hello alan

Kindly created & donated by Tyler.
I am most pleased.

cook-alikes

At the weekend Rosie and I (but mainly Rosie) made these face cakes for our friends joint birthday celebration. Derek's was especially easy as we based it on his Wii character.

Our dream is to one day get paid to prepare for parties. So if anyone out there is in need of a party planner we have the following skills:
• Cake-baking
• Decorating
• Costume-making
...and many more.

Party themes are our dream!

happy hands

...because I knitted some winter mittens.

happy feet

...because I finally found some shoes that fit.

baking & making

For the first time in ages I've got some free time without the worry that I should be doing MA work. Unfortunately time rich = money poor so I'm trying to be as productive as possible with minimal spending money.


On Sunday I baked a birthday cake (with the guidance of Rosie, as I was fearful of another biscuit style cake disaster). It turned out delightfully though and got eaten within about 5 minutes of being presented, phew! Maybe I'll experiment with my baking abilities this winter. Yesterday I got my hands on a Jane Asher party cakes book which I'm very excited about!


I've also been doing a spot more knitting and am halfway through mitten no.2 - which I'll hopefully finish off tonight. They look a bit like they are custom-made for Barry Manilow's freakishly long fingers but they seem to fit me ok (maybe because I have man-sized hands...)

Nice things have been dropping through my postbox this week too.


Firstly, a lovely gocco print from Jen which I was very excited to be the recipient of. I've hung it up in the kitchen and it's quite a treat. Thanks once again Jen!

And today I received the most pleasing pigeon photograph from Simon. A very sweet treat indeed (especially as I was fearful of my results arriving today).

On Friday I also received an amazingly BIG bunch of flowers (luckily not posted through the door). No one ever gives me flowers so it was a very nice surprise. They are sitting in the kitchen looking impressive.


I feel spoilt.

Especially as I also now have a wii fit to keep me busy. Defined calf muscles here I come! Today it told me I was a muscle legend for doing some lunges (I don't believe it, but it's a good confidence boost). Though it does mean that we'll probably have to keep the curtains in our lounge drawn most of the time from now on for fear of people in the pub seeing us hula-hooping.

A small sacrifice.

I now have an afternoon of invigilating ahead of me. Do pop down if you're around.

new additions

I've just updated my website to include a selection of my recent MA work, my shopping list project, and some other new illustrations and photographs.

Have a look here: www.debbie-hill.co.uk

...and a little bit more

I haven't made it to the pub yet. Instead I made this banana protector yesterday.
I suspect I might be becoming an OAP.
An OAP who watches Rock of Love.

a little bit of knit

Yesterday I handed in my work & it is currently being marked, with the help of a scary red examining table. Let's hope it all goes smoothly.

After handing in my work I ate 5 BIG chocolate chip cookies (I know!) and got round to doing a bit of knitting and sewing. One of my aims for the winter is to become skilled at knitting in coloured patterns and to create a whole alphabet of knitting.

Here's my first attempt:


Not perfect by any means, but a good start.
Next aim = the pub.

Also, this is my 300th post - that is a lot! Too many? I don't think so.

ready, steady...

I finished hanging my work yesterday - what a big relief that was! I woke up at the crack of dawn yesterday morning worrying about shelves so I'm glad that madness is done with.
I also received my moo mini cards in the post this morning - they please me greatly!
Most of them have images of my MA work on them (apart from the pigeon, which I couldn't resist adding to the mix!)

Not much left to do now - GOOD TIMES!

ps. Rosie told me the best joke yesterday:

Q. What's the first sign of madness?











A. Suggs walking up your driveway.

It's
so
good.

almost done!

Still working...but the end is in sight.

This week we're building the exhibition and I'm enjoying doing a spot of painting and sanding. Today was a very nice day away from my desk and I'm looking forward to many more of those over the next few weeks.

Also, I arrived home to a delightful bit of post from Yumi, which included a copy of her studio newsletter (complete with jokes!) and a shopping list for my collection.

A very nice treat!

worker bee

Yes, I'm still working hard on my MA project - busy times!
Here's a flyer for our exhibition - please do come.


Aside from university work I've been making a list full of plenty of nice things to occupy my time with come October. It's going to be a fun autumn indeed!

Oh, and here are some paper triangles which I used to make bunting for my interactive museum:


You can't go wrong with a bit of bunting!

british racing green

I picked up this wonderfully clean dream of a typewriter at the Sunday market yesterday.
And I only had to part with £1.
Good times!

and breathe.

Today I handed in my MA final project report.
Only the practical work left now.
And 26 days.

Also, this week I've mainly been appreciating animals jumping on things.
This video & this photo are the highlights:

photo

I would also give anything to own this cat.

photo

opening soon (ish)

MA09 Exhibition
19-28th September 2009
10am - 5pm
University of Brighton, Grand Parade.

grey skies & colourful eyes

It was Brighton Pride today. I was proud of myself for only popping out briefly to watch the parade and then returning home to do some work (with a slice of chocolate cake and a cheese & onion pasty under my arm).

Unfortunately, work didn't last long - I felt an illness coming on and got the fear so have taken some preventative pills, crept under my blanket and spent the evening in bed with Columbo. He's not as good as Jonathan Creek...but who is?

Hopefully this cautious behaviour means I will be up with the larks tomorrow and working at double speed (possibly after an early morning trip to the sunday market).

I've also been having a ponder about blogging today. Do I really need 3 blogs? Do I even need one?
I think I might be the only one getting anything out of it...in which case shouldn't I just keep a diary or a sketchbook? (even though my attempts in the past at keeping a diary have always failed miserably after about a day.)

Hmm...I don't know. Maybe I need to go to sleep now.
My throat hurts.

not very content

I would quite like to feel like this:


or this:


or this:


But instead I feel a bit like this:


I also really want a cat!

photos on flickr: one / two / three / four

hat party / party hats

We had a hat party at our flat this weekend.
A lot of people came. And everyone wore a hat!!!

Some of the highlights were: a very glittery crown, the enormous crocodile, a customized safety helmet, a clip-on pigeon, a ninja hat, 2 birds nests, 2 mice and a very impressive cloud.

I made a giraffe hat:


I kept it on nearly all night (which was quite a challenge as it was rather tall). I also made some rosettes to award to the best hats, and we had a ballot box so people could vote for the overall winner:


Other treats included jam tarts & hat shaped cheese straws, an amazing hat cake by Rosie, many hat jokes, and plenty of austin's pimm's and lemonade.

Now I think a long sleep is in order.

lost and found

Today my mouse brooch came back to me in the post, which was a very nice surprise.
I also watched the baby seagull practising flying once again - he's definitely improving!

I've been making a list of things I want to do in October once my MA is finished.
One of my plans is to improve my people drawing skills (& I have a little project in mind).
I certainly need the practice...

quiet weekend

Sometimes it's quite nice not to do much at all.
This weekend I didn't really leave the house (apart from when I went to had to buy jaffa cakes from the corner shop).
On Saturday Rosie brought home a GIANT world map so we gathered together all our postcards and spent some of Sunday morning playing with little red dots and thread. It's looking good!
But we need more --> if you send us a postcard we'll be ever so pleased.

keep calm and carry on

...and counting.