Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Saturday evening

Oh yes, I walked with my mother in law Mel and our friend Anna, around the lovley Tilgate park in Crawley. We did it in 56 minutes, 10 minutes less than I thought it would take, going by previous walks. I’m so pleased, and on my return home, my lovely hubster Rick presented me with a little magenta pink sparkly bead for my Pandora bracelet to mark the achievement. I will treasure it always, and be reminded of the important event, doing a sponsored walk, doing over 3 miles and all without a walking stick. I think I can class myself as normal now, well, would I ever be normal? hee hee.

To date I have raised over £300 for Cancer Research UK, so I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me online and on paper, and everyone who has sent such encouraging messages, thank you, it means a lot to me. If you feel moved to sponsor me and haven’t already, you still have time to make a donation for this worthy cause, as my Just Giving page will be availbale for  afew more weeks. Here’s a link http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/sarahdownton

Enjoy the rest of the gorgeous weather!

Wednesday morning

Yep, today most certainly is the day, for many reasons. I’m very pleased to be able to go and raise money for such a worthy cause, Cancer Research UK, which also happens to be my favourite charity. But for me it is a very special day, as I get to realise one of my dreams, to actually do a sponsored walk, and more than that, to be able to do it without a stick. I used to get really miserable and sad when walks were announced, how annoying that I couldn’t even walk a mile for charity, it used to really anger and upset me. So when I made the decision to have my hip replaced, I also promised that I would do a sponsored walk to celebrate and give something back as soon as I could. I was hoping to do one of the night time half marathons, but decided this could probably be a bit ambitious as I haven’t walked that far for over 20 years, so I’m starting small and walking 3 miles with my mother in law Mel and our friend Anna…..excuse me while I pop out to hang my pink tea shirt up to dry ready to wear tonight……done…….so yes, today is a very important day for me, as it brings home to me how fortunate I am to be able to walk, especially without a stick, something I never thought would happen again, and it also marks for me, the end of an era, and the start of something new and exciting, a life when I can do what I want, I can go for walks again, I can explore and live the life I should have been able to if I hadn’t been so stupid and been in denial, struggling on with my disability.

So please, if you haven’t already, pop on over to Race for Life and sponsor me. It doesn’t matter if it’s only for a pound, if everyone who knew me, and all you my lovely blog readers sponsor me, we can raise loads of dosh to help fund research and cures for this awful disease that affects us all in some way. It only takes a couple of moments, so do it now rather than later……you know I’ll be popping over there to have a peek and see what my total is….;>)

Tuesday morning

I have space on another 2 day Beginners Glass Beadmaking Course next week, Mon 22nd – Tues 23rd June. Email me now to reserve your place on this or the other course from Mon 29th – Tues 30th June (one space remaining) running the following week…….

3 days until I have to set up my cabinet for Horsham Open Studios and counting (do you see my necklace at the top of the link web page? eh? eh?)……all is going well, if not a bit manic, as I am working from when I get up,  almost until I go to bed, with only enough of a stop just to eat lunch and dinner. But I’m getting there, at my last count I had 50 pieces of jewellery to put in my cabinet, not including beads on thongs or phone dangles, so I’m almost there. All I have to do now (ha ha…all) is clear out my cabinet which I use as a store most of the time, dust down the shelves and try laying out my display. Then I have to label my pieces with codes and prices and do a stock list so I know what’s sold, organise my packaging, leaflets, mirror, earring holder etc….I always forget how long that part takes. Then I have to find the lights, keys, extension leads etc…it all takes so long, so if I can get most of my work made and finished today that gives me a couple of days to sort the rest hopefully. Roll on Saturday….slowly please.

In amongst all this I have managed to book my ticket to the Hampton Court Flower Show (yipee), but more importantly I need to find time to go for walks, as my Race for Life sponsored walk is next Wednesday.  Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far, you know who you are, but there is still time for more sponsoring for those of you who haven’t so far and would like to. It’s very easy, just follow this link to sponsor me on-line and help such a worthy cause that affects all of us at some time and in some way.

