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.

Saturday lunchtime

Helllooooo. The sun is shining at the moment and I’m busy preparing for the bead fair at Denbies Wine Estate tomorrow, Sunday 8th June. This is the second year at this venue, but my first time here, and I can’t wait. The wine estate is a lovely place to visit from what I’ve heard, they have a couple of restaurants so breakfast, lunch and tea are catered for (Sunday roasts followed by cream tea in the afternoon, yum). Other attractions include a farm shop selling locally sourced produce, an Art Gallery with a regular series of exhibitions, a gift shop, and indoor and outdoor tours with wine tasting. So come along, buy beads and enjoy the surrounding location, make a day out of it.

I have been thinking about the sea during my preparations, and have made some gorgeous new focal beads which I have made up into sets with matching  spacer beads and a pair of donut shaped beads suitable for earrings. I hope you like them. I’ve also made some sizzling orange and red sets (you will have seen the loose beads if you looked at Facebook this week) which will pair beautifully with the red/orange clothes in Monsoon, East and M&S. I’ve also made lots of blue themed beads as I read that blue is the new black this season. I will of course have my usual selection of beads, jewellery, rummage bowls and bargain beads.

See you there, after all, you won’t be able to mow the grass as it’ll still be too wet 😉

Monday evening

It’s that time of year again, the season of Open Studios. This weekend sees most of the members of Horsham Artists Open Studios group together again, this time at Roffey Park Institute in Forest Road. This is a lovely centre that we all drive past all the time and wonder what goes on in there. Well here’s your chance to have a snoop around and see the place! We are taking over several ‘pods’ and a lovely exhibition space at the back of the central building. I’m in the large room with huge glass doors and windows overlooking the gardens with loads of natural light.

I’m working like a mad thing this week to get everything made and ready, unfortunately I’ve had a couple of bad weeks, with an ill-timed cold last week, so I have lots of catching up to do. I’m very excited to have a new table top cabinet (arrived today) to display some of my jewellery, and I’m busy making  more of my popular ‘Sparkle Nugget’ bead sets and some mini sets.

I will have a feast of lovely jewellery and new beads for you to look at and buy, including my simple ‘beads on cotton thongs’, un-cored Big Hole Bead sets to fill your charm bracelets, my credit crunch range of fun earrings, and my selection of exclusive jewellery designs. I will have sets of lovely new beads, some current favourites, my usual bargain bowls and of course my £1 rummage bowl, always popular and a good introduction to handmade lampwork beads.

With free entry, please do come and see me, enjoy the show, meet other local and guest artists, watch art and craft demonstrations in the marquee, take refreshment (they have drinks available), stroll the grounds, and buy some locally produced art. You can download your copy of our guide and brochure from the Horsham Artists Open Studios website here.

Please note that I am only doing this part of the event this year as the Open Houses weekend clashes with the Surrey Bead Fair at the Denbies Wine Estate on 8th June.
See you there.

Saturday evening
It’s Open Studios weekend 1 and this year we’ve kicked off with Horsham Artists in Action @ Sedgwick Park house, a beautiful private manor house in lovely gardens, which are open tomorrow as part of the National Garden Scheme.
We had a brilliant start to the weekend last night with a very lively and well attended Private View open by the Mayor of Horsham, fortunately the sun shone, the wine was flowing, canapés were consumed and we had wandering minstrels too (the playing type that is, not the choclit ones!) and a lovely June evening was had by all. Today we welcomed lots of visitors and look forward to many more tomorrow. There is an amazing amount of talent to be seen at this show, our first large show as a collective in Horsham, with many colourful paintings, ceramics, jewellery, photography, sculpture, glass, textiles and of course my original glass beads and jewellery.
Do come and see us tomorrow, we’re all really happy to be together! It makes a change from the isolation of Open Studios and means we can all get to enjoy each others art.

If you can’t visit tomorrow then we will all be in our separate venues around Horsham next weekend, 22nd and 23rd June for the artists trail. I’m at venue 5 with Angela Jenkinson, address in on my events page Of course you are very welcome to attend both venues, we have a new video of me creating glass beads tomorrow and next weekend, and you can see me actually working the hot glass next weekend at Venue 5.

