LIMPICS!!!

The only mention I am giving to the Opening Ceremony is thus: Absolute mind blowing, jaw-dropping, fantastic, ingenious, British amazingness. You are welcome to your own opinion on this, but if it's different to the above, then I guess you are welcome to your own wrong opinion. Sucks to be you.

It's not really what this post is about, but I didn't want to go without giving it any tip of the bowler hat.

Yesterday, J and I went up that London to go and watch Hockey at the Riverside Stadium in the Olympic Park, Stratford. I'm not a massive hockey fan, there are rules I don't understand (who knew there was more to it than "don't let the ball touch your feet" and "you have to be in the D to score"?), there is play that's so quick I don't see it and I also get a little queasy when I hear the clash of sticks followed by a short, sharp scream.

I played hockey at school, but quick sticks, those red and yellow plastic thingies; I did umpiring as well, but certainly not with any huge amount of knowledge or skill, just enough to be praised for it by my PE teacher who knew I wasn't the sportiest of students. I have no story to trot out over and over and over and over about the one goal I scored, but I think my friends thank me for that.

J, however, loves it; he played a lot at school, played for South West and in general was just pretty darn good at it. Recently he's joined a local club and it's actually really enjoyable to go along and watch him play because he clearly knows what he's doing and he seems to have fitted in well with the team. Also, he's a Level 1 Umpire (doncha know?!) so can be seen running all over the field in a yellow jersey with a whistle and a pack of peculiar-shaped cards, knowing ALL THE THINGS about hockey.

So you can see that James was thrilled to get Hockey tickets, whereas I was just chuffed to bits to get to go and experience the Limpiks...and WHAT an experience!

The park in incredible, it's enormous! We weren't waiting in any queue for longer than 2 or 3 minutes and if it took longer than that, as it did outside the Megastore, the queue was constantly moving, and quickly too.

The Riverside Stadium, where the hockey is held, is at the far end of the park so is about a ten minute walk from Stratford Gate; the atmosphere was buzzing when we got in and first up were Spain and Pakistan. It's fair to say that I enjoyed watching the game because of the surroundings and the crowd, but I wasn't super interested in whether Spain or Pakistan won.

We headed out for a quick bit of late lunch, but were restricted to the outlets inside the Riverside: Indian snacks, pretzels, or waffles: a peculiar cross section indeed. India were playing next so in the spirit of things, and because it was the shortest queue we got some Indian snacks. Not something I would hurry to do again; I really like Indian meals but this particular stand was probably not a great representation of Indian cuisine. Never mind!

Heading back into the stadium, the seats previously unoccupied had filled up including a small group in front of us which had several fans of India in them; it was clear that we'd definitely be cheering on India against the Orange army!

I enjoyed that match ten times as much as the first one and was screaming for India as they sped up and down the pitch, being part of a crowd watching sport can do funny things to your natural instincts.I was gutted when they lost by one goal to the Netherlands, especially as both teams were going hard at it for the full 70 minutes. Mint.

Apart from the sport and the pristine facilities, the best thing about the games is the miracle procured by LOCOG - thousands of friendly Londoners in Games Maker get up making the place a bloody lovely place to be. Of course there were a huge number of people there who were from various cities across the UK, but without exception, they were all friendly, helpful, proactive and having a good time themselves. It makes a huge difference and I hope that international visitors will appreciate it as a part of their memories of the games as well.

We're really keen to get back and experience more live sport and now that more tickets have been released, maybe we will get a chance. I'm sure that the real strain of resources and space will be felt when the 80,000 capacity stadium is being used for the athletics, but as the right people are already in place on ground level, I reckon the whole thing from start to photo finish is going to be a massive success :)

Watching: Olympics - there is honestly nothing else being transmitted into our home

Reading: Twitter, a lot.

Listening to: Things I don't know about different Olympic sports.

Drawing: Star Wars birthday art plus a couple of personalised pieces.

Eating: Potato salad.

Learning: Things about hockey

Coveting: MOAR Olympics tickets

Saving for: Anniversary things...

Quoting: Fact Hive. A lot.

