Celebration times...come on....

... a celebration to last throughout the 'week'.

Enough of showing my age.

Oh what a week i am having.  

Firstly ive successfully finished some gorgeous fused glass cufflinks that have turned out beautifully and im happy to be able to have them for sale at The Little Cufflink Shop

 Fin has a wonderful selection of cufflinks ranging from chic and classy to quaint and quirky. A one stop shop for all your cufflinks, if you don't see what you desire Fin goes out of his way to search for what you seek.

Pop over and have a good old browse whilst having a coffee or tea break. Save the site to your bookmarks too.

Secondly.

Im on a winning streak this week. First i won the wonderful accolade of #BizPromotion of the day by Great Biz Awards  via Twitter

Then today i have found out that i have won the #BlueBiz award from Blue Biz Net

I am thrilled to bits with these awards because i have been climbing that uphill struggle to get myself well again. Being recognised in this way means so much to me and encourages me to continue. The new clients that i am gaining also give me that raw pleasure of knowing that someone is wearing my work and loves it. This is the ultimate accolade for any artisan.

Now last but not least.

The #Giveaway.

 It is a joint giveaway from Masato London and I. 

There will be ONE UK winner (sorry to those overseas) who will win a choice of 

ONE of Masato London's tshirts, your choice is available here   

and subject to the availability of your size and style. 

PLUS the winner will win BOTH of these pieces of Artisan Designs jewellery. 

Your necklace is an abstract fused glass pendant with fused dichroic glass flashes suspended on a plaited black leather cord. RRP is £48

The earrings are cute Tweetie Birdie which are nickel and lead free silver plated suspended on hallmarked sterling silver ear wires. RRP £13 

The Tweetie Birdies are also available for ANYBODY to purchase by requesting here

The #Giveaway begins at 2pm on wednesday 2nd oct and ends on saturday 5th oct at midnight.

Why have we chosen that date to end....because its Masato's birthday.

Yippeee

To enter  FOLLOW both @MasatoStudio  AND @ArtisanGaynor

on Twitter 

Then simply RT us BOTH when we tweet. 

You will be placed on a list by @ArtisanGaynor for the #Giveaway once you have followed us both and retweet us both.

AND my friends, that is it. 

The WINNER will be drawn by a third party on Sunday and announced on Monday 7th october. 

The winner must live in the UK and send us their address for their goodies to be posted to. NO PO Box allowed. 

It must be a residential address. 

Good luck to all.

 

Gaynor at Artisan Designs

Google+ Page

I have finally joined with Google+ pages and if i have done it all correctly my blogger profile should be linked up nicely. However, as with everything Google im finding it VERY difficult indeed. Despite searching forums and googling Google it isnt so straightforward. Why don't Google make things a little easier for us no techy minded folk to use. Explain it to me like im a 10 year old and i should be able to understand, to be honest i think a present day 10 year old will find it a doddle compared to this 45 year old.

Now if i have everything all set up correctly this post should go straight to my Google+ page not my Google+ profile. In case it does not and i have to write posts separate my Google+ page is Artisan Designs

Please please give me tips, help and advice on anything Google+ in very basic terms as i really do want to work with Google+ pages much more (for obvious reasons). Im confidant that any help etc posted will also be of aid to so many others who, like me, struggle with Google.

Well, im off now to create something as ive been at this Google stuff all day so far and its almost 3pm. I have brain ache and need to allow my creative mind take control once more.

I thank you in advance for any help or advice offered. I do need it.

Gaynor x

Sneaky Peek

I thought that i would share with you what ive been working on recently. There's quite a few. Some will be added to my store at Masato London others will be available in Leeds at the Fashion Show on the 18th of October 2013.

If you see anything that you wish to purchase drop me a message here or via my Twitter profile via DM here

The fused glass pendant in the box is also the item in the second photo. I added the box as an example of how your jewellery will arrive to you. A lovely hinged presentation gift box at no extra cost. Some items will need to be placed in a different style box due to the style or size of the jewellery. However each description online does explain the style of gift box very clearly to you.

The two items that are together are sold as a gift set, the two photos underneath the twin set show them in their singular glory. 

If you genuinely wish to purchase something i am very happy to answer your questions.

Don't forget you can find me over at ArtisanGaynor

Gaynor x

Company Logo insulated travel mug

A little while ago i noticed that a person on Twitter who has supported me from day one and who i have bought from previously was selling insulated travel mugs that you could have your company logo fixed to.

