A little piece of me

I love Ewe

2012-01-11T12:31:00.000Z

Hey guys, hope that 2012 is treating ewe well so far?

2011 ended with the great build starting and mumborg going into hospital. To elaborate, the house is being made disabled friendly, with ramps installed, doors being widened, wet room added downstairs and the kitchen being kitted out with things suitable for those of wheelchair height. A lot of planning was needed to get this off the ground, but things are going well so far!

Mumborg was not meant to be in hospital, as she was meant to be staying with one of my sisters and keeping out of the way of the building work. Unfortunately she got quite ill and had to go into hospital once more, but she had managed a whole two years without a hospital stay, which is a new record for her. She is on the mend now and has been moved to hospital for rehabilitation and physiotherapy for a few weeks. The hope is that the building work finishing coincides with her coming out of hospital and enjoying the new, but old, house.

The building work and hospital stuff slowed down my The Doodologist stuff, well not the ideas and plans, just the time and space to have my paints and pens out. So I had a bit of time to play around with some digital arty farty stuff. Ewe can see examples of it, in this very post. They have been created using GIMP ( like photoshop, but free) and various public domain vintage/antique illustrations, with free clip art and textures thrown in too. These particular ones have a slight Valentines/Love theme, but more to be added. If you have any specific questions, feel free to fling them my way.

Now that the downstairs is empty and the builders have free reign with the house, I have free reign to unleash the pens, paints and doodles. So excuse me, the doodle cave is calling. Please follow my updates via facebook/twitter to be more regularly updated on all things arty/farty.

Facebook: The Doodologist

Twitter: The Doodologist

Fuck the end of the world predictions, the world is not ending this year.

Ho ho ho and all that bollocks

2011-12-08T13:48:00.001Z

Personal Grumpus commission for Truus

I seem to have wandered into the world of microblogging (as in Facebook, Twitter etc) and neglected my beloved weblog, whoops. There are lots of things that I need to do, like respond to comments on the last post, write my epic ode to five years of blogging and much more, but I don't want to miss what is happening in the here and now, so I am writing this post. I will probably do a reflective new year post and include the thoughts on five years of blogging then. Lots of other things to update on too, like how the new business is going (The Doodologist) and all the many things I have learnt so far about striking out on your own.

After Christmas I will be in doodle prototype mode, where I will be putting together some new ideas, which will be fun! As they will be my own projects that also means that I can do a lot more blogging about them, as they progress, without the worry of spoiling surprises etc. So I am most excited about that, as I love getting feedback and bouncing ideas off as many people as possible.

In the meantime I decided to do some quirky Christmas gift ideas, as my commission work always whizzes off to its new doodle forever home, I never have anything to sell when I go to little events or to sell online via facebook etc and I am always thinking of new ideas, so it is most cool to see some of them come to life.

Behold... Magically Restorative Reindeer Power

Why just give Rudolph and friends a lacklustre carrot or boring oats? Why not enhance your visiting magical reindeer's food, by adding some of this special magical powder on their snack of choice before you head to your beds on Christmas Eve. Price is £3.50 for Magical powder, scroll and organza bag

Behold..... Magical Key

Ever wondered how Father Christmas gets into your house when you gave no chimney or have a blazing fire? Wonder no more! With this magical key Father Christmas has no trouble at all!Each key is rather old and comes in various shapes and sizes, all can be classed as vintage (and some are antique). If you don't already have this tradition in your household, why not start now?Price is £5 for Magical Key, scroll and organza bag

The instructions for how to use your Magic Key written on the image above, comes in a handy mini scroll format, please hang on your door knob of choice. It is probably a good idea to let the children decide, as they know best. These instructions will be supplied in mini scroll form and will accompany your magic key in a lovely organza bag.Price is £5 for Magical Key, scroll and organza bag.

Hopefully I will have some time again to blog before Christmas, but if not, Happy Grumpus to you all.

Turning 30 and the world not ending

2011-10-18T00:52:00.000+01:00

I recently shuffled off this mortal coil, erm, I mean I turned....~~.into~~ ~~a green hideous furry beast~~... 30. Interestingly my face didn't suddenly slip of my facial skeletal structure and I didn't sprout any more grey hairs. I refuse to talk about that weird hair on my chin, tweezers have taken care of that issue.

I celebrated this monumental birthday by attending a glass blowing course in the morning and then going to Farmageddon in the evening. Blowing glass is bloody hard work, just keep twiddling, but it was very very cool and I highly recommend it. I will do an update post on the glass blowing, once I get a moment to edit the photographs. Farmageddon was a lot of fun, some people where ridiculously scared, but they obviously haven't seen me in the morning before coffee, that is frightening.

Doodle update: (Prepare for doodle overload)

My sisters wedding present was this doodle, a delay in blogging about it because it was then used to create the 'Thank You' cards, so wanted it to be a surprise for everyone receiving them, not that any of the wretches actually read this blog.

Continuing with a wedding theme, a recent commission was this:

A Christening Gift:

A Birthday Gift:

If you can't guess already, I have been busy! Which is fucking awesome, but some time for blogging would be awesome too, as I do miss it. I have been remiss in updating the world on the my craft fair adventures and meeting the doodle wonder that is TJ- Go read her post here! I will most definitely be blogging about Arts and Craft fair experience, but that will take more time than I have at the moment.

I am hurtling towards blogging for five whole years! Tick followed tock and then someone rudely pressed the bloody fast forward button. I will do my usually epic like post to celebrate my blogoversary, which is also usually a few days late.

Doodle on dudes! (Keep up with me on Facebook and Twitter and Twitter)

Just keep doodling

2011-09-11T23:34:00.000+01:00

Hey chumsI am currently doing a few art/craft stalls at the moment, to market The Doodologist in the real world (not just online). I think I will leave writing up my experience with those until I have done a few more. I will have done four, by the first of next month, so a full expose into the world of arty farty crafty stall type things shall be written up then, including my mahoosive to do list! If I wrote it up now it would be something like:

"Talk to me, I am human being, not a zoo animal trapped behind this stall/cage, wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

In the mean time I will be lying on the floor imitating a heap of clothes that looks like the shape of a possible hooman bean (human being). Which may be a strange way of saying "By Crikey! I am fucking knackered!". Normally being tired would be a horrid feeling, but for the most part it's rather cool, I go to sleep dreaming about doodles, then I get to wake up and doodle them! When that pesky paperwork and chore stuff isn't getting in the way.

Home and Away:
Latest commission for The Doodologist is this piece called "Home and Away"

In other news: Grumpus was forced to listen to music that wasn't to their liking. After the show the Grumpus tried to recreate the noise and this is a pictorial depiction of that incident:

Can you caption The Grumpus picture above?
( just to see if anyone has the same mindset as The Grumpus).

Music inspired doodles:
Random project I am working on.

Other other news:

My incredibly talented friend Jenn has written a book, with words and everything! I have downloaded it to my phone thing to read and you should too!(if you have the right phone thing or kindle). I will be mentioning this a lot more once I have finished it! In the mean time please visit her facebook page and show some support There Goes the Galaxy

The Doodologist and the Prince

2011-08-25T03:31:00.000+01:00

The Prince's Trust:
My doodling business The Doodologist is developing quite nicely and I am officially allowed to say that This business was initially helped by the Prince's Trust.They obviously have to be quite strict about how their good name is used and you can't use their logo, without paying a hefty sum. This is to protect the charity from unscrupulous people.

What is the Prince's Trust?
The Prince's Trust is a charity set up by the Prince of Wales (Charles) in 1976. It does a lot of great work with young people, covering many different aspects of life. I found out that I could receive help with my business idea, when I was making some general enquiries about business start ups. They have a program called the Enterprise Program, which helps you decide if self employment is for you and if your business idea is sound.

They do a thorough job of turning an idea into reality, well they make you do the hard work and hold your hand along the way. You have to prove that the business can make money, and that it has potential for growth. The type of businesses that they support have changed over the years and they have allowed small businesses like mine to sneak in.

Once I launched the website and facebook page, and starting getting commissions, that answered the BIG question of "Will it work?", as they had never seen a doodling business in their midst before and were concerned that the business wouldn't work.

They asked lots of valid questions, like:

What do you sell? It may seem obvious to say 'doodles', but what type, what size etc.
What do you do if someone doesn't like it?
How long does it take you?
How much and why?
Are making enough money to sustain and improve what you currently have?

and you can't just give them half hearted answers, you have to really know your stuff.

Once I had satisfied all the criteria, from the 'Will it work' section, comprehensive business plan, Insurance to opening a business bank accounts, they then submit it all to a panel. The panel then look over it all and call you in for a meeting.

It is hard not to think of it as a 'Dragon's Den', even though they assure you it is not. I am not lying at all, when I say I was very nervous! Luckily they were absolutely lovely and although they ask difficult questions, I was well prepared to answer them all. They then send you out for a short while, whilst they deliberate and then call you back in with the verdict.

In my case the verdict was..... Positive! They seem to really like the idea of the business, although with some concerns. That means that I was also awarded a business mentor for two years! and some pocket money in the form of a grant. The mentor is a professional successful business person, that volunteers their time around once a month. They match you with someone that can help you, were you need it the most, in my case we are focusing on marketing and some other general stuff. With the grant you have to spend it strictly on the business, providing receipts/invoices for stuff that you need or have already purchased. If you are entering into this process *just* for the money, then I think you are missing out on tapping into some valuable knowledge.

So although I am not a royalist, I am very happy that his royal highness decided to set up this charity and I look forward to paying some of help back by donating my time, as and when it is needed.

If you have any more questions about the process, please do ask!

Latest Commissions:
I am very thankful that people took a punt and commissioned me before the business was a fully formed being, it gave me the confidence that I needed. It is also gave the business people the proof they needed, to show that this was a viable business. I will always be excited about the next doodle project, but these first few ones are special to me. Here are the latest ones for you to look at, watch the slideshows to see how they were created.

Somerset Sally: This is a snapshot of the county Somerset for Mike Camp, who is an excellent quirky doodler himself.

Grandma Rocks: This was commissioned by the lovely Lisa Ceaser, who commissioned it for her stepmom. This was my first international commission, as it flew across the pond to America.

Joey's Dream: This is the lovely Joey commissioned by p3dro , who provided some awesome photographs of Joey, for me to work from.

What am I doodly doing now?

Working on some awesome new doodle commissions, which I will blog about as and when they are finished. I am also creating some new doodles for art and craft fair type events.I decided to venture into the world of Arty farty crafty fair type things, as I way of meeting clients/potential clients face to face and to sell some original art and limited edition prints. I thought it would be cool to meet new people and have a conversation in the real world and get some first hand experience of selling (scary stuff).

Please keep your eyes on The Doodologist facebook page and blog to see where I will be in the next few months.

Any questions? Leave a comment and I shall endeavour to answer.

Erm, where was I?

2011-08-11T19:13:00.001+01:00

Things have been rather busy at 'The Doodologist' Headquarters (In a good way, mostly).

Firstly the computer had to go back to the shop, which was a major pain in the arse and something I had blocked out of my mind,until writing this blog post and realising how long it has been since I actually wrote anything on here!Ooops.

Secondly I found out my first Art Fair/Craft Fair/Fete type thing will be on September 10th and there are also a few more that I am hoping to do, just waiting to hear back from them.

One of the events that I have applied for, was a bit more official, so you had to fill in an application form, with a few samples of your work. For the photography stuff, I sent a print of this collage type thing:

and for all things The Doodologist, I created this sample:

Fingers crossed that I get a few more spots at the various art fairs and craft fairs, that I wanted! Although to be honest, I still haven't got a clue what exactly I will be taking with me to flog!

Along with finding art fairs to attend, I have also been finding the right insurance policy, figuring out cash flow projections, writing final business plan and all that fun stuff.

In the meantime 'The Grumpus' has been his usually cheery self and started to do special Grumpus messages (for a fee, green fur is high maintenance!)

Firstly a 'Happy Birthday' message to a lovely 18 year old girl, Grumpus decided they were actually 21, what an idiot....

Then begrudgingly Grumpus came up with a few words of wisdom, for my chum Collette who got wed last Saturday.

"Marriage is a three ring circus: Engagement Ring, Wedding Ring and SuffeRing"

Got some awesome doodle projects to blog about next time, I just need to edit the pictures, upload them and all that bollocks first.

Please 'like' me over on the book of faces for The Grumpus and The Doodologist, for the time being I am updating more frequently over there, thanks muchly!

Dahlia's and Doodling

2011-07-12T00:43:00.002+01:00

Doodle Business:
The Doodologist is fast approaching the last stage of business planning, although I am open for business, I still have some hoops to jump through. I visited the bank last week and had a meeting to set up a business account. It was slightly nerve wracking, but mainly exciting and more importantly they said yes! So I now have a shiny business bank account, with a cheque book and card that is emblazoned with 'The Doodologist'. I shall admit to being more than a little excited about seeing that. In regards to the business planning and inner workings, I shall be able to blog more about that sometime in August. I am working with a charity called the Prince's Trust to help me set up the business, from coming up with a sound business idea to then implementing it. Fingers crossed that in August I will have proved that this is a viable business and I will be matched with my own special business mentor. There is also a chance of getting a loan or grant, but really it is the help/advice that is the most appealing thing. More on this in August! (If you would like to join in and cross your fingers, legs, eyes etc, that would be most appreciated).

So at the moment I am working on some cool (very cool) commissions, which I will blog about as and when I can. I am also working on some ideas, so that I have some things to take to 'art and craft fair' type places. I asked the question to the folks that 'like' my The Doodologist facebook page, this question:

If The Doodologist was at an art fair type place, what would YOU like to see me selling?

Any ideas welcome, from doodle character suggestions to products like greeting cards, mugs etc. I am going to art fair type places for a few reasons, those include generating some cash, generating interest in commissions and generating publicity in general. I have never done anything like an Art Fair before, so I am genuinely in need of some help and advice. I have set myself the goal of doing my first one in September, which I am sure will creep up on me very fast!

Photo time:
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you will have noticed that as well as doodling, I also love photography. So I was wondering if you think that some of the photographs are good enough to do high quality prints of and take them with to the art fair like places too? If so, any type of photographs tickle your fancy in particular? At the moment I am taking advantage of the intermittent lovely weather and the rather nice flowers in my garden. It is nice having photographic muses that don't try and run off.

Blog Tips: If you use Blogger/Blogspot, make sure you log into Blogger in Draft and see the new shiny new interface (place where you write your posts etc). Read all about it here Blogger's update interface now available for draft users. Remember you must be logged into draft mode to see the changes.

Google Plus: I have added another social network to my growing collection, so if you are hanging out over there, be sure to add me +Claire . It is very early days over there at the moment, but I am finding it a refreshing change from facebook and twitter. Not that I will be dropping either FB or Twitter any time soon, it is just different.

Thanks for reading xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Doodling ding dongs and some photographs

2011-07-03T14:57:00.000+01:00

Life Drawing :
Not wanting to become complacent as I strive to find my own drawing style, I decided to sign up for a life drawing class. I have had no formal arty training since back in ye olde times of high school, many moons ago now. So I was rather nervous about it all, but nothing ventured, nothing gained etc

What did I learn?
Well firstly, that I am not good at life drawing, but I didn't expect to be. My main aim was to draw a recognisable human figure and not giggle at the naked person, which I was successful in achieving. Secondly,
it is surprising how quickly you get used to the model being naked. The only thing that surprised me, was that is was a naked dude, as for some reason, I thought it would be a woman. The model 'Arthur' was obviously a professional, as he disrobed with ease and had an air of being totally relaxed and comfortable, which rubbed off on everyone else. I didn't even have time to concentrate on the dangly bits, hence the reason why all the drawings are Ken Doll esque.

Measure, measure, measure and measure some more!
Ever seen an artist, in real life, TV or movies, squinting and holding up their paintbrush in the general direction of their muse? Now I know what they are up to!
This is a good explanation of some of what I learnt 'Measuring like an artist'

Tick Tock:
For measuring angles the tutor gave us a tip to tilt the pencil ( or paintbrush) and follow the angle, then visualise a clock face and think about what time the angle would be on. This makes it easier to then translate the angle onto your drawing. I have yet to put this into practice, so will see how that works out for me.

This introductory course was run by Dot-Art Check out their Website, Facebook, and Twitter (especially if you are based in the North West of England).

Summary:
Hopefully time and money will allow me to attend some more classes, as I can already see how this will improve my general doodling abilities (plus they had REALLY tasty sandwiches).
It did make me feel slightly sorry that I never went to a proper doodle school, but I can honestly say that I wouldn't doodle like I do now, if I had gone. From what the other people in the class said, you don't actual learn that much anyway (so there!).
What it has shown me, is the things I need to work on, to make the doodles, that I do, even better. Working out the right angles and proportions for an Octopus, riding a bicycle, into space, that kind of thing. With my style of doodles, sometimes a lot of work goes into drawing/sketching out realistic(ish) versions of animals/people etc and then turning them into cartoon form. I am looking forward to seeing how this new knowledge impacts the next lot of doodles.

Bonus: I got to meet up with Sophie Green and see her awesome artwork up close and personal. I could have bombarded her all day with questions, but she had some amazing work to do and I didn't want to be a pest! Check out her Website, Facebook and Twitter.

Gardening and stuff:
After the life drawing class I got the opportunity to meet up with someone that I have been following for the longest time on twitter @JenniferWelch . We have been trying to meet up for an age and finally managed it!

I got to go up to the secret rooftop garden living on the FACT building, what a beautiful place! I am hoping I get to sneak back there and take some photographs. The garden is called 'The Mediated Garden', more on this in a moment.
After a chat and poke around the garden, we popped downstairs for a glass of wine (well I did, it was free) and took in the rather fascinating exhibition 'Semiconductor: Worlds in the making' . It was definitely a day of indulging in cultural brain treats and meeting fascinating people.

I have seen a lot of similarities in gardening and doodling of late, for me they both hold a feeling of freedom, without having to travel anywhere at all. The Mediated Garden is not just a garden, it is a piece of artwork, asking the kind of questions about public space and what it feels like to see something beautiful that you are NOT allowed to play in.

Check out the website, facebook, twitter and flickr stream.

It was great to chat with Jenn, such a cool way to end an already arty farty day. Although not sure how I feel about the pigeon (or seagull) that decided to poop on me as I was saying goodbye, surely a sign of luck? right?

Jenn also gifted me with a Tomato plant, Jalapeno Pepper, bean plants and a marrow (or squash), apparently my brain can't remember more than two things. These plants then accompanied on my train ride home, much to the amusement of the train conductor and my fellow train passengers.

Photographs:

After chatting with Jenn, I felt the need to spend some time in the garden, documenting some of the lovely plants and veg growing.

Also got round to editing some other photographs too, these are of my niece Arwen, from a visit a few months back.

