Off for a break!

We are off tomorrow!
It has been a long time since I needed a break so badly. I could sleep for a week.
We have a lovely Czech girl to be in the house for the parents, who will be here for nearly the whole month we are away.
I will miss the garden here... loads of veg. but then there will be plenty to eat in Poland. No danger of going hungry.

Work on www.ffjewellery.com is coming on, so will not be long.
Once back I WILL get more work done:  I have to do the sample pieces for the WWF for them to show in the Autumn.  Pictures of all sorts of endangered species (practically everything).

I have a new friend in Poland who can make the settings for very competitive rates.... so maybe there will be a more affordable range in the future. He has made some of the signet rings, so I can                 show them at Top Drawer. Mid September, Olympia, London.  More later.

Kicking off, or not?

I thought at one point maybe it is all kicking off, but on the other hand, maybe not.

Dad has infection of some sort and mother had an op. (finally) on her hand for a malignant nasty thing. A one day affair with local anaesthetic. I took her and stayed throughout.  So he, who looks after her, was out of action, willing but terribly weak, and she came home only one hand to work with!

She is more alzheimery than ever. First night she pulled ALL dressings off (skin graft too, so 2 sites) so we spent the WHOLE next day arranging and getting into hospital and getting redressed. From 9am till 7pm, that was.  The NHS is just great.

I got to the point any normal person would, and called Social Services, crying, please help us!  Small letters as it was not dramatic, just a case of, oh jeez. I have had enough of this.
We will get assessed next week and will get help, at last.

On the up, this is our Polish house!  It is much much further than this, with plastered walls, underfloor heating, floors next week and of course windows!  We shall stay in it this time and while there sort out all the fun parts: kitchen, tiles, fireplace and so on. And wifi, or veefee as they call it.

Stopnica, near Krakow, Poland

Meanwhile, Laura (my brick) and I are carrying on and the website gets ever nearer. 

I shall be doing Top Drawer in mid September, which is very exciting, so we will start to make a noise about that next month. Needless to say I am not getting any work done. I had a student booked for the day we had to go back to hosp and what with trying to get an ambulance etc etc she, poor dear went home, and we carried on battling on with the dramas.  There is considerable stress added to the picture trying to deal with the enforced idleness.

One week to go and we shall be off again, but still in contact should anyone care to get in touch.

Letting it all hang out.

Today, finally, Friday 5pm I sit and face the blog.
There is plenty going on, mentally and physically. I don't especially want this to turn into a personal diary, but at the same time it is cathartic to write stuff down. And maybe one person will read it and recognise something.
The biggest part is the caring for the oldies. They are getting older and older, more dependent. And yet. We were away in Poland for 9 days and dad insisted they would be fine. He only needed stuff in the freezer, and indeed they were fine. But today he is sleeping, fighting off an infection. Is actually very dependent while he is like that, cannot stand up.... let alone make lunch for the 2 of them.
I had my son and grandson visit for a few days and as soon as I got back from the airport I needed to make them lunch, and all that goes with that.
If anyone has been through this sort of thing, they will know. It is not just the physical work. It is the fear that hits when you see your dad unable to walk, your mum looking blank and confused, and you are trying to judge whether the doc needs to be called......and if it all were to start, to kick off as I think of it, then I am close to panic. The end of life thing, first one then the other, and all the stuff.  Very scary.

ANYWAY. This blog is supposed to be professional. I cannot get a lot of work done. But I am doing what I can. Laura and I ARE getting the website into some sort of shape. It already looks jolly good, I think, but still needs work. Have a visit at www.ffjewellery.com .

You can only do what you can do, as any mother with small children will know, something is better than nothing.
I have no picture this week. I will post one of the Polish house soon. We have plastered walls, windows and will have floors by the time we go again, early July.   SOOO exciting.

Witchcraft

I do not and will probably never understand what has been going on.
Yesterday precious hours were frittered, struggling with aforementioned pictures.
Today, it works.

New ring, faux amber About 1 1/4 in but needs to be measured.
Is big. It is quartz, wonderful stone.

Here is the proof.

Picture Jungle

It is a total jungle out there, with all the computers, programmes, tricks and whatnot. And the progs get out of date, and you have to upgrade, but they are not compatible, and they cant be saved, or exported or whatever you want to do cant be DONE.
Dear reader can see no doubt that I am a teensie bit frustrated here.
Old computer had old version of Photoshop.... no good any more I am told, and not compatible with newer computer. So go to GIMP.   Finally sorted how to make the altered pics smaller, but no way can I save them as jpegs. And I mean no way. You are just not allowed, I read all the threads on it.
So unless you have Gimp on yr machine (I think) you cant open them!
Nor can I even put the wretched pic up here, it has to be saved as a jpeg and I dont know how to do that!
grr.

Slowly, slowly catchee monkey

Heavens above it is slow.
I seem to be creeping, just creeping, but I must not lose heart. It WILL happen.
So much time is spent repairing broken stuff (computers and all that goes with it), getting fixed oneself (odd physical stuff, age related, that can't be ignored) or attending to those around who need fixing (even more age related aged p's who need to be fed and stuff...).
I find I definitely have to develop an attitude to this. It does not come by itself.
So, the plus list must be attended to and celebrated.
And here it is:
London Pet Show was good,

Oscar at our shared stand

as I have already mentioned, I think.   Then I had the signet ring collected by a delighted client . The one with the portrait of Diva, her Jack Russell.

I have a comm. for another ring, from another client, so goody.
And here are 2 awful pics of a ring completed today, using quartz! I will have to do better ones of course, but this is to show the quality of the quartz. So different from flat glass.

 This is a very scrappy edition. I am tired and need my dinner.
Just one thing;
We are off to Poland next week, for 9 days!  And son and g'son will visit from the day we are returning, so maybe no blog for a while.
Desperately need the break.
Cheers, f

building a website and other adventures

Ratty, work in progress

What a week., or two.
Trusty computer died, got another (not new) that had problems, so was without for 5 days.
On return, more problems, so will have to go back again!
But, I have been able to work around the problems until it disappears, and the magic thing is this:
the new website is being constructed but needs pics of all the work thus far, and an up to date inventory... and I have been taking the pics AND photoshopping!  Get that!
The workshop (who sold me the computer) thought the probs were to do with my antique version of PS, so I couldn't use it... then it locked up anyway, so I thought, ok, maybe I can.
But before I did that I was rather frantically trying to learn some Gimp techniques (which actually were better than what I was doing with PS)  so in the end I am using all the tricks I can think of in order to improve the pics. Needs must.  Ratty, above, is one of them. You can see it needs work, but it will happen.
I have so much stock I do not need to make any more....  I am dying to get commissions and get into the studio again. A lot of the stuff is too big to wear, like 5 bees, but there is a new idea from Justin who suggested making the larger one into belt buckles.  Very interesting. He was referring to one with a skull, which could work well.  I need clients who will run with this!!!!  Patience, my girl, patience.
It seems I am doing everything except making work.
London Pet Show is looming. I am sharing a tiny stand with my friend Oscar, www.tradingtons.com,
so we will be very cosy.
17-18 May, at Earls Ct One.
Stefan was in Poland for the last week, seeing his dentist and attending to the HOUSE. It is coming on far faster than we expected.... all walls, roof, water installed already! I dare not think about it too much. How to be in two places at once?

5 bees