I decided to do the hugs and kisses bracelet in smaller beads.  I have used 6mm, 4mm, 8/0, 11/0 and 15/0.

Well it’s here the long-awaited new challenge…
BFF ( Beading friends forever!)
We are so excited to be able to bring you a brand new challenge blog aimed specifically at jewellery making. Jewellery making is becoming so popular yet there are very few places for people to share their creations so we hope to help inspire you all but also to be inspired by your creations. No matter what your preferred style you will all be able to take part in our challenge each month. There will be two parts each month to our challenge – a theme and a pattern/tutorial. The members of the design team use many different techniques and I hope between us we can offer some inspiration to you. We also want to show you how varied one pattern can be depending on the choice of beads and colours.
And what could be better than learning new techniques but to win a £15 voucher to spend at Beads Direct that will be picked at random, so you do not need to have been beading for long, most of us havent, and we are also learning along the way with you.
So onto our first challenge
1) February challenge - Hugs and Kisses
2) Anything Goes

This is some of the jewellery I have made recently:

Hi,  Just a quick update:  I had a phone call last night from my daughter who said that she has been informed our paperwork is being finalised and should be on its way to us soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am beyond excited, but still have a lot of packing to do yet.  Just as an aside - the temperature today at our home in Loring is -29 feels like -36 - so if you think its cold today - its not really!  Tomorrow is going to be an even colder day at -31 feels like -38!!  I am going to upload some jewellery I have made later.

More pictures of our home and surroundings. xxx

For those who are interested:  My husband and myself are emigrating to Canada on the 1st May this year.  We have been in the process for nearly five years, (they move very slowly).  Because we have been waiting a long time, we purchased a house in 2010 and have been spending six months of the year over there and six over here.  Obviously, we chose to spend the summer months in Canada!  We have a daughter and her husband and two grandchildren who live here.  Our home is in Northern Ontario in what they call 'Cottage Country'.  It is primarily a vacation area for Canadians and also a lot of Americans as well.  They come for the hunting, shooting and fishing, when its open season for the various species.  We are in an area of thousands of lakes and as my daughter says "in the middle of nowhere".  We will live in a very small village called Loring, which is adjacent to Port Loring, which used to be primarily for logging and all that that entailed.  As I say, it is mostly for the Vacationers now - they have cottages and bring their trailers and tents to come in the summer.  We live at the end of a very long dirt road with only about a dozen houses in all on it.  We are surrounded by trees and lakes and are on an acre of land.  I have a sit and ride lawn mower with cruise control!!!  The porch is my favourite place to be in the summer as it is shaded in the hot weather.  Last summer it was mostly around 30 degrees for most of the time, so we were glad of it.  We go to our daughter for little visits and have the grandchildren up in the holidays.  Our nearest shopping is either in Sudbury, which is in Nickel Belt Country and North Bay which is on the shores of Lake Nippissing.