So endeth my waffle for this post, if you have any tips about Life Drawing, drawing in general etc or gardening please dump them in the comment box! Thanks muchly xx

Doodlinations and all that

2011-06-26T20:12:00.000+01:00

Worry ye not, I have not actually died or even worse than death, stopped blogging. The lack of blogging has been a mixture of things:

Doodle Madness, as one will see further down this web like page.
Sister 1 got wed on Thursday, with all the family shenanigans and obligatory running round like headless chickens.
PC died! Okay it didn't actually die, but it was very poorly sick and had to go away to the pooter shop.

What is happening in the world of The Doodologist?

Things are going very well in the world of The Doodologist and I have had some great commissions already! You have previously seen 'Lady Jean' mentioned in the last post Reasons to be a Grumpus. I thought I would update you on the latest finished pieces.

Web Ducks

The Brief: Create some large headed cute ducks for 'avatar/profile picture' use. The original paintings are then to be donated to charity. More on these little ducks in the very near future!

Creating Camelot

The Brief: Create a doodle that can be used as a teaching aid, the theme is 'King Arthur', with a few hints of England thrown in.

18 years of memories

The Brief: Create a doodle piece that encapsulates the personality of the doodle recipient and some of their special memories. This was an 18th birthday present from a mother to her daughter.

The Lincoln Imp

The Brief: A Fathers day present, which has the theme of Man United/Old Trafford burning to the ground, Alex Ferguson being squished and Lincoln City FC winning 'The Cup'.

As you can see, all the commissions have been VERY different, as are the ones to come, but they have all had one thing in common, which is FUN. The communication between myself and the doodle clients has been awesome and it is such an honour to take an idea of theirs and turn it into doodle form.

For more regular 'The Doodologist' information, pictures, updates etc, please follow me on facebook and twitter! Thanks Muchly xxxxxx

Question Time:

Firstly, I would love to know what you think of the doodles in this post, Secondly, if you have any questions about The Doodologist type things etc, please feel free to ask away! I will be doing a more wordy business update in the near future and it would be cool to know what people wanted to read.

Reasons to be a Grumpus

2011-05-30T23:54:00.000+01:00

Uh oh I have been neglecting The Grumpus, which is not the best thing to do... so this post is mainly about the green and furry one.

The Grumpus recently asked the worshippers/minions that like the FB page, what made them almost Grumpus like. The Grumpus was saddened by a rather lacklustre response and had to prod minions to ignite their fury. It produced results at last and one particular minion came up with the perfect reason to be a Grumpus.

Heather minion was infuriated that other minions where not looking after their furry hairy masters properly by not picking up their poop for them.

The Grumpus says that if you are furry or especially hairy, obviously someone else has to pick up the poop. Minions (humans) evolved those thumbs things so that they could pick up after the masterful furry hairy creatures of the world.
Poop on the floor (or anywhere) is NOT a good thing, especially when you are green, furry and barefoot. Imagine getting the poop out from inbetween your toes? So minions, please remember, pick up your shit! or get a designated minion to do it for you.

What makes YOU a Grumpus?

If The Grumpus agrees with you, the head minion will turn it into doodle like form and you can glow in the satisfaction of being as miserable as The Grumpus.

Other news: The Doodologist bulletin

The world of doodle has been doodle mad lately, as I work on The Doodologist business. There is SO much to do, but it is so rewarding and I have been getting great feedback.
My first official The Doodologist parcel was well received and you can see the doodle being created in a lovely slideshow below.

The Doodologist website does have a blog section, which I update, but for some reason the feed isn't validating properly, something is wrong with the timestamp and I have no idea how to fix that. So the latest posts are Lady Jean and What does one doodle with.

What else?

Some how over four years have whizzed by since I first stumbled upon the magical world of twitter!

I have made some most excellent friends via the world of twitterings and had to mark this occasion by whoring out my new business like twitter account @TheDoodologist, heh. On a more serious, or tweerious, note, twitter has made the world smaller in a good way.

Sometimes I wonder if I am going too Social Media/Networking crazy? But as a small business, that works in dark cave on their lonesome, I see Twitter, Facebook and Blogging as my own little shop window and a place that gets conversations started.

Cough The Doodologist is also on facebook Cough

I am just an evil capitalist now.

Defining Me - The Doodologist and Doodology

2011-05-14T00:35:00.001+01:00

Doodology dú-dŏl'ə-jē
Doodologist dú-dŏl'ə-jĭst

I have realised that I have never explained my switch from therapist in training to The Doodologist, especially confusing for those that have been reading this blog for quite a while now. In this interview, I explain myself somewhat, if you care to read it: Interview with me, myself and I.

So moving on, I have survived my first week as a businesswoman, so I decided to get a tattoo as a reward for all my hard work.

It is bloody hard to photograph ones own wrist

Only bloody joking, I am not getting a tattoo...yet! A facebook page that I 'like' called Creative Boom mentioned these dudes called Roood Boogie Temporary Tattoos, I was intrigued, as I love all things tattoo.

Awesome Roood Boogie (latest WIP in the background)

So I wandered over and discovered that not only were they cool temporary tattoos, but you could also create your own bespoke temporary tattoos, using your own doodles (designs).

You can read more about this over here 'What to doodle do? Get inked!

Question: If you had a 'The Doodologist' temporary tattoo, where would you put it?

Shout out:

My good chum TJ,who is my doodle mentor/creative partner in crime has been a freelance illustrator for over six months now, wow that time has whooshed by. She magically rambles on about it in this blog post Magical wiffle waffle. Also she has finally set up a facebook page TJ Lubrano's Illustrations ( which you can like, after you have liked The Doodologist and The Grumpus, hehe).

Other stuff:

I have added a blog section over on 'The Doodologist', I think this helps with the googly moogly type stuff. I also thought it would be cool to have a business blog. My head may explode with all the social network/media things that I have to update now, but every little helps? Right?

A big THANK YOU for all the support I have had so far, from people blogging, twittering, facebooking links and wishing me 'good lucks'.

Please keep offering thoughts, opinions, criticisms and all that fun stuff, it really has been invaluable! Over the weekend I will be asking for input on business card designs, so keep your eye out for that. No rest for the wicked and all that.

The Doodologist is open for business

2011-05-07T04:31:00.002+01:00

Tada! Finally the website is finished! So I can now talk at great length about my new business like venture. It is still only in the baby stages, so as I learn, things will change and evolve.

Firstly the name.... The Doodologist, which is pronounced dú-dŏl'ə-jĭst, is because I have a degree in Doodology dú-dŏl'ə-jē...

Okay not really, both are terms that I have made up, but I think they sound rather cool? Folks that have been reading my blog for a while now, should know that I always refer to any artwork that I do, as a 'Doodle' even when it is technically not. I think 'Doodle' just became a term I felt comfortable with, so when thinking of a title that I could identify with 'The Doodologist' just seemed to fit. I wanted something fun and also self explanatory, so I hope that it works?

Now I will treat you to an illustrated guide to the new 'The Doodologist' website, you lucky swines! heh.

About:
You will be shocked to find out that the 'About' section of the website, is in fact all about me! Oh? that is not shocking? Moving swiftly on.

FAQ's:
The 'FAQs' section of the website is the largest section, as I have tried to answer all the things that 'I' think need answering. Hopefully I have not left out anything glaringly obvious?

Price:
I have included information about prices in the 'FAQs' section, as that seemed the best place for it.

Doodle Mail:
I have also included the Postage and Packing information in the 'FAQs' section.

Gallery:
I have created a 'Gallery' section on the website, where you can see a small selection of my current work, with links to my larger Flickr Portfolio. I will hopefully be updating this section quite regularly, with fresh new content.

Contact:
A rather simple and to the point 'Contact' form , nobody has tested it out yet, so if anyone wants to try it out?

Creating Your Doodle
In the 'Creating Your Doodle' section of the website, I have tried to make the process of getting the doodle ball rolling, as smooth and as fun, as possible. I have done this by creating a form that, once filled, contains all information I need to create the doodle and allows me to give the customer a final quote on the cost of the doodle.

Suggestion Box:
In this section of the website, the 'Suggestion Box' is really just an example of the work I have done, could do and would like to do in the future.

Find me:

Oh and if you could be a love, I am also on Twitter and Facebook as 'The Doodologist', so if you could follow/like away, that would be bloody grand of you.

Just how many personalities can one have on Facebook and Twitter... A Lot! But each are important to me, in their own special way.

I would really, really, REALLY! Appreciate people's opinions, thoughts, criticisms etc on this new business venture of mine, so please have a look and then let me know here what you think. This is all very new to me and as it's something I am doing alone, you can sometimes lose perspective on things.

Thanks for reading/looking/contributing/supporting and all that bollocks... Mwah

The Doodologist
dú-dŏl'ə-jĭst

Off with your head

2011-04-29T21:06:00.000+01:00

I had hoped that the website would be ready this weekend and I could be out pickling myself from the inside --- out, with the rest of the country. Alas it is not, as I keep drawing things that need painting and the perfectionist monster has reared it's ugly head and may have had a tantrum.....

I guess that is one of many perils when you are setting up your own business and are not only producing the product, but also doing all the marketing, advertising and research yourself. Unfortunately you can't fire yourself or give yourself a raise, well I think you can give yourself a raise, but you have to earn money first.

In the meantime The Grumpus has been reminiscing about the last time there were lots of blue blooded creatures about and it wasn't for a wedding. Something tells me that The Grumpus is not a fan of weddings or grossly affluent people.

Happy Birthday to the Jempot, the only thing worth celebrating today.

George, Grumpus, Barbara and The Egg

2011-04-23T22:45:00.000+01:00

Meet Barbara, she is one of England's last dragons

There she was, just minding her own business, when a pesky bee decides to pick an argument with her! How bloody rude. Normally a dragon like Barbara would have just cremated the flying pest, but her fire glands were swollen, due to hay fever.

Unbeknown to Barbara, a pesky little man named George, was sneaking up on her, ready to make his name in the dragon killing world.....

With a fatal stab to heart and wallop of his axe, poor Barbara lost her head and that pesky little chancer would hence be known as Saint George the patron saint of England.

Meanwhile lurking in a cave, The Grumpus had found a rather large egg and was contemplating a mahoosive omelet for his tea.

So yet again, poor Grumpus misses out on Sainthood and will this be the last we hear about that mysterious large egg?

Grumpus on Facebook: Like him!

Grumpus on Twitter: Follow him!

The Grumpus has a Easter message for you...

Happy Easter minions!

Business news:

I have created a series of cartoons to illustrate various parts of the new website, so as soon as they are painted, uploaded and titivated, I should only be a few days away from the site going live!

Animal mad aunt and stuff

2011-04-02T19:34:00.000+01:00

Well I was going to do a "Grumpus visits his Mother" post, a nod to it being Mother's day in the UK(tomorrow), but he doesn't like her and refused to cooperate. Now some people would assume that that was just a flimsy excuse about not being prepared and time catching up with me, but we know better, right? Anyhoo I can always backtrack and make him visit his mom for the US version of Mother's day.

So the question still remains... WTFWGGN?

The creation of a doodle for my Aunt's birthday.

News:

Soon I will be opening for doodle business, it has been in the works for a quite a while now! I just wanted to mention it here and put the feelers out, as I will be wanting opinions from the people that have been a great support to me (you lot). Well not just a support, this blog is the thing that inspired me to pick up a pencil again. So I will be writing more about this when I am at the next stage, which will probably be the webiste launch and facebook page shenanigans. When I have created more examples and the website is done, I think that will allow me to explain what type of doodliness I will be offering. I am excited/nauseous/excited about it all and have been lucky with the help that I am getting to set things up. It is a long process from market research to marketing to selling and more. As I take a giant leap into the unknown (for me), it is nice that I will always have this place to brain vomit on.

Random thoughts:

Waffles (potato) and tomato sauce, has evolved into Brie and fiery hot chutney on crackers.Just a thought that popped into my head, as I was munching on the crackers. Brie use to be a horrid cheese that my parents loved, now I think it's awesome. Actually the highlight of my night was eating that brie and crackers with a mug of hot chocolate. What is happening to me!

Grumpus and The Snakes of Terror!

2011-03-18T19:06:00.000Z

Grumpus has run into trouble again, his heavy drinking session with Patrick led to all sorts of Shenanigans and a whole island full of snakes attached to him!

Grumpus continued his wandering around the world, after spending a happy, but flatulent, time with Dewi, he now found himself with his old chum Patrick in Ireland. After a Guinness or twenty, Grumpus foolishly suggested a game of 'Toss the Leprechauns', and for some reason, the wee fella's did not take kindly to being hurled through the air. So without so much as a kiss of the Barney Stone, the leprechauns whacked Grumpus on the head, with their magic Shelagh, and Grumpus disappeared!

Hours later Grumpus wakes up and finds himself covered in snakes! Luckily hairy beasts of terror, like the Grumpus, are not afraid of snakes. All that Guinness and magical travel had made him quite peckish, so he ate the snakes, which tasted rather like chicken. With a sigh and a longing look across the sea, to the Emerald Isle, he continued on with his endless wanderings. The Grumpus doesn't like to ponder too much on things and he certainly didn't want to piss off any more leprechauns.

So Grumpus was banished to Grumpus Island, a horrid and cruel place, later to be known as 'England' (strange name, eh?). Grumpus was slightly annoyed that Patrick escaped the Leprechaun wrath, Patrick even got all the credit for ridding Ireland of snakes and was made into a Saint! Bloody typical.

Top of the Morning, Noon and Night to the lot of you (especially my Irish side of the family). Yes I know it's not actually St Patrick's Day anymore, but I just woke up from a Guinness binge*

*No actual binge drinking happened, not even a Guinness this year! Sorry Grandad.

WTFWGGN?

Grumpus and the Damned Pancake

2011-03-08T16:05:00.002Z

Tis Pancake Day! Otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday and Grumpus does NOT like pancakes. He normally loves all things bad for you, but not these edible circles of doom and fat. In fact, just the thought of pancakes is making Grumpus even greener than he already is! The pancake hatred started when Grumpus was just a wee furball and Great Grandpa-pa Grumpus put a hex on his pancakes, so if anyone tried to eat them, the pancake would come alive and slap you in the face. As you can guess, Great Grandpa-pa Grumpus, was not allowed to Grumpus sit very often.

Instead of pancakes,Grumpus dreams of living the life of his cousin Le Coeur Méchant, who is currently living it up at this year's Mardi Gras Day festivities in New Orleans. The Mardi Gras brings back a lot of fond memories of the days when people wore less clothes and were generally more naughty.

What is next for Grumpus? Guess or Die*

*Death is not guaranteed or in fact expected, but would be appreciated.
ermi guessing would be appreciated, not death.

International Women's Day

In other news, today is the 100th year of celebrating International Women's Day, which I have blogged about before in 2009, but subsequently forgot about, whoops! I could pass off Grumpus as a very hairy woman (he might be!) and dedicate the post to all the hairier than average women out there.

Instead I shall direct your attention to my other project, which is 'Self Exam Doodles'. That is most definitely a project about women and trying to go international, by translating it into as many languages as possible. The project also fits quite nicely into the 'arty' theme of this year's International Women's Day. Just like you can get breast cancer any day of the year, you can also look around you any day of the year and see inspirational women. You don't need an awareness day or month, but reminders are always nice. So a rather mixed message of feel your breasticles and take note of the women in your life that inspire you, from me.

Grumpus and Dewi

2011-03-01T01:01:00.001Z

After Grumpus's disastrous meeting with Valentine, he felt a wee bit bad about the decapitation, stoning and shooting through the heart thang. So from that day forward he decided to play nice with all the other saints, in the hopes that one day he would get to be St Grumpus and have a holiday of his very own! Erm I mean he wanted to be nice and stuff like that, in a truly altruistic way.

The Grumpus came across Dewi whilst he was up on a hillock, talking to a bird. The bird twas a dove perched upon Dewi's shoulder. Turns out Dewi was a vegetarian, who liked to party in Glastonbury, so after a few wild nights, Grumpus went on his way. Dewi was nice on all, but what with all the leeks and being vegetarian, I am sorry to say that Dewi had more than a little wind problem.

Happy Saint David's Day to my Welsh Chums!

Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus.

Factoid: The welsh leek has a flower much like a daffodil (which is quite a bit easier to find around the world in March), so many use daffodils instead

What will the Grumpus get up to next? I wonder if you can guess?

Random Doodle Update

2011-02-24T17:16:00.000Z

I hope you liked the epic Grumpus tale " The Grumpus and Love" ? Because I am currently working on a LOT of new Grumpus ideas.So if you have any Grumpus story related ideas, specifically related to holidays that you celebrate, please leave a suggestion in the comment section. So whilst I get on with sketching, painting, scanning and titivating, I thought I would update you on some of my more current doodles for various people.

Trumpasaurus Rex:

This was inspired by an awesome little chap, who at the age of four already has an awesome sense of humour.

The crabheaded man:

Inspired by a particular arsehole/asshole who cooks and is obsessed with some weird herb/spice combination I have never heard of. He seems to make passable food though and has a very cute little daughter (how did that happen?). Check out his blog (with awful design template) Cooking for Assholes and on twitter he is @cookingasshole.

and If you 'like' Self Exam Doodles' on facebook, you could win a doodle like this lady...

Her name is Zeta, named by the dude that won her "Mike's World"

The Grumpus and Love

2011-02-14T12:34:00.001Z

The Grumpus and love, it is a tragic tale, but what do you expect from someone called The Grumpus? This tale will also make very little sense, but that is not the Grumpus's fault.

Many many many many (x ten) years ago:

The Grumpus was minding his own business as he plodded around the jungle, when he all of a sudden noticed this beautiful tropical walled garden, the likes of which he had never seen before. So he passed through gates made of gold and was given the obligatory Fig Leaf to cover his naughty bits.

A rather suspicious looking large purple snake persuaded Grumpus to take this luscious looking red apple and give it to the fur maiden of his choice. Surely nothing bad could happen now?

Au contraire! From the moment that Grumpus took that bloody red apple, he was destined to be unlucky in love and he would pass this fate on through the ages or something like that.... Any fool knows that a lady Grumpus hates apples!

Fast forward through time:

The Grumpus was the official ambassador for the Grumpi at the annual Lupercalia festival, it was a right bloody laugh, there was singing, dancing and nakedness. Surely there was a chance of him getting lucky with someone/thing here? Well there was until a strange bearded fellow by the name of..... Valentine showed up! History becomes clouded around this time and somehow Valentine ended up dead and a saint! What a bastard.

Just who killed Valentine (Hallmark?)

Next we see Grumpus swayed by an alluring ankle, covered in ample green fur and toenails of the most beautiful yellow and brown tones.

This drove Grumpus crazy with desire and he was willing to try anything, so he did what all the cool kids were doing in them days and wrote a postcard to his beloved. Which of course failed miserably, as the silly bugger had no idea where to post the thing.

Nothing was working and poor old Grumpus was getting rather desperate, so he reluctantly decided that he would give the lady Grumpus his heart. Not really understanding what this strange sentiment actually meant, this confused the Grumpus. How could he give his heart, but still be alive and finally get some Grumpus on Grumpus action? As he was pondering this matter, in wanders Snuffles, the pet cat that had kept him company for many a year.....