My other half and i use these travel mugs all the time, even around the house so our drinks dont get cold too quickly (we often forget about a hot drink when busy working you see).

I decided id order one from Barry at LF Designs

The photos show each side of the mug. 

 Pete was chuffed to bits with his mug, in fact he asked me to order one for his business partner Phil

Until you have your logo on a travel mug you have not arrived.

Barry and LF Designs do two colour bases...silver or white. I chose white as it showed up the Knight Morris company logo so much better.

Why not head to LF Designs and get your very own logo or photo on a travel mug. A brilliant idea for christmas me thinks. 

When you purchase one do share your photos and twitter links in the comment section.

Gaynor x

A long time coming

Crikey. Its been months since i last posted anything and yet so much has happened. I really do want to tell all in one post but it would take me days to type (im rubbish at typing).

So...i shall keep it short and sweet and promise to keep my blog up to date.

......................

Im TRULY thrilled to tell you that i have began working with two wonderful fashion houses Masato London and The Little Cufflink Shop

Its only on a small scale but little acorns can grow...huge, or so i have heard.

Both fashion house teams have given me enormous support and encouragement for which im eternally grateful. Their faith in me has been amazing and im so proud to have my work for sale with them. 

Sometime soon once ive got used to blogging a little more, i shall add a few pieces of my work here to buy too.

Between now and Christmas each person who buys from my collection at Masato London will be entered into a prize draw to have a bespoke dichroic glass pendant made exclusively for them.

Some photos of recent work that is for sale.

I shall continue to mention about both of these businesses and will bring updates of their journeys and my work.

Each person who signs up to follow this blog will be entered into a prize draw to win random give aways of my work. 
Be in it to win it.

........................................

Also ive been helping a very good friend of mine out with her support group which she set up earlier this year to help those with the debilitating conditions of Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell arteritis PMRGCA NW UK

Originally i only offered to come along for support to her first meeting, as a sufferer of Fibromyalgia and arthritis with the linked issues i fully empathised with these people. Ann set up the support group as a member of her family has PMR and didnt have any local support to go to...Ann stepped in.

After the meeting i realised that social media can be a massive help to reach out to educate, raise funds and help others who feel totally lost in their world of pain, i offered to tweet. This resulted in the twitter account  NWSupportGroup where we are rapidly gaining a lot of followers who constantly retweet us and join in with our campaign to raise help, awareness and funds. We have already won two awards within twitter and aim for the coveted #SBS from Mr Theo Paphitis.

I am now a proud member of the committe for this support group and think Ann is a wonderful person and im proud to have her as my friend.

...........................

The shoebox appeal for over seas orphans has kept me sane as very busy making toys, bags and little bracelets for these children. They have NOTHING but deserve so much more. The just happen to have been born in the wrong place and its so unfair. My heart breaks when children or animals are neglected in any way.

If you feel that you can help to make shoebox gifts or send toothpaste/brushes, soap (not gels), hats, gloves etc do let me know. I send all of my items to the Liverpool based ladies who run it, my family are all part of this and collect nationwide to send overseas.

I shall post photos of things that i make sometime soon.

.......................

Back to me...

Life is still full of chronic pain, uncertainty and stress but there are folk out there in such a worse place so i consider myself lucky for what i have.

Life begins at 45.

Thanks for reading.

Gaynor xx

Random Acts Of Kindness.

Great news folks. We have had the Twitter account reinstated with an apology from Twitter explaining that we were suspended by mistake due to an influx of spam and our account became caught up in the suspended accounts.

Phew, thank heavens its all sorted and we are now back on track at /NWSupportGroup

A huge thanks goes out to all of these profiles who went out of their way to help us regain our profile, gave us advice, retweeted our plight and once reinstated they gave us full support telling all other Tweeple that we are back.

 @GreatBizAwards

@SuggestDigest

@TweeturbizUK

@Purpledognet

@cwriter80

@TLCufflinkShop

@Working_Bees

@OrderOfficeHome

@Tweetforyou2013

 Plus so many other people helped with retweets too. The above really did help a great deal though especially Great Biz and Duchess PR.

......