Planning: Tomorrow's trip to the cinema

There's a 50% chance you're going to think I'm thick.

Maths is not my strong point, far from it; across a lovely list of As and Bs on my GCSE grades, a C stared out at me. "Hey, Intermediate maths do-er! You scraaaaaaaaped by!".
Prick C.

I'd been encouraged by my maths teacher to take the higher tier paper, which, by definition was a whole level above the maths that was already poking me in the eye with a pointy stick and giving me a headache.
If I had opted to do it, I wouldn't have even gotten my C, I would have had a D; D for DENIED!

Bringing my highly relevant preamble bang up to date by, oh, about 15 years, I recently took a couple of assessment tests for a course I'm going to be taking and sailed through the English modules (*smug face*) but I may as well have dribbled on the maths one and coloured it in with crayons.

Do you know why? There are a number of possible reasons, including the fact that I haven't actively done that kind of maths for roughly 8 years (previous college course), that I wasn't ever really very good at it, or maybe even that I was rushing through it to get to the English bit. I think it relies on one thing:

Maths is WRONG.

Ok, maybe not all maths, I'm not going to argue the toss over 2 + 2 = 4, but there is one section that gets my goat: statistics. I know that you  may read this and think "Oh wow, she's actually on the spectrum" but just have a think about what I'm about to say.

How is there any other "chance" than 50/50?

One either wins the Lottery or one doesn't, doesn't it irritate you when people say "I was nearly a millionaire last night! I only needed two more numbers!" Well, you didn't win then did you?
As the saying goes: "a miss is as good as a mile".

With multiple choice questions, you may have a number of options, but you either get it right, or you don't, am I right?

This might seem like a completely ludicrous idea and my lovely man tears his hair out when I vocally entertain it; I mean, in truth, I know full well that this isn't how statistics work, I don't know how to work them out very well, thankfully I don't have to use that sort of maths in day to day life (I BLOODY well told you, Miss Aspinall!) and I've been accepted on to the course.

It was just something for you to think about...or not; you either will or you won't. 50/50, you see?

Watching: Felicity Season One, I'm starting from the beginning.

Reading: The Heart of The Night, Judith Lennox

Listening to: Legally Blonde: The Musical (OLC)

Drawing: sketcHy Minis (I'll show you some of these, but have a look on my Twitter and FB page)

Eating: A Mint Aero, it's not even very nice.

Learning: How to use a ticket booking site for my new "job"

Coveting: SDCC experience!

Saving for: SDCC Next year...

Quoting: Nothing!

Planning: To fill every little mini card I have hand cut

Watching: LA Ink...DMAX in general!

Reading: Nothing - SHAME on me

Listening to: Alan Silvestri

Drawing: Renaissance Olympics

Eating: Granola - goddamn fatty! It's good brainfood for working though; it stops me getting up to get a snack!

Learning: What keeps knocking out the RCD!

Coveting: New art paper and some markers

Saving for: Tap class, after 42nd Street I'm bereft, so need to hoof

Quoting: It's hard to beat someone who never gives up

Planning: To get better, I have a cough that I just cannot shift.


Also planning to do a proper blog post for you guys - this one was a fill in while I'm writing it!

30 Things About Her. (Take more pictures of your friends & family)

On the twitter over the past couple of days there has been a hash tag called #30ThingsAboutMe which is what I did this morning - but not for me. I made it #30ThingsAboutHer in reference to my mum, whose birthday it would have been today.

You can see the list below on my Twitter Account (you can see that link even if you don't have an account yourself), but to give you readers a little extra, I'm adding to the 140 character limit with a bit of an explanation for each one - where applicable!

1. Naturally slim, totally elfin teen - very cute!

Mum was born in 1957 so was a teen just as the 70s were born; there is one picture of her (now resides in a photo album I made for my grandma) where she has the perfect pixie hair, a brown top, slim, but not anorexic and the cheekiest little smile EVAR!

