Inspiration turned into art glass ...

I thought I'd share a couple of images of what I made the other day, inspired by some visits to ancient sites ... I can't help but feel inspired by these places 

 

New life !!!!!

It's been SO very long since I last blogged ... so I am going to attempt to rectify this terrible habit of blog neglect :)

Well ... I don't really know where to start ... life is a strange old thing, isn't it ... just when you are just about to give up on it, it throws you a lifeline !

My lifeline came back in May, in the form of Rob ... it's a very long story really ... about 15 odd years long actually :)

Many years ago, I started a relationship with a wonderful, caring, thoughtful guy ... but as with so many things in life that don't work out, it just wasn't our time I don't think ... he always was 'the one' for me, and over the years I have bumped through life, never quite settling with anyone, and making some pretty questionable relationship choices.

Anyway .. fast forward to 2011 and the fates decided it was finally time to smile on us and he came looking for me :)

So here I am .... I never for a minute figured that having such momentous but good things happen would be so tiring ( in a creative sense ), but it has been .. and still is really, but I am getting used to this whole new way of being, slowly but surely :) I still find it hard to focus though ... I have so many thoughts, dreams and plans flying around in my tiny brain, still, but I am getting there and starting to feel more settled and grounded now :)

Now is the time to start to focus on building the business ... there will be no more misery, stress, frustration, depression ... and lots more happiness instead :)

I have so many new inspirations right now ... they are slowly starting to formulate themselves into concrete plans and designs ... Rob has enriched my life in so many ways .. but what is having the biggest influence on my work at the moment, are  the beautiful sites that he is showing me :)

I have always loved stone circles and BEAUTIFUL countryside, but have just never managed to get to see them ... but now... finally, I can !
I don't think I will ever stop being grateful to karma, and to Rob for enriching my life so much !

Anyway ... I shall stop waffling on for now, and share just a few of the beautiful sights that I have seen just lately ... I need to get to work after my coffee :)

Woop .. it's here already !!!

Time to start doodling my designs this evening :D

A cheeky purchase

I was so pleased to have a good run of sales this morning, so I decided to take the plunge and buy this ...

http://www.mosaicheaven.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=114&products_id=764

Can't wait to have a play !!!!!!!

I'm hoping for some nice beads to list for sale tomorrow too ... I shall need to replace what I have spent today, so that I can pay some bills... I can be so naughty sometimes !!!

Mini Visual journey ...

I just thought ( for posterity ) that I'd leave myself a mini visual diary of the way that my Matryoshka's have progressed .... I wonder where I will take them ? I can't seem to stop making them at the moment ...

Here is the fabric that first inspired me ...

Here are the first 2 I tried to make ... not great, but a start ...

Here are the rest ...

Phew ... there ... that's pretty much all of them.

All in one spot for me and maybe others to look back on :)

Have a lovely day all xx

Went for a walk in the countryside ....

It's been a little while since I posted a blog .... I think that sometimes, I just get stuck in the day to day routine of trying to work ... clean house and see to the kids, and I forget to think about things.

This tuesday was different though :) My lovely friend, Milton, took me out for the day and we went for a ramble through some beautiful Shropshire countryside. Now, Shropshire ( I am sorry to admit), has never really got me too fired up before. I now know that the reason is purely that it's a county I have never visited before, and so I have never had the chance to appreciate.

We were blessed with a beautiful day on Tuesday ... the sun was up and the sky was blue, pretty much all day.
We started by having a wander around the gorgeous little town of Much Wenlock.
The place is just beautiful !!!! Lots of lovely old and quaint buildings, and the ruins of an Abbey could be peered at over a high wall. Shame the Abbey ruins were closed really ... they'll be open in April though.

Here's a picture I found on the net ..... it'd be lovely to go back and walk around the place when it's open to the public though ..

After a slap up breakfast in a lovely little cafe, we went for a drive up to Wenlock Edge.

What a lovely, lovely place to wander around ... we went on a walk along the edge, up past an old quarry, and caught some beautiful views through breaks in the trees, down into the valley.

Shame we couldn't get a picture really, but it was just fantastic looking down and watching two red kites below in the valley, hunting ... just awesome !!

I decided to do the artsy black and white thing with this view down into the valley...

After walking along the Edge, we decided to drive through Church Stretton and up the Long Mynd .... it was absolutely gorgeous up there .... my kind of countryside ... much more hilly and open to the elements.

We even saw someone's hang gliding rig sitting there ... the owners were in a car drinking hot coffee .... waiting for the right wind, I suppose 

This is The Long Mynd ... taken by a proper photographer ( searched on google)

And here is one taken with my point and shoot, hehe

And here's the rig and wind sock ... see how windy it was !...

All in all I had the best day out !!! A great mate ... plenty of fresh air and some much needed exercise !!

Here are a few more pics I wanted to share, and then a couple of beads that I felt inspired to make ...

And some beads ...

I had a wonderful day out ... took some lovely photographs to remember it by ... I ached SO much as I am SO out of shape, but it was worth the aches for the inspiration gained :)

Thanks for letting me share a lovely day with you :)

lesley xx

Taking it easy today ...

Well kind of ... I've spent the morning tearing my hair out, trying to take half decent bead photographs. The light is so dull that's it's almost impossible to get a decent image that doesn't need photoshopping half to death.

So how's it been going since I last posted ?
Slow - ish really. Steady, but slow. I think that when my partner first lost his job, I kind of panicked and threw myself into accepting every sniff of a commission, but then I started struggling to keep to deadlines, so I had to apologise to a few customers and slow down a little bit.
My biggest problem / fear is creative burnout. The pressure on me to be creative and productive when I am the sole earner in the family can be horrendous at times, but regardless of how I might be feeling, the bills still have to be paid, so I try and just plod on most of the time.

If it wasn't for all of my wonderful customers though, my mortgage and other bills simply wouldn't get paid, so I shouldn't really complain. I feel privileged to be able to sell what I enjoy making so much :)

So other life stuff ... I still have a bad shoulder. The physiotherapist thinks it's tendonitis, and is giving me some exercises to do. It's not much better yet, but I haven't lost any more movement, so that has to be positive.
I just wish that when it hurts, it didn't hurt quite so much.

My middley had his birthday at the weekend .... 13 already .... teenager number 2 to try to survive, LOL
He's getting so grown up now ... he went bowling with a friend instead of me taking him bowling .. I guess that at 13, bowling with Mum just isn't the done thing anymore *sigh*
The whole family pooled his birthday money and he is now the owner of his very first console ! It's so quiet here now, haha .... I wouldn't normally allow him to spend hours at a stretch on it, but it's new, and it's half term, so I'll let him have his fun for now :)

Anyway ... that's pretty much it from me for now... so I'll round up today's post with a few new bead pictures

If you got this far, reading ... congratulations ! LOL

Enjoy the rest of your day :)