Another MASSIVE thanks goes to two ladies who work at Lush Spa in Liverpool (Whitechapel Street).  @lushliverpool Janet dealt with me whilst Nicola dealt with my daughter. Janet gave me a lovely hand massage and was really friendly giving out excellent product advice. Nicola gave my daughter great help, advice on products plus lots of samples for her to try. My daughter is a Lush addict so bought a ton of stuff too.

I bought a few items and Janet put in a lovely face mask as a free sample (full size too) for me to try. I was chuffed and couldnt wait to have a sniff of it so opened my bag along the street only to find placed in my bag...

 

Yellow-Brick-Road scarf

Janet had been explaining to me that Greenspun make the scarves from recycled plastic bottles and i was amazed at how soft the scarves were. Very silky and such great colours too. We arrived at this topic because i was telling Janet about a necklace that id made from recycling a Tescos plastic flavoured water bottle worked with clear Swarovski crystals. I shall take a photo of this again and add it on here when i get a moment.

I just loved the bright colours of this scarf and they co-ordinated with the bright jeans that i was wearing today. So it was the best surprise to find that she had slipped the scarf into my bag of purchases.

Nicola had done the same thing for my daughter. She had placed (secretly) into her bag a HUGE pot of 'mask of magnaminty' face mask.

These acts of kindness are part of the Lush philosophy of 'Pass it Forward'.

The aim is that they add a little something extra in your purchases to make us happier and this encourages others to do just the same, being kind and/or helpful, just because you can.

What a lovely philosophy.

So Janet and Nicola, thank you both and when my daughter is next over from the Isle of Man we shall be back in your store to see you and stock up again.

I gave Janet my email address so hopefully she will keep in touch and i will then know the days she is working.

The world is full of wonderful people and it gives me great pleasure to mention some of those that ive encountered just this last week.

Id love to hear from anybody else who has been the recipient of random acts of kindness.

Gaynor x

Head Case

Those who know me in real life know how long, curly and really unruly my hair is and i often have it scrunched in a messy bun with a fabric scrunchie. However this does cause a lot of tension headaches so i do need days off from bobbles and scrunchies (i find the word bobble hilarious...say it out loud and see how daft it it). 

Im a fan of hats and find that they hide a multitude of messy knotty sins when having a truly unruly day or if its super windy. In the wind i resemble Medusa

Link to deviant art where pic is from

Actually if i looked like the above Medusa id rock!

Pete bought me my very own Aussie Hat at christmas because i was always pinching his to wear. Here is my exact hat and a link to where we got it.

Mine is the one on the left in the lightest colour, it looks a little like snakeskin.

Derby House 

The original hat that he bought was too big and in brown so we returned to exchange it for a smaller size and all they had in was the one that i ended up getting. I didnt like it at first when i just looked at it but once i placed it on my bonce...WOW! It was brilliant and ive never seen any other woman with one like it. Sold to the woman on crutches...well to her fella for her to be exact.

Theyre not cheap at £75 but they last a lifetime and beyond and will NEVER date and ALWAYS look cool.

.........

My new every day wearable headwear is 

 

 

I bought it from ebay here

£5,99 for two 75p postage.

I chose numbers 23 and 13 and theyre great. A fine knit from stretchy yarn. You double it up around your neck then simply bring it up from your chin to your hair and position. The model is wearing two of them. Theyre ideal as a light weight scarf too. 

Theyre so light that i didnt even feel like i was wearing mine, i just wore one and had mine more of a hair band size rather than fully extended width wise. Brilliant to keep in your bag for those days when you have your hair loose but think you may wish to tie it back. Also ideal for that annoying stage that you reach when growing out your fringe. BTW...i have no correlation with the seller on ebay, i just loved the item and thought id share the info.

Enjoy your Friday

Gaynor xx

The Twitter Saga Continues

Sadly we are still suspended from Twitter with the @NWSupportGroup account as it transpires the email that was set up by the charity is an alias which means Ann cant access it. Thankfully one of the charity ladies is trying to send an email via that account to Twitter so heres hoping that all will end well.

The support from fellow Tweeters has been wonderful though via my personal account https://twitter.com/ArtisanGaynor Twitter is a great community of business folk and those who just love to chat via a social media.

Keep your fingers crossed that we become live again soon. Its a shame that Twitter dont respond to tweets to their own twitter accounts though, perhaps the time difference between the UK and USA is the reason so i shall give the benefit of the doubt...for now!

