I feel I have abandoned you...

I have just checked and it was Wednesday since I last blogged!

The reason is this... I have made the decision to sort out the Shed.  It is a mammoth task and I really have to get myself in the 'zone' to go out there and sort stuff, it is so much easier to shut the door on it all.

But, the time has come to make some space.  Since our bead shop closed a few years ago, this stuff has just sat there, doing nothing, except taking up space.  I have sold the odd bit off my website, but I felt now was the time to empty it out and make space for something new.

It will take ages!

And I really do mean ages.  You can hardly move in there.  Even the smallest of boxes is taking a good few hours to sort, photograph and put up for sale, so I think the task ahead of me is a long term one  :)

I have started a Facebook group - BEAD SHOP SELL-OFF - please do pop along if beads, findings and jewellery making equipment interests you.

I will hold items until the end of each month so you can make the most out of postage, all you have to do is comment on the photo you fancy and it will be reserved for you.

I will be back to blogging proper again soon, I promise  :)

Forgotten treasures

Whilst giving the glass shed a good tidy I came across a pot of forgotten bits and pieces that I have made over the years, and thought it might be nice to share them again  :)

The first few are enamelled pieces from a class I did YEARS ago with Dorothy Cockrell inn Tullie House.  I tried to look through the blog archive, but it might have even been earlier than that!

This piece is about 5cm with added wire to make tree branches.

This one is the same size, but with a foil goddess cut out then layered with transparent enamel on the top.

...and this piece I made after the class, once my huge amount of enammeling stuff had arrived.   The same stuff that is still in the box, all of it, except for the single piece that I made this with!

Actually, it wasn't all bad, I did enamel a large pile of 2p pieces  (copper ones) to give me a colour pallete  :)  but that is as far as my enamelling adventures went.  Maybe one day....

This piece is pewter, from my times when I tried pewter casting.  Again, I bought all the stuff, used it once, and gave it away to a friend yesterday after tiding the shed and deciding I wouldn't probably use it again.  Hope she gets more use of of it that I did.

I stuck some Swarovski crystals to it for a bit of bling.

This one is Precious Metal Clay - now I am thoroughly ashamed to admit even half of the stuff I own for working with PMC.  There is a huge box full of bits and bobs, tools and more tools, and even more shamefully packets and packets of PMC just waiting to be used.  I popped it back under the shelf before Hubster worked out what it was.

This piece is studded with Swarovski Cabochons, some of them cracked with the heat of the kiln, but it was a good experiment.

Glass casting - no, it's not a nipple, it's a shell.  I took a class in this, also years ago, with Diana East.  I took a cast of a shell then added powdered glass and popped it in the kiln overnight, before polishing.  I should have shown you the underneath really, it's like a deep pool of rainbow water.  I have never carried on with this craft either, but I did only buy a pot of molding stuff so not as expensive as some of my "must buys".

Resin.  A bit too messy for my liking, messing about getting quantities correct, then failing to get most of them out of the ice-cube tray I was using as a mold.  I still have a large tin of it.  (back under the shelf)

A jar of daffodils.   A slumped Jam Jar, heated until soggy in the kiln, then with an added edge of soldered copper foil, as in stained glass work, then an added daffodil transfer.  Cute I think  :)  I have hung it on the wall in the shed, and plan to make some more - probably in time for next Easter.

A cockeral coaster.  I just stuck the little bumpers on last night, he has been in the shed for about 18 months so I thought it was about time he came out and was used  :)

I have LOADS of clear glass now from by big tidy, so will definitely make some more coasters.

(sheesh, horribly dark photos, but I have now tidied them all 'away' again to goodness knows where so cannot retake them!)

Another Shed tidy

This time it is the glass shed.  After the Flame Off it was decided that if we didn't want to spend another year not melting glass, then we need to act and clean up the mess so we could melt glass.

What a dull job it is tidying up.  I do wish I wasn't quite so messy with stuff, that I took the time to put things away properly.

This is my workbench for glass cutting and stained glass work  - when it hasn't got stuff piled on it that is.

And this it the torch section.  We can't get into this bit as the floor is covered with tool boxes.

To be fair, we had a nasty leak last year and need the roof repaired, as well as the electrics, so it's been an ongoing mess for a little while now.  But (touch wood) all seems to be sorted in the repair department.

I am working away quite happily when Hubster spots I have my flip-flops on.  I always wear flip-flops, unless I am walking in the Lakes or the Fells.  My toes like to be free and aerated.

I was told, in no uncertain terms, to go and put sensible shoes on.   Like I am 6 years old!!

Sensible shoes  (reserve walking boots) later and I am allowed back in the Shed.

The plan was to get it all out into the garden, the tidy it up as it went back in.

At the back of the photo there are about 10 large clip frames that I liberated from the Hobbycraft bin because the glass was broken. I can always use bits of broken sheet glass  :)

But I needed to get it cut up into manageable sizes for storage.  It took me over an hour to cut it all up, but I have a lovely big boxful now.

