Juneathon week 2 round up

Another busy week! I am so tired I can't really think about what I've done. Made a start on some new big drawings and made some time-lapse films, thank you very much to the ever lovely Paul Capewell for the app recommendation! Lots of fun to be had. I can't upload it here without a big faff about and frankly I want to go to bed for a bit, so that'll have to wait. Follow me on instagram if you're desperate for a peek.

'Hand' was the theme for this Weekly Word Drawing and as it was Friday the 13th I thought I'd embrace the beast within with some horns. Drew this watching the Mexico-Cameroon game. I am now dead into football after forgetting all about it for the past 4 years. Funny that.

I hadn't done any running since Sunday, but got up early this morning for parkrun and got a PB.

Pretty satisfying to see how much quicker I've got over the past year, also felt a lot easier than it used to! 26th female, happy with that.

I still haven't had a booze-drink, but this is all set to change later, BBQ, football and party times. What could possibly go wrong?

Miles run: 3
Miles cycled: absolutely loads
Yoga classes: 1
Alcohol consumed: 0
Magnums consumed: Let's not talk about that, ok?

Juneathon Week One round up

I've had a good and busy week, in which I have exercised everyday but had no time or inclination to blog, so here's a little round up instead.

 I made a start on bigger geometric drawings in my studio. Really pleased with how they're evolving. This is about a metre across. Tricky to get a good picture. I'm going to try and make a little time lapse film of me making one. This will involve me learning how to make a time lapse film, hmmm.

 On Friday I went to a meeting in Liverpool at Open Eye Gallery. Exciting things happening, which I'll talk about later once things are confirmed! It's a great space, enjoyed the Martin Parr photographs. I went over to the Tate Modern and checked out the Constellations exhibition too.

 The weather was beautiful, I had such a nice day pottering around and checking out some galleries and drinking lots of good coffee. Went to Bold Street Coffee and managed to find the Baltic Bakehouse, which was boss, la!

 Went to the Science Fiction exhibition at FACT, which really spun me out. There were loads of little doors to go through , it was like being on a space ship (I imagine). There was this weird film with a talking lychee (or durian, who can say?) in it which I enjoyed.

 On Saturday I got soaked for the umpteenth time cycling into town to teach a screen printing workshop at Fred Aldous. Lovely group, always love seeing how different everyones prints are. Next workshop dates are in September, you can book on the Ministry of Craft website.

 I was a little late with my Weekly Word Drawing. This week's theme was 'Head'. I had a few different ideas, but hastily knocked these smug moon heads out. Trilby versus fez, which will win? (Fez, obvs.)

 I am trying to be healthy and eat well and not drink, so made a radish and fennel salad with lemon and mint dressing, to accompany delish tea made by my pal. First Saturday night booze-free since time immemorial.

 This morning Nick and I drove out to Longdendale and ran up and down a big hill. It was mega!

 Nice day for it! And by 'it', I mean a very sweaty 10k run.

Ate a bacon butty, watched the tennis, then distressed some cats.

Miles cycled: approx 70
Miles ran: 6.8
Yoga classes completed: 1
Units of alcohol consumed: ZERO!

Not Running, but Risographing and getting great Reviews.

I have completely slipped behind with my training plan. Eek. The only exercise I've done this week is cycling into town and back. To be fair this is a bout a 10 mile round trip, so better than nothing, but not great. I slept terribly last night, hopefully I'll settle back into a routine soon.

I cycled to the Craft Centre to take some photos of my latest alphabet risograph prints, I spent this morning editing the photos, which always takes so much longer than predicted! Little Foxes are now available to buy from my website.

A lovely customer got in touch to say how happy she was with her order and has left a glowing review on Yelp! How nice.

Travelling, travelling, wandering

What an amazing, whirlwind week it's been! I didn't quite make it through Blog Every Day in May, as I was called away at the last minute on Very Important Business to New York! Who could say no?