You can download your guide here at the Horsham Artists Open Studios new website.

I look forward to welcoming you to one of these events.

Tuesday lunchtime

The puddings are steaming (OK so they’re a few weeks late, but at least I’m trying again), the shopping is arriving tonight, and I have a list of jobs as long as my arm, but preparations are under way for Christmas at last.

I’ve been mega busy making beads, then cleaning, drying and sorting them, before frantically making more jewellery for our Christmas exhibition in Guildford this year. As part of the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen I’m really pleased to be in this selling event once more at the Guildford House Gallery at the top of the pedestrianised part of Guildford High Street, opposite Sainsbury. We are open every day except Sunday from 10am to 4:45pm, and Christmas Eve from 10 – 2pm.

The Garden Room looks lovely with wonderful handmade items from a selection of some of our Guild members. Browse wooden items, cushions and throws, jewellery, textile art, pottery, weaving, calligraphy, kaleidoscopes, metal sculpture, colourful leather goods, enamelling and of course my original range of glass bead jewellery. I have some new designs and great packaged stocking fillers of beads on thongs £6, key-rings £9 and uncored big hole beads from £4 (perfect for filling a Pandora style bracelet cheaply). My Cloud Beads (silver cored by hand) are also here together with a selection of heavy chains to wear them on. Why not buy a bracelet or necklace with a Cloud Bead and add some cheaper Big Hole Beads to complete the look?

I’ll be stewarding tomorrow, so why not pop and see me there.

Gifted in Guildford, Guildford House Gallery, 155 High Street, Guildford, GU1 3AJ.
Every day Mon – Sat, 10am to 4:45pm.
Christmas Eve 10am to 2pm

And don’t forget the Christmas Extravaganza at Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery, open every day 10am to 5pm, even Sundays.
New pieces of work arriving daily!
I have restocked here also.

Tuesday morning and only 4 days to go……………..

It’s that time of year again, when artists around the Horsham area fling open their doors and invite the public to see their work at home. I’m taking part again, and this year I’m with my friend Angela Jenkinson, who mainly makes fused glass items, jewellery and home accessories.

My main focus this year is on my loose beads and bead sets, but I’ve also been busy making lots of small items, my very popular beads on adjustable length cotton thongs, and some reasonable priced earrings (I call them credit crunch earrings), I also hope to make some greeting cards and keyrings. I will have my posh glass cabinet with a display of my range of jewellery and lots of bargain bead pots full of yummy single beads.

Come along this weekend and next to see our art, watch us demonstrate how we make our glass pieces and take some refreshment with us.

Venue: Oakhurst, Pondtail Road, Horsham, RH12 5HY (5th house on the left)

See you there.

Wednesday Evening

Welcome to everyone new to my blog, especially if you have come here from Beads and Beyond magazine. I’m really pleased to have my beads used by Rebecca Anderson in her latest project in this magazine, the Monet inspired jewellery. You can buy my Monet Blues Mix beads on Etsy and see them here in my own shop and I’ve popped a photo below.

                       

I’ve been working really hard this month to keep my Etsy shop re stocked on an almost daily basis, and very busy making my new bead stock for the Big Bead Show at the end of this month. I have several new sets of beads and lots of focal beads, I don’t seem to be able to stop making long cylinder beads at the moment! I am at last getting to grips with another make of silver glass, called TAG, and most of my new beads feature this glass, especially the tubes. Poor Richard has his work cut out at the moment taking and editing photos of my beads to go on my website and in my shops, and my thanks go to him for doing such a fab job.

I am pleased to announce that my exhibition of work is in the Art Gallery in The Capitol, Horsham. I have invited my friend Katherine Haynes of Popped Bubble Designs to join me and we share the 5 cabinets upstairs in the gallery. The exhibition started Tuesday 6th September and runs until Sunday 9th October, and is open during the Capitol opening times. Please enquire at the box office if you wish to purchase anything on display.

Saturday 15th October sees the return of the Big Bead Show at Sandown Park, which is fast approaching. I’m busy getting ready for this event and look forward to welcoming you to my stall on the day. Please look out for my show newsletter when I hope to be able to offer some free tickets and show specials.

and a big woops…….this post was supposed to be my news on the front page and as such is rather formal, but never mind. The next blog post should be more fun.

