Day trip to Manchester

Two lovely pieces for two lovely friends. The first set is made with freshwater pearl drops, Swarovski bicones and heart and gold Miyuki roacailles. The second is orange crystals, deep orange Swarovski' bicones,Miyuki rocailles and a lovely pendant I picked up on a trip to the brilliant bead shop in Afflecks Palace in Manchester last year. All of the clasps are magnetic.

That trip to Afflecks makes always makes me smile. Between lots of commitments and problems last summer I couldn't go on holiday. Usually I have a high old time in the summer as I spin my birthday out to last for the whole month with lots of treats. I was feeling the NEED to get away so decided that it might just be feasible to liberate a single day, but not night, for myself. So the big question was how could I make this feel like a treat and not exhaust myself driving a huge distance to get somewhere inside of my 16hr 'window' of time? A train journey somewhere seemed like a good idea till I realised a bank loan would be needed for the ticket. So then I looked at other options and settled on a bus trip to Manchester to visit the bead shop - far enough away, a purpose to the trip, a decent turn around time to enable me to have a wander and the cost was reasonable - result! My friends made me laugh as they clearly thought I'd lost the plot planning a crazy long bus trip ostensibly just to buy beads. They are used to my flights of fancy so took in their stride, after expressing their opinions on my sanity!

So, on the day I trundled off to the bus station for a rather inauspicious start to my day of indulgence. I lost the ticket I'd printed out at home but luckily had the email confirmation on my phone, the bus, well actually coach, broke down and didn't look like going anywhere for 45mins, the heating was broken and I ended up on the roasting hot side AND it started pouring with rain 15 mins into the journey! I could have whinged but this was my big day out so I got the earphones in, the magazine out and made the best of it, and it turned out great. 

The weather in Manchester was so scorching hot that everyone was in vest tops, the bead shop was full of lovely things and I was like a demented magpie bagging up goodies and popping them in my basket. Once I'd left Afflecks I had a stroll round the shops and into the Arndale centre for a bit more retail therapy and a leisurely late lunch/early dinner in the sushi bar before the return trip. I had a great time.

These necklaces were made for two very special people from beads I'd bought on this trip so they are remind me of both the recipients and of a very lovely day of me time during a pretty difficult time.