Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my customers, readers and friends.

Wednesday

Ooops, I meant to post a couple of days ago.  I’ve spent the last few days trying to tidy the lounge and shopping.  Not particularly exciting.  I had hoped to pop out to my studio before Christmas and make some tree decorations, but it’s quite cold at night and I don’t know if I can bring myself to leave the cosywarm house.  I may leave it until next week.  It’ll be fun to add some icicles to the tree after it’s gone up, when it does eventually.

We saw a brilliant programme on Saturday night, hosted by Paul McCartney at the Abbey Road studios.  It was so interresting so see him playing so many different instruments and explaining how he and the other Beatles composed and recorded their groundbreaking songs.  Now that’s the sort of show we’d like to see more often, as we like arranging and recording music.

 Got to go and get on with the pre Christmas chores………

Saturday evening

We spent time today in the Spellcast Studio in Horsham topping up my display of jewellery for sale, so do wander in and have a look if you’re in the area.  The Horsham lights and decorations are lovely again this year, they always do a wonderful job and make it a real pleasure shopping in town, especially on Saturdays when there is a Farmers Market and various deli-type stalls in the street.  We had to grab a hasty pasty (interesting rhyme) before rushing off to Horley to carol sing at an MS respite centre.  I think I’m starting to feel a little bit Christmasy, but I have to say I don’t usually feel it until Christmas eve.

Ooo and today we stumbled across someone who’d bought some of my beads at Lingfield and incorporated them into her own jewellery.  A lovely surprise.  They looked great how she’d used them (nice one Luci!).

Thursday evening

Hi there, I forgot to talk about my Thursday class discussions last week.  They became rather hilarious for me anyway, as the subject being discussed was ‘It was better in the old days’.  Even though work hours were long, pay small, and living conditions not so good, a couple of our older members said they were glad they weren’t young having to cope with society today.  It was a bit of a Monty Python sketch as going to work times and coming home times were discussed, at which point I chimmed in with ‘You were lucky, I used to get up before I went to bed, eat coal for Breakfast and we lived in shoebox int middle of road’.  Actually I think work can be as hard mentally and physically, because many people in their jobs are expected to work longer hours than their contract for no overtime on a daily basis, it seems to be the done thing, especially if you want to get a good reputation and get ahead.  OK our standard of living is way higher than 50 years ago, but this vision of a society with a 3 day week, loads of leisure time and paperless, just hasn’t come true.

Fantastic.  I’ve just seen the trailer for the new series of Shameless on C4.  Sooooo funny.  Of course it followed on from tonights gripping installment of LOST (which I naughtily watched last week).  And no, I’m not going to stay up late tonight to watch the next one.  I hope!  I think all the last months effort has caught up with me and I’m now feeling more tired than normal.

We popped to see the Christmas lights at a residential close in Horsham tonight.  It’s one of those where all the neighbours absolutely festoon their houses, gardens, paths, hedges and any available space with lights and various lit up seasonal pictures.  It’s a bit over the top for my liking but the kids love it and they raise lots of dosh for the local St Catherines Hospice.  Last year they had £11,000 donated.  At least they don’t have lots of music and sounds playing loudly to upset their other neighbours, unlike some of the other roads featured on the news recently.  If we were to light up our house and garden it would just show everyone how much work the lawn and front of the house needs!  I have to say I’m extremely relieved that none of our neighbours have decided to do anything similar, in fact our road looks decidedly dark by comparrison.

It’s over!  My last fair was yesterday afternoon at Box Hill school.  They have a large open fireplace in the entrance hall and last year made it very atmospheric by serving mulled wine and mincepies by the garland strewn open fire.  A lovely traditional start to the Christmas season.  I’m not sure if the pies and wine were served there yesterday as we were rushed off our feet during the fair, and only got this pic just before we left for home.

Today I tackled the laundry pile before it took over the doorway and attacked me. LOL.  Such fun.  You know I’m sure there’s more to life than laundry, housework and grocery shopping.  Oh yes, lampworking.  Actually that’s what’s got me into this mess indoors!  I wonder what delights tommorrow has in store for me….now I think of it, the alternator gets replaced.  That will be a relief, I’m getting a bit tired of popping the bonnet everytime I stop and disconnecting the battery.  It’s amazing that no men have asked me if I’m OK as they usually do when I get my head under the bonnet (that’s because men know how to fix cars because they have the correct equipment!).

