Happy Friday!! Here are some beads from yesterday. This one is Amethyst Desert Fleur Focal. I'm really liking bright frit backgrounds swirled with organics lately. Add a stylized flower and, hey, I dig it ;)

I'm planning ahead with dread beads! From left: Starfish Beach, Pink Freesia, Sweet Cupcake and Twilight Tree. These were all made on 5mm mandrels so they can also be worn on Troll, Pandora, Biagi, etc. bracelets! Expect to see a lot more dread beads from me.. I have to build up a supply to choose from! ;)

I'm off to spend some time with Sam.. who is arriving any moment! Hope you all have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Love,
keiara

Yeah. Wow. So. Henna. You'll note the hint of concern on my face combined with the slight pout. What this facial expression is saying is, "WTF have I done to my hair?!?" The picture really doesn't illustrate the full horror. It's a putrid shade of orange with a distinctly greenish-yellow undertone. It's so much less than attractive! Hey, the good side is it easily washes out! Oh wait, no it doesn't. Well at least I can colour over it! Uh uh, no can do.. unless I want straw for hair. I can always try even MORE henna and see what happens?! With that being my only real option, I decided to take a completely different route to turn this frown upside down: I ordered a bunch of gorgeous wool to turn into dreads! Yes!! I ordered loads and loads of gorgeous colours and now, armed with several tutorials about how to install double-ended slub wool dreads, I am finally going to throw caution to the wind and try it :D I've always thought they looked amazing and wanted to try them but had NO concept of just how easy they really are (and not actually 'dreads' in the sense that they're just braided into your own hair). Stay tuned for future hair posts.. this is gonna be interesting!

Hi everyone! I know, I know.. long time no blog. I'm a bad girl! I've been absolutely overwhelmed with custom work lately. I promise to make blogging a higher priority in the future! This is what's new with me: key beads! This one is called Unlock Africa and it's my second attempt at a key bead. For this key I wound the glass directly onto this antique brass skeleton key. Neat, huh? I'm really enjoying the process. I love antique keys anyway and this makes them infinitely cooler. Cause beads make everything cooler. It's true!

Speaking of cool.. I'm currently sitting here with my head wrapped in cling film. Ok, so that's not really cool. But the reason is pretty nifty! I've applied some Lush henna to my hair! I know many of you are already upset at the idea of me having any haircolour other than the bright red. Alright, maybe that's a stretch (unless you're Laura!) but I really had to do something different. I've been colouring my hair for so long now that it was becoming quite stripped and coarse. I happened to stumble into the Lush at Covent Garden last Friday (OMG I could totally live there!) and they had blocks of henna. I figured I'd give it a try and see what happens. It's supposed to be really great for your hair and this particular one is a bright red shade. Keep your fingers crossed for good results! I'll post pics tomorrow!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.. my BIL is bringing his gf over and we're going to dinner. Yay! He's such a darling and we haven't met his gf yet so I'm excited. Actually, the rest of the week is shaping up to be awesome. On Friday Saffie and Imogen are coming over (I hope she's still planning on it!) for a visit. Then Saturday Kaia's friend, Ariana, is coming over and I always love her visits. Ariana is the daughter of my American ex-pat friend, Jen, and she's such a sweetheart. We're planning to take the girls to see a film and, of course, we're having a BBQ because, hey, you can't NOT have a BBQ on 4th of July! I love 4th of July :) I decorate the house in all red, white and blue and make a bunch of red, white and blue food. It's such fun! It's especially interesting celebrating the holiday over here in England. It makes me giggle. I celebrate my country's independence from the evil oppression of Britain.. now don't mind me while I live in your country ;) Heehee! Anyway, it's gonna be fun and I can't wait!

How about you guys? Anything fun planned for this week or weekend? Anyone else wanna celebrate 4th of July with me?? lol ;)

Whatever you're doing this week.. I hope you have a good one!

Love,
keiara

I've been making TONS of kitties this past week and they've been so well-received. Thank you to everyone who has adopted one! This is Luxe Kitty and she is one special cat. I encased genuine 23k gold leaf and swirled it around creating quite the decadent lil kitty. I'm up to my eyeballs in kitty orders and I'm having such fun with new costumes and designs for them. So far I've done a pirate kitty, devil kitty, vampire kitty, nurse kitty, zombie kitty, hula kitty.. the list goes on and on! I'm so pleased that you all seem to like them just as much as I like creating them! Any ideas for kitties you'd like to see?

I had a wonderful birthday on Sunday. Steve and Kaia baked my family's special chocolate chocolate chip cake which turned out utterly divine. We went to my favourite cafe for breakfast, saw Terminator 4 and they also took me to my favourite Indian restaurant for dinner. I was thoroughly spoiled all day long! I received lots of lovely cards, flowers and gifts. My oh-so-loved friend, Laura, sent me a fantastic handmade pin and painting too! I love you, Laura! I'm so lucky to have you in my life.

My eBay auctions went well and I am going to try to have a few every couple of weeks or so. I better get cracking making more beads to list!

Today I've been running around all day so now I'm off to relax for a bit. I hope you're all having a great week!

Love,
keiara

Hi guys!

Just a quick one to let everyone know that my eBay auctions are ending tomorrow.. on my birthday!

Hope you'll have a look :)

I've also added lots of new kitties to my Etsy shop!

Have a great weekend :)

Love,
keiara

Hi guys! So after talking to the lovely and ever-supportive Kate, I decided to list some beads on eBay again. EEK! I haven't sold beads on eBay in aaaaaaaaaages (since they upped their fees for having a shop) and I'm a bit nervous as I've put the gorgeous Hummingbird Garden Focal (seen above) up on the block! All the listings start at just 99p. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please! Pop on over and have a look :)