Why does inspiration strike in the middle of the night? Or on the toilet? You're just sitting (or lying) there, happily minding your own business, dreaming away, when BAM!! You suddenly get a picture in your mind of a really lovely piece of jewellery, something new and fresh that has your signature stamped all over it and that people will want.

And you are no where near a piece of paper.

These ideas that pop into your mind do exactly that. Pop. Then they're gone. So by the time you have exited the bathroom, or extracted yourself from your nice warm duvet at 3 in the morning, found some paper and a pencil, the idea has faded, fizzled out and popped off.

Last night, at something past 3am, I had a REALLY good idea. It flashed in to my head just after someone small came into the room asking if they could play. I lay there for a few moments, knowing in my heart of hearts that I needed to get up and commit this flash of inspiration to paper as fast as possible. But it was very dark, and very cold, and there was quite honestly no way I was getting out of my nice warm cozy bed. So why not turn the light on and find something to scribble on in the bedside draw? Because this would cause no end of disgruntled noises from the lump in the other half of the bed and endless complaints of being tired due to being woken pointlessly in the middle of the night the following day. So I lay there and concentrated really hard on the picture that had popped unbidden into my sleep fuddled brain. I could see it perfectly, could even see myself drawing into my ideas book. It was brilliant.

And so, after what seemed like a decade or two, I drifted off back to sleep.

At lunch time, I remembered that at 3 in the morning, I had had an idea. About half and hour later I remembered that it was a really good idea. It's now 5 in the afternoon, and I now know it was a necklace. I suspect that at some highly unpleasant hour of the morning, I shall once again be gifted with that flash image of the finished item. And so this time, will I get out of bed? Will I turn the light on to find some paper? No. I will lie there under my lovely warm duvet and convince myself that THIS time I will remember. THIS time this award winning design will pop back into my mind in during day light hours.

Which it will. When I'm on the toilet.