I'm moving!

Hello dear readers!

If anybody is still around (and I wouldn't blame you if your weren't - I haven't posted anything for ages), I have finally finished tweaking my new WordPress blog!

You can find it HERE!

This is a little excerpt from my very first post on the new blog which might give you an idea what to expect:

"I’m no style guru. I have very eclectic tastes that cannot be defined by current trends. I just know what I like when I see it. I am sure there are many of you who feel the same way about fashion, accessories, jewellery and even decorating your homes.

So, my mission is to search the likes of Etsy, Pinterest, Polyvore, and many other online places of that ilk, to bring you images of all the interesting, stylish and quirky things that catch my eye. As an awful lot of things fall into this category, I am sure I won’t get “blogger’s block” for a long time to come!"

BluetinaJewellery.com took a long time to set up. Mainly because I have discovered I am not as computer literate as I thought I was. Now I'm getting bogged down in the innards of MailChimp! Evidently, one must have an email list in this day and age!

Please feel free to try out the sign up bit. Not only will you receive a 10% Discount Code for my Etsy Shop, but you will have the satisfaction of pushing me up the learning curve a bit quicker. Thank you!

I'm still alive!

I had to fight my way through the cobwebs to get in here. I haven't posted on this blog for three whole months! Naughty girl.

I have been working on a brand new and very posh blog on WordPress. As per usual, these things take so much more time than you think they will. It's not finished yet. Perhaps I'm being too much the perfectionist. I'll let you know when it's viewable.

I spent the whole of April in the UK and France. Long, long journey and it took me most of May to recover.

I have made some more things since I was here last.

African Turquoise Bracelet

Teal Blue Stick Pearl Earrings

Wildflowers Earrings

Magenta Pearl Bracelet

Still can't get those pics to line up!






You can probably imagine the trouble I'm having with WordPress!







I have made a few changes to my Bluetina website. I'm still beavering away on Etsy, even though they have made a few changes to their website!

Now I'm getting ready to go back to the UK yet again! I will try to post something while I'm there.

I understand that Google Reader is heading for oblivion tomorrow. I'll find out when my RSS feed goes blank, won't I? Does that mean this blog will now be invisible?

What would you call this?

Remember this?

Well, after a few weeks of Mercury in Retrograde stuff, it finally turned into this:

The only thing still there from the original idea is the colour scheme. And the fact that it's a bracelet! The beads are amethyst, garnet, angelite and pink rubies, all hand wired to a sterling silver chain. The chain is attached to the end of two feet of silk ribbon, hand dyed by my friend Diane in France. Here are some more shots:

The ribbon gets wrapped around the wrist and the chain ends up laying across the top and trailing away to the side. The sterling silver hook can be put through any of the chain links to make it fit snugly and the ribbon length is adjustable also. 

My main problem is this. I don't know what to call this style of bracelet. It is some sort of wrap, obviously but that term conjures up different pictures in my head. I haven't seen its like anywhere else. 

What would you call this, so it can be found by search engines? More shots to help you decide:

I look forward to hearing from you, as they say! Get your thinking caps on because I want to list it on the website and in my Etsy shop soon!

Mercury in Retrograde.....

According to my friend Peggy, it is. In retrograde - Mercury, the planet. Which means that nothing will come together properly until after the 18th of March. This explains a lot.

I have been trying to design a bracelet for the last two weeks and it's not going well.

I chose the colours and arranged some beads on my tatty old bead board. Must get round to buying a new one of those. 

I chose the chain I wanted to use and rearranged the beads several times, taking some away and then putting them back again. 

I changed my mind about the chain at least twice. I even got as far as making the toggle clasp!

Well, you can forget all that. It's not going to happen. I had envisaged a classic charm bracelet with garnet, amethyst, angelite and pink rubies clustered along its length and hanging down on either side of the silver hand made toggle clasp. But this bracelet will not stay still! It keeps changing shape in my head. The latest, barely formed vision is a bit asymmetrical and doesn't involve a toggle at all. The only thing remaining constant is the colours. It might not even turn out to be a bracelet by the time I've finished. 

I must now wait until after the 18th, when my Muse may have returned from her holidays, refreshed and ready to go. Where has my Muse taken herself off to, do you think? Somewhere warm, I hope. The planet Mercury is not the only thing in retrograde round here. The stuff in my patio thermometer is also flowing in the wrong direction. It's a bit chilly here!

Finished it!

Just putting the broom round. Lots of cobwebs in here! I haven't posted since January. Naughty girl!

You may remember, possibly, that I posted about this necklace a while ago:

I thought it looked a little plain and boring, sitting there on its silver chain. Not nearly Bluetina enough. 

I got as far as showing you my efforts at jazzing it up:

And then I left it. Got sidetracked. Went off and did something else. As you do. Well, I finally finished it!

