Still feeling green in the morning...

Then again I'm a crabby frog, so when do I not feel green?! My morning sickness has decided to pay another visit, which isn't totally unexpected - I had sickness all the way through with the other tadpoles, I think it's got slightly better each time though, which is nice I suppose! Being pregnant with Ribbet felt like dying of a horrible disease!


Talking of pregnancy stuff, my next scan is Tuesday - I'm really anxious about it to be honest... I think the scanning departments in the UK go a little OTT and they don't let you escape without your tadpole having one potential problem or another! Ribbet had quite serious kidney problems, which had to be operated on after birth, and Flibbet had funny kidneys too, but they righted themselves, but then she got *two* ovarian hernias at two months old! This one, deciding obviously to follow in their frogsteps has Choroid Plexus Cysts - these are actually little gaps between the blood vessels surrounding the brain, they're harmless but can be a marker for Edward's Syndrome (which is 100% fatal) on their own they're not much to worry about, it bumps the stats a little less in her favour, but the midwife couldn't get a good look at the heart, and she thought it might be small - CP Cysts and a heart defect would probably put my tadpole in the 1 in 10 region for Edward's, and heart problems, well, don't even want to think about that...


The annoying thing is that there's probably absolutely nothing at all wrong with my pink tadpole... but I get to sit around having nightmares and stressing for two weeks before the consultant sees us and tells us is was all nothing (or 'silly midwife, look, the kidneys are funny!')... I can't wait.


On a less horribly stressful note (actually it wasn't at the time teehee) I got home from holiday to discover my exam results floating around - I missed most of my schooling so I had to start at the bottom and do my GCSEs (important exams 16 year olds take here) I got A* results, woohoo! So I'm treating myself to a custom order silver ring from Etsy, I'm quite sure I've decided I want this wonderful lady to make it for me - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=96477 Linda's jewellery is so lovely and imaginative, she has twenty years experience and has written three books on jewellery making, yet her prices are really affordable (she's totally gained a froggy fan!) I feel like a complete snob getting my own special custom order! (Frog hands are hard to find rings for y'know).


Ahh now I'm going to babble about things I've been making! It's so nice to be home and to finally have time to make things... on our holidays Mr Frog and I found some really interesting eroded pebbles full of little holes and tunnels, so I decided to bring them home and bead around them (yes, the holiday possibly did drive me insane) but I think they're really unique... so far I've made a pair of sterling silver earrings and a beadwoven sea anemone necklace out of them, watch this space and my shop for more interesting creations!


Last night I made natural hot process soap with shea butter and rose essential oil, I haven't sliced it yet, but as soon as I have I'll be adding it to my shop - it smells lovely! I also made a batch of tingly peppermint whipped shea body butter - it makes your skin feel refreshed and smooth and it's fabulous as a foot cream too, for tingly soft toes! I'll be listing that later today too.... more butters and soaps will be on their way soon, especially after my first craft fair... when I hope to be buying ingredients for different products!


*Hops off for now*

Return to the Pond....

Ah, well, I'm back! Actually, I came back to my nice little cosy pond on Friday (a little earlier than expected) but I've ended up being very busy settling the froglets back down and erm for some unkown reason tidying and sorting (bleeeh!) the pond a bit... but now I'm back to making things, and getting ready for my fair! Ahhh.


The 'holiday' was good fun - the days were lovely and the froglets had a great time going to various different beaches, finding pebbles and shells, running down huge piers, having ice cream sundaes, running through fields finding animals, birds, insects *blackberries* and flying kites.... but the evenings were really quite hellish! We discovered on putting the tent and folding camper up that there would be nowhere to actually lock them at night because the small tent Mr Frog and Flibbet and I were sharing to sleep in had to be in a different field, so every evening we had a bouncing kicking tantrumy overtired froglet on our knee until we wanted to go to bed (which usually turned out to be around 7pm when suicidal feelings began to kick in!!)...


I'm going to show you my favourite picture from the holiday, if you fancy seeing more photos you can go to my flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10219132@N03/




This is the top of a smallish 'mountain' (it was totally just a hill but don't tell the froglets!) you can see from left to right Mr Frog, Flibbet, Grampa Frog, Ribbet and me... we had a lovely view of Pendle hill from here, and there were dragonflies to gaze at, bilberries to pick and splodge, heather to bounce in, and a lovely picnic at the end - perfect!




