Healthy Living

Healthy living feels much easier when the weather's good. I bought up all this good stuff when the sun was shining. I try to be pretty healthy, going running, eating lots of fruit and veg, cycling and all that jazz. Unfortunately I do love a little beer now and then, which is not so healthy. Just a little one though, honest.

Out of the Comfort Zone

I spend quite a lot of time thinking about how to push myself and to find new challenges. A good exercise from Philippa Perry's excellent book, 'How to Stay Sane' is based around this idea.

"The Comfort Zone Exercise is straightforward. Get a large piece of plain paper and draw a circle in the middle. Inside the circle write examples of activities that you feel completely comfortable doing. Around the edge of the circle write down examples of activities that you can do but that you have to push yourself a little bit to do - those activities that may make you nervous in some way, but not so much as to stop you doing them. In the next band write activities that you like to do but find it difficult to get up the courage to do. Draw another circle around this ring of activities. After that write down those things you are far too scared to try but would like to do. You can create as many circles as you like. The point of the Comfort Zone Exercise is for you to consider what you are comfortable with and what you are not, and then to experiment with expanding your area of comfort. "

Here's one of mine from November last year:

Check me out, I achieved a goal! I did a Pecha Kucha talk a couple of months ago. I was pretty nervous getting up to talk in front of a room full of people, but afterwards I felt great and I think it went well! There is a video here, if you want to see me being exuberant about support networks (and probably saying 'support networks' about 20 times). It's a great night and lots of fun whether you want to do a presentation or not. The next one is on Thursday 29th May at Manchester Art Gallery, book your free ticket here, the theme is Time, should be a good 'un!

This is my most recent comfort zone exercise:

I made a start on pushing my geometric drawings on by experimenting with scale on the wall in my back yard yesterday.

 Had to improvise a bit with circles and straight lines! Drew round my garden table, various pan lids and used my clothes dryer as a ruler.

 My toes are in shot here for sense of scale.

A decent start. The wall isn't in great shape, in fact I'm cleaning and painting it on Friday, hence why I decided to do this little experiment. The drawing needs more definition and is a bit wonky due to my makeshift measuring implements, but I know it works on a larger scale now. I'm off to Draw North West on Tuesday, so hopefully I can talk to someone about possibly being involved in Outhouse then. Onwards, upwards and outwards beyond the comfort zone!

Best thing about being an adult

I missed yesterday's post as I was busy doing the following: running a personal best 10k in terrible heat, hanging out in Chorlton meadows watching some filming, drinking free beers, eating sausage rolls in the sun and arguing with idiots. My time was 51:32, should you care about such things.

That is a weresquirrel.

Anyway, as I was lounging around reading comics, drinking beer and eating pizza whilst pondering this question the other day, I realised that the best thing about being an adult is that I basically get to act like a teenage boy and there's NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO TO STOP ME!

A load of free beers.

Favourite Decade

Ah, it has to be the nineties! Strutting around the mean streets of Darlo with a Chelsea skinhead, being in a band, going to my first festival (Reading '97), leaving school, discovering new music all the time, hanging with skater boys, riding a yellow BMX to college and getting tattoos of questionable quality. Good lord. I'm pretty glad there aren't too many photos around of me with that haircut, actually. My main crushes were Wil Wheaton, Eddie Vedder and Tank Girl.

Love you forever, Eddie. Saw some pretty hilarious fan art when searching for this pic.

Day in the Life - a photo an hour on the hour

 8 a.m Failed to set my initial alarm, luckily trusty secondary alarm awoke me. A glorious sunny morn.

 9 a.m Nice enough for an al fresco breakfast experience of porridge and coffee in my back yard. I was filled with glee to note that birds have been eating the food I've been putting out, even though I've only seen ONE coal tit since December. Those sneaks. My mealworms bring all the birds to the yard.

 10 a.m Cycled to the Craft Centre with my sunny gees on and no coat. I love Summer! I spy Amy Wilkinson whizzing in on her bike too!

 11 a.m Printed some fox bibs and hats for a Not on the High Street order.

12 p.m A coffee, followed by getting sucked into Internet world for far too long. 

 1 p.m Freakin' delicious lunch from Oak Street Cafe. Ham and leek pasty with spicy tofu and beans, new potatoes and beetroot. Yummmmm.

 2 p.m Heat set my prints and packaged 'em up…

 3 p.m …ready for the Post Office run in the sun.

 4 p.m Did some work on a geometric drawing. I think I'm going to do this again, but symmetrical. Not very happy with it.

 5 p.m Got some hydration on the go. I love Bobble filters and am a bit evangelical about them!

 6 p.m Cycled home. My front garden is looking beautiful, if a little wild. Loving seeing new flowers blooming everyday.

7 p.m Still warm enough to sit outside with a little beer. I love to be outside as much as possible, even if this beer wasn't as tasty as my favourite, Badger's Golden Glory.

