Boo!

I haven't blogged in far too long, and now I have far too much for one post so I shall have to pace myself!

Firstly, apologies for the long silence. I moved house and was WITHOUT INTERNET ACCESS FOR A WHOLE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!! (and no landline either) I nearly went properly mad. I'm now resident in a lovely Victorian redbrick terraced house. The only downside is the 3G signal is appalling, so my only contact with the outside world was patchy to say the least.

But I'm moved in, unpacked and feeling comfy. The move has meant there is enough space for the girls to live with me part time, so I've been having fun kitting their room out. They are sharing, and agreed on a nautical theme as they both are interested in boats and sailing.  The room is long and narrow so fits the bill rather well, although it makes it very tricky to photograph.

First point of order was to repaint it from a peachy cream to a pure white. Then pine bunk-beds were added, along with a plain and simple white IKEA wardrobe and chest of drawers. Bedding was got from Primark, of all places and a rug again from IKEA.

The fishing float decoration came from a little shop in Southwold

Then the fun began :-) I got out a canvas board, a ruler, pencil, permanent black pen, acrylic paints and ...

Then I had all this rope left over so I thought, hmm ... nautical knots :-)

From top left we have: bowline, reef, full round turn and two half hitches, Sailors' Cross, figure of 8, clove hitch and a ship's mat in the centre. They're glued onto some blue board and I just need to nail some spacer wood around the back of the frame to make a proper box.

And lastly (for now) I had an IKEA mirror in my craft stash ...

I found some clipart, printed it out, traced it onto Freezer Paper using a light box, cut them out with a craft knife and sponged some pale blue acrylic through them. All sealed with matt varnish.

I'm going to add a rope handle like the beach hut picture, but the drill is currently elsewhere.

The next project will be curtains. I found some gorgeous fabric in Dunelm Mills in Rugby.

Gluten, dairy, soya-free baking

So what's been happening?
Lots of rain, cancelled workshop, mask making and baking.

Sadly the textiles and art journalling courses I was supposed to be running over the next 4 weeks have been cancelled, due to one parent dropping out. That may sound like over-reaction but she was also transporting another family, so accounted for 5 kids in total, well over 50% of the group. But, onwards and upwards.

I am off to L Fest next weekend, where I shall be attending the Tipping the Velvet Masquerade Ball. What more excuse does a crafty person like me need to get cracking on a mask? You can see the progress on here.

And today has been baking day as we've run out of biscuits. Today's batch are polenta biscuits from here (you have to scroll down a bit, but there are lots of other gluten-free recipes too). I used fine cornmeal (40p for 500g in ASDA Caribbean section), Vitalite sunflower spread (which is dairy and soya free), added 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum, omitted the zest and used vanilla bean paste instead, topping them off with strawberry jam. Lovely crunchy biscuits.

More workshops :-)

So it's a wet and grey Monday here in Rugby. When will this foul weather end? Hopefully in time for L Fest the weekend after next! And then, once I've moved to Coventry I'll be able to enjoy summer sunshine in my garden. Still no moving date, but there's no reason to worry. Everything appears to be going to plan (for a change)

Last week was a sewing week. I joined a steampunk facebook group (Baron Vincent Von Rictus Baines Compendium of Interesting Artefacts) and discovered, to my delight, not only a wonderful online community of fellow eccentrics, but a hat making competition. The challenge was to make a steampunk hat by 30th June. I joined with 5 days to go and set to it. I needed the impetus to get going on my costume for Asylum in September (Europe's largest steampunk convention, held in Lincoln) and it helped to crystallise my character. You have to understand, steampunk is a fantasy, loosely based on the Victorian era, but with the idea of technology having continued without the development of the silicon chip. Each steampunk has their own take on it, and there really is no right or wrong (although you always get one or two people who like to show off by telling you your cap badge is from the wrong era, so not authentic - authentic? steampunk? IT'S NOT REAL!!). So characters are wide ranging. I have opted for explorer/aviator. My imaginary character is a female explorer and adventurer who flies her own private dirigible/airship. Therefore my hat is a flying hat.