..........

Isnt this cake lovely? 

 

Ive just found it here magic cake recipe

I shall certainly be testing this one out asap and then make another for this Fathers Day weekend. It sounds sooo easy and looks rather delicious.

Its funny, for years i had more of a savoury tooth preferring savoury foods to sweet foods now i lurve sweet foods too and have a real liking for cakes lately. Although my tummy doesnt agree with sweet foods much so i do have to be careful, heaven forbid that my toilet roll stash diminishes to all but 6 rolls left.

 

Yup i have a loo roll obsession.

It all began when my daughter was a little girl
 and i was a single parent really struggling with money. One month i couldnt afford to buy loo roll so we ended up using kitchen roll. The shame of this resulted in a 12 year obsession of having no less than 6 rolls upstairs and 3 downstairs. I literally have a huge panic when we are down to the last 6, if we get below six i feel really sick. Pathetic arent i.

Family and friends find it amusing and when i visit i often find a lovely pyramid set up in the bathroom for me. My sister has four bathrooms and each one has oodles of lovely soft loo roll, plus she leaves a whole new unopened pack in the room we stay in for me to coo over. My sister in law stocks up too as does my pal in Scotland who literally does build a huge pyramid of loo roll.

I often wonder if anyone else has the same loo roll obsession. AND they do. Recently in a shop i overheard two women discussing one of them with her loo roll passion and i just had to admit to them both that i too have a stock pile and panic if we get low. So at least i now know, im not that weird...or am I!!

..............

Well my car windscreen is now all lovely and new. 

Last week it had more crack than JLo due to a small chip that decided it was going on its travels from the top of the glass to right in front of my driving vision. So ive been off the road for a week. A great AA bloke came today and installed my bright new windscreen courtesy of my insurance. He was a really lovely bloke with a lovely sense of humour.

All i need to do now is wake up JPP (my daughter) who is visiting from The Isle Of Man. Lazy thing is still in bed. Shes off down to Reading this evening via the train to stay at my sisters because theyre off to Birmingham tomorrow for the Food Show. Theyre both massive foodie fans and both great cooks. Theyre both back up North at the weekend for Fathers Day and then JPP is staying until wednesday.

I tell you what, its flippin chilly today and damp. Think i may have to resort to socks again and a cardigan. It pains me to dress like its winter at this time of year but the cold does really cause a lot of pain for me so i must admit defeat. At least its not thermal knickers cold!!!

Once last image and link which i found via pinterest...i just love pinterest

Isnt it just gorgeous. You can find it here Tea Dispenser

I must have a go at making something similar for all my teas. Im a massive coffee lover but also enjoy herbal teas, lady grey and earl grey. I cannot stand regual tea or builders tea as Pete and I call it.

I shall leave you with the dispenser and update when i have more info on our support group Twitter account.

Gaynor x

Tweets Bleats and where has the sun gone!!

Tweets, bleats and where has the sun gone!!

Blimey what a day its proving to be today. I received a phone call from my friend Ann who is the founder of the NW Support Group for PMR and GCA sufferers and who i tweet for on the support group twitter account. The account has been suspended grrrr. Hours and hours later after trying to become reinstated it transpires that as the main charity set up the email account and we cannot gain access we still havnt managed to become reinstated.

Another email has just been sent via twitter to twitter explaining why we cannot reply via the email address that was used when registering and asking them if we could work with them for reinstation via a new email account that has been set up via gmail because of this pesky problem. Still following this saga? 

Confusing isnt it!!

I shall keep you informed.

 ...............

So tell me people, who stole the sun!! 

Come on own up. 

Its bang out of order that we have waved goodbye to what i suspect was our only summer. At least i did manage to get outside on every hot sunny day to catch some rays and now look as brown as chocolate hobnob. Funny i should pick a hobnob as i cant stand them, much prefer a choccy suggestive...ooops digestive.

That reminds me, ive made a new twitter friend via my personal account, guess what shes called...yup Suggestive Digestive https://twitter.com/SuggestDigest 

Cool name huh! 

 Heres a link to her blog too.   http://suggestivedigestive.wordpress.com/

 A lass after my own heart, she likes a good coffee and a biccy.

...............

Some great news is. 

