Making It Up

as we go along

Snapshots

(early) Saturday snippets September 23rd 2017

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{heading} for bed very soon, as Kentwell calls. Our last event of the tudor year, and it’s just me and Small attending. Which will be a little odd tbh, but also quite nice to spend a bit of time with just one child. We’ve four days, and have borrowed a caravan so at least I’m not wrestling with a tent!

{feeling} slightly overwhelmed at how suddenly life has got busy and complicated after a relatively straightforward summer. Two children doing different courses at different places, all the variety of clubs back in action, add in the usual home ed activities and trying to blog and create and run and and and… I think I may be overdoing it. Is this just how it works when you’ve four children? Very possibly.

{reading} still the Loneliest Girl in the Universe (amazon affiliate link). I picked up a review book on the kindle the other night and accidentally lost an hour or two to that, which I regretted as quite frankly, no. (I’ll be reviewing that direct on netgalley as a DNF I suspect, although I’m taking my kindle with me, just in case, this weekend.)

{wondering} what I will discover I’ve forgotten on arrival in 1600.

{thinking} I really should be in bed.

{savouring} this burst of late summer at the start of autumn.

Snapshots – an unexpected roadside find.

{Big} trying to get into the swing of A levels, not being made any easier by the fact that two of her teachers have been mainly absent this week, and then she’s ended up with a nasty head cold – I had to collect her from school today. As an aside to that, I wasn’t overly impressed that I had to ring in to confirm I’d done just that, apparently a 17 year old’s word isn’t enough? Hm.

{Small} preparing for *another* guitar gig, getting into the swing of college and with a weekend at Kentwell ahead.

{Smallest} preparing to launch her own book blog – she’s read her first review book twice, so as to be sure to give it a thorough write up!

{Tigerboy} in need of focus. Going to ponder on that this weekend.

And with that, I must be off to bed!

Sunday (night) snippets 22 January 2016

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{feeling} tired. And tired of being tired. But apparently my inflammatory marker level (only bit of the blood test that’s back) is normal. Not that I have any idea what that means.

{pushing} boundaries on drawing. Tonight I drew my sktchy portrait with a magic crayon. It was my 50th submission to the platform as well, which feels like quite a good milestone, although as there are some people submitting two and three a day I’m not going to be going into the headlines any time soon.

{looping} back to tired. But with a side helping of determined. I need to pace myself and achieve stuff in and between bouts of extra sleep I think. (I’m turning into a sloth. It’s not fun. And I’m not even getting cute with it.)

{enjoying} skies.

Snapshots.

Big marked her 17th this week, which should have a post of its own when I’m not quite so tired. (Did I already mention that?) Small got his first iGCSE result, an A in computer science. Go him 🙂 Smallest is reading every picture book after I read it now – just waiting for her to make the leap to chapter books. I have a shelf of rainbow fairies waiting 😉 (And a whole lot of other things, but rainbow fairies have a long and honoured history here as gateway books to the real stuff!) Tigerboy is hovering in the not quite reading stages, but I think he’s absorbing a lot of what Smallest is up to, so it probably won’t be long.

A question. There are quite a few things I’d like to buy for myself to continue arting, not least a couple of anime style movable mannequins in lieu of making it to a life drawing class. I’d like art to be self funding though, and I’m not sure how best to achieve that. I started a patreon, but haven’t poked it, and while I’ve got a kofi button and have put it on book review posts I don’t feel right just asking for handouts. If there is something art related – cards, sketches, prints of mine that you’d consider buying, what would it be? And would you rather buy through something like etsy, or redbubble? Lots of examples on instagram, although I think sometime this week I’ll try to put together a portfolio page too.

Saturday snippets 1 August 2015

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{walking} because I can’t run. The pain level in my back/ leg is manageable if I take painkillers regularly, but that leaves me without my exercise outlet. Fitbit tells me I walked for 82 minutes today though, and covered 4.7 miles, which seems an optimistic interpretation, but I’ll go with it. Got to help, right?

{eating} BLT without the bread. It’s not quite the same, somehow. But if I can’t run, the only way to lose weight is to cut calorie intake.

{enjoying} the moon. And my lovely little camera. Wish I’d figured out the right settings to get the blue moon last night, but still quite pleased with tonight’s shots.

{watching} Covert Affairs. And wondering why we’re bothering. It’s really not that good, although playing spot the actor is fun. What these shows are missing is humour, snark just doesn’t cut it full time.

{reading} um. Can I get back to you on that? 

{plotting} a blog reengineering. May crank out my programming mojo. Though really it will be about presentation. And design. 

{experimenting} with new Winsor and Newton watercolour pens. They are rather fun. Second time around I mixed them with the watercolour box, it was really rather fun. 

{also plotting} a story. I don’t know how to tell it. There’s this girl crashing around in my head, and also this old woman, and they’ve got things they want to say, but each set of words I’ve tried so far hasn’t quite been them. I’ll keep trying.

52memories

garden games

Snapshots.

Big went out this week and set up a volunteering position at a charity shop for her Duke of Edinburgh. She’s also got glasses now, which is very different. Small has started experimenting with drawing using the Stan Lee book on drawing the Marvel way (I’ll pop a link in later) and it’s great to see him exploring. Smallest did some seed planting with Tim today, they’re going to grow marigolds. Tigerboy has been doing some montessori style pincer work today, transferring unit cubes from dish to dish.

