How I will get my mojo back.

Thing a day is starting again! Registration opens on 24 January and I will be signing up. Last year I managed to post something every single day in February apart from one and it really kept me motivated so this year I hope it'll help me get my inspiration back. Are you signing up this year?

I thought I'd show you a Thing I made recently - a crochet garland. It was really for Christmas, and I made it with sparkly yarn from Lidl in gold and dark red, but I liked it so much that it's staying up all year! Also see the snow? It was much worse than this. I had five (!) days off work when I couldn't get out because of snow or ice.

And see my little bonsai on the windowsill? It doesn't have a lot of growth yet, but it's developed some new leaves since I got it. I've always been fascinated by bonsai and I just signed up for a day-long beginner class next month and I can't wait. Watch this space, I'm sure it'll be one of my Things next month because bonsai are definitely creative.

My husband is a hero too.

I made Richard into a hero too!

When he grows up, his ambition is to be a mech pilot. (He has watched too many anime films.) I think this might be as close as he gets.

Should be a nice surprise for him when he gets up this morning, as stalking my blog is one of the first things he does every day!

Super Me!

I spotted a link on MyGurumi this morning (a blog I've recently discovered that managed to make me pick up my knitting needles again): The Hero Factory. If I was a superhero, this would be me (after going on a diet, obviously):

Try it out, it's fun :-)

That time of year again.

I have a BIG essay due in tomorrow (it's roughly 3/4 of the way finished and it's now after 10pm). Next Thursday I have my first exam. Work is super busy and it's a struggle to get away on time. And on top of it all, I've enrolled in a calligraphy class that starts on Friday. I wonder if you can buy free time on ebay.

I am so spending this weekend drawing because I just haven't had time recently and it's quite depressing! Can't wait till my life drawing class on Friday evening.
Normal service will resume shortly. In the meantime, here's some Spirograph-style doodles I made on the computer.

An experiment in not spending money.

I was reading Apartment Therapy the other day and something jumped out at me: Buy Nothing Week. The idea is to have one week where you ONLY spend money on necessary things like food, medication and transport. I have no idea why this is such a novel idea to me, you'd think it'd be common sense. If you want to save money, don't spend money. But I suppose it's easy to lapse into spendthrifty habits... anyway starting from tomorrow I'm having a no spending week. Exceptions are: if it rains, I'm allowed to take the train to work (normally I cycle); if for whatever reason I can't bring lunch to work (unlikely) I can buy a sandwich from Sainsburys that costs £2 or less, and if my bike breaks, it has to be fixed (same goes if I need a new inner tube or something). But that's it. And I definitely MUST NOT buy any books of any type, or any art supplies or stationery whatsoever. I'll post an update this time next week.

As for Purple Pink and Orange's not eating out challenge that I'm taking part in - well, we kind of fell by the wayside yesterday when, while out shopping, we realised we were starving and went to Burger King. But we did get a cheap cheeseburger meal each (£2.99 each) so it really wasn't too bad. Apart from that I am still being positively angelic, and I'm sure I've saved lots of money, so I'm thinking I'm going to keep it going for April, with the exception of one meal out for Easter.


Oh and also while out shopping yesterday my husband bought us a copy of Professor Layton for the DS. I didn't know a lot about it except that it was as rare as rocking horse poo around Christmas and everyone has been raving about it. Well, they were right to rave, it's fantastic! Some of the puzzles are really quite devious (in fact some are bordering on the unfair) and it's such a great feeling when you figure out the solution to a particularly ponderous one. Great fun. Go and buy it.

Reasons why today is a good day

1. Apple phoned to say my Macbook is ready. Hurrah! I'm going to pick it up soon. No more tiny netbook screen, no more GIMP, I'll have all my bookmarks again and a proper size keyboard.
2. My life drawing class is going to the British Museum tonight to draw all the sculptures. This will be very cool and I can't wait.
3. It's Friday, so no work!

