New Makes

My recent makes were bespoke tiaras for a bride, first communions and a little ice skater.

Front View

Side View

 This tiara is called Shirley after the brides mother.  The design is based on the embroidery on the wedding dress.

This tiara has a double barrel named after the little girl it was made for. It was a First Communion tiara and the little girls communion dress had a shamrock design on it. It is called Caitlin Ciara.
My other communion tiara was designed by the grandmother and I interpreted her design using sterling silver. To make it more affordable I changed the design slightly by removing the initial E and using silver plated wire. Here are the 2 designs. The first is the sterling silver one, the second picture is the silver plated version.

Erica in sterling silver

Silver plated Erica

I designed this tiara to match Megan's ice skating dress. Here is a picture of her dress for you to see how I came about the idea.

A happy Megan

Kapusta

Or Polish Cabbage....
It has been some time since I have posted on my blog as it has been a very difficult start to the year again with my mum having 4 hospital stays, my sister having an operation, my niece suffering from viral meningitis and my 2 sons suffering from martial art injuries.
I usually write about my new makes or stories about my brides but if you are a follower of my blog you will also know that I sometimes write about things that have happened in my life and some of the stories are quite a good read, I know because I often read them myself to remind me of things that have been quite significant in my life.
Now I bet you are wondering about my title of this blog.  Kapusta is Polish for cabbage, pickled cabbage to be more accurate. For the first time in my 40 something years I had the opportunity to make it for the very first time for my family. My mum used to make it all the time when we were little because my dad was Polish and he liked cabbage.  In more recent years it was my sister who made it, I always watched on. I suspect both my mum and sister thought no one could make it as good as they knew how to make it, and to be honest I never pushed to make it as it did look a little complicated. Well anyway, I was so happy at how tasty is turned out I mentioned it on facebook.  As a result of that I have had a request for the recipe. So here it is...
1 sachet of Kapusta 500g (found with the Polish food in the chiller cabinet) or
1 jar of Kapusta (found with the Polish food section of the shop)
1 small onion
2 to3 rashers of bacon
2 pepperami
1 smoked sausage (Mattesson)
Olive oil
2 Oxo cubes
3 to 4 bay leaves
Sprinkling of fennel seeds
Pinch of salt
Open the cabbage and place the cabbage in a cauldron and run it under the cold water for a few minutes to rinse off the vinegar
Pour some olive oil into a pan and chop up the onion and gently fry the chopped onion until soft
Chop the bacon and add to the onion and hot olive oil, chop the pepperami and add to the pot. Finally chop the smoke sausgage and add it to the pot. Gently stir fry for a few minutes until bacon looks cooked.
Drain the water from the cabbage and remove the pot from the heat before adding the cabbage. Once the cabbage has been added return to the heat.
Add the bay leaves and a pinch of salt, sprinkle on a little fennel seed. Crumble the oxo cubes (it gives the cabbage a nice colour)
Finally just cover the cabbage with water then bring to the boil and then simmer.
NOW the question you will be asking is "how long do I simmer it for?"  I asked mum this question and she said "until its cooked"....."erm and that would be?", I ask  "As long a possible, the longer the better it tastes" So I will say let it simmer for a least 2 hours and make sure it doesn't dry out but neither do you want it swimming in water.
Serve with either a jacket potato or a chunk of crusty bread and enjoy!

Looking forward to the New Year

This time of year always goes very quiet for me probably because I dont push my jewellery enough. Maybe next year I will try and do something about it. SO in the meantime I have already started looking towards a couple of events for next year. Apart from all my usual wedding fayres at the start of the new year, which I might add can be quite a few, I have two other events that I am quite excited about. The first, I am hoping will bring me a little bit of business for next year, is Miss Falkirk 2011 being organised by a girl called Fiona, who's business is called Extensions by Fiona. She has asked me to design two tiaras by way of sponsorship. One for the winner and two for second and third runner up. The design was being left totally up to me. I have also offered a prize of a necklace to the winner which I have still to make. I decided I wanted to make something that said Falkirk and nothing says Falkirk more than the oldest landmark in Falkirk, The Steeple
The local football team have managed to immortalise The Steeple in a simple design to promote their club, so taking the basic shape of the design I managed to create my winners tiara for Miss Falkirk 2011. Here is my take on the design.  As you can see my drawing is not up to much but I knew what I wanted to create.

Here is the finished tiara

The next idea I had was to make the runner up tiara design on Falkirks newest landmark. The Falkirk Wheel. I used the lines and shapes from the Falkirk Wheel to come up with this design.

And here is the finished design.

The other event I am looking forward too but unfortunately I am not directly involved with is The Royal Wedding. I guess its nice to dream that maybe one day I might have the honour of being By Royal Appointment but in the meantime I consider all my brides to be Princesses in Waiting. So I designed a traditional looking tiara fit for a princess for my brides being married in 2011. Here it is and it is called Catherine.

Speak of True Love, A peom by Nicola Sanderson

This Poem was written by Nicola Sanderson for the occasion of Helen Jackson & David Leslie's wedding on the 4th September 2010. It was read at the service in St Wilfrids Church, Burnsall. If you wish to use it for your wedding please remember to credit the penning of this poem to Nicola Sanderson. Thank you.

