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This post appeared on the Sillinesss section of the Frit Happens Forum I belong to. It's oh so true.
I remember the once a month trips to the local Tescos with 2 trollies and three kids in tow and the long drives from Essex to Aberdeen with 3 not sleeping children in the back seat.

The new computer has been built by Edd and is up and running with Windows 7. I'm getting to grips with it and have re-installed virtually all the old software including Popcap games and those age old favourites that need DosBox to run such as Polytris. Some of the software needed to be re-licensed by the manufacturers and I'm pleased to say that Bead Tool 4 and Glasseye Professional Plus are running smoothly, although I've yet to find the folder that holds my original Glasseye stained glass designs despite everything on the old hard drive being backed up before the rebuild.

I'm writing this today hunched over the laptop as the desktop computer has finally decided to die. Edd and I thought that it was just the Windows operating system that had thown a wobbly so he installed Windows 7 for me after taking out the old hard drive and putting in a new one. I was in the process of getting all the programs and hardware sorted out when the bios died on the motherboard. John and I have decided to bite the bullet and get Edd to build me a new computer so I'm going to be ordering the bits from Scan today if possible.

We Lampworkers (i.e. people who make glass beads)in UK have just had our annual meet up at Towcester Racecourse. The get together is a two day event for lampworkers with a further day for seed beaders.Traders attend, there are demos and torch tables with a variety of torches set up for people to try. Among the demo artists this year were Sharon Peters and Theresa LaLiberte with our own Di East and Lorna Prime. Di showed us how she fumes in silver and gold while Lorna did intricate patterns with hair thin stringer.A good time was had by all.

As you probably are aware, I've been trying braiding for the last few weeks and wanted to try braiding with wire. This bracelet is made from 16 strands of 0.6 mm gold plated wire with the ends of the wire coiled to provide a decorative finish. I found the wire difficult to work with mainly because of it's tendency to kink so the braid is a little uneven but it's something I might try again, perhaps with a slightly thinner wire.

I mentioned,in my post on Kumihimo braiding, that I was going to try different types of threads to see how they came out with fairly basic 8 thread braids.The picture shows the results,

Another lady figure about 16 cm high. She also stands up on her own. Her arms need some work but I'll get there in the end.

There was an article in the August 2009 Bead and Button magazine about Japanese Kumihimo braiding. I was intrigued and bought the kit from G J Beads. The article showed a braid which was worked with beads and this is my attempt. I'm hoping that the braids will provide an alternative to using chain, jump rings or suede for lampwork focals.

I'm trying to hone my skills using borosilicate glass for off mandrel sculptural work. I made a duck the other day but inadvertently picked up a non-boro rod in the process. Result, multiple cracks in the body. I've now reworked the duck and this is the result.

Only three more weeks to go before my sculptural glass course near Bristol with Julie Anne Dent.

Another sculptural bead. I made it using scraps of cathedral stained glass, hence the restricted palette of colours. The blue thing on it's back is a loop for hanging, added as an afterthought. I was trying a duck but its head fell off, have to reheat and rework it and see how it goes.