I have to admit to struggling with this post today, as I’m outside on my favourite bench (well, it’s the only one we have actually but I love sitting here) in the very bright sunshine, with my brightness turned up so high, and I’m still struggling to read what I’ve put or even worse find the cursor! I thought I should pop outside and get some fresh air after being cooped up indoors all day yesterday. Well, I’d better get back to the grindstone…laters.

Thursday morning

1 week and counting until Horsham Open Houses, eek. This Horsham event starts next Saturday and obviously I will need to have my work set up by next Friday, so eeeeeek. I did start making beads for this months ago, but still feel the need to make specific designs and sizes to make the collection of jewellery that I have envisaged in my head. I also have to go and collect my exhibition pieces including my Transition necklace, that were on display in the Bank Gallery, Chobham, so I have something really special to display. I have all my headpins made and pickled and need to tumble polish these before I can use them, and I have a very boring job of making my own style earwires over a few evenings too. Thankfully I can make up the earrings without these then pop them on when they’re all done. I’ve also decided to make a display of my silver cored beads, and I’m working hard to make extra for this event and for Winchester also….I haven’t added this to my events page yet, but it’s the Contemporary Craft Fair in a marquee at Winchester Cathedral that I did 2 years ago with the Surrey Guild.

I announced in my news section on the home page that my Transition necklace image was used this year for the front cover of the Open Houses brochure….well this is now plastered all over Horsham town Centre, with lots of laminated notices around the town to advertise the event, woo hoo. I thought I’d be more excited but actually I’m not, lol. I’m hoping to see them on all the lamp posts around town too if they put these up again this year. I’ve just added a link to the Open Studios web page, and it’s there too!

Tuesday evening

………Rick is a drummer….I’m his groupie…..and buffets are mostly beige.

How do I know I this?  Ha well, over the last 3 months Rick has been going to band practise one evening every week, with a group of friends who he used to play with 17 years ago, he was the dep drummer when their drummer went to the States for 6 months all those years ago, but now he’s the real McCoy drummer.  They had their first gig last Saturday as the new line up and it rocked. I think they got away with it! So if he’s a drummer my second statement follows.

As for buffets, they often have a distinct beigeness about them. It’s something I’ve noticed over my many years of professionally attending parties and office lunches. lol. My previous experience of buffets done by my mother and MIL are ones full of lush salads, bursting with colours of greens, reds and orange from the various salad leaves, raw peppers, cucumber and tomatoes, together with beautiful main dishes of pale pink whole salmon, rich red beef, pink ham, bacon and vegetable quiches and flans, purple beetroot and colourful accompanying pickles. This mass of colourful food is normally followed by a selection of sumptuous home made deserts (brought by the people invited to said buffet), all colourful and delicious, like fruit salad, pink and red fruit trifle, banoffee pie (OK this one is beige), huge pavlovas piled with red strawberries and cream or kiwi and grapes, and yummy chocolate gateaux decorated with Malteesers (OK it’s another brown one, but it’s not beige!). However my experience of office buffets and some peoples party buffets is one of plate after plate of deep fried meaty things like chicken nuggets, scotch egg balls, cheese puffs, chicken drumsticks, spring rolls, pakoras, onion bhajis and samosas, cheese sarnies….do you spot a theme here? There may be a plate of crudities and dips if you’re lucky, and a thin sprinkling of  watercress and a few twists of cucumber here and there, but not very often. This was  a real problem for me about 20 years ago as I was totally vegetarian and therefore couldn’t eat anything but the cheese sarnies. Anyway one of last buffets I attended even followed through the beige theme with the puds being mini chocolate éclairs, mini doughnuts, mini teeny cream filled swiss rolls, mini cream slices (no jam, so completely beige) and even a plate of beige muffins. I truly thought some colour would appear on the table with the afters, and was pleased to see a plate of melon arriving…..but oh no……it was orange….woo hoo.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being  food snob here, it’s just a different way of doing things and actually does make a change for me from all my vegetable salads and stuff, but I do maintain that they’re beige…or orange……….