Friday afternoon

The Beadwork Fair – Sunday 28th August, The de Havilland Campus, University of Hertfordshire, AL10 9EU  10am to 4pm

I have been persuaded (thank you Paul), to do this bead fair this Bank Holiday Sunday. As you know I normally do the Stourbridge Bead Fair, but decided to take a break from it this year and enjoy the summer, but due to one thing and another and not attending the Ardingly summer fair in July due to my mums’ sudden death, I thought maybe I should take the plunge.

So I will be at this event, this Sunday, with my usual mix of handmade lampworked glass beads, sterling silver chains, New Designs of Cloud Beads and my range of contemporary jewellery. There are many new £1 bargain beads to be had, together with some old favourites.

I hope you will come and say hello and make the effort to attend this fair, being a Bank Holiday Sunday of course means the traffic will be minimal for a Sunday. Go on, you know you want to!

Tuesday morning

Dreams. We all have them. But I’m not talking hopes and dreams, I’m talking of gently coming out of a deep slumber type dreaming here. I get loads, so many that it’s unusual for me not to have one in the morning. They often have recurring themes, and I often visit the same places regularly. I wasn’t going to divulge what I dream, but I may as well tell you that one of my regular haunts is a very big modern house with lots of rooms and a massive garden that stretches off into the distance. We don’t have the real luxury of that but at least I get to enjoy one of my dream properties regularly, including the joy of rediscovering a room that I had forgotten existed. We wouldn’t mind that here in our real house, although several months after we moved in our present house we rediscovered the cupboard under the stairs.

Dreams can often confuse and disappoint. Take this Saturday, when I had to get up early and continue with my preparations for the exhibitions I have to set up this week. I got up and ploughed on with my work really well, feeling relaxed and on top of things, enjoying the early morning weekend peace downstairs,  only to wake up at 10:30 and find that I’d seriously overslept and had to remake all the stuff I’d already done that morning. Oh that sucked.

Still, I successfully prepared my pieces for the Winter Exhibition at the Bank Gallery at Chobham, and now have today and tomorrow to prepare for the Surrey Guild Guildford Exhibition ‘Unique’. I’m feeling very jaded but also optimistic. Let’s hope the snow stays away so I can get stuck in. Here’s some more snowy photos to get you even more in the Christmas mood. Please excuse the dodgy photos, my camera is on it’s way out and Picasa isn’t playing ball either, it keeps changing the photo next to the one I’m trying to tweak. Bye y’all.

Wednesday evening

It’s official…Christmas is coming and would you believe it if I said I’m getting organised? Oh yes, I had an email from Sainsbury on-line the other day announcing Christmas delivery dates and I actually bagged a slot today. Not one of the really close ones, but I have Monday evening, which is good as that means that I can get the worst of it delivered and anything they muck up on, or I forget, or they don’t have, I still have plenty of time to go and get myself, without having to spend 3 hours traipsing around a packed shop like the other year (click here).

We also have snow, but you’re not really surprised there are you? Fortunately I was able to go to the Gallery in Milford safely yesterday and got home easily, but today we are snowed in, well, my daughter had to stay home as her school was closed. But gone are the days of a real ‘snow day’, she had lots of work on the internet from her teachers, so didn’t get off that lightly. As usual I found it very hard to concentrate and plough on with my work (making jewellery for my 2 exhibitions that start next week) with her here. What am I like?

Here’s a couple of snowy pictures to get you in the mood for December…….

Friday morning

2 posts in one week, boy we’re steaming. So it’s full speed ahead in the run up to Christmas, I know it’s a bit of a dirty word, but the event can’t be ignored, in fact I don’t wish to ignore it, I just wish it wasn’t all such hard work.  I used to do loads of fairs in November and December, but gradually whittled them back until I was only doing 2, and this year I have none for the first time. This is good because it means we actually have some Saturdays available, not many, but a couple, and we’re planning to use them fully.  Now this may sound like I’m sitting back and doing nothing…so wrong. I have 2 exhibitions with the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen, one at Bank Gallery in Chobham which runs from 7th December to 16th January 2011, and one in Guildford from Friday 10th December to 24th December (this means more stewarding dates and lots of jewellery to make and catalogue). More details to be found on my events page.

