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A few years ago I stared making jewelry with beads and twine or wire, I even bought all the little crimping tools I needed to make some lovely necklaces.

The big problem I discovered though is that I really want to be able to buy my beads at cheaper prices, and many of my friends suggested I should buy wholesale beads online, and they'd buy their beads from me.

Well this sounds like a great idea, and a couple of artists I know would also buy their beads from me if I can get some beads of a high enough quality. To be able to buy diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and so many other stones at wholesale is pretty cool.

The most exciting thing for me though is the range of vermeil, copper, brass, and silver beads because these are what I mostly use for bracelets that I give to friends, and being able to add a few semi-precious stones in as a highlight really makes some very attractive jewelry.

Well that leads me to Beads of Cambay, a company that specialize in providing high quality beads specially for jewelers and professional designers. I'm particularly interested in their wholesale gemstone beads, in semi-precious or precious categories.

Ooh, and I mustn't forget, Beads of Cambay also stock freshwater pearls, and again, to be able to make necklaces, bracelets, or earrings using these quality items will be fantastic.

The kittens have discovered shoelaces, yup, the man left his sneakers at the front door instead of putting them in the wardrobe, and the kittens enjoy fighting the shoes and chewing the laces.

At first he said it wasn't going to be a problem, just leave the shoes, what harm can they do, they're only tiny and their claws and teeth aren't all the developed yet.

Oh how wrong he was. They haven't wrecked the sneakers yet but the almost new laces now look quite ratty with loads pulled threads, I think he might have to buy a new set in the next week.

Now we're thinking we need to buy some thin cord, like the type they use on venetian blinds and maybe tie a rubber chew toy onto it and see if that gets their attention. It would certainly be better than ruined sneakers.

This is our chance as blogger to unite in solidarity with people all over the world who also want peace and an end to war.

We're living in the 21st century and yet medieval ideas of conquest and domination of other people still survive. I'd love the see war and fighting permanently consigned to history in my lifetime.

Wouldn't it be great if people from Africa, India, China could all unite with people from Europe, America, Russia in one big race of people called human, and if we could all work together to find solutions to the problems of poverty and disease.

I know it's a utopian ideal, and maybe I'm being naive, but it's me greatest desire to bring children into the world and be able to say to them look those people over there, the pretty people with different costumes, they're your friends, go and say hello and play with their children.

My man calls me a romantic and a dreamer, but I think people need to dream, and it's all good.

Yesterday the man and I had a coffee in a local coffee shop and we were talking about having a barbecue with some friend to celebrate moving house, which we'll be doing over the next two weeks.

Rather than just have a BBQ and some drinks he suggested it would be fun to also make it special and put some decorations up, grab a new game none of us have played, or even ust make up some party style desserts.

As children we used to love fancy birthday cakes, cookies with icing faces, in fact it would be kinda awesome to mix a regular BBq with a kids birthday party, except without the kids.

He wants me to make up cherry crunch to dip apples on a stick into, I thought getting a big tub and filling it with water then bobbing for apples would be a great laugh and a great photo opportunity.

I said that when I was young I really used to enjoy trick or treating, and why don't we mix in some halloween games, after all the BBQ will probably keep going till after dark anyway.

Our friends are the kind of people who like to have a great conversation over a glass of wine and also enjoy the odd surprise. This house-warming party might end up being the best we've ever had.

This global money problem that everyone is talking about is very worrying, and since most of it is happening in the US which is still the world's biggest economy I do feel a little powerless to do anything.

I'm not American so I don't get to vote in their election, which sucks because the US economy has been mismanaged for so long and the rest of the world is also suffering.

President Bush this morning (probably last night American time) announced that he wants to rescue the US economy with an $800bn package to keep banks and insurers from collapsing. This is great news for us here in Europe since our banks have invested in the US.

It's interesting though, the US Treasury is going to take over mortgage debt from big insurers and banks and get some of the best fund managers to look after them.

Funny how the country that has been most afraid of nationalized industry has now bought in insurance company (AIG) and now looks like they're going to take on mortgage debt as well. Maybe a completely free market isn't quite so good for a country after all.

Using a road map these days seems like such a hassle when you consider how static it is. You have to keep one eye on the road, and onather on a map, and of course you'll get where you're oing if you're skilled at reading a map and if your map is uptodate.

This is why I like using a Sat Nav system. The maps are always uptodate, the system speaks to you so you can focus on looking at the road, and you can program in your destination and get the best route to take instead of having to guess.

We find it doesn't really matter where we are the system is always able to provide a route that works for us, and saves us time over trying to sit with a pen or pencil and try to plot our route by hand. It doesn't matter how good a road map is, it will alway miss some important detail like the actual number of side streets, or major landmarks that you should be looking for to guide you on your way.

Here's how they work, a GPS system isn't just a screen with a map on it. They communicate directly with a satellite to get their exact position down to just a few feet on the planet, then the mapping software in the device actually calculates how far you've come, how far you still have to go, and compares your current position with the map in it's memory, and checks to make sure you're still going in the correct direction.

It's very sophisticated the way they work and are nearly infallible, the only reason a problem could occur is if you've given it the wrong destination coordinates or roadworks are happening that aren't listed on the map.

I wouldn't do without a GPS system anymore, price wise they're very affordable, and not having to turn pages or flip a map around to see where you are is a big advantage.

Today started off with an early rise so we could go into town to do our weekly shop. Catching the bus means we have to get up even earlier to organise ourselves and tend to the kittens.

We leave the house in time for the 9:00 am bus which arrives in Ronda about half an hour later. Most shops open for ten which means we have a half an hour to kill which is enough time for us to grab a coffee.

For the next three hours we power around Ronda trying to fit everything in. Some days it can be quite stressful as we have to much to do and the bus leaves at 1:00 pm. If you miss the bus you have to wait until 4:30 pm for the train and then it's a 4 km hike back home up some serious hills.

Thankfully we haven't missed the bus as the walk alone can almost kill you. I would hate to think what we would feel like dragging a trolley filled with groceries and towing it up these hills.

Now I am not talking about a slope they are serious hills, mountains to be exact. I am sure if you saw these mountains you would be punctual too.