Weds morning

Hi ya! It’s happened again, 2 weeks almost have passed and I haven’t been in to say hello! So here I am, and what’s been happening in Sarah’s world? Quite a lot but I’m not going to bore you with lists of what I’ve been doing, as much as I love lists. What I will say is that after all the glass beadmaking tuition I was doing, that we managed to go camping with our little caravan (oh the shame) at Whitsun, which also means that we now have our long awaited car…at last…and it has enough wellie to tow…which was why we had to wait so long for the right car in the first place. Half term has come and gone, and we attended a lovely family wedding last Tuesday of all days, well it was half term and after a bank holiday, so it seemed kind of right.

We had the new bead fair at Dorking Halls this Sunday gone, and true to form it was sweltering hot, just like the old days when we used to have a shared GBUK stall when I first started beadmaking and selling my handmade glass beads. I was even in the same room out of the 3 there that we used to be in.  So a big hello to everyone who came to say hello on Sunday and I hope you enjoy using the beads you bought.

This week I’ve started preparing in ernest for the Horsham Open Houses, 20th, 21st June and 27th, 28th June. We’re a month earlier than previous years which is really good as we won’t be clashing with all the summer events like Wimbledon and Hampton Court Flower Show and other fun stuff, so hopefully the number of visitors should be up. This has confused me somewhat though , as I keep thinking I have loads of time to prepare when I haven’t. I may even trot off now to make some beads, rather than making up some jewellery….

I’m also really pleased to have my transition bead necklace on the front cover of the guide this year!

Thursday evening

Yesterday was an important day for me, the 1st anniversary of my hip replacement. Can you believe it’s already a year on? I find it difficult to grasp, however so much has changed, and all definately for the better. It was with so much fear and trepidation that I travelled to Oxford to have my surgery last year, I knew I had one of the best surgeons in the UK (well, the world actually) but you still can’t help feeling like a lamb to the slaughter, and for me my main aprehension was knowing that once my femoral head was cut off and replaced that there was no going back, it would be replacements for the rest of my life, which was one of the reasons I held out for so long. I had also hoped that they would come up with something else to help my hips, but nothing new was really happening.

So this time and one day ago last year, I would have been lying so relaxed and chilled out, with my legs completely numb from the anaesthetic, complete with lines, drains, oxygen and morphine clicker, which I definately didn’t use enough and they took it away in the afternoon of the second day….rats! Actually, that was good, I hardly needed it, and survived just taking paracetamol from a couple of days after the op.

So, what has changed…..everything! I had no idea how good it would be. I can walk again, I now haven’t used my sticks since the middle of September, I can do my shoelaces up and almost reach my feet to cut my toenails properly. I can put my own socks on without an aid, and can walk almost as fast as I used to before all this started. I no longer have pain (in my right hip) or need to go to hydrotherapy every week. I’ve lost weight and am returning to my true self that I lost 15 years ago. I’m so happy again, and I laugh and smile lots now, and have fun and make jokes. Life is truely good and I’m so glad to be mobile. My legs are also the same length for the first time ever in my life (I’m actually about an inch taller – which I love!…..my passport is wrong though, lol), and I don’t wear my right shoe out faster than the left one anyone. My left hip is becoming a cause for concern as it’s struggling to keep up and aches quite a lot now, but it’s not holding me up or preventing me from doing what I want to anymore. We have to watch this space, but hey……life is good. Also on June 24th I’m planning to do the Race for Life 5Km walk in Crawley for Cancer Research UK, and have started training. If you’d like to sponsor me, please follow this link to my sponsorship page. Thank you.

