Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

So where is it then?  It appears to be anywhere but here, where I live.  I can’t say I’m disappointed, well maybe just a little bit, I love the look of the snow, but am terrified of falling over….what a wus.

Back in the land of Lost, what a corker.  We watched both episodes again last night, doh, and now it looks like we have to wait two weeks for the season finale.  The up side is that C4 are doing a 6 hour back to back fest called Lost in Lost so at least we get to see the first episodes that we missed before we got hooked, yipee.

I’m not sure when I shall get to play with glass again, it may be next year, but hey, that’s next week.  It’s funny how the phrase ‘next year’ sounds such an age away normally, but as we race to the new year it’s only just around the corner.  I suppose we have to endure the look back at the year we’re leaving stuff now and listen to the usual list celebrities who’ve died this year, how jolly.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year. 

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my customers, readers and friends.

Wednesday

Ooops, I meant to post a couple of days ago.  I’ve spent the last few days trying to tidy the lounge and shopping.  Not particularly exciting.  I had hoped to pop out to my studio before Christmas and make some tree decorations, but it’s quite cold at night and I don’t know if I can bring myself to leave the cosywarm house.  I may leave it until next week.  It’ll be fun to add some icicles to the tree after it’s gone up, when it does eventually.

We saw a brilliant programme on Saturday night, hosted by Paul McCartney at the Abbey Road studios.  It was so interresting so see him playing so many different instruments and explaining how he and the other Beatles composed and recorded their groundbreaking songs.  Now that’s the sort of show we’d like to see more often, as we like arranging and recording music.

 Got to go and get on with the pre Christmas chores………

Saturday evening

We spent time today in the Spellcast Studio in Horsham topping up my display of jewellery for sale, so do wander in and have a look if you’re in the area.  The Horsham lights and decorations are lovely again this year, they always do a wonderful job and make it a real pleasure shopping in town, especially on Saturdays when there is a Farmers Market and various deli-type stalls in the street.  We had to grab a hasty pasty (interesting rhyme) before rushing off to Horley to carol sing at an MS respite centre.  I think I’m starting to feel a little bit Christmasy, but I have to say I don’t usually feel it until Christmas eve.

Ooo and today we stumbled across someone who’d bought some of my beads at Lingfield and incorporated them into her own jewellery.  A lovely surprise.  They looked great how she’d used them (nice one Luci!).

Thursday evening

Hi there, I forgot to talk about my Thursday class discussions last week.  They became rather hilarious for me anyway, as the subject being discussed was ‘It was better in the old days’.  Even though work hours were long, pay small, and living conditions not so good, a couple of our older members said they were glad they weren’t young having to cope with society today.  It was a bit of a Monty Python sketch as going to work times and coming home times were discussed, at which point I chimmed in with ‘You were lucky, I used to get up before I went to bed, eat coal for Breakfast and we lived in shoebox int middle of road’.  Actually I think work can be as hard mentally and physically, because many people in their jobs are expected to work longer hours than their contract for no overtime on a daily basis, it seems to be the done thing, especially if you want to get a good reputation and get ahead.  OK our standard of living is way higher than 50 years ago, but this vision of a society with a 3 day week, loads of leisure time and paperless, just hasn’t come true.

Fantastic.  I’ve just seen the trailer for the new series of Shameless on C4.  Sooooo funny.  Of course it followed on from tonights gripping installment of LOST (which I naughtily watched last week).  And no, I’m not going to stay up late tonight to watch the next one.  I hope!  I think all the last months effort has caught up with me and I’m now feeling more tired than normal.

We popped to see the Christmas lights at a residential close in Horsham tonight.  It’s one of those where all the neighbours absolutely festoon their houses, gardens, paths, hedges and any available space with lights and various lit up seasonal pictures.  It’s a bit over the top for my liking but the kids love it and they raise lots of dosh for the local St Catherines Hospice.  Last year they had £11,000 donated.  At least they don’t have lots of music and sounds playing loudly to upset their other neighbours, unlike some of the other roads featured on the news recently.  If we were to light up our house and garden it would just show everyone how much work the lawn and front of the house needs!  I have to say I’m extremely relieved that none of our neighbours have decided to do anything similar, in fact our road looks decidedly dark by comparrison.

It’s over!  My last fair was yesterday afternoon at Box Hill school.  They have a large open fireplace in the entrance hall and last year made it very atmospheric by serving mulled wine and mincepies by the garland strewn open fire.  A lovely traditional start to the Christmas season.  I’m not sure if the pies and wine were served there yesterday as we were rushed off our feet during the fair, and only got this pic just before we left for home.

Today I tackled the laundry pile before it took over the doorway and attacked me. LOL.  Such fun.  You know I’m sure there’s more to life than laundry, housework and grocery shopping.  Oh yes, lampworking.  Actually that’s what’s got me into this mess indoors!  I wonder what delights tommorrow has in store for me….now I think of it, the alternator gets replaced.  That will be a relief, I’m getting a bit tired of popping the bonnet everytime I stop and disconnecting the battery.  It’s amazing that no men have asked me if I’m OK as they usually do when I get my head under the bonnet (that’s because men know how to fix cars because they have the correct equipment!).

