Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Weds morning

The chaos continues as does my floundering. I’m trying so hard to use this time that I have unexpectedly on my hands, but it seems to be slipping through my fingers like a handful of sand. I’m trying to do my two column A4 long list of jobs and have only managed to knock 5 off so far, I think I may have to look at getting the quick ones done so I can have the pleasure of more ticks and crossing out. I should also set up my stock control programme that I bought a couple of years ago, as now would be the perfect time for stock control with it being a new financial year and having all my glass indoors near my scales……..oh dear, doesn’t it sound boring? I think if I start counting and logging stuff I may just loose the will to live, which is odd because I didn’t mind doing this stuff years ago when I was a student and got paid for it. I guess it’s different when there’s lots of other things you’d rather be doing, like making beads and jewellery, but of course the beads production is definately off at the moment. I may attempt to start making pieces for the Open Houses in June, or at least start making lots of headpins and earhooks for my special pieces, but oh no, that’s a bit mind numbing too, oh dear.

The good news is that my tool for lining big holed beads came last week and it’s wonderful. It’s so much quicker than doing it with dapping punches and doesn’t leave lots of dents and scratches that then have to be polished out. I’ve lined 4 beads succesfully which are sitting proudly on my Pandora bracelet, and only managed to break 2 so far, and that was only because I was being careless and was in a rush as I had to pack up for dinner. So the addage ‘more haste, less speed’ is so true (….or should that be ‘less haste more speed’?) although maybe I should tweek that to ‘more haste, more waste’ (my tip for the day….slow it down). So Silver Lined beads will be coming soon, I have a few that I made a while back using the traditional method and that fit the Troll bracelets with a 4mm hole, but I will be doing some larger 5mm hole beads to suit Pandora also. Now I have to think of a suitable name, which is quite hard for me as I never really do the fancy names, watch this space.

Saturday evening

You know how when you start a job you think ‘Oh, we just have to move this, do that, buy the other, then we can move the wangle, relay the wotsit and job’s done’? Well, how come it never is? and why am I always surprised that what I thought would be a simple job is never straightforward or easy? I’m talking about the garden reorganisation and overhaul that started off as a simple, ‘let’s take down the studio, lay a few more slabs’ and is now a major remodeling and terracing of the garden, especially as we have 2 huge Hippo Bags full of earth and another one threatening to be filled as we have to cut away yet more earth on the non slopey slope just to allow the new shed door to open. Oh my, so poor Rick has to chop away another load of earth, but I’ve had this wizzard idea that we should pile it on the slope next to it to form a flat terrace, result. All I have to do is decide how many sleepers I need and get them deliverd. We also have to sort the surface in front of the door, clear a path or make a new one (more decisions and possible cost), repair or replace the back fence – see I said it had gotten complicated, that’s what comes of  tearing down our back fence to reveal all the pernicious squibs…sorry  Virginia Creeper. We also have a huge Climbing Hydangea to replant, which at the moment is precariously perched in a Hippo bag full and overflowing with earth. This relocation in turn means preparing a raised border, which also means removing yet more crazy paving path…..arggghhhh…….I can’t cope with all the crazy paving. There’s masses of it, the previous owners obviously liked the stuff and very generously decided to have a path that went all the way around the garden and back again, in addition to the patio and a path around the patio.

I feel a few days (maybe weeks)  coming on of chipping away at these York stone slabs, diligently removing concrete so we could maybe reuse the good ones, if I can persuade Rick that he wants to lay them instead of forking out for new slabs.

Hmmmm, so while I drone on about all the jobs to do, I should also announce that I’m taking part in an exhibiton that starts next week at a  new gallery in Chobham that opens next week. The gallery is called Bank Gallery, the exhibition is a ‘taste of what’s to come’, and is due to be opened by the Rt Hon. Michael Grove MP. Please see my events page for more details.

