Tipsy beads

I'm always trying to photograph my beads in a different way, one that still represents them accurately to a prospective buyer but also looks more interesting than the way I usually do it. Rather chuffed with this one where the angle is a bit askew and the end beads have fallen over! (Must've had a sniff of wine ...!)

Available to purchase in my SoozBeads Etsy shop :-)

Making jewellery out of recycled pagan wine bottle beads

This is a bottle of one of my most favourite red wines of all time. As well as being really great to drink (particularly with lamb dishes), the story on the bottle is really compelling to me:

My family has been tending our vineyards overlooked by the Saracosa hill since the early 1940s and legend has it that the hill was a sacred pagan site, where people gathered to worship the sun and the moon. Much of those original vineyards remain, producing low yields of high quality, concentrated grapes from which we selected to make this wine. 

I love the idea that I'm drinking wine produced from an ancient pagan site where rituals (so long as no animal sacrifice was involved) and magic were performed. Wow!

Anyway, here are some photographs of the jewellery set I've made from the beads which will be for sale tomorrow in Cambridge on my stall at All Saints Art & Craft market.

Hope to see you there! Whatever you're doing this Saturday, have a lovely weekend!

Sooz Jewels now available on Folksy

Click on the image above to go straight to my new Folksy shop. It's only got two items on there but I've got a bit tired this evening so I'll be adding to the inventory soon :-)

Folksy is quite similar to Etsy where I sell my lampwork beads (see link to the right) but it's all UK crafts people selling their items. Gosh two British based postings on the trot, God Save the Queen!

Calling all patriots

We have two events this year in Great Britain that I'm particularly happy to celebrate as they're great for bringing in tourists. As I do business in a city that welcomes many visitors from abroad, I think you'll understand why I am busily celebrating them.

The first is the Queen's diamond jubilee, followed shortly by the Olympics coming to London. In an unashamed and unapologetic effort to cash in, here is a sample of the jubilee jewellery (later to become Olympic jewellery) which will be for sale on my stall in Cambridge this Saturday

There is also a necklace, pendant and a double-stranded bracelet but they weren't finished before the light went for photography so you'll just have to pop along to Cambridge to see those. We have a terrific weekend forecast (THAT makes a change) so hope to see you there ... whatever you're up to, I hope all my readers have a great weekend.

Meet Cadee

This is Cadee, the moon gazing hare. My family clubbed together and bought her for me as a present for my 50th birthday. Isn't she just gorgeous? She's made of bronze by Paul Jenkins and stands a little over a foot tall! I've placed her in the lounge window sill where she can look out at the sky as I very rarely draw the back curtains as we're not really overlooked from the garden.

I'm a little late in receiving her as due to us being away when I had my actual birthday and various illnesses just before that, we didn't have my party (at my mum and dad's house) til last Saturday evening but well worth the wait I think! Lovely buffet and birthday cake made by mum and sister, Sandy.  I scoffed the last piece of cake yesterday, ta Sandy! :-) x

I've delayed posting her on my blog as I've been trying to think of a good name for her. Things kind of let you know what they want to be called I think, nothing was coming immediately to mind but when I was reviewing my Amazon Recommendations list yesterday, it suggested a novel called "Maybe the Moon", the main character in it is called Cadence and it just seemed right (Cadee for short). 

It was an inspired gift, we gave my other sister, Sharon a similar hare for her 40th birthday last year, I was so-o-o-o-o envious, I guess they picked up on the fact that I really wanted to keep it for myself and getting one that was moon gazing (something I like to do myself), was really, really brilliant to personalise it for me - one of the best gifts I have ever received - thanks everyone! xxxxxxxxx

I got lots of nice cards but I'm picking out the one that Sandy and Chris sent me in particular, it's made up like a newspaper front page ... it has a picture of Sandy doing the inevitable tongue poking out and also another one of gorgeous Anthony Head, the text reads as follows:

Half a century and half expecting a letter from the queen 
THE BIG 5-0 
Exclusive by Sandy Cannings. 
Although turning 50 is considered a milestone, Sue Doran is intent on seeing the lighter side of reaching the big 50. "I am still hot" she tells The News, "it's just that it comes in hot flushes". Now is the time to make your mark on the world and take on exciting new challenges. Fix up a dinner date with the gorgeous Anthony Head. Sue says "I will do something wild and shocking today, straight after my afternoon nap"! The News says: You go girl!