My Dad came to stay last Friday, my washing machine broke and flooded water all over the kitchen floor, I sang with She Choir on Saturday in the pouring rain at Envirolution Festival in Platt Fields Park, went to my friend Jane's wedding on Sunday, flew out to New York on Monday, came back on Friday, stood in my room for half an hour nearly going under trying to pack for a trip to Derbyshire, celebrated my sister's 10th wedding anniversary, came home on Sunday and slept.

So, I've failed at Juneathon already, but I'm going to try to bring it back this week. I feel pretty done in, so I'm having some low-key times, have stocked up with fruit and veg and am staying off the booze!

 Me with the beautiful bride.

New York I love you.

Little Italy with a delicious beer.

Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan.

Back to Blighty.

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.

The end of Juneathon, but not the end of the road!

The last day of Juneathon! I've really enjoyed it, despite a slight wobble last week. But even in the wobbly times, there are things to be learnt. Setting goals, achieving them, then moving on to new ones. Realising that I can do it, that I am strong. Thank you legs! Joining the Chorlton Runners was the best decision, it has really helped me to run further than I've run before - 14 kilometres this morning to be precise! Juneathon may be over, but my training is not, I hope to keep up the motivation and positivity over the next few months until the big day arrives.

I just need to remember that when doubts and excuses rise up, the best thing to do is put your trainers on. And go for a run.

Penultimate Post Provides a parkrun PB!

Hello! This morning I dithered around before pulling myself together and cycling down to Platt Fields Park for my second South Manchester parkrun. The weather was perfect, overcast and quite cool. I shed my waterproof jacket (lesson learned) and joined the crowd. There were pacers this week, ranging from 20 minutes to 30. I decided to stick with the 27 minute pacer as my last 5k was 27:54 and I felt I should have improved in the last couple of weeks. It was a pretty good run, I felt better for knowing the route, not being too hot and being able to focus on keeping up with someone, rather than thinking about my legs. I picked up the pace a bit at the end and started to feel sick, so a bit of a mixed run! The results came in and I managed a PB of 27:05, hooray! It's the last day of Juneathon tomorrow, so I'll write a bit more about how I've found it then. The Tour de France started today, so I'm off to see how that's going. Bye!

Quack. These guys thought I had some bread for them in my bag. Sorry dudes.

Not jogging or blogging

Ok, so I have neither jogged nor blogged all weekend. And I feel baaaaad for it! My excuses are as follows: I was working, the weather was crap, I was tired. I slept in yesterday then felt really bummed out and beat myself up for not going to running club. Bad times! But, it's the start of a new week and I promise I will do better for the last leg of Juneathon. I cycled to and from work today and printed some bear posters.

Instead of running have been drinking fun beers and seeing my friends.

Bear screen

Printing

Grumpy/sleepy bear posters

Summer Solstice Slacker

image from LavanderMoonWitch on etsy. Mystic!

No exercise for me today, slept crap so running 8k before work did not happen. I'm going out tonight after work for my good friend Kathryn Edward's leaving drinks as she is moving to London :(
Here ends the lamest post of Juneathon so far!

Soggy Cycling

Easy exercise day today, cycled to the studio in the rain. Felt quite refreshing! I'm working on a few commissions and quite a large wholesale order, so I'll be busy printing over the next few days. Ordered some materials and a new screen, which is always exciting, but not so nice for my bank balance! Eek! Damn you cash flow.

Some jolly badges.

I am no longer a woman, I am a machine...

Donned my short shorts for a 'speedy' 5k this morning. Felt good and really tried to pick up the pace, but wasn't actually much quicker than usual. C'mon legs! Ah well, enjoyed it anyway, it's a beautiful day. Did some squats and super-light weights when I got in. Gotta get tough. Tough like a...robot!

Printing in progress.

Nellbots drying

Robo-bibs

How's that for a tenuous link?? Today I am doing more editing and updating, you can now buy little robot bibs on my Not on the High Street store. Other nice new things are on their way!

