Mince Pies

I spent this morning making beads and this afternoon baking mince pies. These are homemade all-butter shortcrust pastry filled with mincemeat, almonds, cherries and a slosh of Jack Daniel's for added Christmassy naughtiness!

Glam Tigers

Some chunkier-than-usual tiger-esque beads. These have a little bit of goldstone inside them which catches the light and glitters beautifully.

Wiggledots

It's nice to finally have a batch of decent black glass! The last lot I had was awful - it kept pitting and going all scummy on the surface of any bead I made. I took delivery of a new wodge of black glass a week-or-so ago and it is pure glossy, shiny loveliness. I made these 'Monochrome' Wiggledot beads yesterday - simple but striking.

So how's your Christmas stuff going? Are you a super-organised shopper who has got everything bought, wrapped and stashed away or are you a leave-it-to-the-last-minute-and-panic type? I was the latter last year but I'm pleased to say that I'm somewhere between the two this year. I haven't written Christmas cards yet but I have done a lot of present shopping. I'm trying to do something Christmas-related every day. I'm having two Christmases this year, you see. On the 21st Sally, Paul, Robyn, Dylan, Emily and her fella Ben are coming to see us and we're all going to have a 'fake' Christmas day. We'll do all that we usually do but four days early. This is because Sally and Paul are spending actual proper Christmas with Paul's sister in Telford, Emily is spending the day with Ben and his family and I'm going to Manchester for three days to do the Yuletide thing with Chris and his family. So I have no option but to be a heck of a lot more organised than I was this time last year!

Thank You

I'm a lucky beadmaker, you know. Here we are in the middle of a worldwide financial nightmare and I still have customers that support me and buy my beads. I just want to say 'Thank You' to all of my wonderful bead-buyers for your continued custom. It enables me to keep doing what I love and for that I am extremely grateful. So great big thanks to you all.

Thank you also to all the people who've booked beadmaking lessons. It'll be great to meet all of you and I'm sure we'll have an absolute blast of a glass-melting day! There are only four lessons left so if you're interested in spending a day of beadmaking fun with yours truly please email me for available dates.

'Festive Glow' Luminobeads

Well, they look festive to me. I really like non-traditional Christmas colours like these. Amber, dark green and plum. Rich and warm.