Wednesday evening

So much is happening at the moment, I don’t seem to be able to squeeze in blog time. I went on a fabby course this weekend gone, at Creative Glass in Medway, Kent. We were tutored by Gail Crossman Moore, a renowned glass artist who works mainly in borosilicate glass, and so the course was all about this type of glass, one that I haven’t even dared try to use before. It was very informative and lots of fun, especially as we turned out to be a very small select group of 5 including Gail, 2 students having bailed out just prior to the course. Gail gave us a really solid grounding in using boro, teaching us about the metals used to make the colours, and good colour combinations, and how to vary the effects.  We also had the added bonus of making a felt bead, that was fun. I feel so fired up by what I’ve done, and can’t wait to get my beads that I had to leave there from the second day. I was also very pleased that we all went out for dinner on the Saturday evening (this is something that doesn’t normally happen unfortunately) and the added bonus was Rick and our daughter being with us too as they’d driven to Kent to collect me (still only 1 car). The only down side is that I now am bursting to go and try what I’ve learnt and can’t because we dismantled my studio yesterday.

Oh yes, it’s all in pieces, and all my equipment is in the garage or scattered around the lounge floor. Oh it’s fun to be back in chaos in our house again, not, but it is worth the mess and disruption. It’s amazing how little I can actually do when Rick is working on a project. I seem to spend my whole time troubleshooting and running around buying things we need, or brewing endless mugs of tea, preparing lunch and cooking dinner. I still haven’t managed to do the washing up, but I did actually order a washing machine last night, so that’s another good and necesary job done, just the car to find now! and all the mini problems of landscaping the garden to solve to accomodate the new shed.

Thursday morning

What a gorgeous morning, again. I can’t wait to get out there and into my studio to enjoy making my handmade glass beads in the spring fresh air (7 deg C today). I seem to be waking up a bit better in the mornings now, this may be due to the earlier sunrise but Rick thinks it’s the start of my regular brisk walk, either way I’m feeling happier about not sleeping so much and having a bit more energy. Of course the other option could be the effect of Paul McKenna’s CD that I’ve started to listen to more regularly, after all he does say I will start to have more energy and that my ‘metabolic rate will increase now’. I always go tingly all over after that phrase. The other night I thought it would be relaxing to listen in bed before I went to sleep as he gets you completely relaxed, but it wasn’t a good idea as when it finished I felt really (and I mean REALLY) fidgety and awake even though I was mentally tired.

In my quest to walk regularly we went to the local shops and back yesterday for the first time ever since we moved here 9 years ago. I Googled it first to see how far it was and found that it was a weeny bit less than twice around the block, so that was it, we donned our rucksacks and headed for our local Co-op to buy 6 pints of milk,  some fruit and carrots (yep, all the heavy stuff) and walked home with it all. Now this may not sound very major to you, but for me it’s a breakthrough. I was very surprised at how close the shops were, only 10 minutes brisk walk, and will definately be doing this regularly, if not all the time, especially when I need to post out your bead orders. We’d always gone in the car as I though it was further than it really is. I must admit to being a bit niggled that I hadn’t realised just how close it was as I would have walked there during my recouperation instead of going around the block and exploring all the little side roads, although that was interesting, lol.

So now I have to make sure I do this regularly, and that I gradually increase the number and length of my walks until I can do 3 miles comfortably. I don’t believe this will be a problem now I know how far the shop is, as we often go there for milk, and I can stop by on my way home if I plan my routes well. I don’t want you to think I never walked at all since my op, but it has been only when I’m out for the day (which is not very often), for example we’ll walk from the top of the North Lanes in Brighton to the seafront and back when we go there, but it’s normally done over the course of several hours, wandering slowly from shop to shop.

Friday Morning

New beads are in my shop! I know, only one month after the last restock, that’s very good going for me, you see I can stick to my new year resolutions if I try. There’s a taster below to tempt you, so go shopping in my bead shop and grab yourselves your favourites before they go!

Ooooh, I nearly forgot, 2 more bits of news, firstly The Tempest Exhibition has started touring Europe, and is at Creative Glass in Zurich until 29th March, with further venues to be announced. Ten new artists work has been added and a new catalogue with these extra photos has been produced.

Second bit of news and the most exciting is that at last I have some beads published in one of the new Bead magazines available from newsagents and bead shops. The photo is my entry that I was designing last December for the competition in Beads & Beyond, and I’m really pleased to have it shown on Page 62 of the current April issue. I really don’t care if I win or not, although it would be nice to win, but my main reason for entering was to help increase awareness of our British Handmade Glass Beads, and also hopefully have my set in print and get a bit of free advertising, which it is, so woo hoo.

