Ooh Pretty Nails! (001)

I've decided to create an 'ooh pretty nails' tag, something which I'll try to do once a week.

I'm rediscovering my love for nailart lately, and my recent nail look is some lovely Easter bunnies, inspired by Dainty Dresses. There's so many people doing so many beautifully creative things with their nails out there, and from googling I found so many gorgeous images that are so inspiring.

So here is a collection of gorgeous 'spring/summer' inspired nails.

Florals

via we heart it

I love love love florals. They remind me of vintage chic, summer days, happiness. I think this style is really quite effective too, it's almost like dots of colour and shading which make up roses. I also found a tutorial for mastering the style here. I'll hopefully be trying it out myself soon.

Cupcakes

via beautyhill

Yummy cupcake nails! I adore all things cupcake, so these are a real hit with me. They're perfect for spring when they're created with plenty of pastel colours. Click the link above to see loads of different styles. There are some really pretty polkadot and stripe ideas, as well as super fruity ones.

Prints

via we heart it

I'm not a huge fan of animal print, although I have grown fond of my hot pink zebra print pjs I had for christmas (sooo shexay, haha). I think hot pink can pull off anything, or vice versa. These are definitely versatile, and it's a design that could work with other colour schemes too.

Strawberries

via fashioncraz

Strawberries are the yummiest fruit, in my mind. So I love this nailart, it's so cutesy, especially with pink. To smarten it up a bit, all you need to do is swap pink for red, and voila. I love sporting a strawberry nail. I use Barry M mint green, a pink Barry M shade (can't remember the name), and a basic white for the dots. It's uber cute.

Aside nailart, I noticed that OPI have created a Designer Series range. I'm quite the OPI fan, although usually can't justify the price tag ;)

The Designer Series are extremely sparkly, I think the term is 'prismatic'. From what I've read and seen, they reflect lots of light, therefore creating a multicoloured nail. I'm quite taken with this colour...

It's called 'Opulence'

Looks like this on nails..

via google

I found them on Ebay for a pretty penny. But alas, I am not allowed to shop just yet ;)

Love,

Fiona x

A Huge Catch Up..

I haven't posted a thing in ages! Time has seriously flown by. Looooads to say...

I've spent my time focusing on getting my finances in order, so I've seriously cut back on jewellery supplies, I've sold alot of my non-sparklerose things through Ebay and car boot sales, and stopped shopping for any girly things I don't need. It's been going for a few weeks now, and although I would love to go on a big shopping trip, watching my bank balance improve is extremely motivating. However, we are having some treats, such as a London daytrip, and I did purchase a naughty bag, but generally they are at a minimum. Our focus is to save loads of money for our future.

Due to my little world being busier than usual, my time to sit and relax with beads and tools in my hands are becoming rare. I still enjoy it, and I love the things I make, but I definitely will be taking a backseat from it, for now anyway. I would love to explore other options of handmade goodies when I do have more time, and I'd like to remove the pressures of advertising/promotion that inevitably come with a small ''business''. I basically want to inject the fun back into it, and the best way for me to do this is to supply shops, as I'm doing with Milkwood Gallery, so for now, that'll be my main focus. I think when I started last year I tried to run before I could walk.

However, there will be more items to show in the future, when I'm finished with my other missions, and I will maintain an online shop as well as supplying. But for now, I'm somewhat taking a proper break :)

My missions:

- To sort myself out financially, from overtime in work, selling old things, being a cautious & thrifty spender.
- To get our flat looking perfect, by de-cluttering and reorganising sections of it.
- To generally focus on my life here, I still have more settling in to do.

So, here's what I've been upto the past few weeks...

We visited London on a very sunny Saturday and we decided to go to the Southbank Centre Square for a chocolate festival. We bought a box of delicious macaroons in the yummiest of flavours, like lemon & lime, and Malibu (very fruity). He also got us some huuuge cookies that tasted almost like flat circle brownies with loads of chocolate chips. I nibbled mine on the tube as we were heading to Kew Gardens. We spent most of the afternoon there. We're planning to make a daytrip there at some point.

