Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Friday evening

At last we can stop worrying because the roof leaks no more. We used to have a hole the size of a football in the sofit at the back, where birds would fly in and nest. Of course everytime they flapped in the hole it got a little bit bigger. The roof guy cleared out several nests front, back and sides as well as the wasp nest and we are now bird and wasp proof woopee. There are now several very confused and disgruntled birds in the back garden, Rick saw 2 this evening, one was hanging onto the wall for dear life just below where the hole used to be and was tweeting up to his matee on the gutter who was looking very quizickly down at where the hole used to be and tweeting back angrily. Very funny. I hope to bird watch from the lawn tommorrow and see if word has spread! It’s OK though, just in case anyone’s concerned about eggs and stuff, we made sure that nesting and the like was over before we had the work done.

I’ve been working like mad all day taking pictures, editing them and writing information for my new shop which is opening extremely soon, like in the next few days. So please watch this space, or rather the menu bar across the top. Don’t forget to bring your glass of champers for the grand reveal!

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday night

I’m exhausted.  The seminar in the Arts Centre in Horsham today was excellent.  We had 4 different 55 minute long sessions on various art promotion subjects, and each session managed to pack in masses of information and tips.  Now I have to let this sink in and work out how I’m going to use my new found ideas.  It was lovely to see a few familiar faces of artists I met during the RAG Open Houses, and to meet other artists ranging from painters to actors and musicians.

While I was out cavorting with the struggling artists (lol) we had the sofit at the back of the house replaced.  They removed loads of birds nests and a beautiful old wasps nest.  It’s such a relief to know that the hole has gone and no bidies (oops, typo, that should be birdies) or waspies can get in the roof anymore, and that the structure of the roof is sound.

Tuesday evening

Oh that’s too funny. The last 2 episodes of this season of Lost, and more questions! lol. Although I have to say that several questions were answered and my suspisions regarding the cause of the plane crash were confirmed, that is if anything on the show is to be believed. I can’t believe it’s all over again! Now I have to go and do a packed lunch and toddle off to bed. I’m attending a seminar for artists tommorrow about making art work (as a business that is, not making ‘artwork’) so I need to get some zzzzzzds. Poor Rick has to work from home to make tea for the roof people, although I think he’s relieved. He was hoping to tweek the TV arial this week, but chickened out this evening after he viewed the street from the eaves! lol.

Monday evening

My new shop is almost here (at last), hurrah. After having read my bloggy whinge last week Rick has been mulling over how to produce shop pages, and he’s just about got it sorted. So this week I’m keeping away from the torch and among other things will be getting my first items of stock ready for the grand opening of my shop. I suppose I should choose a day for the event, but I like being flexible so I’m not going to. I hope to open it with some of my new beads, a selection of my lampwork bead jewellery and a few choice pieces of jewellery featuring glass beads from Europe. There will also be a few of my beautiful glass leaves that I’ve been having fun making, complete with matching spacers. So watch this space……..

Thursday evening

Well I managed it yesterday. I took some brill pictures of a jewellery commission for my friend who came round last Thursday and I actualy cleaned 3 pots full of beads. Hurrah! I tried using a different bit in my cordless whizzy thang and it sped up the operation no end.

And what about the weather? Hasn’t it been fab yesterday and today. I had a lovely day making beads in my garden studio today, and thought I’d carry on into the evening since Rick’s cooking, but I ended up being chased out by several wasps and being tickled by numerous Crane flies who then committed harakiri one by one. I have to say it’s the wasps that really suck, we have a wasps nest in the tree 3 metres from the door of my studio, and they love the airflow made by the torch and the fan, unfortunately it draws them in rather than away. They also seem to be attracted by the light in the darkness. rats. So here I am blogging instead of beading. Oh well.