I made it from scratch out of some brown PVC I had left over from a project years ago. I thought it would be fairly easy. How wrong I was! Trying to fit slippery and fairly thick material over one's own head, unassisted is really quite hard, actually. There was some swearing, lots of sticky tape, a bit more swearing, a good deal of exasperation, and several trips back and forth between the mirror and my sewing machine. But in the end I have a hat.

Spot the mistake ...

Sight made out of a plastic lid and some brass shim

The strap is an old watch strap

I also made up the pattern and muslin for the trousers I want. I used e-sewing workshop tutorials on their 7-day free trial. Brilliantly detailed. I would love to subscribe and learn everything, but finances prevent it for now. However, the muslin fits perfectly so now all I need to do is get to the Rag Market in Birmingham and get some fabric for the final thing.

And this week sees the start of two new children's courses: textiles in the morning and art journalling in the afternoon. I will get parental consent to publish photos so you can see what we get up to.

Art or Craft?

Well, the summer fair stall was a washout. Rain forced the event indoors and meant that stalls were down corridors rather than as a nice market in the walled garden. I was encouraged when I was told my spot was just inside the entrance; one of the very first stalls. But what this actually means is that people come in and head straight past you at speed in order to get to "the action", ie tea, cake, beer, Pimms, bouncy castle etc.. The next time they pass is on their way out when they've spent all their money. It also means the traffic is mostly limited to the first and last 30 minutes of the event. I made 2 WHOLE SALES and a loss :-(

By contrast, one of my friends had a very successful afternoon at a different craft fair. She almost sold out of one entire range of products. And it got me thinking. The main criticism I have received from other stallholders/fair organisers is that my stall is not focussed enough. I don't have a product, I have a range of things, and customers don't like this. They like to look at a stall and say "ah, plants", or " jewellery", or "cushions", whereas mine they look at and go "ooo stuff", or "gosh aren't you creative" and then they shuffle on by because it's all too bewildering. They aren't there to see an exhibition, they're there to shop and they like it to be easy and clear. But that's just not how I work. I have one or two things I make repeatedly, but on the whole each piece of work is a one off. And I think, for me, that's possibly the difference between art and craft. If I were happy to be a crafter, where the making and selling is the main focus, then I should be able to happily reproduce a technique or product over and over because it sells. But I just can't do it.

I can't do it partially because my boredom threshold is too low, partially because the materials I work with (sometimes) are vintage watch and clock pieces, so it's unlikely I could reproduce the same thing even if I wanted to. But I suspect these are excuses. The simple fact is I don't want to be a production line. For me the thrill is the design, the putting together of bits and pieces into a new whole, starting with a blank space and filling it with ideas. I love to try new techniques and mediums, to have a go at something different and see where it takes me. And I guess that makes me an artist, of sorts.

moving, perhaps ...

So I've decided to try and move from Rugby to Coventry (a full 15 miles, for those of you not familiar with the area). Rugby is a small town that doesn't have a great deal going on and has really suffered in the financial down-turn. Coventry is a medium-sized city with lots of arts and music stuff as well as all the usual urban amenities.  So why, you may well ask, did I move to Rugby last year in the first place? Children!

My youngest has been at school in Lutterworth, while my eldest is at Princethorpe College (between Rugby, Coventry and Royal Leamington Spa). Rugby was the obvious choice as Meg could get a school bus from Princethorpe to Rugby, and Rachel could get a public bus from Lutterworth to Coventry after school. This meant that, although they couldn't easily live with me, they can and do come and stay overnight at least once a week after school, as well as stay every other weekend. So what's changed? Rachel will be going to Princethorpe along with Meg in September so there is absolutely no need for me to be in Rugby any more. There is a school bus to Coventry from Princethorpe, so I can live there just as easily. I've even found a house, yes a HOUSE! It's the same rent as my flat, has 3 bedrooms, separate sitting room, dining room and kitchen, and a garden. All in all it's about twice as much space as I have now, if not slightly more. It's a mid-terrace Victorian bay-fronted house in a well-maintained residential road within walking distance of Coventry centre.