Here’s a taster of what’s new in my shop…

Tuesday morning

What a wet day, it’s been so dry lately I was almost thinking it was time for Rick to give the lawn it’s first haircut of the year. At least if it’s wet it can’t be so cold as it was a month or so ago, although they are predicting another cold snap for the weekend, which is a bit annoying as I was thinking we could make a start clearing out the garage.

The kiln is on and heating up (8 deg C today in the studio) and I have yet to don my thermals and stuff, although I haven’t need the long johns for a week. In store for today I’m planning to continue making handmade glass beads for my jewellery range ready to make more pieces to top up my Surrey Guild cabinet, and hopefully make a stock of jewellery ready for the forthcoming Open Houses. I’m also starting on my beads for the Dorking bead fair and to put in my webshop. I’m absolutely determined to try and get ahead this year while things are a bit quieter as I hate the stress and last minute rush of preparing for fairs and shows, and I want to try and avoid this as my fairs seem to be at the end of weeks off school and during our summer holiday season, which is rather unfair on our daughter if I have to sit and work when we could be doing fun stuff together at home. How long I’ll stay ahead will be seen, I really hope some other problem doesn’t rear it’s ugly head this year, we could really do with a break from dramas.

On a lighter note I was relly pleased yesterday to actually achieve making almost an inch of a chain linkage that I’ve liked for a long time but never had the time or decent instructions on how to make it. The chain in question is Jen’s Pind and makes a chunky looking but nicely articulated piece. Following the instructions every third link looked wrong, so I undid it and made the links look how I thought they should and hey presto, what a result. I now have to wind and cut more jumprings so I can continue the linkage and make either a necklace or bracelet or both. It really helps to get the ratio of wire diameter to ring diameter  correct, as I had tried it out using cheap wire available that was the wrong ratio and the whole pattern just didn’t work.

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 evening

I have restocked my shop! There are 8 new beautiful sets of beads for you to buy, 4 with a distinct pink Valentines theme going on, especially the dotty heart set. You can email me to buy and I’ll send you a Paypal invoice in return, and the good news is that you don’t need to have a Paypal account to shop this way. I also opened a Flickr account this week and have already started uploading my hugely ginormous back catalogue of sold and unsold bead photos to my album. There’s lots of work to do there as I only have a measly 9 photos in so far, but I may well get his geekness involved in helping me here since he loves doing this sorta thang so much.

As for the photos of snow on my mobile that I was going to upload here on Monday, well, it’s official, it’s not techno-fear. Rick tried for several hours to get them off my phone card but to no avail, they’s really gotten stuck! It would appear to be a problem with Picasa so we now have that to fix also. Honestly there’s so many things here that need doing or fixing, but at least I’m starting to succeed a little way with my new years resolutions, one of those was to update my shop more regularly, and ta da, I’ve done it once this year! Another was to put more photos in my beadlog here, well you can’t say I haven’t tried.  So to make up for the lack of snow pics I’ll stuff in a couple of bead pics instead to give you a taster of what’s new in my shop.

Monday lunchtime

I’m stuck at home, well, not really stuck, but I decided to stay in today instead of venturing around the M25 on this very snowy day. Maybe I would have got to my destination, but would I have made it home again,  especially since traffic has been brought to a standstill today slap bang along the section that I would be coming home along? So I’ve had a leisurely morning, pottering around in my lovely new snugly pink fleece dressing gown (I’m dressed now BTW) and generally getting over the weekend. I have to admit to being rather distracted today, probably because I’m shattered again, and maybe because of the snow. I was expecting to get a call from school to go and collect my daughter, but they’ve obviously got enough teachers in today, what a shame, I think they should have been let off to enjoy the snow! I couldn’t really keep her home because of the weather as we only live 5 minutes walk away, I think they’d have twigged what was going on.

I was about to upload a couple of quick snow snaps but I was challenged by that awful red error box that came up twice as I tried to put them on Picassa, so you’ll have to wait until Rick gets home, so there you will. Also I hope to be updating my shop in the next few days, adding a few Valentine themed beads and some gorgeous blue Double Helix sets. We’re meant to be practising music this evening with some friends, but if the weather gets in the way of this then it may well be sooner rather than later 😉

Tuesday evening

I couldn’t let today go without celebrating such a historic occasion as Americas first black president. I normally steer clear of politics and personal issues in my blog but how can this be contentious?I’m so pleased to see that America has come forward this far in 50 years, but I’m also sad that it had such an awful history. I’ve always believed in racial equality and just don’t understand how people can treat others badly because of race or even sex. To be honset in a perfect world no one would bat an eyelid over todays proceedings, but considering the history, I think it’s great. It was fun to see the nerves during the oaths, just like Charles and Di’s wedding, where Charles fluffed the words, Mr Obama had a few stumbles and forgot his lines he had to repeat, mind you I think most people would struggle with that sort of performance in front of so many people.