The little loop now carries a Swarovski crystal, just for a bit of bling and it has been reunited with its silver chain. 

If you want to see it in all its glory and read all the words and music, you can click here to go to my website. You can even buy it if you like! 

Crochet socks for dogs.....

I've just been checking Google Analytics for my Etsy shop. How on earth did someone find their way to my shop or anything in it using a search term like "crochet socks for dogs"?

"Bali jewellery charm bracelet" I can understand; similarly "blue sapphire bangle" but "cast iron owl hook"? I am stumped.

What on earth is an "ex boyfriend necklace"? And what, exactly, are jaterwunky beads?

It would appear that "cast iron owl hook" lead straight to this necklace:

Oxidized copper and Mother of Pearl Necklace

It would also appear that Google Analytics has it's own wormhole into an entire other universe. What I wouldn't give to see that!

Charity Auction!

This Saturday, 26th January, there is an online auction on Facebook in aid of Galgos Del Sol, an organization  set up to help abandoned dogs in Spain. Here is the link to their Facebook page.

Many people have donated items to be auctioned, myself among them. I have donated this necklace:

I hope it raises a few euros! If you want to see more of my jewellery, have a look at my Bluetina website.

Here are some examples of the sort of thing I make:

Oxidized Copper & MOP necklace

Blue Goldstone & Oxidized Copper Bracelet

Sterling Double Spiral Earrings

Posting whole Etsy Treasuries on Facebook

Some of my team mates and friends have been asking for the secret referred to in my last post, so I am obliging!

This is the method that my team mate, Maya, passed on to me the other day. It uses Photoshop. If you don't have that particular program, I'm sure the method will translate pretty easily to other applications used for editing photographs.

First, get the Treasury in question on your screen and reduce it in size until you an see all of it. On my computer, with the Chrome browser, that is about 75%.

Then you need to print the screen. On my keyboard, bottom left, is a key with "Fn" in a box. Hold that down and press the one up the top, right hand side, that says "prt sc" in a little box. It doesn't say it's done anything but it has saved it to your clipboard.

Minimize your browser and open Photoshop, choosing the editing bit. Click on File, New and Image from Clipboard. The treasury will appear in the editing window just as it looked on screen.

Up top on the tool bar, choose "Layer" and "Flatten Image". Mine is an old version of Photoshop so yours might say "Merge Down" or similar.

Next step - crop the treasury so you can still see the title but you cut out all the Etsy gubbins. Then go to Image, Resize Canvas and change the width to about 1 cm more than the height.

Save it where you can find it again with the appropriate name. You can then upload it to Facebook just like any photograph. Don't forget to add the link to the treasury as the image won't be clickable.

Here is one I prepared earlier. (I've always wanted to say that!)

This is a lovely Treasury made by my team mate Kellie. I am in it, of course! Nothing like a bit of shameless self promotion! It is called An Eclectic Collection of Beautiful Items. Go see it!

If I've missed anything or you need any help, just leave a comment and I'll come back to you.

Treasury tricks....

I have recently learned how to make a whole Etsy Treasury appear, as if by magic, on my Facebook page. I have been playing with it non-stop! My team mate from the Shiny Happy People, the lovely and generous Maya, showed me how to do it, for which I thank her heartily. And now, not content with bombarding my Facebook fans with Treasuries, I am doing the same on my blog.

If you are wondering why there aren't any closing comments at the bottom of this page, as there usually are, it's because I can't make the cursor go down there now. I am technologically challenged today. Hey ho!

This is one of mine, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

This is by Heyme, our dear Captain

Peggy's intriguing "It came in through the bathroom window

Front Page!! I've arrived...

This is an unscheduled blog post. I finally made it to the Front Page of Etsy! USA version, no less. I am dead chuffed! That's my gold chain necklace in there!

Happy New Year!

This is my Mum, Millie. She's 87 years old. Doesn't look it, does she? My sister Jacqui sent me this photo today via her mobile phone. Isn't modern technology wonderful?

My Mum is sitting on our bench at Leigh on Sea, looking out over the Thames Estuary. Amazingly, the sun is shining! The bench is a place my family visit often and dress up on special occasions. There are two plaques on the bench: one for my father, who died in 2006, and one for my nephew Jonathan, Jacqui's son, who died in 2009. He was only 28 and was taken from us very suddenly, in an accident.

I shall be visiting the bench myself next month. There will be flowers and pictures attached to it again on the anniversary of his death and a glass of JD and coke will be left on the seat for him! Well, somebody drinks it! Then we all go to lunch at the local pub and talk about him and Dad.

I hope this post isn't too depressing for you. I really do wish you all a really happy and successful New Year! We just like to remember the people who aren't here any more.