Saturday night

Only one more fair to do, hurrah!  Friday tea time saw me driving to Worthing amidst the patchy fog for a school fair, convinced I knew where I was going once I drove over the railway bridge and arrived at the 3rd roundabout.  It’s amazing how you can look at a map, think you have the road sussed, only to find that you hadn’t actually taken in the finer details.  I thought I was going right at the roundabout, but actually needed to take the right fork, then turn right off that road.  Ho hum.  I ended up going in completely the wrong direction, however I made it there in time to set up, had a lovely evening, and even scooped the 3rd prize in their raffle.  This was pretty unusual, as it’s normally Rick that wins raffles and stuff, and took me so much by surprise that I nearly fell off my stool.

Wednesday evening

I’m feeling a bit relieved today, I have just 2 more selling events to attend and then Sunday evening it’s all over and I can concentrate on getting us ready for Christmas.  I actually didn’t feel the need today to sit and make jewellery, and fell asleep on the settee while Rick cooked dinner.  It will be good to tackle the 3 foot pile of laundry on top of the laundry basket that’s overflowing like an overflowing thing.  We might just catch up with washing school uniform by the time term finishes!

Oops, shouldn’t have kept the telly on after Lost finished at 11pm.  What another cracker, I can’t resist peeking at next weeks episode, then get sucked into watching the whole thing, and the trouble is we can only get E4+1 so it gets rather late.  So what’s in the capsule, and how come Locke can walk?  Find out in the next exciting episode……..

Double oops.  Rick’s just managed to kick and completely wreck our daughters amazing lego creation of a palace, complete with precariously balanced balcony.  I’m not looking forward to the morning.  Oh dear!

Monday evening

Hello again.  I made it out to my studio today after nearly two weeks making up jewellery.  It was 3.5 degrees C but didn’t feel as bad as last time, I think my body is aclimatising at last.  I just couldn’t help grinning as I sat to make glass drops, they’re so relaxing and theraputic to do.  I made more of my tigerlike beads and also managed to fit in another penguin cutie, this time complete with santa hat.

Looks like the big countdown to Christmas is really here now, only 20 days to go.  We’re still looking out for the new Argos advert that was filmed in town and wondering when we’re going to get time to start the numerous jobs that need to be done before the big day.  I suppose the worst of these will be getting the house to look more like a place of relaxation than a workshop/playroom/complete tip.  Maybe I should join up to this website that someone on Lampwork etc. uses to help her cope with the chaos of life, nah, I’d probably end up feeling I need to clean.  I guess this site ‘Flylady‘ is where Monica from Friends would be in heaven!

Friday evening

Wow, what a day I’ve had.  I’ve just decided to stop working (midnight), I’ve been plowing on making up many necklaces and pairs of earrings over the last couple of weeks for my fairs.  Unfortunately that means I don’t get time to make beads, but I’m having fun with my jewellery designing and keeping warm and dry in the process.  I reackon my shed’s a bit lonely and probably a bit cold and damp at the moment.  I’m also resisting the urge to have a good prowl around Wet Canvas for some good tutorials and a bit of ogling at others beads.  There’s sooooooooooo much to see here, but I normally head off to Glass Art. 

Ooops, went to check my links, and it’s now 1:15am (and they announced on the news yesterday that Doctors have said they are recognising addiction to the internet as a real addiction.)  I think I just needed a well earned break from my hard slog, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!…night all, have a good weekend.

Thursday evening

The first of December, already, eeek.  Although to tell the truth I’ve been reving up for Christmas for the past few weeks with my local Christmas craft fairs.  I’m probably over halfway through these, which is good because I’m getting quite exhausted now.

We had some more interesting conversations over lunch today at my jewellery class.  The main topic was serialisations of the classics on TV, particulary with reference to Bleak House and the updated Shakespere plays that they’ve been doing on BBC1.  We all agreed that Bleak House was very enjoyable, but what a nightmare concentrating on the story in the first episode.  We were all totally distracted by all the familiar acting faces and all suffered with the same problems of ‘oh look, it’s so and so’ and ‘oooo isn’t that whats-her-name?’ (this has to be said in a David Brent type way).  As for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was in fits of laughter, especially at the point where they brought out the Ferero Roche pyamid to signify the luxury.  It’s almost as good as Vienetta, which I actually heard an advert for today…..’Christmas, all the better for Vienetta’.  Hmmmm, whatever floats your boat, I think I’d rather have Christmas Pud and a good glass of wine.  Incidentally I had a friend whose Nan used to call these Vendetta, I never did find out if she really thought that’s what they were called or if she was pretending to be doolally.