47. I am not in Devon.

I stole this thing from Rarr because I know I should be
a) packing for Tenerife
b) doing a few drawings
c) prodding my dissertation
d) maybe having a shower?
But I'll do this, instead. As my family home puts me into lazy mode (Mr O'Shea earlier laughed a bit, "more so than usual?" I AM NOT THAT LAZY, O'SHEA! Only when I know I can get away with it... when you'd carry my bags and such...!!
Pah.
But here goes.

Ten things I have done that you probably haven't.
1. Taken a dump down one of the cracks in the natural limestone paving up by Malham Tarn, Yorkshire.
2. Taken part in the tug of war in some proper highland games in Perthshire, Scotland. Sadly, we lost.
3. Slept in a cardboard box in a carpark over night.
4. Drunk whiskey from a hipflask in the back of a moving van, with a Scottish man, an Italian man, a French man (he was driving), an Australian man, and an English girlie.
5. Been close up eye witness to a chap getting into Glastonbury fest via hangglider / something similar, sadly he was made to leave the premises very shortly after.
6. Slept in the back of a 4 tunner whilst there were flares going off and people running around all over the place outside.
7. Pretty much skipped along Striding Edge, Lake District. Things don't seem so dangerous when you are small and young. Mum walked in front to avoid seeing me fall off down the cliff like edges, if I did.
8. Skinned and gutted etc a rabbit. It was great fun, made a superb puppet for a short while.
9. Had a barn owl sit on my shoulder. A photo was taken, of course.
10. Sung in the youngest Sea Shanty band in Britain. Now I know a FEW of you others have done that too... but only, say, 9 of you? Not the rest of the world!

That'll do for now. Nothing too dubious / revealing!!

Fourty six, do some tricks.

Why hello!

I guess I'm writing a blog entry... it seems like a decent thing to do, since here I have NO DESK and that means I'm finding it exceeeedingly difficult to do any work, personal or otherwise... harrumpf.

What I can see: Snow. A fair amount of it, out of my bedroom window in Reigate. It snowed 2 inches in one hour at one point... Elk is coming home from Plymouth on the train today, when (if) she arrives, we're picking her up from Reigate station with a SLEIGH not a car! Eee. A car is being pushed up the road. My grannys loooong red chimney pot looks lovely against the hint of green peeking out from under the snow on the evergreen trees in my cul-de-sac. Andrew from next door nearly falling on the corner of the snow. Ah ha ha.

What I can hear: Mum in the kitchen with the radio. She's making the custard for the trifle - we're having a family meal tomorrow (my cousin Liz won't be here though, she's still on her farm being a farmer up north :( ). MMMMMM I do rather like a little (BIG) bit of mums trifle... it's not of that shop bought plastic with jelly. JELLY! Who ever puts jelly in TRIFLE!!

What I can taste: Ratafia biscuits (those little round macaroony crunchy things which taste a bit of almond) and sponge fingers. That was my breakfast, some of the leftover ones from the trifle. Mmm... should probably eat something more, though. And yes, breakfast at 11:30, I got up a tad late as I had a rather draining day yesturday.
UPDATE: I can now taste toasted bread (which I made - wholemeal with gratered carrot, herbs, garlic, black pepper, and horseradish sauce?!) with butter and pate (wild boar with cranberry & chestnut). AND ALSO... best things in the world, ever, almost... an egg custard tart with nutmeg on top. Mmm.

What I can feel: In general, WARMTH. Double glazing & radiators most definately on... this is the life I get in Reigate, compared to the drafty single glazing & sometimes radiators in Falmouth. Corrr...
UPDATE: Cold!! In the feet department, anyway. The snow got too tempting, so I went out in the back and ran about the snow with bare feet (decided I didn't want to ruin it with shoe treads, but if bird and cats could go barefoot, then so could I!!!). They're slowly defrosting.

RIGHT... so... whats been going on...

As I mentioned, I am currently sitting at my family home in Reigate, in my bedroom, on the double bed which is in here. It is more like a nest. It is verging on festive, but here it has NEVER been terribly Christmassy... or Eastery... or Halloweeny... infact, my family seem to avoid festivities (which is sad, in a way, but lighter on the pocket). I still remember the extreme festiveness of Norway at Silje's last Christmas! Wow...
I got here on the evening of the 14th (after a mostly uneventful train journey, only hitch being the train moving at snails pace somewhere on the Reading-Reigate bit of line due to some twit wandering about on the tracks).

Before leaving Falmouth we had the lovely and ever gorgeous Miss Molly down to stay for a few nights, it was good to have her back in Fal for a while. Lisa joined us and we had a meal in the Chainlocker, brief wander into the 'Front for shanties (Hanging Johnnie's farewell gig) though did not stay long for that as the place was RAMMED FULL with oldies. Went for a walk to Maenporth and back, which was as coastal pathy as usual. Didn't feel like December, was walking in trousers, boots, vest top, and cotton jumper! Took Molly to see the forge, and then eventually onto Mousehole where Lisa got her work into a rather noice little gallery and Molly & I wandered the harbour beach picking up bits of smashed pottery as it got dark. We three had a bit of a singsong before heading home.

Before Molly's visit (I'm working backwards in time, here!) the Norweg's and I had a scrummy yummy x-mas meal, a mad mixture between English and Norwegian foodz (so... redwine & onion gravy, with roast potatoes carrots and parsnips, mini homemade Yorkshire puds, sage & onion stuffing, sprouts, red cabbage stuff, swede mash, and special Norweg sausage for Squidget & I, and veggie sausages for Rarr. MMM! Twas good the first time round, and then we got it for leftover lunch the day after! Yummy.
On the mention of food, round this time I made a carrot, parsnip, & honey cake (loaf) with cream cheese icing with crushed walnuts on top. CORR! It was good (got better with age), though took an age to cook...