Tuesday morning

I love my new studio! I can’t get over how spacious it feels inside, you could really swing a cat in there (apologies to all cat lovers), whereas the last one you could pick up a mouse but not even swing it…not that there were any mice in there of course. I have 2 workspaces set up in a sort of minimal way, and I’m determined to keep it as clear as I can until we start lining the walls, however I don’t seem to be succeeding. I keep needing more things to be able to work, ‘oh just that tool’ and ‘I really want to try that glass I bought at the Flame Off‘. What’s a girl to do? All that scrumptious new glass and lovely new colours from CIM, I’m aching to try CIM Sapphire and Cornflower and TAG Taxco Silver Turquoise. OH dear, I’m going to have to take the rest of my box of goodies down to the studio today and start using it, I can always stash it in one of the wire drawers I have.

I really don’t know where the last 2 months have gone, well I do, but didn’t get the jobs done that I’d hoped to, as I thought I’d have loads of time to update my website, write tutorials and generally tart things up a bit. But taking down the studio and preparing for the new one took all my energies and thoughts, I suppose I thought that may be the case, but had hoped that I’d be able to take advantage of the time and sort some indoor jobs. But I’m not going to beat myself up about it, I have a huge new studio and can make handmade glass beads again, which is bliss. I also started my glass beadmaking courses again last week, and have a couple of days this week and several dates to look forward to throughout June. Anyway, enough of my wittering, I need to get my kiln on and get making beadies for the Bead Fair at Dorking Halls on 31st May.

Friday morning

Where did the last week go? So much for blogging 3 times a week. We have been busy, honest, and you already know how hard I find it to concentrate when works are happening at home as I have to be tech (which I like)  and nourishment support, doing all the stuff that women normally do, and you know how much I can’t stand doing that for long. lol. Well, we bought our sleepers and got them down bit by bit (hmm, sounds like putting a baby to bed), but work had to stop as we weren’t totally confident where the door would be and how high it would be off the ground, but most are in and holding back the slope while we speak, and we’re going to get a couple more tomorrow to finish the job neatly. Our garden looks a bit like the Somme at the moment, with trenches and piles of earth all over the place, together with piles of slabs, yes they’ve been piled up in 3 places now during this job, 2 Hippo bags of earth, one forming a temporary home for an old Hydrangea, and general mess around.

The shed arrived and was installed yesterday morning, much to my relief, and looks lovely in the garden, well, I think it does, but our daughter keeps saying it’s too big. It is big, 12 x 8 foot, but actually sits down quite nicely, even if it is a bit pale and eye catching at the moment. I had thought I’d leave it ‘au natural’ but I think it could do with painting a nice colour so that it merges into the garden a bit while remaining a feature due to it’s size, but that will have to wait for a couple of months until the timber has dried a bit from the pressure treating. Plans were to have it all neatly fitted out for when I start teaching again next week, but as it’s arrived so late we’re only putting in the bare essentials to get started and so I can prepare for my next bead fair in May and Open Houses in June. We did have 3 weeks clear for the lining and fitting but that was truly mucked up by the shed people.

Here’s a few pics to keep you amused, a bit of a photo story

Friday afternoon

So I’m sat here, in the shade, on the new patio, as our neighbours have called it. Only I haven’t told them that a new studio is coming next week, when they said ‘we saw your new patio, didn’t you used to have a shed there?’,  I just smiled sweetly (yes it is possible) and quietly said yes. Hmmm. I wonder what they’ll think. When we put up our last shed there were comments from one of their daughters like ‘That’s a big shed for your garden’…..it wasn’t actually, I’ve seen as large in much smaller ones. So I’m getting a bit nervous about when the new one arrives and is errected. I mean, it’s not really a problem, as our garden is almost the shed width longer than theirs (about 6 foot), so it will be further back than the end of their garden, and it’s also wider by 3 foot, and lower down. Poor dicky had to dig 2 Hippo bags of earth out to cut into the slope of the garden, and even that level is lower than theirs, the corner with the studio is at least 2 foot lower than the bottom of their garden (which is terraced down away from them), so even though the new building will be taller, it will also sit snugly into the lawn and not peek out too much more than the last one, and it will look really smart. Ho hum. Actually I know it will be OK, they may just be a bit surprised.

