It's hot. Obvs.

Obviously it's hot. Because it's summer. But hot weather means very limited beadmaking time because on a very warm day the shed reaches 34°C by lunchtime and my brain stops working at about 30°C and I start making stupid mistakes and crap beads, so on the days where anything above temperatures of 27°C are forecast I don't even attempt making beads.

As such, I've been working sporadically – a couple of hours here, a couple there – and I only have a few beads to show you. June was a bit of a write-off, really, not just because of the heat but because I had a couple of doctor and hospital appointments and a wodge of worry and stress alongside them but it's OK because it all turned out fine in the end. It was just my woman hormones making my boobs go mental, is all. Fun.

But yep, beads. There are the very jolly Bubblebumps ones which are un-encased orange beads decorated with turquoise scrolls, little slightly raised blue dots, and pink 'bubblebumps' which are raised bumps with a bubble trapped inside each one. Innovative naming.

I don't know what the orange is. It's definitely Effetre and it's not their standard orange – it's some kind of special – but the label has long fallen off the bundle of rods so I can't be sure exactly. It's a glorious colour, though. The pink is Double Helix Rhea Light which seems to vary in its hot pinkness from batch to batch.

I also have these double encased spotties:

A couple of weeks back I got a bit obsessed with double encasing. I wanted to make beads with an opaque cylindrical core encased with a coloured transparent and then encased again with clear but so that you could clearly see the demarcation between the coloured transparent and the clear. I managed it eventually and I worked out how to do it so that the opaque core doesn’t bleed onto the encasing layer whilst also making sure that the encasing doesn’t overshoot the core, all while keeping the opaque core cylindrical.

The effect is one of those things that easily goes unnoticed, after all, it’s just a little bead, right? I mean most people wouldn’t look twice at one of these and consider all the things that I just told you about. It’s not a fancy floral, it hasn’t got any inclusions, it’s got no silver glass – it’s a basic fat donut-shaped bead. So why bother? I think I just enjoy setting myself a bead challenge and completing it, really. Normally those challenges involve making the most simple-looking beads but simple-looking isn’t always simple to achieve and getting it right is where I get my glassy kicks.

I made a couple of other beads in the same colours (Effetre Light Violet 041 and Light Turquoise 034) and then it got too hot to carry on that day so I ended up with just a trio.

The spacers here are Bullseye Light Aqua 1408 which is a bit greener than Effetre's Aqua. Lovely colour.

All of the beads pictured above are currently available to purchase in my shop.

In knitting news...

I've finally taken some sock photos because there is nothing like contorting your legs into photographable positions while wearing wool socks in peak summer, is there? I had to do it as the finished pairs pile was going a bit Tower of Pisa.

Today I'm showing you these ones. The pattern is Soma by Summer Lee from her book The Sock Project.

They're knitted with Yarnsmiths Merino Sock in shade 2K367 Magenta.

And in other news...

I went to London last week to spend a couple of days there with my friend Jen. It was hot and Londony and we walked and talked and we went to Hackney City Farm to pet goats and sheep, and I barely took any photos because I just don't tend to when I'm doing stuff, plus in London there's a constant fear that someone will snatch your phone as they ride past on an electric scooter or bike. Do not even get me started on those things. Living in Cambridge was already a bike nightmare but now electric bikes and scooters are here being a pedestrian is more perilous than ever. But anyway, yes, I shall leave you with the one photo I took of the adorable and very vocal sheep and goats of Hackney City Farm.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, don't overheat and make sure you've put a bowl of water out for the birds and other garden wildlife. Bye!

My brain is a pillock

A whole week of me not blogging has occurred, mainly because I've had next-to-no beads to show you.

This is partly due to the flat bead battery in my head and partly because we went to London on Tuesday night to see Weezer (my most favourite band in the whole world ever ever) so I spent most of Wednesday looking at gig photos and videos on the internet whilst not getting a whole lot of work done because I was in a floaty Weezer bubble of loveliness.