What finally worked it's magic on the lady Grumpus? Was it love? Was it bollocks! The thought of making someone's life a misery forever was all the aphrodisiac she ever really needed. So they are now miserable together, forever, until one dies (or is murdered).......

Happy Grumpus Day! 

It's the holiday for every holiday that annoys the shit out of you.

Hat tips to people that sparked off an idea: Timethief for Edenish, Juliana for Valentine, Jenn for Vintage/Victorian, Talegends for ball and chain.

For a far happier magical Valentines day, please wander over to TJ's blog and read/look at Preparing to find a Valnetine

Doodle House

2011-02-11T18:44:00.000Z

Thanks to the wonderful world of twitter, I got to doodle a wee little house for the wonderful "It's good 2 give" Charity.

It’s Good 2 Give (registered charity number SC041416) officially came to life in April 2010 and already we have raised over £70,000 for local young people with cancer and their families. We’re little and local and 100% of the money you donate will go to the cause. No rent, no wages, no waste.

I was asked by @LeePeyton sometime last summer (summer! what a joke) and of course I said yes! The idea behind the doodle, was child's idea of a holiday cottage with their family. I can easily tap into my inner child, so it wasn't too difficult a challenge.

Doodle process: Lessons Learnt!
As the new site for the charity was taking time to come together, as they do, I decided that I didn't like the doodle you see above and could do a much better job. When you are learning new doodle stuff all the time, you tend to look back at some stuff with a slight tinge of horror. So I cracked out the new paints and paper and proceeded to doodle a new house. If you watch the slideshow, you will see how it progresses nicely, until I over ink the piece and turn the little blonde stick doodle person into a menace! If anyone is interested, I was thinking of blogging about the main doodle lessons I have learnt so far, including the materials I use?

Doodle Slideshow

So glad that they went with the original doodle and that I will doodling some new things for this charity soon! A big thanks to @leepeyton for asking me in the first place, he is such an inspirational man, a fireman, husband, dad and an adventurer (crazy sports event dude), always raising money for charity. Check out his website Breaking Strain . It is GOOD to give, even if its a daft doodle.

Self Exam Doodles : Is my chance to learn more doodling skills and raise awareness using those doodles, whilst the focus is on the Breast Self Exam doodles, we will always be linking in with other great causes. 'We' is myself and the very cool TJ Lubrano (@TJLubrano)

Every Friday someone wins a doodle from one of us, so if you 'Like' us, then you could win one yourselves.

Dusting off the photo editing machine

2011-02-05T00:21:00.004Z

Not played with lightroom, or any type of photo editing, since I finished my younger sisters wedding photographs back in October. People have persisted in annoying me by taking marvellous photographs and reminding me that I don't have a camera. Well that is not technically true, I do have my point and shoot, which was a great beast in its day. Unfortunately that day has run out and its heading towards being a knackered piece of crap! People really should respect the fact that I am jealous as hell and refrain from photographing anything, but people just don't have manners these days.

Now the other wretched sister has decided to get married! So I need to brush up on my haphazard photography skills. I shall only be a shadow photographer this time, lurking in the dark shadows ready to snap unsuspecting wedding guests... Mwhahahaha! Oops don't know what happened then.

Anyhoo here are a few photographs I never got around to editing when I was up in Scotland. Which I have now edited. Does that even make sense?

The rest are HERE

Edited note: Especially for Linda.. I was lazy and forgot (couldn't be arsed remembering) what the ruddy lighthouse was called. After a quick ~~google~~ ponder, I suddenly recalled that it was Chanonry Point Lighthouse. No need to go on those dolphin watching boat tours, you can simply bring your bins and sit on the beach to see some excellent dolphin action.

Photography link of win: For those that like adding layer upon on layer to distress, alter, add wizardry to your images, then you may just like this site: My 2econd Skin

Doodles:
Don't be sad about the lack of doodles in this post, I shall be posting a MAHOOSIVE amount in a few days or so!

Also have you ruddy well 'liked' Self Exam Doodles over on facebook yet?

Doodle Adventure

2011-01-26T21:15:00.000Z

For my EPIC four years of blogging post back in November ' I am a Tetradite Blogger' I ran a doodletrific competition, which consisted of just leaving a comment on the post. Then at an allotted time I would pick a winner using a random number generator.... (number was assigned in relevance to number of comments)

Number six was..... Mr Adebond.

In an effort to add more fun (get MOAR comments) I added a second chance to win a doodle, by providing this awesome clue/question:

What is the work of fiction that I have read the most?

Apparently that was far too hard a question, so I added an extra cryptic clue.

Clue = Jaundiced Ed Ripper (first correct comment wins).

Mr P3dro quickly swooped in and unscrambled the anagram into... Pride and Prejudice, yes I really have read that book a LOT... ummm britches.

Now onto the prizes! I didn't want to doodle any old thing, so I had Mr Adebond and Mr P3dro pick from these:

1. Dragon or Troll?

2. Clothes or Naked?

3. Mermaid or Unicorn?

4. Castle or Boat?

5. Sun or Moon?

After their selections, I ~~stalked~~ looked at their blogs, flickr and twitter streams, to get an idea of what I wanted to draw.

Adebond choices were: Troll, Naked, Unicorn, Boat and Moon

If you look at the 'troll' you will see the first incarnation of my Grumpus character, after I doodled this piece, I loved that character so much, I decided to evolve him into something hairier and grumpier.

P3dro choices were: Dragon, clothed, unicorn, castle, moon.

Bonus time, Mr Adebond took a beautiful photograph of his daughter, when she was a Flower Girl, I loved the picture so much that I decided to draw her as a little Flower Fairy and give it to Mr Adebond as a surprise.

I had a MAHOOSIVE amount of fun doing these doodles and had the pleasure of meeting the guys yesterday to hand them over. It is great having such cool and creative people that live relatively nearby. It just goes to show how effective a tool Twitter really is, if you use it with an open mind. You can connect to all sorts of cool people, that may live round the corner or thousands of miles away. Alison, Adebond and P3dro are just a few of the very cool people that I have connected with over there.

Now ye gang o bastards, if you like my doodle style and would love to win a doodle of your very own, then get your arse over to my Self Exam Doodles Facebook Page, you have a chance every Friday! Once a week Tahira Lubrano and myself take turns to doodle something for someone who has 'liked' the page, this week it is my turn.

Leaving Liverpool - Miles to go before I sheep

2011-01-19T01:11:00.000Z

The tale of a dragon leaving a city she loved....

Sometimes a doodle just pops into my mind after hearing/reading a conversation or thinking about a certain thing for a while, plus lots of coffee (LOTS). The above doodle is an example of just that, I was thinking about a tweet chum of mine leaving Liverpool and her twitter avatar happens to be a dragon. Alison Gow is her name and editing is her is game,she is off back to her country of birth, which is Wales. I have been tweet chums with her for ages now. I think she was Grand Poo bah of Liverpool in the tweet stats and that is why I originally began to follow her (no idea really). She is fountain of social media knowledge, with a journalistic twist, as seen in her blog Headline and Deadlines. Alison is also a super nice person and said many a nice thing about the mumborg, which I wont ever forget. I was so pleased to get the chance to meet Alison and hand over the doodle in person. Hopefully she will back soon, then I can doodle a 'Return to Liverpool' piece, with a happy dragon.

The 'Leaving Liverpool' doodle also introduces a new character.......... Baa Wid

Baa Wid was conjured up by the mumborg, after she rather quickly and callously cast aside my original idea of 'Widdy the Wool'. In hindsight 'Widdy' leads to Anne Widdecombe on google, so sod that for a monkey's badger, 'Baa Wid' it is. Why a sheep in the first place? It is an homage of sorts, to my heritage,but it mainly pokes fun at the nickname people from round these parts are given. That being said, I could have easily drawn a three headed swamp donkey mutant, if I followed that thinking.. /raises eyebrow at certain people.

Who knows where Baa Wid will go next? Who else will crop up? Baa Lee, Ma Baa Wid, Da Baa Wid, GranBaa Wid and GranBaaBaa Wid, are all possibilities.. Yes I am quite mad, ewe can believe that.

Help Me:
I would like/love some suggestions, especially from my Liverpoolish chums, about what buildings/places/landmarks, you think are doodle worthy in Liverpool? Where do you think Baa Wid would like to visit? I would, in fact, love input from anyone that has visited Liverpool or wanted to visit. Imagine, if you will, an illustrated guide to Liverpool, from an out of town sheep's perspective ( In the style of above Liverpool waterfrontish dragon doodle). Much obliged for your input as always (preemptive thanks, as I *know* you leave some great suggestions).

Coming soon: What do you get if you cross a unicorn/troll/dragon/castle/boat/moon/naked/clothes doodle?

Also check out my wiffling on Twitter, Naked Ladies on Self Exam Doodles with DOODLE GIVE-AWAYS on it's FB PAGE and favourite musical listening on Other Bits and Pieces.

Evolution of the boob doodles

2011-01-13T02:26:00.001Z

For those that don't know, last October I set up another blog called 'Self Exam Doodles' . If you read this 'About' page you should be a little more informed on how this project came to life.

The 'Self Exam Doodles' site has been an awesome way to teach myself how to doodle better, although it definitely can be a frustrating process at times!

Doodle Process:
Sketching out original ideas, working out arm/hand positions (tricky!), what paper to use, what pens to use, what colours to use when you start painting, scanning the images, fixing bits in editing (I use Picnik), adding words, uploading to flickr and then finally sharing with the world.

I still predominately call my stuff doodles, even though I suppose they are not, what with the painting an all? I like the term doodle though and most, if not all, of my doodles are sketched straight from brain to paper to painted.

From the diagram below you can see how the doodles have evolved over the years, from using crayons and my left foot to .. Okay not really. In 2008 I was just using what ever crappy paper I had lying round (printer paper) and ordinary colouring pencils. The next incarnation was from last October, these were created using proper watercolour paper(from TJ) and a mixture of watercolour pencils and watercolours. The most recent versions were again created using proper watercolour paper and this time just water colours. I am rather chuffed at the improvement, but it's not happened overnight and I still have a lot to learn!

Whilst you are all here and paying attention, I shall take this opportunity to welcome TJ Lubrano to team 'Self Exam Doodles' /round of applause. Please check out her blog 'A look in a creative mind' and gaze at all her beautiful illustrations.

Check out the latest news on the "Self Exam Doodles" site, The French Connection and Breast Self Exam- Francais . Which tells you all about the new French versions of the Breast Self Exams and the collaborative work I am doing with TJ. There is also a facebook thing, please click it/like it/love it! Because I nearly punched the computer in the process of setting it up.

Slideshow time for those that don't hop over to the site:

Sidenote:
I wont be using the term 'Doodle for the cure', although I was tempted to start after reading this article on Huffington Post. Ever wonder why people are SO turned off donating to big charities? Read that post for just one of the many reasons why you hear chants of "Pink stinks". Self Exam Doodles is about fun, doodles and raising awareness. It is not going to save any lives, but hopefully it gives you a smile and you at least think about giving your boobage a feel.

Coming Soon: For once I have a shit load of stuff to blog about, so I might actually be blogging more than once in a blue hairy moon. Next few posts will contain dragons, sheep, unicorns, trolls, castles, boats and Grumpuses! Check back often and bring all your friends.

PS: I would REALLY appreciate peoples input on this project, as in the Breast Self Exam Doodles ^, as I would like to know whether its something people enjoy/get something out of. I am feeling sorry myself, waahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (whinge alert) and I really do enjoy any comments I receive, all suggestions are always banked for further use and ponderation. It is not about patting me on the back and saying the doodles are wonderful, although that's nice.

Also check out my wiffling on Twitter, Naked Ladies on Self Exam Doodles and favourite musical listening on Other Bits and Pieces.

Pain in the neck

2011-01-08T18:22:00.000Z

Things are rather busy here at doodle central, which I will explain further in a near future post. In my last waffling's 'Grumpus and The Slanket of Doom', I asked for favourite love quotes/poems/sayings etc. These are being used for an ongoing doodle project, which will also become clearer in that near future post. Anyhoo I also asked my Twitter chums for their input on what type of Valentines cards they like, which is a question I should have also posed here. So feel free to leave me some input in yonder comment box!

In the comments on the last post, the quote suggestions I received where great! But it's interesting when I posed the question differently on Twitter and mentioned Valentines cards, the responses veered away from romance and headed straight towards funny, sarcastic, cheeky and a little bit naughty (a lot naughty in some cases).

I received several ideas, but the one that I decided to work on first, is called 'Pain in the neck', inspired by Mr @deftnetmedia. He likes the funnier romantic side of Valentines and for some reason pictured dinosaurs with their necks intertwined.

I like funny romantic cards. Two dinosaurs spring to mind.

Veggie with long necks intertwined

Sometimes ideas or suggestions work straight away for me and immediately I see the doodle in my head, other ideas take a lot more thought and research. This dinosaur one was the former, rather than the latter and this is the doodle slide show of how it was created:

If it were a Valentines card it would say:

You may be a pain in the neck, but I'd go extinct with you.

Q: What's as big as a dinosaur but weighs nothing?
A: Her shadow!

So Dear Readers, what valentines cards do you buy or like to receive? Or does the thought of Valentines make you want to stab yourself in the eye?

PS: Yes I know it's early to be mentioning Valentines, but get over it, I am going to be posting a LOT more Valentines related doodles and annoy you as much as the early over merchandising shops! Hahahahahaha (Please come back!)

Grumpus and The Slanket of Doom

2010-12-31T17:54:00.001Z

If a depression can be like a blanket, what the fuck is like a slanket?

Poor Grumpus doesn't know just how evil a slanket really is.....

Hey kids/adults/beasts/inbetweeners hope you all had an average, or better than average, festive time? If you didn't guess by the title or the doodle, I got a slanket. It was meant to be a joke, because apparently I complain about being cold a lot (I don't!). I would like to say that I threw the hideous thing across the room in a rage, but soon I was wrapped up in its warm snuggliness and hiding chocolates in the ever so useful and convenient pocket. I could even have it covering my legs right now, like a Nana blanket...

Quick shoot me!

All in all, I had a nice christmas, it was quiet and I didn't see many people. Plus I horrified my dad by doing the annoying orange impression over skpe with my sister. It wasn't a proud look that he gave us, ha!

What is the most annoying sound? My impression started at 0:40 in the video.

Hey Apple!

It's called the Annoying Orange for a reason, how we laughed and laughed.

/crawls back into the cave (under the slanket) till that evil thing called NYE is over.

PS: Only resolution will be NO FUCKING RESOLUTIONS! Why start the year with a list of things to disappoint yourself, don't do it. Just try to do the things that make you happy and avoid the things/people that make you mad/sad.

PPS: I need your favourite love poems and quotes, give them to me! You may get something from me, if I am pleased with your offerings (not something that is treated by antibiotics). Anti love/valentines stuff is more than acceptable too!

PPPS: Happy New Year and all that bollocks, lots of doodles heading this way very soon!

Happy Grumpus

2010-12-22T22:44:00.003Z

Tis the Grumpus trying to look happy
He paints his fur red, it looks rather crappy
Then he sticks buttons upon his chest,
after all this exertion, he needs a bloody rest.
Let Christmas be over, make it snappy!

Christmas is just another day to me, with added food. I am a Happy Grumpus indeed, when it comes to this special day. Hate would be far too strong a word to describe my feelings for the day, I am just indifferent to it. My recipe for avoiding Christmas misery is, don't buy presents you can't afford, don't see people you don't like and stay in your pyjamas.

Do what you can to enjoy the day, or at least get through it!

Happy Grumpus to you all!

Edited to add... Creating the Happy Grumpus:

Coming soon! International ladies of mystery

2010-11-24T01:35:00.001Z

More information on these ladies coming soon! In the meantime check out this post

'Self Exam Doodles: International ladies... Coming Soon'

Stupidly hit 'Publish' on a post that was filled with existential waffle, unfortunately it was a waffle only cooked on one side! Check back here soon for the full waffle saga and ignore any post that appeared previously in your feed reader, bloody wretched thing!!

Doodle Do

2010-11-17T03:05:00.003Z

The mumborg asked me to doodle something for her friends baby shower, so of course I obliged. Whilst we are on the subject of baby showers, when the heck did they become popular in the UK? I know they are the thing to do across the pond, but all of a sudden they have appeared on these fair shores. Not that I am complaining, it was much fun creating this doodle. I have provided a mini slideshow in case you wonder how I go about creating a doodle like you see above. Of course I didn't photograph all the hideous malformed deformed incarnations that where created in the process of finding that perfect final sketch....

From doodle sketch to finished in a frame

Mucho thanks for all the comments on my four years of blogging post, it was greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the post? It's ruddy hard to summarise four years into one post, figuring out what has been useful and what has not, over the years. As I said in the post, there is no magical formula, just time, be yourself etc etc. If you didn't read the post (WTF!!!), then run to it at once! If you did read it and commented, then you will be ecstatic to know that I replied to ALL the comments, even if the shitty blogger/blogspot commenting system will be the death of me.

I will be doing another post about the doodle winners, when their doodles are ready! Which 'will' be before Christmas. I am off to Hamburg, Germany, end of this month for a visit with family. So things will be hectic before, during and after that trip!

Other Doodle projects.
1.Working on some international ladies for the translated posts on my 'Self Exam Doodles' site. Which I hope you have all checked out by now? (Why bloody not?). So hopefully by this weekend you can have a sneak peek at the ladies, maybe even have a go at guessing what countries they represent. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with cultural stereotypes..Below is a selection of sketches for an idea for one of the ladies.

2. Chasing down a certain author so I can maybe possibly hopefully illustrate their poem, without getting into copyright shenanigans! If I can, that will be awesome! If not, then insert sad face here. I have now been in contact with the literary agent of the author and as the author does not use email, they are sending a carrier pigeon with the request. Fingers crossed!!

Other notes: In regards to the mumborg, still no news on the brain tumour yet, find out more at the end of the month, when she sees the relevant specialists. For now she is well and I appreciate, as always, the well wishes and concerns.

I am a Tetradite blogger

2010-11-02T22:45:00.003Z

As the clock struck 10 on the evening of the 29th of October this year, I had now been blogging for FOUR whole years! Well actually I was working on another blog, not this one, at that very moment, but oh well. To mark this monumental occasion, I will take you on a doodle journey through the last four years of blogging.

Blogger/Blogspot has been my blog drug of choice these past four years, simply because it was the first thing I found when looking for an online diary/blog. Although I do have a Tumblr blog and a Wordpress one (backup blog), that I occasionally mess with now. I have found that Blogspot is still the most suited to my needs. My niche, before I knew what a niche was, is 'Personal'. The blog was just meant to be a place to dump my thoughts on a daily (ish) basis.