Speak of True Love
By Nic Sanderson for Helen and Dave

“Come talk of love” you ask,
though countless bards were buried by the task,
for where is love, that we may
drive a pin in it - a butterfly displayed.
Has play, book, verse or essay ream
encompassed its expansive meaning?

Is love encircled by a golden band
or in old age by a comforting hand?
More than desire and longer than life,
a partner through all their pain and strife,
that they would walk hot coals at your behest,
or simply knowing someone likes you best?

Is love heart’s swoop upon first meeting,
or that still it soars on one thousandth greeting?
Entwining souls, a perfect match,
is it fate, a gift, or a fine catch?
Is it the romantic walks on the shore?
Yes, it is this.  And yet it’s more.

When sent in search of love’s true bloom
I consulted our friends, the bride and groom
They said ‘sleepy kisses when first stirred,
or still laughing at lines the second time heard
looking forward to meeting when homeward bound,
Perhaps it’s here that love is found.

They spoke of a caring, trusting bond,
pride in each other and warm fondness,
being a team right from the start,
acceptance of flaws with full heart,
romantic watery settings that portend
to a pair more than special and best of friends

Love is, then, all of this… and none,
for here, today, is love’s definition won
with two short words, and one heart’s beat,
you lay all your tomorrows at love’s feet.
Speak of love you say?
But it is you who teach us all of love, this day.

© Nicola Sanderson

August a busy month!

August saw me and hubby celebrating our silver wedding anniversary.  We had a family BBQ on what I think was the hottest Sunday afternoon of the month.  On the actual day of our anniversary we went to the Lea park Hotel where we had our wedding reception 25 years ago, for a lovely meal.

 The the following Saturday we went off to Gran Canaria for a weeks holiday.  It was very hot there! We stayed a privately owned apartment. The swimming pool was lovely and quiet and the beach was gorgeous. Our one and only excursion was a jeep safari.  It was really good fun, the driver would pretend to fall asleep leaving me panicking as I held on to the steering wheel.  We also went on a camel ride. We had a scary experience there, as the camel behind us was pushed into our camel by the camel behind him who had freaked out. My arm was caught between the metal bars of the seats on the camels as was hubby's knee.We also swam in a reservoir the temperature was 45 degrees in the mountains.

On our return to the UK we only had a few days before we went down to Burnsall in England for a wedding.  Burnsall is a very small village in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone connection. The hotel where the wedding reception was held was very old and quaint. It was called The Red Lion. The scenery was breathtaking and we fully understood why David & Helen chose to have their wedding there. It gave me the opportunity to make a headdress for myself to wear. I made this one called Hayley.

While we were at the wedding there was a Viking festival. Sometimes we didn't know where we should be..at the wedding or watching what was going on at the festival.  Here are some pictures I took of it while we were at the wedding.

How I work

The pictures that follow are of me working on an order. It was for 3 side tiaras called Claire using clear ab Swarovski crystals and burgundy crystals, silver plated wire and seed beads. I tend to either sit on the settee using a fold down plastic table or if I am at my mums, I sit on the floor using a folding blue plastic table.
As you can see I have already completed 2 side tiaras. 1 adult size and 1 child size. My tools are wire cutters, flat nose pliers and round nose pliers. I used 0.6mm silver plated wire to create the flower and now I am using 0.8mm wire to make the stamens. I have wrapped 2 lengths of 0.8mm wire round my silver plated tiara crown base. I have already pulled the tiara base in to the shape of an Alice band. I prefer to use the tiara crown bases as they are shorter in length than the Alice bands and often my customers dont like the feel of the Alice band around the back of their ears.
I have now threaded on the crystals. In the adult size I have used 4 clear crystals to 1 coloured crystal. Each crystal is separated by a seed bead. In the childs side tiara I have only used 3 clear crystals to 1 coloured crystal. I have finished the end of the wire off by using my round nose pliers to create a small loop and then I have snipped off the excess wire.
Next I have wrapped the flower round the centre of the stamen wires and tiara base. Again I have cut off the excess wire. Its almost finished now.
I create a centre flower using 6 x 5mm and 1 x 6mm coloured crystals to add to the centre of the the big flower. It is then wrapped round the centre of the large flower and the excess wire is cut off.
That's the order completed.

New stuff and competiton

Ok here is the new stuff I have been creating.
First one is the Grace and Emma tiara combined to make a new tiara called Gemma. It is inspired by the hairband worn by Katie Price.


I had a bride come to me last week with lots of ideas so here is what I made for her. The first is a necklace with a 5 inch back drop and is called Necklace Julie



The next thing I made for her was a twisted cake topper. It is the first one I have ever made.



Finally she asked me to design a new tiara for her and all I had to go on was a little sketch which Julie, my bride, had drawn for me. So I came up with 2 designs. The first one which she chose and asked me to call it Kelly (Julie's surname). The second one I am running a competition on Facebook to be named. The prize are 2 pairs of earrings. The first pair to the name I like the best the second pair will go to the best reason given to me for their choice of name.
Kelly