Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Tues afternoon

Oh yes English comedy genius at it best. Is it a joke or isn’t it? Does she realise she looks totally naff or is it intentional? Some of you may know what I’m talking about, and I wouldn’t if I hadn’t happened to catch Britain’s Got Talent last Saturday evening.  But I got it straight away and laughed so much and can’t get the catchy tune out of my head but I really don’t mind. I just hope that she can deliver on more nutty songs and wit to become another Victoria Wood.

Speaking of British Institutions, Chelsea Flower Show opens to the public today and I was fascinated to watch a fashion designer on last night’s show explaining how he gets inspiration for his designs and textiles from the displays. I’ll be watching as much as I can realistically this week, and hoping to get more inspiration myself as I always do for my beads.

So my beadmaking this week sees me working towards the next 2 events that I’m doing….. The Sussex Beadworks Fair is at Denbies Wine Estate again this year on June 7th. The venue is lovely, and wine’s rather excellent too. I’m also steadily making beads for some new jewellery designs and some of my popular designs ready for Horsham Artists Open Studios the following 2 weekends in June (13/14 and 20/21). Here’s my first bead bouquet for these events.

Thursday morning

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.

Monday lunchtime

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.

Friday 8th October

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.

Friday eveing

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.

Thursday morning

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!

Monday night

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!

Weds Morning

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.

Saturday night

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.

Monday tea time

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.

Saturday evening

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.

Tuesday morning

All wrapped up and ready to go down to my studio and make beads. It’s a healthy 8 deg C in my studio today so I may well swelter in my head to toe thermals and jeans that are now almost around my ankles now I’ve shrunk so much. I have my trusty list of things to make and new ideas to try, so I should be in for a fun day. Outside is feeling much nicer, people are out there doing things, by that I mean that outside jobs are being attempted again, rather than everyone hiding inside from the bitter cold.

I spent some time last Friday updating my events page and removing last years do’s, and I now have a good list of events that I will be attending this year, the next being a new bead fair at Dorking Halls at the end of May. This is where The Craft Kit company started their successful bead fairs and is a return to that venue by popular request.

Another thing that’s come around again is LOST! woo hoo. So it looks like I’m due more late nights. Man that show is so addictive, I just don’t know how they do it. They really have an amazing team of writers to keep the suspense going. So far this season has got off to a good start, with us going ‘doh!’ at the end of every episode, how do they do that? You hear the twang and the crack noise and it’s all over for another week. My favourite quote this week was Jack Shepherd talking to Ben Linus on flight 316…….Jack….. ‘How can you read?’………….Ben….. ‘My mother  taught me’.

Thursday afternoon

Woops, I didn’t mean to leave it that long! It’s officially half term, and as my daughter noted this morning, we’re nearly at the end. I’ve been having this week off work more than a usual half term to keep her company and do things, although to be fair we’ve not not done that much, only several appointments that I lined up for this week, which meant that we’ve spent a couple of afternoons in Horsham, visiting the shops and generally smooching around. We were also due to have a fellow beadmaker around to try one of my torches, but she very unfortunately broke down a few roads away and ended up being towed back home to London. We walked round to see her and took emergency rations of a Kit Kat in case she was hungry, and had a good chat before she left.

So I’m sat here on one of our arm chairs, watching kids TV, next to our daughter, who is sporting her new glasses, well, actually her first ever pair of specs, and they look so cool, she can’t wait to show her friends and really loves them. I would have loved to be able to wear glasses like that as a kid, instead I had the frightfully hideous NHS round wire ones in pale pink to start with, then progressed to the transparent plastic ones with springy ear hooks when they came in. Lovely. I couldnt wait to get contact lenses.

And what’s on? Well, we’ve just finished watching Da Dick and Dom Diaries, a marvelous mix of snipits from their Bungalow series. These 2 blokes are just so funny, and it’s great to watch them at work, they obviously love what they do. I was sad to see D & D in the Bugalow finish, but now we have the splendid Legend of Dick and Dom on in the afternoons, it’s so sureal and very Pythonesque.  I’m a bit of a fan of some childrens TV, we often make time to sit together and watch something that we both like. I’d better go and hang the washing up now. TTFN.

Monday morning

Well helloooooo there. I probably shouldn’t be so chirpy as I am missing my jewellery class yet again – the place to go for me to have a fun afternoon chatting with like minded jewellery making obsessed ladies. And especially today they are having our Christmas class jewellery sale. Yes I’m a bit sad about this, but maybe it’s a good thing as I am still just sooooo wacked out. We really must get our car situation sorted out….anyone got an estate car for sale? anyone? anyone?