We’re also in the throws of having a good old clear-out, general tidy up and major reorganisation downstairs and anywhere else that things are being moved to….you know how it goes…..

‘Let’s move this’ says Sarah
‘OK, but where shall we put it?’ Says Dickie, trying not to laugh at the Darth Vader mask that Sarah is wearing as she has a real problem with the dust.
‘Oh, that could go in the _____ (insert place name here).’ replies Sarah
‘But if we put it there, then we need to move the ________ (insert name of object or furniture).’ whines Dickie
‘OK, but where will we then put the ________ (insert name already inserted above) that we move?’ says Sarah, trying to sound chirpy but getting annoyed at the amount of work to gain an extra 2 square metres of floor space.
‘Dust, dust, anyone? High calorie or low? Dust?’

…..and so it goes on.

So the plan is to regain as much lounge space as possible, I’ll let you know how we get on, maybe, if it goes well. I also probably should put on a face mask.

Wednesday morning

Well hello there. Bet you thought I’d gone. It’s about time I re-surfaced really. So what’s new and what’s been happening? The past few weeks have been full of teaching, half term ending with the Big Bead Show, and a week long stint of stewarding in the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery in Milford. To say I’m exhausted would be very true. The Big Bead Show was an excellent day out, we saw lots of friends, regular customers, lots of new customers and lots of students came by to say hello and to show off their new lampworking equipment or glass and tool goodies. Thank you to everyone who came and made our day really special.

My week in the gallery at Milford was an interesting one. I started off by cleaning my cabinet and all my jewellery in it, that took 2 days, as every time I was about to do something someone came in and I had to stop. But it all looks nice and shiny and new again now, together with the new pieces that I made while I was there. I also spent a day hatching a cunning plan to sell more in the gallery, and spent all of 2 days at home busy making lots of big hole beads and little project sets to sell. I have designed new packaging to sell these new pieces and spent Friday and Saturday packaging up my smaller items to sell and display in the gallery. It would be fair to say I worked a 16 hour day from Monday to Saturday last week, no wonder I’m officially pooped.

So, if you are in the market for a beautifully made individual  Big Hole Bead with no silver lining (I’ve called them Sky Beads) pop on down to the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery and have a look in one of my wicker baskets. I have singles, pairs and trios available to buy, already gift packed for a perfect stocking filler, prices from £3 up to £10. I also have my handmade icicle hanging decorations, these look lovely on a tree or hanging in doorways or anywhere else that they will catch the light. My other stocking filler is a pretty handmade lampwork bead with 2 plain coordinating beads on an adjustable cotton thong necklace, again gift packed, making the perfect stocking filler at only £5.

I have a couple of new tuition dates on my tuition page, one of these is my last teaching date for 2010 on Wednesday 1st December,  drop me a line now to reserve your place on either of these courses.

Friday mid day

Have you see the date? 10/10/10….I had to post today just so I could type that. Hee hee. Where has the last week gone, I know, it’s just zipping away and I should stop commenting on it. I was going to do lots of bead stuff today but so far I’ve done washing, made the workmen outside mugs of tea (they’re doing the path down our road), I’ve sorted getting the tree root out from the front garden….you know, the one that got left when we cut the tree down last spring in an attempt to save money? The one that  has now ended up costing as much to cut down ourselves and remove the root as it would have done to have it done professionally? And I got up early again. It’s been really good so far with our daughter going to secondary school as we’re all up much earlier and by the time 9:30 comes I’ve got lots done. The downside is that I haven’t managed to pull back my bedtime yet and I’m feeling rather jaded now with the extra hours and all the extra work/housework…yep that too, that I’m doing.

Yesterday I had the enormous privilege and pleasure to go down to Arundel and help judge the entries for the British Bead Awards organised by Bead magazine. I met Elizabeth Cornish, Jasper who was filming (Oh yes), the new editor Chloe, and Helen O’Neill, the official distributor for PMC in the UK (not to be confused with Art Clay). It was a fun day and very informative as we chatted about our relevant field of expertise and shared looking at the wonderful entries. The film will be showing at the Big Bead show at the end of October before being shown on Bead TV, and the winners will also be revealed at the show at the awards ceremony. I can’t wait!

