Well, it was the beads pictured below – I was browsing in a bric a brac/antiques shop in Edinburgh and I came across them in a basket. I absolutely fell in love with them (I still do) and even though I had no idea what to do with them I had to buy them

They cost me £8 which given that they turned out to be vintage and pretty much unique was a bit of a steal! I’ve had them 7 years and they’ve been strung, taken to bits and restrung several times.

I’ve also found that almost every beader I’ve spoken to has beads in their stash which were too pretty to leave in the shop and they had to buy them even though they quite often don’t get used (although they do get taken out and admired frequently).

Tell us about the beads that got you started in the comments

Beads That Make Us Go Ooooh

But finally – we have them all sorted, counted, photographed and listed (Phew!) and with prices starting at £0.90 they offer great value for money. I’ve already snaffled quite a few tubes to make some new items for our beading classes.

We know we’ve been quiet of late – it’s been so busy here, we’ve only just stopped to breathe!

We opened our Showroom in Fife last week and it’s going quite well. If you know any beaders in the Fife or Central Scotland area we would be eternally grateful if you could spread the word for us. We’ll also be at the Edinburgh Bead Fair this weekend, if you’re attending – pop over and say hi xx

Offer 1 – Glass Pearls & Crackle Glass Strands Reduced

We’ve reduced all our 32 inch strands to £0.99 to clear and if you buy 5 or more strands, we’ll give you a free chunky silver plated bungee bracelet worth £1.95.

Offer 2 – Bargains

Buy any 5 items from our Bargains category and we’ll send you a free bead mat

Offer 3 – Free Postage

We’ve reduced the amount you need to spend in order to qualify for free postage to just £15.00

There’s no discount codes to enter or remember, any offers you qualify for will either be automatically applied or put in by our lovely packing assistants. All 3 offers can be included in the same order if the mix of products purchased is correct.

Offers end 15/05/2011

We had a great turnout on opening day (a massive thank you to everyone who came along xx) and we’ve included some pictures of the shop below.

Our opening times are:-

Mon – Fri 09:30 – 16:30

Sat 09:00 – 12:30

I took a traditional brownie batter and added a dab of Golden Syrup and some White Chocolate Chunks. It was baked in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes – the centre of the bake took a while to cook through.

The whole plate lasted about 20 minutes in Bead Workshop household though so they must have been good!

Bodged Together by Claire!

I used Galaxy Caramel to make the cakes though so there was a slight element of adultness (is that an actual word?) to them. Although I did totally ruin that by sprinkling them with pink glitter sugar and white chocolate stars so they ended up looking a little bit Barbie

Hand Made by Claire aged 39 and a bit

We’ll do the blog posts on a Wednesday afternoon and publish them every week. So without further ado, what were we munching this week at the bead cave?

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes – Recipe is here. They were very gooey and messy and it’s just a relief that no one had a camera to take pictures when they were finished! The decorations on the top were white chocolate crunchy sprinkles which added a little crunch to the cakes.

They were absolutely delicious and I’d highly recommend the recipe

Hand Baked by Claire, nom nom

We’ll take a photo of everything that’s new and give a brief round up of what’s coming soon. It’ll be worth checking this section to see what’s coming up over the next few weeks.