Anyway here's a racehorse from the sports pages. I made a huge mess of his front legs, poor horse, but I couldn't fix it as I drew it in pen, so he'll just have to put up with having strange legs. is name is Premio Loco which I think is a great name :-)

Oh and also - thank you so much to everyone at EDM for the suggestions. I can't say too much here as it's all a big secret and a certain person might read! But I will post the results asap, I can't wait to show it off.

Almost forgot...

Happy St Patrick's Day!

(Card courtesy of my mum, expertly and seamlessly altered by me in Photoshop.)

Life drawing

Life drawing class was fantastic last night. The model was a bit older (late 40s to early 50s) and curvier than the ones I've seen so far. We were learning about legs and how the joints work, and especially the knees. Very interesting. We were made to stand up and waggle our legs around to see the field of movement each joint has, but I'm double jointed and my legs do things they probably shouldn't, and I think I got some funny looks :)


The pose on the bottom left (and the scrappy sketches across the bottom) of the page above was one that gave me immense trouble. The way the model was sitting made her hips look wider than they really were, and it was very much a case of drawing what you see, not what you know, but sometimes it's so difficult!

A few more above.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who give their input on the hot cross bun debate! I got lots of emails and some replies on EDM as well as your comments here and they were pretty evenly split between "hot cross buns are cakes, don't eat them" and "no, they're bread, there's yeast in them, keep scoffing". So to settle it once and for all I asked my mum, and she thinks they're bread. And if my mum says it then it must be true, right?

However in life drawing last night the usual fabulous array of fabulous biscuits was there and I didn't have a single one. I bet I start displaying a halo soon.

Things I am not allowed to eat, and the reasons why not.

1. It's Lent. Everyone in my office (religious or not) gives up something. This year my 'things' are biscuits, cakes and takeaways (Chinese, pizza etc).

2. Nice food costs too much. There is a gorgeous bakery near the office called Konditor & Cook. They have lemon curd cheesecake that you'd sell your granny/husband/beloved pet for. It costs about £3 a slice. There is also an Italian restaurant that sell food to go - the most fantastic pasta in London. It's about £5 for a box of whatever pasta. I work four days a week, and if I buy lunch every day it can easily add up to £20 a week. (Note to husband - now you know where all my money goes. It's not all being spent on pens.)

3. I have put on tons of weight, especially since the whole arthritis thing happened and I'm just not able to get back to running (as even walking can be a bit trying at times). Cake and cheesy pasta doesn't help. I need to sort this out.

Purplepinkandorange is having a little challenge - no eating out for the month of March. I'm a bit late in starting, but better late than never, right? And I'm also applying it to buying lunch in Pret, that pasta shop etc. If for whatever reason I can't bring it with me from home, I'll go to Tesco and buy a cheap sandwich. I'll post weekly updates for the rest of the month, in keeping with the challenge.

Also - a question. There's a debate at work as to whether or not hot cross buns count as cake. I think they don't - to me they are a bread product. My workmates disagree. What do you think?

Hurrah for leaving everything to the very last minute!

As part of (yet another) assignment, I have to write a piece on Brazilian festivals (Carnival etc). That bit's fine. We also have to produce some sort of video to go along with the written work. I suspect everyone else will sit in front of their webcam and talk about something. Maybe one or two will play the guitar or something. Me? I'm severely camera shy, so I thought "I know, I'll do some sort of Flash cartoon with lots of little Brazilian dudes in traditional Carnival costumes dancing around".

One problem - I haven't actually got any idea how to use Flash. And the assignment has to be handed in on the 19th.

Soooo... I have less than two weeks to research and write 2000 words, learn how to use Flash from scratch, do all the artwork, animate it, find some suitable music to set it to, and put the whole thing together.

Oddly enough, it is occuring to me that this mightn't have been the smartest idea, and on the evening of the 18th I'll probably be talking to my webcam just so I actually have something to hand in, but at least I can try, right?

This scrappy little robot was just to have something to fiddle around with before I actually waste any time doing 'proper' drawings only to inevitably ruin them. But I think he's kind of cute.

Some useful mantras.

