Welcome to the Swap N Hop reveal! The blog hop where a bunch of people swap stuff and make stuff. All made possible by the superhuman efforts of the very wonderful Linda Anderson of Cherry On Top Designs (blog and instagram).

I am valiantly trying to write this post surrounded by hoards of screaming, sandy kids, on the beach, on my phone, on holiday. It is fair to say that some interesting vocabulary has escaped from my mouth after the umpteenth “whoopsy we’ve lost your edits” message. So I am going to make this fairly brief before I lob my phone into the foaming sea!

My partner got quite poorly and was unable to get anything to me in time. So I took this as an opportunity to dig into my secret stash and to finally do something with a selction of pretties that I have been hoarding.

I picked out a kit that had never really appealed to me, and challenged myself to re-engineer it to suit my mood. Here’s the little stash I chose to work with, surrounded by our beachy finds as requested by my little people:

Thanks for dropping by.
Here’s (hopefully) a list of the other participants. Enjoy!

Linda Anderson http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.com (Hostess)
Inge von Roos https://ingetraud.wordpress.com

Kari Asbury https://kariasbury.com/blogs/design-challenges
Nadine Edris http://instagram.com/moondancemaine

Kathy Lindemer https://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/
Hope Smitherman http://CraftyHope.com

Marde Lowe http://fancimardesigns.blogspot.com
Christina Hickman https://www.instagram.com/laughingsalmon/

Terry Jeanette Carter https://tappingflamingo.blogspot.com
LISA JOHNSON https://spudandmrsbutters.blogspot.com/

Catherine La Vite http://drygulchbeadsandjewelry.blogspot.com/
Joanne Bell https://joannetinks.wordpress.com

Rosantia Petkova http://bairozan.blogspot.bg/
Bonnie Robbins https://www.instagram.com/brobbins_wireandwonder/

Natalie Davidson http://www.northshoredays.com/
Robin Reed http://www.willowdragon.blogspot.com

Karin King http://www.maverickbeads.blogspot.ca
Jenny Kyrlach http://anafiassa.blogspot.com

Erika Price https://www.instagram.com/erikapricejewellery/
Sarah Reid http://www.instagram.com/sarahreiddesigns

Divya N http://www.jewelsofsayuri.com
Lori Schneider http://beadaddicted.blogspot.com

Robin Showstack http://heartsdesiresjewelryforyou.blogspot.com/
Nicole Rennell https://www.instagram.com/nicolerennelldesigns/

Fay Wolfenden http://torchfairy.blogspot.com
Shai Williams http://www.shaihasramblings.com/

andrea frank https://instagram.com/andreazeef
Cheri Reed http://creativedesignsbycheri.wordpress.com



Seed Beaders
Deborah Apodaca https://deborahapodacadesigns.blogspot.com/
PALAK UDESHI http://kalaabhushan.blogspot.in/

Penny Houghton http://www.forgottentrack.com.au/blog (you are here)
Paulina Russell Http://www.instagram.com/thewildbead

Heather Canepa http://www.instagram.com/canepaheather
Tina Hemr http://instagram.com/mariecaroldesigns

NAOMI KNAFLA https://www.instagram.com/naomiknafla/
Michelle Marson https://www.instagram.com/ellecountry/

REbecca White https://morganafeycreations.com/blog/
Laura Bosch https://www.instagram.com/lauraboschmultibeadia

Kathleen Breeding https://www.instagram.com/99bobotw.kb/
Becky Pancake http://beckypancakebeaddesigns.blogspot.com/

These are some of the things that I’ve created in the past.
If my kids weren’t being such a pain in the butt I’d add some details, but we are two days left to the holidays and the rugrats are at their most rampant!

Today’s colour palette has an urban, retro feel. The strong, dirty, colours of a typical London suburb in the seventies with a touch of sunshine to relieve the gloom.

This was the era of strikes, power cuts, bread shortages, bomb scares, mass unemployment and dissent. New political parties were formed. Punk was born. The Sex Discrimination Act was passed and women pushed for equality.

Thousands of roads were closed off to celebrate the Silver Jubilee while people partied in the streets with their neighbours and the Winter of Discontent coincided with one of the coldest winters in years.

This is the decade when the UK joined the EEC (European Economic Union) - the forerunner to what is the EU now. Inflation was out of control and bread was subsidised by the government. Racism and homophobia were ripe and overt.

Political violence in Northern Ireland exploded, the Falls Curfew, Bloody Sunday and the government passing a ruling that allowed suspected terrorists to be held without trial all contributing to The Troubles - familiar echoes of more recent events.

Despite being pretty grim in many ways, we also had donkey jackets (I do love me a donkey jacket!), space hoppers, bagpuss, and Star Wars. We had Butlins and Pontins and we started to take holidays abroad. There was Glam Rock, ABBA, David Bowie and huge moustaches. It seemed that all of my neighbours sported ‘fros and drove VW Beetles whilst blasting out disco music. Ahhh! Quite the golden era of music!

Concord hurtled through the skies, the Goodies did The Funky Gibbon and we didn’t have to wear seat belts or helmets. Saturday mornings were the BEST - shows like TisWas and the Multi Coloured Swap Shop and for, school holidays, ‘Why Don’t You?’. And who can forget the gentle humour of Johnny Morris and his Animal Magic?

Quite the dramatic decade.

... to the inaugural blog post of The Forgotten Track.

This post marks my utter fed-up-edness (real made up word) of trying to use blogspot/blogger and hopefully will provide me with an ongoing reason to write, share and create.

It's my aim to gradually (maybe) import some of my better posts from www.smellynelly.blogspot.com, eventually, possibly! And to fill this space with images and imagination.

In the words of a much loved Aerosmith song:

"Dream until your dream comes true."