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 afternoon

I have sore fingers. that would be down to the couple of hundred or so beads that I have just removed from their mandrels. And I still have 7 soaking in Coke as we speak. You know you can always tell how busy I am these days by the lack of blogging. I’m feeling a bit all over the place, my mind is going here and there right now, thinking about all the stuff I’ve done since I last checked in here, all the emails I’ve replied to, beads I’ve sold, places I’ve been, people I’ve met. It’s been a very busy but fulfilling few weeks. Open studios went really well, our numbers weren’t massive, but everyone who came left happy bearing Popped Bubble Designs or gorgeous lampwork bead jewellery. They were treated to Elderflower Cordial and demos from myself and Katherine.

After that I had to have a quick turnaround and prepare my work to put on permanent display at Shop Maltings. This is our new venture as a collective with the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen and Farnham Maltings. We have been invited to use the cabinets in the foyer, glass wall cabinets along a very busy corridor and a small retail space. So last week saw me preparing for that, going there to set up last Thursday (very challenging as my plan for the display didn’t work due to the different stands and the shelf depth) and then returning last Friday for the private view. My daughter and I had a lovely evening over there with drinks and canapés, then a trip to the local Pizza Express while Rick gigged in Haywards Heath with the band he’s in.

There’s always lots on this time of year, and I had been planning to go to the Hampton Court flower show this week, but you know I’m not sure I have the energy, after attending sports day this morning and parents induction at our daughters new school last night….can you believe it she starts secondary school in September! She had a great day at her induction yesterday and we returned in the evening to meet her new tutor and managed to get her kitted out with her new uniform. The first thing she did when we got home was to try it all on properly, she’s so excited and can’t wait to start….long may that last!

Here’s a few shots I took outside Farnham Maltings.

Monday morning lunchtime

Well hello there! At last I’ve managed to get outside and take up my new position to write something. Once again it’s been all go with exhibition preparation, web site stuff and general hecticalilty (good new word that, whatcha fink?). I managed to get my work priced up early, but only by 4 days, as doing the New Surrey Guild of Craftsmen website took over that week. I’m not going to post a link to that just yet as we have to finish tweaking the front page before we put it up, and we’re doing that this week.

We’ve also been working hard on trying to get our garden looking respectable after a year of barrenness, well, several actually. I couldn’t understand why the garden was in such a bad state, and have to keep reminding myself that neglect of anything not top priority is what happens when you are unwell/disabled or having whatever problem you have. You really don’t realise what an impact bad stuff has on your life until you look back from your better place and see the effects of whatever it was around you. Life has to be prioritised into what you need to do to keep you happy (which in my case was making beads and building up my business), and to live from day to day, like food! Oh and a wee bit of the dreaded washing and cleaning.

So today I’m very pleased to be sitting in my new blogging seat, which is actually a problem area in the garden where we can’t plant anything because of the manhole cover that the daft builders positioned next to our fence and over the drain that runs exactly along our sunniest border, nutters. Now this is extremely annoying as we only have one sunny edge in our garden and this is it. So I devised a cunning plan to make a Mediterranean style gravel seating are over the cover. This can be lifted if access is needed as the gravel sits on a membrane. I love it.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to sit outside with a steaming hot mug of tea and enjoy the lovely weather and relax a bit after my hectic week last week and a weekend of welcoming visitors to our Open Studio in Horsham. We fling our doors open again this coming weekend, and it would be lovely to welcome some of you too. For more details please follow this link.

Tuesday morning

We all have choices to make. At our daughters school they say ‘You can make a good choice, or you can make a bad choice’ in the hope that the kids will behave in a good way. Choices can be major or not, like whether to post yesterdays blog draft, which as it happens wasn’t up to standard. But today I think I’m going to be radical and make what I hope is a good choice, do I make beads in my lovely new wired up studio (do you see how I got that in?) or do I sit indoors and price up my work for the Open Studios that start a week on Saturday? I think pricing work a week and a half early would be really exciting (in a weird sort of way) and to be honest rather grown up for me, a bit scary really, but I think a good decision as hopefully it will mean a less stressful build up to the event and maybe give me some gardening time. It will also give me time to mull over what gaps I have and what beads I should actually make when I do get out to my lovely white studio with the pale beech laminate floor (ooo look I snuck another bit in about my lovely new refitted studio).