But it's not all plain sailing. Firstly, the previous tenants apparently left the place in a mess so it's being refurbished, and the landlord won't let anyone look round and has given no date of when it will be finished. Secondly, I don't have a salary and am dependent on my ex-husband to pay my rent, which he does utterly reliably, but letting agents are a bit nervous about people who can't prove they earn enough a month to pay for themselves. Thirdly, the rental market is moving extremely quickly and I'm terrified I'm going to get "pipped at the post".

So I've made a bold move. I have picked up the paperwork to start the lease process WITHOUT HAVING LOOKED AROUND THE HOUSE. I have seen lots of interior photos, and a mid-terrace Victorian house is a standard kind of affair with predictable room sizes etc., so the risk is mitigated. But still. The letting agency don't really like people doing this because you have to pay an administration fee as a way of securing the property and paying for the references to be done, and so forth. And they get people doing all this, going to see the place, deciding they don't like it after all and trying to demand their money back. Which is against all the rules. Obviously I am 99.9% confident that I won't want to back out of the lease. I've driven past the house, had a look around the area, at the outside, at the bus routes ... and all seems just right. The house and street are both well-maintained. There's no peeling paintwork, or dodgy window frames. It has modern double-glazing, a little gravelled front garden and railings, on-street parking, sound-looking roof.

Next I have to get Jon to fill in the guarantor form, and take it back to the agent to see if I'll pass the references. She's given me forms for "unemployed" which I often feel as though I am, but strictly speaking I'm not. Whether that makes any difference, I just don't know.

Oh, and I've got an interview for the PGCE (teacher training) course at Birmingham City University. So hopefully I'll be in training for a proper job soon ...

The Princethorpe "Summer" Fair is only a few days away, so I'm busy making stock. And I'm unashamedly using my children as a market sample (so if I don't sell anything it's their fault ;-) )

So today I played in a Spires Music world premiere of Colin Touchin's Choose the Light. It was composed for the Coventry Mysteries and was inspired by the responses of many, many school children to the Doom paining in Holy Trinity Church, Coventry. It's a great piece, with material for school choirs, adult chorus and orchestra to all get their teeth into happily.

The interesting thing about Spires is they use professionals to lead the orchestral sections. This means the overall standard is impressively high. It also means I was sitting next to a very competent young man, and becoming all too aware of how incompetent I felt. Now that's not to say I played badly. I performed adequately, made very few slips (and none of them noticeable beyond my desk partner and myself) and generally acquitted myself professionally. No, what I noticed was how far my technical competence was from his. Ok, he's a professional. He's had high-quality tuition for many years (as did I, it has to be said) and he's clearly very talented and committed (the latter being something I always struggled with). But he had that ability to make it all seem soooooo easy.

It has to be noted at this point that I have been out of the playing game for several years. I've not played regularly with an orchestra since I moved to the Midlands in 2001, and I hardly touched my 'cello at all after I was ordained. Then, when I became ill, I fell out of love with it entirely and my 'cello sat in its case gathering dust. So it's only really been in the last few months that I have started to play or even practise again. It's not surprising then, that my fingers are a little rusty. But that's not entirely my point. I don't think that, even at my most capable, I was ever as comfortable with my instrument as this bloke. He had managed to eradicate all observable tension from his body, whereas I have a sore point on the tip of my thumb from gripping my bow, and I mean gripping. I'm fine in lyrical sections. My hands relax, my bow glides and all is well. But when the music becomes more impassioned, so do I. And as I've mused on this, I've realised there is a contradiction in performance. Musicians of every kind are trained to relax in order to perform at their best, just as an athlete needs to relax in order to compete well. But equally we have to express the emotional language of the music we are performing, and sometimes that music doesn't say "warm, fluffy clouds and marshmallow".

Clearly what I need to do is learn to disentangle my physical responses from my emotional ones. I need to be able to portray despair, anger, violence, melancholy, fear, surprise ... without it adversely effecting my playing technique. I understand the theory behind keeping relaxed. On a string instrument, as soon as you tense your bowing hand/arm/shoulder you effect the contact of the bow-hair with the string and it deadens the sound. The string is less able to ring freely, so you end up fighting against yourself to get enough volume. So I need to learn how to make a sound that is marcarto whilst having a right hand that's marshmallow.

Hopefully realisation is the first step ...

