Posts in Sadie's musings

Miyuki Beaded Mascot Kit Review - No.31 Flora Rabbit Charm

This blog post is for the geekier people out there like me!

Way back when, in 2015 (how is it so long ago already?!), I ordered the Miyuki Mascot Fan Kit in this cute little bunny rabbit, and was delivered to me all the way down under in Wellington, New Zealand, from the USA.

Well I opened it, looked at it, got totally confused, and swiftly put it away again. Then when we relocated back to the UK in 2016, it got put in storage amongst one billion other beaded things, and completely forgotten about.

THEN in January this year, we took our belongings out of storage after nearly 3.5 years, and I rediscovered the kit! I’ve spent years making jewellery using a traditional bead loom, and have slowly tried to teach myself other beading techniques, but I’d still never managed to make a beaded figurine.

But now I felt like I was ready to give this little rabbit another go!

The instructions weren’t that user-friendly. I am not very good at learning from written instructions, I prefer demonstrations, so this was probably partly my problem. But the kit comes with everything you need to create the little rabbit, and includes duplicate beads in case you lose any (which I thought was really handy).

You follow each step to create a different element of the rabbit - for example, its ears, its feet, its hand or tail, and then towards the end when you have created all of the pieces, you put them together. It was actually really exciting when I managed to finish my first section, because never thought that I’d have been able to.

And then when I finished my whole rabbit, I almost danced! (Well, I probably did dance.)

I didn’t add the metal keyring attachment to its head because the closure didn’t work on it, and I don’t really know what I will do with my rabbit yet, so have placed it on a shelf!

It took 2-3 hours to complete the kit and I am so thrilled with my little rabbit, I have already ordered the bear version of the kit, which I will save for a quiet evening in :-)

What do you think of my little bunny? Have you ever tried something, given up, then gone back to it at a later date and found that you could do it? The moral of this story is, don’t give up!! :D

Sadie xx

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behind the scenes, Sadie's musingsSadie Hawker17 February 2020miyuki, seed beads, miyuki kitComment

Halloween spooky skull and bone jewellery - from the Shh archives!!

Here’s another trip down Shh memory lane for the creepiest time of the year - Halloween…

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I used to have a thing for skull jewellery - mostly bright, colourful skull jewellery! And in the theme of Halloween I had a little poke around in my old Shh by Sadie photos and pulled out a few pix of the skull necklaces, bracelets and goodness knows what else that I used to make….!!

Skull jewellery was quite popular at the time, in around 2010 - 2011, especially the colourful howlite stone skull beads, and I sold a lot of this kind of bracelet and necklace at markets and through stockists in New Zealand like Rex Royale, Emma and The White Room Gallery (these were some of my first ever stockists).

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I also made beads from polymer clay and strung them into bones necklaces - they were super best sellers, too. At one point I couldn’t make enough clay bones - pink ones, blue ones, navy ones - glitter ones!!

These clay necklaces featured in editorial and advertising campaigns for New Zealand designer Emma, NZ magazine Thread, and fashion shows. I even remember being in Brisbane and people complimenting me on my bones necklaces and shyly saying “I made it”. Aww.

Another popular skull style was the “Skull N Rope” necklace. It was a combination of rope, which I wrapped with wire, and the colourful howlite skulls I loved so much.

Absolutely GORGEOUS style blogger Noha Nabil wore my pink and yellow Skull N Rope necklace and I nearly fainted.

One other memory of these good ol’ days was being in a bar in Wellington, The Southern Cross, and a staff member was wearing one of my Skull N Rope necklaces, but I was too shy to say “hey, I made that necklace” - and afterwards I wished I had!

Anyway, that’s today’s little trip down memory lane. What do you think of the skull and bone necklaces?

As you can see, I was still very much learning to take good photos in those days! ;-) But it was an exciting time for skulls and Shh by Sadie.