I just popped out to my studio, and man, it’s chilly out there, only 5 deg. C this morning, but I’m off out to make some handmade glass beads in a mini mo for my regular weekly order. Then tomorrow and Thursday I’m teaching yet again, I seem to be doing about 2 days a week at the moment, which is so much fun and a bit tiring but hey ho, it’s worth it.

The big question on everyone’s mind today is…who on earth is voting for John Sergeant in Strictly Come Dancing? It sure ain’t me, but he really should go now, I know he’s fun to watch how badly he does everything, but it now seems so unfair that the really fabulous contestants are being booted off the show a week earlier than they should and missing their potential to learn new dances and improve more. I suppose maybe we should be asking ourselves if the BBC are cheating and keeping him in to give the show controversy and generally rigging the polls to suit what they feel the show should be like? Or does he have a huge cake baking, blue rinse, daytime TV watching, lady fan base? Who knows.

Thursday morning

How sad am I? I think I must be the geek here, actually I already know I’m a bit of a geek. The reason I know is because when I was sat watching Jamie’s Ministry of Food and he went down the mine for a look see, all I could do was try and see what gas detectors they were using! That would be because I used to be a design engineer working on mainly portable gas detectors in the dim and distant past, oh well, I suppose we all have one of those. Unfortunately I couldn’t see what they were using because everything was coated in a layer of black coal dust, even Jamie! and there was me thinking that he’d smeared it on his face for effect, so as he’d look the part. Actually come to think of it he did look rather different with his eyes peering out. But boy, what an awful place to work, I have so much admiration for those that do, and such sadness when I think about how things used to be hundreds of years ago when children were forced to work down there and other equally awful places.

We all whinge about Health and Safety, and how we’re getting wrapped in cotton wool, and I’d have to agree that it’s all gone way too far, but thank goodness that people started thinking about these things. Jobs and pastimes have got so much safer, the really nasty chemicals we could easily use are restricted, this in itself has to be a good thing, and many people work really hard on safety systems that come into play in an emergency, this is something else I was involved with, Emergency Shut Down systems (or ESD) for oil rigs and gas refineries. Actually I have to confess that most of my time in industry was spent working in Health and Safety, so I am a supporter, but not of the extreme silly stuff.

Kids should be kids, and grow up playing on the street, riding bikes around, and getting into silly scrapes, isn’t that what growing up is about? There’s going to be some pretty boring tales or lack of childhood tales to tell grandchildren if we carry on protecting everyone from what should be everyday experiances.

Ah well, I better get back to the grindstone, it was 6.9 deg C in my studio when I popped out to switch on the kiln, lets hope it warms up a bit today or I’ll have to get the union in….

Monday lunchtime (but posted Tuesday teatime, we had techie problems!)

Thank goodness that’s all over, all the preparation for Open Houses is done, and the first weekend has passed. I managed to get my displays done, somewhat later than I would have liked, and when asked by my friend why I was so unprepared I wasn’t sure, but then it hit me, oh yes, my hip replacement was scheduled very unexpectedly with short notice and messed my planned schedule for the year, I had set aside May and June for preparation but of course my priorities changed. Still, I managed it with half an hour to go, lol and even managed to make some new pieces, different variations on my current range.

Now that’s done I’ve masses of other jobs to do, but today I’m taking it easy. I got up at 11 this morning, lovely, having been lounging around drinking tea and reading a book by Alan Bennett, not my usual read but entertaining. All the effort last week has caught-up with me and I plan to continue having a leisurely day, as I’m supposed to anyway still being on stick leave and all. It’s been fun watching a bit of daytime TV, yes I know, very naff, but I’m really getting into House at the moment. Up to recently we couldn’t get Five but now they’re cranking up the signal we’ve had more viewing choice. This brings me to walking sticks and disabilities in dramas.

What is it about stick users on TV? why do they always get it wrong? Lots of people who meet me think my left leg is the problem because that’s the side I use my stick. Unfortunately many people who buy themselves a stick don’t use them in the best way, as they haven’t been shown and then they copy what they’ve seen on TV. Even Rick thought I was doing it wrong, tchhh. However I almost always see people using sticks in the wrong hand on telly dramas and in films, very amusing especially when Doctors do it in Hospital dramas! I’m guessing that if a stick was used properly it would have less of a dramatic impact, and I’m also thinking that Hugh Laurie aches like mad after filming! Serves him right. Ha.