Rings and things

I have been chained to my work-table again today. This time it has been rings:

Steampunk rings

(the one on the left I can't bring myself to sell ... it's mine, all mine ... mwah ha ha)

Bead rings 

 Button Rings

On a more serious note, I've been looking for craft fairs locally to sell at but they are really thin on the ground this year. Yet another sad indication of the state of the economy and people's personal finance. When money is scarce, people don't buy art and craft items. It's all pound shops and pawnbrokers. So I've started up my Folksy page again. But anything you see on here, my facebook page, or Flickr account is available to purchase. Any items that catch your fancy, just send me a message.

Lots of creative stuff

So to balance out all the writing in the last posts, this one is mainly pictures :-)

Gluten, wheat and dairy free baking

As Meg is still on a restricted diet (and now looks as though she may have become sensitive to soya too!) we do lots of home baking: bread, gorgeous shortbread biscuits from Ariana Bundy's book Sweet Alternative, and an almond & polenta lemon drizzle cake.

I am a member of an ATC trading group called Mixed Media ATC and suddenly remembered I was supposed to be making some green textile postcards (4" x 6"), so this is the work in progress ...

... and this is the end result :-)

 

 And the rest are pics of some pieces I've made for my next craft fair.

A charm necklace

           

   

     A brass button bracelet

 This piece is a vintage watch face, coloured with alcohol inks and embellished. The reverse is polymer clay.

Standard watchpiece cufflinks. Nothing fancy, but quite pleasing none the less.







And a watchpiece ring.

parties, parties everywhere, and more than a drop to drink

Well, what a fortnight that has been. The weather may have been bloody awful, but the party-quotient made up for it! My celebrations organised by splendid friends was, quite frankly, legendary. I was given instructions to pack an overnight bag and meet outside a certain country pub at 9.30 am, and await further instructions! Was I excited? Was I ever!

I was met by Becky who then led me a few miles away to an outdoor activities centre called Avalanche Adventure. I still had no idea what I was doing, or even who was doing it with me, as there was such a long list of potential activities. In the end there were 8 of us, signing our lives away on a disclaimer to go HOVERCRAFT DRIVING!!!!! It's clean, it's relatively safe and is the best 1.5 hours of fun I've possibly ever had. Trying to manoeuvre a rear drive air-bed with a whacking great fan on the back AND ABSOLUTELY NO BRAKES around marker flags and over a pond. Brilliant.

This was followed by lunch at the local and a couple of pints. Then the designated drivers picked their teams and we were sent off on a navigational scatter. The task, find as many of the following in 1.5 hours:

• 4 geocaches (25 points each)
• 10 telephone boxes (between 5 and 10 points each)
• solve 6 riddles and find the corresponding place (25 points each)
• achieve 10 silly things
• acquire 10 silly things

There wasn't time to do even half of them so planning and strategy was required, something that after the adrenaline and beer we were surprisingly lacking! In the end the 2 teams were separated by a mere 2 points. We lost. I'm not bitter.

I was then presented with a remarkable cake made by my friends and a wonderful gift: a steampunk box containing a wax seal stamp and a document detailing a weekend away at a steampunk event in Lincoln to which they had bought me a ticket and booked a B&B for 2 nights. I am sooooo spoilt.

To round the day off we all headed in to Leicester for a slap-up meal at The Case and then off to my favourite pub, The Red Tent. I finally made it to bed, happy, tired and just a little bit tipsy at around 4.30am!

The following evening I headed to Bury St Edmunds with my eldest to spend the week with my parents. The weather kept us indoors for the most part but it was very relaxing and good to spend unhurried time together.

The weekend just gone was yet another party. A friend I haven't seen for maybe 7 or 8 years invited me to his birthday party. I may have only known him and one other (albeit vaguely) but a better group of strangers I have yet to meet. There were silly games, copious amounts of cake, the odd glass of shandy (whisky, cava, beer, wine, Pimms ...) more silly games including "the Rolling Game" and "I've never" which is a drinking game I shall never again play whilst drinking whisky, or I shall simply have to lie and pretend I really have never done those things ... ah who am I kidding!

So now it's back to reality. I have a craft fair in 12 days, and a large amount of making to do. So off to the workroom I go ...