2. Incredibly intelligent and member of a formidable pub quiz team

An absolute oracle (it seemed) of facts; she was no Vincent Nigel Murray, but the stuff she used to retain made her an invaluable member of a quiz team with Mrs Thomas, Mr Bloor and....someone else whose name I can't remember - prob Mr Sears (all teachers - that's why they don't have first names).

3. Had tantrums like a child - caused me much embarrassment!

I can remember one in particular after my brother and I had cleaned the kitchen on a Sunday, she must have been pissed off at something else because her reaction at us pushing the mixer tap to the side was to lay on the floor and beat her fists. I also remember being glad that she ws face down, because I know that seeing my face of suppressed laughter would have only fanned the flames!

4. Taught me how to read using flashcards when I was 3; I read better than any child at infants school for the duration

I remember this most distinctly; mum would be in the passenger seat of dad's car and would have a little rectangular box of flash cards - two levels, one for me, one for Rob. Whatever method she used worked bloody well as we got through those rather quickly and by the time I was in Infants (I am told the following as I don't remember it clearly) I read The Enormous Crocodile to my friend Beth.

5. Superbly imaginative when it came to creating fancy dress; used to win at Brownies every time

One pack holiday we were staying in a cottage on the Badminton estate and the theme was a teddy bears' picnic. a brownie by the name of Tracey (tiny girl, laugh like Barbara Windsor) had a full Winnie The Pooh costume that she said had been made for her. It was very much a strict CosPlay ethic when it came to fancy dress - no "bought" costumes were allowed. I was Mother Bear from goldilocks and I had a paisley blue dress with a little white apron, a pink bonnet that had fluffy ears stuck to the outside and a nose made out of one of those polystyrene egg cartons with an elastic string. I was shocked to win after seeing the Pooh bear costume, but hey!

6. Married a child-abusing tosser who fought with her mum and screamed in the middle of the road - on Gloucester Road

You may be shocked at that bit - it was my step dad, not my dad. The floor of the front room was unusable as we were having polished floorboards put in, but they were all up for some reason - we had no floor. Sunday lunch was a weird affair - it was cooked and we all ate upstairs in the master bedroom. For some reason - I was probably being rude about eating broccoli or cabbage, (it was definitely a green); my step dad picked up my plate, grabbed me by the wrist dragged me along the hallway and my feet barely touched the stairs as I was hoisted down them. We went into the kitchen whereby he put my plate on the floor and told me that I would not be going anywhere until I had eaten the entire meal. Mum was NOT a good cook, so this was not "ooh yum, Sunday roast"; it was dry chicken, watery gravy, rock hard veg. Just because you don't report it, doesn't mean it's not child abuse. Fucking idiot.

7. She painted the hand-made stained glass window at the rear of Horfield Methodist church hall

I can't find the photo I have of it - so in the mean time, thank you, Google Street View.

It's a rainbow with the words "God's Promise To The World". I'll find you a better picture, I promise.

8. She wanted to call me Cleo

Dad wanted to call me Joyce (both my grandmas are Joyces) and mum wanted to call me Cleo. Thank goodness I wasn't called Joyce - it's a grandma's name! For whatever reason, mum ended up naming me after one of her friends from school and the compromise was that my middle names is Jay (Joyce, Joyce, Jeff (granddad) and Graham John (Pampa)) ALL THE Js!

9. She never ever heard of Twitter or Facebook

I think she would have hated Facebook, but liked Twitter; she would have been very funny on Twitter.

10. She could touch type

Mum worked for the Civil Service when she was a teen / early twenties and did a lot of clerical work; this involved touch typing, but it also involved a few trips a week to the wholly uninviting Council archives in The Guildhall; a haunted building in the 70s, she was petrified every time she set foot in the door.

11. She would interrupt my half finished sentences with songs "If I..." "ruuuuled the world!"

This is a fun game to play if you are not the person trying to finish a sentence; try it yourself.

12. She wasn't especially good at cooking!

I mentioned the roasts before, but one thing mum made that I LOVED was "stuff"; it was based on bolognaise but eaten with other carbs - we were crap at eating spaghetti, so was often potatoes or pasta shapes. That's still something I do, ha ha.

