A couple of weeks back I talked about my disappointment as I got up one morning, started making loads of jewellery, then woke up and had to start  again. I’ve been dreaming loads lately, mainly because I’m still under the weather with this weird virus that seems to make me sleep loads. I have one day when I feel much better, and then the next day I feel poopy. This is not helping me get my accounts done swiftly and on to making beads for the next bead fair on the 23rd of this month.

I’ve been in a mega dream state these past 2 1/2 weeks, and on that vein we sat down and watched the film Inception. This was an eagerly awaited treat for Dickie and I, and it was with expectancy that we sat down to watch at last on Sunday evening. The film started and had us hooked in fairly swiftly but it got a bit boring at one point and I found my attention drifting and missed what was being discussed. I think the problem was that it was jumping around in a bit of a disjointed way, one minute you’d be in one place and the next you were watching another scene. This was probably to emulate what a dream state can be like, which was in keeping with the premise of the film, but at times rather confusing for me. I held on in there and was rewarded with an action packed story that unfolded on several levels and all the while had me questioning if there would be a twist at the end and what it would be. I was disappointed that the dreamlike special effects they made a big thing of in the trailers weren’t very much in evidence through the main story, I would have liked more weird wowness, but then that wouldn’t have been appropriate to the story. The main theme was about stealing some information from a businessman by planting an idea in his head, and also discovering why our main character had so much angst. On the whole I liked the film and would like to watch it again to get more information and to better understand ‘the rules’ of invading peoples dreams. I always like a film that gets me thinking about it for days afterwards (as this one has), in this case I’ve been trying to work out what was reality and what wasn’t, and how the rules fit (if indeed they do) with what happened. So if I had to give this a star rating (like they do in the Radio Times) I think this would get a 4 out of 5 for me.

More new beads on Etsy! OK., so I’ve only listed repeat sets of my most popular designs, but hey, that’s what I planned to use Etsy for. To get to my shop click on my name in the widget on the left or click  here.

Also I have another new teaching date on my tuition page, Tuesday 1st February is a one day beginners course. Just drop me a line now to book the last place and learn a new skill for a new year.

I’ve been thinking for a while about adding another category to my blog, one where I review what film, TV series or more exciting, the latest book I’ve read. I’m not sure how good I’ll be at reviewing something without giving the bulk of the plot away, but it could be fun to try. Just recently I’ve actually started reading books again. It’s been a long time coming as I used to read like a mad thing when I was at school (I had oodles of time then) and when I commuted on the train to work, but since I bought my first car and moved away from home (that would be around 1985 I think) I have let my fiction reading slip completely. I’ve read at least one book a year on holiday and that is all for the past few years, conveniently the new Harry Potter books came out in the summer, but since picking up Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series I’ve gone potty for her books and reading in general. So much so, that I’ve made a new year resolution to keep reading fiction throughout the year, and also to try to take up some of the others things I used to do before lampwork glass bead making took over my life. I was going to start with my first review today, but I’ve already written enough and my accounts (yuk) are calling. Toodles.

I’ve finished………all the Twilight Saga books, yep, that means I’ve actually read more than one book this year, so my total is 4, and what fab books they were. I was so trying to pace myself, but found that I wanted to just keep picking them up, especially the last book, Breaking Dawn. I couldn’t keep away from it for long and found myself totally absorbed in the world of Bella and Edward. I’ve now also watched both films…..ooops, Rick, I didn’t mention that last night……and I have to say that even though they were good, I don’t know whether I would be itching to read the books if I saw the films first. I’m going to try and keep up the reading momentum if possible and the first book on my short list is Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I also have the next one in that series that I picked up in barely read second hand form for 20p…..bargain.