But yes, flat bead battery. My perfectionism is a terrible issue lately. The pressure I put myself under to get my beads just so is ridiculous and I know it's ridiculous but I can't help it. I get annoyed with myself over it and people try and help by telling me that a bead which I think isn't right is perfectly alright but it doesn't help because I know that it's not my idea of right. It's very difficult to explain all this to non-pernickety people. The way I get through these episodes—and I will get through it, I always do—is to tell myself that it's just the way my brain works. My brain can't help wanting to make my beads as neat/tight/precise/tidy as I can possibly make them. It's just the way it is. And that's science. I've read a lot about it. The brain of a perfectionist physically works differently to that of a non-perfectionist. Trust me, if I could quit the bead fussiness I'd be over the moon as it would mean that I could make way more beads than I do. I'm not a perfectionist in all areas of my life - just the creative ones. And I've always been this way, right back to primary school.

The only thing I can do, because those helpful books and articles about 'letting go of your perfectionism' are absolutely pointless, is to embrace it. Yes, my stringer placement is good. Yes, my dots are even. Yes, my beads are all the same size. That is what makes my beads my beads. And my beads are like that because my brain made me make them that way.

Oh, enough of this wallowing about my pillock of a brain. It's boring me so it must be boring you. I'm just trying to explain why I haven't had many beads to show you this past week or so.

Whilst working through my current period of This Bead Needs To Be Killed With Water Now, I've amassed a collection of half-sets and one-offs that are totally cromulent beads and they need homes. I'm going to be selling them in my new Facebook Group at 19:30 (UK time) tonight.

There will be spacers, pairs, mini-strands and a couple of strands of Lonelies for sale. You can join my Facebook Group here but you will need to be a Facebook user to do so. I understand that not everyone uses or wants to use Facebook and I apologise for that but when you sell on the internet and market your work through social media you need to stay on top of things, beat tricksy algorithms and experiment with different selling platforms. My 'normal' bead sets are, and will always be, available on my website. In fact, this set of 'Cloudburst' beads are on there now.

I've left these spotty beads shiny but I've added the option of tumble-etching, at no extra cost.

And now I must away to the shed. Happy Monday!

Doing something with the day

Every Saturday, Chris and I end up doing the same old thing. We lounge around in our dressing gowns until about eleven o'clock, drinking tea and doing computer stuff, and then we get dressed and head into town to do essential shopping bits. We grab lunch and then come home where we drink more tea, make dinner, eat dinner, watch Saturday night telly and then fall asleep on the sofa.

Well, not yesterday! We decided that we should actually do something on a Saturday for once. So we lounged about in our dressing gowns and drank tea and did computer stuff until about ten o'clock instead, and then we went to the London Transport Museum. I've got a thing about the London Underground, you see. I think it stems from all that commuting to see Chris I did every other weekend for three and a half years.

If I had a quid for every time I've been through this station, I'd have... at least two hundred quid

When I'm using the tube, going up and down all the escalators and stairs, walking along the platforms, looking at all the beautiful tiles that each station has, using the tube map, and just being in those tunnels, my mind always wanders to the history of it and how it was built. I've read books and watched many documentaries about it and it always blows my mind. If you have a spare forty minutes, I highly recommend watching 'How They Dug the Victoria Line' which is currently available on BBC iPlayer. It's a 1969 documentary and it's flipping marvellous.

It's not just the physical thing that is the Underground that I love, it's the design aspect of it too; the iconic roundel, the Johnston typeface and the signage. Yes, London dwellers, I'm one of those annoying people who take photos of boring stuff on the Underground. (But I try and do it in the least disruptive way possible. I'm not a fool who stands on the left hand side of escalators, I never wheel a wheely case anywhere on the system, and I always stand back and let people off the train before I get on. I respect the Underground with every fibre of my being.)

Simple instructions that make so much sense

The London Transport Museum is housed inside what used to be the old Flower Market building in Covent Garden and the building itself is really beautiful.

Inside the London Transport Museum, looking down on the buses, trams and trolley cars

The museum isn't all about trains. The first part of it covers boats and horse-drawn transport such as omnibuses. You can actually sit inside one of them, although you end up sitting with a couple of those freakish museum mannequins. (You know the ones. They have very matt, slightly grainy faces, very bristly hair, they often have overly-shiny fingernail bits, and they look like they smell of damp straw and musty lofts and old airing cupboards. Where do they get those mannequins from? Someone somewhere makes those.)