I’ve been painting, and I’ve also started a sketchalong with a couple of friends over on instagram. Here’s my day 1.

A drawing a day @jennytidman #sketch #art #instaart #pencil #learntodraw

A photo posted by Jax Blunt (@liveotherwise) on

Saturday snippets 16 May 2015

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{getting up} far far too early. Big had a cadet day which required her to be in the next town, after her paper round, for 8.15. Which was going to be tight. And so of course I woke up at 6, did that horrible flail oh no I’ve slept in, and then realised that actually I had another 45 minutes, but didn’t dare go back to sleep in case I then slept through the alarm. Not an auspicious start to the day.

{exploring} a different supermarket. A while back, I was given a Waitrose voucher. And given that I had to be in town to drop Big off, I decided that I would spend it today, and see how much I could get there for my £75. The answer is nowhere near as much as I get in my usual Lidl shop, and I’ll have to do a bit of a top up in a couple of days time. Plus, I don’t like going to new places – by the time I’ve got to the far end of the shop, I’ve completely run out of decision making capabilities, and making polite conversation with the very friendly checkout lady was almost a step too far. I did enjoy loading my posh groceries into my Lidl bag though 😉

{watching} Death in Paradise. Didn’t get around to family film night with Big out and about today, sadly. We watched a Longmire as well

{reading} Uprooted by Naomi Novik I’m really enjoying it. And I know I keep saying this, but full review *will* follow very soon.

{eating} sausages and mash, with braised leeks and rhubarb crumble. The leek and rhubarb first fresh delivery of the season from Tim’s brother. Very nice – there is something special about locally grown food. Smallest loves growing things, I must try to get her more involved.

{enjoying} getting out in the garden with a camera, and getting some pics. I haven’t actually looking at them on the big screen yet, but the snaps I got on the phone (see instagram)

#52memories

(sadly the original project as run by the mumdrum is coming to an end. I will be continuing to select and share a weekly memory here on the blog though, I like the focus it gives me.)

in the garden

Snapshots.

Big passed her basic star at cadets today – she has missed no sessions since she started, and this was her second training weekend. I’m really proud of her commitment to it – the amount of time she spends ironing uniform and polishing boots is quite startling. Small has started preparing for his role in the great Tudor recreation at Kentwell Hall this year as a page, and has started studying Latin. (I have wanted to work with a child on Latin for so long!) Smallest is back on birds, as I blogged the other night. And is also getting increasingly confident in her swimming – she moved to the deeper area of the shallow pool this week. Tigerboy is excelling at being as changeable as the wind. Once moment he’s utterly adorable, kissing me, cuddling, reading a book, carrying the best Hobbes around. The next he’s destroying playdoh by ripping it up and throwing it round the kitchen, or hiding a cake in his drink in the hope of getting another one to lick the icing off. (No of course I didn’t fall for that. Sigh.) This too will pass.

And for me, I’ve not done a huge amount of drawing this week. There was this from the other morning in the garden though. Need to do more work on perspective. But hey.

garden sketching

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Saturday snippets 18 April 2015

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{watching} swimming rather than a film. Not that I could see all that much of the swimming from my corner seat in the cafe. But it was enough to be there I hope. (Big reminded me that the first time she did Swimathon, 4 years ago, I cried.)

{reading} Summer Secrets, the new Jane Green. Which was immediately powerful, but I had to put it down to do stuff, and I haven’t got my round tuit out again yet.

{playing} with design ideas for the blog. Trying to work out what summarises me and the blog – what elements do I want to feature in a badge/header/overall design? This isn’t something I’ve done at all before, and I’m struggling knowing how to put it together. I do feel that somewhere inside me there might be a drawing style, so I just have to keep trying stuff out until I find it. (Am also working on a picture book concept, which I’m very much enjoying.)

{enjoying} the sunshine. I spent a day re proofing the tent (at least, I hope I reproofed the tent. Turned out I missed a stage of the instructions, I’ve no idea how, but maybe I did enough? Please!). And we went down to the beach for the morning with local home ed friends, and there’s been plenty of garden play.

{marvelling} at Smallest putting together language and writing. I sometimes wonder whether I did something wrong with Big first time around, or didn’t do something right, or whether it’s just different children, different times, different ways of learning.

{eating} bacon sandwiches. The Lidl french sticks are way better than the Coop ones, and 14p cheaper. I’ve been thinking about the Live below the line challenge but I’m not sure we’re up to it this year.

#52memories

Smallest-running-on-beach

Snapshots

Big, as mentioned above, took part in the swimathon today, her team swam 5k between the 5 of them. Due to some technical issues (grr), she doesn’t have her own fundraising page, but if anyone is interested in contributing let me know and I’ll get you a link 🙂 (It’s in aid of Marie Curie.) Small, hm. It’s time I focussed on spending some time with him, I don’t seem to have seen much of him this week. Plans afoot for tomorrow. Smallest and I spent Tuesday in London at a dance workshop, and it was really rather nice. She’s back on Reading Eggs and Mathseeds, and is also daily trying to sound things out to write them down. Tigerboy tries to do everything she’s doing, which means he’s absorbing stuff effortlessly. I hope.

Me? Yes, I’ve been drawing again. The pics are mainly on instagram, do feel free to check them out. (I’ll put one here tomorrow when I can face getting up to get a cable to attach my phone…