Necklaces and Shakespeare.

Tatty Devine is a name a lot of people will only know from the British press after the disgraceful plagiarism of some of their designs by Claire's Accessories earlier this year. For those who don't know them they make wonderful quirky jewellery which sadly as a rule is out of the reach of my pocket.
I do have two perspex necklaces by them, a black Poirot moustache and the one Himself bought me in Newcastle last year that says 'Chips'. They have a fantastic service for making customized pieces which I was considering as I really wanted another word necklace saying 'Tea' (as you know I am somewhat of a fan of the brew!) but it just didn't pan out economically, there is a set fee and as it was only 3 letters I felt it was a bit pricey. I would still recommend it for longer word necklaces though see here

Instead I decided to take to Etsy and see what I could find and what I found was House of Fickle Queen 
From them I bought this awesome 'Wonka' necklace.

 I emailed them and asked if they did custom pieces, they got straight back to me and said they did what was it I wanted? I described my simple 'Tea' necklace and never heard from them again! I emailed them a further 3 times but no response.
 
I can only conclude they must be coffee drinkers.

Despite this I am very happy with my Wonka necklace and have had many good comments when I wear it.

I took my search to Folksy and there I struck veritable gold in the form of Cherryloco Jewellery.
Not only did the wonderful Lauren say yes she could make my necklace she also directed me to her Facebook page to see examples of her other custom makes and told me I could chose any colour and font from these examples, or if I had a different font I wanted if I sent her a link to it she would see what she could do.
My necklace arrived in super fast time and to say I am thrilled with it would be an understatement!

    
 Again I have had LOADS of compliments on it and everyone who knows me, my tea drinking addiction and my love of purple think it is very me.

Last week I spotted from the facebook page that there was an offer on. Buy one piece over £10 and get another from the darklings collection for free. Well it would have been rude not to.
Here is what I got :-)

 Lets just say I am a very happy camper and would highly recommend this fantastic designer.

Last night I went to see The Merchant of Venice performed outside by the wonderful Creation Theatre Company 

Thankfully the rain held off and the performance went ahead. They have been really suffering this year as have many other outdoor events and performers and the worry is they may not be able to afford to do this again next year which would be a tragedy indeed.

It took me a little while to get into the play at first, it is very wordy when it begins and I was distracted by watching the other actors so lost my concentration! I confess I was also a little confused by the fact it was only half a dozen or so actors playing all the roles and wasn't sure which one was who at one point but... Once I got used to seeing all the stage and the small cast I LOVED it. 

It was set in the 1930's and the costumes where fabulous. I loved the fact they added a couple of songs and pieces of music performed by the cast, this was primarily to cover when the actors where moving bits of the set around but it worked seamlessly and really added to the 30's feel of the production.  

I don't know the play at all and I have to say I did find the anti-semitic sentiments sat very uncomfortably with me indeed. Other than that it is Shakespeare at his best and the cast were wonderful.

I would strongly urge anyone who is able to go and see this production to do so, it is on until September and well worth it.