Happy happy happy!

Lovely landlady has finally come back from her extended holiday and given me the go ahead to use the conservatory for my studio...so I'm good to go!

 And if it looks really tidy...that's because it is :) For the first time ever, I might add. Normally, my studio looks like an explosion in a glass factory. However, the conservatory is also the entrance to our house, so I have to make an effort to keep it tidy. Also, Bob likes to stick his beak in everything (as cats do) and I didn't want him getting bits of glass stuck in his paws.

I haven't mentioned Bob, have I? He's our newly adopted cat. An ex-stray, when he was found he had rope wrapped around his tail, so he had to have the tail amputated. Mostly he seems fine with that, although he does sometimes have episodes of invisible tail chasing! I guess if humans can get phantom limb syndrome, cats can too. Apart from that though, he's a very happy chap!

Beads in strange places

Well, still no workshop and I'm suffering from serious glassy withdrawal symptoms! However, I've been having a root around and I've found lots of beads that disappeared in the house move, so I've just listed some of them on Ebay.

 One of the beads, however, I didn't have to search for...it just turned up inside one of my shoes! Now I do have a LOT of beads around the house, in various containers, but they do have the habit of appearing in the oddest places. I have found one in the car, in a lampshade and strangest of all, inside a cat's toy ball, instead of the bell! I can't even begin to imagine how they get in all these places, the little blighters must have a mind of their own!

Anyway, here's a taster of some of the beads on Ebay...

Charity Auction

I've just listed three little glass cat beads on Ebay, in aid of South Devon Cats Rehoming, the charity who gave us the lovely Noel :) They are always in need of donations for the care and upkeep of the cats. After all, the food, cat litter, vaccinations and general care don't come cheap! Trevor and Faye at Happy Stay Cattery do a fantastic job looking after the cats, so even though Noel is no longer with us, I'd like to give something back to the charity.

Multicolour Mervyn, Jasper and Roy are all waiting for a new home, so go on...you know you want to!

Back to basics

It has now been a month since I have made any beads :(  I've still not got my new workshop set up and I am really missing making beads. On my days off work I find myself drifting around the house not knowing what to do with myself. On a couple of occasions I have even resorted to *gasp* doing housework! What on earth did I used to do with myself before I started making beads? 

Typically I'm full of ideas for beads, this is always the way when I know I can't make anything. All I can do is write down all my ideas and hope that they look just as amazing when I eventually get to make them as they are in my head right now...

So anyway, this week's beads on Ebay are ones I made just before Christmas. I've really gone back to basics, making lots of lovely simple organic beads - no raised decorations, dots, moons or flowers...just luscious colours.

And then I made this set, which is the complete opposite! More Multicolour and lots of silver. I could imagine finding these little treasures at the bottom of the ocean!

So...next time I post, I hope to be up and running again...see you then!

I'm back...but with sad news :(

Some of you may remember Noel, our rescue cat - he was the inspiration for the cat beads in the charity auction on Ebay a few months back. Unfortunately, we recently had to make the horrible decision to have him put to sleep. Despite being a fairly young cat, he had quite a lot of health problems. He had reached a point where his suffering was only going to get worse and we just couldn't let it go on. Needless to say, we both miss him loads. He may have only been with us for 8 months, but he was a real character...and he couldn't have asked for a better home to live out his last days - he was an absolutely spoilt rotten cat! Here he is 'helping' me to list some beads on Ebay;

Bye bye lovely boy, we'll miss you :(

In other news...I finally have some new beads on Ebay! I've just moved house - again - and I haven't got my new workshop set up yet, so these are beads I made before the move. As you can see, I'm still playing with one of my favourite colours,the aptly named Multicolour.

I love this one and was very tempted to keep it, but decided to let it go to a new home :)

I've found another favourite glass - Dark Silver Plum. It looks like a dark, dark purple but when you give it special treatment in the flame, it goes a lovely metallic bronzy silvery purple. This moon bead is wrapped in DSP shards...shards being what you get when someone braver than me blows molten glass into a bubble and then breaks it!

I guess one of my New Year's Resolutions should be to have a go at blowing shards myself. How scary can it really be? Oh and looking at the beads I've just listed, maybe I should make some in brighter colours again - they're all looking very dark and moody this week!