I baked cupcakes :D and then decorated them badly with chocolate chips. They were meant to be like hearts, but it failed me. The buttercream was incredible, I finally got the consistency right, and the flavour was awesome. Just a dash of strawberry jam gave it a lovely strawberry flavour and a very faint pink colouring.

I did however purchase this very naughty bag from Cath Kidston. The boyfriend passed me some money while we were in the store, and told me to buy myself something, so I bought this :D I have sold alot of my older bags though, so I have been somewhat 'good'.

I've also started to clear alot of my toiletries. I seem to be part of a large amount of people who have hoarded loads of toiletries, like myself, and alot of people are talking about cutting their collections down. I started taking photos of the things that I've used up, so far for April I've got 12 photos. It's motivated me to use things I've held onto for no apparent reason, like samples and miniatures. Apart from things like toothpaste, shampoo+conditioner, and facial-based things, I haven't needed to buy any toiletries at all. The worst bit is the amount of lotions and body butters I have, eek.

Wow, I've written a ton, I'm going to stop now ;)

I've been seriously considering creating a blog sale for some of the things I'm selling. Any thoughts? :)

Love,

Fiona x

Nails + Jewellery Wardrobe

I painted my nails with the nailpolish I purchased the other day, Rimmel's 60 second one in Sky High. This is what it looks like.

My nails are really short at the moment, they were much longer but all started to break. I need something to keep them long.

It's a really gorgeous colour, and went on easily. This is with two coats, on top of a base coat.

I also *finally* got around to sorting my little jewellery 'wardrobe' I made out of a gift set box, a present that I had for Christmas. I've never known packaging to be so useful.

I used two skewers to make little poles, and I've hung all my handmade earring pairs on them. The doors close with a slight magnetic catch, so it stays closed and keeps them clean. Previously I stored them in little drawers that didn't fit so many in, but now I have plenty of space.

Love,

Fiona x

Shopping Finds

I'm getting really lazy on the blogging front, I do apologise..

I'm also taking what seems like a small break from making jewellery, and infact, I've been thinking about the possibilities of branching out into other fields of handmade goodness. It's just ideas I'm toying with for now.

I thought I'd come and show my new purchases lately. I'm on a general shopping ban, but I have sold alot recently, so I've treated myself to a few bits.

Aside some basics, here's what I've bought the past week.

Adorable bird necklace (I think it was £1.50) from Primark

Sparkly bow necklace (£1.00 in the sale) also from Primark

I really don't need anymore jewellery, seriously. But I fell in love with this little bird, it makes the perfect little pendant and I can wear it in work too. The red was an initial put off on the bow pendant, but actually I reckon it would look awesome with a striped nautical style top I've got :) well, I'm hoping so. But for £1, I couldn't leave it behind ;)

Bird nest earrings (£5.00, half price) from Topshop

The boyfriend insists I'll never wear these, because they're quite long and dangly, but they're so cute! I tried one on and found it surprisingly comfortable, so I reckon I will wear these at some point soon.

Heart keyring (£6.00) from Accessorize

Sterling Silver lilac super sparkly studs (£5.40) from Accessorize

There's no way this beautiful creamy enamel heart will survive on my keys, so I'm going to use it as a bag charm. The studs are just so gorgeous, the colour is so pretty, and I don't tend to have many real silver studs anymore, I find they're really handy as there's no issue of tarnishing.

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Latino (I paid around £4.00 for it in Superdrug, yay for sales!)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Polish in Sky High (around £3-4, also from Superdrug)

I've been wanting to try one of the Rimmel 'Moisture Renew' lipsticks for ages, but I'm not necessarily big on lipsticks, so I couldn't justify spending £6 or so on one. But when I popped into Superdrug they were around £2 off, so I picked up this gorgeous pinky colour. And this is the first lipstick I've owned in years :P The nailpolish is a pretty deep blue/green shade, I've been looking for a shade like that for some time.

Floral cotton skirt (£5.00) from Primark

This skirt is so cute! I saw it and instantly fell in love. It has button detail down the front too. I wore it out the other day with a plain blue t-shirt, matching the blue floral bits, and my long owl necklace. It's currently in stores as far as I can see, and for £5 it's a real bargain.

Where appropriate, I've provided links to things incase you fancy anything you see here.

Hope everyone's having a lovely monday!