13. She would draw little pics on her Gang Show words to help her remember lyrics

More proof that mum was not only very intelligent but that her brain was artistic and responded better to imagery than to just remembering words from the page. I tried this myself at rehearsals, but barely got words right even up until the show.

14. She christened the second husband's new partner "The Dumpy Mushroom" and it's still classically accurate.

Ha ha ha Thinking about it, I think it was her friend who christened her that, but I do remember the mushroom getting hugely upset and puffed up (somehow) about it when I called her that at Guides. Pffft, if I had to put up with seeing her face once a week, I think it was a small price to pay. It was only once, anyway. I blame Beth ;)

15. She had a temper shorter than any I've ever known and hotter than Hell-Fire

I'm 29 and the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach still runs riot when I think something awful is about to happen; this is the feeling borne of fearing the wrath of my mother when I had (or more accurately) hadn't done something! It's that feeling when you go over a bump in the road, but your blood turns cold and it's prolonged. It's not like she was going to beat us or anything, but being shouted at is scary!!!

16.NEVER alienated me & bro from our father despite her own feelings for him; let us make our own minds up like a good mum

Good parents, honest parents, parents who care about their children rather than using them in some emotional blackmail plan will go through their own painful battle when their partner leaves them and while they aren't always obligated to hide their hurt and anger, they always put the interest of the children first. Mum was really pissed off that Dad left and in later life - I was too! When we were kids, however, she never told us awful things about Dad or his new partner Some women are emotionally retarded in that they cannot achieve this, and try every trick they can think of to destroy the bond between a child and their estranged partner; mum - however angry she was with dad managed to do the best for us in every way.

17. She always told me that I could do better than half the little bits of art we would see at craft fairs

The Watershed in Bristol used to have a Christmas Craft fair every year - it was AMAZING! It was like Etsy in two exhibition halls. Whenever I yearned to having some of the tiny illustrations and framed pictures, mum always persuaded me that if I drew and practised every day, then I could do the same, if not better. The tiny image in question was one of some titchy sheep in a field, I can remember it so clearly! I saved my money and bought Banana split toffee instead!

18. She could eat potato salad from the tub

Ha ha yeah on shitty days I do that; total comfort food.

19. She called our cat pudding because she was tortoiseshell and looked like a Christmas Pudding

This cat was odd, I was so sad when she died but I'd never ever really had a connection with her at all!

20. She went back to college to re-take her A'Levels and to study to become a teacher. She aced them

Mum loved reading and I think we eventually (heartbreaking in some ways) got rid of all her old study books apart fro the ones I loved like "Poetry From The Thirties"; she was studying at UWE to be a Primary school teacher and I have a Dictaphone that she owned for the purpose of recording her placements and I treasure it because it's one of the only things I have that has her voice on it.

21. PHYSICALLY threw the methodist minister out of our house by his collar after he gave her an ultimatum re: Sunday School

Ha ha without going into it, he basically came to our house, told her to stop being friends with someone because people thought they were having an affair! The most ironic thing about this, and I think one of the reasons it made mum furious was the fact that everyone knew about the two other affairs that were going on in the church at the time. It put me off Christianity for a long long time as the place was rife with hypocrisy.

22. She could un-Feck ANY mistake I made when creating anything / wrapping presents / writing things - magic!

I once said to mum "I hope I have inherited your "unbodging"", meaning that the mistakes I made on pictures or written cards or anything like that, mum could easily transform into something that looked deliberate.

23. She corrected spelling, grammar, punctuation, idiom and annunciation - even of NewsbReaders "Almost unique???"

There are no grades of being unique - you're either unique or you're not. I've definitely inherited that.

