly and vocally panicking. *sigh* I need to go to my Hungarian Well for a little while to just sit in the dank and contemplate my wretched luck.

I've been baking. Well, I haven't been baking. I've been concocting. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I NEED to get some weight lost. I've put on ridiculous amounts in a year - about 20lbs and my already fragile health can't handle any more, so I've been trying to ignore Tom and his disgraceful-but-tempting diet of crisps, chocolate and refined, fatty foods. It's not an easy thing to do (especially when he's eating and offering me Mars Bars all the time) but I'm eating a good healthy selection of foods. A typical day at the moment is as follows:

Breakfast - Green Tea with Lemongrass, Half wholewheat bagel with no-fat cottage cheese.
Lunch - A rye crispbread thingy with tomato, cucumber and a scraping of low-fat cream cheese - blergh
Dinner - Cesar salad with no dressing (*sob*), grilled chicken, apple and blueberries.
Snacks - Apple or orange, pumpkin seeds with chili seasoning, green pepper and carrot batons.

Now I've been doing this for two weeks and I haven't lost any weight. I've also tried to be more active, even though it's a struggle energy wise. My thoughts on this are FUCK OFF. So, I wonder where I'm going wrong ...

Anyway ... I've been going out of my mind with the need for something sweet, so I decided to make my own flapjacks (yes, I'm re-visiting flapjacks, despite flapjack-gate of 2004). Not only were they flapjacks, but they were flapjacks of my own recipe. I bought some oats, flobbed in a bit of honey, milk, red grape juice (why?), creme fraishe, broken up bits of Ginger Snap (I was winging it ala Nigella at this point. I'm surprised I didn't add some camel hump & ochre stock at this point) and swished it all around in a pretty bowl, while I sung Doris Day songs tunefully. I plonked it all into a tray and slapped it around until it was laying obediently in a nice even layer and shoved it in the fridge. Two hours later I returned, retrieved the container from the fridge and skipped merrily (with a little Ceroc armjive spin thrown in for kicks) to the island to enjoy the fruits of my labour. I joyfully cut into the layer of oatyness and ignored the fact that it was slightly "liquid-esque", and prepared to faint from the wondrous taste of my oat-creation. ..

If we now kindly skip ahead five minutes and pretend that oats have never been discovered I'd be quite grateful. It was woeful :( I'm just not able to be a freestyling, flapjack-baking chef *big sigh*

I've just downloaded Limewire again, so please to be offering me fantastical songs and artists to download - I'm in the mood for new sounds.

A couple of film reviews:

Sweeney Todd

I saw Sweeney Todd last Tuesday with mum and Tom. I really enjoyed it and was deeply in love with the styling and aesthetics of it all. The daydream scene was wonderful. I almost cried at the gorgeousness of the clothing, locations and styling. I want to live in that dream sequence until the end of my days. I really need to make some icons. As for the rest of the film, I was a little underwhelmed after all of the amazing reviews, but I do think it's a film that you could watch again and possibly enjoy more the second time around. The actors voices were adequate. Helena sounded pretty, and Johnny reminded me slightly of David Bowie - definitely has that tonal quality. Overall I would give it a 7.75 out of 10.

Enchanted

Well, I didn't go to see this expecting anything amazing and my prediction was well-realised. It's fluff and magic and girly and silly and pink, but it is rather sweet and sometimes you need a little innocence to balance the cynicism. It's an empty and pretty way to spend a couple of hours. I LOVED the wee squirrel, though. 6 out of 10.

Adrift

Tom and I watched this over the weekend and it was a strange one. It was firstly incredibly frustrating and agravating. You can't quite imagine how a group of people can be quite so stupid and to think it's based on true events! Then the ending ... wtf was that about? I didn't know what way to take it. I will say that the suspense was reasonably played and I did keep watching, so in that sense it did its job. 5 out of 10

Eh, it's getting late - I should go to sleep - I've need all the strength I can get for returning this Printer of Doom tomorrow. Wish me luck <3

But first, a meme:

( One Word )

I haven't written an entry in ages! I thought it was about time. Not as though much has happened lately, though, to be honest. I really ought to write up my Christmas and New Year ... I still haven't listed my haul! It's tradition to do so, so I must rectify that, even if it will be fashionably late.