Wednesday morning

How do I start this post? I keep typing this one and deleting it! You see it keeps getting too heavy and sounding way too serious, and you know I like to try and keep my blog light-hearted if I can. So I guess the game is up, all this time it’s been hidden from you that I can’t walk very easily and this is due to something called clicky hip (or DDH) which is a condition that they now check for in newborn babies. Although I did mention it exactly 2 years ago (21st April 2006 ER….me too the episode where Weaver, the lady Dr with a crutch realises she needs a new hip, incidentally it completely changes her life for the better) Anyway, I have big news, as I realised just before Christmas that I could really now do with a hip replacement and that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

So, there is is, and I now have my date, 4 weeks from now, yikes. I now have to stuff in as much work as possible to be ready for 2 lots of Open Houses in July and maybe the exhibition in Winchester if I can manage it. There’s also plans to be made for how to run the house when I get home, raising chairs, making space for me to live in my recovering state. And of course I have to treat myself to the obligatory new nightie!

I have lots to tell you also of our adventure visiting my consultant in Oxford, but I’ll save that for another post.

I should also point out that this will impact on my teaching schedule. I am planning to take a break from the end of May and start teaching again in September. August is way too complicated with school holidays, weddings, lazy days out etc. and it can get very hot making beads in August.

Friday morning

I love 4 day weeks, they seem so……short. The downside is that they reduce my days available for bead making unfortunately. I shall be going down the garden to my studio shortly as I have a mammoth 8 hours available to me today that I hope not to waste, although I do have some ‘paper’ things to do first. I have to say that the weather is putting me off somewhat, but I’m sure I’ll get over it.

So T5 (or Terminal 5) at Heathrow is up and running. lol. I can’t but help laughing, but I do feel sorry for BA as the whole project has gone so well, to time etc., and it’s not like they didn’t test all the systems rigorously. Having worked as a project manager and engineer in Industry I know what an achievement this is. Of course they forgot to factor in the mass of people problem with parking and getting in the way of the staff. Life would be so much easier for them and British Rail if there weren’t lots of pesky passengers around to get in the way and mess things up. It’s the same with the hospitals really, which reminds me of an entertaining episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ where they had a hospital fully staffed with all sorts of management, not so many medical staff and absolutely no patients. Ahh, the old ones are the best……tongue firmly in cheek.

Now I have to go and decide what to make today, an arduous task, not. I think I might break out the silver foil again today and makes some real jewels of glassiness. Yippee I can’t wait.

Monday morning

What a weekend, I need a rest to get over it. All Saturday we were preparing for the bead fair yesterday, and of course yesterday was the main event. We had a lovely day mainly due to all you lovely people who came to say hello and spend some time with us. Now I have the unenviable job of finishing my accounts today so that my MIL can come over tonight to finish the tax part and do the online bit. Urrgh and I’m missing my class to do this today, still, it’s a good impetus to finish today.

What a fantastic and inspiring programme last night, I watched Monty Dons’ first part of ‘Around the World in 80 gardens’. I thought it would be interesting but was really amazed at the wonderful gardens and sights that he saw. Also the reasoning behind some of the gardens was very thought provoking, especially the Havana gardens in Cuba. Many of these gardens are tucked away in what used to be derelict areas of the city, and have been converted to communal fruit and vegatable plots for the benefit of the local residents. I loved the idea of the 60 small information centres where the gardeners could get help and advice on growing their crops, truly inspirational, and very green. There was also some amazing eye candy and many interesting themes and ideas for garden design and even bead inspiration. Just what I’m looking for to shape my new collection.

Monday lunchtime

At last, things are getting back to normal. I never thought I’d hear myself say it, but it’s a relief to get back into some sort of routine, and to get the house back to myself during the day. My first job was to tidy the kitchen while making breakfast, run the dishwasher and put on some washing. Well, I’ve managed all but the washing as I got waylaid by making sure that my birthday present worked OK, yes I know, but this is the first quiet moment that I’ve had to peek at my Kath & Kim DVD. Fatal.

Anyways, I’ve just about managed to get back on track and can actually see my desk again, having spent half the morning tidying it. (I can’t see the dining table anymore though.)These are of course delaying tactics whilst I avoid the real job of tackling the dreaded tax once more. All my new years resolutions went out the window last year very early on as we saw our daughter go into hospital for a couple of weeks and then have months off school. This seriously put me behind in every way last year, and saw me giving up my resolve to do my accounts once a week before I’d even started. lol. Hopefully things will run smoother this year, but these are famous last words so let’s see what the year has in store for us. I’d better push off and do some of the urgent jobs now. have a cool Monday.