Hilarious! :-)

Tiger spankles

I just posted a photograph of my newest spankle beads on the Sooz Jewels Facebook page and they got 3 comments within a few minutes! They're now for sale in my Etsy shop and I think I'll also be making some more to make jewellery with for my stall in Cambridge too.

The colours are really warm. Today is the first day of summer and it's raining (again!) so I think we need warming up. Overall the beads remind me of tigers, I've got "Tiger Feet" by Mud stuck in my head (yes I am old enough to remember it when it was in the charts, I even bought the single!) It's when I start doing the dance that we need to get worried!

Back to work

Back to work after a week off, we've been in Northumberland and had a lovely time. Everyone I've spoken to, blogs I've been catching up on, e-mails from family and Facebook friends have all been complaining about the rain you had in the Midlands/South of England. Up in the top right hand corner of England, the weather was pretty good. We had a dry week, lots of sunny intervals, the only time it rained was evening on Wednesday up to lunchtime on Thursday, from what everyone says, it was definitely the best place in England to be!

Interested parties can view my holiday snaps on Facebook:

Look at the camera!
and
Holiday in Northumberland 2012

This photograph is of me back to work today melting a shard from a broken Bombay Sapphire gin bottle making beads that will be turned into jewellery very soon.

Happy Beltane!

Arty photos!

I like the perspective I've managed to get on these photographs of my latest beads, I thought I'd share them with my blog readers, both sets are for sale in my Etsy SoozBeads shop!

Comfort blanket finished for Battersea

Here it is finished at last! I got the knitting done fairly quickly at a square or two every evening but I confess the squares sat in my knitting bag for quite a while before I did the sewing up and darning in the ends bit! It's a patchwork of five squares by five which are all about 4 inches. Except for the green squares, each one has a purly paw on it of different sizes and I used five different colours, which made it more interesting to knit. It's folded in half and half again here in my pic. I enjoyed it and may do another.

This is in response to Battersea Dog and Cat's Home appeal to knitters. I'll be posting it out to them tomorrow and hope it helps provide security for a homeless doggie very soon.

Happy Easter to everyone, hope you're enjoying the holiday!

Copper jewellery

Although the price of silver has been gradually dropping back a bit from it's all time high around this time last year, it's still well over £600/kg which is three times the price it used to be back in the good old days when I first started making jewellery for my stall at All Saints Art & Craft Market in Cambridge. I've been working increasingly with copper.

Here's the latest masterpiece which I'm really fond of featuring an equal four armed cross of St Brigit/Brigid handmade by myself in 20 gauge (1.8mm) wire. I've antiqued it using traditional patination methods. I have abandoned all the natural patination methods, they really don't work as effectively as smelly old liver of sulphur. The high points in the copper have been polished out using fine grade sandpaper and then tumble polished and sealed.

Some matching earrings (bracelet will follow)

and here's an orange double stranded bracelet with a handmade charm created using my rolling mill, doming block and the same artificial antiquing technique above.

All are available in my SoozJewels Etsy shop!

Striking bead and jewellery delivery lorry drivers!

I just heard a rumour that bead delivery drivers are going out on strike. Apparently jewellery delivery drivers may join in out of sympathy so I'm encouraging everyone to top up their supplies now!

Better buy beads quick from my SoozBeads Etsy shop

You can get jewellery from my SoozJewels Etsy shop

Please form an orderly queue!

Hot orange bubbles

A customer has asked me if I can make her some orange bubble beads - I'm giving her the choice of these prototypes. I'm waiting to hear which one she prefers but I like the one third from the left best and have made a set of these today, they are cooling in the kiln as I type!