Here we go again

I'm not really sure where the past week has seeped away to. The weekend was spent in Bury St Edmunds with my family, to celebrate my substantial achievement of staying alive for this long. There were lovely presents, very tasty food and 2 cakes!

Monday I tried Nick's walk idea. My back was stiff after all the driving and eating, so rather than try to do aerobic exercise I decided to walk to ease everything. I packed a daysack with some water, a salad, a packet of hulahoops and my mobile phone and set out. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. I headed down to the disused railway track and went the opposite direction from the way I knew. It's a glorious path. A river of natural beauty threading through Rugby. Soon I was out beyond the suburban spread and into the countryside. I got to the end of the usable railway and met a road, consulted Google maps and decided to turn right and right again to avoid retracing my steps. Unfortunately after another half mile my sandals, which had been perfectly comfortable tramping around Cadiz and Gibraltar, decided today they would give me blisters! There was no way I was walking 3 miles back with blistering sandals (I sound like something out of TinTin :-) ), so I chose to cut down onto the conveniently placed canal towpath and walk barefoot on the grass. The only downside was this at least doubled the overall distance of the walk. 9 miles and a couple of hours later I was hobbling back through the streets of Rugby with extremely dirty feet. I had to bear the sandals for the last half mile as the tarmac was burning hot. All in all it was a great walk. Walking barefoot is strangely comforting (with the exception of the occasional stray thorn or stone) and something I will do again, but possibly not over such a distance. With boots and supplies, the route would be excellent. There are even a couple of pubs on the way that, had I not forgotten my wallet, would have been perfect for a mid-walk half. Lesson learnt! Next time be more prepared.

Wednesday was the second instalment of my jewellery workshop and this time I had 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. We were doing macrame knotting to make bracelets and keyrings. The concentrated incredibly hard and there was a good deal of friendly banter. I had decided to head in to Leicester city centre afterwards to do some busking, seeing as I had already driven to the outskirts. I have tried busking in Leicester once before and gave it up as a bad job, something I'd put down to the cold, grey weather. This time it was a glorious sunny day but still the shoppers were completely indifferent to my playing, on the whole. For some reason Coventry is a far better place to busk. I think it's possibly because the centre is more enclosed so the sound doesn't disperse so quickly. But people also seem friendlier somehow.

Today was supposed to be spent with my best friend, Lyn, drinking coffee and eating up birthday cake but plans had to be abandoned because eldest daughter is unwell again. She has some mystery illness which began back in late February with a stomach bug. Ever since she has been unable to eat anything dairy and possibly wheat as well. She was put back on to wheat by the doctor so she could be tested for coeliac disease. The test came back negative but she's started being sick and lethargic again, and I could swear her asthma is worse too. It seems to point to a wheat intolerance but there's no obvious test that will tell us definitively one way or another. She is nearly 14 and I am loath to restrict her diet unnecessarily, but she is missing school and doesn't want to fall behind. She'll be doing GCSEs in 2 years! But equally if I take her off wheat again and she gets better it could simply be a coincidence. She's miserable and I hate seeing her like that, but is it better to leave her on the wheat and see if she gets better regardless? The reaction is so delayed it's hard to make any link. She gets better from the sickness because she doesn't eat anything so before she was yo-yo-ing from well to sick every few days. We can't get to see a doctor for nearly 2 weeks, and then it will be a check-up and possible referral for more tests which will be another couple of weeks and then the wait for the results. Poor girl!

I am still drawing. I'll post pictures tomorrow as this was rather long!

Pick 'n' Mix

People have often used the word eclectic about me and my life, and it's not often that I take a step back to see what they mean. But the last few days probably give a good snapshot of what I'm talking about.