How do you get people to read your waffling and offerings? Who wants to? Do you want them to? How do you add pictures, How this and how that? Basically there were a LOT of 'How do I?' type questions and somehow I found the 'Blogger Help' forums. It really was a miracle that I even found them and how I cringe at the type of questions I asked back then (Noob alert). Some nice folks did take pity and gave me some pretty good advice, mainly stop using so many exclamation marks!!!!!!!! and your layout is HORRID! So I changed the layout and curtailed my use of !!

From the Blogger Help forums, I moved onto other blogging forums, still rather clueless about this whole blogging thing and was now on quest for knowledge (and widgets). Followed by the usual thing of registering your blog with every blog directory known to man (or google). I also started reading a LOT of other blogs in my niche, which was and still is, a personal blog of sorts.

Suddenly you are flooded with talk of SEO, Page Rank, Flickr, Twitter, Google reader, Facebook, technorati, memes, tags, awards and much much more. It is so overwhelming at first and it becomes very easy to forget the reasons why you are blogging. You see other blogs getting lots of comments and wonder how they attract so many, when not even ten people a week are reading yours (Insert sad face here).

It seemed a good idea at first to get involved with paid posting, internet memes and silly blog like things. I am sure for some people that is enough. For me though, it was horrid. I was posting so frequently, numerous times a day and felt burnt out quickly. The lesson was learnt, but I think it took about two years, before I really started developing a blog voice of my own. I think the worry was that just me on my own would be bloody boring.

It would be remiss to not point out the darker side of blogging, especially when it's something that can really upset people. There are some very very strange people on the internet, don't try to analyse them too much, just accept that and move on. People will be horrid to you, some will think they are giving you 'helpful' advice, some are just being twats. It takes a while to develop a internet strength thick skin, but you will.

Is it worth all that? YES it is. The Pros far outweigh the Cons in my opinion. The inspiration and friendship that I have gotten from the blogs that I read, and the people that read/comment on here, has changed so many things in my life. From my interest in photography and doodling, to just inspiring me to actually share my thoughts on difficult situations. I could mention a lot more great things about blogging, but I have so much more to fit into this post.

Advice:
You should really read my One, Two and Three year blogging anniversary posts to gain a better insight into how this blog has developed. There is no magic formula, just lots of mistakes, lots of learning and lots of time. I try to put a lot of time and effort into writing these blog anniversary posts, as it's a great way to look back at all I have learnt over the years. I think a lot of people want to know more about how to start blogging, how to get people to read it and so on. Those questions are hard to answer, mainly because everyone is blogging for different reasons. So I just try to show what I have done over the years, with the hopes that that may answer some questions.

Thoughts on blogging:
I thought there would come a point that I would get bored of this blogging malarkey, surely boring myself and others. Although I have been frustrated, stressed out etc, at times, I still haven't reached the boredom point. I guess I like (maybe love) sharing some aspects of my life and personality with the strange folks that wander the interwebs. It opens up a dialogue, that then translates to real life interactions and guess what? It's good to talk.

What next?
I have some rather exciting doodle projects on the go at the moment, you already know about 'Self Exam Doodles', but that is just the start. I hope you will stick around for a few more years and follow me on the next adventure.

Thanks to everyone new and old for reading!

Next one is going to be BIG

2010-10-31T18:29:00.000Z

Time flies when you are having ~~fun~~ busy!

Finally FINALLY finished editing all my sisters wedding photograph, here are a few of my favourites;

If you want to see all seventy bajillion of them, feel free to peruse the Flickr collection (19 sets) 'Wedding Photographs'. There are only 1260 really and Heather has to leave a comment on every single one of them, kidding! (not really).

I didn't just want to leave it at that, so I also created a blog, which works like a virtual wedding book of sorts. You can see that by clicking here 'Wedding Blog', start with the 'About' section and then hop over to the 'Chapters' section. I think this gives you a good idea of what the day was like, hope you like it, as blood, sweat and tears went into it (hehe).

No more photography stuff for a wee while, although I am sure I will be posting more photographs from the day. Also its hard to go back to the old point and shoot camera, after my flirtation with a DSLR.

Next!
If you haven't checked out my new project, please do!

It is a site dedicated to checking out your naughty bits, for the good of your health, using the power of doodle.

Click here to see Doodle Nudity

I would really appreciate people having a look at this site and maybe clicking the facebook like button etc. It is a project that I am enjoying immensely and there is a LOT more to doodle with it. The thing that motivates me is the input from the people that enjoy the doodles, their thoughts and ideas. So any help, thoughts, ideas would be great!

The next blog post on here is going to lonnnnnnnnnngggg, as it was my four year blogoversary on the 29th of October. So to celebrate that, I am doing something a little special.....

World Mental Health Day with Dentists and Books

2010-10-10T22:00:00.116+01:00

Today is World Mental Health Day 2010... 10/10/10 and this post is being posted at 10! It was meant to be 10am, but I had a lie in and now its being published a 10pm.

I found the doodling a lot easier, than the thinking, of what to write about this particular subject. So why bother? Well it's a topic that is important to me and for some reason people just don't talk about mental health enough. It should be easy to talk about, well as easy as any other thing, like the dentist. Well unless you are deathly afraid of the dentist, then it will be a little awkward.

The dentist thing stuck with me, it seems appropriate really, as I didn't go the dentist for four years. When I finally went to the dentist, I got a clean bill of dental health (yes perfect teeth for a Brit). I walked away from the dentist office wondering why I had left it for so long. I don't have a phobia of dentists, I just didn't want to pay the check up fee and had no pressing problem. As time went on, I then began to think, what if something is seriously wrong with my teeth? Well I definitely can't afford that. So it was put to the very bottom of the 'to do' pile and forgotten about. Not sure what eventually got me into that dentist chair? One day I just woke up and decided it was something that needed to be done and it was okay.
Whilst being guilty of neglecting myself in the dental sense, I am also guilty of neglecting myself in the mental sense. I found counselling/therapy training by accident, just a daft 12 week course to get my brain ticking over once again. Although I was training to be a therapist/counsellor, the person that was benefiting the most from the course was myself. So I am going to recommend a few books that have really helped me try to explain what this therapy bollocks is all about. It's like taking baby steps to the dentists, you are not quite in the dentists chair quite yet, but at least you are flossing regularly

Books:
I read fiction like its going out of fashion, from Harry Potter to the Shipping News. I love getting lost in someone else's world, whether it's a wizard or a weatherman. Books that are in a more educational style, have been known to suck out all the joy of reading for me. So when it comes to writing book reviews, especially for college assignments, I struggled a lot. So these are three books that I really enjoyed despite my reluctance at reading anything remotely therapy like.

Dibs in search of self; This is the tale of a little boy who doesn't talk or play with the other children, he is just in his own little world. The little boy is special, the conversations that he and his therapist have, are very grown up, because he has such a high IQ. But once you get past that, you are left with a sad little boy who doesn't know how to fit into the world of children. The thing I loved the most about this book, was while you read along and see Dibs slowly changing and becoming a happier child, you also long to have that time again as a child. It really highlights the importance of childhood and embracing your own inner child.

Games people play: This book is unusual, because it is totally outdated on one hand and still relevant in the other. You will read it and see many many people from your day to day life, in the scenarios (games) that are mentioned. Whether it be at the playground with the other mums/dads, in work, or at home with your partner. Whilst reading it you realise just how many games you play yourself and how easy it is to let those games take over. I found the whole book absolutely fascinating.

Couch Fiction:
This is the book I wish we had read right at the beginning of our studies.Although I love doodles and cartoons, I have never actually read a whole graphic novel before. Something about that style of book, I have always found hard to follow. This book has broke that barrier, it is easy to read, funny and informative. I sat in the garden, on what now feels like the only sunny day this summer and devoured it. If you have wondered about therapy and how a therapeutic relationship forms, then this book illustrates it beautifully. It shows why therapists asks what they ask and why clients hide what they hide. The story flows along and the accompanying notes, if you read them, add so much more to the book.

So why do I like these books?
Very simply put, in the books, they are the therapists I would like to meet (or be), they entertain, educate, and inform me. My Inner child wants to be Dibs, know that I am loved and that everything will be okay. Grown up me wants to know how people tick, what games they are playing and why they are playing them. Future me wants to be like the therapist in Couch fiction, knows that they are not perfect, but seems really okay with that.

If you read any of these books, or already have let me know what you think of them. If you have any recommendations please let me have them.

Happy World Mental Health Day 2010 xx

One legged brain tumours

2010-09-16T22:40:00.000+01:00

What do you call a one legged brain tumour?

Doris, Boris or Mumborg?

Mumborg

Ooops not in the best taste, but yes, the mumborg has a brain tumour (also only one leg, if you didn't know). This is not a tale I am unfamiliar with, let us go back in time.......(insert time travelling music, diddly doo diddly doo ~ erm think dream sequence noise in Wayne’s World).

1987
There once was a little girl called Claire, she was six years old and her mum had a brain tumour. The doctors removed the brain, erm I mean tumour, and the mum was all better.

Fast forward back to the present time (diddly doo diddly doo etc etc)

2010
There is a woman called Claire, who is 28 years old and her mum has a brain tumour. Okay things haven’t been that plain sailing since 1987, but I didn’t want to ruin the momentary fairytale moment. Meningioma is latest thing to be added to the list of ailments that the mumborg has. I have known for a few months now, but it was thought to be benign and not that bad as far as brain tumours go. The specialists have now decided that it may be malignant and a tad more serious.

What do you do when you get bad news?

I write, I read, I hide on my own, I think, I drink and cry alone. Okay I don’t drink, it just rhymed and I went with it, being drunk would just make me feel worse. The thing that comes last on my list of ‘What I do’ is Talk. Putting what I am feeling into words that are spoken versus words that live in my head or written down, is a lot harder for me. In fact I would probably doodle a lot of pictures, before wanting to talk. Hence why it has took me awhile to write anything onto the blog, which has an audience and therefore almost like scary talking. I so wanted to make it past a year! A year without having to say that mumborg was ill again, just one year would have been great. I will find out late October time, what the plan of action is going to be. The specialist will probably have to try the suck it and see method, as there are a lot of things to take into consideration when it comes to the mumborg. For now she is doing okay and is her usual cheerful upbeat self. This is just another bump in the very bumpy road that the mumborg powers along in her electric wheelchair. I'm okay if she is.

Doodles
Let's talk about doodles, because they make me happy. In 2008 I doodled these doodles, illustrating a breast self exam and just the other week I had a few emails about whether people could use them. The old ones apparently appear a lot in google images and it is Breast Cancer awareness month soon, so seemed like a good time to do some new ones, as it is such a good cause!Please let me know if you, firstly like them and secondly want to use them, especially if you are writing about Breast Cancer awareness.

They can be found on their own page 'Breast Self Exam', please visit them and have read about other charity/awareness doodle type stuff. Here is a wee glimpse:

Adding layers to life

2010-08-29T22:33:00.000+01:00

Heather and Jessica edited with lightroom and enhanced with layers

Still on my quest to edit all my sisters wedding photographs, hopefully soon I shall be finished. Luckily she loves me and knows I can still lock her in a cupboard if she annoys me about it. To be fair, she hasn't moaned once about it and has loved the ones I have shown her so far. I just want them to be edited to the best of my abilities and for her to have some lovely photographic memories.
It is a steep steep learning curve, not only taking the photographs, but also the editing. I keep adding new things to my box of tricks, which of course adds on more work, but it is still fun! There is so much to learn and once you make the dreaded mistake of looking at other people photographs, you are doomed.

Heather on the way to the church, edited in lightroom and enhanced with layers

At the moment I am using Lightroom 3 to edit the photographs and then using Picnik.com to add some finsishing touches.
Lightroom Trick - Look into the world of presets! Magical stuff that creates all sorts of cool effects that you can then further tweak.
Picnik.com Trick - If you are premium user you can add 'Layers/textures'. You can also do this using other programs, but I can only do it using Picnik for now!

Wedding Car edited using Lightroom and enhanced with presets

Next time I update the blog about the wedding photography, hopefully I will have bloody finished, but probably not. Let me know what you think and if you have any favourite photograph editing tricks or tips be sure to let me know them.

Art + Therapy = Art Therapy part 2

2010-08-13T02:45:00.002+01:00

/climbs out of the chasm of doom......
/looks round sheepishly

Okay here is my explanation of what was going on in my head whilst I was doodling this: Just click the image to BIGGIFY and read Part One if you haven't already or need a refresher: Art + therapy =???

What was going on in my head the wordier version:

When I signed up to do the art workshop, I thought I would be much further along with catching up with all my assignments than I was. I knew there was going to be qualified therapists, trainee therapists etc at the workshop and was already feeling out of my depth. So when they said the first task was 'Draw how you are feeling right now' , my thoughts where:

Use a pen, you can draw well with that!
Ohhh white paper will look good
God I hope they don't ask me about assignments or placements
Urggh Assignments, that pile of doom haunting me
Wow I feel like crap now, must add some clouds
More rain!
Oh dear it looks too sad now, I do have fun sometimes!
Happy stuff?
Erm doodling, gardening, the sun?
Lets Emphasise the two areas, by drawing a line round the middle bit
More rain!

Why do something like this:
By using my own doodle, I wanted to highlight just how much information you can get from a person, with a simple doodle. It opens up an avenue of conversation that you otherwise wouldn't have. There are no really wrong answers, just observations that may or may not lead the conversation somewhere. If you read the comments and/or left one in the previous post, you will see how much people saw in the doodle. I was quite honestly shocked that so many of you saw so much and were bloody spot on! Not just regular readers, but new readers left such thoughtful and thought provoking comments, that I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do that.

What now?
I have been at a crossroads for a while now, especially in regards to my studies and what to do next. I have not formulated a concrete plan of action yet, but I am closer to making some decisions! I have mentioned previously that I may retire this blog, but I am not going to do that. I know that was rather bloody cryptic, but I just wanted to say something and offer some explanation about why this blog has been so neglected as of late.

Doodle Stuff:
I have been doing a lot of stuff in the world of doodle, that I can't mention at the moment. Here is a sneak peak of something that I have been working on. As and when I can say more, I will! Honest.

Grammar Nazi:
I have a problem, a grammar problem. In an effort to improve the way that I write, I am trying to be more vigilant with grammar. One of the things I always seem to make a hash of, is the use to/too, but never two. I broke out in a grammar induced sweat, just writing those short sentences. I am not aiming for perfection, I like the stream of conciousness/ramble style of writing that seems to come naturally to me. Any tips on how to improve the editor within? At the moment I am using things like this to improve my inner homophone.

Art + Therapy = ??

2010-07-23T00:02:00.005+01:00

Apologies for the lack of postings of late, I sucketh greatly at the 'once a week' target I set for myself. Life got in the way and I wrote the posts in my head, instead of on here. The people that have read this blog for a long time, have begrudgingly got use to my erm erratic blogging schedule, but the new readers haven't. So I would just like to say thank you to the people that have always read this blog and thank you to the new folk that thought I had fell into chasm of doom and was unable to escape and blog.

Click it to biggify it

Last weekend I went to an Art Therapy Workshop, got a certificate and everything! I love certificates, especially my endeavour swimming ones .....

At the start of the session we were asked to write on post-it notes our Hopes and Fears about the session, you can see my answers in that first image.

What is on my mind?

After we talked briefly about Art Therapy, we where then set a task to draw what was on our mind at that very moment. In front of us there was a box full of material, different paper, colours, pen, pencils, chalks, paints, glue sticky things etc etc. After we chose our materials we were given twenty minutes or so to come up with a image.

Click to biggify

I challenge you:
My Challenge to you, is to tell me as much about the above drawing as possible, what do you think was on my mind? It is not a proper test, just an idea of how talking about a picture may work in a counselling/therapy session. I would love to know what you think! (really).
In the workshop we were split into groups of three and each had ten minutes to discuss and interpret each of our drawings. Then we went back to the group and discussed the experience as a whole.

Art means this to me:
I know that arty type things is not for everyone. It can evoke flashbacks to an evil teacher, disapproving parent or other lame adult figure, voicing their opinions that you just can't draw, so why bother? Why do people bother to sing in the shower? You know what type of singing I mean, that god awful killed a cat screeching hell noise. Why do people do it? Because they bloody love it! They know it sounds awful, but who gives a shit! Sure there is that small percentage of people that sound like a angel or one of the three tenors, but the rest of us plebs, just do it for the fun. The same applies to art, well it does for me.
Picking up a pencil and doodling can just be like that, FUN! It can also tap into that little person that lives inside, that little person wants to talk sometimes, they may want to tell their older self something that is buried away and they might think it is time to talk about that.The simplest stick figure in the world with a frown is telling you something, something that might be hard to talk about.

Obviously a one day workshop does not make me an Art Therapy Shaman, but I have witnessed the very powerful way in which it can work and I would love to learn more about it. For now I am going to use art in the way that I know and love, which is doodles.

Doodling enables me to tap into the little person that makes me doodle things like this....

Happy Clients - The Therapist/Client relationship never really ends

Now was that worth waiting for or what? Maybe I should have took some more time off from blogging.....

I will do an Art Therapy Part Two if people seem interested and play along with the challenge.

The feet are always watching or something

2010-07-04T23:15:00.002+01:00

Foot Therapy

Greetings Earthlings and those just visiting, welcome to a weekly round up post of sorts.

Garden stuff

Carrots, beetroot, courgettes, potatoes, onions, radishes, lemon basil, raspberries and four types of lettuce are growing! I have also planted several containers with alpines in some and flowers of another sort in the rest (my brain just farted and have totally drew a blank on their names). Also have two huge bags of manure that has to decompose a bit more, before I can fling it around the garden. Then it is back off to the garden centre to purchase more plants! I might get round to taking some photographs next week, if the weather stays lovely and if I can be arsed.

Doodle and Thinking Stuff

The doodle at the start of this post was inspired by a new cartooning blog 'Therapy Tales'. Well it was this doodle in particular that set it in motion 'Eye Contact'. If you have ever been in therapy or actually in any situation where eye contact is awkward at best, then you can definitely get this cartoon. Pictures, well doodles, do say a million words.

As Therapy Tales is told from the perspective of the client in the therapist/client relationship, this got me thinking about my own 'Augghhhh' moments when it comes to myself donning the cap of 'therapist/counsellor'. It will mean the end of a lot of things, maybe even this blog, but also the start of a whole new adventure.

Click to BIGGIFY!

BUT before any of that happens, I am still fighting the good fight against this dude and by fight, I mean flapping a wet flannel in his general direction.

Click to Biggify

He is the......Procrastinating Poltergeist, my arch nemesis! One of the many beasts in my Mental Health Monsters Menagerie, along with the Boggart..The lovely Mr James Clayton reawakened these beasts with his Haiku Beasts. These Mental Health Monsters are an ongoing project, mainly in my head at the moment, but something that I definitely want to develop further. It seems that people have really identify with them, whenever I have mentioned them previously, so I want to unleash more.

I rather enjoyed writing the Paradigm post and the comments that you left really added something to it. It was awesometriffic that you could follow what I meant, as I worry that what makes sense in my head, is never going to translate that well to the written (typed) word. I have already decided on what the next word will be and this doodle and blog is a clue of sorts.