These are hot stuff, just like the lovely warm weather we are enjoying this week! 

Boys will be boys

This little male Chaffinch has been keeping me company whilst I've been beadmaking all morning. He can see his reflection in the window and thinks it's a rival for the prime real estate of my garden (which is well stocked with bird feeders) and obviously the most des res in the area.

He keeps flying up and gesticulating frantically for the other male to depart but his efforts are in vain. He doesn't seem to be hurting himself but his persistence looks very tiring! I have tried to explain to him that rather than fight himself he should really be building a nest and then finding a nice young lady to settle down and have eggs with but he's not listening. I even tried taping white paper at the window so he couldn't see his reflection so well but it hasn't worked. He is undeterred.

I do hope he decides to have a family soon and so becomes too busy for such testosterone fuelled duelling. After a while it gets a little unnerving ... when he's still like this, it looks like he's staring at me. I've seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", when some goldfinches appeared on the niger feeder and THEN some pigeons on the bird table, I decided it was time to come in ...

Please excuse Sue from attending her stall at the market today

The weather forecast was so bad for Cambridge both on the BBC and xcweather (which is often more accurate), that I decided not to do my stall today. Standing around in the damp only to make a loss after paying for fuel and stall fee just didn't sound attractive when the alarm went off at 5.45am this morning.

Instead, I have been sorting out my glass shorts (gosh, I may not need to order any more glass for months!) and also doing some jewellery photography.

I've been really bad at updating my website lately so I've decided the only way to go is to list them on my other Etsy shop, SoozJewels and here are the ones that I've managed to do so far

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Coppery highlights and a dog blanket

I went to see George (short for Georgina) yesterday and she sorted out the mess left by the other hairdresser and I also had some coppery highlights put in. These have inspired me to create the above new beads (but more of that later). First I have to tell you how absolutely wonderful George is, she has got my world back on an even keel. Before yesterday, EVERY day since my last hairdresser appointment was a bad hair day. George used to cut my hair when we lived close to Lincoln, I followed her around to 3 salons because she was so good. It was a sad day seven years ago when I went to see her for the last time before we moved to Cambridge.

These days she is her own boss running "Aspire" on 46 Clasketgate in Lincoln. She's now about an hour's drive away by the time you get through very heavy rain near Newark and get parked but well worth it.  I've put photographs of her work taken when I got home in an album entitled "New Hairdo" on Facebook, click the link to see if you're interested! (I've made it public so you should be able to see it even if you're not a Facebooker yourself).

The beads in the photograph are made using a custom frit blend which I mixed myself (secret recipe so don't ask for it!) This is the first frit blend I have created and I'm really pleased with it. I made lots of different beads with various base colours and techniques and the ones in the photograph are the best of the bunch. They came out brown and coppery to match my hair, there is a new brown spankle bead in there and an orangey twiddly twirly bead. I'll be going into production to make more of these so keep an eye out for jewellery made with them very soon!

Update on the wrist, it's still a little sore from time to time. I have to go back to see my GP next week to check he's OK with me continuing to take anti-inflammatories and wear the brace. But I know it's getting better, it's nowhere near as bad in the mornings; most of the time apart from the inconvenience of the brace getting in the way, I don't feel it at all. From time to time though doing something (like chopping carrots or operating scissors) will give cause for malediction and for some things I have to take the brace off for (like signing my name), I barely recognise my handwriting at all actually!

I even started tentatively knitting again yesterday. I am breaking myself in very slowly and knitting a square every night for a Battersea Dogs and Cats Home blanket. Battersea is asking crafters across the country to help its most sensitive dogs by knitting them a special security blanket. If you're a dog lover and a knitter and would like to take part, there's a free pattern download on the link. Share the love!

Five new bead sets and looking for my third hairdresser

I've added five new sets of bead just now to the Etsy shop including these. This is a brand new colour in the twiddly twirlies, I did a rusty red version, green and mauve one previously. Given how much I like blue, it's odd that I didn't do a blue one first, anyway the omission is now remedied.