After a long day, with a trip to the Vet with a sickly Milly Moo cat, we had made headway.  Tidy(ish) workbench, with a little space to work, and boxes underneath all sorted.

Tidy(ish) torch bench with swept benches and glass all put away properly.  Tool boxes removed from the floor.

We have no excuse this year not to melt glass, so watch this space   :)

How many monkeys?

If you have been following my tidy up blogs about the Big Shed Tidy, you may have spotted a few furry friends hanging around the rafters.

Here is a little challenge for you.  How many monkeys reside in the shed.  They are all viewable in this last blog post....... somewhere, although some might be tricky to spot.

Whoever gets the correct number of monkeys will go into a draw to win a little prize  :)  I will do the draw on Friday.

Start counting.....

The final day in the big wooden shed

After seven whole working days, with three days of help, the Shed tidy is finally done!   Whoop!!

Everything in it's place and floor I can dance round, if the mood so takes me.

All nice and neat and I can find things in a millisecond now as opposed to a week of searching bags and boxes.

Oh, I bought this cute stand from a charity shop when I was taking boxes of stuff in - I know, I know, but it was only a fiver and I thought I could hang scarves off it.

Gordon!

Shall we do some before and after shots?

Before

After

Before

And before again..

After

Before

After

Oh, and to thank you for reading all these tidying up blogs I will pop this into The Birthday Blog Box.

It is a Snowflake Obsidian pendant  :)

and relax....

Day six in the big wooden shed

Six working days that is, as it is actually two whole weeks tomorrow since I started the big tidy.

We are definitely seeing the big shiny light at the end of the tunnel now.  In one way, the next session will be the hardest as it will be sorting through bits that we have just moved about for the last fortnight.

I took a few snaps, but just had to show you this....

"Something is stuck in the hoover pipe"

"What on earth could it be?"

"Oh, it's a little glass elephant!"

I treated Mother Vera to a nice warming bowl of parsnip and ginger soup, with toasted seeds.  (recipe to follow)

Then straight back to it.  LOOK,  DESK!

All that is left to do now is to clear and sort the stuff on the table.  Then, I am ready to rock.

Day five in the big wooden shed

Five and a half days really as on Tuesday it took me over two hours to sort out magazines and put them into issue order, but that is all I did, so I can't really brag and say I did a days work.

I also had to flick through each one as I wanted to keep the issues that I have projects published in - still not sure I have them all, but I have a good pile  :)

If you want to see some of my projects which have been in magazines, I have a Facebook album HERE which you can peep into  :)

And these are all the ones I have sorted to sell off  :)  Back issues anyone?  I have 'Bead', 'Beads & Beyond' and a few 'Making Jewellery'.

Also, tucked in amongst the magazines I found this earring book by Bead & Button.  28 pairs of earrings to make - but it's in Spanish!   However, I am sure someone can work them out from the photos so I am going to pop it in the Birthday Blog Box.

So, today, Mother Vera came round to help again.  Another good few hours of hanging stuff on the walls and getting rid of boxes.

You may be wondering where all these boxes have come from, but we had a biggish shop and then my daughter, Shona, ran her own market stall for a while with the stock on a sale or return deal - when it came back to me it just got piled into boxes and forgotten about.

Now that's what I call progress!  Hoovered too.

I've got one corner to do now, unfortunately it contains my desk which is overflowing with stuff, so it might take a while.   Not sure when I am going to get back in now as my son, Iain, is moving house this weekend so tomorrow and Friday I am on 'packing & moving the small stuff' duty.   Then Sunday I am off to Eden Workshop in Plumpton to do a Crochet Course.

No rest for the wicked, as they say  :)

Day four in the big wooden shed

So much for weekends being for resting - no such luck in this shed!

To be fair I only did half a day, as by the time I got up, messed about for a bit and wandered myself the long 13 steps to the shed door, it was gone 12 noon.

But this is where we are at at the end of play today.  Another few boxes emptied, one of them being yet another box of buttons, which are now all wall mounted :)

Also a dozen or so boxes of cord reels, which Hubster popped onto the stand for me - he was careful not to kneel on the floor mind you, we didn't need a repeat of the 'bead insterted into knee cap' incident of yesterday!

And what do you make when you have loads of loose odd beads?  SOUP of course - gorgeous, colourful bead soup.

But before you think how well I am doing, take a look behind me, still got all this to sort yet  :/

Today's find, which will be finding it's way into the Birthday Blog Box is a series of tutorials for basic beadweaving.  So if you have never had a go and fancy trying, this is just the thing for you :)   They are step by step tutorials with colour photos so you can see exactly what to do.

I wont be in The Shed tomorrow as have a shift at work, so that's me until Tuesday now.  I'll be pleased of the break I think  :)