(Source:  http://www.americangemsociety.org/birthstones accessed on at 18:23pm on the 27th of May 2012).

We are now getting to the end of May, for which the birthstone is Emerald.  In a few days we will be in June.  Hard to believe isn’t it that half the year has almost gone!

The birthstone for June is Pearls.  I have been busy creating pearl jewellery.  Our pearl jewellery is made with genuine freshwater pearls, that vary in shape from baroque pearls to potato pearls.  To view our latest collection, click here:

www.alicestories.etsy.com

But today, is now Mothers Day in New Zealand. In a few more hours it will also be Mothers Day in Italy. And also in the US & other countries too.

What are your plans today? How will you be celebrating Mothers day?

I found this gorgeous poem on the Internet & have pasted the link <here>. Enjoy!

To all those special
Mothers out there, we celebrate you and thank you …
… not just on Mothers Day
….not just on Mothering Sunday.
… not just on Mother’s Birthday,
but on every day of the year!

Thank you Mother, for being there for us …
Thank you Mother, for your unconditional love ….
Thank you Mother,
for listening to us ….
Thank you Mother, for your support …
Thank you
Mother, for sharing your wisdom, caution and guidance …
Thank you Mother,
for your welcoming arms and hugs …
Thank you Mother, for comforting us when
we are feeling low …
Thank you Mother, for inspiring us and lifting our
spirits …
Thank you Mother, for encouraging us and motivating us ….
Thank you Mother …. for being you!
We love you Mother
This is for you Mother, enjoy!

xxx

Are you coming to see us this Sunday, the 29th of April 2012?  We will be at the Wedding Fair at Draycott House between 11am and 3pm.

Or come along and take a look for yourself, in person.  If you’re free this weekend, then be sure to visit us at the wedding fair. You can also try on our genuine pearl hand crafted wedding jewellery.  There is nothing quite like seeing them in person.

Its not too late to register.  Click <here> to get your free tickets.

Draycott House is located in Draycott, Derbyshire, DE72 3PD.  Draycott is not far from Borrowash and Ockbrook.  If you are coming from Derby, you will want to head in the direction of Long Eaton.

I have been busy creating new designs and hand crafting gorgeous matching sets of necklaces, earrings, hair pins, hair combs and tiaras.  Genuine rose quartz and genuine freshwater pearls and genuine garnet gemstones are featured heavily in our bridal collection.  To see more of our collection please visit our online store at www.alicestories.etsy.com

Today is the 25th of April, and this time each year, we celebrate Anzac Day in New Zealand.  For me, Anzac Day is about tradition.  Of wearing our red poppies, for the week or so leading up to Anzac Day.  Of waking up early and going down to the local city park to watch the Anzac Parade.  It was always a very formal affair.  But it had become a traditional thing for us to do.  Standing outside in the cold chilly air.  A very sombre event.  Then later when I went to University, we woke up even earlier.  I don’t know how we did it, but Mathew, Rose and a couple of others from Weir House managed to wake up at 4am to walk down the hill to the Anzac dawn parade and service at the cenotaph.

A link with details of the Wellington Dawn Parade can be viewed by clicking <here>.  You can see the service from this year, with the you tube video clip below.

What is the history of Anzac Day?  What is Anzac Day really all about?  There is a brilliant website I found called “ANZAC.GOVT.NZ”.  It is a New Zealand government website that is full of resources on the history of Anzac Day.  No doubt, this is a real winner with the history students!  To visit the Anzac website click <here>.

The Anzac website provides a good description of Anzac Day, and I’ve quoted below:

“On 25 April 1915, eight months into the First World War, Allied soldiers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula. … The forces from New Zealand and Australia, fighting as part of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), … The Gallipoli campaign was, however, a costly failure for the Allies, who after nine months abandoned it and evacuated their surviving troops. Almost a third of the New Zealanders taking part had been killed; … Anzac Day, the anniversary of the first day of conflict, does not mark a military triumph, it does remind us of a very important episode in New Zealand’s history. Great suffering was caused to a small country by the loss of so many of its young men. But the Gallipoli campaign showcased attitudes and attributes – bravery, tenacity, practicality, ingenuity, loyalty to King and comrades – that helped New Zealand define itself as a nation, even as it fought unquestioningly on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire.”  (Source:  http://www.anzac.govt.nz/significance/index.html accessed at 08:27 on 25.04.2012)

Spring time is often the most popular time to get married.  Like many before me, I also chose to get married during the Spring.  I had tried to avoid the hot sticky weather that you can get during summer.  But of course the weather cannot be predicted, as hard as we might try.  And although it was Spring, the day we got married, was indeed, also a very hot and sticky day!  Can’t always win!  But we can certainly try.

We will be at the Wedding Fair at Draycott House, on Sunday the 29th of April 2012.  We will be there between 11am and 3pm, so be sure to come and visit us.  You can try on our genuine pearl hand crafted wedding jewellery.  There are also other exhibitors there too, to cater to all your requirements for your big day.  Plenty of ideas and inspiration.

To register for your free tickets, click <here>.

Weddings are one event you will expect to see hair fascinators, and hair pins and tiaras in great splendour. Proms and School balls and charity galas will find people adorned with beautiful hair accessories too.

Just yesterday I created these exquisite bridal collections three themes of white, pink and gold. Each set features genuine freshwater pearls. The gold set has genuine semi precious gemstone pyrite flowers on the tiara and the hair comb. The pink set features genuine semi precious gemstone rose quartz flowers. The tiny little hair pins feature genuine shell flowers.

After having explored different e commerce options over the last few months, we have now made a decision.  And we have now launched of our new handmade jewellery shop on Etsy.  To visit our selection of handmade jewellery click on www.etsy.com/shop/alicestories.