I realised as I was listing that three of the other sets are also blue too but one is a red version of the new deckchair beads

Just got back from the hairdressers. This is my second try at finding a new hairdresser where we're living now. The last one did the cut OK but when she blowdried it, she did it all bouffed up and I looked like a middle-aged spinster, it was all very big hair 80s. She was pregnant, which I didn't know when I made the appointment over the phone else I would've chosen someone else - it's very traumatic changing hairdressers as it is without having to change AGAIN next time you need it trimming. Anyway, I couldn't wait to get home and get the straighteners on it before I was happy with it.

So I had to go to another hairdresser this time, I'm afraid she's given me the worst haircut I've ever had, I told her I wanted it straightening rather than blowdrying after the cut and so deliberately didn't have a shampoo. She didn't listen to anything I told her about my style (which had admittedly disappeared because it I've been putting off going). She has taken far too much off the back and sides and not nearly enough off the top and my fringe. I told her three times to take more off and I just couldn't face having to tell her a fourth time. She still blow dried it after she'd dampened it and I never saw a straightener AT ALL. Sigh. It will grow out I know but am left looking for someone else to cut my hair and due to the small amount she took off the top, it will have to be far sooner than I'd like.

My old hairdresser was a mobile one and she doesn't come out as far as where I live even though it's only 10 miles or so from our last place. All the other hairdressers I've been happy with have left to have families or are now too far away from here. I'm wondering if I could just go bald and shave it myself to save all the trouble, no-one would notice me going grey then ..!

Get the deckchairs out!

It's been lovely here today, warm sunshine, very springlike. These beads came out the kiln yesterday (and are now for sale in my Etsy shop), the narrow stripes remind me of deckchairs (and so does the weather!)

Can you tell I'm looking forward to summer?

Get knotted!

Quietude on the blog front. I am resting my wrist, I have a new brace which means everything I do using my right hand takes longer. Since my last blogging event, I have had more GP visits and one to a specialist physio.

I have a mild case of De Quervains Tenosynovitis, one of the two tendons in the thumb of my right hand is inflamed, this new brace immobilises the thumb. I've been recommended by the physio to have a cortisone injection directly into the wrist but my GP feels that may be a little premature.

Having been put off by reading about the side effects of steroid injections on-line, I'm in no hurry to have one of these. I'm not much worried by the milder ones such as temporary sweats, insomnia, flushing or discolouration of the injection site but long term tendon weakness, more pain than I'm in now and tendon rupture all sound too scary for me to contemplate considering at the moment it's no more than nuisance value pain most of the time apart from first thing in the morning when it can be quite bad. 

Apparently it's a self-limiting complaint which will eventually (12-18 months) get better of it's own accord with minimal treatment. I have an agreement with my GP that I will go and see him again in 2-3 weeks, in the meantime, we're trying wearing the new brace recommended by the specialist and taking maximum dose of anti-inflammatory tablets.

I had a half hour therapy session involving ultrasound and then cold laser treatment. If I were David Beckham or Andy Murray and had to get the tendon working again properly in superfast time, we'd be doing that 3 times a day but in the slower, much poorer lane, I think I'll just wait a bit ... £52 for half an hour is a bit beyond an artisan craft worker's means! :-)

Typing is a bit tricky (but not painful), in fact that's pretty much true of everything involving my hand at the  moment. As part of the resting therapy, I've not done any knitting or crochet for a month, I'm still working but as I said before, everything takes longer, good job it's a quiet time of year, I am avoiding memory wire and only done a teeny bit of hammering.

I've been looking for new things to do with jewellery whilst I get my wrist better and I downloaded a tutorial on making "love knots beads" from metal wire. I've been practicing making these in copper and here are some examples which I'll have on sale at my stall on All Saints Art & Craft Market in Cambridge tomorrow. 

I've also made some sterling silver ones which I've also combined with lampwork beads but you'll have to come along to the stall tomorrow to see these, the forecast is for rain in the afternoon so it'll be best if you all pop along in the morning!

Whether you can come to Cambridge or not tomorrow, have a great weekend!

