Blog Update In Photos

I've had a life changing couple of weeks and I've been too busy to blog about it, so I thought I'd catch up with photos :)

001. We got engaged!! This was a complete surprise to me, but Adrian had planned the whole thing. He got down on one knee in the beautiful countryside while we were having a Saturday walk. He made some chocolate coated strawberries and got me pink glitter edged roses. In the evening, he booked a table at a surprise location, we had a cosy candlelit dinner in a beautiful country pub in the middle of nowhere. It was the most romantic day/night.

002. Pretty work clothes. I have officially left my previous job, and I'm due to start my new job next week! I'll be working in a law firm, so for the office environment, I've invested in a few key pieces. I've mainly stuck with pretty tops, plain cardigans and black trousers. It's been strange getting my own uniform, because I've always been given one in previous jobs.

003. Naughty treats. I've been to Cardiff celebrating my new job & engagement with family. While I was there, I nipped into town and went to MAC. I purchased a few naughty bits. I got a lipstick (Snob), an eyeshadow (Plum Dressing) and one of the eyeshadow duos from the Semi-Precious collection (Pink Split). I think I just about caught the Semi-Precious eyeshadow as the collection seems to be on its way out now. I regret not buying the Rose Quartz blush, although I think I'll treat myself to Dainty from the general line soon.

I also got my hands on a lovely Heirloom shadestick from the MAC Me Over collection. I felt pretty lucky as I purchased it on the 30th August, when it was due in September. The lady mentioned that the particular store was releasing it slightly earlier than other stores. It's in a beautiful beige champagne sort of shade.

If you want any swatches of these items, just leave a comment on this blog post :)

004. Owl Necklace. I got this from the Dorothy Perkins website (link here). I thought it would be tiny, but actually, it's huge compared to what I expected! At first I was a little put off by it, and I wasn't sure whether to return it. But I took it to Cardiff with me, and almost wore it every day. It's so cute paired with a nice plain top, as it's a pretty big statement piece.

005. Custom Order. After the jewellery stall, I received a custom order for someone who loves butterflies. I found these beautiful vitrial butterfly beads on Ebay and turned them into this charm bracelet. I've sent photos over, she loves it, so it'll either be collected or dropped off v.soon.

Love,

Fiona x

Nottingham Make-Up Haul

Last week we decided to go to Nottingham and I bought a few bits & pieces, mostly make-up. I've been meaning to write this post sooner but I've been super busy getting ready for the stall.

Anyway, onto the goodies :)

Primark watch pendant necklace - £4.00

The first item was an amazing find in Primark. I absolutely love pendant watches, and this one is only £4.00. I have a really nice one I bought from River Island a while ago, but this one's great for casual wear.

Paul & Joe Lip Gloss G in shade 02 (found in TK Maxx) £6.99

I was so excited to find this lipgloss in TK Maxx, I've always wanted to try some Paul & Joe products, and the packaging is just the cutest. The tube has a raised floral detail and a beautiful pearly pink lid, the box is also pretty sweet as you can see from the photo. The lipgloss itself is in a beautiful light nude sparkly shade (as shown in swatch below).

Paul & Joe Lipgloss Swatch

Clarins Single Eye Colour Eyeshadow in Icy Turquoise (found in TK Maxx) £5.99

I fell in love with the colour of this eyeshadow, it's a beautiful shimmery deep blue (as shown in swatch below). They also had one called Pink Frost, which looked like a pale shimmery pink with light flecks of golden glitter, I was tempted to get it but I do have a similar colour so I was good ;)

I think the colour is quite pigmented and strong, stronger than I was expecting actually. I was just curious to test out some Clarins make-up, so far I'm pretty pleased.

Clarins 'Icy Turquoise' Swatch

I was pretty excited about picking up the next items.

Nars Blush in Deep Throat (bought from Space NK) £20.50

I've been wanting to own a Nars blush since reading so many amazing reviews and seeing so many swatches, but the price tag has always put me off. After having a good look at the testers in the Space NK store in Nottingham, I decided that Deep Throat looked like the best blush for me. I thought that Orgasm was quite orangey and a bit too pearly for me. And I could also understand why people say that Super Orgasm is too glittery, it really is! I could never pull that one off.

I also checked out the lipglosses, and I was rather disappointed. Alot of people really love them, but I really dislike make-up products that have that certain smell, I can't really think of a word to describe it. I love products that are either scentless, or have a lovely vanilla/almond undertone.

Here's a swatch of Deep Throat:

Nars Blush - Deep Throat

It's a bit of a rubbish swatch, but that was just a light application. You really don't need much of this for impact. I imagine I'll have mine for ages and ages. It has to be my favourite blush, ever.

I also invested in a couple of MAC Lipsticks:

L-R: MAC Cremesheen in Creme Cup + Speed Dial - £13.50 each

I've wanted to try MAC lipsticks for a long time, but I'm not really a lipstick person generally, so I figured I'd buy them and never use them. How wrong I was. I absolutely LOVE Creme Cup, I've used it almost every day since I bought it. I'm applying a thin amount of it and using a bit of my Vaseline Cocoa pot on top for a bit of extra gloss. Speed Dial is the nicest pink, but the smallest amount is super bright, so I have used that one less. As mentioned above, I hate badly scented products, but these lipsticks are heaven to me because they smell of vanilla :D

While in the MAC store, I browsed the eyeshadows as well as the lipsticks. I think my favourite eyeshadows are Satin Taupe, Expensive Pink and Patina.

Anyway, here is a swatch of Creme Cup & Speed Dial:

Top: Creme Cup

Bottom: Speed Dial

Wow, this is a pretty long post!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far. I have tomorrow off work (yay!) so I'm looking forward to a day of jewellery making and preparing for the stall.

Today I got myself some fimo clay with the intention of making cupcake charms. The results were.... rather bad, but I did remember to take pictures, so I'll share that crafty project with you in my next post :)

Love,

Fiona x

FEATURED: Flonightingale

I'm excited to be writing this feature, as I absolutely love Emma's jewellery. Emma is the creative brain behind Flonightingales, quirky and adorable handmade jewellery.

As a big fan of charms, and a love for all things sparkly, Flonightingales offers plenty of both. Her Dino earrings are so cute, contrasting with the hippie look of her Violet Flower necklace, and the whimsical nature of her Birdcage Vignette necklace. You'll find all kinds of treasures at her store.

I recently purchased her Sparkle Bow Earrings, and as soon as they arrived, I fell instantly in love. I knew I had to share them with you all and talk about Emma's jewellery.

They arrived beautifully packaged with an adorable business card, pretty organza bag and the earrings were attached to a lovely dragonfly cut card. Her jewellery would make an amazing gift, if you can get yourself to part with the pieces ;)

The AB glass beads sparkle vibrantly in the light, and the glass adds a nice comfortable weight to the earrings. The antiqued bronze bows look distressed and have that vintage look. They look adorable with my floral dresses.

Please excuse the lack of make-up, I do try to give my skin a break on days off 

Nails: Rimmel 60 Seconds in Twinkle

Go grab yourself a pair of these prettyful earrings from Emma's Etsy store here, or click here to view them directly. There is also a necklace that could match, which is extremely tempting ;)

I'm also especially loving this gorgeous necklace:

Loveheart Sparkle Necklace - £7.00

Click to view.

And these beautiful studs from her Misi store:

Button Sparkle Earrings - £3.50

Click to view.

In a previous life, I was, most definitely, a magpie ;)

Emma's Blog

Emma's Etsy Store

Emma's MISI Store

Emma's Folksy Store

See what Emma's upto on her Facebook here.

What are your fave Flonightingale pieces? :)

Love,

Fiona x

PS: Stay tuned for a joint giveaway coming v.soon, where you could win some jewellery pieces from Flonightingale & from Sparklerose :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone's having a lovely Valentine's Day so far. I had yummy breakfast in bed made by my wonderful boyfriend, complete with a red rose sitting on this month's cosmo, I'm a very lucky girl ;)

We're having a homemade three course meal this evening, he's made the starter and main, and I'm providing the dessert. I'm planning to make some marshmallow cupcakes as the main bit, with some bits of fruit etc for dipping into melted chocolate after. Yumyum. I shall try to remember pictures.