One fine Friday there was a folky lot who I know playing / jamming in one corner of the 'Front. It ended up being 5 fiddles (including Squidget - trying along, Claire, Ben from Peoples String Foundation, and Hannah, then 1 viola - Lisa of course, the other Lisa on her clarinet / flute, and later on Dave appeared with his bazouki and tea chest bass, and then Luke (also Peoples String) with his guitar (sadly not the double bass). Good stuff, I got a surround drawing done, of which a copy has now gone to 'Front Matt. He seemed rather chuffed with it when he saw it.

Every year, the 3rd year illustrators put together a book to publish in the REAL WORLD! You can even get it on Amazon. Our one will be the 6th one, and usually every year we get it all paid for, but funding for it this year was cut and so we've been making money to make it. We've already got about half of the money (about £2,500) which we made solely from an auction of some of our work. The auction also included original pieces by Quentin Blake, Mark & Micheal Foreman, Alan Male, and some other of our tutors too.
My piece went for £35 (what was that you said, Alan, about not letting works go for less than £100?) to a chap called Professor Jeremy Diggle! What an excellent name.

A bit before that I handed in my 1st draft dissertation (not THAT much done, but enough. I should probably get on with that soon... maybe I'll look at that after I've written this, but I feel all dozy in this nest).
Before THAT I did a day of BTCV. We thought it was a celebration thing at their Tuckingmill HQ, so we woke up all early & went through the thunder, hail, slush, and rain to the minibus at the other end of town. It took us 2 hours to get from Falmouth to through Truro as there was a bit of snow, it was actually quite impressive for Cornwall I thought. Somewhere in those 2 hours we found out that we were ACTUALLY travelling 3ish hours to Exeter! Heh heh. It took us a bit over 4 hours in the end, we got there and there wasn't a HINT of snow (though still super cold), just enough time to make a quick head out of some clay and eat some tasty lunch before a short awards ceremony for the best helpers etc for the year of BTCV, before our minibus decided to get going early incase we had trouble with snow on the way back. Good to get out & away from Fal for a short while, though.

At some point round this time, Silje & I also went off to the Forge (where Lisa had been stuck for 24+ hours as her van had got iced onto the floor due to the snow!). We did some drawing, made supper on the forge fire, and played on Lisa's very metal quickly made sleigh. Fun times.

But yes, that is all I have done since last time. Well, all the bits which stick out the most.
Anything coming up soon?
Well tomorrow (officially today, now), we're having a family meal round here - my family, my granny, my aunt & uncle (dads side) and one of my cousins. BEEF. Yes.
Monday I'm seeing Imy & Racheyboi in the daytime & evening (also in eve is Emilargh & her blokeyo).
Tuesday I'm off to Tenerife for a week.
31st I'm back to Cornwall, NYE party at Zennor with Lisa & Dave! Excitement! Eeee.

But for now, that is it.
I shall wait and see if Skinners Brewery reply to the e-mail I sent them, with these 4 images I did as a "fake" uni project for them.

And now a couple of photos (Mousehole, and me pulling Elk home from the station)

And now some random images (art / non art).

A photo of a friends. I just think it looks lovely, still not 100% sure why. Composition? Mood?

A photo of Austria by "Bawkbawkbawk". Colours! Contrast! Shapes!!

A piece by Kerry Hyndman. Only just found her. I think she's GREAT.

One of a series of 4 pieces by La Boca.

Alice Stevenson. Loving the layering. And the sun.

Earrings by CatbirdNYC on Etsy.

And NOW, a baby red squirrel and an owl in a hat. OH YES. Here you go.

zzzz.... sleepy time.

Hum hum.

Things to miss:
Being as light as a small bag of feathers.
Dancing round the kitchen.
Lining up small objects.
Singing lots of songs.
Hearing some songs.
Yoghurt swapping.
Feeling more safe.
Being cooked for.
Playing marbles.
Being a cat.
Leafs.
etc.
...

44! Hoorah!

Hello, this is Bex (who else, really…). I’m currently using a programme called Mac Speech Dictate, which I got with all my other stuff for finding out I was marvelously dyslexic. Thank you, Surrey County Council. The programme makes me feel a bit like a mad person because I’m sitting in my room with the door shut and no music on, wearing a headset and talking to myself – it’s a little creepy in my books… basically you speak into the microphone and the programme hopefully types up whatever you said. Unfortunately it is not terribly accurate, as at the start of this I said “Hello, this is Bex” however it got recorded down (the second time) and “Hello Mrs X”. Great. I have given up using what I said, as it doesn’t make great sense and has bugger all punctuation as for THAT you have to literally say “exclamation mark” or “full stop”. But it’s quite good for just having a “brain dump” and then working from that, trying to understand what the computer said you were saying in the first place…

