Friday, September 28, 2007

Time for art


I've spent an awful large part of my life wanting my own home to decorate in my own way. We don't own our Bristol place, but it is ours - just Sunshine and I, no others. Anyways, included in that home decorating desire is to fill it with beautiful, functional objects; ideally handmade. And what better way to start than to do something myself!

We had a clock to go in our kitchen, but the background was faded and the colours just didn't go with what I was envisioning for my kitchen. So I had a poke at it and realised that I could easily remove the cover and take out the background. Looked around for some inspiration, and some drawing and guaching later - ta da! New clock! Minor design issue in that the background is light and so the hands and numbers don't show up very well - so some painting of those will probably happen very soon.

Here's the "before":


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In other news, I have officially started as an illustration student :)

There's about 45 of us, and I'm NOT the oldest, Hurray! (I'm just the second oldest...). I've already met some lovely compatriots and I think I'm going to enjoy myself quite a lot :) We haven't done any art this week as its been basically enrolling, finding about about all the support services, students union, library etc, and about the structure of the course. We've been given our 15-week project briefs for this semester - there's 2; the first being to make work based on the words 'support', 'enclose', 'balance' and 'disperse'; and the second to make a pastiche of an artists work (plus obviously all the research and background stuff that goes with it).

Our first proper day will be on Monday the 1st - with a "Drawing Olympics" - nope, I don't know what its all about either, but watch this space for an update next week!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Oriental stash


When Sunshine and I first came house-hunting to Bristol, we came across an oriental supermarket while navigating a one-way system near Redcliff. This was quite an exciting thing as I was wondering where I was going to get my favourite supplies from, as the only other Oriental supermarket I'd come across was on Madebymilla - and it was bit farther away than I wanted ... but the Redcliff one was within walking distance of our new place.

So yesterday I went out walking trying my best to remember landmarks - I walked all the way down a one way street, and then up the parallel one and finally found the place. Oh yes... a south-east-asian foodie's heaven. I bought all sorts, including the stash above - Thai fish sauce, oyster sauce, coconut milk, and my absolute favourite south-east-asian sweety/junkfood: Asam Jawa - otherwise known as 'sugar coated tamarind with chili' ... oh yessssss... love my tamarind ... and this brand turned out to be quite good too. HappyMithi :)

Also got a couple of steamers and made sure they stocked my favourite Malaysian sweet chili sauce - Linggam's - and they DID! What a surprise that something so Malaysian can be found all the way here in good 'ol Brizzle! Unfortunately though, they haven't got my preferred brand of chili oil - infact there was only one place back in London that did it. I guess I'm just going to have to stock up on my next trip ...

Hmmm... do I see a pattern of 'chili' products here? .... Hmmm...

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Welcome to my new home


This is the door to the place which I now call home ...

Today we have been at our new home for a week. We've unpacked most things ... apart from those that have nowhere to go; for example my clothes - oh yes, living out of a suitcase, I am - I do not own a wardrobe and our excursions to Gloucester Road where I was told there would be secondhand furniture shops aplenty have proven unfruitful ... but I digress ...

We've also made an "office" for both Sunshine and I to work in - so scrummy to have lots of tables AND space to put it all! The bedroom feels lovely (apart from the lack of a wardrobe for me - Sunshine has one of his own). The living room is coming together, but I think needs a bit more work in the "beautifying" department. The kitchen is fully functional and we've found our local big supermarket; and also local fruit and veg shop and wholefoods and organic shops (guess where we're going to be going to...). We've been making food and eating out in the back garden every night - niiiiice ... The 'dining' room is currently the dumping ground of unopened boxes - partly because we don't really know what to do with a 'dining' room - I suspect though that since most of the unopened stuff is Sunshine's juggling gear, it'll end up being made into a 'play' room.

We've been to see the Redcliffe caves, St Mary's church, Bristol Old Vic and even rode a steam train to the Create Center and Ecohome - all part of the "Open Doors" last weekend. We went up to the downs and Sunshine met someone from his old kite flying days. I've been walking round lots exploring the local, and not-so-local areas; can't believe how easy it is to walk pretty much anywhere. Found the local community centre and did a 'hulaerobics' class ... funny ... We've done the customary Ikea trip - but will have to go back when we aren't quite so tired from moving house (and when we have a bit more dosh). All-in-all, Bristol is more than living up to it's expectations ... all that's left now is uni and the course ... Here's hoping for the best!

Welcome to my new home ...

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Bristol is the new Black

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts lately - the only creative thing I've managed to do is draw a toy robot (no sample at the mo as the scanner has been packed away!)

Second, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Planetmithi - yup, today marks ONE YEAR of the blog and of me making my 'creative journey' public.

Third, to celebrate, we're MOVING to BRISTOL today ... whoopee!!! Ok, so maybe not
to celebrate per se, but its quite appropriate that I move to Bristol on the anniversary of me embarking on a journey that has now put me on course to becoming an illustrator. Happymithi :)

So - in about 10 minutes we walk out of the house (for the second last time as we have to unload, and come back for the more - oh yes, double whammy move); then after the weekend we have to go away for a few days as the builders are still in decorating and we are not allowed to stay overnight; then from mid-week next week, Sunshine and I start our new lives as Bristolians ... woohoo ... Bristol is SO the new new Black, Dah-ling!