So today sees me doing lots of little jobs around the house and for my business, rather than making beads as I’d hoped. I started the morning by baking some of Nigella’s Banana and Chocolate muffins (actually called banana and butterscotch but I used choclit instead as she suggests). This was my first foray into muffin baking and didn’t go too badly, even though the muffin tray dips were far too big and the cases floated around in the dips in a sort of square shape because they had been in their box for far too long. I’ve now filled the house with the lovely aroma of baking and have even washed up! And there are now only 2 soggy bananas left instead of 5.

New beads are available in my Etsy shop and I have another new date for tuition, another silver glass course on Weds 20th October, same description as the previous date.

So here are the details for course places:-

***1 place on a 1 day silver glass and sparkly bits course Thurs 14th October***

***1 place on a 1 day silver glass and other intermediate techniques Weds 20th October***

On these classes we will be covering – using silver glass, dichroic glass, sparkly stuff , encasing, presses and shaping, long tubes and flame know-how – or as much as we can get through on this massive list in one day!

Email me now to book your place.

What ho! yes, I know, it’s a fairly corny greeting, but that’s what I got just now when I listed in Etsy this evening. Yes, I have some new beads, one set so far, but I’ll add some more in the next few days once Rick has gotten (I know, very American, it’s the books I’ve been reading) around to watermarking the photos and working his magic on them. It’s been a while since my last confession post, and even longer since I updated the front page of my website by adding news. During the interval I’ve had such a long rest that I don’t know that I can really be bothered to do any work and I feel very guilty when I do because our daughter is at home during the day while the school holidays continue. I’ve been manically juggling making beads for the Stourbridge bead fair next weekend, making beads for my jewellery range to stock a new outlet (I’ll let you know where when I’ve sent the package), and I have 130 beads to make by next Thursday for my regular buyer. It just never seems to let up.

On a fun note, during my break I’ve rediscovered the joy of reading. A friend recommended Stephenie Meyers‘ Twilight books and I’ve been steaming my way through them. I read the first one in 3 days so I could vet it for my 11 year old daughter, and because I was so hooked. I then realised I need to slow down and enjoy them, so I decided I had to pace myself to 2 or 3 chapters a day while I read New Moon, and now I’m on Eclipse, struggling to keep to less than 3 chapters a day. It’s been a while since I was so addicted to my books, it’s been like that for all the Harry Potter series, and I miss not having my yearly book from JK Rowling. I’m just wondering what I’ll do when I’ve finished Breaking Dawn……probably read The Host, as I got a copy when I bought the 2nd and 3rd books in Asda. Hee, hee.

Well, I’ve just spent too long looking at Stephenie Meyers website, I really don’t know where I was when all the fuss was going on, but I hope to be up with the latest developments from now on.

To quote Britney Spears  ‘Ooops I did it again’. This is becoming a bit of a bad habit, not blogging for days on end. But, well, you know how it is on the lead up to Christmas and over the holiday.  At least Rick didn’t put Buffy on again the day after our mammoth Buffy Fest. Unfortunately we now also own the complete box set of Angel and 2 series of Dr Who, the ones with Billie and David Tennant (no 2), and one with Martha and David (no 3) ….I really have no idea when we’ll be watching these, as contrary to popular belief we do not spend every hour of every evening glued to the telly, as we have rather of lot of stuff to do all the time. And did I mention Shaun the Sheep? I also had series 1 of this given and was staggered to see there are 40 episodes…I had no idea there were so many.

It’s been a good holiday so far, probably far too much relaxing going on in all honesty, but I certainly needed a rest after all my running around to Guildford and back and keeping my exhibitions topped up with jewellery. So what else did I get for Christmas? I have to say my favourite present is a Wally trolley! Oh yes, I thought I’d never be seen dead with one, but they’re coming back into fashion, all the trendy ladies in France use them. I really don’t see much difference between a trendy trolley (and it does have to be trendy) and a suitcase on wheels. I was also very encouraged to see about 4 ladies my age and younger using them for their Christmas shopping in Horsham town centre. I shall be using mine for my exercise power walk to the local shop and back. This summer I was totally weighed down with very heavy bags of spuds and copious pints of milk and it was really getting very tiresome and sore on the hands and my back and shoulders. So I shall now parade to the parade with my black, red and white spotty bag on wheels (oh my dear, a plaid one just wouldn’t do….I wouldn’t be seen dead with the traditional looking ones).  Mine also has a built in coolbag, a pocket for a brolley, and various pockets for different things. Click here if you fancy a sneak peek at my designer chic! Oh what a wally trolley dolly!

