Christmas Day

My sister lives on one of the new housing estates that I hate because they are built on all the fields and have made this town grow and grow over the last 10 years or so until there's almost no fields left. Maybe i'm just getting old, but it makes me sad to see buildings where orchards and barns used to be. Anyway, one of the good things about where she lives is the fact that I think there is some rule about making sure every new development has some kind of pond/lake in it, because this place is just out the back of her house and it's where we went for a walk on Christmas day while her boyfriend finished cooking the meal.

You could probably walk the whole way round the pond in 5 minutes, but that's if you don't stop to feed the swans, or look out for tiny fish, or learn all about the mysterious 'parachute seagulls' that my nephew taught me about. There's often a few people fishing and there's a few mallards that live on the pond and some fat wood pigeons in the trees, we saw a rat once but the less said about that the better.

Later on Christmas day after we had eaten I got to unwrap the most amazing thing- something I have been waiting my entire life to get

jam packed

Busy busy busy weekend...

leaving home on Friday afternoon there was an amazing sunset over the town hall

On Friday I went to visit the ever lovely Alys P and spent the evening in the company of my new comedy boyfriend David O'Doherty. (He doesn't have a say in the matter) Alys filmed me* talking about why I liked him, and i'd have to say it was probably the dinosaurs that swung it. Anyway I was far too shy to talk to him so instead I shall just urge you all to go see him on his Uk tour and pass on the news to him yourselves.

Actually before I even got to Alys' house (which is gorgeous) i'd seen my friends Mr_Hopkinson, Mr Bugs and Tom Marshman at the Arnolfini opening for the new exhibition 'Super Toys'.

(and also Brian Aldiss, but I didn't know at the time so it probably doesn't count)

On Saturday Alys and I got taken on an exciting adventure to a village hall in deepest darkest Gloucestershire (the edge of Bristol really) where we ate a great deal of cake, drank tea and scored top finds from the vintage/crafty sellers there. I'm flattening my amazing seaweed print out at the moment- but i'll take a photo soon to show you, because i'm sure you'll like seaweed as much as me.

Saturday afternoon was spent with Chipfork visiting all the charity shops between the Downs and the centre and borrowing a tenner to buy an old Ricoh camera because it had a case with it that I liked the look of, and discovering that the camera had a nice pentax lens and was in full working order. Just when i'd been thinking about re-visiting film and paper photos this turns up- I think it's a sign, don't you?

We called in at SNAP where Lucie was just putting the finishing touches to her display of pages from her new calendar

And then back to the Arnolfini where we met up with Jane and snuck in to watch some animations as part of the Brief Encounters short film festival, these are my favourites:

Jeffrey and the Dinosaurs by Christoph Steger



Damaged Goods by one of my favourite artists Barnaby Barford

Today has been spent:

eating cold veggie sausages for breakfast at Jane's house
talking about doing MAs
almost missing breakfast with two of my favourite boys
missing two buses and one train
drawing in train stations
looking at chickens

watching Scooby Doo 2 with my nephew (who rewound any part of the film where Scooby farted and watched it at least 5 times)

I think I was more of a social butterfly this weekend than I have been for months and tomorrow I need to start seriously doing some work- I have new paper to draw/paint on so i'm going to see how I get on with creating a series of small drawings from photos- setting myself a mini target to get through and see how it goes.

*without my knowledge at the time

A busy weekend, birthdays, art, knitting and lots and lots of rain

Someone was one





Someone had some (old) art on show at Cafe Kino (that'll be me then)



Someone had some new work on show in Cafe Kino (that'll be Claire Platt)



someone had a very small (and mouldy) pumpkin



someone tried to remember how to knit



And if all that's not enough then today we printed January/February of Lucie's calendar



and September/October

I got totally soaked on more than one occasion today, and came home to find the boiler wasn't working properly, and neither was the toilet. I finally managed to get the boiler going again- filled the bath and soaked in HOT water for a while before using the bath water to flush the toilet. Never let it be said that i'm not d-i-y/crafty/green when it comes to plumbing! Now I need to see if I can fix the toilet, or perhaps maybe the time has finally come to bite the bullet and try and find a plumber who will magic everything right in my house and not charge me too much for it. It certainly would be nice to live in a house with constant hot water/central heating that works and a toilet that flushes...

A strange day

The first part of yesterday was spent invigilating at Centrespace Gallery in Bristol, where Freya Cumming has a solo show on. Freya has filled the gallery with screenprints, including this absolutely HUGE print that runs the entire length of the gallery. Freya is one of the founding members of SNAP and you can read about her on their website. The show runs until wednesday and is open daily from 10-5.

The second part of the day was spent with this little munchkin in the children's hospital. My nephew had problems breathing, so I kept my sister and him company whilst we waited for him to get better. They had to stay in over night, I got to leave and go home, thankfully everyone's back home now safe and sound this morning.

nearly the last birthday of the month

Today was my nephew's 5th birthday, this makes the 3rd weekend in a row that someone in our family has had a birthday. Luckily it can't go on much longer, we're running out of capacity in our tummies for cake.

I've been volunteering at SNAP this week, which is why there's been radio silence from me. Hopefully after a long sleep tonight I will be back on track tomorrow and able to catch up with all the last months news.

Catching up again

I have a lot of catching up to do- both reading and writing this time. I think i'm going to have to take a bit of a break from the blog for a week or so, just until I can get myself all caught up with all sorts of other things that are going on at the moment. Things like:

* My nephew's first birthday
* My other nephew's first day at school
* Wrapping up Summer School for the term
* Getting reading to head back to Uni
* Making sure I tackle some health related stuff that i'm trying to ignore

It's my birthday on the 11th so I aim to be back by then- in the meantime I will probably post some of the photos i've been taking recently from all my little adventures.