Friday - book club: eating cake, drinking red wine and chatting (very occasionally about the book, which some of us may have read)
Saturday - 'cello practise; drawing practise; Rubyfruit Lesbian disco at Revolution in Leicester. The beauty of the lesbian disco is ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY DANCES ... regardless. It's an extraordinary thing to witness, and a really enjoyable atmosphere despite the occasional well-meaning friend trying to set me up!
Sunday - Rigging lights in Rugby Theatre which involved climbing a fully extended 3-section ladder up goodness knows how many feet holding a medium sized lantern (as those in the trade call them) and attaching it to a scaffolding pole; then went back to Leicester to see Avengers Assemble with friends. If you love your superheros, GO AND SEE THIS FILM. It was sooo funny and loads of great action.
Monday - Orthodontist trip with Meg, coffee and natter with a friend
Tuesday - Ryton Organic Gardens with my sketch book. If you're in the UK Midlands and haven't been, it's an absolute oasis of garden loveliness. Nothing too formal, but lots of great ideas for normal gardens and gardeners. Oh, and a fab restaurant and cafe too.
Wednesday - Jewellery making workshop for children, lunch date (!), Rubyfruit Pool Tournament - which nobody was expecting me to last beyond the first round (mostly because I'd told everyone how terrible I am at pool), and I ended up in the final and down to the last 2 balls! Now they're claiming I'm a hustler.
Thursday - Craft day with my best friend and her daughters.

In between all of this I have been practising the first movement of the Brahms E Minor 'cello sonata, Bruck Kol Nidrei, some Bach, Beethoven, Popper and other classical works.

And today, Friday, is my birthday. Both girls stayed last night so I was treated to presents in bed and a bacon and egg bap cooked by Rachel.

A creative day

For lots of people Saturday is the first day of the weekend and consists of supermarkets, shopping centres, ferrying children around to sport/music/dance etc.. But when you're unemployed, it's not that different from any other day of the week. Yet somehow it feels different. No idea why. Just that habitual imprint of "weekendness" I suppose.

So I've tried to make the most of this Saturday. I got my 'cello out and did some long-overdue practise: something technical, something unfamiliar and something familiar. I think it's a pattern I'll try and stick to. I remember I had a minus1 recording of Brahms' E minor Sonata, well the 1st movement, anyway. So I stuck it on the ipod dock and played my way through it. I'd forgotten how passionate this movement is. How deliberate every single note is. Even with my practise mute on I suspect most of my neighbours were "treated" to an impromptu concert!

Next I got my pencil and paper out again and resumed the Klein Studios drawing classes. I have progressed through lesson 8b now and have a technical still life composition thingy. Apparently I can't draw ovals level, but other than that I'm fairly happy with it for now, although the photograph could be clearer:

Didn't see that coming!

On Monday I got "the 'phone call" - the one every TeachFirst participant waits for, the one telling you where you are going to be teaching in September. This 'phone call was going to clear up all those things that couldn't yet be resolved like where I was going to live. Except that my 'phone call wasn't what I was expecting. Instead of "Hey Mary, we'd love you to go and teach music in such-and-such a school in Coventry/Leamington/Rugby ..." it was "We have to reduce our music places from 6 to 2, and so we offering you the opportunity to teach your other degree subject ... RE!!" ... ... ... I was, you could say, underwhelmed.

Now, I know that RE is an interesting and important subject, especially in today's global society and schools of mixed ethnicities. But it's just not what I was looking forward to teaching. I tried. Tried to convince myself it would be good, I would be a fantastic RE teacher, my pupils would love and respect me, we might even occasionally have "fun". But I just couldn't. Then I reasoned with myself "this is a guaranteed job for 2 whole years! You could buy a house, get a dog, grow vegetables, have the children in their own bedroom." Somehow I just couldn't get beyond the "but it's RE" moment.

I've um'ed and er'ed. I've drunk gin. I've bored my friends. I've spoken to RE teachers.
And then this morning I remembered. When I originally applied to TeachFirst I had absolutely no expectation of being successful. It's an incredibly tough programme to get on. And I had already worked out that if I didn't get on I would do my PGCE in the usual way, getting a student load and the funding I'm entitled to and it would be fine. So that's what I've done. My application to Birmingham City University is winging its way across the ether and now I just have to wait to be (hopefully) asked to attend an interview.

So, it means I have to live in my little flat for another year, not get a dog for another year, look out onto a car park for another year and live off my ex for another year. But at the end of it I will be in control of where I apply to teach and I will be teaching the subject I actually want to.

And they all lived happily ever after ... well, until the next major twist in the road anyway.

Glitter, clay and beads

Today has been a very creative day in the flat. Rachel was invited to a birthday party and wanted to make a special necklace and earrings for her friend, as well as a box to fit the make-up she had bought her. So out came the beads and the polymer clay as well as card for ... well, a card, and glitter, because what 12 year old girl's birthday card is complete without glitter?! Once the making began we all got the bug. Meg set to work on creating a baby dragon out of polymer clay and I put my mind to the task of coming up with suitable jewellery making projects for boys, in preparation for the course I'm running later this month.

All in all we have made earrings, a necklace, bracelets, boxes, a dragon, beads and beady people. Here's a selection of what I've produced. The first was just me fiddling with a some silver-plated copper wire. The rest are ideas for the course.

     

    

Well, that was a good idea while it lasted

Today was day 3 of C25K. The sun was shining, the birds were singing (probably ... don't actually remember) and Meg had decided to come running with me. So off we went to the park for a run. I got to the magic "you are half way" point and was feeling good. This time I was actually going to get fit. I was even considering entering the Leicester Race for Life with The Red Tent team. And then the shooting pain started in my hip. I limped home with Meg feeling decidedly cheesed off.

Ok, it's true I'd forgotten to put my SI support belt on, which was probably foolish. So while I lay on my front on the floor to realign everything I Googled "pelvic dysfunction aerobic exercise", and up came a whole host of sites offering wisdom of one sort or another. Basically no impact exercise is compatible with a wobbly pelvis. Walking is ok, swimming is ok and something called an "elliptical" might be ok too. And Nothing Else. Great!

iTunes *@!?*^!

My plan to play some WoW last night was fiendishly foiled ... well, I couldn't remember my password and the Blizzard site was down for maintenance so I couldn't request a new one. Instead I watched the last 2/3rds of The Day After Tomorrow, which was better than I was expecting.

So this morning I got myself ready for Week 1, Day 2 of C25K. Got my kit on, went to sort my playlist out and discovered my entire library was absent without leave from iTunes. Thankfully it was all still there on the hard drive. God only knows what foible iTunes was exhibiting, but there it was, 1 Frank Turner album and NOTHING ELSE. But I did an on the go playlist on my 'phone and headed out into the not-quite-drizzling morning. This time wasn't as horrendous as I was expecting, thankfully. My plan was to get back, shower, play a little WoW now my account was accessible again and then head out the the Three Horseshoes to be interviewed by Laurence Tilley for the Rugby Artists' Group newsletter! It was at that point I discovered that, not only had my music gone astray but ALL MY APPS AS WELL!! Needless to stay no foul, undead deviants were slain. Instead I frantically tried to put my 'phone back into it's well-loved state. Of course, all my Angry Birds scores have disappeared ... AGAIN!

However, such frustrations were mollified by a splendid lunchtime spent sipping beer, munching pub grub and being interviewed by Laurence. Had anyone told me a couple of years ago I would be interviewed for an artists' group newsletter I would probably have said something unrepeatable in an incredulous manner. But there I was. And a better lunchtime I haven't spent in a good long while. Excellent company. And yet again I am being persuaded to consider whether I really need to learn to draw if the art that inspires and fuels me is spontaneous, energetic and passionate. Hmmm, it's a good point. I suspect my drive is that I hate being told I can't do something. For some inexplicable reason I want to prove my art teachers of 25 years ago, wrong. What is that about?

Grit your teeth

Today has been grim. I set myself the goal of writing up as much of my School Orientation Experience (SOE) as possible. This is the latest bit of TeachFirst paperwork and is making my brain feel like it's gone through a shredder. The observation week was great, and I took all the necessary notes etc. etc.. But I'd forgotten just how painful I find writing up. I am definitely a practioner rather than a theorist. The act of committing my thoughts to written text is almost physically uncomfortable. I've looked for all sorts of distractions, have needed to get up and walk around, make a hot drink ... but it needed to be done. Sadly it's not finished, but I've done nearly half, so that's a good start.

As for the other stuff, well I found another online drawing course last night http://www.klinecreative.com/free-online-art-lessons.htm and I've made a start. The first couple of lessons have been simply about pencil control, so lots of drawing straight lines, but the bloke on the video is engaging and so far I'm enjoying it even if the practise is tedious. But I guess like anything "no pain, no gain". So as promised, here are my first, uninspiring exercises.  I'm sure it will get more interesting ...