24. She could write letters to make your eyes bleed; especially to Dr's receptionists who wrote shitty letters to her :)

When mum was referred to hospital it was after the 6th or 7th Doctor's appointment - she had been told that she had put on weight which would explain the swelling around her abdomen and middle and would also explain why she was out of breath. The nurse practitioner referred her to hospital and they drained 4 litres of pleural fluid from around her lungs. FOUR LITRES. It was a reaction or a cause of the cancerous cells in her body. We brought her post in and amongst it was a letter from the self same Doctors' surgery that had referred her. The shitty letter advised that she had missed an appointment and should have called to let them know so that someone who actually *needed* to see a GP could have made use of it. If you never met mum, you won't know the look of calm fury that was etched on her face - let me illustrate somehow, if you went to a Wolf's lair, stole one of her cubs and dangled it in front of her, it would be the last second of fear you felt as you witnessed her leap, jaws agape, for your throat. That.

25. She kept a little, red notebook with ALL present lists in so she knew what she bought in years past

I picked this up once, not knowing what it was, and being the nosey bint I am , opened it up to find pages and pages of past gifts mum had bought - Bike, Fashion Wheel all sorts. I never opened it again because I would have felt huge guilt if I had seen anything for the forthcoming years.

26. She would always giggle when moving furniture - stupidly infectious; what should have taken minutes took hours

Mainly a cabinet in my grandma's kitchen. The pair of them were hopeless together; nothing funny actually had to happen, they just had to catch one another's eye and they'd be gone for about 20 minutes, neither of them knowing why they were laughing. Muppets.

27. She took her driving test and failed, then never took it again - we walked & bussed everywhere!

Mum said that her main problem with driving is that she would look into the mirror, but not actually see what was there and factor it into her behaviour, she would just go through the motions. I'm pretty glad they didn't let her pass!

28. She never qualified as a teacher, she never read the end of Harry Potter, she didn't see me get married

Stupidly, the last of the three makes me saddest.

29. She had always wanted to ice skate outside Rockerfeller Centre, we were going to take her for her 50th birthday

Well I was anyway; it was just a plan formed from when she had mentioned it years before. Way before she was diagnosed, way before she went into remission, way before I could ever hope of affording it.

30. In 2002 she apologised to me and my brother through tears because she knew she wasn't going to beat cancer

Why? Because she felt guilty? Because she would miss the rest of our lives? I have no idea; we were left in a fortunate position housing-wise, we were both over 18 and had both had the privileged experience of living with mum. Not that it was a fairy tale from day to day, but she showed me how to deal with things, how NOT to deal with things and loved us!

Mum's birthday is never going to be the easiest day to pass by and there are hundreds of other moments that I have in my head that aren't listed here; decorating my bedroom midnight blue with gold stars, dancing to Birdhouse In Your Soul in the kitchen, going to Disneyland Paris; hundreds.

Thanks for reading xx

Drawing Challenges; Drawing Anything.

I've started doing Illustration Friday which I always had planned to do - but never really got around to it because I just assumed my illustrations weren't up to scratch. This comes from following some flipping talented people on Twitter.

However, last week I had a word with myself and said "Get on with it, wuss.". I didn't get the image in on time even though it was ready because I was faffing, but the first step was that I actually got the image out of my head and on to the paper.

A brief rundown for those too lazy to click the link: Illustration Friday issues a word on Friday each week, then people submit images that they have created (in any media) that they feel represents that word.

I've done two which I shall post here for you (um, you're welcome!) and am all done until next Friday's word.

Prepare

From the age of 5 until I was about 16 I was off to ballet every Wednesday taught by Miss Anne who sported fabulous "BinLiner" dance trousers and give or take a perm now and then pretty much looked the same over the decade that I knew her. I saw her recently at the Mall in Cribbs and she looked a teeny weeny bit older but more effortlessly glam than ever.

Anyway, as a little Barrelina you have things drummed into you - good toes bad toes, the sandcastle dance, and the terms. It's been 13 years since I attended a ballet class and still the first thing that popped into my head when I read "Prepare" was to stand with arms in "Bras bas" which means to prepare the arms before first position.

Twirl

Had I not used my little barrelina for the previous word, this one would have been a pirouette from her; in a way, I'm glad that I had because it made sit and think for a few minutes, then I caught sight of my reflection in the Mac screen and the answer presented itself. the only difference I added was to make her a pre-teen with a diary of angsty thoughts of love.