It’s been a really lovely day, very relaxed and enjoyable. I started by trotting down to the Doc’s for my 84 day weigh in, pre breakfast and mugs of tea of course as you have to be as light as possible don’t you?  I thought I hadn’t lost much this time, but the graph he’s keeping is still showing the same gradient, so that can’t be bad, I’ve now lost 2 stone 9 pounds, and my jeans I used to wear years ago before I really ballooned out are getting really baggy all over and loose around my waist so that I have to hitch them up regularly. Can’t be bad. I just wish it would come off faster, but to be honest I’m not really having to try that hard and certainly not starving myself as that is so counter productive.

After breakfast I drove down to my friends house in Ashington for a coffee morning, than followed that with my first visit to Big Plant nursery nearby to ogle the plants and get ideas for our garden.  I stayed much longer than I planned, as I had intended to just whiz around and see what they’ve got. At around 1pm I took to the car again and had a very pleasant drive to Horsham Fencing, past the fabulously blousy Leonardslee Gardens, to look at the sleepers and get prices. I arrived home in time to have a leisurely lunch while watching Neighbours (bye bye Harold) and then do the school run, well, walk actually, I can quite categorically say I have never run it!

And now I’m here, outside on the new patio, lol, blogging and contemplating how many sleepers we need, enjoying the twittering of the birds, yep, they were there first, and watching the bees or wasps come and go in between their digging holes in the bare earth. Watch out Rick when you cut away to put the sleepers down tomorrow!

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.

Monday tea time

Where did the Easter holiday go? Why am I sooooo tired? Why am I skint? Why is there a huge pile of washing up in the kitchen, you know, all the posh stuff you don’t want to ruin in the dishwasher? Why are there masses of glass jars and bits all over the lounge floor? and who left that shed in pieces around the side of the house?

OK, so here’s the plot, Monday before Easter we emptied my studio, that took longer than I thought it would, even with my packing things and tidying stuff away the week beforehand. Late Monday afternoon Rick removed the benches, power and stuff screwed to the walls. Tuesday we took the shed apart and carted it around the side of the house, this was very enjoyable as there was no way I could have done that for the last 10 or so years previous. Then Rick started excavating the plot to lay the next 12 slabs we needed, including digging out the pesky Virginia Creeper shoots and ivy plants everywhere. We managed to fill 2 of those Hippo bags you can get from builders merchants with the soil from the slope, which didn’t look particularly slopey until he started digging of course. Then he had to lug 12 bags of sand, 12 huge slabs, move the 2 heavy sleepers that were holding back the lawn, then move them 3 or 4 more times as they kept gettong in the way. After the slabs were laid we started repairing the surrounding fences, and removed 2 panels from the back of our garden so that we have slightly more room to walk along the back of the new studio to remove leaves and stuff. The panel removal revealed a huge tangle of more Virginia Creeper, which all had to be prised off the fence and chopped to fill the recycling bags, and the huge root dug up and disposed of. I also went around the garden and pulled out all the brown long leaves from the Crocosmia and grasses around the place, cut back the Pyrocantha and the Fatsia Japonica to reveal the Hellibores we planted last spring, and generally got rid of the plant rubbish. I then attacked the front garden border and had several subsequent trips to the dump, which in itself was entertaining as the bags were so heavy I had to drag them, then pull individual handfuls of plant bits into the skips until the bag was light enough to pick up and tip the contents away. Phew. Oh and we also had 2 trips down to look at cars, one of them to buy a car we wanted and had rung up to check it was still there, only to be told casually ‘Oh we sold that one yesterday’ when we got there. Typical.

