... on an arrival!

Well, it was never going to fit in my car! I was delighted to find that a crate from London had arrived for me at work on Wednesday, and then disappointed to find that I wasn't going to be able to get it home and unpacked until Saturday. Until then, all I could do on my daily visits to the loading dock at work was admire some nice crate typography, and wonder Exactly What The Hell The Quarantine Guys Had Sprayed Into That Fume Port Before It Got Sealed Up.

Inside, aaaah!

This is my 35th birthday present to myself. For my 30th, my present to myself was a trip around the world, so I'm seeing the emergence of a theme!

Early this year, I saw an entry about Bellerby & Co Globemakers on notcot.org, and clicked through to this article on Cool Hunting. The photo with the banana on the desk under the tray of paint made me laugh, and I was extra interested because I was starting to cast plaster myself at the time, and here it was being used to make big balls!

Talk about love at first sight - I was impressed by the notion that someone could be bothered enough to figure out how to make these beautiful things, by hand, and then make more. Then I found that someone was prepared to crate one up and send it to Australia - where it's come to live with me.

Oh thankyou, Peter Bellerby! I am absolutely delighted!

... on plaster brooches... no.

Last weekend I decided that it was time to start accessorising, and made a couple of brooches out of my plaster asterisk collection.

During the week I tried to wear one and it was so heavy it... er... made the front of my shirt look very unappealing. So these won't be for sale, and will have to be For Big Winter Coat Use only!

Nonetheless, hoorah!

... on something coming!

Something very lovely, very anticipated, and very much handmade will be making its way to me next week.

Sat 15 May update...

Ooooh!

... on the Black Kitten of Doom.

A couple of weeks before Kuber died, an odd thing happened. It was night, and I’d just shut the roller door on her and the dog. I clean my teeth, poke around a bit. Then I hear a noise coming from the garage – Kuber was growling, as far as cats do. I walk through, and see that she’s sitting, looking intently and growling at something behind the mower. ‘Uh-oh,’ I think. There’s a snake inside. Or a bluetongue or something. I approach tentatively – and was quite surprised by what was crouched there – a tiny black kitten, with white feet. I'm delighted! I've always wanted to be discovered by a kitten! I put Kubrick and the dog into my room, and then approach again. The black kitten runs off. I go after it, slowly. It bolts again. I’m talking to it in a high, friendly voice, offering it catfood – it just keeps running away. After half an hour I’m sick of chasing it and I need to get to bed, so I corner it against the wall behind a plant pot. I reach down to grab it – and as I put my hand towards it there’s this hissing explosion which makes me withdraw my hand quite swiftly! I put on a thick pair of leather gloves and try again. I reach down – hissing explosion. Such a huge noise from something so small! I was afraid that if I grabbed it, I’d have a snarling sharp kitten up my arm and attached to my face in no time. After a ridiculous number of attempts to grab it I give up. The thing was trying to kill me. I open the roller door and use a stick to chase the kitten outside, whereupon it runs off into the night. See, now I have a theory about that little feral black kitten. It was the cat version of the Grim Reaper, and it’d come for Kubrick. Only – it got trapped inside and had to leave without her!

Bloody thing came back, though.

...on carving again.

Today I spread out some newspaper and got on with carving something new. Not typography this time - spongy amoebic blobbiness hooray!

I can imagine a repeat pattern of these spreading out over my wall - we'll see!

... on newness.

These past few weekends gone, I've been shifting my furniture about. When I was a kid, 'changing my room around' was a beloved pasttime - I'd pull everything out onto the veranda and then rearrange - for a while the new perspective given by moving my bed from this corner to that was a bit like being on holiday.

I hadn't done it in a while though, but action was needed in order to fit in a new little table to hold my new big friend*. Also, I wanted to try out a feature of my bookcase. It was made for me by a local cabinetmaker, who designed an ingenious stand for the case to sit on. I was planning on chocking it up on bits of wood, but the cabinetmaker had made a jigsaw of wooden pieces which linked together to form a neat cabinet-makey base, and which could be used at full size (when the bookcase was lying flat) or small size (when the bookcase was standing tall) and the extra pieces fit in underneath. Neat!

Feeling like it was time for a change, I set about shifting.

It took all weekend, but it made me happy!

The little table made me even happier. C made it for me, shaking his head that I preferred to use his dodgy old concrete-covered ply rather than new.

Lovely!

*My new big friend WAS lovely too - until it started making a sound like a jet engine revving up and alas, all twenty-seven inches of it were pronounced 'DOA' and they're sending me a new one!

... on a little bit of customisation.

"So, uh, Moleskine."
"Si?"
"You know how you are always... well, kinda the same?"
"Si."
"Every year, the same."
"Well, you know how it is. That is somewhat the point, no?"
"Maybe. I guess I bought a red one last year and it just didn't work out so well."
"Esattamente!"
"Well, this year I'd like to try something new."
"..."
"Just hold still now."
"Madonna mia! OW!"
"..."
"...!"
"There! That's more like it!"
Happy New Year!