So this keeps me out of trouble for a few minutes each week and makes me think a bit more about hopping outside of my immediate comfort zone; but what of the rest of the time? I stumbled across the "100 things to draw challenge" on teh internets so this is my new project...

1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can’t
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

I'm going to try and do them in order, then I'm going to realise I don't want to and will try and just do them!

The Tuesday Lowdown

At the risk of blatant plagiarism, I must credit this mini-idea to Amber at She Sure is Sketchy; fab blog, busy talented woman. go and take a look. Then come back and realise that this is my on the fly version of her New York minutes.

• Watching: Boston Legal...from the start.
• Reading: Game of Thrones and Kirsty's Crafty Home book.
• Listening to: Phamie Gow and feeling all romantic
• Drawing: Super Heroes
• Eating: Thornton's chocolates from a plastic tub that is specifically designed to silently will me to eat more
• Learning: How to navigate skilfully around my newly-inherited AppleMac
• Coveting: The stamina of the lady who runs the work out DVD I bought - well the chocs aren't going to help that now are they?
• Saving for: the tax bill...
• Quoting: Nothing worth having ever came easy
• Planning: Birthday adventures for James

Come on then, nosey.

My partner, James, and I are both, well, partners in two businesses; I run sketcHiness as well, which is a fledgling, and he has invested in a brilliant graphic design company which is really starting to take off for the designer. (Don't click that link if you don't want to, it's not an advert - it's just a very nice display of his work :)

It's safe to say that business holds a small but very significant place in our relationship and the home routine. When we moved to our new house we had enough space to do everything that we wanted as well as create what was going to be a smaller studio / office space for me (and him at times too). Well Christmas was approaching and as we were having a fair few visitors, we needed to utilise the space so that room quickly became a "We'll just put these things in here until after Christmas" area. Everything was boxed and labelled but I was feeling crowded before I even had a chance to get in there and get sketching!

This week I made a firm decision that things were going to be eschewed form my quirkily-shaped room and find their correct homes in various other rooms of the house and the attic space, which we recently found to be very spacious, despite its place under out steeply sloped roof (the main reason the building is grade 3 listed). Having announced this to James, he leapt into action and came out with something I never expected - turning the other 2nd storey room (one being our bedroom) into the office. I loved it! It's a nice big room with a view over next door's chicken and duck field, black beams and cosied up inside the other part of the roof.

Last night we darkened IKEA's doors armed with the company card and shopped our tax deductable home office furniture. Usually we play the game of "We live here" a la 500 Days Of Summer because James has never really been allowed to play in public before, but last night we got there at 8.15 and it closes at 9pm - so we were on a mission.

We managed to kit out the whole place - minus some "We'll get them as and when we need them" drawers, and started building last night. I'm actually typing this from that workspace as James - being the genius that he is has already sorted out the phones, screens, WiFi and internet connection.

I like having a nose at other people's work spaces, so I have posted some progress pictures and will add more when I've kitted the place out properly in my bits and pieces :)

Take some of these.

Add one of these.

Leave to settle until office resembles this; go to bed.

Add some flavour to the set up - Apple is, of course, optional.

Spice desk with some work and a freaking cool desk calendar / pad

Garnish with Apple Mac (if available) plus wireless keyboard and Wacom tablet.

Finally add a view of ducks, chickens & shed and the rolling hills beyond

(only viewable in the day)

If you're feeling particularly brave, feel free to add two felines, but be aware that they will sit on everything.

In the last photo you can see the bank of printers we have to the right hand side - there's a standard document printer, a scanner and photocopier and out of sight to the right of this picture is my beloved Epson printer, God of reprographics!

There you have it for now; I have yet to import all the paper, card, files, ink, paint, tools and stock from the smaller room, but as we are waiting for a couple of cupboards to be delivered, it seems daft to bring them into the space just for now. I will have to keep trekking to the other side of the house to get them.

What rhymes with Valentine's? Oh.

