Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I'm still here... only now I'm over here!

Hello to readers old and new. It has been an AGE since I last posted, but with good reason. For the last, ooh, well over a year, I have been in the process of setting up an online bead shop Big Bead Little Bead. Ever since our son was born I have been looking for work that I can do from home and around him, and within a creative area that I can really enjoy getting stuck into. Beads and beading essentials fit the bill for many reasons: 1. They are twinkly and pretty and hard it is hard to get bored of looking at them; 2. I have always enjoyed jewellery making and working at a small and intricate scale; 3. They take up not too much space (although in bulk they do seem to have established themselves pretty extensively) and far less than if I decided to work from home selling handbags/cheese/second-hand cars; 4. Unlike cakes, you can leave a bead at a moment's notice to tend to a cry of 'Mummy. Build me a dinosaur' and the house is not in danger of burning down. If you have a whim or a passion for beads, please do check us out. My husband took all the photographs used on the site, and we used a local web design team for the site construction - who did a great job - The Right Design.

The aspects of the site we are most proud of are the online Project Tray - you can add items into a 'tray' and move them around to try out layouts or simply to view beads side by side. All our images have been painstakingly scaled, so you can place beads next to each other in the Project Tray and see exactly how proportions will look. We are pleased to have a growing repertoire of artists make one-off beads just for us, so we have unique porcelain, polymer clay and shortly have lampwork and decoupage makers too. If you are looking for vintage items for a little je ne sais quoi, then we have those too. All this is wrapped up with an image-led, visually clear presentation. Well, we like to think so!

The planning, designing, researching, purchasing, stock data entry, labelling, bagging etc. etc. has taken up so much of my limited spare time, that Baking for Britain has sadly been placed on the back burner, but I hope that it hasn't been taken off the hob for good. My son loves cooking and baking and I would like to think that together we may be able to soon return to Bake for Britain! In the meantime, thank-you for all the comments that I continue to receive. I am flattered by how many people still take the time to read through my writings and enjoy them enough to leave their thoughts.

19 comments:

Caffettiera said...

Dear Anna,
I am happy to hear back from you. Have been reading your blog for a long time, and I have enjoyed your writing and recipes very much. I am happy to hear from you. I think yours is a beautiful project and I wish you all the best with it! The design of the website is really clean adn good looking.

Personally, I'd buy tons of the stuff (actually have bought tons of the stuff), and I think home made jewellery makes a great present for the people you love!

hope to hear soon from you.

stickyfingers said...

Anna, do you have an e-mail address I can contact you on? I want to talk to you about Fairtrade Baking recipes ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight, but don't want to hijack this comments box...

Emma

Unknown said...

Hi Emma,

You can email me at annaweller at me dot com.

Thanks!

Anna

Unknown said...

Hello too to La Caffettiera Rosa - I love the subtitle of your blog! The pizza you made on the 2nd of February looks scrumptious (good English word of praise!). Thanks for the lovely comments on this blog and the new website - I shall try not to tempt you too much!

Best wishes,

Anna

Christine said...

You are really so busy. Hope you find time to post your bakes and recipes. and more pictures.

Anonymous said...

good luck with your new venture!

hey, can I propose another one? baking for britain cookbook would be great! esp with all the reasearch that you do. it would be a treasure trove of information, as well as delicious food

Elizeth | Dinnerware said...

Your new site looks great! Congratulations on it, and it's great to see you're able to find something you're passionate about that also allows you some 'work' flexibility.

Monica said...

I have just discovered your blog and I have appreciates it very much! I've been to UK last Summer for a long holiday all over the Country, Good luck for your new entrerprise!

Jane said...

Good luck to you. I liked your entries, the fruit of much love, research and intelligence, and I'm glad that you went offline for a good reason and not a sad one.

mindfulbeader said...

Sorry...A bit of an error there...What I WANTED to say was:

I found this blog and your website quite serendipitously. Your project tray is such a helpful idea and I just LOVE those large cloisonne beads!!!

My husband's the baker in our family and I know he'll love your blog :-)

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This moist coffee loaf cake is perfect with a nice cup of tea or coffee differences, bake a few and give them as gifts or take along to coffee mornings with your friends.

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