More spankle colours and patination experiments

Here are a couple of new spankle bead colours for 2012. Navy and aqua (yes, yes, I KNOW ... more blue!) :-) I can't help it, I LIKE blue!

I've been busily restocking my Etsy shop after it got emptied before Christmas. The aqua spankles went very fast so I'll be making more of those.

I'd usually be working on new jewellery designs at this time of year and I have got ideas in my head but I've got a poorly hand at the moment, seeing the doctor about it this afternoon. It's been very sore in the mornings since just before Christmas. I think I overdid it on bending memory wire (it's very tough material). I thought I'd just pulled a muscle and with the Christmas break (and not doing much), I expected it would get better by itself but it hasn't. Beadmaking doesn't hurt too much for most of the beads I'm making but any hammering or filing is difficult; basically anything that involves rotating the hand is painful. I'm not having a moan about it (it's my own stupid fault for making 16 memory wire bracelets in one day ...) I just wanted to explain why there's no new jewellery designs so I'm not just writing this for sympathy (but any going spare would be gratefully received!) :-)

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with organic means of patinating silver that doesn't involve liver of sulphur or platinol. I don't like working with chemicals if I can avoid it, both of the chemicals mentioned are smelly and messy. To avoid doing the patination myself, I have been buying pre-patinated items and wire from Daisychain Extra, an excellent Etsy shop but one of my new year resolutions for Sooz Jewels is to make my own earwires and I can't expect someone else to patinate them. I am addicted to Jo's clasps, my customers adore them, so I'll definitely still be buying those!

So far I have run trials using uncooked and cooked egg yolks. The former doesn't work at all. The latter worked but the tutorial said it would only take 24 hours. My earwires and headpins needed 4 days imprisoning in a little plastic container with mashed up egg before it became dark enough (I'm after gun metal grey, something that looks vintage). After 4 days at room temperature, this was just as smelly and messy as the chemical means (but at least you don't need a Health & Safety sheet when you buy and cook eggs!) The patinated finish from the cooked egg method is also quuite uneven which is disappointing (I might do a photo when all my experiments are finished).

The instructions say to make sure the silver is very clean in order to get an even finish using the cooked egg method. I degreased the silver using alcohol, tumble polished with mild detergent, and then rinsed very thoroughly, only handled the silver using plastic tweezers. If the silver needs more cleaning than this, then I don't think this is the system for me.

I have read that you can use old kitty-litter (the ammonia produced by the decaying cat's urine is the thing that colours the metal apparently). Anyway, I don't have a cat, both my sisters have two but they live well over half an hour's drive away. So I've used my own wee (is that shocking?!) This is just out of interests sake to see if my urine is effective. Please be assured that even though the silver isn't directly touching the urine (it's just in contact with the fumes), I have absolutely no plans on using urine-patinated silver in jewellery that I sell!

I also have some silver hanging up in the shower to see if that will do it. These latest two experiments have only been running for two days though so I'll report back on results as and when anything happens!

And so my thoughts turn to the weekend, it's very strange for me to have a Saturday where there's no Art & Craft market to go to. Normally I'm running around like a mad thing on Fridays! The market starts back at All Saints on the 28th so I'll have to think of something nice to do instead; I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Merry Christmas!

I am very grateful that the only snow we have seen before Christmas this year has been the stick-on snowflakes variety! I have enjoyed so much less stress and aggravation this December which means I'm far more relaxed than I have been the previous two years. I hope your Christmas preparations have gone smoothly and you're feeling calm and free of hassle.

With this message, I send everyone my very bestest wishes for a peaceful and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to follow next week.

Science -v- spirituality; why can't we have both?

I'm fascinated by science. I dropped science subjects at school when I was 14 which I regret profoundly.

I have read a few science books in the (many) intervening years. But as we all know, a little knowledge is dangerous and therefore I am always keen to gain more. I have enjoyed all of Prof Cox's previous TV science programmes and I therefore looked forward to A Night With the Stars last night. The trailer billed it as explaining how things can be in more than one place at once, I assumed he was going to talk about super positioning which I learnt a bit about when reading Decoding the Universe by Charles Seife during the summer.

