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reblogged from planetmithiOh my goodness ... my computer has been pretty dead for the last month or so. I've had internet access on the laptop - but its the desktop I use with Potatoshop etc so image handling has been non-existant.
ANYWAYS, in the mean time, the exciting news is WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE! .... infact, we are buying OUR house!!! Yes, after living here for 4 years we are going to transfer from being tenants - to being homeowners ... how exciting! To commemorate the occasion I am going to do a drawing of the house when we exchange/complete the purchase (should be in the next few weeks), but in the meantime, here is a drawing I did of it when we first moved here back in September 2007.
Hello all ... sorry to have suddenly disappeared just as I've started blogging again. I have in fact a whole bunch of photos taken of more Lucky Finds that I've been meaning to upload, but my desktop PC has crashed. We've recovered most of my data but have had to re-install the operating system. Its still being a bit wobbly so I haven't put my Adobe software back on (so no photo editing on that computer at the moment). We are still looking into the problem but will hopefully be back in business soon ... Thanks for your patience!
I've been collecting vintage children's games like this for illustration inspiration for a couple of years now. Galt has a wonderful collection of these things including this lovely "Remember Remember" memory game with many tiles by the wonderful Kenneth Townsend, as also seen in these small dishes I have here.
My two Hornsea bird ashtrays (although sometimes referred to as spoon rests). I absolutely love the simple graphics designed by John Clappison. Clappison did lots of other designs for Hornsea including owl/cat/fish cruet sets and these bird ashtrays. As far as I know, there is one more design that is a chicken. As much as I'd love to have the cruet sets too - I'm restricting myself to the birds (and they have to be in blue!)... for the time being ;)
Can't believe its been 2 months since we lost Little Wind... we've tried to get on with life and have been trying to photograph and document the nice things we've been up to so I can blog about them ... but only now am I finally managing to pull those together. I've been making up some draft posts but backdating them to when they happened. So bear with me as the last two months are going to appear a bit oddly if you get my rss feed. Please come back periodically over the next few weeks while I try and get them all up. Will also update this post to say when I'm done.
Running away to Gower
My birthday done
Wau flying done
Visiting Miche
Vintage velo ride done
Norfolk Broads
Sunshine's birthday done
Spike Island open studios
Happy birthday my Sunshine... You are my rock and I love you more than you can ever know.
Sunshine and I have been wanting to go on the London Tweed Run ever since we heard about it. We even talked about organising something similar in Bristol ... fortunately someone else went and did it (Bristol Vintage Velo) and we signed up the moment we found out.
It gave us a deadline to get Bramble all cleaned up (she's had a new paint job) and ready - she even had a picnic basket on the back. It was also an excuse to find "rational attire". Bunny had to come too so I even made him a tweed waiscoat and cravat.
What a fabulous day we had cycling on Bramble from the Clifton Suspension Bridge; through Ashton Court and Tyntesfield Estate; and ending up at the Flax Bourton village hall for tea and cakes; entertaiment (from the oh so fabulous Hot Potato Syncopators) and games too! Met lots of bikes enthusiasts and made lots of new friends.
See more of our photos here and links to more pictures and videos of the great day here.
I bought Sunshine this wau years ago and we'd never tried flying it ... till today that is. With help from our friend the kite historian, we flew her over the Bristol Downs. She flies like a dream. Nice to be out catching some wind ...
Spring flowers from my sister-in-law, and the most wonderful geeky card from Sunshine. He made and gave it to me last night - and all I could do was cry :(
Gosh, has it really been 2 months since I posted last? I don't know how many of you are going to be reading this - you must all be bored of my absence by now and given up coming here. But I thought it would be good for me to explain my absence, and also do a bit of reflecting as we head into 2011...
I knew 2010 was going to be a tough year. It started off with us handing in all that we'd been up to in the first semester of my final year studying illustration. I'd worked really hard and was determined to concentrate wholly on my degree and nothing else this year. Unfortunately I wasn't really happy with the feedback I got from the tutors. I felt I hadn't quite achieved what I had wanted to and that made me quite sad. But I thought I still have another (my final) semester and I was going to pull myself up through it all.