Here are some of the new pieces I mentioned in my previous post. My plan was to pop these to the boutique today but I'm deciding to wait a little while. I'm seemingly taking on alot lately, it's hard to keep up ;)

Garden Bird Of Paradise Charm Bracelet - On Hold

Dream In Cupcake Earrings - £5.00

Spring Showers Cupcake Charm Necklace - £6.00

I started creating my general packaging last night, for things that won't be boxed. It'll be ideal for the stall.

Isn't it cute? I love polkadots :D

If you're interested in the items above, please comment or send me an email to sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk as they probably won't be listed on my Folksy store until after April (depending on what sells at the stall).



I'll be making another entry later today (before this evening) about my V-Day Giveaway! It's featuring some Sparklerose Designs jewellery, plus extra goodies.

Love,

Fiona x

New Items

Hello there! What a lovely freezing day it is today.. haha.

I'm back from my trip to Cardiff, spent the weekend catching up on things, then I started making the stock for the stall I'm hoping to do in April. I thought I'd show the pieces here :)

Filigree bases finished with mauve roses, pearls and Swarovski rose hearts.

Lemony beads complimented with amber coloured Czech glass, mini flowers and satin bows.

Deep blue sparkly earrings, I'll hopefully be making a matching necklace for these soon (as below)

Deep mauve sparkly necklace & earrings set

Turquoise sparkle necklace & earrings set

I haven't yet worked out the pricing of these items, but if you're interested in finding out/interested in purchasing, leave a comment with your email and I'll get back to you :) Snap them up while you can :D

Ideally, I'll make a few necklace & earrings sets. I tend to make individual pieces but I think given my audience at the residential home, sets might be appropriate :) I will have some specialist pieces to take there though. I haven't made any charm bracelets yet, I have so many pretty beads and charms, just having trouble finding the antique bronze plated chain that I use, rather annoying..

I keep forgetting to mention this everytime I write, as I'm still getting used to the technology of it all, but Sparklerose Designs is on Facebook :D

Become a fan for realtime updates and exclusive offers/info.

Love,

Fiona x

Forever21 Necklaces

As mentioned in my previous blog post, here's a wonderful collection of necklaces from Forever21.

I've never really shopped here before, but I'm so glad I've found them now ;) I'm a bit of a necklace hoarder, especially long ones with pendants. I find they're so easy to wear with most of my clothes (generally dresses, leggings, mini skirts and tops).

Here are some of my absolute faves.

Pocket Heart Locket Necklace - £4.80

Aside being an absolute bargain (I think it's in its final sale), this would be perfect with a variety of outfits.

Click to view.

Floral Pocket Locket Necklace - £6.80

If only I could justify this :( it's so so pretty.

Click to view.

Faceted Filigree Necklace - £4.80

At first glance, this looks like a perfume bottle to me, but it's actually a bead.

Click to view.

Floral Pendant Necklace - £5.80

This is really summery/spring to me, it would be gorgeous against something white :)

Click to view.

Porcelain Heart Necklace - £4.80

Similar to the style above, but slightly more romantic in my mind.

Click to view.

Swallow Estate Necklace - £4.80

This is so cute! I'm starting to love jewellery that features birds lately, so this is definitely on my lust list.

Click to view.

Rose Medallion Necklace - £5.80

They also stock this in a bronze colouring with a cream middle (instead of blue), but I love the vibrance on this one.

Click to view.

Victorian Rose Necklace - £6.80

This would look so cute with anything, really. I love the fact that the rose picture is quite neutral, alot of my floral necklaces are quite bright.

Click to view.

Elegant Victorian Necklace - £4.80

I love the general style of this necklace, the rhinestoned bow is adorable, but I'm not entirely sold on the rose picture inside, however, it is still gorgeous :)

Click to view.

If only I had the money to buy those beauties...

I'm considering bringing a collection of long pendant necklaces to Sparklerose Designs as I really do love them. I've had a few different ideas, so we'll see ;)

Which one is your fave? Have you ever bought jewellery from Forever21 before?

Love,

Fiona x

Shopping & Jewellery Find

I decided to get myself a bit of retail therapy yesterday. I would take pictures of my finds but I need some batteries :D

I got a lovely floral dress and burgundy wedge heels from New Look (both £5 each!), I got a couple of things in Accessorize 70% off, and I got myself some new underwear :D it was generally a successful trip.

