Hyped up!

I feel very hyped up today - I'm not sure why. I think I'm just going through one of my very productive/obssessed spells! I've just added 7 new bead sets to the shop - if my hubby hadn't moaned at me I would have been outside making beads again today. I went to a Bead Fair in Norwich this morning and met some lovely people. Some of them I only knew virtually from forums so it was nice to put a face to the name. I also met a lovely fellow beadmaker - hi Felicity!

My head is buzzing with ideas for beads - I just want to get out there and do it all. Trouble is when I'm like this I could talk about beads all day! I'm also planning a revamp of my studio soon - I want to get a bigger window put in. It's a bit dark and dingy in there at the moment. It'll be nice to sit and look out of the window instead of a bare wall.

Under the weather.

My Crohn's is playing up so I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. I should have taken notice of the warning signs. My stomach has been making some awful noises for the last week and has felt really bloated but I've carried on eating as normal. It was really painful last night and I thought I was going to be in for night of being sick but thankfully I didn't. I'm going to give my poor tum a rest today and stick to the Complan.

I've got some beads to put on the website so I should be back later today.

Organics

I've been making lots of organic beads recently. I tend to go through phases of making a particular type of bead which is good because you can discover great new colour schemes or designs by focusing on a certain technique.


So what exactly is an organic bead? Well to me organic beads have an element of nature in them, often resembling rocks or stones and the designs are very random. I use silvered ivory a lot in my organic beads - it creates some fantastic effects. Some colours react with each other to produce lovely organic designs. These turquoise and ivory 'stone' beads are a good example of that.


I'm really pleased with these ivory beads. They have beautiful veining in them just like marble. I'm undecided though whether I should etch them or not. Both these sets should be on the website later tonight.

Wish I'd gone..

to the Flame Off in Towcester. It was the first UK meeting of glass obsessed people today and I didn't go. Why? Well I'm not sure really - partly due to my unadventurous nature I think. I don't really like travelling and I'd have had to go on my own. Ah well maybe next year.


I'm having a little trouble with my emails at the moment so if you've sent me a mail and you haven't received a reply yet, just leave a comment at the end of this post. I've sent emails to a couple of people but I don't think they got them.

I made this set of beads yesterday - they should be in the shop sometime tomorrow. I also made some organic-y tabs but I'm undecided as to whether I should etch them or not.

Hectic day!

What a hectic day I've had. I seem to have been rushing about all day. It was my Dads 65th birthday so I thought I'd make him a cake. But me being me I left it till the last minute. Josh (my eldest) had to be at the school for 3 0'clock to practise for a concert. For those of you that don't know I home school both my boys but Josh still joins in and plays guitar at the after school Rock Club. I got back from the weekly shop at Tesco about 1.30, unpacked it & did some lunch for the boys then whipped up a quick chocolate cake. That was in between packing up orders ready for the post office. I dropped Josh off and popped round to see my Dad who was feeling a bit depressed at officially being a pensioner! I got home about 5ish, quickly did some tea and then I had to be at the school for the concert at 6 o'clock. Phew!!

The concert was pretty good. I'm amazed at how brave and confident some of these kids are. When I was their age I used to blush if a teacher asked me a question! There is no way I would have had the guts to stand up on stage and perform.

Needless to say I haven't been able to make any beads today. I've still got a couple of sets to put on the website from earlier in the week. Perhaps I'll get round to that tomorrow. Here's a picture of a set of buttons I put in the shop yesterday. I really like these - they're quite random which surprisingly is quite difficult for me to do.

New beads

I've been busy at the torch for the last couple of days - to be honest I can't get enough of it at the moment (beadmaking that is!!). I fell asleep last night thinking of beads - how strange (or sad as my kids would prefer to call it) is that. I'm sure all you other beadheads out there know what I'm talking about though.

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all of your lovely messages about the new website - it really is appreciated. I'll be listing some new beads tomorrow - my mailing list subscribers will get a note through as soon as they're in the shop.

Lazy cat!

Look at the state of this! This is my lazy, slightly chubby but very cute cat Tinker, or T for short. T likes to eat on his own so he's developed a little tactic to ensure that he gets the food dish all to himself. His brother is very jealous so T knows that if he lays like this when his breakfast is dished up he'll get someone come over and make a fuss of him, which in turn will bring his brother over. Then off T trots to nab all the food in peace!

New website soon ready.

The last few days have been spent making beads and working on the new website. I was hoping to set it live tonight but I'm not sure whether it'll be done in time. I'm taking the boys to the pictures later this afternoon but I'll carry on working on it when I get home. If it's not done tonight then it will be sometime over the weekend. Here's a taster of some of the beads which will be available.

I've joined the Bloggers!

I've finally decided to join the blogging revolution. It's not that I was against it, more that I know how chaotic and disorganised I can be and I wanted to be sure that I could devote the time to keeping it updated!

I've been struggling with deciding on a name for my new bead website for the last few days. I've had my old website, Rachel's Lampwork for quite a while now but I wanted to revamp it. I'm moving to a new host too so I thought this would be the ideal time to give it a new name. I'm hoping to be able to offer more than lampwork beads when it's all up and running so the old name doesn't really fit any more.