It is currently (or was then) 8:15pm and it is raining, as is usual for Falmouth (it is no longer raining). Actually saying that, the weather has been pretty nice – if cold – recently. Very Autumn / Winterish.
Side note: I just squashed a little fly and then it dropped into the fan bit of my Macbook. Whoops…
I think the dictate programme wants me to stop mumbling and slurring my words, however this seems to be a bit of a problem as I pick up accents a bit too weirdly sometimes… which isn’t good since within the past day I’ve spoken to a Cornish girl, 2 Norwegian’s, and an Irish.
Blimey, I haven’t written a blog entry since 20^th October! A decent amount of stuff has happened since then, Duncan has left and gone back to Sheffield. Him staying here was very noice, though it’s good to just have us 4 girls left in here now, especially since it’s uni work times.
We (the Fal Fish) sadly didn’t play either the oyster OR ale fests here in Falmouth, I might have mentioned that already though? I did still go along to both though (more so the ale fest) and drank my fair share of cider / perry / ale / stout.
R.I.P. The Falmouth Fish Sea Shanty Collective, may you one day come back from beyond the grave…
I’ve still been singing SOME shanties though, every 1^st & 3^rd Friday of the month, fellow Fal shanty band “The Shout” let us come sing with them at The ‘Front. It’s ok… best if a bit drunk… its just a shame that they sing all their songs far too slow, except for Fiddlers Green which they sing far too fast. Any remaining fishies (it’s only been us girls going along so far) should hurry up and learn some more songs to sing at them, pronto! We can do better than dirges!

What else has happened… I went to the forge with Lisa, had a laaavly little day off (well, I had a day off… yeah… Lisa had one too…). Woke up and it was good and sunny, so she drove me off in her van, and we sat by her jewellery making bench with hot water bottles on our laps (it’s certainly chilly there) and I drew her whilst she worked – making me my necklace. The drawing was for her website and such, see here for Lisa’s work & my drawings!: http://www.smythickforge.co.uk/
For lunch we drove off to Porthleven, which is near Helston at the top of the Lizard, and went to a bakery there called the Horse & Jockey. They’re well known for having an AMAZING pasty called “flakey steak”. So of course, I had to try it.
…
…
…
MY GOD IT WAS GOOD. Possibly the best pasty I’ve ever had? And it was HUGE! Pretty much twice the size of a normal pasty, but just as expensive. The “nobs” on the ends were spot on, the pastry was flakey (which was fine until I got covered in too many crumbs), and the innards were scrummy. Sadly the juices attacked the pastry (flakey not being so strong as normal pasty pastry) and caused the side to split, which meant it got tricky to chomp on, and the meat was perfect… but I would have said there wasn’t quite enough of the meat.
After the pasty lunch we strolled along the beach & crawled about, picking up the beautifully coloured little pebbles that are there, Lisa uses them in her work. Stealing the Queens property! Oh my.

After THAT we went to a fabulous little arty crafty shop, and I bought some mossy green wool which I then that evening learnt (again) to crochet with, in the pub (The ‘Front, again…). My sister Elk joined us as she had sailed in from Plymouth that day with her fellow shipmates from her uni course there – Marine studies & Ocean Yachting. ‘Twas good to see the fluffball.

Did I mention in the last entry that Lisa & I (blimey, it’s all about Lisa!!!) entered a competition at the Ebenezer Gallery in Polperro in east Cornwall? Well, we did. And Lisa nabbed both first prizes, and I got the third prize for 2D work. Sadly not the 2^nd prize… perhaps I’m a little bitter about that, but that could just be because I wasn’t a great fan of the piece which DID win second prize (an upside down oil painting of a cats head – see the newspaper clipping below).
But yes, so I got 3^rd prize which means I’ll get exhibition space in their summer show. I hope I have time to make some more images for it! I could make a good little chunk of money…
I also got a written mention in a couple of newspapers from that end of the county, and a mention AND PHOTO in this weeks copy of the West Briton! I’m the grumpy looking sod on the far right, Lisa is next to me, then the under 19’s winner, then the 2^nd prize winner. See here:
Silje & I also entered another competition recently, this one for the clothes & such company “Sea Salt”. The aim was to make a design for one of their jute bags (which everyone down here carries, apart from us lot it seems). Winner is to be announced tomorrow, and will get £100 to spend in store, and also a copy of the bag with their design on it… plus the satisfaction of seeing people CARRY their design. I do hope to win, but of course I shan’t be too hopeful.My design (I'm not so fond of the text layout).

The weekend before last it was Rarr’s 23^rd burfday, so Max came down from all the way up north (well, Midlands), and we had a good ol’ party with the theme of toybox. I went as a panda, as I wanted an excuse to wear Silje’s black velvet little dress, and we made more of the tasty chocolate beetroot cake and turned it into a yellow iced Pacman, with a tiny blue ghost & everything. The party went well and it ended up in Shades, though I left early as I wasn’t “feeling it” and decided to pick up someones smashed phone (now returned to them) and a Police cone on the way home. The Police cone, may I add, was NOT because I was utterly sloshed, but was because I decided that every student house should stereotypically have one – plus we’d watched the Police event a couple of nights before, a chap in the bus stop who couldn’t stand up or pull his trousers up! Oh dear…

(on the mention of wearing Silje's black velvet dress, here is another velvet dress... I found it on Bluebird Vintage, isn't it so very lovely, in a mustardy way!

A couple of things I’ve done this past few days…
On Friday the house went to see the new Harry Potter film. We all dressed up (Squidget, Rarr, and Faygel as Ravenclaws – as sorted, and me… as a Slytherin. It’s just what most tests said! Sorry if I’m an evil slimy back stabber… though I DO like the colour green).
The film was really good, and I cannae wait to see the 2^nd part of the story in June. I managed to squeak/squeal rather loudly at a snakey scene (don’t get me wrong, I do like snakes! But it was SCARY!), and Rarr said she’d never watch horror films with me. OH! And the snatcher called Scabior! Corr… he was certainly alright! I looked him up on Gooooogle however, and he’s not quite so fancy in real life. One found it raaaather amusing that the film was basically am advert for “Come visit England! We have beautiful scenery!”. One shot (or whatever the technical term for it is) was going up a large cliff, and I was thinking “ohh… I recognise that…” and then it got to the top and sure enough – it was Malham Tarn in Yorkshire! Been there multiple times, fantastic rock formations. My mother tells me that I have once taken a poop down one of the big cracks (WHEN I WAS YOUNG!!). Lovely. I’m sure it did wonders for the plants trying to live there. Anyway, I shan’t say anything more about the film, as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who actually reads this who hasn’t yet seen it.