Tumbling:

As you know I am a big twitter user (If you didn't, you do now), I have also added tumbling to my ever increasing web presence. My particular tumblr blog is called Other bits and pieces and I am using it as an bookmarker/idea dump. Instead of just gathering information for endless blogposts and never doing anything with it, the tumblr blog is there to keep up the momentum for when I have a mind bubble moment. Then I get to put all that mindbubbly stuff in a huge wiffly waffly post like this, hooray.

/end waffle

Paradigm erm what? A word adventure.

2010-06-30T01:12:00.001+01:00

I have been thinking again.................. I know, I know, what am I doing that for?

It all started with a simple tweet from @zebraspolkadots, and a link to her blog post Claiming A New Paradigm...For Myself. This post intrigued me, in fact just the word 'paradigm' grabbed my attention. So then she wrote this post Claiming A New Paradigm For Myself-Part 2 and finally part 3.

Paradigm is/was one of those words that registered somewhere is this brain of mine, but I wasn't sure why and it what context I had heard the word previously. So I decided to go on a google adventure of sorts, find the origin of my paradigm memory and then try to understand the context in which @zebraspolkadots intended in her posts. My brain has felt more than flabby lately and I fully admit to not knowing everything, even though at times I act like the worlds biggest smart arse. Why pretend to understand something when I plainly don't? It is exciting and challenging learning new things,so hold onto your hats, because I may confuse you, as much as I confuse myself with this post.

First I insert 'Paradigm' into the great googly moogly and trawl through the results until I get a 'Bingo!' moment. That is when I read something that either tickles a memory and/or makes sense to me.

The bare bones definition is:

The word paradigm ( Greek:παράδειγμα (paradigma),composite from para- and the verb δείχνυμι "to show", as a whole -roughly- meaning "example") has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts.

A more realistic definition for me:

The most annoying and misused word in the English language; used intentionally by stupid people to sound smart or by smart people to sound unintentionally stupid. Urban Dictionary

The first thing that tickled a memory was seeing these images whilst reading about 'Paradigm Shift'

Old Woman and Young Woman My Wife and My Mother-In-Law, by the cartoonist W. E. Hill, 1915 (adapted from a picture going back at least to a 1888 German postcard)

Duck/Rabbit Source: Jastrow, J. (1899). The mind's eye. Popular Science Monthly, 54, 299-312.

Both of these images, show how you can look at the same thing and in turn 'see' two different things. Nothing about the image changes, just your perception of it. A dude called Thomas Kuhn, knows a lot more about this subject than I do 'Paradigm Shifts'.

But that is not the paradigm you are looking for.....(said in Obi-Wan Kenobi stylee)

So on I plod in search of this elusive Paradigm definition that would make sense to me and I try not to get ahead of myself with 'paradigm shifts', before I actually know what a Paradigm really is.

It seems that I have wandered into the world of, god forbid, buzzwords... You know those horrid things that sales and marketing people love to use, as they target us poor members of the public. People really don't like buzzwords and jargon, as seen here , but underneath all the bullshit, they are metaphors that can be applied to all sorts of life situations.

Heard of the term 'Thinking outside the box' ? Did you ever wonder what the box was, what was inside that box? Well it turns out the 'box' is in fact a bloody paradigm! Who would of thunk it, that bloody box holds a lot of information. In that box a lot of things lurk, dark nasty things, like:

The World is flat
Creation instead of Evolution
Moon is made of cheese
Other evil things

Outside the box, lives Blue Skies and all sorts of lovely things, in fact, outside the box the possibilities are endless. It even holds the key to solving the Nine Dots Puzzle! woo hoo.

So it seems, that I am in fact leaving the science behind and in fact talking about labels that people stick on you, as you plod through life. Think of yourself sat in the box, what labels, or to be fancy, what paradigms have been stuck on you?

Nobody puts Claire in a box! ( Must be said in a Patrick Swayze style R.I.P Mr Swayze)

Actually I am pretty sure people have put me in a box, in fact I have put myself in a box many times over my life. The 'I am ugly' , ' I am worthless', 'I am stupid' and 'I am fat' box, to name but a few. I also know that other people get labelled with damaging things like 'You are mental' 'You are crazy' 'You are broken' 'You are damaged goods' and I am sure you can add a shit load to that list.

People eventually accepted that the earth was not flat, does this mean that eventually people will accept that the labels you are given in this life, are not stuck on with superglue and you can rip them off. I am sure ripping the labels off can be painful, but surely once the sting has gone, the scab really heals over the wounds left by those labels and you can flick it off? Was that a scab metaphor to far?

I created the doodle during the weekend just gone and to decided to test my twitter followers doodle guessing skills,to see if they could guess what one word prompted the above doodle, without any other information than the actual doodle itself.

After quite a few guesses, one person got it right, so I am sending them the doodle for their hard work, lucky them?

Paradigm Doodle explained: It makes sense to me and that is what really matters......

Click image to make it BIG

Other interesting and far more sensible paradigm like articles are here and here, also a fascinating video featuring Ken Robinson here (really worth a watch).

I don't know what the point of this post was really, I just found the subject rather bloody interesting and would hate to be sat in a box all alone, never to be shifted.

Too Hot Too Cold

2010-06-27T02:50:00.007+01:00

Doodle Weather

I wouldn't be British if I didn't moan about the weather, so here it goes! By Cripes it is bloody hot! It has been in the 20's (Celsius) for the past week or so. That is in the 70's for those that use Fahrenheit as the measure of your weather. While some people may piss themselves laughing at the idea of this temperature being scorchio, for me it is!The UK normally operates around the strict temperature of 'Meh' Degrees , neither freezing nor sweltering, just Meh. Any deviation from this and the country grinds to a halt, there is mass hysteria and the Mr Whippy van gets looted.
Okay a slight exaggeration on my part, I know, I know, shocking that moi exaggerates at times. I have actually been making the most of this nice weather and been gardening with the mumborg. By gardening I mean that I have been doing the grunt work, while she decides what plants go where and what seeds are getting propagated. I have not took any photographs yet, as I am still in a period of mourning over losing the DSLR. If things start to grow, look pretty and all that shit, I may take some. If we are lucky, we should have courgettes, radishes, carrots, potatoes, basil and some other crap that I can't remember. I actually thought I was getting a tan, but it turns out it was just soil, so it went after I had a bath.

Doodle Stuff: Those that follow me on twitter may have seen my tweets about doodling in the garden? I took all my drawing stuff outside and had a great time, but I can't share those doodles with you, as they were for a secret project. Maybe one day I can, but at the moment, tough! Not sure why I decided to share or not share that with you all, just excited I guess.
What was good about doing this project, was the time I got to spend using different pens and paper, taking my time and really enjoying the process. My doodle mentor TJ, gave me another great tip about inking the doodles before I apply the colour. This turned out to be great for me, as the lines ending up being a lot cleaner than usual. It was also a revelation that the ink is in fact waterproof, which I found rather cool. So I have started doing that for all my doodles, including the daft one above. So if you have any doodle tips, feel free to pass them along! Or if you want to know anything, please ask!

Music of the moment: Not sure if people even listen to these videos that I post, or give a shit about what music I love, but for the one or two that do, here is my next recommended artist.....Damien Jurado. He is an artist that has been around for a long time, but for some reason is not mega famous, which he should be. I like to think he is my own secret find, but of course he is not. This track is from the 'Caught in the Trees' album, which is brilliant. You should also check out the latest album 'Saint Bartlett' and the project with his brother 'Hoquiam'.

Damien Jurado - sheets from bluelinestyle.com on Vimeo.

Balls flying everywhere

2010-06-19T01:40:00.001+01:00

Tis that time of year when people go footie mad and not just because of the Vuvuzela's, although they are feckin awful, click the link if you haven't heard them.World Cup fever has struck again and England are playing a bloody awful game at the moment. Wednesday will either produce a big sigh of relief as they scrape through to the next stage or the swift removal of the all flags and other paraphernalia, with mumblings of 'there is always next time'.
Not that I am even a huge football fan, I just get caught up in all the excitement and then kick myself for wasting time watching the daft game. Unless we win (as in England), then I am a big hairy hypocrite and am all 'IN YOUR FACE WORLD' and 'GET IN THERE, YOU BEAUTY' or something.

Wedding Photographs: I am having a break from editing the wedding photographs at the moment. Suffering from nightmares about your own sisters face is never a good thing! Only joking (sort of). I need to concentrate on some other stuff at the moment and the PC hamsters (Herbert and Sherbert) needed a break from heaving that amount of data around their hamster wheel. I can't afford to turn them into hamster butties just yet, so I am being kind, before they set RSPACPCH (Royal Society for the protection against cruelty to PC hamsters) onto me.

Doodle Stuff: A while back the ever so lovely TJ sent me some paper samples, so I have been using them to practice some more watercolour doodles, some for a secret project and some daft ones, like the one above. Watercolour paper is uber expensive! So I have ordered some cheaper stuff for now and shiny new pens that will make it easier to add the finer details, the Pigma Micron Pen #005 0.2mm Black Ink to be precise. As the Sharpie ultra fine, is nowhere near fine enough and I have made a right pigs ear out of some doodles using the Sharpie.

Other Stuff: I am finally tackling the humongous task of turning this blog into a book, no not for publishing or anything ridonkulous like that. I need to print it out for my personal development folder (for counselling diploma) and it is far too big a job to just print off and bind myself. So I have been looking around for ages to find the easiest and cheapest way to do it. I have looked at Blurb, Lulu and Blog2print so far. It seems there is no easy and cheap way to do it, especially when your blog is nearly 4 years old. Blurb's software looks the best, but it wont even 'slurp' my blog (blurb lingo for uploading). Using Lulu meant converting blog to something else and then uploading and then something else, so I was already switched off. So finally that left Blog2print, this one uploaded the blog easy enough, but seems expensive and have split blog into three books so far...!

Update! Since starting this post I have fixed the blurb issue and it has now slurped! So I am now going to see which ends up being cheaper, will it be blurb or blog2print?

If you have used either please let me know! Or if you have printed off your blog before and made it look lovely, also get in touch.

Music of the moment: I just love the imagery of pines dancing, as a tree hugger, this tickled my fancy indeed. It also doesn't hurt that his voice is beautiful. I give you Mr AA Bondy: I can see the pines dancing.

Tis all the bloody hamsters fault or something

2010-06-12T02:49:00.005+01:00

This is herbert and sherbert, they are the hamsters that control my PC and they are feckin useless. I have tried putting hamster pellets in the air vents of my PC, but still it runs like shit. So it must mean the hamsters need replacing or something? Hamster butties anyone?

Doodle news:

I totally forgot to pimp out this post about yours truly, so if you want a slightly better insight into the inner working of my doodle brain, then please read this 'Artist Profile: Claire Pitt'. Being the modest mary that I am, I am not all together comfortable, if at all, with the title 'artist', but I am a million percent flattered by it.

I should be going on a Intro to Art Therapy day sometime in the near future (if I can find that ruddy piece of paper), so no doubt that will be fuelling more doodle like thoughts and ideas.

Wedding Photography update:

By Christ! Editing wedding photographs is a long job! I am about half way through and I am rather chuffed with some and not so chuffed with others. There are so many things one would do differently, but that is for another post. Hope you like this one? Tis one of my favourites so far.

Music of the moment:

Not sure I have any business writing about music, but I shall plod on nonetheless. For a while now, I have been on folk vibe, listening to music that plucks at your soul ,as well as the odd ukulele. I have never wanted a triangle and tambourine, as much as I do right now, but luckily for the rest of the world I haven't gotten any (yet).
In the last post I mentioned Evening Chorus, who still need your Vote by the way. In this post I shall mention the next band that has been played rather a bloody lot in my playlist of late..
Black Atlantic

They can be found here, here and here

Music news sort of...

Twitter led me to Slowcoustic which led me to Yer Bird Records, which then led them back to me. This is because Yer Bird Records is now run by Slowcoustic and his wife. Anyhoo it is the mother load of Fanfolkingtastic music (including Black Atlantic) and I was over the moon that they wanted to use a few of my photographs for the latest album 'Folk Music For What Lies Ahead' . At last I shall have a teeny tiny claim to fame and glory at last! Ooops it appears to have gone to my head already.

I should have the album in my grasp soon! (Shouldn't I Folk Gods?) and then I can gush more about the fanfolkingtasticness of it all.

Toodle Pip!

The Wedding, the death of Frank and the loss of the DSLR

2010-06-03T01:33:00.002+01:00

This was a doodle I did for Heather and John's save the date cards

Warning this is just a splish splosh of grey matter, garbled together in post like form:

I got back the Highlands of Scotland last Saturday and have been editing the wedding photographs ever since. I took over a thousand myself, then my older sister Jemma acted as second camera, so I have about a 1000 from her camera too!

Here is a one that Heather has seen already:

When I have eventually finished editing them all, I will blogging about what it is like to photograph a wedding as a rank amateur, sweaty palms, feeling sick and all that fun stuff. Also how I felt about having to give back the DSLR camera (boohoo)

On coming home I found Frank, my deformed fish, dead in his plant pot. I know what are you thinking, of course he would be dead if he was in a plant pot! But Frank was very happy in his ceramic plant pot, he was the last fish to survive the deadly fish tank of doom (long story, too tragic).

Really missing blogging of late, the words trapped in my grey matter are really better out than in, well for me anyways. There is WAY too much crap floating around in this noggin of my mine at the moment.

Other stuff:
Being without proper music for nearly two weeks was bloody awful. I think spotify has been on non stop since I got home. It is bands like Evening Chorus, that become a soundtrack to your life, in particular this track in the video below is very relevant to me at the moment. I discovered them via twitter and I am chuffed to have found them before they get uber famous, which they will.

They are in a competition at the mo, so please vote for Evening Chorus HERE if you get the chance, they are a bloody fantastic band.

Evening Chorus:

Medieval Malarkey in Edinburgh

2010-05-05T18:05:00.004+01:00

Greetings foul and rotting carbuncles of flea ridden fleshpots!

Tis I the Grail Master! Ruler of all things Grail and Quest like.....

Oops sorry, erm still in medieval taskmaster mode from ye olde times (the other weekend). Yonder weekend was my younger sister's hen weekend, a weekend of dressing up like chickens or a weekend of frivolity and mischief, before one gets married. As the sister (Heather) would have ideally liked a medieval wedding, but the husband to be said no (no fucking way), so a medieval hen weekend was the joyful compromise.That meant costumes and some stuff to do that was, kind of, sort of, Medieval (ish).

Where does one look to when one needs some comedic medievalish inspiration? Only one place of course! The mighty python - Monty Python , well Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition) to be exact.

After watching that and few other clips a million or so times, I had a plan! Twas time to send the sister on a quest for her own Holy Grail.......

I formulated some questions, then I came up with some rather special names for all the medieval ladies that were playing along, Heather was this delightful character...

Dearest Heather....
Thou artless Foul wretch
Forgive this crazy pig of Widnes. A gossiper of rioters and a feeler of wretchs.
Heather you are henceforth
Princess Isadora Frigginoff, Ruler of Farnworth and the small city of Fannyshockingham

My personal favourite was Lady Amanita Ceeurpeenis formerly Dampnow from Littlepiddle. As someone pointed out, yes I may have too much time on my hands in the wee hours of the morn..

This is a google map I created, of all the places we either visited, were part of the quest and/or wanted to visit. Alas couldn't fit all in. Also included some pubs and foodie places that sounded rather good, so will have to go back and sample them.

View Heather Holy Grail Quest in a larger map

Once we had decided on a location, we needed a place to stay. At first we were rather keen on just staying in a hostel, as Heather and I had stayed in a cool one last year (Castle Rock), but they are not keen on Hen/Stag parties, even a party of medieval ladies. So we had a look for apartments and eventually settled on this one Edlets Dalry Road. It was very reasonably priced and although pretty basic, it was far nicer than we expected, a few heating issues, but they were very prompt at fixing things. There was even a bus stop right outside the front door, that took you wherever you needed to go, £1.20 a journey or £3 for travel all day (right bargain), but make sure you have the right change!

A quick whizz through the schedule:

Friday 23rd April, Arrived in Edinburgh via train, twas freezing, forgot coat and was carrying a shit load of stuff. Found apartment, heating was broke, got it fixed. Everyone else arrived, gave them a drink of mead and handed them their naming scrolls. Outfits were put on and we started the quest....

Well we started the quest and then promptly ended after first stop, because it was raining and everyone got a bit damp and cold, so we headed to a Chinese all you can eat (very medieval, not), got warm, got fed and then headed to this pub and got a wee bit drunk.

Saturday 24th April, Up early ish and headed to the dungeons! Edinburgh Dungeons that is. I won't mention much about that, except that it is well worth a visit, really fun way to start to day. Then headed back on the quest! Had lovely tea/sandwiches/stop here , the staff were lovely, especially considering we were all in medieval outfits and filled the place with our costumes. After that we did a spot of shopping on the Royal Mile for people who wanted to get gifts for those back at home.

Well time and weather, mainly time, did not allow for us to finish the quest, so I had to compromise and allowed Heather to get all her medieval magical items by a speed question round and unscrambling these letters...

WULLODLAANSEWN

Heathers magical medieval items were: Nobby the Hobby Horse, Tiara circlet thing, necklace, leather pouch, wineskin (for mead!), pan flute, bloomers and of course the Holy Grail!

That evening we went on a ghost tour, which was frankly pants (shit), compared to the fun and frighteners the Dungeons provided, so I would not recommend that at all. Also apparently I am now doomed, because I stood in a circle of stones, after being warned not to, what a load of bollocks! Apparently some of the other ghost tours/walks are great, so I am not ruling them all out, just that one.

Sunday 25th April:On the Sunday it was time to head to the castle, the castle in this case, is of course Edinburgh Castle.The weather decided to be kind to us, which was lucky, as I had planned to use this day as wedding photography practice. The castle is wonderful, the staff thought we were hilarious and Heather as you can tell by the pictures absolutely loved posing for them and for every bloody tourist that stopped her. Loved having Tea and Scones in the little cafe and was surprisingly well priced!
As we left the castle an opened topped bus arrived and off we went with it, the sun was shining and the tour guide was well informed, the perfect end to the day. That night we headed to karaoke bar, as Heather loves to sing and although the place was overpriced for drinks, it was still a good laugh.

Monday 26th April - Head Home, Had a great time, weird to be wearing normal clothes again.

Extra stuff:

Get £3 all day bus ticket, buses run till about 12 midnight, really easy to hop and off. Get one open top bus journey, if the weather is nice, if not don't bother, unless you are bored.
See the Castle it is worth the money
Get Early bird tickets for Edinburgh Dungeon - special offers
Research Ghost walks, I don't recommend the one we did 'Auld Reekie'

The whole set of pictures can be seen here Heather's Medieval Hen Weekend

PS: Trying some weird Amazon Associate placement shite, for some reason it only wants to be in American funny money (Bastards!). Not sure whether I like it or whether it will piss me off. I will only be using it for stuff that I would actually be linking to anyways, honest to cod! If you don't own or have never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition), why the hell not? Get on it at once!

pps: Not long to go till Heather's wedding! If you look at the photographs, feel free to reassure me that they are not shit and that I will do an okay job for her wedding!