But he didn't touch on that really. In reading the above book, it helped me to (VERY) broadly follow everything covered in the programme but that wasn't what disappointed me. I don't think there are enough television programmes about science so I'm not criticising the content, quantum mechanics is a gigantic subject to summarise in an hour! Even though I was already aware of the things he presented, I'm sure there will be many who will have enjoyed it and were enlightened by it.

What irritated me was the way Prof Cox dismissed things like spiritual healing as "wishy washy" and implied such things were only practiced by people with tattoos on their bums!

Having savoured both his Wonders series, I didn't realise he was a closed-minded reductionist. I felt quite stung by his ready dismissal of such things as I quite like him.

As I said above, I am very interested in science but I am interested in spiritual matters also - not necessarily in a religious context, until very recently I considered myself a died-in-the-wool-atheist-God-Delusion-zealot-who-will-never-ever-change. I'm also quite superstitious, which I realise is totally at odds with scientific thinking but then that's me, an individual.

I'm convinced that spiritual healing (I prefer the term energy healing actually but not many people have heard of it) can work, and that positive thinking can help with everything in your life but not as a total substitute for medical assistance or doing practical things to make what you want happen. I was so sorry to learn during a recent TV programme about his life that Steve Jobs delayed surgery on his cancer for 9 months whilst he tried to heal himself, I wish he could have tried both at the same time. 

Just because we don't understand the physics or mechanics of how the mind can affect the body, doesn't mean it should be waved away with such certainty by people who haven't tried it or experienced benefits from it.

Last month, my husband caught a cold, one of those nuisance factor ones that are just annoying, your nose runs, you get bunged up, cough and just generally feel unwell but not enough to stop you working like flu does. Last time he had a cold was in early October so this latest one was only a matter of weeks after the last.

Last time, I tried visualising a bubble around my mouth and nose to stop me catching it. It didn't work, In over 30 years of marriage, I have caught every cold that my husband has ever brought home (and he mine). I've always previously seen catching each other's illnesses as an inevitability I can do little to prevent. However, I caught it a couple of days after he did, my symptoms were less severe and I got better before him. I am convinced that the visualisation helped me to have an improved experience of the illness than his.

The end of November was no time for me to catch a cold, it's the busiest time for my business, I could not allow myself to be slowed down in the slightest. I point blank refused to accept the idea that I was going catch this latest sniffle. I steadfastly would not entertain the idea that I was going to be ill.

I put some mechanical preventions in place, I ensured that I didn't share a towel with him, I cooked all our meals whilst he was in full coughing and sneezing mode and made him sleep facing away from me. I changed my visualisation technique, instead of the bubble, which you can't keep up at all times because you do have to think about other things during the course of the day, I decided thats'probably why it didn't work. This time, whenever I was near to him and he sneezed or coughed, I imagined a bottle cleaner going up and down my nose removing any viruses that had got lodged in there since last time I did it. When I was visualising, I could feel a slight tingle in my nose so I was sure it was doing something.

Result - NO cold, I didn't catch it. Geoff has been well for a couple of weeks and I got all my work done. It could be it was just sheer bloody-minded determination and singled-minded focus that helped me avoid it but this in iteself is a kind of visualisation.

My lack of a cold will probably be dismissed by peremptory scientists as a coincidence and that the mechanical measures I put in place were the way I stayed well. That might be so but I am not sure so I'm not dismissing it. I am convinced that without that visualisation, I would have got it the same way as I did all the others. Making sweeping statements saying that things like spiritual healing don't work without KNOWING whether they do is a bit like all those people who dismissed Darwin's work who now look like right berks. I do hope Prof Cox doesn't regret his repudiation at some point when we have more knowledge.

I'd like to remind him that Richard Woolley (a UK astronomer) said Space travel is utter bilge in 1956 (one year before Sputnik).