Don’t forget to check out my Etsy shop, lots of sets sold from here at the Dorking Bead Fair 2 weeks ago, but I have added one lovely set of Silver Waters. Just click on the Etsy widget on the left. Also I have a couple of glass beadmaking lesson dates:-

***1 place on a 2 day Beginners Course on 12th to 13th July***

***1 place on a 2 hour taster on Friday 25th June 2-4pm***

contact me now to book your place

Thursday morning

I have to post and run today. It’s been another manic couple of weeks, with a couple more of the same to come.  I was madly getting ready for an exhibition that started last week at the Bank Gallery in Chobham, and would you believe it finishes this Saturday?  So I  have to go back at the start of next week to collect my cabinet and work. I don’t know how I’m going to fit this 3 hour round trip in, but it will have to happen. And I must remember to take some Blue Tack or Sellotape to stick my parking ticket to the windscreen or I may end up with another parking ticket……oh yes, last Tuesday when I was stewarding and putting my work in my cabinet I somehow managed to displace my parking ticket that I’d faithfully bought, so that the warden couldn’t see it and I ended up with a parking fine, which I contested but they’re being jobs worths about. Here’s a few shots of our exhibition at the Bank Gallery.

So today my job is to prepare for the Bead Fair at Dorking Halls this Sunday. I have beads to clean, dry and inspect…boo, beads to sort into sets and string together, and beads to sort for the bargain pots…yay. I also have all the other small jobs to prepare for the event, the ones that need doing but don’t actually look like they’ve happened, you know, like sorting my float, leaflets and sales sheets etc., boring but very important. I will have more luscious beads, including my Etsy shop stock ( I must work out how to put this on holiday for Sunday), more bargain beads and my usual supply of chains.

Today is also a very special day for me, as it’s now 2 years to the day that I had my hip replaced. I think my last post about hippiness was probably a year ago, no, make that the end of last June when I did the Race for Life. What a difference it has made to my life and that of my family. Two years down the line I feel like me again, it’s taken a while, but the thought of limping and using a stick are starting to fade into the past. I am still concious of walking when I do go out, but it is with a huge grin on my face and a heart full of joy and gratitude for the wonderful technology we have here. Life is sweet. I should celebrate. I’d better plan something in my hectic schedule.

Friday lunchtime

It’s the end of half term and it’s been a bit of a let down really. I had a cold at the start of the week, and now our daughter has a temperature. So all we’ve managed to do is mooch around town for a couple of hours on Wednesday. Never mind, it’s been a bit of a rest, if I can all it that. I’ve spent the last 3 evenings working with Rick into the wee hours to get the GBUK Journal looking fab. We’ve been moving all the photos around in the gallery so it looks nice, and we’re talking 80 members who submitted 255 photos between them here…OK we haven’t used all of them, but most of them. Rick spent weeks doing all the preparation for this job, taking in the photos and uploading them to the project,tweeking them where necessary and getting a general layout sorted to include everyone in alphabetical order and roughly size all the photos to suit. I feel a bit bad swanning in and making him change everything, but we both know that individually we do good work, but together we spark off each other, and push each other to produce even better things. It really is a case of the sum of the whole being greater than the value of the parts. We’ve changed the front and back cover radically, and now we’re both very excited about how the whole project is looking. All we need to do now is to rationalise the inside design to tie in with the covers and get our text colours and headers sorted, and we should be good to go to print…woop, woop.

On another note, I’m pleased to announce that I have a new outlet for my jewellery. This is the Cisswood House Hotel, (a luxurious Country Hotel, in Lower Beeding near Leonardslee Gardens) where I gave my Ladies Lunch talk in the summer last year. I have a shelf in their cabinet in the reception area, and have my glass bead jewellery for sale, including some Cloud Beads, together with some of my semi-precious pieces like my freshwater pearl earrings.

Have a good weekend.