Saturday night

Only one more fair to do, hurrah!  Friday tea time saw me driving to Worthing amidst the patchy fog for a school fair, convinced I knew where I was going once I drove over the railway bridge and arrived at the 3rd roundabout.  It’s amazing how you can look at a map, think you have the road sussed, only to find that you hadn’t actually taken in the finer details.  I thought I was going right at the roundabout, but actually needed to take the right fork, then turn right off that road.  Ho hum.  I ended up going in completely the wrong direction, however I made it there in time to set up, had a lovely evening, and even scooped the 3rd prize in their raffle.  This was pretty unusual, as it’s normally Rick that wins raffles and stuff, and took me so much by surprise that I nearly fell off my stool.

Wednesday evening

I’m feeling a bit relieved today, I have just 2 more selling events to attend and then Sunday evening it’s all over and I can concentrate on getting us ready for Christmas.  I actually didn’t feel the need today to sit and make jewellery, and fell asleep on the settee while Rick cooked dinner.  It will be good to tackle the 3 foot pile of laundry on top of the laundry basket that’s overflowing like an overflowing thing.  We might just catch up with washing school uniform by the time term finishes!

Oops, shouldn’t have kept the telly on after Lost finished at 11pm.  What another cracker, I can’t resist peeking at next weeks episode, then get sucked into watching the whole thing, and the trouble is we can only get E4+1 so it gets rather late.  So what’s in the capsule, and how come Locke can walk?  Find out in the next exciting episode……..

Double oops.  Rick’s just managed to kick and completely wreck our daughters amazing lego creation of a palace, complete with precariously balanced balcony.  I’m not looking forward to the morning.  Oh dear!

Monday evening

Hello again.  I made it out to my studio today after nearly two weeks making up jewellery.  It was 3.5 degrees C but didn’t feel as bad as last time, I think my body is aclimatising at last.  I just couldn’t help grinning as I sat to make glass drops, they’re so relaxing and theraputic to do.  I made more of my tigerlike beads and also managed to fit in another penguin cutie, this time complete with santa hat.

Looks like the big countdown to Christmas is really here now, only 20 days to go.  We’re still looking out for the new Argos advert that was filmed in town and wondering when we’re going to get time to start the numerous jobs that need to be done before the big day.  I suppose the worst of these will be getting the house to look more like a place of relaxation than a workshop/playroom/complete tip.  Maybe I should join up to this website that someone on Lampwork etc. uses to help her cope with the chaos of life, nah, I’d probably end up feeling I need to clean.  I guess this site ‘Flylady‘ is where Monica from Friends would be in heaven!

Friday evening

Wow, what a day I’ve had.  I’ve just decided to stop working (midnight), I’ve been plowing on making up many necklaces and pairs of earrings over the last couple of weeks for my fairs.  Unfortunately that means I don’t get time to make beads, but I’m having fun with my jewellery designing and keeping warm and dry in the process.  I reackon my shed’s a bit lonely and probably a bit cold and damp at the moment.  I’m also resisting the urge to have a good prowl around Wet Canvas for some good tutorials and a bit of ogling at others beads.  There’s sooooooooooo much to see here, but I normally head off to Glass Art. 

Ooops, went to check my links, and it’s now 1:15am (and they announced on the news yesterday that Doctors have said they are recognising addiction to the internet as a real addiction.)  I think I just needed a well earned break from my hard slog, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!…night all, have a good weekend.

Thursday evening

The first of December, already, eeek.  Although to tell the truth I’ve been reving up for Christmas for the past few weeks with my local Christmas craft fairs.  I’m probably over halfway through these, which is good because I’m getting quite exhausted now.

We had some more interesting conversations over lunch today at my jewellery class.  The main topic was serialisations of the classics on TV, particulary with reference to Bleak House and the updated Shakespere plays that they’ve been doing on BBC1.  We all agreed that Bleak House was very enjoyable, but what a nightmare concentrating on the story in the first episode.  We were all totally distracted by all the familiar acting faces and all suffered with the same problems of ‘oh look, it’s so and so’ and ‘oooo isn’t that whats-her-name?’ (this has to be said in a David Brent type way).  As for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was in fits of laughter, especially at the point where they brought out the Ferero Roche pyamid to signify the luxury.  It’s almost as good as Vienetta, which I actually heard an advert for today…..’Christmas, all the better for Vienetta’.  Hmmmm, whatever floats your boat, I think I’d rather have Christmas Pud and a good glass of wine.  Incidentally I had a friend whose Nan used to call these Vendetta, I never did find out if she really thought that’s what they were called or if she was pretending to be doolally.

