Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Tuesday lunchtime

Where did the morning go?  I was supposed to be in my studio making beads but have so many other bead & jewellery business jobs to do that I’m still indoors. The last week and weekend have been just hectic, with 3 days back to back teaching, a busy weekend and half term I’m now shattered, but it doesn’t end there as I have an exhibition to get ready for this week. The details of the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen New Members exhibition are on my events page.  Must dash, sorry this was so short, I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten you!

Wednesday night

I was planning to write tonight about how smug I feel, having done my accounts for the second Wednesday in a row - I diligently worked last Weds doing my accounts for the current year - but alas I got waylaid this morning by all the contact forms I’d received regarding tuition, and spent the day communicating with all you lovely people instead. A very fine way to spend the day but not what I’d planned. Still, I can feel smug about last week can’t I? and I have planned to do more paperwork next Wednesday morning, can’t wait…lol. I also added a couple of new events to my events page, a new members exhibition at the Surrey Guild gallery in Milford and dates for the 2nd Contemporary Art and Craft fair at Winchester Cathedral.

Yesterday I had a very pleasant day in Brighton. After meeting my friend for coffee I had the arduous task of finding somewhere for lunch, which I managed quite nicely. It was rather a shock when I went past my favourite cafe, Pulp Kitchen, to find they’d closed. Such a shame, they did wonderful smoothies, great home-made soup and lovely salads and wraps. The new place I found stir fry sizzled the hot fillings individually on a small stove in the cafe, yum. I may well visit TFI Lunchtime again. I made my way back to the car park after lunch, browsing the many bohemian shops of the South and North Laines, and even treated myself to a beautiful piece of jewellery, a stunning and colourful butterfly broach made of tin in gorgeous shades of pink, orange, yellow and gold. Mine’s the middle one on the third row. I must admit I’d have been very tempted by far right second row if they’d had that one. Maybe I need to email her……

Monday…nearly Tuesday

Hi there, I’m buzzing, very unusual for me at this time of night, but we’ve only been home a short while. Ooooo, where’s she been? Well, to cut a long story, no, a short one even shorter, we’ve been to Worthing for a gig tonight, to see one of our favourite bands….Fairport Convention, and we only realised yesterday that they were touring again, so it was all very impulsive (yes, I love a good bit of impulsive behaviour). We even took our nearly 9 year old daughter to her first gig, and had one of the sets dedicated to her. All in all a good evening, and it reminds me how few gigs we’ve been to lately. Note to self….must go to more gigs.

I’m off down to the coast again tomorrow, to Brighton to meet a friend, so that will be a refreshing change, I hope the weather is as good as it has been the last few days. It will be nice to have a day off as I seem to have been working very hard lately, especially with loads of tuition. I have changed my rates very slightly this year, and am only offering guaranteed one-to-one for students who wish to do follow-up intermediate type bookings. I’ve had to do this as demand is so great at the moment, although we always manage to squeeze everyone in!

If you’re in the Milford area this week/month, do pop into the Surrey Guild Gallery as we have a small valentine display so apt for the season, complete with some of my glass heart pendants. Time to turn in I think, night all.

Friday evening

Another lovely autumnal day today.  It was certainly cold when I got up this morning so winter is on it’s way at last.  I did one of my days in the Surrey Guild Gallery today and had the pleasure once more of my favourite drive over the downs through the woods between Dunsfold Aerodrome and Millford. The trees looked splendid in their orange, green and yellow leaf tones, and occasionally I drove through a leaf flurry or two, which was very much like a mini snowstorm of colourful swirling leaves. Lush. My cabinet is now restocked with lots of goodies, perfect for Christmas pressies, so do go and have a look if you’re passing.

Back to the drive today…..I’m going to get on my soapbox now….maybe I should have a new feature called ‘Sarah’s Soapbox’, it could be a bit like Annabelles rant on Virgin radio in the evening! What’s it called? ‘That’s so rubbish?’ Hmmm.  Anyway, what’s with all the 40 tonne lorries and JCB’s going along the single track road with only a few passing places and lots of wiggly bends and little hills and steep banks? Why are they driving along a road that plainly says ‘Unsuitable for heavy vehicles’ and ’single track road with passing places’? The frequency of these huge beasts that struggle to go up the hills and around corners at the same time, forcing normal cars (that’s us) to back up the road several hundred yards, seems to be increasing every time I take this leg of the journey, and to say that it spoils the route (and wastes my time) would be an understatement. My friend reckons that it’s all down to the dreaded sat-nav, where haulage companies are using  new found short-cuts  and not engaging their brains before they take said  new routes, as she has recently been having the same problem on a couple of other single track roads she takes. That’s so stupid! hee hee.

Now I’ve got that off my mind, I must dash and clean some mandrels and get a dipping them in preparation for teaching again tomorrow. Have a good weekend, see y’all.

Thursday morning

At last, after nearly 3 weeks back at school I get to make glass beads for me (well, to sell or make into jewellery). Either way…….Woohoo.  This month was supposed to be quiet but I’ve been soooo busy, either teaching or working in the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen gallery.  I have one day left to do now this month (in the gallery) until November, so I should get some more beadies made over the following weeks.  To say I am chomping at the bit would be an understatement, in fact, why am I blogging when I could be getting ready to make beads? Good point……see you!

Monday evening

The school hols are well and truely here. We’re one week in and I’m still not on holiday even if my daughter is. My work and emails are so stacked up, but fortunately even my mum doesn’t think I’m a failure, she reckons I’m behind because of my daughters pneumonia earlier on this year, and I have to say I think she’s right. All those days spent in hospital and at home caring for a convalescing child meant that I didn’t get any torching time in, and when I did, well, remember the kiln problems? Also my mind was on more important things, family health means so much and can’t help but take priority. Still, I’m much less stressed now, having finished my do’s for now, although we do have the GBUK bead fair looming at the end of August.

