A New Era

I've been at my new job for 2 weeks now and I'm loving it.  The work is interesting, the office environment is pleasant and dynamic.  I'm so relieved to know for sure that I've made the best move for me - getting away from a few unprofessional people and moving to wonderful job with great people and with more money.

However, I did have a wonderful send off from some wonderful friends and colleagues and was astounded and very touched by the number of gifts and cards I received.

I got some vouchers for John Lewis and Amazon; a beautiful watch (thank you, Paula, for choosing it - wonderful choice!)

 a filofax (I've always wanted one)

a mug (very apt, considering I'm always baking cupcakes)

 

some manicure and pedicure goodies

some buttons for my crafting, in a sweet little jar

and from my fabulous boss, a beautiful cake stand.  I've always wanted one of these but have not been able to justify the cost of buying one myself.  But GG got me a beautiful hand-crafted and designer one and I love it (I really don't think the pictures do it justice!)

And here are all the presents piled up before I unpacked them all:

I'm such a lucky girl to have so many lovely people around me who think so highly of me - thank you all so much!!!!

Sadly, I haven't been so lucky on the crafting front!  The blue lace top I was working on wasn't working out, so I had to pull it back - the sizing just seemed to be all wrong.  I'm probably not going to work on that one again for a while as I've lost the enthusiasm for that particular project.

I've also been making some jam - the consistency of my blueberry one is a bit too runny, but I think the strawberry and blackcurrant one has turned out much better.  It's always annoying when these things don't turn out the way you hoped.  If anyone has a good tried and tested recipe for blueberry jam, I'd love to hear it as I've never found a really good one that has worked for me.

I've been pretty quiet on the jewellery making front recently, so have booked myself into a leather and bead wrap bracelet making class in October.  I've been wanting to do this class for a while but it gets booked up so quickly, but I managed to get place in time.  I did make a very quick and simple necklace yesterday

I saw a lady on the bus the other day wearing a simple but effectively lovely silver pearl-like necklace so decided to make one for myself.

Hope your crafting is going better than mine!  Let's hope I have more crafting success to post about next time!