Sadie xx

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collections, Sadie's musingsSadie Hawker30 October 2019skull bead, skull necklace, skull jewellery, handmade jewellery uk, handmade jewellery, shh by sadie, plymouth, made in wales, halloween jewellery, halloween fashionComment

Tea and Bun Plymouth - delish vegetarian food review!

Tea and Bun Asian restaurant cornwall street plymouth

Last week I visited Tea and Bun in Plymouth for the first time.

I remember first hearing about the Asian restaurant on Cornwall Street, near Plymouth Market last year - I am not sure whether it had just launched, or people I knew had just starting talking about it…and it took me over a year to get my bottom perched on their stools and tasting their amazing food!

Tea and Bun is a small, cosy little Asian restaurant and it was just bustling with people eating in and ordering food to take away. It was Saturday lunchtime and it was so busy that I thought we were going to have to give up and go elsewhere - but just as we stepped outside we noticed somebody in the window putting their coat on so dashed back inside again. Yay, Tea and Bun was back on!

I ordered jasmine tea, mushroom and tofu ramen and fried mushroom gyoza. Chris had a selection of meaty small dishes! The food was amazing, and I already want to go back and order more gyoza.

I shared a couple of pics on my Instagram and from the reactions, I’m not the only person who loves their food! :D

It’s great to see a small, independent business in the centre of Plymouth doing so well. Small businesses often put their heart and soul into their, erm, businesses (being one myself, and being friends with so many others, I can tell you this first-hand!). And so to see Tea and Bun so busy it was exciting. I am thrilled for them and will be back eating gyoza as soon as I can get there!

Find Tea and Bun on Facebook here.
Tea and Bun, 135 Cornwall Street, Plymouth

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Sadie's musings, travel, foodSadie Hawker19 October 2019plymouth events, things to do plymouth, plymouth, tea and bun plymouth, independent restaurant plymouthComment

The famous Bahamas swimming pigs in Piggyville, No Name Cay, Abaco

Hey peeps!

flamingo air bahamas swimming pigs abaco

As you MAY KNOW (I spammed the heck out of these little piggy faces on Instagram!!) I recently met the “famous swimming pigs of Abaco”!

Now, firstly did you know that pigs can swim? And secondly, did you know that the Bahamas has swimming pigs?

Well I’d heard about the swimming pigs before, I’d probably seen them on Instagram, being famous pigs and all that. I knew they were found frolicking in the sand in the Bahamas, on an island in the Exumas. So when we were recently planning our holiday to the Bahamas, I told Chris I’d like to try and see the swimming pigs if we could. But it was harder than we thought!

We were staying in Freeport for a week or so and wanted to visit another Bahamian island while we were there. We looked at getting to and from the Exumas and it was working out really expensive, plus we’d have needed to fly via Nassau and it was going to take up most of a day to get there, and another to get back, which seemed daft for just a four day trip. So we shelved the piggy-visit, and I was a little bit sad, but nevermind, I’d still enjoy my jolly holidays.

We chose to visit Marsh Harbour in the Abacos instead, a much quicker 30-min or so flight via Flamingo Air (yes, flamingo!!) + a teeny tiny propeller plane (argh) - far more sensible than going all the way to the Exumas to see the pigs.

Well we soon found out that the Abaco islands have swimming pigs, too! They’re just not as famous as their brothers / sisters / long lost uncles in the Exumas. Even the plane had a piggy pic!

We were in Marsh Harbour for three days and found it quite difficult to find out how to see the pigs.

To cut it short this is what we found out about visiting the Abaco pigs:

You can take a day trip, it’s a whole day and departs from Treasure Cay. (Eg trip here.) We didn’t have enough time for a whole day trip.
To get to Treasure Cay you need to rent a car (approx $50) and drive there (approx 45 mins mostly on one long road).
You can charter a boat from Marsh Harbour - it would set you back a cool $800.
We were about to give up hope when Chris found a website with a link to Sunset Marine tours + we booked with them. It cost $55 per person and we had our own private tour, picked up from Treasure Cay. We met them at 10am and were probably back in Treasure Cay for 11am.

feeding the pigs in the bahamas exumas swimming pigs

I didn’t really know what to expect, but the pigs were scarier than they look! You must remember that they are still wild animals and they’re constantly fighting and shoving each other to compete for food.