On Sunday, Silje & I trotted off to the other end of town, to the Irish bar “Fins” to go see Luke & Ben from Peoples String Foundation play an acoustic show. We got there early whilst they were still setting up, got ourselves a pint, and sat in a cozy wooden corner with the cider and our crochet. I was making socks.
The music was wonderful, they both sung and played guitar, and Luke played his double bass (that thing does WONDERS for making girls, and probably others, too, drool), and Ben on his fiddle. Great concentration faces. They played some of their own tuuunes from their album “Making Waves” and did some covers & some jamming. An all round good night. Some folks danced, but we just jiggled away like a couple of old ladies.

I’ve still been thinking about what to do after uni, which is approaching scarily fast, especially now since I’ve started writing my dissertation. DISSERTATION!!! Yup… I’ve called it (for the time being) “Quixotic Mapping: Pondering and Wondering”. Who knows how it’ll turn out, I am not too terribly worried as I know it isn’t TOO huge a part of my final mark (I don’t want to get majorly het up about it), but so long as I get a decent enough mark then I’m good.
Currently my plans for after uni are to hopefully go to work at Golant YHA (east Cornwall, south coast) for a few months. It’s a good place, and they were the only ones who replied positively to the e-mail that I sent out to over 30 YHA’s. Some still have not replied. I’m to have an interview there in February, and if all goes well (they seem happy!) then I’ll also work for a few weeks in the Easter holidays, getting me some monies to keep me going.
Much to my mothers digust, my back-up plan (if I don’t find any satisfactory paid work) is to go up to Scotland, further north than Edinburgh, to go work on the WWOOFing farm “Culdees”. I’ve no doubt mentioned it before, so I shan’t talk too much about it, but it’s basically working and getting paid with food & accommodation – the middle man “money” getting cut out of the equation, which suits me. I’d no doubt get some snow, too, it’d be soooooo cold… mothers eh? Mine should really be more open minded – she thinks that if I work in a place “like that” then no “real job” will want to hire me. I don’t think she notices that WWOOFing places are worldwide, and by no means a place for “slack sponging hippies” (perhaps not her exact words, but it seems that way) to go. It is good for people to do voluntary work, better than going on the dole or something anyway.
But yes. After whatever I do for the winter months I’m currently hoping to go do something called “Adventure International” in Bude, north Cornwall. Lots out outdoor activities, getting me off of my arse. I think I MAY have mentioned it before.
But before all that, I’m off to Brittany over Easter weeked to go to Aberfest, Breton / shanty singing & such! Hooray! It’ll be good.

But now I have got to the end of my weirdly worded pile of mumblings, I’m not sure about the dictation programme.
Time to add pictures and such…Uni work! I've found a bit of a new style... again... this is a design for a biscuit tin for M&S (not in REAL life, sadly). No text on it here.

Above: I found this on Verabel's Etsy shop. Colours! Patterns! Yum!

This print from Tugboat... all with traditional layered woodblock print... wow...

I don't OFTEN squeal at images, however these little "peanutbuttah's" made me grin like a loon. Nutty and crunchy on the outside, soft, squidgy and furry on the inside! (thankfully they're not a fruit or nut, as that would probably mean they were mouldy). TINY KITTEN TEETH.

Found the above in the West Briton, what a lovely house... I've been trying to make my parents buy it (as if... haha) as
a) One of my dads possibly ONLY hobbies / loves, is Cornish mining / mine houses.
b) They both love Cornwall.
c) It's awesome.
Drooooooool.... and you see that pile of icy looking nuts? The icy stuff is actually TOFFEE. See-through toffee!!!

Fourty threeee!

This is the second 43 entry, I did have a different one before... it was another dream, however after reading it a few times, I decided that it wasn't terribly appropriate! Heh heh.

Not updated this in a while, my Norwegians & Irish have got back home, uni term has started, and we've currently got a lovely chap called Duncan also staying with us for a couple more weeks! It's all very good, and all very busy.

Admittedly not totally busy in the way I'd like it to, recently I've been getting bored of sitting on my posterior for hours on end drawing, not that I don't REALLY REALLY enjoy drawing, but I also REALLY REALLY enjoy getting out and moving about and doing things! Thankfully I got my dose of that when my mum came down to visit so we went driving all over Cornwall & leapt in the sea at various places...
We swam about in the sea at Kynance Cove on the Lizard and talked to an inquisitive seal, and then went leaping about in the waves on the north coast - only getting out due to the fact there was a dead baby seal bobbing about :(
Gone on a few little walks about the place too... so I guess I'll survive!