Dates are booking up fast for beadmaking tuition in the New year…..see my tuition page for details and contact me for available dates.  I have 1 space for a beginner on Friday 5th February. I also decided to add some of the many testimonials regarding my courses that I’ve been collecting for the past few years. Thank you to everyone who has written such lovely comments in our book, you’ve all been great students!

Have a Happy New Year!

EEEk, almost a month has just gone since my last blog entry. Looks like I’m slacking a bit here…..OK, so I am on the blog front but it’s been all go. After a couple of months of hard preparations for my 2 exhibitions and 2 school craft fairs I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. Both exhibitions are in full swing and are going really well, details are on my home page and events page that I updated tonight. All I have to do now is to keep my work topped up with new pieces as they sell before Christmas, as both venues are attracting lots of attention, as is the Surrey Guild gallery in Milford. So if you are in need of inspiration for lovely Christmas gifts then you could do no better than visit one of the 3 venues, or even all 3 of them!

I’ve also updated my events page with some of my Bead fairs for the coming year, it’s already starting to look busy.

Today has been a bit of a weird one, as Rick stayed home still trying to get over the cold he got last weekend. The naughty boy put on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to have a peek, and 8 hours later we had got through half the 4th season….that’s 11 episodes for the uninitiated…..oh my…sounds terrible, but we have NEVER done anything like that before, and in my defence I did sit at the table the whole time and make 5 pairs of earrings and core 15 of my Cloud Beads. I also managed to break 2 as usual, I always break one in every 9…..I hope he goes to work tomorrow!

Hello campers. Well the weather out there is getting nippy to say the least. I’ve just popped out to turn on my kiln and the temperature is reading 11 deg C, which is a bit better than yesterday when it read 8 deg c, even in the afternoon. I think it would be fair to say that Autumn is well and truly here, especially when I’m backed up by ‘Autumn Watch‘ on telly, although what do they know, we still had ‘Spring Watch’ in June, and I thought that was the summer!

This week I’m getting revved up for my last Bead Show of the season, The Big Bead Show, organised by Bead Magazine, which is this Saturday at Sandown Park, Surrey. It’s just down the road from Hampton Court, but nearer to the M25 so it’s really easy to get to. I’m getting excited about this show as it’s sooooo huge, and several of my bead making friends are also attending, either with stalls or just visiting, so it should be fun. They will also be revealing who the winners are in the first ‘British Bead Awards’ competition and displaying the finalists work.  I hope it will be busy and everyone will have forgotten the ‘recession’. But if you haven’t, remember that the best way to beat a recession is to spend your way out of it! Oh and I will have some special free gifts for anyone spending over £20 on bead sets or focals…oooh I love a mystery.

I’m busy making some new beads, I’ve just fallen in love again, this time with Aurae, another of the fancy silver glasses from the States. I’ve had a rod, kindly given to me by my friend Judith Johnston, since my course with Gail Crosman Moore at the beginning of April, but have only just got around to trying it….how shocking is that! But I lurve it. It gives these gorgeous pinky, purple, bluey lustre tones, just yummy. So look out for a couple of new elegant sets with those colours this Saturday.

Don’t forget I have a couple of spare places on my courses, pop on over to the Tuition page for more details if you fancy having a go.

OK I must whizz, the torch beckons.

