Things are very busy indeed in the pebble household. Good busy though- my order book is almost full and I have a fair every week until Christmas. There are the little pebbles to look after too of course and a birthday party to organise for a certain little girl.

I love the busy, buzzing feeling and it’s great making things for customers, but on the flip side it means I can hardly blog at all. I do miss catching up with everyone’s makes, thoughts and pictures. I’ll be back over to your place soon, so thanks to you all for bearing with me!

I’ve been peeping through the window into my garden whilst cooking, houseworking and making jewels. It’s jungly out there but the little splashes of colour and pretty shapes still remaining gave me an urge. I think your know the one - you see several things with a common theme, you want to gather them together, arrange them, look at them, photograph them. Fabric, beads, flowers, crockery, it doesn’t matter what it is. One on its own is lovely but together something special happens. Admittedly this was done yesterday, in a matter of slightly frenzied minutes, and was squeezed in between chores but it gave me the patchworky buzz. Life is hectic at the moment but this was brief but excellent relaxation therapy.

I bet the Romans were very chilled indeed.

I think most of us love making mosaics like this. Even sorting out the tots’ little socks and arranging them in a pile can be pleasing on the eye - and even feels virtuous.  I have hundreds of postcards and am always trying to find ways of putting them together so I can actually see them.

This frame hangs on our sitting room wall. There are images by Gwen John, Alfred Wallis, Winifred Nicholson and Pierre Bonnard here. Putting them together gets me excited.

This post is inspired by Carolyn. I won a giveaway on her blog and she sent me a bag of the most eclectic, beautiful treasure - pieces of patterned paper, scraps of precious, beaded material, ribbons, beads, fibres and a lovely hand-made heart.-and this was only a runner-up prize! As soon as I saw the parcel’s contents I wanted to sit cross legged on the floor, get them all out and have a play. Thankyou Carolyn - a great treat.

It’s also inspired by Jackie. Just LOOK at this!

I know many of you do this anyway but I recommend a few minutes of mosaic-making if the build-up to the ‘c’ word gets tough. It sounds indulgent and a bit dotty doesn’t it? What’s that silverpebble woman doing waltzing about her garden - she can’t be THAT busy then! Half a minute though and a pile of stash turns into a potential future project or just something easy on the eye and the blood pressure goes down. It should be on prescription.

As a little girl I used to make greetings cards. A recurring theme was flowers and leaves. I used to cut four-petalled flowers from pastel card, roll the petals round a pencil to give a third dimension, then cut, score and bend leaf shapes along their ribs.

They were popular with my captive audience - Granny P.

Inspired by a viburnum currently flowering in my front garden and berry-laden hedgerows I have made a grown-up version. It’s not a card though,

it’s a necklace. It has garnet berries and pearl centres to the flowers. I feel the same glee at putting these tiny leaves and flowers together as I did with the cardboard versions when small. Maybe even more. The berries jingle and the leaves clink slightly. Quite festive really. There is a possibility that this necklace might, just might appear on the Christmas gift pages of this magazine. Or it might not.

Either way I think, one day, I might make this with…

….ssshhh, whispers…

ruby berries. Imagine!

The following is based on a real conversation:

Mrs P’s summary of Mr P’s favourite films:

Oh no a monster.

Yikes! The monster is quite clever and has beaten everyone but me!

Oh but I managed to kill it in the end.

Phew.

Mr P’s summary of Mrs P’s favourite films:

Oh look! A handsome man I rather like.

Hmm, perhaps I don’t like him really.

Ah, I seem to have changed my mind.

Goodness, we got married!

For those who are wondering, this is vintage Hugh, circa 1998.

EDIT: Mr P and I have realised that BOTH of these descriptions describe the original Star Wars trilogy, which we both love, so not so different after all.

I hope you’re having a lovely weekend. It’s been a funny old week here. The little ones have been poorly with fevers and coughs and we’ve been haring through the calpol. MissP1 burned up a couple of times so she was dunked in tepid baths. By yesterday though they were on the up thank goodness.

Despite the concerns about little pebbles, new designs were popping into my head now and again. I beavered away in the evenings - to help me to relax more than anything.

This is another tubelined and enamelled silver pendant. I spotted the design on my old pyjama bottoms and made a teeny version with jingly little freshwater pearls.

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Risby and Ely and had found a few little treasures so I made those into necklaces too.

A vintage mother of pearl pierced bird pendant combined with pearls and one of my silver flowers (now sold)…

… some vintage beads

..and some lovely old buttons. There is something special about finding a little item in an antique shop, bringing it home and making it into something new.

All these new things and a few others are in my shop. If you mosey on over don’t forget the blogreader’s 15% discount - (blog3).

Finally many thanks to Ann and Debbie for such a lovely day yesterday at the vintage and hand-made fair. I loved having a tiny shop at your place and it was great to meet so many bloggers.

EDIT SUNDAY EVE: My email server is down at the moment and will take at least two days to put right. Sorry!

I am EXTREMELY excited to be having stands at not one but TWO artisan and hand-made fairs organised by bloggers in the coming weeks. The first is this Saturday in Northampton.

If this little flyer is anything to go by it should be rather gorgeous. It is organised by Ann and Debbie and there seems to be a very lovely line-up of stalls indeed. Click on Ann’s link to see.  I know I shall be spending far too much of my takings at such a lovely event.

Then, on the 12th December comes this little number in Holt, Norfolk:

Pick and Mix. What more can we say? I’m thinking the textiley, vintage and hand-made sparkly version of a bag of flying saucers, mojos, licorice strings and fruit salads. What could be more cheery and tempting? Teena at Kitschen Pink and Mrs Bobo Bun are the organisers of this one. The fair will be featured in BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine and local Norfolk press. It even has its own blog and looky here - that’s me that is!

I have been busy making hand-made treasures for both events.

I’d be willing to bet a shilling or two that customers called shop when stepping in here.

Any of you who attend craft fairs and know the joy of having your own tiny tabletop shop will understand my excitement. I am giddy when I sell even the simplest pair of pearl earrings for a few pounds. I made them, someone wants to buy them and they are generally very smiley indeed when they are doing so.

If you live nearby do come along.

Shop!