Tuesday evening

Autumn is definately here. It was 12 deg C in my studio this morning, although I did go out earlier than normal to turn on the kiln. I had a fun session making frit twisties and applying them to beads, I also made a few focals as I’m trying to top up my stock for the Harrow bead fair next month and probably won’t be able to work next week because we are having some work done on the house, nothing exciting unfortunately, just boring roof repairs.

Unfortunately my beads to clean pot is overflowing now, actually I have been procrastinating so long that I now have 3 pots of stuff to clean. I think I’ll be doing that tommorrow and talking some photos – what joy!

Saturday evening

I love September. I think it’s one of my favourite months, the weather’s always mild and the evenings smell so fresh. We usually get lovely sunny days, and I’ve often been on holiday camping around now. We’ve had a good session working in the garden today, rediscovering the paths, tidying up the lawn edges and weeding out the rubbish. We really need to remove most of the paths because you can’t walk down them as they’re too close to the plants in the narrow borders, and they’re not needed anyway. They only make more work for us as we have to keep them clear and edge the lawn regularly (although of course we don’t, there’s always something more fun to do!).

I was just sitting back on my bench with a mug of tea this evening as the sun set, admiring the new found paths and neatened borders when I heard a ribbit, ribbit. Well, more of a low rrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrr. rrrrrrr. We found a lovely frog sitting in a bucket of water under the fig plant. I love finding critters like that, now all we need is a hedgehog to keep the slugs and snails in check.

Friday lunchtime

Aahh, it’s so peaceful here today. I’m home alone and enjoying not having a wingey kid, or music I’m not in the mood for. It’s so quiet, I don’t really want to spoil it with some washing. At last I’m starting to catch up on things, I’m having a real correspondence sesh this morning, which doesn’t include cleaning beads, but they are waiting in the pot for cleaning, rats, I hate that bit of the art.

My leaf set that I was going to put up for sale got split up by one of my friends who came round yesterday morning to choose some jewellery. We had a lovely morning together of glass, jewellery and gem stone appreciation. She loves gemstones and we had great fun choosing stones and beads that would partner each other beautifully for some new designs for her order. Along route one of the leaves made it’s way onto a chain as a pendant, it may miss it friends, but it has a very loving new owner!

Have a great weekend.

Tuesday afternoon

Another lovely day today, and wasn’t it gorgeous yesterday? It was 15.5 degC this morning when I turned on my kiln. As we move to the middle of Setember my thoughts are turned to the Autumn, and I’ve been having fun making leaves with my new leaf press from America. There’s certainly a knack to using it and manipulating the glass once it’s pressed so that your leaves look leaf like and not like squished lollipops. I hope to put some up for sale on my site this week…..are you getting this Rick?

Tues night (late)

oh dear, how cold hearted am I? I’ve just finished watching next weeks episode of Lost on E4, where someone dies, and I don’t feel a thing. I don’t get it, I love the show, I have to watch all the repeats and get more information, but when it comes to the emotion, I feel nothing, rien, nada. Everytime some dies, I feel cold. Maybe it’s me or maybe they don’t lather on the slushy stuff like some shows do. Is it more about the mystery and the history? Oh but it getting so intrigueing, and we only have 3 more episodes to go this season. I can’t wait, but I also don’t want it to end. Off to bed now. Nightee night.

Friday afternoon

Where did the last week go? I thought I’d look at my blog to see where I am, and lo a week plus has passed…..and I’m still very tired.

Thank you to all of you who came by my stall last weekend to say hi, and to everyone who bought goodies. That means we can eat for the next month……well, the funds are actually rather depleted after all the hotel stays and Lorens course, porridge every day I think, Oh yes, I have that already.

I can’t believe we’re already nearing the end of the kids summer hols, and the house is even more untidy than it was at the start, so much for clearing it over the summer, I should have known I’d never manage it. At least the front border in our garden is looking a bit better, except for all the cat poos that are left daily in our bark mulch. Note to self…must find some sort of moggie deterant.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to put the Harrow Bead Fair in your diaries for October 8th.