SALE: To launch our handmade jewellery Etsy shop, we are giving 20% discount on all orders until the end of April 2011. Simply use code ” launch2012 ” when you check out to get your discount. PayPal is our preferred payment method. Credit & Debit card customers – You do not need a PayPal account. Simply choose the PayPal option at checkout and follow the link to pay by credit card. If you are new to Etsy then read about how to check out and pay with etsy here:http://www.etsy.com/help/article/339

Thank you for taking the time to visit my Etsy shop for Alice Stories Handmade Jewellery. We hope you will favourite our shop, add us to your circle, and come back and visit us again.

Your jewellery will be gift wrapped free of charge inside pretty tissue paper and cellophane and ribbon, all ready for you to give away as a gift, or simply enjoy yourself as a treat!

There is a free 3 year repair service, and a free 30 day money back guarantee (excludes earring wires).

Please connect with us on twitter at @jewelleryalices and on facebook at www.facebook.com/alicestories

To read our shop policies visit:http://www.etsy.com/shop/alicestories/policy

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Visit our main shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/alicestories

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We will be adding more items of jewellery to our Etsy shop continuously over the next few weeks. Our jewellery comes from five main collections as described below.

The South Pacific collection:
…is what you would call our flag ship collection. It features natural components, sourced from the Pacific, New Zealand, Tonga, and Brazil. Paua shells/abalone and mother of pearl are prominent along with shells and shell pearl, genuine freshwater and baroque pearls. The South Pacific collection includes plant beads including jobs tear (coix seeds) beads, cowry shell halves, acai beads, black and natural cocoa wood beads, small sea shells including sea snails, Tagua nut potato chips, and Black Labradorite and Haematite.

The Princess collection:
… features semi-precious gemstones. These exquisite pieces will have you sitting pretty in pink rose quartz, purple amethyst. You will glisten with black onyx and smoky quartz. This collection provides luxurious pieces when you just want to treat yourself!

The carousel collection:
… provides an affordable range of jewellery. These pieces are limited one of a kind pieces, incorporating upcycled vintage components, and ceramic, acrylic and plastic faux crystal beads as well as swarovski beads and cloisonne beads.

The Men’s unisex collection:
… is comprised of natural components including cocoa wood beads, jobs tears beads and bone carvings.
The designs are unisex and make ideal present’s for the young men in your life.

The Italian collection:
… includes pieces that are inspired by Italy and may include pieces that are sourced from Italy.

Some of these pieces are limited one of a kind items. Please note that if there is something you see and like, but is not available for sale, please contact me to discuss commissions and custom orders. I will be very happy to hear from you.

Learn to make your own jewellery

We run jewellery workshops in small groups of five to ten people in one session.  You will learn to make your own matching set of earrings, bracelet and necklace.  Public workshops are held in central Derby (UK) and in central Rotorua (NZ).  Jewellery workshops are booked on an individual basis for our public workshops.  In addition, we also take in house bookings for corporate events for employee team building.  We can also travel to your home for hen’s parties and  birthday parties.

Name:  Make your own necklace, bracelet and earrings set

Duration: 1.5 hours

Charge per person: £15 for tuition on the set class project, use of all tools including a beading tray and pliers, and a jewellery kit that contains everything required to make a pair of earrings, necklace and bracelet.

The jewellery kit includes the following:

• 10 inches of silver (or gold) coloured beading wire to make the bracelet;
• 22 inches of silver (or gold) coloured beading wire to make their necklace;
• two silver (or gold) plated lobster clasps to fasten the bracelet and necklaces in place;
• 30 silver (or gold) plated crimp beads;
• four small seed beads;
• one pair of silver plated (or gold plated) D shaped continental ear wires (or substituted for sterling silver shepherd hooks for an additional £1). For those without pierced ears, we can substitute the earring wire with screw back (clip on earrings) in a gold colour);
• two silver plated head pins.

Students will all make the same design but will choose their own beads, allowing individual creativity.  Participants can choose from one of our beads kits (options 1 – 3 below) or alternatively bring their own beads from home (option 4).

• Option (1) – x11 genuine freshwater pearls (in a choice of colours and shapes) RRP £15

• Option (2) – x11 genuine semi-precious gemstones (in a choice of colours and shapes) costs £10

• Option (3) – x11 genuine shell (in a choice of colours and shapes) RRP £5

• Option (4) – Participants may prefer to bring x11 of their own beads from home, to make up into a matching jewellery set.  This is the most affordable option as there is no need to purchase a bead kit.  This option is ideal when you have an old necklace at home that you want to reinvent.

Maximum number of people who can attend: 10

Age group of participants: 16 years and above

Equipment they need to bring, if any: A pen (to make notes on the handouts provided during class).

Outcomes: At the end of the workshop learner’s will understand basic vocabulary used in jewellery making, and understand how to connect a clasp and create a loop using crimp beads, and how to use wire and connect to an earring wire.

Venues:

• Network House (Derby, England)
• Rotorua Arts Village RAVE (Rotorua, New Zealand)

Dates:

• Contact us at info@alicestories.com to book your preferred date.

We can also travel to your work place or home to teach our jewellery making workshops.

Corporate Entertaining and Team Building Events

If you are organising a team building event for your employees, or a corporate function for your clients, our jewellery making workshop would make an ideal activity.  Your employees/clients will also have a keep sake to take home with them to remind them of you and your event.

Hens Parties and Birthday Parties

If you are organising a party with the girls, our jewellery workshops are perfect!  You have fun expressing your creativity plus you have a beautiful set of jewellery to wear at your party and take home afterwards.  The jewellery you make will be a beautiful reminder of your special time together.

We travel throughout England and New Zealand, so contact us now at info@alicestories.com to book your preferred date.  There is a minimum fee of £75 (that is the cost of tuition for 5 people at £15 each).