Repeat to self:

"I am not interested in Adobe Illustrator."

"I am not interested in drawing cartoon people."

"I will not procrastinate."

"I love writing about the Brazilian military coup in 1964."

"I will not eat all my husband's pringles."

If I say all that enough times, I might start to believe it. Although it might be too late for the pringles.

Why I wish I had lots of money.

I have tons and tons of work to get through today for a Portuguese presentation I have to do next week. So I've spent the last hour coveting everything on the Anthropologie website. Look at these lovely things! I can't afford any of them but it doesn't stop me drooling.

Thursday musings

I stumbled across a lovely blog today: Decor8. It's so pretty. There are too many photos of pretty houses on there that make me realise I live in a hovel.

Between it and Apartment Therapy, it's made me decide that our living room has GOT to have a makeover. I want to paint the whole thing white and have red and white curtains and sofa and other stuff. My poor husband has agreed to help with the painting... I shudder to think about the inevitable white painty paw prints that will be all over the house before we've finished.

Is this a kind of nesting?

We all want a pretty home (or at least most of us do, my husband has no interest in a pretty home much to my annoyance). My home is a one bedroom flat, and it's too cluttered to be pretty. We just have too much Stuff and too many Things, all of which are absolutely necessary and cannot be got rid of. I do try, and I'm determined to sort out the clutter as best I can until we can buy a place of our own. I get very jealous when I look at blogs like Posy (a lady who lives in Devon and has the most beautiful house, which is filled with lovely things. But in the meantime I thought I'd redecorate my 'other' home - my home on the web. I made some polka dots in Photoshop and played with the banner a bit, and changed the layout. I like it. Polka dots are always good.

I miss doing web design - that's what I trained in, but as there were no jobs back home, I ended up working as a legal secretary was is not exactly my ideal job (to say the least). Technology has moved on a lot since I finished college in 2003, but I'm determined not to let it bypass me altogether so I've acquired a hefty but unintimidating book and plan to play around with CSS and hope it's not all completely beyond me.

I'm making a happy green apple to be a little friend for the happy red apple! I'd have finished him by now if I didn't keep looking at other people's pretty blogs and coveting their pretty things.

This post needs photos, so here's a bee I crocheted a few months ago!

The perils of papier mache...

Some advice.

When making something from papier mache, DO NOT cover the entire object with newspaper and PVA glue at the same time. Because you won't be able to dry it. And you will have to stand like a fool with said object, holding it with your finger tips, until it stops dripping.

Also, PVA glue and water mixture drips... a LOT.

Just a few thoughts. I'll post a photo when it's done.

Sunday procrastination

I always find it hard to sit down and write an essay, but even more so when my husband is around. He makes too much noise! So I procrastinated for several hours, wrote 127 words of a review of Sin noticias de Gurb (most of which I will probably delete) and did very little that was useful apart from putting away laundry and changing cat litter. I have Fridays off work for studying and doing assignments, so I can work in peace, but now that my husband isn't working and will be home all day, I'll probably have to think of a plan B if I don't want to fail the year! Oh and I finished making bookmarks for the Bookmark Swap I'm co-organising at the moment. I love what I've made, but I can't post photos in case my swap partners see them so I will have to contain my excitement until everyone receives them.

You'd think if I wasn't working I could at least have been doing some drawing, but noooo. Although I did do a quick watercolour, from Frank's book (again), because I wanted to try out my masking fluid that I hadn't used before. I masked off the cottage and it worked quite well although I missed a bit and had to cover it up with gouache. Peeling off masking fluid is fun. It's like when I was in primary school and used to paint my fingers with PVA glue, wait till it dried and pick it all off. I'm sure that's not as weird as it sounds. I don't much like the mountains in this but it was only an experiment!


I would also like to say thank you to the people in EDM for all the comments and for being so nice - and in particular to Sue for all the helpful links she emailed me.

Back to Top Gear now, because that's what Sunday evenings are all about after all.

Back in the civilized world.