The design fair at Winchester is over, we went down on Friday as I was stewarding and made a family day of it. The city is lovely, I didn’t see much, but what I did looked nice. Also the work in the show was lovely and I saw several items that I could have spent my money on. Thank you to every one who came to see my work and those of you who came to say hello to me on Friday, it was lovely to meet you.

Monday morning

Half term is over, daughter is at school, washing is on, kitchen’s almost tidy and the sun is shinning…all is well with the world. Now I just have to get really revved up to work hard as I have 2 major bead fairs, 1 minor beading day, 1 carnival, RAG Open houses and the Surrey Guild exhibition at Winchester Cathedral to prepare for, all in the next 7 weeks. I’m also going on a short Precious Metal clay course (already getting excited) and then a colouring anodised aluminium course (my third time) in this time frame. Phew. It always gets like this in the J months. Of course some of my preparations can be carried over from one event to the next, depending on how much I sell at the previous one, but I do like to produce some new designs for the summer events, both jewellery and beads, and this also takes more time than doing the same old same old. I also plan to make a new posh piece of jewellery, and need to mull this over while I work…..hmm, I wonder if I could squeeze a day off at the Hampton Court flower show too…..I’ll have to work on that one.

So….I’d better get on, the washing is beckoning me to hang it on the line (rotten stuff).

Oooh and while I remember, apologies to everyone who’s sent me emails in the last couple of weeks, my service has been up the spout, and Rick only just managed this morning to retrieve the ‘however many gigs of mail’ that has been sat waiting on the Talk Talk server for the past 2 weeks. We have now changed provider for my emails so normal service should soon be resumed (as soon as I get through the backlog).

Sunday evening

It’s bluebell season again, and whilst enjoying one of my ocassional drives to the Surrey Guild Gallery at Milford I had the pleasure of seeing huge swathes of bluebells making a purple haze under the trees along the way. I also nearly suceeded in killing 1 grey squirrel, 2 sparrows, 2 blackbirds (the birds were having a mid afternoon snack, tea break and general old crows meeting on the road) and one pheasant. I also had the dubius privaledge of hearing distant guns shots probably from game shooting. There were numerous other patches of pretty spring wild flowers and I had to turn off the stereo and listen to the birdsong as I drove along. Ahhh bliss.

I can now report that my cabinet of jewellery at the Milford Gallery is now replenished with some new pieces including my ever popular Porthmeor pendants and a new style of bead earring to match.

Wednesday morning

What a lovely crisp wintry morning (and doesn’t wintry look odd spelled like that?). There’s frost everywhere and the sun is shining making it sparkle. Again I’m glad I don’t have to travel far today like I did yesterday, when I went to the Guild shop to do another days duty. Honestly that dratted auto-piloty thing and not really twigging about where I was going yesterday saw me pootling up the road towards Guildford for 10 minutes in totally the wrong direction for the road I normally take. I suddenly realised I was going the wrong way as my brain was working out the rest of the route and I had to stop and see if I could get back on track easily. Fortunately for me there was a short cut across country which took me through Ewehurst and Cranleigh, which I was quite pleased about because I’ve never seen Cranleigh and my curiosity has been very piqued by all the signs that you see on the road that say ‘Cranleigh, England’s largest village‘.

I have to say that after driving through the place, It’s gotta be a town, it’s so big. Anyway, what is the definition of a village or town? Surely if it has a big church, used to have a hospital and has a largish supermarket and a couple of pedestrianised shopping squares it counts as a town? In modern day terms it must be a town if it boasts a ‘Costa coffee’? Wikipedia says a town can be a village that is larger than surrounding villages and has a regular market, and is also a community that doesn’t survive on mainly agriculture - well I passed signs to what looked like a large industrial estate. A village can also decide to call itself a town by it’s Parish Council calling themselves a ‘Town Council’. So I reckon it should be called a town, but they want to keep themselves as the largest village. And why not, if you’ve got a uniqueness, flaunt it!

Wednesday evening

I was going to blog this morning but we had naff connection all day, so here it is now, trouble is I’m absolutely shattered……..it must be all the thinking……I’m doing my business accounts…..yes, I know, I said I wasn’t going to be doing it last minute again. I really must work out a reliable way to achieve this, I can’t bear being away from my torch and not melting glass for so long.

I was womaning the Surrey Guild shop yesterday, after my usual lovely woodland drive, which was very different yesterday - I’ve never seen so many broken branches and ripped trees before, all debris from last weeks strong winds. I even saw a tree trunk freshly split in 2 down the middle lengthways (top to bottom). Of course strong winds are natures way of pruning the trees and bushes.

Today we awoke to a fresh blanket of snow, and of course it looked beautiful. Rick took several pictures, but I haven’t downloaded them from the camera yet because my hard drive is stuffed full to the gunels, needless to say computer speed is not very good at the moment. I was so pleased that I was at the shop yesterday and didn’t have to cope with driving up remote lanes in the snow. Ooo that reminds me…..

I have new stock in the Surrey Guild Gallery including some heart pendants perfect for Valentines Day.

I must go an get me some zzzzds now, I’m getting desperate to finish my paperwork and need to be fresh if I’m going to get most finished tommorrow. The problem is I’ll be so glad to see the back of it that I won’t want to sort how I’m going to tackle next years (which is this current year). maybe I’ll go through and do what I can while it’s all in my head, like I considered doing last January but didn’t….nah…too easy.