I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas, we were round my mum and dad's who live about an hour's drive away. Some of my brothers and sisters were there and we had a lovely day, my dad makes absolutely the BEST stuffing ever - delicious!

I got a portable MP3 player amongst my many presents which I have been hinting about  for a while - I figured I could listen to music whilst making beads without having to leave a radio in the studio as an additional security risk. So I have finally joined the 21st century with regards to the way we listen and download to music and I'm glad I did -it's really much easier than I imagined it would be!

I had been hoping to get out into the studio before now to try out some of the experiments I have been meaning to try for ages but the mad rush of Christmas-time got in the way. Unfortunately, I have succumbed to a cold - I woke up with it on Boxing Day and I have just wanted to stay in the warm in front of the fire!  

A couple of times during December, I got a tickly throat and thought it was on it's way then, I have been in contact with so many people with colds that it was kind of inevitable - sheer force of will and being far to busy to be ill managed to keep it at bay but as soon as I relaxed - BANG - it got me! It's not too bad, I don't have a temperature so it's not flu but I felt rough the last couple of days. On Sunday, I had to miss a family day with the sister we didn't see on Christmas day which I was looking forward to.

I am feeling much better today though and hoping to get out there tomorrow - keep eyes peeled for photographs of anything I like soon!

Today I have had my first proper day off in the whole of December so far. I have been doing two days a week at the Art & Craft Market in Cambridge and the rest of the time making stock. I love it but it is hard to keep up the pace so it was nice to relax today and catch up a bit.

At the moment, I cannot make as much as I am selling so stock is dwindling on a daily basis. January and February will be very slow sales-wise so I have to make hay whilst it's cold (I do hope people will know what I mean by that!) hence not taking any days off til now. When I read this back, it sounds a bit like I'm moaning cos I'm too busy but I'm not - I am happy tired!!! I am so priviledged not to have to do a "proper" job any more - I really love what I do so thank you so much to everyone who buys my jewellery and makes this possible - I hope you have a very happy christmas-time.

I have lots of ideas for new designs and things I want to make in the new year when it is quieter and so look out   - my blog is going to be red hot with photographs! My new years resolution is going to be to blog more regularly as well!

Tomorrow is going to be my last day at the market, I don't think I have enough stock left to make two days of it so I'll be back soon!

I have been meeting myself coming backwards for the past fortnight! I haven't had time to blog, take photographs of new items or update my website.

Christmas shopping has kicked in big time and so I have been busy making jewellery to restock my stall - many thanks to my customers, both regulars and new ones. I have been so lucky, my sales levels have remained higher than last year, I get commissions every week from people visiting my stall who want matching items for things they purchased in the summer, my web orders have sky rocketed, due I think to the many business cards which disappeared from my stall in October and November.

In case anyone is waiting for a web order, I am turning them round in about 3 days at the moment so your items will be with you very soon - I have four packages to send off today to various peeps.

During December, I am doing Fridays on the Art & Craft market as well as my usual Saturday and so I am down a day on creating beads and jewellery.

Yesterday was fairly typical, around this time of day, I turn on my kiln in the studio to heat up and then come back in the house to check and reply to any e-mails received. I do a couple of jobs round the house til 9am like cleaning doggy footprints out of the hall after Missy's morning walk with DH and wash up the breakfast things. The postman arrives shortly afterwards and I check the mail, sign for deliveries etc. Then I have to refill the bird feeders - they are going through the nuts in the two nut feeders every 4 days and the fat feeders (4 of them) need refilling every day now.

I get out into the studio at around 9.30am and with a couple of breaks for cups of tea, I make beads til around 2.00pm. I then make jewellery in the afternoon in the house, if DH isn't working from home, I take a half an hour to walk Missy before it gets dark and there are various tea drinking intervals. Usually I watch a DVD whilst I'm creating, yesterday it was four episodes of the fourth series of Charmed which I somehow managed to miss if it was ever aired in the UK - I love stuff about witches and sci fi etc.

DH has been cooking dinner all this week as I'm so rushed, bless him and he has been doing the washing up as well - love him to bits! So I eat dinner at around 6.30 to 7.00pm.

After dinner, I check e-mails again and do any ordering of materials that I need. I then collect the day's beads from the kiln and clean them in front of the television - last night I was watching that Catastrophe programme presented by the Baldrick guy who also does Time Team whose name escapes me.

I will be back blogging again regularly as soon as Christmas is over but in the meantime, I wish all my customers a very happy festive season!