On another note I should report that I’ve all but finished my tax and accounts, hurrah! Now I can concentrate on my weekly order tomorrow, and have Thursday and Friday to make some new beads for the Ardingly bead fair this Sunday. I’ve already been busy making more encased frit beads in lovely spring colours and making up sets of the TNT2 beads I made and also the larger Psyche beads I made during November. I hope to make some really girly pink valentine inspired beads and maybe a heart or two. I may even post a couple of spoiler photos if you’re lucky ( or rather that should be if Rick does my photos before Midnight on Saturday – I’m hoping to get an earlier night than I normally do before one of these shows!)

Wednesday afternoon

nrrrgghhhhhh! I’m feeling swamped! I have paper everywhere, all over my desk and the dining table and in my filing tray and stuffed away in numerous drawers. I try so hard, I really do, but I just can’t keep things tidy, and I really struggle with keeping the piles of paper down and keeping all the odd things in the correct place, I just don’t understand how some people have such immaculate desks, I really don’t get it. I keep so many pieces of paper because if I don’t I forget stuff, then I go and loose the scrap with the information on.  I’ve tried so many things, buying desk tidies, filing trays, folders, pop files, magazine holders…I could go on. These things have helped to an extent, but the mass goes on increasing, as fast if not faster than I can throw stuff away (or rather recycle). At the moment I’m doing my accounts for the year ending April 08, and having the usual struggle of finding and remembering everything I need to find and include, although I should say that so far things are going faily smoothly, I’m just feeling panicked as I empty another drawer full of paper (surprise, surprise). Maybe I need a break, I can’t do this stuff all day, I get bored and then start working slower and loose my attention, then start panicking that I won’t finish fast enough. I have so much to do this month with these accounts and making new stock for the Ardingly bead fair (sunday 25th January), and also fitting in my regular order which seems to be taking twice as long to do at the moment, I think it’s the cold weather and me feeling absolutely shattered from my 1 month cold. I must stop panicking.

Monday morning

It’s back to normality again, at least kind of, because I have my daughter here on an inset day, and I only found out about that by chance after a party she went to yesterday. If it hadn’t been for my friend saying ‘oh you do know it’s an inset day tomorrow’, my poor daughter would have been walking up the school path on her own,wondering where on earth everyone else was, ha ha. I had all sorts of things planned for today, well, I say that, but I was planning to make my weekly 90 beads today, but I’m not really ready, well, I should really say that the studio isn’t, I have to tidy it and remove the 2 spare kilns from the floor and anything else that was shoved there out of the way on Christmas day so we could sit down on chairs instead of kilns to have our festive lunch! I expect there aren’t any mandrels ready either, I think I’ll bring those indoors to dip and dry because it’s a bit white outside with thin patches of snow. There’s nothing more frustrating than going to make beads and finding you have to spend an hour tidying up first.

So we’re having a nice quiet day together today, just me and my daughter, as Rick is back to work after a 2 week break. I may just make the effort to take her into town and get her feet checked while all the other kids are in school, that will save queuing.

Of course this month is also my dreaded month of catching up with my accounts and doing my tax, oh joy of joys. I always dread it but enjoy it when I get going, I just have a real problem making a regular slot to do my bookeeping, there’s always something more urgent needs doing. We were planning to replace the studio this month with a much larger version while I’m indoors doing my accounts, but discussions with the shed suppliers have revealed that I’ll need a concrete base to support the new size and of course it’s been very frosty this winter, so we’re rescheduling this for the Easter break. Also this month is the Beadworks bead fair at Ardingly on the 25th January, so I’ll have to punctuate the month with bead making sessions, what a pity..lol. I’m planning to make more Double Helix beads for sale at this fair, using my new found silvered glass skills, yipee, I can’t wait to get out there and play.