Busting out some speed and witnessing some bumcheeks.

Had a great run at run club tonight. Did a slightly unexpected 10k, including last-man sprints, which I only agreed to do because of the rest of the group said they were doing them! It’s a conditioning exercise, where a group of runners jog single file at a steady pace, and then the last runner in line sprints to the front of the line, taking the place of the first runner, and so on. I surprised myself by actually really enjoying them and getting a pretty good pace on. I finished feeling strong and came home to so some yoga stretches for my hips and legs. Hopefully won't be in pain tomorrow.
Earlier I went out on my bike to do a reccy of the canal to see if I would be able to do a nice run to work down there. I was disturbed to see a man with his shorts down past his bumcheeks, so I'm putting that plan on ice! 

Lovely shiny, but ultimately disappointing, avocado.

Longford Park in bloom.

Monkeying Around on Monday

Nearly forgot to blog today! Didn't go for my 12k run as my legs are still mega-achy. Not sure if it's from Saturday's run or inappropriate dancing to Salt n'Pepa. I dropped dangerously low, readers. Instead of a run I was lucky enough to win a little freebie via Twitter this morning and took myself off to St John's Primary school for a yoga for sport session. I'd seen it mentioned online somewhere, so was pretty chuffed to be able to try it out for free and give the old legs a good stretch! I enjoyed it, but my attempts at push-ups were pretty comedy.

Cheeky Monkey!

Other than that I have started editing some of the new product photos I've been taking, you can now buy my little Monkey organic cotton hats on Not on the High Street here! More updating to come...

No Run Sunday

Ok, I didn't do any exercise today, unless you count wandering around the streets of Chorlton desperately seeking a decent all-day breakfast. I must sheepishly admit that I have just awoken from a hangover-induced slumber. I hope my Dad doesn't read this post! I went out in Liverpool to visit my pal Luke (available for all your illustration and animation needs, plug plug plug) and his lovely girlfriend and to finally go to the 10 Bands, 10 Minutes night! It was David Bowie night, so 10 bands played sets of around 10 minutes and played their own songs and did some Bowie covers too. So much fun! So much rum :(

I'm off to eat pasta and stretch. 12k planned tomorrow! Bye!

Absinthe bar. Fortunately it closed just when we decided we wanted one, probs would've puked!

Labyrinth-era Bowie. Yipes, those leggings!

parkrun participation!

Last night I checked out the MMU degree shows with my guy and some pals. We had a jolly time, it's always nice to see the work students have made and to have a catch up. The new art school building is very impressive, much nicer than the dingy old building that was there when I did my Masters! Afterwards we went to the pub and had a few pints, but I was conscious of running a 5k in the morning so was eager to get home to eat and get some sleep!

Cheets.

The Bird.

The new art school buildings. Futuristic!

I managed to talk my pal Nick (available for all your film and photography needs, plug plug plug) into doing the parkrun with me, so we met at 8.15 in the morning on our bikes in the cold drizzle and cycled down the Fallowfield Loop to Platt Fields Park and waited around nervously for the run to start. There were quite a few fit and healthy folk around and I spotted a few familiar faces from run club. The race started and Nick sped off into the distance. So began a mental battle for me, half saying, "my legs are like lead, so heavy, I can't do this", the other saying, "yes you can, you know you can, keep going!". The sun made an appearance and it was pretty perfect running conditions, nice and cool but bright. At least it would have been if I wasn't wearing a waterproof! When will I learn? Anyway, I managed a pretty decent pace the whole way round and sped up a little at the end for a strongish finish. It felt like a lot longer than 5k somehow, but I ruddy well did it! I thought I'd taken over half an hour, but on checking the results a pleasant surprise, I managed 27:54 and was 40th woman! Plenty of room for improvement and maybe next time I won't have 3 pints of ale the night before.

Pre run face

Turned out nice!

Post-run faces

It's Nellybob to you.