I finally bought my new computer and I'm happily writing on it now. I'm having a few issues with adjusting to a desktop keyboard again, but not doing too badly. It's amazing to have a 24" screen - I'm loving it. The only thing I don't have set up is Adobe Photoshop, so I downloaded it from the Adobe site and have 30 days to figure out how to get a serial number for it, lolz.

It's so nice to play "Sims 2" again (my DVD drive was fraked on my old laptop), even if it is consuming me. I've gotten precious little done this week because of all the house building and downloading of over 800 Sim files. It's ridiculous indeed. The computer is keeping me happy, though and I've been busily transferring all my files and such. It takes forever to get them off my old laptop and a quarter of the time on the new one. Yay for processors. It's great to be able to use two applications at once! My old laptop was really enduring it's twilight years.

I've given it a good overhaul now, though, and it's working well enough for my mum to potter about on it. She isn't really that computer savvy (understatement), but has been taking a course down in the village and she's managing to get about. Surprisingly it's emailing that's causing her the most trouble. I did receive a couple of emails from her, though. The first being:

Hi sweetie,

Just sending you a little note to tell you I am up and running with my own everything.
I will have to be careful not to put in too many bids on Ebay for grandfather clocks and houses and other little morsels.

Love you sweetpea, and thanks for setting me up.

Tell Tom to be quiet please.

Bye
Mummy xxxxxxx

Hehe! Then 40 minutes later ...

Hi Steph,

Running out of patience when I can't get the bloody thing right first time.

Mummyxxxxx

Another 30 minutes later ...

bit sick now - can't remember my other bits at the moment. Must watch Prison Break.

Note that there was no "hello sweetie" this time, not even a goodbye! She'll get the hang of it eventually *prays*.

Random thought - I love using a new pen for the first time.

Ok, enough waffling - here's my Christmas haul and some photos.

( Clickity )

Well, it's pretty late and my backside is numb from typing out all this picture code. I'm going to climb into bed, grab Gucci and drift off...

The first update of 2008!

There are over 15 new items to look at, including two gorgeous new necklaces and many bracelets.

Please also check out the final reductions - many huge savings, so order soon!



Stepharia Jewellery

I'm back from Cumbria now, and it went worse than I anticipated. I shan't go into detail, but I got home on Sunday (after a truly wretched train journey, where some woman and her child were sitting in our seats, which then forced us to sit beside some football fans who stunk of alcohol, BO and cigarettes and who were wearing nylon coats - I was terrified I'd be set alight if I so much as allowed one strand of my cashmere coat to make contact with their electric-blue garments). I'm still recovering and have done literally nothing all day yesterday and today. I plan to force myself back into action tomorrow and will definitely do something constructive.

A couple of ok things happened in Cumbria - one being a trip to Keswick, and one shop in particular called Magpie - I saw the shop the last time I was there and fell in love with a hand-embroidered Indian shawl in emerald silk. This time, I had a mission. I finally own it and can now do authentic Bollywood dances and flap my shawl around. I also managed to procure it from Thomas, being that he's trying to be all Good Boyfriend-ish and I'm naturally taking advantage (well within my girlfriend rights, all things considered). I also got a very nice green suede handbag courtesy of the Bank of Tom.

I bought a few other things, too. It's been nice to indulge in a little retail therapy. It's been a while since I have what with spending everything on jewellery components and the like. I will have to tighten my belt now, though, as I'm hoping to order a computer tomorrow *hula dance*.

I've finished my first book of the year. I'm definitely serious about getting into reading more and I must dedicate a set amount of time for it weekly.

If you have any good recommendations, then please pass them on - I'm always interested in new books. Has anyone read The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger? I've heard good reviews, but a lot of people have said it's quite emotionally heavy, and I'm not sure I want that right now - opine for me plz.

I think I want to change my journal layout again - suggest colours and themes to me plz - my creativity is directed elsewhere and I feel the need to glean off others.

Ok, I really didn't have much of a reason for writing, but I'm up later than expected tonight and I felt like rambling. I'm tired now, though. SLEEP.