Having just spend a week in Ireland, I am very glad to have broadband again. It's shocking how much I've come to depend on it, but even just for stuff like checking the times of the buses back to the airport, or the Christmas opening hours of the local restaurants, it was very awkward trying to manage with a copy of the Yellow Pages and a telephone. How I managed in ye olden days (i.e. pre-2003) I have no idea. We brought my netbook everywhere with us and tried to find an unsecured wireless connection. It became an obsession. And we never did manage to find one.

Anyway, Christmas was good. Ate too much, slept a lot, caught up with friends, played pool in the pub (a thing I rarely get to do in London) and sat for two hours sorting out my cousin's PC after he and his twin girls filled it up with rubbish software, spyware and general crap. You could literally turn it on and go off and make a cup of tea before it finished booting. And what antivirus software does to the speed of a PC is just horrific. God bless the Macbook.

One thing that always happens in Ireland is that I spend too much money. It's as if rent and bills suddenly stop existing the minute I arrive in an airport and I start spending as if my life depended on it. So I ended up with clothes and new boots and a very nice coat from A-Wear (although my parents paid for that as a Christmas present), not to mention the set of Daler Rowney brushes in a nice little travel case that will be just perfect for bringing to class, or the Frank Clarke's Paintbox 2 book, or the set of oil pastels. The latter is my new favourite thing, they're just so much fun to use. I've never used 'normal' pastels but I imagine they're quite different. Here's a little sketch I did of our catdog Elvis. I used yellow ochre, purple and orange. Most of it is from my imagination, as I drew a very rough outline and then the little bugger ran away to chase something.


Annoyingly, I can't get our scanner to cope with white space around an image, it completely screws it up. I did a painting while we were away from the Frank Clarke book but can't get it to scan at all - I'll have to try and photograph it when there's daylight.

And here's a bit of art that isn't mine - it's a little oil painting (about 7" x 5") that my dad did in 1985, and he varnished it up for me so I could bring it home. I've got to find a frame for it so it can go in the bedroom. I've always loved this - I remember him painting it when I was only five years old and thinking my daddy was the cleverest man in the world. (And I still do.)


I'm back to work tomorrow. I can think of at least a million things I would rather be doing.

Happy Christmas!

We had our early Christmas day this morning and opened presents - as usual I was out of bed at the crack of dawn. I got a set of all the Laurel and Hardy movies which I really wanted but never mentioned to Richard, so he did very well! I also received a gorgeous bag from one of my bosses and some books and Northern Exposure season 1 from my parents in law and some other bits. Very nice! One of the books was from my Amazon wishlist but I'd actually gone out and bought it for myself about a week ago, so I took the receipt and the new book and returned it to Amazon, and used the money to buy myself a box easel that was on sale in Cass Arts, which is a shop where I could easily spend my entire wages in about a minute.

We're leaving for Ireland at about 6am tomorrow, and will be without internet access till the 29th. (How will I cope??) I can't wait to see my family. I just hope the rain isn't as bad as it usually is...

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

Where does the time go?

Has it really been over a week since I last posted? How scary, I can't believe how fast this year has gone and especially the last couple of months. I was married 4 months on the 13th, but actually it feels more like 4 years (and I don't mean that in a bad way). Although I'm still getting the hang of the new name.

Speaking of husbands, mine got laid off last week, along with about 700 colleagues. Unbelievable - that's twice in about three years, not counting when one company he worked for got bought out by another one (which has just gone bust) and took most of the staff along for the ride. He had an interview today for a major software publisher/developer and it would be great if he got the job, but I have my reservations. I think it's no coincidence that all the companies he works for end up in adminstration; in fact I think he does it deliberately. Whether it's out of malice, boredom or some other agenda I can't work out, and he denies it. Anyway, I particularly like this company's games and would be more than a bit miffed if they also ended up bankrupt so perhaps it's best if my lovely husband stays clear. Although they're not a three letter acronym, like the last few have been, so perhaps they're safe.