My family are animals

On Sunday morning I got a call inviting me to the zoo with my sister and her children. We had a great time- there was face painting, giant caterpillars, capybara and laughing a lot at my sister and her meerkat family.

I seem to have been a bit absent this week- the heat has wiped me out and i've been needing lots of sleep, lots of water and lots of strawberries! This stained glass was made by my Dad, we clubbed together to buy him lessons for his birthday, and this is the first piece he made- pretty impressive for a beginner I think you'll agree. I have plans to get him to replace every window in my house with stained glass now!

Hello! I'm not here!

I'm here instead.

My Mum and sister invited me to join them on their last minute booked holiday in North Devon, so I shall be away all week. I know maybe I should've let you know sooner, so you could put in your requests for postcards and fudge, but I didn't know myself until a few days ago. I'll catch up on you all when I get back!

outstanding!

I know I already mentioned it, but here's my proof that I did so well this year. 85% equates to an 'outstanding 1st' which is basically as good as it gets- hence my happy face in this photo. Anything over 70% is a first (top grade possible) so I did really well all round as my lowest grade was 74%. When I did my first degree over 10 years ago I think the highest mark I ever got was 81% in the first year, and I came away with a 2.1, which is a very respectable grade if I do say so myself. I didn't ever really expect to be a first class student so it's good to prove myself wrong. I suppose the fact I already have a degree might seem like cheating, but i'm covering so much new territory this time round it feels like i'm starting from scratch.

My Mum and Dad popped in for afternoon tea (well evening tea actually) today and Dad told me all about his new studio space! For his birthday this year we all clubbed together to pay for him to take a course in stained glass- he's taken to it like a duck to water and now the course has finished he's found himself space in someone's garage with a window and a work bench where he's going to start making stained glass pieces on commission. I've already suggested a few pieces he could make for my house- and tried to convince him to set up an online shop so I can blog about him. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

My aching head

I have a killer headache tonight, which means i'm not going to be updating with anything other than this photo of the gooey mess that was our chocolate cake mixture today. My sister and her two children came round after nursery and we made cakes (my nephew always asks to make cakes when he visits me). My sister decided she wanted chocolate cakes and we cobbled together a recipe using our minds and some of her Terrys Chocolate Orange that was sacrificed for the greater good. I'm not sure if it was the baking or the children, but i'm suffering from such a killer headache I think I need to go to bed right away.

My favourite 4 year old

Yesterday my nephew came to play. He'd been really looking forward to doing some painting, but we spent so long baking that we ran out of time (which lead to tears). He was impressed by the magic of polaroid film, I was impressed by the magic of him.

Today I have an appointment with a specialist and i'm not looking forward to it- I hate all health related appointments because they just seem never ending. Luckily I have arranged to be met afterwards by Lucy and taken to go look for picture frames so I can frame some of the lovely pieces of art I have piling up in my house.

Happy Birthday Baby Sister!

My baby sister turns 25 today! Despite the fact I am nearly 10 years older than her I think I will always think she's the grown up and i'm the little kid when i'm around her- which could explain why i'm still sulking a bit about the fact she has no space to take me to Longleat today because her car is all full up with her family.

back on my feet

I must be feeling better today- I did some dishes! My mum called round yesterday and said she knew I must've been ill because I hadn't updated my blog for ages- she's so sneaky I wish she'd say hello here.

I've had some exciting news in the (e-) mail and i'm trying to decide how long I can keep my mouth closed until I start spilling the beans. I think I should at least wait until things are a little bit more certain, but it's one of those 'I wish I could do...' type things that I didn't ever really expect to happen.

Now I have itchy feet, wanting to get on with all the stuff I have missed over the last week, and still not really having the energy to do it.

Tomorrow I get to see these people with any luck:

Unexpected niceness

Today was a day of nice surprises:

I met up with my sister and her baby for lunch in the museum.

Alys came along to join us.

I got new shoes.

We sat mesmerised by art.






Jane met us

We talked about Berlin

Curtains

Today i've been very domesticated. I've been making curtains, or rather, i've been adjusting curtains that I picked up 7 years ago and never found a window for. My Dad came to visit and helped me out by fixing the curtain rail so it will no longer fall off the wall every time I pull the curtains. Not only did he fix that it seems like he's fixed my boiler as well, so my house is hopefully not going to be so totally freezing cold all winter after all. It's great having a clever crafty dad you know, I know I am able to hang curtains myself, it's just that Dad is such a perfectionist that everything he does lasts much longer/looks much better than my d-i-y attempts. He can even make curtains too.

Whilst Dad was drilling holes in the wall upstairs I was tackling the hated job of hoovering the downstairs and managed to discover a pile of screen printed postcards I made last year and then lost. I really do need to buy a copy of Why am I so Disorganised? It's a book i've taken out the library and i'm finding it really interesting- it tackles clutter and organisation in a different way to most 'de-junk' type books, there's a real emphasis on the emotional reasons for people being untidy and cluttered, which i'm finding interesting to work through.

Happy Birthday Baby Sister!

ellie
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy.

There's been a lot of talk today about Jan 22nd being the most depressing day of the year. Well on behalf of my baby sister (31 today) i'd like to say that actually today is not Blue Monday, it is in fact Eleanor's birthday and should be celebrated as such.

My family all met up at her new flat for chocolate cake, and then went and sat in a cold pub to eat really good food, before squashing in the car together and heading to our seperate homes.

I tried to tempt her with offers of hand made hot water bottles, screen printed art or maybe just something from the shop , but it seems she's holding out for a trip to IKEA sometime soon. Probably just as well really as she has no chairs and only one fork at the moment.

Hope your blue monday's weren't too blue!