Our guide encouraged us to feed the smaller pigs and when the bigger pigs notice and come over, we had to pull our hand away because the bigger pigs will bite. It took me a while to build up the courage to try feeding the baby pigs and they did nip me too - I don’t think I had my hand out flat enough.

The experience is pretty chaotic. There are tourists coming and going, trying to get photos, fuss and feed the pigs, and then leave. I’m glad we visited the pigs but it was quite stressful. I was constantly checking behind me because the pigs were so quick I was frightened I was going to get trampled by one of them and end up in the sand with pigs on top of me (LOL!!).

It’s really very bizarre seeing pigs snuffling and sniffling around on a tropical desert island, and there were chickens with these pigs, too! We didn’t actually see much SWIMMING from the pigs, but they do venture into the water to chase after food!

Our guide told us that there’s a hotel being built on Piggyville beach (it was under construction while we were there) and people can come and stay WITH the pigs. I’m not sure if I’d be keen on that! :D

So that’s pretty much my review of the famous swimming pigs. I’d really recommend Sunset Marina Tours, it was a lovely trip and our guide was really chatty, informative and just generally nice!

Now for all my pix….. ->>>> :)

Sadie x

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travel, Sadie's musingsSadie Hawker3 July 2019swimming pigs, bahamas pigs, swimming with the pigs abaco, swimming pigs exuma, exuma pigs, desert island pigs, do pigs swim, how to swim with pigs, how to swim with pigs bahamas, no name cay pigs, piggyville pigs, treasure cay pigs

Shop holiday - I'm going on a trip down memory lane!

handmade jewellery plymouth devon england

Hello everyone! Just a little reminder that all orders placed between 5/06/19 - 27/06/19 will be posted on 28th June.

I’m going on a trip and so will be processing (and making!) all orders on my return.

I’m heading to Miami, Florida, and then on to the Bahamas. This is my first big trip since moving back to the UK and so I'm very much looking forward to it - and some R+R in the sunshine!

Chris and I took the exact same trip the first year we met - 11 years ago! And so I thought I’d share some of the photos from my first time in Miami and the Bahamas, and then we can see how much has changed when I return next week.

We stayed in Miami for a few nights, then went over to Abaco, before spending the last few nights in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

I’d been desperate to drink from a ‘real’ coconut all holiday!!

When we arrived in Miami I was THRILLED, because at the time my fave everrrr show was CSI Miami, Horatio in particular was just the best character in my opinion!!

Within a few hours of arriving, I’d been my usual idiot self - I raced Chris to the pool outside, tried to take a short cut, slipped and really banged my shin - so I had a gigantic purple bump for the first week or so of our holiday (I hurt the exact same leg a few months later in Madeira, so thought it was cursed on holidays!!).

Miami was amazing. The first night we got there, we went out and ordered dinner. I ordered a Greek salad from the starters section, and it was the biggest salad I had ever seen. And as soon as it was put in front of me, jet lag hit and I almost fell asleep on top of it! Haha.

We caught a bus to a huge mall, and I couldn’t help myself and bought five pairs of shoes that I somehow managed to squeeze into my case - the cream leopard pair are in the pix below, with my freshly bruised shin!

After Miami we took two more planes, and a boat, to get to Abaco. Our cabin had a hammock overlooking the ocean, it was lovely. We tried to sleep in the hammock one evening and were awoken by some really strange, creepy noises - so back to the cabin we fled!

I can’t believe it’s been 11 years since that trip, and what’s also unbelievable is that I still have a good lot of those clothes (not that they all still fit me!). I’m hoping for more adventures this time, too :-)

So that’s my trip down memory lane :-)

Sadie xx