Big Tidy Up

My Health And The Barn

   It's been a busy few days here at the barn with a mixture of fortunes, most I'm glad to say of a positive nature, the visit to my GP was a good one with him being pleased with the progress we are making with my IBS and now armed with more fact sheets on the foods I can eat safely and my new medication I'm hoping for an even greater improvement in the coming weeks.
   Thank god for the fact sheets as it was taking me ages to figure out which foods were playing my up and it turns out some I was eating are far from good for me including onions, garlic, bread and apples and pears, but at least now I know and I can concentrate on only eating those that are proven to be ok for my condition.
   On the bead side of things, well sales are still very slow as they are with other sellers but I'm still enjoying my work, I find that magical flame that burns in front of me most days helps take away some of that stress caused by lack of custom, I guess I go into that little world of fire and glass where nobody can reach me, my safe little haven where I can only learn and watch in amazement as the flame teaches me how it's marriage with glass can produce such effects that I would never find possible, in my mind that makes me one very lucky person.
   This evening I will be listing new focal beads in the ebay shop so I hope some customers may find them interesting enough to use in their jewellery and this afternoon I need to sort out yet more of the hundreds of spacer beads into sets ready to list.
    Some of the day will be taken up with a good tidy up in the barn as things are getting really untidy out there plus we have friends visiting tomorrow so that's the kick up the arse we need to get things back on the right tracks, I've lost count of how many jars of glass rods stand around and the collection of coffee mugs is one of the biggest in the country !
   So Henry the hoover will be busy this afternoon and I'm guessing that will be my job tho I don't mind and it beats washing up all those mugs. I often feel really lucky that we have such a great space in which we can work, I know some who have small garden sheds or spare box rooms in which they make their beads, so having such a large barn is a real pleasure and one we really appreciate.
   I'm hoping we can have a big sort out and start working on the idea of taking visiting customers again, years ago I enjoyed having buyers come along to the barn, it was fun meeting those who were using my beads and indeed we even held the odd open day where customers and those who were interested in making beads would come along and see for themselves how the beads were made, It would be real fun if we could get those days back here at the barn.
   This last couple of years we have paid more attention in online sales and not sales from here but I think now would be a great time to start filling those display cabinets again and welcoming customers and friends here again, to bring more fun and life back into the old barn would be a real pleasure and something that I've really missed.
   Well, I better get back to my torch before the duster is thrust into my hand, enjoy your weekend and if your lucky enough to have sunshine in your part of the world, then make sure you enjoy every minute.