Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Friday tea time

Well hello there. I can’t believe its only been 11 days so far, that’s probably because Dickie DooDah has been working from home for 3 weeks now. As we come to the end of another work week it’s a good time to look at what I’ve achieved (or more truthfully Not). To be honest I don’t feel I’ve done much this week, as I’ve had good days and bad days, and oh my, the distractions and sad news. I’m trying not to read too much, enough to keep well informed but no so much that I start feeling miserable. Very important that one, and so are the daily walks if I can manage it. Here’s a tangly pile of wood we saw in Leechpool woods this week.

Soooo, I’m keeping up my painting afternoon on Thursdays. I usually go to the group run by the brilliant teacher Kate Tugwell of Kates Art Classes, and what she calls ‘Artynoons’. We gather and paint or draw, everyone using different mediums, chat and have tea and Kate’s home-made and very yummy vegan cakes. This is a follow on to my taking a course in acrylics 2 years ago (wow, can’t believe it was that long ago) as I was a complete beginner with proper painting, and had always wanted to be able to do it, like my maternal grandmother. She painted weekly with a group, almost until she died at the grand old age of 94.

This weeks painting is another watercolour, this time I followed a You Tube tutorial to produce a 10 minute pot of lavender. I think it worked quite well, I still can’t quite believe I do seem to be able to paint. Thank you to my daughter for encouraging me to do this, although I think I’ll never have her natural flair.

I’ve also today joined a ‘30 day sketchbook challenge‘ #AtHomeInApril organised by Magenta Sky. She usually runs one in the new year, but has started this one to help creativity in adults and also give ideas for parents looking after children at home from playgroup or school. My sketching is OK, but I’m hoping to improve this over the coming days, trying new techniques and hopefully becoming a bit looser in the process (no not a big looser). I didn’t really need himself telling me that some of yesterdays sketches weren’t so good…..I know…but that’s not really the point of the exercise. This challenge is more about fun, experimenting, being free, and most importantly about mindfulness, especially in this weird time that we are in. It’s never to late to join in…..

I’ve also done a spot of baking this week. These are simple ‘Banana and white chocolate muffins’ that I haven’t made for about 5 years now, taken from Nigella Express, although hers have butterscotch chips. I only made half a batch as I figured 12 was waaaaay to many sweet treats for the two of us, and it worked nicely with one egg. It’s nice to feel I have a little more time to do stuff like baking.

Who knew? I’ve actually done more this week than I thought. Enjoy your weekend, Sarah x

Friday tea time (This post was written a few days ago…….photo insertion now sorted)

Yesterday (Thursday) was a good day. Washing of some sheets done and hung in the warm sunny garden to dry – tick (but nearly left them out all night as I got distracted putting the rotary dryer cover on :-)). Other washing chores done – tick. A bit of new bookcase filling and reorganising – tick. Small watercolour painting done from flowers in our garden and Facebook art sharing session – tick. I’m pleased with my new original painting but it looks botanical which is not really the look that I want. I will have to have another go with a concerted effort to produce a loose version, should be fun.

After a lovely email from one of my friends sharing with me what she’d been up to this week I was also inspired yesterday to check what provisions we have in our somewhat scattered ‘pantry’, and I use the word loosely because its a shelf here and there, a pull out drawer or two and the top of a cupboard. Dust, high in calorie, low in calorie? Its amazing what you find squirrelled away and how old it is…I had a rather suspicious puffed up looking tin of peaches that had started oozing (who knew they could even do that, right?) which went straight in the bin. I also came across three 1 litre unopened bottles of ‘Coffee Anise’, a brilliant concoction of Ouzo and coffee, made and sold in Rhodes. Anyway, I have now successfully divided and conquered our provisions and we know exactly or thereabouts what we have or not, and can shop accordingly…..result.

Today was not so good productively, but I have strung some more of my new beads, which does take a while. To string a set of beads I Bubble Sort them by diameter and shape in a long line then split them into groups, removing any good pairs that would be suitable for earring pairs first. I choose a good colour rocaille bead (seed bead) to go between the beads in the set (or look at previous similar sets) then get stringing. I’m pleased with the sets I assembled today, some repeat sets and some new lovely pink and pastel pink sets, and a few pairs. Enjoy your weekend at home.

Said Big Brother House stylie……… Well this is a first for the UK and has given a lot of people more quality and reflective time I hope. For me this Coronavirus pandemic hasn’t changed much for my day to day life really, apart from having Dickie DooDah at home full time (which started last Tuesday) and stopping me from popping out to the shops and for the rare coffee meet ups with friends.

But what a glorious sunny spring day to start our enforced stay home time. I’m sitting on our deck enjoying said sunshine. The birds are tweeting, I hear a dog barking and the sound of children playing outside, which has to be a good thing. and look, I’m blogging again!

So first things first, obviously the Big Bead Show won’t be going ahead this Saturday. It was cancelled 2 weeks ago to keep us all safe and I was so relieved as the uncertainty was stressing me out. I was however preparing for this show and have made a considerable stash of new beads, not as many as I would have by now, because as you know we’ve all been somewhat distracted this past couple of weeks.

I am continuing to trade while the posties are still doing a valiant job, so please feel free to pop along to my Etsy store where I’m endeavouring to keep a good supply of your favourite beads. I also hope to add some new stock at some point so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. I will also announce here and on Facebook and Twitter as usual.

So that’s the formal stuff done, I’m hoping to keep this blog a light hearted place with just normal news of what we’re up to, I think it’s good to be positive and concentrate on other stuff when we can. Thanks for reading and stay safe everyone x

Post Script……..I should apologise for the late posting of this post…this is due to the lack of photos which is apparently down to WordPress. I did have one lined up but even DickieDooDah couldn’t manage to make it work.