Ok I do appreciate that this is a fairly early post in relation to the time of year, but I'm sure that I am behind the times when it comes to doing Valentine's Day cards (as a maker of cards) especially as supermarkets already have Easter eggs on the shelves; still not sure why people are complaining about that, I have no issue with there being more chocolate available.
I've not darkened the door of any shops since just after Christmas when James and I went, in the dead of night,  to restock for the Chrimbo Limbo guests, so I can't say I have seen what is adorning the "Seasonal" aisles of Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco or ASDA (other supermarkets are available). Facebook is a reliable reporter of such events, however, so I know that Christmas hadn't even been packed away before the next religious holiday was being packaged, presented and sold.

Doing a quick Etsy search I can see that I'm ok; there are minimal hearts, flowers and chubby cherubs being drafted into treasuries or featured on the front page. Even a search shows that while there are a good few relevant pages, most of them are gift ideas.
When I was making Christmas cards, I battled with myself over a theme, or something clever; I ended up doing some key days from The Twelve Days of Christmas which I really liked - there are still a few that I've done but will add to next year's cards.

Being stupidly head over heels in love makes it a little easier to make Valentine cards, yes yes, fetch the sick bucket, I know; however being the "funny one" to most of my friends throughout school allows me to channel the "Valentine's is for losers" ethic needed to create some "Down With Love" cards too.

I'll post a 2012 Valentine's card image later or tomorrow, but here's one from last year; the number of hearts relates to the message I wrote in them before colouring them; lame but kind of cute. This was done on the Brushes app on iPad, so isn't an HD image, but it means a lot to me.

Resolution shmesolution

I'm going to write on this more; considering I haven't written on it since July I feel that's a positively achievable statement.

So let's start with something fun! I shall ignore all the skullduggery that has passed during the Christmas period (it's been going on for two years, so why make a spectacle of it here?) and just let you know that it's nice to be concentrating on some absolute core geekery: comics.

Let me be accurate about something; while I love comics (ranging from Teen Titans to Lenore) the real attraction they hold for me are the costumes/suits. I don't claim to have any great knowledge of story arcs or origins and, let's face it, the ones I do know have been re-imagined anyway!

Wonder Woman was my first foray into the world of masks and crime-fighting, I used to wind my Pampa up on Saturday afternoons when I wanted to watch Wonder Woman, because he wanted to watch The A-Team on the other side. Seeing Wondie kick the asses of the baddies and still look awesome was fantastic!

I got my first Wonder Woman dressing-up outfit when I was 5 or 6 as a present from my Godfather and loved it! I had little satin star-spangled shorts, a PVC headband, belt and cuffs as well as red vest with the yellow eagle emblazoned across my chest; I was a heroine! It wasn't down to the powers I had been given (to irritate my brother), the invisible plane I flew from the top of the stairs ("Heather, stop playing on the stairs now!" yes, mum!) but the awesome outfit I donned.

Surprisingly, when I grew up I only actually owned one mask suit, and that was Super Girl; I bought it after I had dyed my hair darker (from very blonde to manky dark blonde) so it was silly to have gotten it really and I felt like I was cheating on Diana's image, but it was for a publicity stunt for a show I was in and without black hair it didn't seem right to dress as Wonder Woman.

However if I were to ever release the geek and go to any Con's there would be one woman I would go as; not Diana Prince's alter ego, but Donna Troy aka WonderGirl aka Troia aka Darkstar etc etc.

The way I see it, she's freaking awesome, she gets to be Wonder Woman when Diana cops out for a bit and she has very cool blue-black hair. She's pretty much the only character I've really looked into and her many story arcs just let her be pretty bad-ass. There's tragedy thrown in for good measure and she's not really considered a main-stream DC character but I think she's rather interesting. I decided to collect the DC Super Hero Collection magazine and 78 DC character models later, Raven and Black Canary (she marries Green Arrow) have sneaked onto my radar among others, but it's all about the costume and the physically impossible figures :D

Anyway, back to the sketcHiness link for it all and that is my new designs are based on superheroes. There are other elements of geekery in there (I love Doctor Who, Star Trek, HP & LOTR) but it mainly features those of the masked crime-fighters.

Here's a sneak peek - it was going to be DT, but I thought you would appreciate Wonder woman more.