What have I made this week... well as it's Christmas, I've been making presents, and giving them away before remembering to photograph them. So I don't have a decent photo of the lacy scarf my friend Em got, nor the beaded bracelet. But I do have a photo of the soap I made for some workmates. It's Christmassy-scented and has gold glitter inside - yum.



In the background there you can see some little crocheted ducks. I received these yesterday as part of an angel package for a Sanrio swap on Craftster. I got a massive haul of stuff from RhymeswOrange, who is awesome, but these little ducks are just so sweet, the more I look at them the more I love them. I need to find somewhere permanent to put them - I want to put them in the bathroom as they match the shower curtain and walls but I need to put up a shelf. Here's a better photo.


I've also been doing a bit more painting. I did a couple of landscapes straight out of the book Paintbox by Frank Clarke, which I really like even though the author has a truly terrible shirt on the front cover. Mine don't look quite like his examples but I'm a total beginner, so I'm not beating myself up about it. I enrolled in a watercolour techniques class for the new year - three Sundays for six hours at a time - and I'm really looking forward to that. Here's my two landscape efforts so far:

(That second one looks very pale in the photo - it's less washed-out looking in real life.)

And here's my paintbox and brushes. I love the palette when it's all messy, I wish I never had to clean it.


I accidentally bought yet another watercolour book, but I've hidden it amongst the others in the hope that my husband won't notice. He was shopping the other day and bought me two books from one of the cheapo book shops in Walthamstow, which was very sweet of him, but one of them wasn't for beginners/idiots like me so that's for a bit later on.

Right, it's after midnight and I'm off to bed. Tomorrow's my last day at work before Christmas and we're off to Ireland on Monday, I can't wait!

Writer's block

I've got a Portuguese assignment that has to be handed in on Thursday. It's a relatively simple task: write a travel guide of around 500 words about "an area local to your school" and stick in a few photos stolen from random websites. So I'm choosing London, which is fairly local to my school, given that my school is in London. Actually it's in Bloomsbury but I'm not sure what I could write about that, apart from the British Museum. Unfortunately, I've hit a snag. It seems I really don't know how to write in Portuguese. In fact my Portuguese is not very good at all, but it's too advanced for the beginner class, and the gap between the beginner class and the next class (mine) is huge. From nothing to post A-level in a year. And that's not great when you've got to sit and write something and your head goes straight into Spanish mode. There are penalties for plagiarism (I think death is one of them, they get pretty pissed off about it) so I'm really trying very hard not to copy stuff, but it's quite difficult as I don't actually know anything about London hotels. I live here, I never need to stay in a hotel. And my mind has gone blank about pubs and shops and exciting places to go. So I'm procrastinating by surfing the internet for interesting blogs (I really need to update my list), daydreaming and trying not to succumb to temptation and read my new book that I bought today. It's called Terry Harrison's Complete Guide to Watercolour Landscapes, and one of the great things about it is that he shows you how to mix brown. When I try to mix brown using primaries, I get either muddy blue, muddy red or muddy yellow. In the absence of any photos to add to this post, here's a picture of the book I've stolen from Amazon.


Other things I am procrasting about at the moment include blocking two scarves I've made for Christmas presents (is there anything more tiresome than actually finishing your knitting once you've finished knitting it?), writing Christmas cards, and sorting out our wedding photos, which are still sitting on memory cards and have been since we got married in August. There's no excuse really. I was off work for three weeks with the Evil Arthritis and what did I do with myself? Watch Life on Mars. Watch NYPD Blue. Knit (but not finish) scarves. Make bottlecap pincushions. Mindlessly surf the internet. I'm really rather cross with myself for being so unmotivated.

Today's happy news is that my latest gnome from Craftster's Roaming Gnome Swap has arrived! She's called Ruby and is from Germany and is made of nallbinding. I don't actually know what that is. The last two gnomes I had didn't have a very good time. I was stuck indoors and consequently so were they. But little Ruby will be different, she's going to have some fun! I'll post photos soon.

Wow, what a wordy post. Time flies when you're not getting any work done.