Third year of Illustration... eek! It's a slightly worrying prospect, everything this year actually COUNTS... I still feel like I'm in 1st or 2nd year, but sort of enjoying the slightly powerful feeling of being the 3rd year (RAWR! Get below me, little 1st / 2nd years...).
Found a new style which I'm liking, it's very good for scenery and such, and so I'm also attempting to do that style for a competition piece I'm doing for the Ebenezer Gallery in east Cornwall... though for the comp. I'm doing it all 100% TRADITIONALLY. Which is tricky for me, I'm used to 50/50 trad and digi.
Here is some of my work and whatnot from uni, and also some personal stuff:
(for ALL of my work, visit me here, though I will soon have my very own website. A REAL WEBSITE!)
Started off as just a doodle, made in a lecture with our PROFESSOR ALAN MALE.
I'm doing an A-Z of animals, filled with patterns based on their country / sea area of origin. J for Jellyfish is the newest so far (full batch on my Flickr).
Card for Duncan's mum (not from me, that'd be odd - never met the woman). Anyone else need birthday cards?
The design for my website! Theres more on it now. It was a very fun, very self indulgent piece to do.Uni work?! Yep. 1st project, this image is the one without all the branding for Oatly (milk alternative) on it.

It seems that my band, The Falmouth Fish (sea shanty collective) seem to have gone tits up since our Captain Dan O'Shea left the county (for various reasons). I'm hoping that myself & the other girlies will be able to form some sort of wenchy GIRL BAND. Yeeee harrr <-not sure about the reason for putting that non-sounding sound affect was. It was good whilst it lasted, anyway. Perhaps it will continue... we're just currently on very rocky shores. Hmm... are there any other doings & happenings to mention? Got drunk a few times & leapt in the sea starkers, got another commision from Alasdair (up in Och Aye land)... I think thats possibly it. Weather down here is definately getting much colder. Brrr. On that note, I shall stop this slice of procrastination.

Some music to listen to (if you have Spotify):
The Peoples String Foundation – Making Waves - a local to Cornwall band, lovely bunch of chaps. They played Glastonbury twice this year! Luke loves a good spoonerism (Cunning Stunt?)
Robert Plant – Band Of Joy - Robert Plant's new album, it's really rather good! Nice friendly rockish stuff to shove in your ears.
Ozric Tentacles – The Yumyum Tree - Blimmin' weird! They've been around for yeeeeeeeeeeears, sort of prog rockish, but... not sure what that is. I've been telling people that it's like sitting in a relaxing river, but the river has jacuzzi bubbles in it.
Bonobo – Black Sands - Chill out stuff. Nice for working to.

Some links to follow:
Dancing hands!
Rock balancing, lovely...
A fun mooosic video
Super amusing comics, much about Scandanavia!
Book cover archive. Useful.
Watch for the northern lights.
Corr, full colour 1940's photos!
Inspiring Tumblr, shame about the large amount of images of models...

And a couple of images from other folks:
Can't go wrong with a good old bit of Andy Goldsworthy....
Scribbly, but effective. Rob Hodgson.

Ciao for now! On with work...

Fourty Two, twit twoo.

Another dreeeeam! Yesss. Here goes what I can remember.

I was waiting about in a charity shop, it was Dan's last day of working there and he was seeing what stuff he could take (so trying stuff on a lot).
On the way home we were walking past some big posh houses, when I saw a couple of barn owls perched atop of a tall brick built gate post, I was in awe, then noticed they were baby owls! So I took out my camera and took photos, and then noticed there was a 3rd doing some crazy precarious balancing act lying across the other 2's heads! Heh heh.
Anyway, a mean twat of a person came along with a broom and shunted them off, muttering "no one wants them anyway, their mother has abandoned them". So myself, and two other people (my group was expanding) picked them up, and took them with us (the baby owls). They were very cute.
We then decided the owls needed feeding, so we found a tree to sit under (it was an oak, I think) and someone pulled some cooked white rice out of their bag, which they put on the floor and the owls started eating it.
Then along came a HUGE group of immigrants, also trying to get some rice! I pushed them away, the rice was for the owls! So they went away except for a couple of young girls who looked especially sad... I "took one under my wing" and gave her a pink plastic icecream spoon to eat some rice with, once she was done the spoon was broken and she handed it back to me. I fixed the spoon with some glue, and gave it back to her, she couldn't speak any English but was hesitant to take it (seemed like she'd never owned a free plastic icecream spoon before). Eventually she agreed to take it and it broke again.
Then we all walked off, taking owls and the couple of girls with us.
Then I remember something about water... but I can't remember what.

Then I woke up.
THEN I fell asleep again!

I was in a house, and it was obviously a bit of a broken family (I was part of it). The mum was all "grrrr stupid husband" and myself and my sibling (sister?) were sad about it, but it seemed it was normal.
I went into my room, where my dad was, and made him go to bed. Found sticky ring marks all over my desk, and was angry as it showed he had obviously just drunk a whole bottle of wine or something in my room (I think alcoholicism was the problem, this is definately NOT the case in real life, as my dad doesn't even ever really drink! Maybe the odd Bloody Mary when on holiday, but even thats rare...).
The next morning I told my dad that I'd booked him into rehab, he was all like "AHH what! Ahh shit... fine, I'll go pack". So he did.
Meanwhile my mum and the two of us daughters had to go search for somewhere else to live... all we could afford was a really horrible groundfloor flat in a horrible dirty district. Totally depressing, and it was night time which made it worse. Admittedly the house we had been in before in the dream hadn't been great...
My mum decided to make curry and such, and go round selling it for a price to earn more money, and she was just getting ready to go out so I had to warn her about a few things (such as people attacking her, and big black rats literally jumping up at her to get to the food) whilst I neatened up one of the plates full of food (some sort of fruity curry, with yellow rice. It looked VERY neat after I had dealt with it). I was also looking out of the window, and seeing all the bad stuff which was going on outside.
End!