Still sleeping

2010-04-20T00:08:00.001+01:00

Well by still sleeping I mean this blog, I would love to still be sleeping, but alas I am busy busy busy.

My sister Jemma is taking Amazing pictures of my new baby niece! Here is one of my favourites of Arwen with her older brother Ewan. Only a few weeks till I get to see her for the first time and spend time my two awesometriffic nephews.

My Awesome friend Karen got married on Saturday, so last Wednesday I travelled down south and spent the whole weekend involved in wedding fun, Saturday was a beautiful day and I took over 500 photographs, which I need to edit!
I owed Karen a very belated birthday present and the rule was that it had to be handmade, so I decided to do a doodle. I have been working on it for ages, practising drawing her, her partner and their animals, whenever I had a moment to spare. It was much harder than I thought it would, because I wanted it to be special.
Version one was okay, but just not very Karen or special enough, so I consulted my doodle mentor Miss TJ and got her opinion on what I needed to change. Her advice was invaluable and although I was fed up with making stupid mistakes with version one, I am so happy that I did it again!

Version One:

Version two:

I am still taking photos every day, just don't have the time to bloody upload the things!! It is my sisters medieval hen weekend, this weekend! So Edinburgh watch out! Hopefully I will have time before her wedding on May to catch up on the photographs and write about all the daft things I have planned for her this weekend.

/puts blog back in bed and turns back to twitter

Get bloody on with it

2010-03-13T00:48:00.003Z

This is blog is in semi hibernation mode as I get bloody on with stuff, mainly college assignments (Oh deja-vu moment.....)

Other news:
I have a beautiful new niece Arwen Elizabeth, she is two weeks old today.

Not seen the little munchkin yet, as she lives in Hamburg, Germany, with my sister and rest of their family. My younger nephew Connor was not happy that I stayed home to do bloody college work, whilst my parents went over to see the new baby. So the little bugger decided to stab me in the heart with this note, that he gave to the mumborg to pass onto me.

Dear Claire
Why did you stay at home?
Love you lots
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Connor

Wow that kid takes after me, emotional blackmail or what? I will have to kick his wee arse when I see him in May. Well by kick his arse, I probably mean photograph him to death and get him to chant 'Claire is awesome'.

Still doing photo a day thing, if you want to check out those HERE

I am still floating around in the blog aether, don't forget about me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS: Listen to this, I love it:

Yeasayer "ONE" By: Radical Friend from ODDBLOOD on Vimeo.

Mind Bubbles, Mind Apples and Mental Health

2010-02-25T10:57:00.001Z

Oops over two weeks since I last blogged on this here beloved blog of mine, things have been hectic in real life, with non fun power cuts, planning younger sisters hen weekend and waiting for niece/nephew number 3 to arrive (over a week late now!). I still managed to take a photo a day for project365 thang, but even those got uploaded a few days late, on day 116 already (fookin hell). To be perfectly frank (well just Claire), I didn't have much to say, so just didn't. Luckily for you during that time my creative batteries have been recharged.

Mind Bubbles

Click to see it Large(r)

Mind Bubbles

I am quite the arty farty person when I want to be, I suppose another term for it would be 'creative', it is not so much focused on ability, more on the urge to always be doing something visually creative like photography, blogging and doodling to in my case.
I am always thinking of things to doodle, blog and photograph, so much so, that I kinda forget on purpose that I have other stuff to do, even if it is interesting, it is always going to be less fun that doodling. So where is that inner voice, the 'sensible voice' telling me "hey stop fannying around and get on with your college work". Well after some in-depth research with my buddy TJ, it has been discovered that the sensible voice has been locked in a chest and thrown into the ocean, once it reached the bottom of the ocean floor it is guarded by evil fish, who use bubbles to further muffle the sound of the sensible voice.
Bubbles are tricky things, you have those amazing thoughts/ideas that pop into your head, that can lead to a great doodle, blog post or whatever, they can be called 'Mind Bubbles'. It is up to you what you do with these 'Mind Bubbles' either capture them by writing the ideas down or simply let them float away. The thing to be wary of is when BOTDK appear, these are Bubbles of the Dangerous Kind, evil bubbles that distract you and take you away from your assignments, into dangerous places like blogging forums and even more nefarious than that.... facebook and its games!

Mind Apples

Mind Apples

Click to see it Large(r)

I happened upon Mind Apples a while back on twitter and immediately loved their 'mental' 5 a day concept, here is a brief excerpt from their site:

Mindapples promotes mentally healthy living for everyone through simple, everyday activities. Rather than telling people what to do, we’re asking everyone to pick their own 5-a-days and share them with the world.

How can you share your mind apples? Well they have a survey on their site, in which you can share the things that you do on a daily basis to keep yourself mentally healthy. I had fun thinking of things I do daily to keep myself happy, even if I don't manage 5 a day, I certainly manage to do something, whether its taking a photo, doodling or just enjoying a bloody good cup of tea.

You can have a nose at the Mind Apple Site or go straight to the Mind Apple Survey

It gave me the excuse to have at whirl at using water colours from my doodles, well water soluble pencil thingies. In the first doodle, I used crappy thin paper, so it all wrinkled when the paper dried, so on the second one I used thickish card. I am kind of chuffed with the them and it was really nice to take some time yesterday just to have a play. What do you think of them?

Time for another survey:
I follow all things Mental Health on twitter, Mind Apples mentioned above is just one great example of the informative way you can use twitter to educate people on mental health type subjects. Another twitterer I follow in the realms of Mental Health is @mentalcapital and the other day a he tweeted about a interesting survey. The survey is about web-use by people with lived experience of mental health issues, so if you fancy chipping in with your opinion, then click here: SURVEY

The more voices that chime in with their experiences of using the internet as either a person who suffers with mental health issues, or a person that cares for someone with mental health issues (professional or personal) then the more informative the surveys outcome will be. A couple of minutes of your time, answering some very interesting questions is all it takes. Let me know what you thought, if you do indeed take the survey, always fun to know if something I found interesting,is found equally interesting by you lot.

Till the next the post dudes, in the meantime watch out for the BOTDK and have a whirl at doing your Mental 5 a day.

Bang bang she is brain dead

2010-02-08T01:32:00.001Z

Used previously in this post 'I am stuck'

For those that regularly read (hey guys), I had previously written about writing a post which dealt with my concerns/fears/thoughts about becoming a therapist. It was just a short paragraph at the end of this post 'Regardless of the mood, the sun still sets' which in turn had come about from this post 'The empty box and brick wall'.If you read those posts and the comments that go with them, which are invaluable to me, you will probably get a better idea of where my head is, at the moment.

The post title is from a combination of things, over thinking things to death and the incessant 'bang bang' of building work all sodding week! That was not helped matters at all.

Sometimes I feel like I am saying the same thing over and over again, the mental goo had its evil grasp upon me back when I first doodled the mental goo doodle and even though at times it felt like I was free from it, I think I was kidding myself.

If you can't stomach my self indulgent whingeing and waffle please gaze upon the pictures, but even they are mainly gloomy.

From my Pennington Flash set

From my Churchyard set

So as the sunsets on this week and a new one starts, I wonder what is in-store for me this week?

From my Door with a view set

Tech News Alert

For those of you that read this blog and use blogger/blogspot yourself, you may be interested to know that you can now use 'pages' on blogger. I have converted my 'about me' into a page, as it was previously just a backdated post. To use this feature you must be logged into 'blogger in draft', which I have set as my default dashboard anyway. Let me know what you think of this and if you come up with any cool uses for it. For me personally it is just another reason not to move to wordpress.

Pictures and Pondering

2010-01-31T00:24:00.000Z

My next written post will be most probably of epic proportions, due to the nature of its contents. So in the meantime please gaze upon my latest photographic offerings. I have picked the best from each new Flickr set and then provided the link to the rest of the sets for your enjoyment.

From the Parkgate set

From the New Brighton set

From Local Churchyard set

From Door with a view set

Please remember if you are desperately missing more regular blogging from me, I am blogging daily on my photo a day blog, which is linked in the sidebar! I am currently on Day 91! Time certainly does fly.
So that should explain why I am taking so many ruddy photographs at the moment, if you didn't know that already. The main motivation for the photo a day project is preparation for the wedding of the year in May. Not my wedding, but the big little sisters, who is letting me take the photographs.. poor girl!

Regardless of the mood, the sun still sets.

2010-01-23T01:21:00.001Z

After writing last weeks waffle on the evils of those walls made of bricks, I realised I was in dire need of fresh air and good company. So on the Saturday I played out with friends and was even refused entrance to a nightclub because apparently all three of us looked younger than 25. Whilst I admit to looking youthful, the bouncer knew very well that we were old enough to drink in that establishment. Ah well, no harm, no foul, we just toddled over to the nearest pub and gazed upon the strange folk that inhabit my town. Out of the three of us out that night, it is only I that still live in town in which we all grew up. They, out of some morbid curiosity, ever now and then, want to play out in our old stomping grounds, but once there, realise why they are the stomping grounds of old. A good time was still had, but hopefully they have learnt their lesson this time and we pick somewhere decent next time.

The next morning, even though a few sherbets where had by all, I had no hangover! This may be down to consuming a rather large bacon butttie when I got in? We all know that bacon is the food of Gods and drunk people. So I had another one when I woke up too, heh. The weather was unusually sunny and nice, so I decided to head out with the dad for a spot of birdwatching. This also meant I could take the camera out for a proper play outside, instead of just in the garden. It was more than delightful to out and about, stretching the legs and getting some fresh air! Firstly we went to a small nature reserve called Marton Mere and then headed to Southport. At Southport, I got there just in time to see this beautiful sunset! It was absolutely lovely.

Even as the light began to fade, the scenery still looked so beautiful and peaceful.

Things:
I have noticed, when I feel bad about being behind in college work, I don't doodle.

The post I was going to write, was a post on my thoughts/fears on becoming a therapist, but I couldn't find the words I wanted to use. Then I wondered if it would be something that anyone would like to read? Do you wonder what motivates someone to become a therapist? Do you wonder what scares the shit out of them?

The empty box and brick wall

2010-01-16T03:11:00.010Z

Some days it feels like my head will explode with ideas for doodles, future client work, college assignments and blog posts. Other days it feels like there is nothing there but inconsequential Styrofoam bits of nothingness. I rummage round for signs of life, but just find dust. I have been looking at all my college notes and trying to get the rest of my work finished. I look back at the work and realised that I loved every minute of it, especially when writing up my own philosophy towards therapy and counselling.

Which can be found here (if you want to have a look).

So if I enjoyed every minute of college, what the hell am I waiting for!
Get bloody on with it!

Last year was pretty awful, nearly all of it was spent under exceptionally stressful circumstances, which culminated in the mumborg having her leg amputated. The mumborg is my mum, you can read about the operation here and all posts mum related are here. The operation went well, as well as these things can go and she is finally home.

Other times I feel like I am either running into or building too many of these.

During stressful times, walls are built and forcefields are set to maximum, just to get through the day.There was many a time last year, when I thought mum was going to die, although she assured me that would not be the case and to get on with my bloody work. So I would switch from being deathly worried to pissed off that she was still in hospital. Then I hopped back on the guilty train when they finally made the decision that the leg would have to go and this was a 'serious' operation. As I mentioned above, the operation went well, mum is doing great now. So finally I could relax, after months of worry, then I promptly got swine flu and have been ill ever since! So as the stress walls crumbled, so apparently did my immune system. So as one wall crumbles, I run head first into another.

The photographs are all part of my 365 photo a day project, they turned out pretty serendipitous don't you think? I didn't know what I was going to write, till I actually started writing. This page has been blank for most of the day, kind of like me.

It is hard work, this personal development lark. You open up yourself and see your own little world through shiny new eyes. It is inspiring, thoughtful and a whole feast of wonderful things, but the sun glares down on your new eyes at times and it all feels a bit raw. I suppose this could explain my new appreciation of music, I should emphasise that I mean 'good' music and with that, I am afraid blubbering occurs! Something about being in a certain melancholic mood and haunting vocals that now equate to me blubbering. To be honest, it is not sad crying, just going with the flow. All that tampering with ones empathy levels, has a strange effect, don't even mention sad puppy adverts or TV charity appeals or the ruddy news.

Never fear, I am never melancholic for long, not when you can put a donk on it.....

Please forgive me for this, but watch this youtube clip 'Put a donk on it'

(You need to watch that, well maybe not 'need').

/seconds later....

Did you watch the 'Donk' video? If so, I am sure you will never take me seriously again, which may have been an evil ploy, so that you don't think I have gone all soppy and melancholic. The Donkness also gives you a wee glimpse into the music of my 'youth' and how ones tastes change over the years.

From Donk to the Down-Tempo and everything in between.

My three thumbs UP of the week go to the music blog Slowcoustic, I first discovered this blog when my musical chum @Tartytart wrote a guest post over there, which inspired my snogging post. Since then I have been catching every musical tidbit that slowcoustic throws our way, it is treat to your ear lobes!

So now that I have waffled on, I am off to do battle with my Boggart.

Freezing Blue Tits!

2010-01-09T03:50:00.000Z

Click image to see Blue Tit large

It so cold over here in the UK, that our tits are in danger, well by 'our' tits, I actually mean the various tits that you find in your garden. No no, not a loved one building an inappropriate snowman, tits of the feathered kind.

Following advice taken from the RSPB website

The RSPB is asking people to follow a wild bird winter survival plan that will help wildlife during the harshest weather.

1. Put out feed regularly, especially in severe weather. Set up a bird table and use high calorie seed mixes. This can also be used to put out kitchen scraps such as animal fats, grated cheese and porridge oats
2. Put out hanging feeders for black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, sunflower-rich mixes or unsalted peanuts
3. Ensure a supply of fresh water every day. If it is very cold use tepid water but DO NOT use any antifreeze products
4. Put out fruit, such as apples and pears, for blackbirds, song thrushes and other members of the thrush family
5. Food bars or fat hung up or rubbed into the bark of trees is a great help for treecreepers, goldcrests and many other species
6. Put up nest boxes to provide roost sites for the smaller birds. They will then be used for breeding later in the year

For the rest of the RSPB article, with more valuable info, please click here - Feed the birds

All this effin cold weather has allowed me to play with my new foster camera out in the snowy weather. What is a foster camera I hear you ask? Well as I am taking the photographs for my sisters wedding, she has allowed me to play with her camera till after the wedding. So till June, I have her Canon EOS 1000D to play with, woohoo. You can see my photographic progress over on my daily photography blog or on my flickr.

December depicted in doodles and snaps

2010-01-02T12:59:00.001Z

Well December whizzed by faster than a duck in roller boots being chased down hill by a rabid fox. In fact the whole of 2009 went pretty much that way. Not sure if I will do a review of 2009 yet, maybe and maybe not, at the moment I am not feeling it.

Anyhoo luckily I am doing this photo a day thingy, which not only provides me with an alibi for most days, it also reminds me what the feck I have been doing this past December. As I am not posting all the photographs I am taking daily on this blog, I would like too share them still on here, as I did with the November post.

So December in photographs..

If you want to see the photographs individually then you can find them in my flicker set Frapto 365, if you want to see them and read the story behind the pictures then visit my Frapto Archive.

Doodles for others..

Doodling for other people is something that I have decided I rather like doing, not only does it actually make me think outside my crazy box, improves my doodling ability and it also is rather fun.

Across the Sahara

Many eons ago I promised a doodle to @AndeGregson as I was so impressed with his quest to complete the 2010 Marathon Des Sables. Which is a 165 miles of running through the desert! Craziness.

Ande is doing this for a wonderful charity called Mencap, so wishing him all the luck for this coming April.

Highlights in Liverpool 2009

Mr @Robin Brown ask me to contribute to his Best of Liverpool 2009 post, which was hugely flattering. Living so close to Liverpool is a pleasure, but alas 2009 suckethed donkey balls, well in regards to me doing much of anything remotely cultural or even making the most of what Liverpool has to offer. Now if the post was about the Best/Worst of Hospital Moments 2009, I could have written a LOT. The few moments of Liverpool (ish) related joy where in the forms of seeing The Dream in nearby St Helens (giant statue), meeting up with local tweet folk and seeing the wonderful Yeasayer at the Bat for Lashes gig.

Happy Holidays and all that bollocks

2009-12-30T00:18:00.002Z

Tis a few days after Christmas now and I hope those that celebrate this time of year did indeed have a nice time? Or at least managed to get through it without killing anyone....

Twas a pleasant time in my household, apart from the fact that the sister and I both have an horrendous cough and sound like demonic sealions. It didn't start off all that well, as the sister and fiancé's car broke down a couple of hundred miles away and they nearly had to go all the way home, but the AA (car breakdown dudes) stepped in and got them a courtesy car, with the promise of towing the broken car down here by the Saturday.
Christmas Day was a quiet day, we all chilled out till early afternoon, then headed to the local Indian restaurant with a break from tradition by eating food someone else cooks for a change. It was lovely and the first time I have truly enjoyed food on Christmas Day for a long time.
Boxing Day was the day Terrence the already dead and humongous Turkey got cooked, it took all day, but was worth it. Although if I eat any more turkey and stuffing, I may get labelled as a biohazrd.....
Sunday night the sister and I headed out with some friends and drank cocktails, wore wigs, false taches and daft glasses. This probably didn't help with the whole being ill thing, but it temporarily relieved the symptoms, booze tends to do that, oh and good company.
The rest of the time has been taken up by coughing, feeling horrid, coughing some more and you can get the gist of it. Just got to get the sisters car sorted before we can ship them back to the Highlands of Scotland, then operation clean up will begin and the new year will roll in.

The thing that has alleviated some of this horrid cough and sinus issues has been my new neti pot, something I have been meaning to get for beards now. Well it arrived on Christmas Eve and I got a bit excited about using it, if you have sinus issues like me, you would get excited too.

If you miss more regular posts from me (who wouldn't?) Then I am still updating my photographic 365 project daily, just click the lovely flower in the sidebar or here

Next post will probably be a waffling round up of the year that was 2009.

Music and snogging your hand off

2009-12-18T19:04:00.004Z

Tis the season and all that bollocks.... You know what I mean, have one too many sherbets, feeling a bit tiddly, drag someone into a cupboard, all in the spirit of Christmas or some such flimflam. A lot of snogging going on all around.

So what is this phenomena called 'Snogging'

Snogging:
snog is a kiss, usually romantic or sexual in nature, in which one participant's tongue touches the other's tongue and usually enters his or her mouth.