What a roller-coaster of a day! I decided yesterday, that today would be the day we buy a car, and it was, at last. We’ve only been looking for about 2 months (yep, it really is that long), and I realised that what we have been waiting for will never come, that is basically a car with enough wellie to tow a small caravan (oh the shame), with a lowish mileage, in good condition and at a cheap enough price. Well, I got fed up of dodging the flying pigs so today we went to see the 4 cars that we’d earmarked as real possibles. After finding that 2 of them had been sold this morning (out of the hundreds of cars they hold at Jeffries Farm – how is that possible?) and dismissing the 3rd as in poor condition, we headed on over to an independant dealer to view the 4th car on the list. Oh what joy, fantastic condition, nearly top of the range but not with the price tag to reflect that, especially compared to all the other tat we’ve seen (and yes, I do mean ‘other tat’ not ‘others that’). So……the deal is done, and we can finally say that we’ve come of age because we’ve bought a proper all-growed-up car rather than an old banger kindly offered to us by friends.

It was all rather exciting today, however the dampers were chucked on us when we got home as my computer crashed yet again in Firefox, and it turned out to be a nasty virus that I somehow caught somewhere. Fortunately my genius of a hubby, my uber cybergeek extraordinaire (otherwise known as CE or should that now be UCE?) has managed to sort it, obviously, or I wouldn’t be sat here blig bloging. I was starting to think that my poor little pooter had come to the end of it’s silicon life and was preparing to meet it’s chippy maker in the sky, and that we would have to fork out for another lip lappy top, in addition to the car (which we’ve just bought) and the washing machine that we haven’t ordered yet. Phew, thank you Dickie!

And so the perfect end to this unusual (yer, different…(See Kath & Kim)) day was watching the fabulous Annie Lennox singing with the BBC concert orchestra on BBC1. Pure class. I can go to sleep a happy woman. Night all.

The police were out in force on the M25 today, doing their ‘lets drift along at 60 mph and see if anyone has the guts to overtake us’ thing. I passed (Yes, I have guts) 4 police cars en route today, I have to say I find it rather amusing the way all the speeders don’t even have the guts to legally overtake and go faster than the police. On the subject of cars, the boring search for our Mondeo replacement continues, it’s all getting rather boring now to be honest. We have looked at all sorts of MPVs and chosen a few that would do the job, but now it’s a case of waiting for the right make, model, engine size, age, mileage and of course price. Yawn. I think I know the medium size mpv market inside out now, and have a few favourites, but they’re just not coming up.

Back to Lost again this week, and another good episode aired, in which we found out a little bit more (sort of) about why there are Polar Bears on the island and saw Sawyer smiling a lot. I never knew the guy had dimples. He’s my favourite character, but got a little too neatly shaven in this last episode called ‘LaFleur’, he was also a bit serious. There was lots of going back and forth in 3 year intervals and I can’t wait to see how it all fits in with ‘the future’ since they’re all back in the seventies at the moment.

Phew it’s been a busy day, but very enjoyable. I’ve had 2 lovely ladies for a one day beginners course (waves ) and now it’s time for me to put my feet up. It’s Saturday night and I’m home alone as Rick has taken our daughter out for the afternoon and evening so it looks like it’s up to me to decide what I eat tonight, yay! I hear a pizza beconing cos it’s easy, hmmmmm, and it means I can watch BBC1′s zanny Comic Relief idea of getting celebs to do famous iconic dances. Last weeks Flashdance by Robert Webb was hilarious, I wonder if anyone else will come close to his performance. Then later when his nibs gets back I hope to kick off my shoes and watch this week’s Lost…

You know, I’m going to clamber onto my soapbox and have a quick winge about Sky. Why do they always knick the best shows from terestrial TV and prevent other channels from showing them, I mean, I know it’s business, but it really annoys me that they don’t have the guts to try out new series, they wait for terrestrial TV to try something out then if it’s a hit they nab it. They should have the guts to try things out for themselves and stop creaming off the best. I realise that it’s also a way to get more subscribers, but I think it’s way mean. I really miss 24, that was another quality series that was snatched away.  Rant over.