That’s the progress so far, we now have to finish repairing the fences, paint them, and decide how many new sleepers and slabs we need to complete the area around the studio and the path down to it. I also need to organise the insulating materials, the internal cladding, the flooring, the ventilation and what benches I want. I’m also trying to choose a couple of lovely garden shades to paint the shed when it’s been up for a while. That’s all the good news, the bad news is that I’ve been let down on when the studio is being delivered, which is after I was supposed to be starting teaching again. This is very annoying and stressful because I now have almost 3 weeks without a studio, the time slot that I had planned for fitting out my studio perfectly, and now we have to make it just ‘OK’ to start teaching on time, and that’s with having had to rearrange a couple of students to come in June instead now. Of course even OK will be plenty to actually teach properly, it just won’t be fixed up permanently and decorated.

As far as the rest of the holiday and my tireness, that’s probably down to going away to the Flame Off last Friday and Saturday, but thats another post!

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.

Thurs evening

I have a couple of spaces available for beadmaking courses

The first is a space for 1 person on a 1 day beginners course Thurs 21st May.

The second is suitable for you if you have taken a course but not yet set up your studio, or if you are self taught and want to improve your skills or simply see someone else make beads. The dates for this 2 day refresher course are Sat 16th May and Weds 20th May.

See my tuition page for more information and email me now to reserve your place.

Plans are going ahead for my studio refurbishment, or should I say demolition and rebuilding. It’s been a long time coming, we chose a new shed last year, but the weather was soooooo cold in January that I had to put my plans on hold as we were concerned about freezing concrete. I’ve since found out that I don’t need to lay a concrete base, which I’m really happy about as it’s not very green laying masses of uneccesary concrete. I ordered my shed on Monday, with a whole 25% discount, the best I’ve seen for this make, and it should be here in 2 to 4 weeks. In the meantime we will be packing up the studio on Monday and dismantling it, then lifting the old slabs, cutting away the lawn to make space for the extra 2 foot width and hauling the sleepers along before laying the base. There’s so much to do but I’ve decided to deal with each stage about a week before it’s due to happen. I can’t be doing with sourcing everything right now as I have an urge to make as many beads as I can before I see my studio collapse.

So what about our fabby new car? Oh dear, after masses of agonising on Tuesday we walked away from the deal because the dealer couldn’t locate the Service History. To say we were gutted would be an understatement, but the saying ‘that you get what you pay for’, and ‘some things are too good to be true’ are spot on. It was such a good deal, very new second hand car with a low mileage and a high specification that was 1K less than it should have been.  So now the hunt continues, although I think we’ve narrowed down the choice of cars, so could possibly task a garage with the fun of tracking down our ideal car.

Saturday night

What a roller-coaster of a day! I decided yesterday, that today would be the day we buy a car, and it was, at last. We’ve only been looking for about 2 months (yep, it really is that long), and I realised that what we have been waiting for will never come, that is basically a car with enough wellie to tow a small caravan (oh the shame), with a lowish mileage, in good condition and at a cheap enough price. Well, I got fed up of dodging the flying pigs so today we went to see the 4 cars that we’d earmarked as real possibles. After finding that 2 of them had been sold this morning (out of the hundreds of cars they hold at Jeffries Farm – how is that possible?) and dismissing the 3rd as in poor condition, we headed on over to an independant dealer to view the 4th car on the list. Oh what joy, fantastic condition, nearly top of the range but not with the price tag to reflect that, especially compared to all the other tat we’ve seen (and yes, I do mean ‘other tat’ not ‘others that’). So……the deal is done, and we can finally say that we’ve come of age because we’ve bought a proper all-growed-up car rather than an old banger kindly offered to us by friends.

It was all rather exciting today, however the dampers were chucked on us when we got home as my computer crashed yet again in Firefox, and it turned out to be a nasty virus that I somehow caught somewhere. Fortunately my genius of a hubby, my uber cybergeek extraordinaire (otherwise known as CE or should that now be UCE?) has managed to sort it, obviously, or I wouldn’t be sat here blig bloging. I was starting to think that my poor little pooter had come to the end of it’s silicon life and was preparing to meet it’s chippy maker in the sky, and that we would have to fork out for another lip lappy top, in addition to the car (which we’ve just bought) and the washing machine that we haven’t ordered yet. Phew, thank you Dickie!