That's it! I'm going to chill out tonight, I'm working again tomorrow and am feeling the need to rest. Happy Friday y'all! x

Blog Chat

I started Blog Every Day in May to try and think more about the direction I want my blog to go in and to connect more with people, make an effort to read blogs and to comment on the posts I enjoy. I've never been to any blog meet-ups, maybe I'll give one a go this year?

Does anyone have any recommendations for me?? Thanks in advance!

I've just signed up for Juneathon again, I really enjoyed it last year and I'll be training for the New Forest 10 mile run, so that should give me a kick up the award-winning backside. I'm mostly in it for the horse brass medal. Gimme the bling!

Here's one of my latest prints. Eggy delight.

Home Sweet Home

I bought my house in December, with a HUGE amount of help from my family. My boyfriend and I split up last Summer and it was a pretty horrible time, having house hunting to focus on helped me to get through it with minimal freakout. I saw a few gross houses, the most comedy one appeared to have a corpse in the front room and the owner was sitting smoking cigs in the back doing his VAT return. Erm, do you actually *want* to sell your house?? I was worried at first about living solo, but I really love having my own space. Eventually I intend on getting a lodger, but I'm enjoying my bachelorette lifestyle too much at the moment! I even know how to turn off the stopcock. If you do happen to know any solvent hunks/hunkesses through, send them my way. Anyway, here's some pics of my sweet abode:

 The day I got my keys. Thumbs up! I love the dark green tiles in the hallway, they remind me of a pub, my natural habitat.

 Dining room, the blue is one of my favourite colours.

 Living room

 Enough room for friends to hula hoop.

 At maximum capacity for my birthday.

 I must con-fez I love my home.

Beautiful painting by David K Goodwin above my fireplace.

Fashion, Beauty and Grooming.

Vali Myers. Amazing, beautiful and inspirational woman. I'm ill, don't really feel like writing today. I'm going to draw, feel better and dream about being a wild woman like Vali.

World Fair Trade Day

This seems like a timely post prompt for a spot of bigging up my business! World Fair Trade Day. I did a lot of research into ethical fashion while studying for my Masters in Textiles at MMU and as a result all of my baby wear is organic cotton and fair trade. I have a couple of suppliers that I use, Continental Clothing and Mantisworld, so you can check out their credentials! The thought of producing a lot of stuff that is destined for landfill does not sit easily with me, I think we should be careful in our choices and buy less, spend more on good quality items that will last, rather than buying up loads of things that have been made in terrible conditions by people earning a pittance. I know this is not always easy and I have been guilty in the past of shopping at Primark! Shame on me.

Anyway, I try in my own small way to be a Good Egg. As all my stuffs are hand printed in little batches, there is minimal environmental impact too. Winner!

 Printing Grumpy Bears in my studio in Manchester

Motivation

Sometimes I find it very hard to get motivated. I'm quite disorganised and also suffer from bouts of anxiety and depression, which make it hard for me to get started on things. I have lots of ideas, get hyper-excited by projects and then start to worry that the end product will be rubbish. The best way for me to work is little and often, then my brain feels sustained and ideas will flow almost effortlessly. I need to let go of the idea of perfection in order to be happy. It's all progress, it's all just a game.

I'm not really motivated by money, I just want to make things. But I need money in order to buy materials to make those things and also to have a nice time, which I do enjoy. Basically, I've got it pretty easy, some might say too easy!

Collaborating is a great way to stay motivated, I recently completed a project with my friends Rachel (Lines Form Spaces) and Lindsey (Lindsey Vigurs Illustration). They started Draw A Letter a Day and I gegged in on it for the numbers. Thanks ladies, more of this in the future, please!

Draw a letter a day project. Number 0.

Think 2 was my fave.

Sketchbook experiments keep the ideas a-coming.

Local History Month

I live in Chorlton, a suburb of South Manchester. It's very nice and I feel extremely fortunate to live here.
A few groovy things about Chorlton - Cosgrove Hall used to be based here and I know a couple of people who worked there on various animations, notably the lovely Andrea Lord of &made and Luke Marsh.
I once queued up behind Bez at the fishmongers. He was buying salmon. Badly Drawn Boy once nearly mowed me and my friend down in his car.

Aside from that, I don't really know that much about the history of the area. There's a really beautiful park about 10 minutes away from my house called Longford Park, which was founded by John Rylands of John Rylands Library fame. He used to live in a big old grand house which he built, it's no longer there, just an archway remains. I like to go running there, it's so pretty, birds a-plently to be spotted. There's also a gym and athletics track, where I have spent many a painful hour being shouted at and doing multiple weak lunges. My house is very close to Chorlton Ees too, great for walking, running and cycling. You can get to Dunham Massey and Lymm via the Trans Pennine Trail, it's flipping great!

 The canal at Stretford.

River Mersey.

Chorlton Water Park last Summer.

Gadgets

This blogging prompt doesn't really fill me with passion. Although I have to admit to loving my phone, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. I spend too much time mindlessly checking various social networks, which distracts me from the job in hand of how to be brilliant success and lead a fulfilling life. Having too much 'stuff' makes me feel panicked. I like to feel free. My mind is already filled with loads of clutter, I don't need to add to that by buying up loads of crap. I'd rather have experiences than possessions.

