In the beginning

I've always wanted to .. always thought I might .. and now I have! I'm officially a Blogger. (blogger! what a label .. makes me sound like a sheep drover!)

My name is Sara, I live in England, in a small village in Buckinghamshire, in a very small house.

I share my house with Richard, my long suffering husband and best friend, our younger daughter, Lucy and our son, Jordan .. both of whom are looking forward to moving out .. sometime!

I am a beader .. or rather I aspire to being a beader! I design and make beaded jewellery from my space at home .. it's all designed by me and hand made by me. I love it! I wish there were more hours in the day to satisfy my need to bead, but I have a day job too.

I have always been creative .. I started by sewing - making my own clothes when I was 12, at 19 made my wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses (2 of them, anyway) and so it continued (sew it continued!) until I was making clothes for my daughters when they were little as well as all the soft furnishings for our (then much bigger) home. The cross stitch bug bit when Jordan was a baby .. I needed something to do that I could pick up and put down as and when I managed to sneak 5 minutes peace .. and soon I was stitching samplers and more. I ran out of people to make for, began to take commissions and decided that maybe a craft stall was the answer. I went into it with a friend with a similar family pattern to my own and we hawked our wares over Kent and Buckinghamshire until, sadly, we couldn't find the time anymore.

THEN .. Sophie's aunt (Sophie is my eldest daughter) gave her a Janet Coles book, a few beads and findings and a couple of tools for her birthday. I have always loved jewellery (what woman doesn't?) and accessorizing and I think I must have had a go one day when she was at school. The next day, I was ordering beads and bits from the catalogue, bought my own tools and went into earrings in a BIG way. I would give them away to friends and family but still had enough to have a stall at the school fete .. and I still get a thrill when I see people wearing something I made!

A few years of living in Cyprus and I didn't do much beading (although there was, and probably still is, the most wonderful bead shop in old Limassol) because I was too busy sewing!

We came back to England in 2005 and I have been beading ever since. Dangly beady charm bracelets were my thing .. in any colour combination you liked. As I was amassing my stash (as we beaders call the huge amount of beads we secrete in special places) I began to learn something about the different types of beads, the shapes, who made the best beads, who sold the best beads etc.

I joined facebook initially to chat to my children - and then realised that Groups existed to support beaders and crafters! I joined some, friended and was befriended by members of the groups, and had my eyes opened to the endless possibilities and the truly wonderful creations by the incredibly talented and self-effacing bead artists out there, who are happy and generous to share their skills and knowledge, and kind enough to nurture and encourage those, like me, who (as I said) aspire!

Although I still love my chunky quirky pieces, I find myself drawn to tiny beads. But .. I do like to make bold pieces so I am into stitching fringe bracelets and then embellishing with dangles, loops and sticks

And I have moved into the world of Etsy - please check out my shop .. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyThingsFromWing

and add me as a favourite!