Yesturday I managed to finish my piece for Alasdair, I really do hope that he'll pick me to do the rest of the illustrations for his book (if he NEEDS any more illustrations...).
Here it is:Drawn with a brown Pentel brush pen, and theres some water colour there, and lots of scanned Harris tweed. All scanned and then put together in Paint Shop Pro, with a little bit of digital adjusting & layering & such.

Yesturday I found out the wonders of Boursin cheese, and I now OFFICIALLY have an addiction to it. OM NOM NOM INDEED!

41. Running, running...

Another dream, yep! I think I'm gonna carry on doing this until I forget them.
Can't remember it all, but...

I was trying to get onto a bus, but I was so nearly too late and it was all very stressfull... then something else happened? Then someone and I were going to a youth hostel, it was right on the coast and we had to walk on the beach to get to it but the tide was coming in so we had to paddle and then I was like "where the hell is the hostel? We're going to be soaking soon!" and then it appeared round the back of a big rock.
Then the next day we went walking / exploring, and followed some sort of path through sand dunes but there was a large puddle / pond in the way so I decided "I'll jump over it!" so I took a running jump, and then landed the other side... but the other side was sinking sand, and I was sinking and sinking and the other person was shouting "swim up! Bex! Come to the surface!" sort of thing, but however hard I tried I couldn't... so I drowned or something...
Then turned up in some prison / concentration camp, and I was trying to escape... sprinting at chain link fences (tall ones with barbed wire on top) and having to scramble over them, someone chasing me and always seeming to catch me and I had to go over so many fences... in the end I escaped, and went back to the villagey area on the coast by where the youth hostel had been.
I found the person I had came with, they'd got pregnant or something and had had a kid (so I must have been in the prison for a while) and everyone seemed to have forgotten me.
And then I woke up.

What did I do yesturday? Ahh yes, snoozed on my beanbag on the floor and then went and cooked food for Shanty House. Sausage and chickpea curry stuff, with slightly peppered rice and gratered cheese on top. Nom.

Tomorrow morn I'm off to Holifair... I'll be being Lisa Harrison for the weekend! Muahahahaa.
We'll turn into one another soon, yesturday I noticed she was wearing the same socks as which Silje's mum gave me for my birthday. She then reminded me that we'd already had that conversation, and that she and Silje's mum had probably got them from the same shop in Stavanger, Norway.

Oh Silje (and Vera!!!!!), come home!
I miss yewwwww!

(One day this blog will turn back into an art blog... but for now, dreams blog!)

40. More dreaming.

The night before last I dreamt that I was cutting things, all I can remember is a black floppy covered book, into the shape of a long dagger / one of those sharpening irons.
Then last night I remember a couple of dreams... though not the entire thing of either of them.

In the first I was walking along at night / the evening, and I noticed a couple of tramps sleeping on a bench. The next morning I find out that the girl was Ruth (my 5th housemate from May - end of July) and the other was some guy who I didn't recognise who had a ponytail.
I couldn't believe that Ruth had got it so hard that she'd gone trampy, so I told her about a "hippy farm" which she could go live on for free, so long as she helped work the farm. It was called Culdrose, as was near to Fal... it's true, a place called Culdrose IS fairly near to Fal, however it's an army base. Culdees is a "hippy farm"... but thats in Scotland.
My second dream was one that I'm pretty sure I'd had before, I remember thinking in the dream "this dream has happened before... ahhh shit, the next bit is the horrible part with that angry woman...".

Yesturday the Falmouth Fish & other Skinners Brewery related people leapt onto a coach from Fal at about 4:30am, and travelled to London to sing at the London Beer festival in Earls court...
It was great fun, lots of marching and shouting "Olay, olay olay olay, Cornwall, Cornwall..." with the marching band we took with us (really enjoyable, Cornwall was most definately the rowdiest bunch out of everyone there). Sadly, Skinners won no awards this year... but it was still well worth going along.

39. I had a dream...

Last night I had a dream, I can't remember much of it but people were graduating uni, and I was looking at their "mortar boards" and thinking that they were all strange shapes (well... the bit which holds onto their heads was strange... as in, taller / thinner etc than normal - the board bit was the same). I then found out that it was a tradition for everyone to make their own mortar boards, so of course people had made red and white checkered ones and everything!
Thats all I remember.

Here, have Alan Male. I drew him over a month ago now.And whilst staring at Facebook, I noticed that one of the Norwegian's had got a LOVELY tattoo. I never really talked to her (maybe once of twice) but that doesn't matter.Look at the eyeeees! Wow. It was done by Deno from Tattoo Magic in Madrid (but this was somewhere in Norway at a tattoo convention).

Also, Vera showed me a BRILLIANT video!

38. Things I forgot to say.

The other night I had a dream.
I've been having rather strange and vivid (in a way that I remember much of it) dreams recently.
This one really was odd...

I and some others were sitting on a hill, it was covered in seats (like stadium seating) or stepped seating (like the Minnack outdoor theatre here in Cornwall)... we were eating Cornish Pasties, but they were painted in some black (edible) shiny sort of paint. Apparently it was traditional in that part of Cornwall. We then went to someones house, it was quite modern and had lots of stairs. I felt really awkward as it seemed that their mum did not want us there, so I found something to amuse myself. I found a hamster! I got it out of it's cage and cuddled it and played with it and carried it round, and was always thinking "wow, this is a really friendly hamster" - this is due to the fact that I am used to other peoples hamsters never being as friendly as the hamsters I've had (R.I.P. Wedgy, Moony, Lawry, and Scrumpy), perhaps this is because we never REALLY kept our hamsters in the cage... ANYWAY. I was still holding this hamster and walking up some stairs and thinking that when SUDDENLY it went all stiff, so I looked at it and it's eyes had gone all zombie-ish and pearly and scary and it looked horrible so I went "AHH!" and put it on the floor / dropped it / similar. It then ran about and tried to bite at my ankles a bit so I had to use the banister to lift myself on to avoid being bitten, and then ran into a room to find it's hamster ball to trap it but it seemed that the friend had LOADS of hamster balls, so I had trouble finding one with a matching lid, and then when I had found one and got to the hamster I could only fit it's head into the ball as it had turned to the size of a Jack Russel / Scottie dog! So it looked like it had a space helmet on!
Then I woke up.