Love,

Fiona x

Handwriting Tag

I love seeing the differences between how different people write, so I was intrigued to see that Laura from A Daisy Chain Dream had blogged about a handwriting post. So intrigued that I decided to get out my handbag notebook (Hello Kitty, hurray!) and have a go myself :)

Here's what you need to write:

1. name and blog name

2. url

3. write 'a quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'

4. favourite quote

5. favourite song

6. favourite band(s), artist(s)

7. anything else you wish to say..

And my handwriting looks like...

This :D

My handwriting used to look neater in primary school, and it wasn't until the middle of high school that it evolved into this. My writing has been the same since then. But after studying law at uni, and needing to write super fast, I do have a second handwriting version that can barely be called 'writing', it's like a huge scribble, sometimes I can't even re-read what I wrote with it. It was useful for taking notes in lectures and then copying the notes neatly afterwards.

Anywho, I'd love to tag anyone who's reading this, anyone who fancies giving it a try :) oh, and please do comment with a link to your blog so I can be nosey :D hehe.

Love,

Fiona x

Monthly Faves: February

I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to make this a permanent feature, it's likely to be more of a 'now and again' post that pops up on here occasionally.

So, here are a few of the goodies I loved through February.

Bourjois eyeshadow single in Rose Perle

This gorgeous pinky eyeshadow is super shimmery and great as a base over the eyelid. For most of the month, I wore this smudged into a bit of black eyeliner around the upper eyelashes.

Kylie Minogue Darling Perfume

This perfume is so sweet and vanillary, something which I love in perfume. It was my go-to scent last month.

Gingerbread Latte whipped body cream

I had this as a stocking gift from my boyfriend at christmas. It smells amazing! And it leaves my skin feeling soft and smelling yummy for hours & hours. I think this is still available from Asda, for around £4.00 (I think).

Sparklerose Designs Ribbon Rose Earrings - £2.00

These were one of the first pairs I made, and I've worn them everywhere since. I find they're handy for work, as they're delicate and easy wearing.

Dusky Pink version are available here.

For the lilac pair, please email sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk :)

I love the colours in this bracelet, and I've been wearing it for most of March too. My mum made it with a variety of pink and clear beads, strung onto clear elastic. It seems to go with all the girly colours in my wardrobe.

There's loads more to mention, but those are the main bits :)

At the moment, I can't reach my jewellery desk to make anything, I can't even complete the bracelet I decided to make myself as a birthday treat (it was a week ago now). We're planning to go to a car boot sale tomorrow morning, so our living room is filled with boxes and bags of goodies to take. The mess is quietly driving me crackers, but hopefully tomorrow we'll sell lots and make lots of money :D I hope..

Anyone got any plans for the weekend? :)

Love,

Fiona x

Milkwood Gallery Visit

Sparklerose Designs is getting seriously neglected lately. There just seems to be a ton of other things going on. But I promise there will be regular blog posts soon.

While I was in Cardiff, I visited Milkwood Gallery. I think I may have mentioned my intention to go there in a previous post. They're a lovely little corner shop/gallery that sells plenty of cutesy/vintage items, and they hold exhibitions etc in the back. They had some of my stock last September, and from having a chat to the owner, it seems as though my little beauties are quite popular there :)

It was such exciting news, I even popped to Starbucks for a celebratory frappuccino (and a shortbread :P). As mentioned previously, the new items I made have now gone back to Cardiff to be in Milkwood Gallery. I also included some cupcake earrings that were recently featured on here.

While I was there, I took some pictures of the rest of my stock, sitting proudly on their gorgeous jewellery stands.

Opulence Pink sitting with my first ribbon rose bracelet

Autumn Flowers necklace

Candy Pink earrings inbetween some lovely pairs by someone else (I couldn't see the name)

It's an awesome feeling knowing there's girlies out there wearing Sparklerose Designs :)

I turned 24 on the 11th March, scary stuff, I'm getting older ;) but I had a great day in Skegness with my Dad (he stayed in Lincoln for a while). But as I say, life's been a whirl lately..

I'm in the process of working on the website, and the shop is somewhat active, just containing one item at the moment.. ahem.. I'm working on it ;)

Hope you all have a fab evening :D

Love,

Fiona x