And so the perfect end to this unusual (yer, different…(See Kath & Kim)) day was watching the fabulous Annie Lennox singing with the BBC concert orchestra on BBC1. Pure class. I can go to sleep a happy woman. Night all.

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.

Tuesday morning

It’s time for me to start getting fit at last. After 15 years of virtual inactivity I’ve decided the time is right to get into shape, and what better way (and cheap)to do that than walking. Last year many of my friends did the Midnight walk for our local St Catherine’s Hospice, and my dream last year was to be able to join in this year if my new hip was up to it, but I haven’t done any training and feel that 13 miles may be too far at this stage, especially at night. So I’ve decided to try walking the Race for Life which is 5 kilometres and will give me a real reason to make sure I start walking seriously and regularly, and to steadily increase my distance.

So yesterday my daughter and I started our new regime of taking a brisk walk after school once the parents and toddlers were all out of the way. Not having a pedometer yet I endeavoured to count all my steps around the block and was pleased to find it is 1300, so twice around the block which we did yesterday was 2600, more than achieving my first goal of increasing my daily step count by 2000 steps. I think I must have had a serious look on my face as I walked as fast as I could counting all the time, while my daughter scooted on ahead.

I love walking so much, and have really missed not being able to go on rambles, brisk walks, or even short walks on holiday. I’m not really one for exercise, and the thought of going to the gym makes me shudder, but this I can do, and I’m so happy to be able to once again. I think this is what makes me want to walk for charity all the more, because I can now and am so grateful and still amazed that I’m so much better than I ever thought I would be. I seriously had no idea that having my hip replaced would get me back to my former self. I was just resigned to the thought that I’d always need my stick, I really wish someone had told me I wouldn’t need it and that I’d get my life back, as I would have had this done ages ago. Anyway, I’m digressing. Now all I need to do is try to go out for a walk at least 3 times a week, preferably everyday.

I’ve been having a quick look on t’internet for pedometers, and have browsed some interesting websites, but it’s so offputting! I found this chart that shows how much excercise you need to do to burn off certain foods and calories, and I have to say it’s really demoralising. I think it’s supposed to encourage, but frankly it all looks like such hard work. I’d much rather spend time listening to Paul McKennas CD again, I think I’ll stick to his thoughts of ‘moving my body more to supecharge my metabolism so I burn calories faster even while I sleep’, yep, that sounds like a plan to me! Sleeping and weightloss!

Monday morning

Last week it was the boiler, which fortunately only needed a minor overhaul including it’s overdue service, this week it’s the washing machine, gahhhhh, and just when I was getting Mount Washpile under control. I suppose I should be glad that we don’t have various foothills already, but it won’t be long, and at least we have clean bedding already. I’m so good at shoving the changed stuff in the cupboard with the rest of the 60 deg wash items, that this year (again another resolution) I decided that I’d try to wash it the day after it comes off the bed. It hasn’t been the day after but within a few days, so I see this as positive improvement. So what about the machine? I really don’t know, it’s coming up for 13 years old, so hasn’t done too badly, but to repair or buy a new one? We’ll just add that to the list of other bits that don’t work in our house, like the shower (it’s OK we do wash, just have to use the cheap hose on the bath taps) and the cooker hood, which has this really flimsy plastic flange that snapped off and is part of the switch ….very poor design.

It’s finding time to look which could be tricky, as we can’t really hang around with this one, especially as I hate launderettes. This could be partly to do with the occasion as a student when every time I removed a pair of knickers from the washing machine and dryer, an old geezer sang ‘la da de da de da’. It obviously amused that pervert, lol. But seriously though, the hire machines just don’t wash very well, and I got really fed with my clothes smelling the same as they did before the whole process, which incidentally I also find very tedious, the fact you get stuck in the lauderette waiting for the washing and drying to be done. I suppose the upside is that you can people watch, but I’d rather be doing that whilst sunning myself on a foreign beach.

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…