Tuesday morning

3 deg c today, and I thought they said it would be 6 deg on the weather forecast last night. At least it doesn’t feel quite so cold as it did last week, especially not like the day when I managed to trip the fuse, and there’s still lots of time for it to warm up a bit. I have my 90 handmade glass beads order to make today, so I can’t hang around here too long as I need about 4 1/2 hours to physically make the beads, not allowing for comfort breaks, getting hot drinks, lunch and any other faffable tasks like searching for the perfect colour rod of glass or going indoors to warm up for a bit. That means I have just under 5 hours to do the deed, I have a feeling this may have to stretch to finishing off this evening or tomorrow. I also have a fun session planned when I will make some beads to be used for making presents, and also some icicles and maybe a stacked star or 2 if I have the 40 minutes available that each one takes. Must dash and get my thermals on. Please don’t forget to check out my new beads in my shop! cheerio.

Thursday lunchtime

At last, I have restocked my shop with some of my handmade glass beads, and I hope to add some jewellery later to the jewellery and pendants sections. Please do go and take a look see. To order just drop me an email and I’ll send a Paypal request unless you tell me otherwise.

2 deg C, that’s what it was in my studio yesterday, brrrrr, and it was soooo cold that I decided to have the heater up full blast.  That was a huge mistake, as halfway through my session something went click and I was plunged into darkness and silence as the light went off and my radio, oxygen concentrator and fan heater came to an abrupt stop. Oh dear, my first thought was that we had just had a power cut, but a quick whizz up to the house to inspect the many clocks and appliances told me otherwise. An hour later and I had pulled myself together and found the blown fuse in my new Wattmeter, removed it from the circuit and managed to have lunch too.

So today, I just can’t bear to be outside again, its been really cold this week, and even with my thermals head to toe I’ve been feeling it. Let’s hope it warms up a bit next week, a bit of rain would help……tee hee. I’m hoping to make some icicles (glass ones, not ice ones, I know I’ve been complaining about the cold snap), some big holed beads for my lovely Pandora bracelet that Rick gave me for my birthday (which reminds me I need to order some larger silver tubing), and some whopper beads to adorn some of the many beadable winestoppers I had Rick bring back from the States in October.  I’m hoping to make some of these to put in my shop, and I’m planning to make a new section for my big holed silver core beads that I made to fit the Troll System. I’m still trying to think of a suitable name for them, I wish the names came as easily as the designs.

Thursday morning

It’s not snowing here, all though it is oop north, we just have cold and wet, good job I’m not torchering today, even if I wanted to I couldn’t just yet as both tanks of propane are empty, and I really don’t have time to get refills. I have a pair of rather interesting raised design beads from when I was ‘running on empty’ before the flame finally disappeared, I may just turn them into a pair if earrings for me I like them so much. I have all sorts of jobs to do today to get ready for my fairs and exhibition, including cleaning my 96 beads (boo), making up jewellery (yay), making tens of headpins (boo), looking at my pretties and deciding how much to charge for them (yay)……..I also have my new simple beads ready for my ‘credit crunch range’ and they’re rummy, I may even design a tiddley pendant to go with them if I have any spare matching beadies. Have a fun day, I know I will, even if it does get a bit manic.

Tuesday evening

96 beads today! woo hoo, but boy it was freezing in my studio today, it’s such a good job that I’ve finished my teaching for this year, as it’s reet proper cold now. I was dressed snuggly in thermals from neck to toe and my feet were still cold, even with the heater on. I’m going to have to resort to thicker hiking socks and hiking boots next time I think, at least I can get the laces done up now I hope…..which reminds me, I put my socks on every day without thinking about it. What’s that about? Well, before and after my op I couldn’t reach my right foot to put socks on, and I definately couldn’t do up my shoelaces. Picture this if you will, I have to sit on the bottom steps of the stairs (even now) so I can reach my feet to put socks and boots on, and for the last couple of days I’ve been sitting down and popping my right sock on without even noticing I’m doing it, you know, one minute I sit down to do it, the next I’m wandering around the house and realise the job’s done, well, woo hoo. I must try shoelaces next. lol.