That said, you're not keeping the fucking Gaggia.

Passion Projects

The title of this post is Passion Projects - what do you love and would like to make money from. Well, I do love what I do and get a lot of satisfaction from working for myself and being able to be creative every day. That said, I am giving myself some time this Summer to work more on things that are completely non-commercial. I love all my little creatures and critters, but sometimes I think I would be quite happy never to print another lion bib ever again.

I have been working on some geometric drawings and while I'm not really sure at this point where I'm going with them, I've had a really nice reaction and feel excited to develop them over the coming months. A lot of the dot work drawings take several hours each to complete and I love that intensity of work, focusing my usually pretty scattered attention and really zoning in on them. I've been posting these up online and have been asked by a friend to design him a tattoo, so that's a promising start!

Dotwork octagon

Dotwork mandala

Cinco de Mayo

I have family in Mexico and am lucky enough to have visited for a couple of weeks back when I was a teenager. My Auntie moved there years ago and lives in Irapuato, Central Mexico. I absolutely loved it, I have a big extended family over there, which I adored as I come from quite a small family. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, we got along great despite the language barrier. We travelled around a bit and visited Mexico City as well as Cancun and the temples of Tulum. Many iguanas were spotted and much delicious food was consumed. I'd love to go back there, it's such a beautiful country. Much love to Tia Margaret and Tio Pedro!

Image from Beers and Beans

I just found a few photos I took while I was there, but frankly they are too crap for human consumption, so I've swiped this one of Tulum from elsewhere.

This is a 4 piece lino cut print I did at school, inspired by drawings I did while away. It's a 2 colour print, using reduction technique. It's about A3 in size. I had another version in a better, more juicy, colour way, but I can't find it! Such is the life of an obsessive maker and hoarder of STUFF.

Star Wars Day!

In which we talk about Sci-Fi.

When I was at school my friend Simon was completely obsessed with Star Wars. His whole room was filled with action figures, some still in their boxes. He lent me all the films, which I loved and I developed a huge crush on Han Solo, naturally. One day he (Simon, not Han) gave me an Ewok figurine. It was clearly worthless as it had lost it's cowl. I still treasure it! Proof:

Just look at his cold, dead eyes!

My pal Jenni just bought Blue Snaggletooth for her husband's 40th. That shit was like 200 quid! She really loves her guy. How much would I get for Wicket? Actually, forget it, I'll never sell.

Weekend Morning Routine

Saturday depends on whether I'm working in the shop at Manchester Craft and Design Centre. If I am, then it's up and out on my bike to the studio. If I'm not in the studio I may well be running a workshop somewhere, like Fred Aldous for the Ministry of Craft. I often run in the morning too, distance dependent on whether I'm training for something. Porridge or eggs and green smoothies will be on the menu.

Actually I'm not a huge fan of routines, but I also think they're good for me. I've got a strange brain sometimes, it's full of conflicting ideas. I try to meditate everyday, weekend or not. I use the Headspace app as I'm not very good at staying focused without guidance. I very rarely have a long lie in, it's no fun on your own! I also feel too guilt-ridden and as though I'm missing out on some fun times if I lounge about too much. I usually try to make plans to see friends and do something interesting like attend Sunday Assembly, go to a life drawing class, or a nice long bike ride in the country. In the evening I like to go to gigs, parties and suchlike. Fun times please. Last Saturday I went to an amazing event called Drawn to the Beat at Victoria Baths.

Basically, I believe that life isn't happening at home.

5 Favourite Posts

Here are my 5 favourite blog posts of days gone by! It's weird to think I've been blogging, fruitlessly, endlessly blogging, for 6 years on and off…It's been really nice looking back through my posts, seeing how far my work has come and the projects I've lucky enough to be involved with. Actually some of my favourites are of my old drawings, but they'll keep. I will for sure post up some more sketchbook excerpts in the future.

Zookeeper for a day. A classic from the Nell archives. Look at my chuffed little lemur-clutching face!

Desiderata I don't actually remember posting this, but it's really beautiful and seems timely to come across it at a time of confusion, heartache and anxiety. Thanks, past me.

New York Let me go back.

Childhood Dreams This is a nice, upbeat one!

Celebrity Endorsement of the past Remember that time I met the Patron Saint of the Craft Centre?

Cheating slightly by putting these drawings up too.

What is your blog all about?

Hello! This is my first blog post of the Blog Every Day in May challenge! I though I'd sign up as my blog has been woefully neglected for ages.

I first started blogging as a way to promote my business, so I guess it's supposed to be about that. Along the way other things have crept in, especially during Juneathon last year, when I was blogging all about jogging and suchlike. I really enjoy writing and it seems a shame that I leave such big gaps in between each post. I think the pressure of having something interesting to say gets to me. It doesn't really matter if anyone reads this or not though. I am going to use this challenge more as a writing exercise rather than for promotion I think, although naturally I will be writing about my work, it's what I do and who I am! Here's a picture of me in my old studio, printing away. My hair is much better these days.