I do love a bit of proper old lettering. Traditional signwriting is such an insanely impressive skill and if I could travel back in time it's one of the things I'd love to have a go at. A lot of the road vehicles in the museum have beautiful hand-painted lettering.

And then there was the lettering on the Metropolitan Railway locomotive number 23:

This steam train is one of only two that survive from the original one hundred and sixteen that were made for the Metropolitan Railway, which was the world's first underground railway system. (If I had a photo of the actual train I would post it, but we were stood next to a family with a gaggle of really noisy, out-of-control kids and, to be frank, I didn't want them in my photo, so I'll have to go back and take a picture another time.)

You can sit in one of number 23's carriages which I found to be a right old thrill. It feels so olden days, and it smells of olden days too, in a good way.

I sat in there for a couple of minutes trying to picture what it would be like to be in the carriage inside an underground tunnel. The thought of steam trains in the underground system is quite terrifying really. It made me laugh to read that when the Metropolitan Railway opened, smoking on it was forbidden.

There was also a carriage from a more modern tube train. I think it might be Q-Stock, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

There are posters all around the museum and right now they have an exhibition called Night Shift - London After Dark which is full of posters, photos and films about night shift workers, people using the tube to travel to theatres and cinemas, and how the tube tunnels were used as wartime shelters. I really liked this old poster that shows who uses the tube and at what time.

"Not all Patrons are punctual"

I should have taken more photographs and I'm annoyed that I didn't but I think that's a good indicator of how much I enjoyed the museum; I was so busy reading stuff and looking at things I forgot to snap them with my iPhone. An entry ticket to the London Transport Museum (which is currently £17.00 for an adult and younglings go free) gives you access for a year so I'm fully intending to go back on a week day. I have nothing against children but there were a lot of them at the museum yesterday. I wanted to have a go at the driving a tube train simulation thing but I didn't get chance because the kids were all over it, and who can blame them? So I'd like to return on a quieter day to take more photos and catch up on the bits I missed, like the Crossrail section. I'd also like to go to the Museum Depot in Acton.

An added London bonus: Chris and I popped in to see my littlest sister at the restaurant she manages in Covent Garden. It was lovely to see her.

So yes, hurrah for getting off your arse on a Saturday and actually doing something with the day. Nobody said anything about Sundays, though, which would explain why at midday I'm still in my dressing gown, drinking tea and doing computer stuff. I'd better go and get dressed and do something with the day.

Have a great Sunday.

Marvellous Mister Minchin

That there is Tim Minchin and on Thursday night Chris and I went to see him and the Heritage Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in our nation's capital.  I'm not fibbing or exaggerating when I tell you that the show was one of the best things I've ever seen in my whole entire thirty-three-and-a-bit years of life.  It was astounding.

I've only ever seen the Royal Albert Hall from the outside and on the television and that magnificent building is a wonder in itself.  I snapped a few pictures on my iPhone; the one above shows the Hall from the outside and the one below is inside, looking up.

The following picture was taken before the show started and you can see that we had a good view of Tim and his piano:

If you're familiar with the work of Mister Minchin you'll know that he combines comedy with his own music.  If you've not seen him or heard his songs, here is his YouTube channel but be warned - there will be swears. Minchin really is quite the musical genius and his lyrics and wordplay are amazing.  His songs cover a wide range of subjects - social satire and religion (Minchin is an atheist) are two favourites.  Tim also writes the most beautiful love songs.  The wonderful Heritage Orchestra added another dimension to Tim's already excellent songs and I had quite a few hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck moments.  I laughed and I also cried.

The night was just superb and I cannot wait to see Mister Minchin again. In fact, the show we saw was being recorded for a DVD so we should be able to relive the whole experience again very soon.

Yippee!

Wicked Weekend

Chris took me to London for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.  On Saturday afternoon we went to see Wicked which was absolutely brilliant!  Afterwards I kept wondering about Elphaba's make-up.  I reckon Rachel Tucker must have a heck of a hard time getting rid of all that green!

We stayed in a swank riverside hotel on Saturday night.  I like to judge a hotel room by its tea and coffee making facilities and these ones were great - big mugs, a variety of Twinings tea and Walkers chocolate biscuits, no less!  Yesterday we had a wander along South Bank and ate lunch in the pub where we went on our first date and then we caught the train home.

We had a really great weekend!