All this cold weather is making me want to stay indoors and not make beads, which is sort of good because I should be making and polishing headpins, making up jewellery and generally getting ready for this weekend, although I do need to make some icicles to send to the Surrey Guild Gallery, and some simple beads for my ‘credit crunch lampwork range’. This year I have given up making any silver plated jewellery, and I’m working excusively with sterling silver, my beads, bought lampwork beads and gem stones and pearls. I will be reducing some of my silver plated jewellery and doing a few special offers for the remaining pieces to clear the decks for my silver work.

If you’re wondering about my title, follow this link to Wipipedia for a fun explanation.

Friday morning

230 beads…………that’s how many I had to clean after my mamoth session on Tuesday added to the results of all my play work last week. Yikes, I really should try not to let them pile up like that. Today I’m having my final bead making session for the magazine comp, at least I hope it will be, I may have to sneak out tomorrow and finish off if the beads don’t sit properly together. My work on this on Wednesday was, I feel, successful, but it’s adding to what I’ve already done that could potentially be a problem as I’m reet proper fussy when it comes to making up my really posh sets.

I had another fab teaching day with 2 lovely ladies yesterday, and that was my last bit of teaching until the new year, and of the course the last this month, which has been chocka full of teaching dates. Now all I need to do is get ready for the 2 fairs I have next weekend, and the 2 exhibitions I think I’m doing, that also start next Saturday, so have to have the pieces to deliver on Friday at the latest. I’ve been trying not to get stressed about my work during the run up to Christmas and this has been working well, but to be honest, it’s working too well, so well, that I’m so laid back I’m horizontal and have done almost nothing to prepare. I have a stash of beads I made last month waiting to be turned into jewellery, but all my time has been spent doing masses of teaching, making my weekly order and getting to grips with Double Helix glass as well as my efforts to enter the magazine comp. I would normally have been making up jewelley in every spare moment, and all evening, but I’ve been so tired or busy cleaning beads and preparing my studio and tidying up from teaching that by the time all that’s done I need to rest……..I think I’ll put it down to still being a bit under par from the huge doses of anaesthetic earlier this year and my continual healing, after all it does get a bit zingy around my scar from time to time, so stuff is obviously still happening on some level.  Right, I’m off to run the kiln and start making beadies again. TTFN.

Tuesday evening

I can’t remember what I was going to write about and I’m sat here wondering why I feel drained. The answer to the second question is probably because I have made 94 beads today, my bigest number yet in a single day so far, and it was heaven to have my huge pink Maxine kiln to get them all in so effortlessly, although I’m still working out the best way to arrange the mandrels inside. The bad news is I’ll have to clean them all later, grrrr.

Meanwhile, back in the bedroom, Mount Washpile has reared it’s ugly head once more, and this time has several foothills around it. The problem is that I’d rather be making beads and stuff than doing housework, ask anyone I know. (Rick has just indignantly pointed out that he’s been helping to gradually reduce the foothills :)) As for the shopping….well the last time I placed an order was the start of October, and we were so disgusted at how our food had been packed (for the second time in a row) that I haven’t placed another order and haven’t decided where to try next. Oh dear, I’d better get a handle on this as we all know what festival is looming next month.

Tomorrow I’m planning to have a proper bash at some beads for the Beads and Beyond magazine. I’ve been mulling over several ideas, and dinking around with new glass and ideas, but I think I’m going to expand on my usual style, as this is after all what I do best, so tonight I’ll be planning how I can acheive this.

Saturday night

It’s my birthday and I’ve had such a great day. We didn’t do much but I’ve been pampered from start to finish, apart from having to tidy the fridge to put in the remains of our Indian takeaway tonight. The day started with a fab pressy that Rick got me when he was in Minneapolis last month – I made him visit the Pandora shop to look at some big hole beads and a chain bracelet, so I can wear my own glass big hole beads together with his choice of beads to fill the spaces. What a perfect combination, now he can actually buy me jewellery! It’s been lovely to just have a rest today to be honest, as I’ve been working really hard but struggling not to get tired.

My experiments with Double Helix glass continued yesterday, where I made some gorgeous transparent red beads with streaks of my newly conquered Phyche glass, which I reduced to a lovely variety of shades of greeny-blue part shiny colour..ish…thing. I also experimented combining it with some of my CIM (Creation is Messy) colours to see what would happen, and got some interesting reactions where the CIM has concentrated the silver to the edge of the Phyche streaks, yum. The dinking around with my designs for the perfect set to enter Beads & Beyond continues and I only have just over 1 more week to achieve this. eeek.