On holiday in West Sussex

A host of wonderful adventures and memories to be repeated again - very soon!

My best nights sleep in years!

Just when I'm having a couple of nights at a good hotel, I happen across a couple of amazing nights sleep! That doesn't happen very often. In fact, I could count my good nights for one year on just one hand. I'm a restless sleeper, in and out like the proverbial yo-yo and as a result I have been searching for the perfect mattress. Today I found it!! If anyone could have seen me frantically pulling off the bedclothes trying to find out what brand of mattress I had been lying on, they'd have laughed out loud. And to my surprise, look what I found. Not just a brand but a cute little label - see here. At first I thought it was an instruction for me to follow, doh! But it's for note for turning.. how clever.. it made my wonderful nights sleep even more perfect.
So my footnote to this story is that I called the hotel (yes madness ensued!) and they very kindly called me back with details of the actual brand of mattress. I searched online and did a bit of research and.. I  have bought myself a wonderful new bed.
Thank you Fawsley Hall Hotel for an amazing nights sleep and for many more super uninterrupted sleeps to come!

Highs and lows...

Lows... Feeling so tired! More tired than I'm used to experiencing, that's for sure. My hectic lifestyle means I'm used to drawing on my energy reserves. I do it quite often. But this is a quite different feeling. I'm delving into my emergency reserves -- those extra crystals of pure power and energy that rarely get touched. It's a short term fix for weeks and weeks of extra hours. Roll on holiday time!!

Highs - today, I sat and chatted with May from the Great British Sewing Bee. She was charming. My awards, which have sucked every bit of life out of me these past few weeks, went extremely well. I'm now sitting in Loch Fyne having consumed smoked haddock, mash and a poached egg, followed by frangipani tart with custard. Not one jug of custard but the barman kindly bought me two, woo hoo!

It's been a very long day and a good one.

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My super silversmith journey..

Carefully positioned within the vice, protected within a small piece of leather. Starting with a very small drill at first then increasing the drill bit until the hole is large enough to be threaded onto the bracelet.

It's looking rather rough, wouldn't you say?! Just a little bit of filing and my wonderful silver bead is ready for more polishing. I am the polishing fairy! It's never a chore.. for some reason, I find it very therapeutic. The joy of getting a beautiful even finish is worth all the hours of filing.

Here is my finished satin finished silver bead charm. Most people, I know because I've tried this, say 'That's nice', and that's okay, really it is. Only I know how much time and effort it has taken me to get from a flat sheet of silver to a perfectly round silver bead. I'm happy that only I know because it becomes my little secret, It makes my fabulous silver bead mean even more to me. I couldn't do any of this without the help, guidance, kindness of two wonderful people that are Flux 'n Flame. I feel so lucky to have happened upon them.