Sunday, April 01, 2007

Swansea Race for Life

on 20th May 2007 - I'll be entering the Swansea Race for Life
Please take a moment to sponsor me at the link below.
Bohobeads Boutique will be announcing further fundraising details in the next few weeks.


Monday, March 26, 2007

A380 Lands at Filton for the first time




Up early again to get to Bristol in time to see the A380 land. Not that this is common knowledge of course....mind you 6000 people turned up to watch :)

Deciding that Cribbs Causeway shopping centre was the best place to view the landing, once parked up, with lunch in hand (from M&S of course) then it was up on the grassy knoll to watch. After half an hour of waiting, with quite a few onlookers, the A380 came into sight off the estuary and flew over the Filton Airbus site and Rolls Royce site before looping back towards the estuary to land. It was so quiet for such a huge plane whilst in the sky, and then touched down on the runway with the roar of full thrust reversers. An amazing sight. Pictures and hopefully a movie clip to follow....





Link to movie clip of A380 landing at filton

Torchwood, Doctor Who and Kelly Jones

Sunday 25th March

Here comes the summer - well the clocks changed and there's a hint of sunshine at least. Not as warm as yesterday...still we're off to the Bay today to see Kelly Jones at the Coal Exchange.

But first...yes we need some food in the Bay. There's too many restaurants to choose from and even less time to choose, so we decide that we're going to make an effort to visit every restaurant in Cardiff Bay in the next year or so.....hey Sunday lunch, here we come!

We decide on a nice little Italian overlooking the bay. The menu looks amazing and it lived up to every expectation. Also deciding to try something new, well that was the plan to start with, but that calamari was far too tempting....the carpaccio was excellent, as was the bruschetta. Main courses included a fabulous pizza (parma ham and rocket) and penne pasta with chicken. Of course the menu is in Italian and is a lot more exotic than I am making it sound. You know it's going to be good when all the staff speak Italian as their first language!

Oh and on the table behind us was a Cardiff blues player.....Xavier Rush

After tea we took a stroll round the Bay, on a bit of a Doctor Who and Torchwood quest, deciding we really should come back when we have more time to take in the culture (not only of Doctor Who) but the Welsh docks and now moderised Bay.

Then onto Kelly Jones at the Coal Exchange. Another very historic building in Butetown. After a 50 minute set from his new solo album, he returned to the stage to give an acoustic set of Stereophonics tracks from their first 2 albums - absolutely amazing. The coal exchange holds only a few hundred people so it was a fabulous gig, second only to James Dean Bradfield who we saw earlier in the year. Actually we'll be seeing JDB again in May at the CIA in Cardiff with the Manic Street Preachers.

Most memorable moment.....the crowd singing to Kelly Jones......
We don't wanna be,
Your enemy,
But when we're on the field,
It's red, white and green,
Got beat by the Irish,
Got beat by the Scots,
The French had a struggle,
But you're the one we want,
We want...
As long as we beat the English,
As long as we beat the English,
As long as we beat the English,
we don't care
As long as we beat the English,
As long as we beat the English,
As long as we beat the English,
we don't
don't care


Priceless!!!

Ole Ole Ole Ole.....

Saturday 24th March

EDF semi final day in Cardiff -Leceister Tigers vs Sale Sharks and then Ospreys vs Cardiff Blues at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.

In reality this means a bit of shopping for the girls before arriving just before the start of the Ospreys match! Cool!

Of course a good lunch is also warranted before such a rugby fest, so down in the Brewery Quarter we tried out Coal, Bar and grill. The food was great - fantastic starters of deep fried calamari - including suckers! Haloumi and Chorizo kebabs. Main courses of what amounts to burger and chips, but really is nothing like it sounds. Aberdeen Angus beef burgers, proper beef tasting burgers, with red onion, lettuce, chilli, tomato in a huge fresh bun with chips. Amazing. Highly recommend to everyone.

A glorious sunny day in Cardiff to watch the match -Ospreys win of course which means they are in the final at Twickenham next month...great!!!

