Sunday 31 October 2010

Sugarpill: Burning Heart Monster Palette

Happy Halloween!


A few weeks back Sugarpill had a special Halloween sale on their shop where they sold 'Monster' palettes, i.e. their regular palettes that had some minor defects in them. I ordered the Burning Heart palette on a whim and I got it on Friday.

I know that some of you were interested to see what would a monster palette look like so I took you some pics! And swatches too!





Since this post will be picture-heavy, the story continues after the jump...



Saturday 9 October 2010

Jewels enough to make a woman: Whimsy Beading

Hi there!

If you follow me at Twitter, you may know that I've got a new, more challenging job and that most of my days are spent freaking out about new stuff that I have to learn and trying to do stuff I already can do. So for these reasons I have had to ignore this blog and unfortunately you.

I assume that most of the people that read my blog are familiar with my friend's Phyrra's blog. She's almost always wearing these amazing jewellery pieces by an indie company called Whimsy Beading. After drooling over the pics of Phyrra wearing all kinds of stuff from them, I had to give in to my urge to get something for myself.

First of all, Kelly (one of the owners, the other one being her husband Joe) is a total sweetie. This became very evident the first time I contacted her. I wanted a custom colour set of earrings and necklace but I wanted them in the style she had on their Etsy store. I didn't know how much it was going to cost me or if she'd be willing/able to create what I wanted. Kelly's answers were very friendly and she was very helpful in advicing me on the colour schemes of the pieces I wanted to get from her. My first order took over a month to reach me but during that time I was in contact with Kelly and we talked about what to do if my order never reached me. It did and I got my first order. Of course that wasn't the last time I ordered from her.


All the pieces I've gotten have been beautiful and well-made. I'm allergic to nickel and the reason I usually don't buy or wear a lot of jewellery is because I'm afraid that they contain nicklel. I haven't gotten any reaction from my Whimsy Beading jewellery. One thing to remember if you buy from Whimsy Beading is that you shouldn't bathe or swim in the jewellery or wash them with water.


I assume you'd like to see some photos of some of the beauties I have?




These green earrings were custom-made for me and are my favourite pair. I asked Kelly to create olive green and gold/bronze earrings for me in their Rivoli style (meaning that there is a large crystal in the center of the earring). I just love these. The colour is amazing and I love the style immensely.




Kelly sent me a surprise gift of magenta-purple threader earrings with one of my orders. Clever woman that one to know that I'd love this colour scheme! I wear these very often, too, with my jeans and purple/pink tops. I have to admit that I'm not 100% comfortable wearing them because they're quite long and I'm afraid that they'll get stuck somewhere and tear my earlobe. No such thing has happened but I keep my hair down, just in case.





This is my first earring order from Whimsy Beading. I also have a matching necklace. The darker crystals are actually purple (some of them, as you see, have a slight teal cast to them) but I wanted to mix them with turquoise/aqua crystals. This colour scheme was suggested to me by Kelly. It was like she could read me mind because this is exactly what I wanted.



This picture was taken on our holiday in Southern Croatia (extremely beautiful place, by the way). I blew this photo a bit larger so you could see the necklace. The colour way is identical to the earrings. I had other jewellery with me but I ended up using this necklace with the earrings throughout the trip.

If you want to look at the stuff that Kelly and Joe have made, pop to their Etsy store or Whimsy Beading Facebook page (the FB page has a lot of pictures and some of the jewellery might not be on sale in Etsy but may be custom-orderable, just ask Kelly).

I have another pieces too but I didn't manage to take a decent picture of them (yes, boo for me). I'll try to take more photos or maybe do some of my future looks wearing my Whimsies. BTW, if you're a fan of Sir Terry Pratchett and his books, there are some Discworld themed jewellery sold by Whimsy Beading (I myself have a pair of Wintersmith earrings).

If you have any questions, contact Kelly (convo through Etsy or if you have a Twitter account, she's @whimsybeading).

Have you ordered from Whimsy Beading? Are you interested in doing so?