One of my favourite parts of the holiday was getting the chance to visit John Ditchfield's studio, Glasform http://www.glasform.com/ he's a semi-famous producer of gorgeous glass products, I've wanted for a long time to learn to make glass things, I want to start with beads and work my way up... ponds and kilns don't really mix though but *one* *day* I tell you, *one* *day*... anyway, I got to meet the man himself, his wife, and his cheeky parrot - it was lovely! Grampa Frog comissioned a piece for their small glass collection - he undercharged us muchly (probably because his wife wasn't in the room!) it has the colouration and lily pads of this piece, but is a round yet slender necked bud vase. (I got a matching keyring heehee)

Anyway I shall post again soon, probably tomorrow, as I've run out of time (the froglets are complaining loudly) I'm in the process of making and listing new things and tomorrow I'll fill you in on my exam results, the subsequent search for a ring from Etsy, courses, new creations, and tadpoles. *Hops off*

It's a GIRL!

My latest tadpole is pink! There were some slight problems on the scan, but nothing too serious (I'll whinge about them later!)

The winner of the mini competition was Sneddonia who has a lovely shop on Etsy here - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=10161 you can see one of her beaded sun catchers in my favourite things from Etsy thumbnails at the bottom of the page...

I'm in a rush now because we've got to pack for camping and the froglets are being nasty, but I'll catch up soon (I get back next weekend)

*hops off for now*

Escape from the pond?!

Yes that's right, I'm *leaving* *the* *pond*! On two seperate occasions in a row too! Unfortunately on each occasion all the pondy inhabitants are coming too, except our resident snake of course... Oh well, can't have everything...



Tomorrow I'm having the second scan of my little tadpole, this will be the scan that'll tell us whether it's a blue or pink tadpole (how exciting!) so once I get home the naming can commence! Although, I'm thinking Jibbet; it's unisex and goes well with Ribbet and Flibbet... Anyway, if you'd like to play a wee game with me, to celebrate the special frogcasion, the first person to convo me on Etsy with the correct colour of tadpole (ie, blue tadpole! Or pink tadpole!) will get 50% off the toiletry of their choice from my shop - just put in the convo which one you'd like half price and I'll make a special listing later! You have until tomorrow afternoon... Oh, to get to my shop, just click on the thumbnails of my products over there --->



On Saturday the froglets, Mr Frog and the Frog In Laws (oh and me and tadpole) are going camping, yes, camping with the Frog In Laws, dear god... how did this come about?! Well, firstly, Mr Frog and I don't have a car (what? We're frogs, what do you expect) and to go camping with froglets you definitely need a car, or even two... we're going (thanks to Mrs Frog In Law) to a campsite halfway between Preston and Blackpool; sounds fabulous doesn't it.... there's a beach though and of course Blackpool to explore... so it could be quite fun with the little ones. I bet there won't be any chance of our froggy legs drying out either (hehe!) ahhh I think I've given up on all hopes of actually relaxing at any point during the week though!



When I get back I'll be sinking happily back into my little pond and making things, I'm still stuck on a mammoth custom order for my friend Nickie - I'm making a beadwoven necklace to match this bracelet, it's taking me forever and I'm barely charging her anything, typical eh!

Ahh I've been feeling slightly artistic this week, and I may even attempt to make some sellable prints and cards (if that's possible for me lol)... mainly I've been avoiding listening to Ribbet and Flibbet frog-wrestle and pond-destroy whilst perusing http://www.etsy.com/ 's art department, I've been looking at portraits in the last few days and hopefully somewhere on this page I should have added them for you to look at too!

Well, I'm getting pretty fed up of being frog-kicked in the back by Flibbet while she screams 'MY CHAIR!' so I think I'll hop off for now, don't forget the 50% off game, I'll let you know who wins (if anyone!) tomorrow!

Hello from the stagnant pond...

Well, I've just been making this new blog whilst listening to Ribbet have a 45 minute frogtrum about a spoon, so I'm not feeling very wordy right now.

This new blog is way more 'me' than my last idea, I don't *do* promotion very well, I like to sit on my lilypad blinking one eye at a time and being myself.......

Ah, Flibbet's pooped in her lilypants, better hop off.