I love the sun!

It has been lovely and sunny here today, and most of yesterday too. It's amazing how much that has lifted my mood! It's not that I've been feeling down, just that this summer has been such a disappointment weather-wise. I know that it rarely gets really hot here in the UK, but, well, put it this way, I don't think that we're going to have to worry about hose pipe bans for a while!

I feel a lot more productive when it's sunny, so I was really pleased to be able to have some time in the shed this afternoon. B has more or less stopped having naps in the afternoon now, so I'm having to get used to doing without my hour or so work time each afternoon. Today, however, B fell asleep in the car on the way home (we'd been to see Laura and then to see Nicky during her lunch break at work) and slept in his bed for a couple of hours. A perfect length of time to do some housework and then hammer some silver, and even more perfect as it was unexpected!

I thought that I'd show you what I got up to - the photo shows a couple of rings and what will eventually be a necklace sitting on my desk. You can also see some of my favourite tools, some new and some older than me! The older ones are my two favourite hammers, both given to me by a friend whos parents were goldsmiths. The metal hammer is pitted with age and gives a beautiful texture to the silver. My newest toy, erm, tool is my Pepe disc cutter. I've used it to cut the discs that you can see - I've domed them using a doming block. The cutter arrived last month, a couple of months earlier than I hoped, after being on back order for a few months. I'd decided to buy a decent one rather than an Indian made one that would only last me a few years, and the wait has definitely been worthwhile! In the background you can also see the silver tubing I bought from Laura this morning - she'd decided not to use it to make silver cores inside her beads, and I've got a few designs sketched out that can use it - some of those experiments I mentioned a while back that I promise to show you soon!

By the way, B is still sleeping well in his new bed. He loves it, and stays in it all night until we go into him in the morning. I'm sure this honeymoon period will come to an end soon though! He's got his first pre-school session tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes!