Wallpaper

If you’ve been reading this for a while you will know that I quite like wallpaper.  Mostly because it’s thick and great for covering my hand made books, but also because it comes in some really wicked designs.

Anyway I was in a pub about 6 months ago when I visited the loo only to find one wall covered in the most beautiful wallpaper.  After a brief moment of wondering how best to remove the paper from the wall, I did the next best thing and took its photo.  (Several people have been bored with this photo.  Sorry)

Imagine my delight then, when I found the very same wallpaper in a DIY store down the road from the flat this week.  I actually had to get my phone out and check it against the photo I had taken, and there is no doubt – it’s the same paper.  Look out for a hand made book covered in this design, coming soon (Easter?).

Scarab Beetle Necklace

While we were in Egypt I was lucky enough to win a scarab beetle bead for reading some hieroglyphics right.  There is nothing special about the bead, they are made by their thousand, scarab’s are after all thought to be good luck, but I love the colour and the circumstances make it special to me, not only were we in Egypt, but it was my birthday.

I’ve now had time to turn it into a necklace.  First I had to drill it – although it had ‘holes’ at each end, they didn’t meet.  No problem for me and my mini drill.  I then used a silver pin to hold the bead, but it was too loose and could have pulled through, so I made a tiny silver washer to hold it in place.  I then made a loop with the tail of the silver pin through which the chain would run, and finished it by knotting the excess round the top.

It’s not perfect, but then neither is the bead, so I think the whole sits well together.  I’m very pleased with it and it will be a grand reminder of a lovely holiday and my 30^th birthday.

My New Travel Blog

Well I finally decided what to do about my journal of our trip to Egypt.

Rather than wasting time trying to fix a problem uploading photos onto a site that doesn’t do what I want it to, I decided to move all my travels on to a self created blog.

When I travel, I normally stay away from technology, either because there isn’t any like during my trips to the Namibian desert or the Amazonian Rainforest, or because I’d rather experience the local culture and forget day to day life for a bit.

This means that I didn’t want a site that I am expected to update as I travel across a country, rather somewhere to write up what we did afterwards as a memory of the trip.  I think this gives you time to think about your trip and share the best bits with your friends and family, rather than feeling pressured to write something when all you’re really doing it chilling in a hammock.

I love travelling and love telling everyone all about my trip.  I’d love to be a travel writer, always off somewhere new to find great places for people to visit.  But at the same time I’m a home bod, and couldn’t leave ‘im outside behind and doubt he’d be able to leave the landscaping for long.

So I compromised, with our yearly? trips and my travel blog.

Christmas beads reused

You may remember that last year I received a very pretty beady necklace for Christmas but I found I wasn’t wearing it very much.

Then when I was looking round etsy a couple of weeks ago I happened to find another very pretty bead and a simple leather bracelet to put it on at Meesmerel’s shop.

So now I’ve got another way to wear my beads.  

These may not be beads or a bracelet that I’ve made, but they are all handmade and beautiful.

Missing: One Memory Stick (again)

We had my first writers group of the new year today.  As I was away in Egypt for the last meeting Martin chaired and it sounds like he did a fab job.

Today’s meeting was small, but it did mean that everyone got to read their work out in full which was great.  A radio comedy, a short story based on the homework, the beginnings of a novella (based in the war hammer world) and the 3^rd part of a banker’s novel.  All great fun.

But annoying I’ve lost (meaning probably left it at home) my memory stick again.  This is more annoying than normal as I actually had worked on a short story which I could have read out at the meeting.

I know what I’ve done.  I was working hard on TMA04 last night and although I would swear I took it out of my machine at home and put it in my handbag, its probably still sitting in the USB port.  I really hope it is anyway.

Anyone got any bright ideas on how I can keep it with me?  

It’s easily the 3^rd time in 3 months that I’ve done this.

This month’s homework – to continue from the following sentence:

There was no time to think as she felt the cold steel of the knife…

Egypt, what to do?

Amongst the catching up of OU work and the tidying up after birthday celebrations (mostly by eating cake) I’ve finally written up my journal of our trip to Egypt. Except I can’t get my photos to load, even though I’ve done it many times before.

This kinda makes the whole thing very dull and text based and we all know that the worst web pages are the ones with no pictures.

So now I have to decide if I can be bothered to work out what the hell is wrong with my photos, or move to a different site. There are many to choose from, and quite a lot of them have a nicer interface and finished result than the site that I have been using. But said site does have all my travels on it right back to 2003 when I went on my first adventure to Namibia! Moving will mean some work. Of course the other option is to make a new blog, just for my travels, a tempting idea, but once again something that will take some time.

While I think about it, and find some time, you can look at photos from Egypt on my flickr page.

We were lucky enough to have a great holiday and to get home before all the troubles started. Our thoughts are with everyone we met while out there.

A Journal

Normally when I post photos of my little books on here, they are new and shiny and waiting to be used. Today I post photos of a journal which I made a couple of weeks ago, but which has spent the last 12 days in my day pack being taken all over Egypt. I’m very pleased with how it has held up; it doesn’t seem to have minded the sun, sea or being sat on.

Egypt its self was amazing, and I will be posting more about it later, but now I need to catch up with my Open University course work, Swallows and Amazons here I come…

I am 30 this week

I find this shocking! How can I be 30? I don’t feel like an adult, I’m not ready yet.

I fear that I’ve done 29 an injustice, by spending the year not thinking and saying ‘I’m 29’, but that ‘I’ll be 30 next year’. Even after spending a year saying this it is still shocking.

It depresses me slightly when I hear that this up and coming artist is only 21 or this new award winning writer is only 23. Why isn’t that me? What have I done?
But then I look at what I do have and I realise that I shouldn’t be depressed.

Who really wants fame and fortune anyway?

I have been trekking and seen elephants in Namibia. I have spent 4 weeks in the rainforest in Ecuador.

I’ve visited New York and the Guggenheim. I’ve met reindeer in Scotland (and fed them).

I’ve been to both Paris and Barcelona.

I have been up in a hot air balloon. I have donated over 30 pints of blood and am registered as a bone marrow donor volunteer. I’ve seen Green Day, Robbie Williams, Supergrass, Jamie Cullum, Turin Brakes and Blink 182 live, amongst others; and I’ve been to Reading Festival twice.

I’ve seen Bill Bailey, Eddie Izzard, Russell Howard and the 100th recording of QI live. I’ve adopted a creative writers group and a pair of aardvarks.

I have made my first piece of clothing and completed more than one short story. I have made a website from scratch.
Then look at all the things I have learnt since I’ve left school, a Certificate in Humanities, a Diploma in Creative Writing and Literature, Photoshop, book binding, XHTML and CCS, and I’ve learnt to read music and play the flute. Who knows how many books I’ve read.
And on top of all that I have the most wonderful partner and a flat and garden that I could never have imagined.

Sure there are still hundreds of things I want to see and do, learn to knit and visit Australia are just two, but without anything to aim for wouldn’t I be bored!

So this year to celebrate my birthday we have decided to go on holiday. I’ve always had a problem with my January birthday. Too close to Christmas so people don’t know what to give you as a gift as they used up all their ideas in December. Right in the depths of winter so cold and dark and depressing. You can’t go and do anything outside unless you want to freeze or be rained on. (I remember as a child having a party in September one year to celebrate and all my friends came over and played in the garden and we had a BBQ. But unless I have two birthdays like the Queen that’s not going to work.)
So we’ve gone to Egypt. In theory this is the best time to go, when it’s not too hot. We shall soon find out. I will write more about the trip when we are back.

Should I worry about 30?
Well 30 is just a number, and to be honest I think I’m too busy to really worry about this right now. Maybe when I’m 40…