And my other great discovery today was a whole set of YouTube videos exploring the traditional music of nearly 150 different countries! I've been needing to get my head around various world music traditions, as it is a big feature of the current GCSE and A Level Music syllabus but was hardly touched on when I was at school and university. For those of you who are interested, take a look at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3A1D292BFB1B6DF. It has everything from Bavarian um pah pah music to the music of Myanmar and Tajikistan. Fab resource with some very nice photographs to go with it.

Tomorrow I have to steal myself for C25K day 2. I hope it's not going to be throwing it down in the morning. In the meantime, I'm off to escape in the magical World of Warcraft as my reward for being a good student today.

You win some ...

So today has been a mixture of success and failure.

I did do my first day of the C25K programme. I thought I was going to be sick, but I did do it. Plus I've found a couple of other Facebook friends who have both started today by some happenstance, so there's an incentive to keep going.

I did watch the first few parts of the Learn to Draw Portraits YouTube feed. But when I clicked on the link to download the exercises, it no longer works. Now I'm kicking myself because when I had first come across these wonderful tutorials several months ago, the website was up and running. Grrrr. A clear lesson in not putting off until tomorrow ...

But hey. On the plus side I went to a very interesting Rugby Artists' Group talk given by Katharine Barker. She started her career as a textiles restorer in the V&A after going to art college, but in recent years has moved to painting as well as studying for a BSc through the OU. Fascinating work exploring decay and change in textiles and pigments.

And most exciting of all, Bridget Aldridge was there and had brought with her my 40th birthday present from my parents! My first proper piece of original art - a ceramic torso sculpture. Stunning :-)

So, I need a Plan B for the drawing course. I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff on youtube, but Eclectic Art Asylum had a particularly interesting and engaging approach to drawing that I thought would work well for me. Tomorrow? I must do the academic work needed for my teacher training course, which is a series of observations and analyses on my placement week. It's not going to write itself ...

Free and single

Ok, just to clarify, that's "free" as in without cost because this Bank Holiday weekend got me thinking. What do you do when you're single and unemployed? Oh and the weather is determined to ruin any possibility of anything outdoors? It's a tricky one, but I figured I wasn't the only person on the planet to have pondered the question, so I turned to a good ol' Google search. It was quite an eye-opener! To start with there's a significant gender split.

No prizes for guessing the top male suggestion for having spare time on your *ahem* hands! Their lists seemed to be about earning money and not having to spend it on a date, hitting the gym, playing Xbox ... Whereas the female lists were about pampering yourself, meditating, turning your music up and dancing around your flat. Are we really so 2 dimensional?

But here is a list I've come up with:

• Do the C25K thing and actually feel fitter
• Get back in to my art journal
• learn to draw
• research world music for next September
• practise my 'cello
• find local art exhibitions (and actually go to them)
• play on the wii
• play WoW
• get making again.
• arrange craft days with friends
• go swimming (ok, not free but affordable)

There's probably more, but that'll do for now. Any suggestions always welcome :-)

Back to the drawing board

Those of you who know me, know that I love to create. I make jewellery, steampunk creations, paint stuff etc. etc. But I've never got comfortable with drawing. Friends tell me it's not important, and I guess they're right. But coming from a musical background I know that I play 'cello better because I learnt my scales.

I have occasionally done some representative stuff that I'm not too ashamed of, and drawing is one of those things I have been reliably informed anyone can learn ...

There's a really interesting youtube feed that I'm planning to use http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDE90A0B005052EFB so tomorrow I start. Expect to see my exercises and experiments soon :-)

So, the start of a new blog.

Why a blog? I find myself feeling aimless a lot of the time at the moment. I am living alone and not working yet, so my days are often too empty. Yet I have a long list of things I could do, want to do, ought to do, have to do. So this is a way of making myself accountable in some way, to spend my time more constructively.

My intention with this space is to share my journey. There will be pictures of the things I've made, reflections on the stuff I've learnt, requests for ideas and suggestions of stuff to do.

Feel free to hang out, comment, laugh, tell jokes ...