Thats the second dream I've had recently about eyes going suddenly all scary and zombie-ish. I also had another hamster dream after that one, but the hamster didn't go crazy.
And another strange (but quite fun...) dream last night, but I shan't go into it.

Been fairly busy recently, last night was the 5th night in a row of drinking a little too much... the night before that my sister and I (who was down for 2 nights with me) had a bottle of white wine to share, and then went to The 'front with Dan & Lisa & Duncan & co. Night before that Elk (sister) and I also had a bottle of wine to share, and I had shanty practise & then open mic night at The 'front. And the night before THAT I had yummy yummy Dan-made pizza at Shanty house. And the night before THAT it was Dan & I's "6 months of eating face", so we went out for a yummalicious meal & drank another bottle of wine between us. So yes... lots of drinking.
Getting myself ready to my 1 day trip to London on Tuesday, perhaps... Falmouth Fish are playing Earls Court beer festival, you see... so we've got 2 x 6+ hours on a coach, and some hours singing, and lots of free alcomohol. I'm so sorry, liver... so, so sorry.

BUT YES! Last night! Fal Fish sung in the Chain Locker pub.... whilst being filmed... BY THE BBC.... with Oz Clarke and Hugh Dennis! I don't REALLY know who they are, but now I've been right in front of them I recognise them.
Oz liked Dan's face when Dan was singing. Refer back to the newspaper cut out of Fal Fish singing in one of my previous entries on hereeee.
Eh heh heh.

Photoses!We found some highly worrying potatoes with super duper long tentacles in the potato hole.

A dragonfly hung out in our yard for a while. A BIG one!

I made a purse for Dan, to stop him from dropping coins EVERYWHERE. Another of my tweeeed inventions, with sewn on felt details... the lighting was bad, so you can't really see it too well. The axe has "DJO" sewn into it.

I am now left in the house on my own for a couple of weeks or so...
I shall attack it, clean it all thoroughly (it doesn't often get it) and I feel the need to decorate some parts of it... I have an URGE. It's got too tatty.
And I shall attempt to learn to play my bodhran better... I really do need to, I'm just a bit poop at learning (anyone want to teach me? I'll learn way faster!).
And a couple of commissions... still...
Etc!

Ohhhh rainy rainy Cornwall.
This day exactly a year ago it wasn't rainy. My old friend Becca & I caught the bus to the Lizard, then bought a pasty, then walked to Kynance Cove - the sea was FULL of seaweed. Then sunbathed, then on the way back I found a rather poorly toad on the path, and a one legged cricket/grasshoppery thing.I've like to have this cardigan from Rachel Comey:Have some links:

Ming Makes (feckin' amazing droolalicious) Cupcakes.

Food Porn!

Beautiful beautiful printy stuff.

Thats all for now!
I think I'll give this thing a face-lift soon, have meant to for ages...
It's getting pretty crusty.
Over & out... FOR NOW.

37. A-Z of excellent things.

The colours and textures of Autumn Leaves.
Silence except for the Buzzing of Bees & the chirping of Birds.
Curling up in front of fires, in patches of sunlight or shade, in a jumble of cushions...
Walking across Dewy grass in the early morning, before anyone else does.
Eating really yummy scrumy food, the sort which doesn't bloat you up crazily.
A little Fresh breeze on a hot summers day.
Successfully Growing plants.
The first Hot day of the year, preferably matched with the first sea swim of the year.
Islands, the less inhabited the better.
Jumping over streams, and up and down on trampolines.
Kissing. Except for the creepy / awkward sort.
Meeting new Lovely people and having a good Long chat.
Running about at full Moon.
Going to bed in Newly washed, crunchy bedding, after having washed myself.
Looking through Old photos of myself & my family, friends & adventures & such.
Searching for good Pebbles on the beach.
Quaint little old buildings, with so much potential. Not the creepy sort, though.
Re-discovering an old item of clothing.
Watching the Sea glitter and the Sky change. Sunsets and Sunrises.
Getting to the Top of a hill. Big or small.
Having a freshly washed stash of Underwear.
Finding Various small objects which work great as a secret stash of treasure.
Waking up bright and early, and being perfectly awake and alive.
X's at the end of cards / letters, when they really mean it.
Playing the Yellow car game (extended edition!) with the correct people, at the correct time.
Sleeping and bed, without being a total lazy-bum, Zzzzz...

36

(yes, once again I can constipate your computer with an image heavy update...)

OH HI THERE BLOG.
Fancy meeting you here.

I've just watched a film on BBCiplayer called "XXY" about a hermaphrodite... quite a nice little film. Nice to watch (subtitles). I have now found a new actress to like, Ines Efron.And my tummy is rumbling again. It's been doing that a lot since I started on my jalapaeno rampage (good deal on in Tescos for them! So I bought 2 jars... A nom nom nom nom nom.