Wednesday evening 

Ooooo, and it just gets better.  Cracking episode of LOST tonight.  Very funny, this series just gets more surreal by the week.  I found this website tv.com where you can read up about the different episodes, tonights was ‘Numbers’ and is this websites third favourite.  I had a fair tonight, so coming home to put my feet up with a glass of wine to watch Lost was just the thing to do to unwind.  I’m going to be good and not stay up to watch next weeks episode on E4.   Oh and I forgot to say, that must be the most unconvincing Aussie accent and dialogue I’ve ever heard tonight.  The accent wavered from New Zealand, to Ireland, to west countryish Africans, you get the picture.

Tuesday evening

I can see my desk again!  I had a bit of a blitz this morning and cleared all the stuff off that was filling the useful spaces on my desk, and now I can actually work at it again!  Well I could do paperwork and internet stuff before, but there was not enough space to swing a box of beads let alone a length of tigertail.  I seem to spend all my time at the moment moving piles of work from my desk, to the dining table and then back again onto my desk, before moving them back to the table again.  This is part of what happens in our household before Christmas when I’m engaged in preparing and attending the numerous local fairs that I have a stand at this time of year.  That and the complete lack of housework (so what’s new?)…….my mother-in-law has a fridge magnet that says ‘Dull women have tidy houses’, I think I should get one of those for our fridge, to add to the one that says ‘I’d give up chocolate – but I’m no quitter’.

We also had the pleasure today of attending my daughters first official art exhibition, complete with work on the walls and on white plinths, and with drinks (OK it was squash) and nibbles, and soft music.  She’s been attending a childrens art club organised and lead by 2 local artists, who are part of the 2 x 4 artists in Horsham.  At the end of every term they put on an exhibition and encourage the kids to invite family and friends to view their work.  My parents came with us, my dad has a special interest in our artistic activities as he was an art and design student himself and used to teach graphic design at Reigate and Richmond colleges when I was at school.  Needless to say we now have yet another pile of artwork to accomodate at home now…….

Monday evening

AAAAAAAAAAAAAgh, the new(ish) car’s gone wrong!  I went to the garage today to find out how much it will cost to have the car fixed.  We have a very dodgy altenator and have to disconnect the battery every time we stop for any length of time, or the battery discharges.  This happened when we were at Christ’s Hospital the other day, we packed up, Rick went to get the car and had to get a jump start and part charge the battery before we could leave.  Needless to say I think we were almost the last to leave!

I have a bit of an altenator history, which involves 3 different cars, all Fords, and breaking down in all sorts of unusual places at the most inconvenient of times.  Once my car died a death under a bridge  near Smithfields meat market on Sunday evening at 8pm.   It was cold and dark, before the advent of mobile phones and I wasn’t very pleased to be on my own in a rather empty part of London, with the occasional roar of a lorry passing by and turning into the market.  Fortunately my dad and brother came to the rescue as the nice AA man arrived, and kept me company until the wee hours of the morning.  Talking of wee, that was also the evening of my first experience in a superloo, the one near St Pauls Cathedral.  Anyway, the car got fixed on that occasion, and I ended up driving home past midnight.  I remember feeling totally mesmerised by the low streetlights and regular bumps that made the car lurch up and down as I drove along a deserted A40 past the Hillingdon airfield.  I think I made it home to Oxford by 2am on that occasion.

Oh well, we have to wait 2 weeks now until the car can be fixed, so lots more popping the bonnet and hooking up the battery with my trusty spanner over the next few weeks!

Well that just takes the biscuit….I can’t write anything without him passing comment…….and by the way, I’m not picky but discerning (hah) when it comes to visual stuff.  Take that.  And as for little boxes, it’s not small, and thank goodness they didn’t have the one he wanted to buy, it was humungous!

Saturday night

The marvels of modern technology delivered my shopping on time but didn’t quite stetch to bringing it in the house and putting it all away.  It was however a lot easier than the weekend we’ve had so far which has comprised 2 craft fairs and a mad trip to Ikea to buy new table coverings for my stand.  We also hoped to buy some furniture to house the TV but after much deliberation and hair pulling trying to decide exactly what we wanted, found that they were out of stock of our choice, tchh.  So we cheered ourselves up with some cool battery operated fairy lights to Christmassefy my display (and avoid more PAT testing) and an opaque white plastic storage box to experiment further with our bead photography.

