The Homeless Babies (by sarah)

Today I am doing the front cover of Percival's Christmas Wish as part of my Draw-a-thon to raise money for Shelter. I have only been sponsored £10 so far but that is half a family who wont end up homeless in the first place! So it is all good though making it a whole family by the end of today would be brilliant 🙂

In total I need to draw 14-16 pictures before Christmas Eve! I am currently on number three which is the hardest of the pictures as it is the one for the cover as well. So far all pictures are only sketches and some of that quiet rough but I am going out later to pick up some new colouring pencils as mine were damaged in the move.

I would like to just emphasis that there are over 75, 000 homeless children this christmas the likes of which has not been seen since the 60's! I know it seems like a sea of faceless people but it's not - those people are people like you and me, things can change so quickly where finances are concerned.

Also last week a baby bunny was dumped outside a pet shop near us in a cardboard box, which we said we would take if it was adopted by yesterday - it hadn't been adopted so we now have a new addition to the Snell-Pym zoo - Fluffy Obsidian!

Guess which part of the name was mine and which bit was Jean's? :/

She reckons that rock names are too hard in that they are not fluffy and they are hard to say! She gave Alaric the option of Hedgwig or Fluffy for the rabbit and he opted for Fluffy as a bunny isn't an owl and though it is also not a three headed dog it's genetics would be closer to that than a bird.

If we could adopt the homeless kids we would but they don't need adopting - they need to be with their families and taking them away would be taking us straight back to the horrors of Victoriana, therefore we help the whole family. I am really hoping that someone will donate another £10 so that we have helped one whole family instead of just half.

Here is a donate button.

And thankyou so much for the donation/sponsor that I have already received 🙂 The money goes directly to Shelter so they can start doing stuff straight away 🙂

Fixing the Roof (by sarah)

So we knew the roof of the workshop needed work - when we moved in we had to fix it to the actual walls! But what is left to be done on it needs a spat of dry weather when we are actually at home which has not happened this summer - this is also why there is still no grass in the little walled area!

It was just about holding up and then we had those strong winds that shredded the plastic membrane on the roof and it has leaked onto the grinder and welder 🙁 They may or may not be ok. Alaric's helmet also filled up with water and in the process of trying to dry it out it has gone moldy 🙁 We have shelving in the dinning area to dry out as well and Alaric has been up on the roof with help from my dad - trying to effect a short term fix to get us through the winter!

He was out there in the freezing night earlier in the week to prevent anymore damage which was a bit hair raising - I got him pizza to warm up with!

They went out there armed with heavy duty plastic sheeting and lots of sealant.

Fingers crossed that next year will be dryer :/

Our Christmas Lights (by sarah)

We both love fairy lights - these are the ones we bought back in Essex - they are still going strong 🙂 They remind me of the ones my grandmother had when I was little! I also found some wonderful snowflake window clings which both Jean and Mary love!

I love having lights showing on the outside of the building - it is like you are sharing the festivities with everyone.

Because We Have Our Home (by sarah)

This time last year we were not sure if would get this house, we were not really blogging about any of the trials and tribulations of it as we didn't want to get our hopes up. Alaric and the baby were both quiet sick and I was still on crutches and even Jean was not 100% with a repeating stomach bug. But we got through all of that and we got our shiny new home 🙂

With more than a little help from our friends. And feeling secure within this lovely house I finally felt able to write a story about our time after the 2007 floods. Again a time we would have really struggled with if it were not for family and friends!

So when I found out that over 75, 000 children will be without a home this year I thought, I am luckier than them and I should do something to help give them what our friends and family helped us get... A Home. Alaric agreed but we are not flush with money so how? And then a thought.

My mother asked me why didn't I draw the pictures and make the story into a little book for Christmas presents like I did last year with The Little Book of Festive Poetry. My initial reaction was 'There's not time!' and then I thought but I could do it as a mad sponsored thing and raise money for Shelter. So that is indeed what I am doing!

So here is the page where you can sponsor me. The money goes straight to Shelter. You are sponsoring a Draw-a-thon, the idea being that Christmas Eve I will release a free e-book for you all to enjoy 🙂 It will be an illustrated version of Percival's Christmas Wish and it is not going to be a five minute job so I am going to need lots of encouragement!

I have set the target as £100 as that will help five families not to end up homeless in the first place. More money = more people helped. If the target is reached I will be adding in the audio version of Percival's Christmas Wish as a free download for the 12 Day's of Christmas!

Families need homes

I'm not sure if you can understand what it is like to being staying on friends sofas and things unless it has happened to you - no it is not sleeping rough but it is unsettling and exhausting. Especially with little ones. And not everyone has friends and family they can get help from. We are lucky others are not. Please donate/sponsor me.

Swords And Mirrors (by sarah)

With the realisation that we have almost been here a year and that our sword was still not mounted on the wall we thought we would get a wiggle on and start doing all those niggly little jobs we didn't get time to do though out the year - we also needed to put hooks up for Christmas decorations etc...

We also mounted the little butterfly that Jean made me two christmasses ago! It wont sit in my preferred orientation so I may have to take sugru to it.

Here is Alaric preparing the way to drill.

The funniest bit about this though was that the sword was down off of the mantle piece and the girls were both instantly drawn to it! I love this pics and will be creating a story about them on the Wiggly Pets blog.