My friend Sue is appearing in Cuteable

with her fab chicken bookmark (see link below)   

my pal sues chicken corner bookmark

Im so proud of her. She really does do some amazing work and is so talented. Sue is extremely picky with her work and is such a perfectionist. Look at this cute tooth fairy hanger thats currently for sale on her website 

My favourites of Sues are her tablet covers. I have one of my own which is almost identical to the photo below. As soon as she showed it to me i had to buy it. Its brilliant and even contains storage for leads and extra micro sims plus screen wipes.

To buy from Sue head to Leisure Time Collection

Im off to bake a cake now. My daughter is coming over to visit from The Isle of Man for a belated birthday and i cant wait to see her.

Ciao for now and i shall update you all on the saga of the twitter account.

Gaynor xxx

Its a beautiful day.....

Once again here in sunny Skem we have yet another gorgeous day. I spent this morning and early afternoon tweeting on the UK Support Group profile https://twitter.com/NWSupportGroup to help raise awareness of Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis. A great article was written in the daily mail about GCA..have a peek http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2174480/When-stiff-jaw-means-youre-losing-sight.html  

Im also pleased to say that our twitter followers are nicely rising and im chatting with lots of really lovely people over in Twitter land.

Anyway......

With it being so lovely Pete and I are heading out for a picnic this evening and a stroll. Unsure if its going to be a beach picnic or a park...probably beach as i do so love the beach. In preparation for our picnic i made some bread. 

Bread at its proving stage and ready for baking.

Bread baked to perfection

Happy birthday to my baby girl.

Happy Birthday to my baby girl

Twenty years ago today my little girl was born 2 months premature and weighed in at just 3 pounds 6.5 ounces. 

Today at 8.33pm she will be 20 years old.

Obviously the photo above is not of her but of one of Anthony Gormleys men at Crosby Beach. The reason for the photo is because the last time my daughter came to visit we went for a little stroll on the beach and she got stuck in very sticky wet sand. Upon trying to remove her legs from the welly sucking wet stuff she launched herself head first landing almost face down in the sand. I couldnt get to her quick enough to help, not that im much use with being on crutches, so she ended up covered in muddy wet sand.

I do wish i had a photo of that day but im sure the photo above and the memory will set her off with her infectious giggles again.

Im really looking forward to her coming to stay again next week.

Have the bestest day JPP (her nickname but i wont tell what the initials stand for, she will kill me).

Mummy xxxxx

Welcome to my musings

It has taken a long time to get my head around beginning this blog but today is the day it all begins.

Please bear with me whilst i learn how to use all the widgets and gadgets that are available to us Bloggers. I am a little familiar with this type of thing after building my website from a design template, this website has now ceased due to my health taking a serious nose dive. Hence why, after over six months, ive decided to begin a blog and take things from there.

So what has prompted me to begin blogging from today? Well...a good friend of mine (Ann) recently founded a support group for Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis here in the good old North West UK. A link to my pinterest board is here which will help you to learn what these conditions are
https://pinterest.com/gaynorjackson/pmr-gca/

I popped along to her first support group in March, which was very well attended and hugely clear that lack of local support was clearly missing. We even had two ladies travel down from the Keswick area as they have no local support group near to them. So..anyway...with me being a success on Twitter i offered my services to Tweet for the support group so that we can build up the profile and offer help to those in need who suffer with #PMR #GCA (forgive my hashtag use but this helps for when i link to twitter). We began the Twitter account on monday june 3rd and have already gained 180 followers. The twitter link is...
https://twitter.com/NWSupportGroup

My personal twitter is https://twitter.com/ArtisanGaynor To help promote the support group and raise its profile i began a bracelet giveaway. One lucky tweeter who follows the support group account and retweets our tweets will win a gorgeous handcrafted bracelet...a photo will be added tomorrow but it will be very similar to this bracelet shown here which i made for a lovely lady a while back.

Swarovski Crystals and Clay Shamballa Bracelet in shades of pink.

So...this is it, im now a blogger.

Here you will find my mental musings, photos of my creations, photos and links of things that amuse, inspire or empower me. Or even just because i can. Once i learn more about Blogger i shall add my pinterest link too where you can follow my other addiction...pinning.

Thats it for now folks and hopefully i shall get better at blogging and make you smile. laugh our loud and provoke some responses. Do feel free to offer your help and advice on how to use Blogger because i shall be eternally grateful.

See you all again tomorrow with the bracelet photo.

Gaynor x