Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Saturday eve

I’ve just finished watching Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the Radio Times only gave it 2 stars but I have to say it was more of a 3 star movie. I wanted to watch it mainly because I love the Greek Islands so much but loved the film. This whole thing of rating the films doesn’t always work, I’ve noticed the same film can get different ratings depending on who writes the review and the month it’s shown in.

When it comes to ratings though, there’s more entertainment to be had from these ‘celebrity does dancing/singing/ice skating’ when it comes to guessing what score the judges are going to give a performance. Maybe Rick and I should be having a wager to see who’se the best at sussing out the judges.

Ah it’s good to be able to make beads again during the day again, what with half term being over.

I had a couple of days out with my daughter last week, the aim of our trips, subconsciously is to have as much fun for as little money as possible. We were having roaring success last Friday, we packed sandwiches and headed off to Horsham for the ice skating which had come to town. Unfortunately when we arrived the ‘ice-rink’ was a tiddly rectangular thing with synthetic ice, ie. plastic, so we decided to give it a miss and went to munch our sarnies. After a bit of shopping we thought we’d check out Horsham museum in the Causeway, and boy, what a place! It was excellent, full of old bikes, Horshams first fire engine, lots of farm equipment, and all sorts of old bits and pieces. The museum was like the Tardis, small on the outside but huge on the inside, and FREE! woo hoo. Well, I was wittering on to my daughter about how cheap our day had been, then got stung for £10 parking in Sainsburys carpark. Rats. Rats. Rats.

Here’s a picture of the Causeway in Horsham, one of my favourite views, taken with my daughters very cheap digital camera.

Tuesday eve

Hi there. I’ve just come indoors from freezing my butt off outside, it suddenly got cold at 7pm. I had to go out to my studio and make some beads, couldn’t resist.

I had a lovely day at Spellcast Stained Glass Studio in Horsham today, with the group of Fusing beginners. I was only going to stay for a couple of hours but found myself there for the best part of the school day. Thank you very much Juli for letting me sit in, and hi to everyone I met today, especially Jo! (you know you want to melt glass!)

Thursday Evening

How cool is this? For anyone who doesn’t know what I look like, this is Southpark me!

I followed a link to this site where you can make any character, great fun.

By the way, I lurve ice cream!

Late Wednesday evening

Phew, we just got home half an hour ago after a fun filled day at the Mastering suite in Rochester (Cyclone Music Productions). We spent most of the day (10 hours) working on mastering the recording that Rick and I have been working on, and are still amazed at how much difference can be made to a recording at the mastering stage. It now sounds really lush and sweet!

Fortunately me for me (but not my purse), Creative Glass was around the corner and of course I had to go and spend some dosh………

The day has also given me the opportunity to work on course notes and details, while listening very intently to the music, so I will put more info up in the next couple of days.

Monday afternoon

AAhhhh, I feel strange man. I returned home from my first taste of Acupuncture this morning, and oh I feel weird. Good weird, a bit spaced out and amazed at how good it was. It remains to be seen whether the course I’m about to embark on will make any difference to me, but at least I get to lie still and relax during the day instead of having to work or do housework, LOL.

It’s half term this week so no beady making for me unfortunately, I suppose I could go out in the evening but just can’t face the cold! I’m still working on dates and details of my courses, things are starting to come together so more news soon I hope.

Sunday tea time

Well, we’ve just about finished the mixing for our CD we’re producing. Phew. I really thought we’d be up into the wee hours straining our ears for clicks, and trying to get everything sounding really lushhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I’m supposed to be getting dinner ready not blogging, tee hee. I’m getting very excited at the prospect of going to Rochester this week to master the recording. Not just because it’s good fun and a good experience, but probably more because it’s just around the corner from Creative Glass, where I’m going to nick off and buy some glass. I’m hoping to get some of the new Bullseye colours and maybe some more Dichroic glass sheet and some Effetre. Can’t wait!

Late Friday evening

Oooo I’m tired. It’s all happening at once here. We’ve just finished this evenings session of mixing music for the CD Rick and I are producing, the one we had evening recording sessions for in October. We’ve had 2 girlies singing sessions in the last fortnight and the men came and sang Tuesday evening this week. We’re now manically trying to fit in the mixing and it’s not as easy as I first thought. We’ve 3 pairs of speakers and they’re all different, giving different tones to the music!

As well as that I’ve been working on getting my shop page ready to sell some pendants and beads. We started compiling the page and sorting the style this evening. So hopefully in the next few days I should have some goodies for you to buy. Watch this space……..

Weds lunchtime

Hello peeps! Is that the time already? The sky outside today is so lovely and blue, it makes me want to fling the windows wide open, the trouble is it’s still a bit chilly.

I made beads again yesterday, woohoo. It was 4.5 degC in my studio when I started, so spring is on the way. I’m having fun playing with new ideas and colours, and trying out old techiniques to see how I’ve progressed. If you’re lucky I’ll post some pictures later. I always feel inspired to come up with new bead designs in the spring, maybe it’s because the mundane production stuff has eased off. But where would we be without the simpler bead designs? I always find it easier to design jewellery with my plainer beads, and leave the complicated and intricate work to you expert beadworkers. I’m off to grab a sarnie. bye.

Friday afternoon, already

Where has the week gone?  I managed 2 sessions at the torch this week, and both were very enjoyable.  I was in valentines paradise making pink hearts on the mandrel, and a few off mandrel, that means I made them on the end of the glass rod and had to punty up and attach hanging loops.  Fortunately I didn’t have too many poopy loopys (naff ones) and only one kamikaze pendant that decided to slip down the mandrel and land smack or should I say sizzle-ouch on my forefinger.  I also had more success cracking my punties off too (yes you did read correctly), the glass terminology cracks me up, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I’m going to make a special effort to put some of these hearts up for sale on this site next week, photography permitting.  Have a good weekend, whatever you indulge in.