Hmm, what can I currently hear: Faye and Oggy cackling from Faye's room. Cars driving down the rather wet (rain!) road.
See: ...this laptop... my study, my ever getting covered study walls, the dress which I need to fix.
Smell: Nothing much. Infact nothing notable, at all. Just... house?
Feel: The nest of a bean bag cradling my posterior.
Sense: That I'm a bit tired, so apologies if this makes no sense what so ever.

It's been over a month since I updated! In that month... I have...
-Gone to the Royal Cornwall Show! Yes! I DID go there in the end! I wandered round grinning to myself... so many piggies and sheep and horsies, and cowwies and... yus! Lovely creatures. And tractors... which I forgot to give 4 punches for each (a limited few will understand this).After the RCS, some of us went to a lovely place called "Keveral Organic Farm" which is near Plymouth for an all night folk music session. I was already a tad tired, so ended up going outside under the starry sky, and curling up on a remarkably slug & snail free black leather sofa in front of a fire. Woke up in the morning to have the sun shining on me and the birds tweetering and the bee's buzzing. Gawwwjus.-Finished my 2nd year of Illustration BA hons at Falmouth uni. With a 2:1 and no referals. Yesss. Thank you Alan Male. Here is what I did for my (slightly rushed) last project, it was a bit of an experimental sort. I intended for it to be aimed at the Kid's Nat Geo, but as Mr Male said, it would be far better as something such as a big poster / banner for the National Science Museum. Yes! And he didn't hate them!!-3 days of Falmouth International Sea Shanty festival! We did 4 gigs, and all the oldies luuuurved us. Us Falmouth Fishies even got the best report in the newspaper. *brag brag brag*. (ohhh, look at us! Only half the band in the shot, but L>R: Foy, myself, Martin, Dan, and Lisarr).
-Gone and had a most fabulous time at Glastonbury festival, it was worth the large amount of money I paid for the ticket. Met with some "long lost" friends, saw the likes of The Stranglers (with my pint of milk), and FUNKADELIC (with Parliament) who were AMAZING... I'm still in awe. I grooved like a mad beast, definately. Not a single drop of rain, and I think I saw, what, 1 small puddle of mud? I got away without drowing in a quagmire! Wheeeyyyyy! I think my 3 posters did it a nice little lot of justice.-Took a day trip to see Ninnarrrr down in Hastings with the aid of the wonderful driver Racheyboiii, Daniboi, Imy, and Emilarrrgh. The seagulls there are far more polite than the ones down 'ere in old Fal-taaan! (though I DID go into "hunter" mode, and start up a quickfire of beach pebbles when a few got a bit too cocky).
-A day visit to the forge for a picnic & for me to bash some metal, with some help I made a knife & 2 pronged for for eating with, or something. Attempted to eat a bread roll sandwich with them, it DID work, though a little oddly (I suppose you aren't really meant to cut up bread rolls with a chunky knife & fork, if at all). These metal eating impliments go nicely with my WOODEN SPOON which I made at Crazy Dave's. I'm still waiting for it to dry out (it was green wood) and then I can sand it and put a hole through it to put an O-ring in.
-Went off to Dorset with Dan to visit his folks. And the puppies. PUPPIES! Eeeee! I was then labelled as a puppy whisperer (barker is more appropriate). Sadly the weather there failed most days... nice to get away, though.Since then I haven't done overly much except for find out that I'm dyslexic. Hurrah!

These current days I'm trying to keep a vague "go go go!" structure, today failed a bit (though in my defence, I have been working on an illustration for Alasdair all day. Folk tail stuff, a crofter telling fairies to cut and stack peat. Can't draw the damned fairies, though.
Still no summer job, bugger.

Lisa went away for a couple of weeks to Lundy Island, she came back with tales... and after a little more research I really rather fancy the place myself now. It seems they'd like some voluntary conservation workers, I can do that... please! Next summer though. Yes.

Here are some images of liking / inspiring which ARE NOT MINE:I'm not sure who did the above (if you know, do tell me) but it looks like such a nice little work space. Reminds me a little of my own (I think thats due to the tiny bunting).Aijung Kim. It's not overly amazing, but the opacity and colours are yummiferous. And I
REALLY like the top section.Amy Ruppel. Birds birds, yes yes... but look at the snippet of see-through photograph!Anna Wadham's colourfal cats.
Deanna Halsall drew the Beach Boys, I like just that top bit, not so sure about the earplugged girl.Chris Seddon makes funky cards, I think I'm going to try my hand at similar in the print rooms when I get back to uni.ELIZABETH MAHONEY. She's not famous, infact she's my sisters age (17/18). This liking does not apply to all her photos, but she's not half bad and this one really catches my eye. Definately from my homeland (as is Lizi).Brett Manning. Not really my style, but it was too nice to miss.
Brad Haubrich. GO GHOSTLY BIYCLE! GO! Blocky goodness.Stella Im Hultberg. Looks like ink dripped in a VERY controlled manner.Stacey Rozich. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! Infact it's my current laptop background image. I want to do stuff like this! Ohhh... *dribble*.Sergio Membrillas. Nom nom nom, I do love a good bit of digital overlay and fish.Paolo Zakimi has the floating fish effect. I shall float with the fishies.Nick Sheehy. I just want to GRIN MADLY at this bird. Yes indeed, yes I do. And I hope it'd grin madly back, with all 6 of it's eyes.Miki Sato. Hung by balloons! A cheerful way to end your life.From "Hello Earth" on Etsy. Not the most fantastical masterpiece, but lovely non the less. It shows that finger painting isn't just for the midgets!Helen Acraman. 3 bears. DZOO.

Now... goodnight! I have a date with my bed.