We’ll have a good rest tommorrow I hope, ready for another action packed week and the beginning of December (eeek).  So much for my plans to get ahead with Christmas preparations, I can see the day looming up faster than the earth does when you land with a parachute (or should that be without one!).

Thursday evening

Isn’t technology marvelous!  I’ve just finished doing my grocery shopping from the comfort of my armchair in front of the telly – and who said I can’t multitask?  It’s so cool being able to sit wireless and cableless, and be able to print documents, surf the net and do ones shopping.  It beats trawling around the supermarket, especially at the moment when I’m sooooooo busy.  All I have to do is sit back and wait for it to arrive (and put it away obviously).  I just hope I don’t get any daft substitutions, they sure don’t think about them very well, that’s my only complaint.  For example, once I ordered 2 different variations of a breakfast cereal, one wasn’t available, but hey, they didn’t give me 2 of the one of my choices that was available, no, they chose something completely different!  Maybe the shopper thought I needed a new taste experience and what I’d chosen was too boring.

I do most of my glass shopping on the net.  Lots of good glass, frit and tools are availalable from the States, so I just have to do it that way.  I love getting my parcels through the post, especially when it’s dinky jars of frit (crushed glass) individually wrapped in pink or orange tissue paper, although one order I did with a sample pack of 18 jars had 3 or 4 pieces of sticky tape on each jar and took forever to unpack (you do the maths!).  I must admit I was getting a tad impatient to see all my purchses as the minutes ticked away and the pile of sticky tape strips grew.

I’m off to get another mug of coffee now and look at my Chihuly tome.  TTFN.

Wednesday evening

Brrrrrrrrrrrr it’s cold out there.  Minus 1 deg C this morning in the studio.  I had to don my thermals again – oh yes!  It was so cold that I didn’t fancy going out again after lunch, but I was glad I did, you just can’t beat that feeling of melting glass, I find it so relaxing and theraputic, even if it was to do beads I had to do rather than play.

Oh that was too funny, the ending of Lost this week with the profiles of people sitting on the beach.  I was determined not to get drawn in, but ya know how it goes!  I’m still mourning the loss of Frasier and haven’t found anything that gets anywhere near the wit of that show (although Green Wing came pretty close – I’m a bit of a Tamsin Greig fan).  Friday night used to be good for comedy, but it just doesn’t hit the spot at the moment.  Oh well, more time to make beads.

Tuesday afternoon….

Hellooo.  I had a lovely steaming hot mug of tea in bed this morning, looks like my hint worked.  I also had pressies to unwrap, one of which said ‘Nah, not in here!’, and there I was thinking I might have Jamie Cullum’s new CD in my hot mitts.  Instead I received a cool book about making silver chains, and best of all a beautiful book about Chihuly and his glass.

Tuesday evening….

It’s been a lovely day.  We went down to Brighton today and popped in on Judith to collect my beads that had been to Newmarket.  We had a lovely chat and coffee and proceeded to Brighton for lunch.  We found this lovely juice bar and deli called Pulp Kitchen this time last November and decided to go there for lunch.  It’s lovely to have a break from the usual run of the mill Tuesday.  I’ve had a brilliant days holiday.   Pulp Kitchen, 31 Bond Street, North Laines, Brighton.

Monday evening

Wow it’s suddenly got real cold, and it’s all foggy outside.  I did brush off my thermals last Friday to wear while making beads in the studio…and yes I do wear jeans and T-shirt over the top…and yay I did get to make some snowmen and penguins.

I’m franticaly trying to top up my stock levels of jewellery to sell, it gets very manic at this time of year.  I am constantly trying to balance lampwork with making up jewellery and going out selling and trying to get a life.  It’s my birthday tommorrow so I may just take the day off.

Did anyone catch Peter Andre and Katie Price on Children in Need last Friday.  I’m not a fan of Jordan or her life, and wondered what on earth they were on this fundraiser for, but boy, as far as I was concerned they stole the show.   Katie sings really well, and I think they outshone even Madonna that night.

And so ….to bed (I wonder if I’ll get any pressies tommorrow, I don’t think I deserve any from Rick, cos I completely forgot to do the wrapped up pressy bit for him from our daughter or me).  He’ll either do tit-for-tat, or lavish me with pressies and attention to make me feel bad (I wish!)……although a mug of tea in bed in the morning would be nice, hint hint.