Cox himself used a Humphry Davy quotation during the programme: Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume that our views of science are ultimate, that there are no mysteries in nature, that our triumphs are complete and that there are no new worlds to conquer. (Humphry Davy invented the first electric light).

Whilst I was watching Professor Brian Cox's programme (for some reason I thought it was live), I tried to visualise him sneezing and concentrated on it for around ten minutes ... I jumped when Geoff sneezed (I kid you not!) and I stopped.

So Brian, if you're reading this and you sneezed at around 9.30ish last night - my wishy washy brain made that happen! (And before you ask, I don't have any tattoos!)

Frosted front door

I don't normally get much time to write alot in December; it's the busiest time of the year for my business. However, today has been a bit of a freebie, I was planning to be doing an extra day on the Art & Craft Market in Cambridge but the weather forecast was so bad and as only seven stalls turned up on Thursday, I'm pretty certain it was cancelled. I let the Market Manager know I wouldn't be there and I imagine I will find out tomorrow if anyone braved the cold sleety rain. The forecast is fine for tomorrow, even if it wasn't, I would still probably be there on the last full Saturday before Christmas.

So I've used the "extra" time to do some Christmas preparations (shopping list and hemming a new tablecloth I've made). I've also got a ton of ironing out of the way and made some more jewellery stock ready for tomorrow. When I'm jewellery making and ironing, I tend to watch films and TV programmes on DVD using my Lovefilm account. Today, I saw Julie & Julia. It's a marvellous film, I watched it twice and then watched Nora Ephron's Director's Commentary too.

The film is a true story about a girl in a job she hates who decides to cook her way through Julia Child's classic cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which consists of well over 500 recipes. She sets herself the deadline of one year and blogs her daily experiences. The film intercuts with scenes from Julia Child's life in France during the 1950s, the time before she wrote the cookbook.

I was a little horrified when Nora's commentary describes bloggers as "predators sitting watching their own life" and refers to the people who are mentioned in others' blogs having their "privacy totally invaded". Um, I hope I don't do that!

There are lots of things that happen in my life and those around me that I specifically DON'T blog about for that very reason, plus other things that I think aren't remotely interesting to anyone else and others that are too private.

People who read my blog don't really know everything about the real me, I prefer to think that my readers get a partial view. Edie Sedgwick described Andy Warhol's films (some of which she is in) "It's like watching Henry Moore sculpture out of focus".

I was pondering whether this was a good analogy for my blog, (I like pondering, I do it a lot!) when I walked past my front door which has a lovely pattern of frosting in the glass, when it's daylight, some of the garden shows through but the frosted part makes the whole indeterminate - I'd therefore like to use this picture of my rented (and totally gorgeous!) front door as a metaphor for my blog. 

Fellow bloggers of the world, don't let Nora's opinion of bloggers put you off watching the Julie & Julia flick, it really is a brilliant film and Meryl Streep is just great in it. I can't wait to see her (and of course, Anthony Head) in Iron Lady when it comes out on DVD!

Excuses, excuses

Did anyone hear on the travel bulletins about a lorry of Marmite causing delays somewhere oop North on Monday? I remember commenting to DH about how it was unusual that the radio bulletins actually told you what the lorry was carrying, normally they just say the delay is caused by a broken down/jack knifed/overturned lorry. I didn't think it would affect me in the slightest. By the afternoon they were still reporting it as causing delays but it had turned into a lorry of yeast extract as someone obviously realised they were giving Marmite free advertising. Apparently it closed the motorways both ways, I guess it spread out ... (groan).

I ordered some materials on Monday and I particularly want four 18 inch chains as a bride is picking up four pendants from me on Saturday for her bridesmaids. They should have arrived on Tuesday with the postman as a Special Delivery item. When my package didn't turn up with the postman on Wednesday, I rang the supplier and apparently quite a few of their dispatches haven't been delivered because the yeast extract held up a lorry load of mail. I'm really hoping it will turn up today, if it doesn't, I'm thinking that this will be added to those other notorious and classic excuses ...