I worked really hard that last semester - but it always felt a bit unsatisfactory. My coursemates were all jumping over personal hurdles, and I just felt stuck. I worked so hard I exhausted myself. Eventually, during Easter break, Sunshine took me away to Milan for a few days. We were one of the last planes out before all the airports were shut down due to the Icelandic volcano eruption. So although Milan was great, it took us three extra days to get back to the UK travelling over land and sea. Somehow I felt I never quite managed to catch up with work after that.
I wasn't particularly happy with my graduation grade; but I was too tired to care. We also had a really strong year so no matter how good you were, most people were ignored and the same handful of about 5 people kept getting all the interest from commisioners. Now don't get me worng - I'm not bitter ... those few people DID deserve to get all that interest. But having gone round lots of other shows I realised that most of our even mid-range students were more talented and creative than some of the best in the other colleges. Anyways, lots of other little things happened within college those last couple of months that left me quite disheartened by it all, and I didn't end my degree in a particularly happy place.
Summer I was determined to get my life back and reconnect with my Darling Sunshine who'd pretty much just seen the back of my head in front of a screen for the last year. It was a good summer. We didn't really go away anywhere, but bought a tandem and spent lots of time just cycling around and having quality time together. It was a wonderful few months.
As the new academic year 2010/2011 started in September/October; and Sunshine had to get back to his university lecturing job; I thought I'd take the time from then till the end of the year to re-do my portfolio and have a re-think about what actually I wanted to do with this illustration degree. I definitly wanted (and still do) want to become a freelance illustrator - but I needed to work out within what specialisms and whether I wanted to do stuff for myself (designer-maker) or commissions, or some combination of the two.
Then at the beginning of October we got the awful news about the death of our very good friend (and wedding photographer) Burning Dan. Within a day I also received some upsetting news about a family crisis too (which is still unresolved). I spend days crying as one thing would remind me of the other and it just spiralled. I tried to distract myself with illustrating - but was having real self-confidance issues and just couldn't bring myself to produce anything decent.
So there I am trying to keep it together, when we find out that I'm expecting! (bravo to you those that have read this far and managed to get the news!). We had been trying, but with all the rubbish news, it still took us a bit by surprise ... The hormonal imbalances meant that I lost all creativity and was just feeling tired all the time. Then at about 8 weeks the symptoms really hit and December was pretty much a washout with me having all-day sickness; Sunshine catching the flu; me catching it off him... etc etc. No cards or greetings for anyone.
We had the dating scan just before Christmas and got to see Little Wind for the first time. He/she seems to be doing well (despite momma being so ill). Started telling family over Christmas and friends just after that. Happy news all round.
Sunshine and I spend New Year's Eve at a dear friend's who looked after us very well and we vowed that 2011 was going to be a much better year than 2010. And with that thought we went to bed. On New Year's morning, just as we were getting up and having breakfast, I got a phone call from my Dad. "Happy New Year dad!".. "Mithi, are you alright?", "Yeeessss ....?", "You sure you're alright? I have some bad news ..." Oh dear! For a second there I thought it was to do with that unresolved family crisis from October ... but it turned out to be that one of my dear cousins, only 27, had died tragically in an accident the night before. I put the phone down and cried on Sunshine for a while. Is this how 2011 was going to start?
So, I have't been really 'here' physically or mentally. I've been meaning to blog since Christmas ... but its been one thing after another ... I haven't given up on PlanetMithi, but it will still be a bit quiet here for a while. I'm getting much better but the pregnancy symptoms seem to attack quite randomly at times so I'm not quite there yet. I'd love to start crafting for the baby and showing you all what I'm doing here - but I've been mostly just curled up in bed fighting fatigue and nausea and sadness. Writing this post has been my achievement for the day.
Thank you for reading this far - may you all have a Fabulous and crisis-free 2011!
Love
Mithi
Reposted from Planetmithi
