Once again life has shoved me over to the passenger seat and put her foot on the gas.... I went to the opticians back in March for a sight test and a contact lens trial. Over the course of the next 4 months they let me try virtually every type of contact lens in existence until finally in July I said enough, just give me the very first ones I tried. I took them home and after our holiday I went back to get properly signed off. At the very last minute the optician went... hold on a minute, what's that???? Turns out I have not only the start of cataracts but also a nasty case of dry eye too. The optician isn't sure if my glass work has anything to do with either of them but the dry eye still hasn't healed weeks later and I have been referred to an eye clinic. Much to my dismay I have been told to give my eyes a rest and chance to heal so no lampworking for me at the moment, or at least not until after I've seen the specialist.

On a lighter note I went to the cinema the other #fartoomuchtimeonmyhands with a couple of friends, Suzie and Alison. We went to the Silver Cinema showing for the over 55's... (I'm close enough) of Love and Friendship, a film based on the Jane Austen novel Lady Susan. It was a bargain at £3.00 to get in with a free cup of tea or coffee and biscuits, we were the youngest there by quite some margin but no one seemed to mind. Taking a cue from the rest of the audience it seemed sensible to seat ourselves in order of who was most likely to need a wee during the film so I was the obvious choice for the aisle seat. It was a great film though and our seating arrangement proved unnecessary, it was beautifully shot with some wonderful acting and witty dialogue. All in all it was a lovely way to spend a morning and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

In the absence of making beads I have been making jewellery instead. I am opening a new shop on Etsy which will sell my lampwork jewellery, I will have more about that soon but for now here's a sneak peek.