Goodbye, Hello.

Hi everyone and and happy New Year. Thank you all for taking the time to follow my blog, but now it's time for me to move on. The Cheeky Kea has been fun, but I'm taking things in another direction. Unfortunately, I will not be continuing with a blog as it is far too time consuming, I'd rather spend that time making jewellery. I have launched a new website at Jenny Sangster - Jewellery Artist and a new Facebook page too. Add me to your favourites and stay in touch.

Featured Artist: Jose Reanda

From the Guatemalan village of Santiago Atitlan, comes master beadweaver Jose Reanda. Jose comes from a family rich in talent, history and Mayan culture. Taught to weave by his mother, Jose is now world renowned, particularly for his beautiful beaded animals. His subjects include insects, birds, frogs, fish, dragons, and more

 
Bead weaving provides Jose with the means to support his family, and he also teaches others to weave so they can generate their own income.  You can support Jose by shopping at Mayan Majix where there is a large selection of his work, each piece being one of a kind.

My pampered children

I'm a total wimp when I'm sick. I want to lay in bed all day. I want a TV in my room. I want people to serve me food and flat lemonade. I want lots of sympathy. I want to play video games lying down.  These are the things my Mum use to do for me whenever I was sick, I guess I was a bit of a taskmaster.  But now I'm a Mum and I don't get any of these things anymore. Now I just moan a lot and wish we had hired help. But at least I can help my kids when they're sick.

I moved the bed in front of the computer, so she can watch cartoons while doing puzzles and being all cozy. Kids are so lucky. Maybe after I've done some housework, I can climb in and watch a movie and we can be sick together.

Spontaneous Livestock

A few days ago, I was cooking dinner when my husband arrived home from work. He was walking passed the kitchen window when he suddenly stopped, looked at me and said something. I only caught the word 'chicken'. I was confused, and I held up a drumstick. He shook his head and said something else. I decided that the conversation was going nowhere because we couldn't hear each other through the glass, so I stepped outside. And there, on the kitchen doorstep was a big beautiful hen. We let her in the backyard and she went straight to the paddling pool for a drink.

Our four curious cats came for a walk too. She wasn't in the least bit frightened of us or the cats and seemed quite content to peck around the yard. She spent the night sleeping in our playhouse and she's been here ever since.  She seems to disappear late morning and return late afternoon for dinner. I bought some chicken feed, but I've been reluctant to name her just in case she goes back to where she came from, but it seems that she likes us. She follows us around, and lets us pet her. The only thing she doesn't like, is when the cats sniff her, but I don't think any of them are going to be doing that again. They've learned that lesson the hard way.

I think we'll name her Hendrix - get it? HENdrix.

Christmas

Christmas is here again and the internet is full of christmassy bead weaving! Here's a showcase for you. Don't forget the Christmas sale on The Cheeky Kea's Etsy page, use the code SANTA for 15% off everything in store.

Black and Silver necklace with a Quartz pendant

I was just about finished the necklace that I was working on. I started stringing on new beads for the last segment of my crochet rope, when I noticed something was awry. My new vial of dark silver beads looked the same as the last ones, but once they were out of the tube it was clear something was different. The colour was correct, the size was correct, but it was a very different bead.

Excuse the chipped nail polish

The bead on the right is the original bead I was using for the necklace. In this bead, the glass is coloured all the way through the bead. On the new bead (the left one) the colour was inside the bead and the outer was clear glass. That will teach me for not checking the colour numbers on the vials. 

But either way I had decided to finished the necklace so I improvised with pearls. I think it works.

I can't wait to do another more colourful one, but I'm going to make a couple of bracelets first. My fingers need a break from all of that crochet.

Christmas sale!!

It's that time of year again and The Cheeky Kea is going to jump on Santa's sleigh with a Christmas sale! Any purchase from The Cheeky Kea will get 15% off from now until Tuesday 18 December. If you've had you eye on anything in store, now is the time to get a bargain. When ordering, just use the coupon code SANTA to receive your discount. Merry Christmas!