• The dog ate my homework
• Leaves on the line
• The wrong kind of snow
• Marmite on the motorway

Gosh

Gosh ... I'm busy!

I have got commissions for beads from my Etsy shop, orders from my website and also jewellery commissions from my stall. I don't really feel I deserve any orders from my website, it is so out of date and unloved. However, all this is keeping me extremely busy so this is a quick visit to say that the production system of new indoor studio and outdoor lampwork studio are both working well and keeping me fully occupied.

The photo above is a commission from my Etsy shop for 25 of my pink swirly lampwork beads.

I'll probably be preoccupied 'til Christmas so apologies if my visits here are sporadic and brief!

That's a big 'un

My family came to inspect our new home on Sunday. They came for lunch (soup and a sandwich, I'm not confident of the oven yet to do a full roast for 8). It was super to see everyone but just look at the size of the chew bone that sister, Sandy bought for Missy!

And trust Sandy to take the next picture (it looks VERY rude!)

There's still loads of it left!
This is the best pic in my opinion but it's a bit blurry

New premises

This morning I made beads for the first time for what seems like absolutely ages. Here is the new beadmaking studio, those are leaves from an ash tree (so I haven't escaped the big Autumn clear up after all but it is a little smaller than the one at Gardener's Cottage so maybe it won't take as long!) Even on a damp and grey November day, the stone looks lovely.

Here's the interior taken from the window end

And here is the reverse angle

I'm going to put up a couple of large pinboards with some posters on so I can get a similar look and feel to my old studio which I have missed so much. I also have an idea to disguise the rafters and bring the ceiling level down to make it feel more cosy. Note our old fridge freezer is sharing the space with me (I can't be without prawns or icecream for long!)

Whilst I had DH and his camera outdoors, I got him to take a couple of shots of the pretty stream which runs along the bottom of the garden, here it is looking towards the West

and here it is looking towards the East

We're very happily settled in now, all the boxes are empty and the cartons returned to the removal company, some pictures have yet to be put on the wall but to all intents and purposes, everything is back to normal again. I even found somewhere for the sundial ...

Checking in

We got internet back up and running again yesterday evening. It's awful being out of touch ... five whole days without e-mails, blogs or Facebook. I have lots of e-mails, Etsy convos and blog reading to catch up on!

The move went pretty well, we're getting settled into our new home, but I haven't got either of my studios up and running again yet, I can now find pretty much everything I need in the house (our cereal bowls went missing for 4 days ... I got so, so, SO sick of toast for breakfast) and I only found the boots that I wear to my market stall this morning!)

One surprise was that what I assumed was a built-in fridge freezer in the new kitchen is in fact only a fridge. So when our order from Sainsbury's arrived, we had nowhere to put the frozen items ... prawns and ice cream for dinner on Wednesday ... yum! 

Some filing cabinet keys went missing, I got a new one cut in Cambridge this afternoon - EIGHT QUID! Only took the guy a matter of seconds once I gave him the 3-digit number on the lock ... I'm definitely in the wrong business but am infinitely grateful nothing else too dreadful went wrong.

So the filing cabinet that is IN MY WAY can now be moved and then the house will be straight but my studios are another matter. I am starting on unpacking all the boxes which comprise my jewellery making studio tomorrow, I'm hopeful I will be finished on that front on Monday evening at the latest but it'll be at least another week til I get round to being able to make beads again. The outbuilding which is to be my new beadmaking HQ is choc-a-block full of lots of things that need a good sorting out (or throwing out!) Some items are heavy so I need DH's help to move things around, everything just got plonked in there willy-nilly. As he's already taken a week off work to move, he has to get back to earning some proper money next week so it'll be a while before I can get back to lampworking unfortunately. 

 

In the meantime, I'm just checking in to prove that I am still connected to the universe. I'm so relieved the move is over and looking forward to getting back into jewellery and beadmaking routines once again - doing something different for a while (even if it has been a bit stressful) has whetted my apetite and given me ideas ... there's nothing like being UNABLE to make jewellery or beads to really, really make me particularly want to do both of those things ... more soon!