I was very keen to browse the jewellery rails, as I usually am. It makes great research, to see what's popular, what's 'in' at the moment.

♥ I saw extra long pendant necklaces, with really small pendants. I'm not entirely sure I like this look.
♥ I noticed loads of xlarge rings, especially the ones with two rings in one.
♥ I saw plenty of charm necklaces, these still seem to be very much in fashion.
♥ I also noticed plenty of hippy-esque bracelets, which seems almost unusual to me given the time of year.

I did treat myself to two rings: one lilac rhinestone hat, and a coral rose. Apart from that, I was very good :D

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Anywho, the other thing I was keen to write about, my find from the other night :)

I came across an online shop called WendyHouse, "the home of lovely and unusual things". Of course this intrigued me, so I had a little shop around, and wow, very lovely :D

They sell a range of jewellery and hair accessories, focusing mostly on jewellery though. Here's some of my faves.

Joy Pendant - £9.00

This would look gorgeous adding some detail to a simple outfit.

Click to view.

One Flew Over Earrings - £7.00

These earrings are so cute & effective, and I love the blue & gold colouring.

Click to view.

Hey Sailor! Bracelet - £7.00

This cute charm bracelet appeals to my nautical side :)

Click to view.

Gothic Rose Earrings - £5.50

The red have currently sold out but the black are still available

They would look lovely with that little black dress

Click to view.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! Deadline is 18th january, so there's a little while yet :)

Love,

Fiona x

Tuesday's Trinkets

Time for Tuesday's Trinkets (and I've remembered this week, hurray!)

This week's picks are from Folksy.

Key Charm Necklace by Alison Julie Designs

This is so adorable and affordable, I love the vintage style to it, yet it has a festive element with the lovely red bow.

Click to view.

Vintage Yellow Rose Stud Earrings by Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes

Can you tell I just love rose stud earrings? I think they're so cute and delicate. These in particular remind me of autumn with the deep green & mustard colouring.

Click to view.

Love is the Key to my Heart Bracelet by The Vintage Jewellery Box

I'm not usually a fan of this much gold in a jewellery piece, but I really do love this, it's also themed around 'secret love' which makes it rather special.

Click to view.

If you'd like to be featured here next week please drop me a line at sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk (or find me on Facebook/comment here) giving me a link to your product :) Product needs to be a 'trinket', which can be any form of accessory really :)

I'm due to make a trip to Cardiff on wednesday which should be fun. It's my Dad's birthday so I'm hoping we can do something like a family meal while I'm there. It's likely I'll go shopping :D Cardiff is so much bigger than Lincoln and there's so many shops to choose from. I love hunting around in Primark for the fun of it, you never know what you'll find, and the Primark in Cardiff is very big.

Time for coffee :D

Love,

Fiona x

Fredflare & Pretty Jewellery

I'm listening to fredflare's boombox (awesome little tool for listening to music) and browsing their pretties. I found this nailpolish and got all excited :D

Happy Birthday Nail Polish - $18

Shiney :D

I used to heart fredflare just for browsing, and then I found out that they didn't ship internationally :( but now, they do :D yays.

They've got the quirkiest jewellery pieces, here are some of my faves.

Hot Shot! Camera Ring - $10

This is so cute, I barely own any rings like this though, I worry about spiking people with them :D

Ladybird Watch Locket Necklace - $22

I love watch pendants lately, I bought a lovely one from River Island a little while ago. I love the detailing on this one though.

Black & Gold Bow Earrings - $4.99

These beauties are sold out, they're verrrry cute :P

Sadly I haven't been much of a busy jewellery-making bee, and I haven't been blogging either :O

To be honest, life is just flying by.

I'm due to hear from Milkwood Gallery at some point about the pieces I've sent them, I think they're due to send a sale or return contract to me before they get displayed. It'll be pretty exciting :) they generally seemed happy with my pieces, yay.

My next focus is getting the Folksy shop a bit fuller (haha) and finishing up the website.

This weekend my Dad is coming up to stay, I'm hoping to take him out for lunch somewhere nice tomorrow, and there's a big family meal planned on sunday evening. Should be goooood.. :)

Love,

Fiona x