So who's up for 4 hours on the coach each way then....anyone?? Ole, Ole Ole Ole, Ospreys )Ospreys!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Tweaked Blog!

Made a few little changes and upgraded the blog - adding some links to all bohobeads boutique outlets and also some of my favourite links for business and pleasure!

New ETSY store just opened!

Hot news....bohobeadsboutique has just opened a new store on ETSY. I'll pop a link on the left menu bar....why not take a quick peek?

Etsy is a site that sells all things handcrafted, and that's all. There's some amazing designers on there - very inspiring for all you creative types. I'm hoping this will open up the US market a little more. I do get quite a few customers from the US, so I hope this may help with reaching more knitters!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Wine Cape

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New Avenues

It's been a busy few weeks, what with one thing and another....

The beading studio is fully kitted out with 2 extra work tables to cope with beading, paperwork and packaging! With a bit of rearrangement the entire room has been put to better use, which is great as now everything has a home, well, a place at least!

Bead auctions have increased week on week, with almost daily trips now to the post office to send all those packages out! I still have many more ideas, although I am struggling to find the time to sit and design.

The new Bohobeads website, complete with shopping cart is nearly ready to launch. With a bit of luck it will be up and running in the next couple of weeks. The website will run in conjunction with the existing eBay and now etsy websites.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

It's snowing!

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Photo's from Margam Park, Wales







New Range of Beaded Spectacle Cords



This cord has black Swarovski pearls to add detail.
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Funky Angel Fish Stitch Markers
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Newly created items for January 2007!

I really do like these stitch markers - very feminine and perfect gift for a knitter for Valentines! The hearts are so tiny and delicate, each with a hint of AB on them! I do have these in other colours as well although these really do suit the mood right now!
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Splitty Refurbish Engine!

After months of hard work, the engine has been re assembled, ready to go back into the camper in a few weeks.
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Saturday, January 20, 2007

The Christmas Rush

Business was starting to pick up now, items selling daily, however the web site is no nearer completion. The potential is there, I can see it. So how can I make this work.......

A last minute opportunity arises to have a stall at a Christmas Craft Fair in Mumbles. This is too good an opportunity to miss out on. With 5 days to get ready with everything needed to sell, plus the stall to set up, and the 9-5 having a HUGE deadline that week, it was going to be pretty tough. A few late nights both at work and home, meant that we were just about ready on the day of the Fair. A dress rehearsal the night before in my kitchen, mocking up the stall, deciding where and how everything would be displayed, was definitely worth it. It took us about 3 hours to get everything as we wanted it, to have all the displays ready and the packaging.

We left early on the day of the Fair, arriving an hour before the doors opened to the public. We were just ready by the time the the first people came in. It was an interesting experience, we didn't sell very much, but that was OK, it was a quiet fair, which was unusual for Mumbles. Our costs for the day were covered and it's very different from selling sat in your home listing items on eBay, as opposed to meeting the customers and actually selling the items to them directly.

A lot can happen in 3 months........

It's been a few months since I've really found the time to post. My 9-5 has been hectic and stressful, with few days that were actually 9-5, more like 9-8, and then there was the Christmas rush on eBay, so it's been very busy designing, creating, listing, packing, posting and the good news is, it's continuing into 2007.





So since November it's been fairly busy. Slightly frustrating too as I have many creative and business ideas, but as always very little time in which to act on them.





October....





This month saw the creation and design of a new range of spectacle cords. All hand beaded with seed beads, bugle beads and swarovski crystals. I've taken to making these whilst watching the Osprey's thrash their opponents. It means I can time myself quite nicely to make these, which is one cord completely finished by the time the whistle goes for half time and Gavin is rushing to the changing rooms to apply fresh hair gel. All change for me too as I select a new set of colour beads, grab a cuppa and as the whistle goes to start the second half (and Gavin is re spiked) then I am also ready to make the next spectacle chain.








Within a week both had sold.





Then came the idea for bookthongs, or bookmarks as my mother prefers!

Quicker to make, easy to design and they make fabulous Christmas presents. During November demand started to increase, with even some custom orders requested.

Fantastic!