Just in case you don't know how and you need a visual demonstration, I have provided you with a link to a handy snogging tutorial - Click HERE
If you have no actual human being to practice on, then why not use your hand? (WHY!!!). The most disturbing and the only 'hand' snogging video thing I have ever* seen is HERE . It is funny, but how did they get the bloke to do it?

*With the exception of Craig Charles in Red Dwarf episode, couldn't remember which one. Bonus points for anyone that does?

Other words for snogging
Tonsil Hockey, Making Out, French Kissing, Smooching, having a pash, necking, Sucking face, getting off with, meeting, Kissing, eating someone's face off.

Snogging Inspiration

Where did I get the inspiration for a post like this? As I am pure of mind, I am unfortunately easily influenced by those that are not so pure.. Honest to cod, I had to type this whilst blushing and throwing holy water on myself.....
Several people I have met through blogging have turned me onto some great music,before blogging I only listened to hymns and Ronan Keating (not really). Once you start delving into music, listening to whole albums (totally new concept for me), the thirst for new stuff is insatiable. Luckily Twitter once again stepped in and provided new musical fodder for me. The majority of which comes in the delightful form of TartyTart and not so delightful Drunk Country. Tarty write this blog and Drunk Country writes this one , which goes with the show he does on woxy. They not only provide magical musical titbits, but also make music accessible to people that are pretty clueless about music (me), oh and they are amusing.
I was lucky enough to get this wonderful mix straight to my inbox from TartyTart, which sounds like a computer related double entrende (it is). This led to an amusing discussion about naughtiness and slang, so I sent her to this post 'Claire gets Horny'. After listening to the more than good mix-tape, I thought about snogging and writing this post.
You really need to listen to the tunes on the mix, read the post and have your mind corrupted ever so slightly. I had to stop reading it myself several times, bathe in holy water and then start all over again. I was exhausted by the time I eventually finished.. the article.
The mix is found over on Slowcoustic - How 2009 can still make you weak at your knees. Only just discovered slowcoustic recently myself, thanks to tarty, looks fantastic, they are also on twitter @slowcoustic.

Disclaimer: I am not to be held responsible if your pants melt off whilst listening to the mix.

Pondering:

I have noticed that Music related posts do not get many comments, why is this? I don't mean just on my blog, I mean on music blogs as a whole. Is it because musical listening is a personal thing and it is hard to sum up in words what music does to your listening orifices? Hopefully this post has enough sexual innuendo and buffoonery to allow everyone to jump in, even if talking about music makes you run for the hills......

So question time....

1.What word do you use for snogging?
2.What song is your favourite snogging tune?

Chasing Rainbows and stuff

2009-12-12T23:02:00.001Z

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
Lord Byron

Last Sunday was a day of chasing rainbows..

To capture these images, I had to leap on my bed and reach out the bedroom window with the camera. It definitely pushed my status as neighbourhood nut up a few levels. To see them in all their technicolour glory you can click them to biggify.

The rainbow disappeared in mere moments

“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work.” anon

Monday the rainbow appeared again...

Hmmm I hardly ever see rainbows, then two in a row? What is going on? Am I being forced to look at the bright side of life?

I love rainbows, they are a happy trick of light,evoking feelings of mystical glee and the possibility of pots of gold. Yeah forget the mystical shit, just show me the gold. Although to be honest I wouldn't like pots of gold anyway, I think it would just bring a pot of misery.

The phrase 'Chasing Rainbows' is used when trying to achieve something that is not possible or practical. I wonder what miserable bugger decided that 'chasing rainbows' would be the appropriate idiom for that? Imagine having a job in which you travelled the world trying to capture rainbows? I think it would be superb.

When writing It all floats to the bottom I intended to write something like this post to accompany it, but didn't have the words or idea for it, until I saw that rainbow. It seems to me that a rainbow is perfect imagery for deep emotions on the whole sliding scale of feelings.

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
John Vance Cheney

I wonder what other countries think of rainbows, I know, for me, that they are intrinsically wrapped up in the stuff of legends and folklore (fairies and leprechauns). What do other cultures think of them? What is the symbolism of a rainbow for you?

Other ponderings...
I am not a spiritual person, but just because I see the science behind a natural wonder, it doesn't actually take the wonder away for me. Everyone is entitled to have their own views on it and I doubt the rainbow cares. I have used and still use the word 'soul' and other such words, but for me the word 'soul' just sums up the inner workings of a person, nothing mythical, magical or spiritual, but beautiful all the same.

When I told the rainbow what its colors meant, it laughed ~ Marty Rubin
Nothing Profound ~ June 11th 2009

Three days of sky, the wonderful view from my front door... This week just gone has disappeared in a haze of cleaning products and hoovering, but I am glad I took a few moments to breathe, open my eyes and capture a few nice moments. Hope you had the chance to do the same? If you didn't, then there is always tomorrow.

Yeah Yeah oh fucking Yeah's

2009-12-11T17:27:00.068Z

and now for a not a very musical music review.....

Last Sunday (6th December) I went to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Manchester Apollo, Manchester.
In my previous attempt at reviewing a concert I came up with this following scale: (for previous lame attempt at a concert review click here)

How does one express what level of musical wonderment a certain band or particular song evokes? Why you come up with your own scale of musical wonderment.... Behold mine.

The Claire Scale of Musical Wonderment

1. Hallowed three thumbs up of awesomeness (Similar to wet my pants awesomeness)

2. Ohhhhh awesomeness

3. Pretty awesome

4. Hmmm (The hmmm of pondering)

5. Meh

6. Holy shit! How fucking awful (similar to 'My ears, my ears, arghhhhhhhhh')

Let us start with the support band, warm up band? Whatver you call it, it was ~ Duchess Says
The support band get a weird mix of 4 and 6, most of the time I thought urggghh shurrup! But then, when the poor possessed gal wasn't wailing, the band were really good. They are meant to be Punk/Dance? But where neither punky nor dancey enough for me. I think they should open for Lordi in the future. I would have much rather had someone like My Gold Mask opening the show, they are definitely the right vibe for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

During the interesting warm up thing, my friend and I noticed that someone was dead/asleep, listening to the music, I almost envied them.. After Duchess Says had finished (hooray), the stewards shuffled over and poked the dead/asleep person, till they awoke. The person was then promptly escorted to the fresh air zone and never seen again.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were quite simply the hallowed three thumbs of awesomeness on my scale of musical wonderment, from start to finish. I promptly forgot the setlist as soon as the gig was over, or more truthfully as soon as each song was over. I just got carried away with the moment or just have a shit memory. Thankfully someone else remembered, so I stole it off them:

Setlist

Runaway, Phenomena, 10 x 10, Heads Will Roll, Pin, Dull Life, Gold Lion, Cheated Hearts, Skeletons, Hysteric, Honeybear, Zero, Y-Control.

Encore:

Maps (Acoustic), Art Star, Date with the Night.

As per usual with me, every song was the best, until the next one, but if I had to pick it would be.... oh bugger, I can't decide. I even created a playlist with the songs from the setlist, listened to it a few times and still no joy.So I had a look through the best youtube clips, websites and decided on this one..

Yeah Yeah Yeahs : Now Playing : Date With The Night

It doesn't compare at all really to seeing them live, you can't bottle all that charisma and pow! into a a wee video playing on someone's blog. Get all the albums, listen to them loud and if you get the chance, go and see them live.

As always, if you are on last.fm, add me and share your musical titbits with me, my profile is HERE.

A doodle is for life... etc...

2009-12-05T02:29:00.002Z

I recently took part in a tagline competition for the Dogstar Foundation

The Dogstar Foundation was founded in 2006 to provide free veterinary care to dogs and cats in the Kegalle area of Sri Lanka and has expanded to other areas via a series of mobile clinics and outreach projects offering free neutering and vaccinations The animals that 'check in' to our clinics are not just pets, but also the local 'community' dogs (in the UK, we would call them strays). Un-neutered and unvaccinated companion animals (pets) and community animals interact daily and this creates an ideal environment for the spread of diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Ever-increasing population of dogs and cats overwhelm the resources of the local communities causing suffering and distress.

I came up with: Making tails wag since 2006

Which only bloody won, woot! (woof).

They can be found on Twitter and Facebook, so if you want to get more tails wagging them give them a follow.

Over on Frapto, I am still going strong ...

I doth my cap/ tip my hat/curtsey in the direction of Mr @skrift for coming up with this blog post title, he is a writer like person who loves ABBA (albums only, not that Mama Mia shite), a jolly nice chap who is on twitter as @skrift and blogs here Skrift. He also wees more when it is cold and through the power of google, I found out he was not alone in that phenomena. Who said twitter wasn't good for owt?

November in pictures

2009-11-30T15:53:00.000Z

On November 1st I started a 365 photographic project, basically a photo every day for 365 days.So here are the fruits of my first 30 days... I definitely picked random subject matters.

November in pictures

Each photograph is individually found in my Frapto Archive, with an explanation about each subject found here- Frapto Archive . Frapto is basically a photo blog, that I share with a group of others taking the 365 challenge.
The challenge for me, is not only to take a photo a day, but also to improve over time. This is especially important for my sisters wedding in May, as I have mentioned briefly that I am the photographer. So for the time being, if you want a daily fix of me, check out my photos on the frapto site.

This is what my desk looks like when I am doodling

Nature surprises

Winter Nips, Olbas and Memories

2009-11-24T18:23:00.000Z

At this time of year, I reach for the Olbas more frequently. It use to be a seasonal thing, but my addiction has deepened, or my sinuses have become more stuffed over the decades, so now it's an all year round habit. The Olbas addiction started in early childhood, when the Grandma Lil use to shove an olbas inhaler up my nostrils before heading out to school on a cold morning. It was only in later years, did I realise that the olbas inhaler was passed between the sisters and I, never wiped in-between (gross). That olbas inhaler had to be ancient, I never saw a new one, ever.When the ye olde ancient olbas inhaler wasn't about, a few drops of pure olbas oil was put on a hanky and stuffed in my pocket. They say that your olfactory (sniff sniff) senses link up directly to your memory, so sniffing a wee bit of olbas whooshes me back to days of duffel coats and hugs off Grandma Lil.

Another childhood memory that goes in hand in hand with the olbas, is a handful of Winter Nips, before you get excited, the nips I am talking about, are the sweets you see in the picture above..Not the scenario doodled below....

I loved those sweets, they are small black herbal flavour boiled sweets, which don't actually sound that nice, but I assure they are! They warm up your mouth and as a kid, I was convinced that they magically warmed up your whole body. So when I saw a bag of them in the supermarket, I had to buy some! Nom nom nom nom!

So do you have favourite childhood sweet? What childhood smell tickles your olfactory senses?

What lurks beneath

2009-11-22T22:42:00.003Z

Is there anything worn under the kilt? No, it's all in perfect working order.
Spike Milligan

Next year my wee sister Heather will be marrying a highlander and this means kilts, lots of them. So on one of our recent marathon phone conversations, the sister and I got to talking about photographs and the issue with kilts. As I am the official photographer, it is my job to capture all the moments of the day, that includes the 'kilt' shot. This is the true test of Scottish authenticity, will the kilt wearers be bollocko underneath. If they are, I have to photograph it at some point (why me!). Why does one have to capture this moment? Maybe it is some ancient kilt flashing tradition, where they startle the poor person holding the camera, forcing them to have the image burned into their mind forever and ever, well at least until after all the images have been processed anyways.

Has Heather had any recent proof of this tradition? Well apparently she does and this lead to the infamous 'Penis on the head' tale. I apologise for using the word penis, it is necessary, although I could have used tallywhacker I suppose?
Anyhoo back to the tale....

Heather was at a wedding with her fiance and spotted the wedding guest book. Heather loves to write in these things (pages and pages). The outfit she was wearing meant that she had to kneel down, so she got herself comfortable and started to write...
All of a sudden, a darkness enveloped her and then she felt something on her head (uh oh).
She looks up.. big mistake.
Then as quick as the darkness came, the light was returned and the true horror was revealed.

It turns out one of John's (the fiance's) friends had decided to envelop her head with his kilt and let his penis rest on her head.

This is what I will have to deal with next year.. It may end badly for some.

Please read previous post for more sensible/ sensitive stuff and less penis (as in none at all) - It all floats to the bottom (which has nothing to do with bottoms, honest!)

It all floats to the bottom

2009-11-20T03:07:00.004Z

Basically, when you are down at The Bottom,

Marine Snow is the shit which rains down on you.

The amount, and the size of the shit depends on the season.

I have been reading a lot of blogs lately, mainly from my 'Mentalhealthish' list on twitter. Those on my mentalhealthish' list, sit either side of the couch, around it, on it or even behind it (hat tip to @wondedgenius for that phrase). Meaning they are clients, therapists or those that work in some capacity within the mental health field. Hopefully nobody on the list minds being tagged as 'mentalhealthish', it was just an easier way to keep tabs on why I was following certain folk over on twitter. They are a mixed bunch of folks, that amuse, educate and entertain constantly, not that that is their job, just a happy coincidence for me.

Not sure how to write this without sounding too gushing, sappy or just ridonkulous, but some of the posts I have read, have been far more inspiring and insightful than any book I have read of late. I think it is important to constantly keep your toes in the water, whatever stage of learning/studying you are at. You can never stop learning, if you think you know enough, then you are quite simply daft. Also the perspective you gain from hearing/reading about mental health issues from all parties is invaluable.

The doodle is inspired by a poem, a blog and well some more blogs. Some people have the rare talent of being able to write so well, that you feel almost part of their world, not in their world, but teetering around the edges. You get a glimpse of the highs and the lows in their life. It is impossible to be unaffected by the emotions so beautifully written, even if they are painful, you are grateful that they have been shared. So from that mixture of emotions, the above doodle was born. Click it to see it 'biggified' if you like.

Don't worry I am not getting anyone's face tattooed on my body yet! I am no mentalist! (Alan Partridge reference). I just hope people keep on writing, so that I can keep on learning (without anyone feeling like a guinea pig).

Some poetry follows...(Don't worry not mine!)

This is a poem that I found particularly poignant and went well with my theme, it is by Thomas Lux.

Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux
As you descend, slowly, falling faster past
you this snow,
ghostly, some flakes bio-
luminescent (you plunge,
and this lit snow doesn't land
at your feet but keeps falling below
you): single-cell-plant chains, shreds
of zooplankton's mucus food traps,
fish fecal pellets, radioactive fallouts,
sand grains, pollen....And inside
these jagged falling islands
live more microlives,
which feed creatures
on the way down
and all the way down. And you,
in your sinking isolation
booth, you go down, too,
through this food-snow, these shards,
bits of planet, its flora
and flesh, you
slip straight down, unreeled,
until the bottom's oozy silt, the sucking
baby-soft muck,
welcomes you
to the deep sea's bed,
a million anvils per square inch
pressing on your skull.
How silent here, how much life,
few places deeper on earth,
none with more width.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Zombies, Frapto and Mumborg stuff

2009-11-14T16:14:00.003Z

CEASE AND DESIST VISITORS FROM Hip and Hemipelvectomy Amputees 'Appreciation'group, your presence by linking or mentioning this blog is NOT welcomed. In otherwords piss off and get your kicks from elsewhere.

I am quite simply awful at computer games, with the exception of spider solitaire, I get motion sickness, bored and a whole other feast of side effects when playing them. Even with all that, I have persisted in playing one online game for the past three years (just before I started this blog). The game in question is Urban Dead and basically:

Urban Dead is a free-to-play browser-based multi-player game where you play the survivor or victim of a zombie outbreak in a quarantined city centre, alongside tens of thousands of others.

I have died 34 times and I am currently one of the undead once more, until a kind soul revives me. I don't like being a zombie, it seems awfully rude to munch on someone to gain points. Of course stabbing, shooting, bludgeoning to death a zombie is the height of politeness... Anyhoo I wander aimlessly round the streets offing zombies, healing survivors and barricading myself in rooms. That is about my level of competence, I think you can see why I have died 34 times.. I don't mind having a bite on a zombie whilst I am undead, but as a zombie I have standards! No eating hoomans, just say no to man flesh when dead.

Dr C R Pitt

What else has been happening that doesn't involve zombies? Well keep reading.....

Mumborg Update:Mumborg has been home since Monday and is settling back in rather well, she is having to make adjustments now that she is of one leg. It is remarkable how quickly one can adapt, but I am trying to get her to take things slowly, as she wants to hop before she can hobble.
At the moment the house has been invaded by my nephews, so that has been a wonderful spirit boost for her. As they live in Hamburg at the moment, she hardly sees them and being in hospital for so long, any plans to visit them were put on hold. So trying to fit in maximum fun for their short visit, fitted in the aquarium, cinema, board games and take away food so far ( I am bloody knackered lol).

Frapto Update

Having this 365 photo challenge has been great fun so far and I have been taking tons of photographs, manically pressing every button my poor battered camera has.

Frapto Archive

Frapto Flickr Set

Some days you can have loads of images to chose from, some days it is a struggle to take just one.

Here is one that didn't make Frapto

Plot Bunnies, photographs and sunshine

2009-11-06T22:40:00.003Z

First of all thanks for reading the rather long winded 'Three years and counting' post. Hands up if you just scrolled down to the comments? I know some of you buggers did..... heh.
(click to read definition of 'heh', as my offline folks don't usually have a clue).
Anyhoo it was nice to see folks from the past emerge and comment, I call those folks the 'oldies' and was pleasantly surprised to see new folks comment, those shall be the 'newbies'.

The Evil Plot Bunny

For some it is nanowrimo time once more, this is when some crazy folks crack out a novel in a month. All those that I know doing it, are what I would call writers. This leads me once more into the murky world of writing vs blogging. I am firmly entrenched in the ' I am a blogger' category, because quite frankly calling myself a writer feels utterly ridiculous. In saying that, I feel bad, I have spotted that light, I have followed it down a murky tunnel..... Yes I want to be a writer, I want to write a book and yes I hate myself for it. Alright I don't actually hate myself, but it does feel rather daft and grandiose.

I blame .............The Evil Plot Bunny, that furry creature that leaves droppings of ideas all over the place.

Miss Dorman inspired this doodle, so thanks a lot! (lol)

Mumborg News

The Mumborg should be released on Monday, if they get all the paperwork in order. She had a weekend visit and that went rather well, so huzzah and all that bollocks. It will be nice to finally get back to living and having some fun! For the Mumborg I mean. It has been bloody boring, well up until the removing of the leg part. Once she is all settled in and sorted, I will write a longer update.

Keep reading for more stuff and nonsense

Photos and such

One of the 'oldies' commented on the previous post that I had been lacking in photographic material of late, especially outside the house stuff, it seems photos of my socks are just not good enough! Cheeky cow that she is, Linda was right, she has a nasty habit of being that way (right, I mean). I think jealously definitely kicked in, especially when Lindy loo got an digital slr and her photography has been steaming ahead to professional status ever since.
So thanks to another oldie, Mr JD and Lindy loo, I have had a photographic kick up the arse. JD has kindly took it upon himself to create a group 365 project and I am one of those in the group. I can no longer just lament at the fact that I cant afford an SLR at the moment, I just need to use the camera that I do have, to its death. Although in saying that, I did actually kill it the other day, but thanks to the forum advice found here, a quick bang was all it needed and voilà it was revived. I wonder how long zombie camera will survive before it dies permanently?
So 365 Photos will be found on the site here Frapto and Flickr set here Frapto365 .

Give me light!

Don't blame it on the sunshine... Okay do. I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love the smell, the leaves changing, the crisp air. I hate the gloom, the cold, the damp and the darkness. If I was a bear, I would for sure be hibernating right about now. Instead I am eating more crap, in the form of crisps and biscuits.

Dr Deb wrote an intersting post on this here: Seasonal Affective Disorder
You can also follow Dr Deb on twitter - @DeborahSerani

Other Interesting stuff:

Personal Development and the Dark Side - A great post on Personal Development Blogs and those that delve into the shadows of themselves: Find the post here

You can also follow the author of the post on twitter @mindfulconstrct

Right that is my waffle for the week, time flies when the evil plot bunny chases you all round the house, good thing I love rabbit stew!

3 years and counting

2009-10-29T22:43:00.002Z

Twas a cold October evening in the year 2006, the wind was howling and the body lay there cold on the floor.... Shit wrong story! Ah hem, forget the body bit. A young (ish) woman was stumbling around the internet looking for an online journal of sorts, something to record her thoughts for a personal development project. It was for her new counselling course, as the old pen to paper of recording thoughts thing wasn't working for her. Somehow she stumbles upon 'blogger' and Bob's your mothers aunt. She ponders for a while on what to call this blog thing (for about 2 minutes), nobody is going to read it anyway, so what does a name matter? Then the poor gal falls down a rabbit hole and awakes three years later.......

Lessons Learnt in Blogging

If you are a newbie blogger or just clueless like I was (well still am), then I think that you will enjoy reading the posts that I wrote for my first and second blogging anniversaries. I have learnt a lot and it really can't all fit into this one post. I will still highlight some of the information from those previous posts, in this post, as I try and sum up three years of blogging fun. This is blogging 'Personal' stylee, not making money, not professional writing, blogging tips or anything like that. This is just my little journey through HTML hell, troll dung and template tiffs.

Year One

My first blogging anniversary was a tad late,who knew you had to write an anniveresary post for every year you don't quit.

The blog looked like this

You can also see it in action here, thanks to the Way Back Machine (records all your old horrors). I have no idea how it works, but maybe you should check to see if your blog is there? Wayback Machine

The first actual incarnation was a horrid green spotty classic template (no offence to those that have the horrid green spotty one, although you could change it). There are No screen shots of that, because I had no clue what a screen shot was.
Main lessons learnt after year one: Posted like crazy, several times a day, twas a bad idea. Tried paid posting, it got boring,fast. Horrid template at first, messed the HTML, did a million memes, got bored.

Year Two

The blog looked like this

The wonderful Design Bug designed this for me and I loved it, still do.

Main lessons learnt after year two: Started doodling again, twas a joy, found more of a 'style', posted a lot less. Made some great friends, not all people on the internet are scary. Rediscovered twitter, found it vastly appealing. Twitter also led me to connect to people closer to where I live.

Keep Reading for more wonderful insights........

Year Three

Here I am now three years on, how would of thunk it!

Well it has been three years, so I must have some words of wisdom to share with you all?

Blog Appearance: Well as you can see it is now a vision in doodles, with less clutter and easier to navigate (I hope?) Again I called upon the talents of Design Bug, who just read my mind and turned it into the blog template I wanted. I loved the previous design, shown above, but it just wasn't working for me anymore. Also I thought I deserved a three years of blogging treat, so voilà here it is. If you are from the UK, the exchange rate really works in your favour, although to be fair, it is a bargain in dollars too.

What Tools do I use now?

I mean blogging tools, don't be thinking rude thoughts.. Oh just me?

I have continued to use BlogCatalog, it has its up and downs, mainly downs of late. It is changing though and soon it will be a real asset for blog promotion. Like any social networking site, you have to sieve through some shit to find the real gold nuggets.

Twitter- It is the marmite of social networking, you either love it or hate it. I happen to love it, because of a few things. It has connected me to local folks and that has been a joy! Who knew there were bloggers and tweeters so close to me. I have used it to build up a fantastic set of mental folk, by mental I mean those that tweet with a 'mental health' kind of theme, which has been invaluable to me. It is networking with like minded folk, who you can bounce ideas off, whatever time of day or night it is.

People - They are most valuable tools and the thing that keeps blogging alive. Whether you find them via blogcatalog, google, reading blogs, twitter etc, hopefully once they arrive at your blog, they then get hooked and want to stay. You have to make an effort though, a selfish blogger is no fun at all! Sure you can have a large cranium because people visit your blog and comment, but don't be pompous arse about it. If people bother to comment or reach out in some way, then try to respond in some way back. Some folks consistently reply to comments, some email, some twitter talk, some facebook, some do all! I try to do at least one of them, but at times I have been an ignorant sod.

Friends - Not something I even thought about when I started blogging, not that I was thinking much about anything. Some of those people that you trick into reading your blog, via whatever means, end up being rather friendly people! I know, who would of thunk it?

Other Thoughts

Blog-Roll - I axed the blog roll a while back. Why is that? It was getting long, nobody was using it and it doesn't actually do anything for your stats. All the good stuff is stored in my google reader. If someone writes something that needs to be shared, then I may include a link in a post, tweet it, stumble it, broadcast it, etc etc.I do check other peoples' blogrolls, but of late the interesting folk have been in their comment boxes too and it is those folks that you really want. The question arises quite a bit in blog world 'Are you a reader or a writer', I have always answered 'both'. I love reading other people's blogs, they are entertaining, inspiring, informative, creative and I could go on and on.The Blog Roll use to be a way of keeping all those cool folk in one place, but as your blogging habits evolve, so does your reading habits.

Personal Development- I was just at the start of my counselling studies when I started this blog and now I am right at the end, well for this level anyways. Blogging has been immensely helpful to me for college stuff, from the stuff that I written here, to thoughts I have bounced off people on twitter, to the people that have commented on the 'counselling' posts. Having a creative outlet for all my random thoughts has been a unique experience and I think that is what has proven to be the most addictive thing about blogging.

Here is too another three years of headaches, fun, friendship and a whole heap of other bollocks.

/raises a glass to all those read this, cheers!
(by glass I mean a humongous mug of tea)

Swine Socks

2009-10-26T20:56:00.000Z

Finally getting over the ruddy flu! It may have been swine related, it may have not. I took the dreaded tamiflu anyways and I am not dead, so that is good. I thought I would photograph my appropriate swine like socks and whack it in a post, whilst I catch up on things. Three years of blogging is rapidly approaching, so things may possibly be changing around here very soon.....

Mumborg: 50th commemorative edition

2009-10-17T04:39:00.003+01:00

First of all what is a Mumborg?
The word Mumborg was first created to describe my mother as she was edging ever closer to bionic woman and ever further away from normal human being status. I decided on this post , after playing with variations of the bionic/borg theme, ranging from mum/cyborg to cybernetic beast master. I use to refer to her as the 'Cupboard Monster' but that confused people a wee bit too much. I think they thought the 'Cupboard Monster' was my alternate personality, which is ridonkulous (that is Ralph, Hey Ralph!). Also Mumborg is another home run on google, I currently own the market on 'Mumborgs' woot. The question now is, does the mumborg still qualify as a borg like parent since having the leg removed? I voted and the answer is yes! Although the major metal work was in the leg that was removed, she now relies more on the electric wheelchair, which is bionic (sort of), so the nickname stays!

Today Mumborg hits 50

"The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down." By T.S. Eliot

I couldn't have a birthday month of my own, oh no, the mumborg sneaks in a mere 5 days later. That also means I must have been the best birthday present ever all those years ago, right? Also another year of her being in hospital for her and my birthdays, I think it is 5 or 6 years on the run! Maybe she is trying to tell me something? The good news is that, although she is in hospital for her birthday, she should be home rather soon.

"I think when the full horror of being fifty hits you, you should stay home and have a good cry." By Alan Bleasdale

Does 50 make a difference?
When I talk about the mumborg I am not sure how old most people think she is, as I am not sure most people realise how old I am? (shoe size age most of the time). Anyhoo, when I have talked about her in the past, people have said 'At least she has had a good life', which don't get me wrong is true (sort of). I then tell them her age, which was late 40's until today (now the big 50), that is met with almost gasps of horror. If she was 70 all this crap wouldn't be so bad, so it seems, but as she is only a youngster, it is bloody depressing, apparently.

On with birthday stuff
A totally not true conversation (okay some of it is true)

Me: What would you like for your 50th birthday?

Mumborg: /thinking.......

Me: Its too late anyways, I already got you something.

Mumborg: Ohhhhh what?

Me: Tada! I got you a wooden leg and a parrot.

Mumborg: Erm, that is not quite what I wanted.

Me: What did you want?

Mumborg: M&S vouchers, some books and DVD's.

Me: Spoilsport! What I am going to do with these now?

Mumborg: Halloween?

Me: Yeah cool.

So it is a big Happy Birthday to the Mumborg,
Wee Claire probably says it better than me, so let me rummage through the vaults of time and find proof of this.

The superbly talented TJ strikes again, with this beautiful mumborg doodle.

Act your age, not your shoe size.

2009-10-12T12:29:00.002+01:00

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.

In a effort to post a least once a week, this weeks instalment falls upon my birthday, yay for me or something. Like many women my age, I am 28 years old, no really, that is how old I am now. Some advice I received, once long ago, is running round my head at the moment, it is rather deep so take a moment whilst you read it:

"Act your age, not your shoe size"

Shockingly profound isn't it? But as I have rather large feet*, I think acting in relation to ones shoe size, wouldn't actually be that bad, in fact I positively recommend it.

*Not freakishly large feet by the way, don't haunt me with clown music (you know who you are).

As my birthday fell upon a Monday this year (worse day ever!), I decided to go out over the weekend to celebrate instead. What to do now that I am past the drink so much, puke, drink some more stage of my life? Go to my first ever proper gig of course! In the last few years I have developed a new love for music, gone are the complacent days of just flipping on Radio 1 (popular station in UK land). For those that write reviews on music and gig, may I give you three mugs of Kudos? Because holy shit is it hard to write about music! I have tried unsuccessfully to describe how much I like or dislike certain music, trying to put some passion into it, but failing miserably. So I have come up with a really technical scale of musical wonderment chart, which I will probably never use again...

The Claire Scale of Musical Wonderment
1. Hallowed three thumbs up of awesomeness (Similar to wet my pants awesomeness)
2. Ohhhhh awesomeness
3. Pretty awesome
4. Hmmm (The hmmm of pondering)
5. Meh
6. Holy shit! How fucking awful (similar to 'My ears, my ears, arghhhhhhhhh')

Even though I am British, I still love the word awesome, there are other words that may be more eargasmic, but I am sticking with awesome. Just thought I would mention that, after having a discussion about the word awesome with someone else and not really relevant to this, but hey this is my stream of nonsense after all.

So whom did I see?
I saw Bat for Lashes and Yeasayer at the Liverpool O2 academy, which is a smallish venue. Yeasayer where the supporting act, but in my opinion they got the 'Hallowed three thumbs up of awesomeness' and should have played for much longer! Hardly anyone was watching them either, which was shocking, as they were such a treat. Bat for Lashes were only slightly below them with a 'ohhhhh awesomeness' rating, not sure what it was, but they didn't connect with me as much as Yeasayer. It could be because some absolute morons decided to edge they way through the crowd and stand right in front of me, forcing me to tap them on the shoulder and utter moooooooove in a some what snarl. I know its a gig and standing room only, but if you are keen, then get there bloody earlier and position yourself in a cool spot, no need to act like a tool. Anyhoo it took a while for me to avert my laser eye beam stare from the back of their heads and back onto Bat for Lashes, after some musical meditation all was well once more. I loved the small venue feel to the place, as it definitely added a more intimate vibe, both bands are well versed in playing at festivals, so you know they can perform on a larger scale too. It wasn't hard to imagine being a sunny field dancing bare foot whilst listening to their tunes. So now I am hooked even more on those two bands and now live gigs! Slap me with a wet haddock for leaving it so long to go to a gig! I know this gig review has blown you away...... (come back).

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

Yeasayer - Tightrope

If you are musically inclined and on Last.fm, then check out of my profile.

Now for the rest of my birthday I will be doing...... Not much

Update: Mucho thanks for birthday wishes

Look what TJ doodled for me:

I hate the gal for being so talented, but was touched that she took time out to doodle this for me.

Fake leg shenanigans

2009-10-05T23:42:00.000+01:00

What do you buy a mumborg with one leg? A fake latex rubber leg of course.....

Typical! The shop only had fake latex like 'right' legs and we needed a left leg, but what can one do. My sister and I scared the poor shop boy person as he was wandering back towards the arm and leg section with an awol arm. Seeing two women rummaging manically through that section, seeking a left leg must have looked quite odd. I think it was the laughing as my sister told him that we were looking for a leg for our mother who had been freshly amputated, that really made him scarper. I don't know why....Where on earth can you find an arm and leg section anyways? Tis the season to be bloody of course! Halloween in other words, so the supermarkets are full of all things gory.
Anyhoo the mumborg liked her gift, but some dastardly person had taken the real humour out of it! Offended by it? Nay. The lady next door to the mumborg has also had her leg recently amputated and someone gave her a fake latex leg the day before! Curses to them and their sick sense of humour! The mumborg has put it use straight away and is terrorising the nurses and doctors with it, confusing some of them into thinking she hadn't had surgery after all, haha.

Thanks to the great googly moogly powers that be, one of my doodles is already appearing in google images when one searches for hindquarter amputation. Not that I imagine many people actually search for that term and/or want or expect a daft doodle? What I do hope is that people find this site and maybe find it of some use, if they or someone they love is going through something similar. This stream of waffling was caused in some part by a comment I received yesterday on this post 'Risking life and limb', I am not going to post the whole comment on this post, but it is there in the comments of that post, if you would like to read it. I will however post this bit:

But I just came on this page looking for hope for him after the amputation. Is there? Is mumborg okay now?

I hope they don't mind me posting that bit of their comment here, I just wanted them to see my response, if they come back, as there was no other way of reaching them.

I am not one to use the word 'hope' willy nilly, as it is not something I control or even really believe in. All I can say is that mumborg is okay now and she is doing fantastically well. It is hard to give advice to someone else going through the same thing, as everyone will handle it differently. I suppose I look upon it like the grieving process, as it is a significant loss and there are a whole range of emotions that you go through. What helped the mumborg a lot was meeting other amputees and talking to them, they, after all, are living breathing examples that life does in fact go on after amputation. Things are still very new and strange for me at the moment, as it has only been just over a week. I have no crystal ball that will tell me that things will be wonderful and there wont be any more problems, but for now things are good and it looks like she may be allowed home soon.

If you have only recently joined in on the mumborg adventures just click the 'mum' to find out more.

Operation Lopitoff complete

2009-09-30T02:52:00.004+01:00

Well Operation Lopitoff has been completed and I now have a one legged mumborg.

Waiting, waiting and a bit of waiting.

Although I knew that the operation would most likely be on the Friday just gone, it was not for definite. So on Thursday, the triumvirate finally made the decision that the leg would be lopped off on the Friday. I am nicknaming the three surgeons the 'Triumvirate', because it sounds cool and there are three of them. The gruesome thrusome, didn't quite work or sound evil enough. Even though to all accounts they are all lovely and have just fallen victim to my artistic license.
Anyhoo back on track, things were scheduled to kick off at around 11am on Friday morning. I think waiting around for word from the hospital is quite possibly one of the most difficult things about these types of situations. You are literally helpless. If you have flown recently, you may have noticed the flight tracker thingy on the little screen that lets you know the flight progress, one of those would be great for surgery. Although if things started flashing and suddenly went blank, that may cause some concern...
You try not to let your mind wander 'there', my there is the death type of 'there'. The thought of the mumborg dying on the operating table is a nightmare of mine. But like every surgery, there is that tricky thing of complications and possibilities, so I would rather be armed with the worst possible outcomes, than blind to them.
After sevenish hours of waiting, we finally heard that she was out of surgery and had ended up straight back on her ward. I was expecting HDU at the very least, maybe even ICU time, but for her to be back on her ward was good news. At first when I heard she was back on her ward, I actually hoped that they hadn't done the operation or had somehow fixed the leg. I went through all those thoughts in my head, because I didn't want any disappointment to show in my face. The dad went to see her first, they needed a moment just for themselves. Then a while later, Heather and I went in.
My eyes went first to the large space where the leg and bits once were, in that moment it seemed like a huge chunk of her was missing. It is hard to put into words how it feels in that moment, because as you are looking, your mind is already adapting. I suppose I would go with 'weird', it just felt weird. Then the mumborg speaks and the weirdness fades a wee bit, because it is still her.

It doesn't grow back

As far as the surgeons are concerned the operation went well, even though they are still upset that it came to this. I think they are relieved that things are healing well and mumborg came through the operation in as good a condition as one could expect.

Where is the leg?
The Mumborg was hoping that they would be able to do something useful with the leg, at least study the epic fail of a limb that it is, but alas no. Due to the very heavy restrictions on all things in regards to infection control, the leg had to go straight to the incinerator. I guess that could be classed as a funeral of sorts, well at least a cremation. Unfortunately we don't get the ashes, so when she does pop her clogs in the far far distant future she will be missing a bit.

One Legged Mumborg

I found a earlier model of the one legged mumborg here - One legged hopper

Once the relief kicks in that the mumborg made it through the operation, the realisation that I have a one legged mumborg sets in. You know it is going to happen, you talk about it happening, but then it actually happens. Quite frankly it is rather shocking, a large part of a person you love is missing. Tis not the outward that makes up the essence of a person, so whilst she is incomplete on the outside, inside in a soul like way she is the same person. Does that make it easier to get your hand around? Yes to some extent it does.

What next?

Let us leave that morbid stuff behind and focus on the positive stuff, which is basically wrapped up in one neat package called 'Mumborg'. The mumborg is already 'up' and about, in regards to being allowed in her electric wheelchair, but that is causing some pain, not that she would admit to it. The wound is dry (no ooze or blood) and she may even be allowed off the antibiotics soon. I thought she would be on IV antibiotics for months, but looks like this wont be happening, which is great.
The next challenge is physiotherapy and the question of will she be able to walk on crutches? Considering that her shoulders dislocate all the time and the other leg is not exactly fantastic, this possibility is still very much up in the air. Although the mumborg is determined to walk again, so who am I to discourage that. If things go really well, then she could be home soon and back to being the pain in my arse, hooray!

Random thoughts
Time flies when you are not having fun! Can't believe it has been nearly two weeks since I wrote anything on here. It has been a roller-coaster of emotions, that has left me feeling a bit nauseous and very bloody tired!

If you have only recently joined in on the mumborg adventures just click the 'mum' to find out more.