Postcards and Stickers (by sarah)

I decided it was time to get some postcards and stickers made, I used moo.com which isn't the cheapest but is the most accessible for what I wanted plus they had a sale!

I needed stickers for the Poetry Writing Challenge I am running and then I needed postcards for the Science-Art Exhibition I'll be running at Centre Arts in March, plus I wanted to give little copies of my Inspira pictures to friends who were struggling with various things in their lives.

I have been over the moon with them - people have been saying I should be selling them but not entirely sure where to do that for best affect at the moment.

Bristol Mini Maker Faire and My Creativi-Tea (by sarah)

Saturday the 23rd of March 2013 is the Bristol Mini Maker Faire, maker faires are were arts, crafts and technology makers all get together to show off what they have been doing and exchange ideas etc... we are going and a few others people maybe coming with us which should be fun.

I have also been planning a Creativi-Tea event where friends can come over and we can exchange crafty know-how, so I am thinking it would be best to hold it on the Sunday so that friends who are visiting to go to Bristol anyway will be able to hang around for it 🙂

There will be cake and tea and sandwiches and limit of ten people. There has been quiet alot of interests in glass cutting and stuff so that is probably what we will focus on - though it can be tailored to those who come. There will be no charge for resources used but a collection bowl/url for donations to Shelter will be present.

New Camera! (by sarah)

I hunted around and got this camera as a late birthday present - my family gave me some money and so did Alaric (mainly I think out of desperation as I kept stealing his phone). It was in a sale so was £40 cheaper than it should have been and infact still is on the manufactures website - this allowed me to get a case for it as well and stick to my £100 budget. It's 14 mega pixels - there was a lovely 16 mega pixel camera but it was only reduced by £10 and I would have had no money for a case.

The above was medium light levels with no flash - it would have come out very dark with the previous camera and grainy.

I am ecstatic with it and am driving everyone potty with it - Jean is now ignoring it!

One of the first things I did was check the zoom and light levels.

The shape of the camera makes it easier to hold without shaking which was a big problem with previous cameras - I am having the problem of zooming in too far and I am still adjusting to focal lengths etc... so am getting a few blurry duff pics. Of course I have not yet read the manual and am 'winging' it which is not the best way but a very Sarah way!

Ruskin’s Mill Writer’s Retreat (by sarah)

Today I went to my second one day writer's retreat - this time at Ruskin Mill near Nailsworth. It was organised by the same people Writing Space Stroud and was once again lovely.

It was raining and I currently do not have a camera which is why there are not a hundred photos of chickens with feather flares and light sculptures on the water.

This time it was £30 instead of £20 but included a yummy lunch in the cafe.

I met more writers and had great conversations over tea and cake and lunch between mad sprees of writing. I got 9000 words of The Awakening written today which is amazing even if it does mean the novel is going to be much longer than I was expecting :/

I will finish off the last 1000 words before bed to round it up to 10K.

Once home Alaric made a lovely dinner whilst I made some visual poetry booklets out of card, pen, and old writing magazines. This lead to a fun discovery of using someone I know's story title as part of it 🙂

Poets Work (by sarah)

Saturday I went into Cheltenham to meet friends and write and what have you. It was great to see my friend Andy again who I orginally met at a writing group in Cheltenham back before the floods!

The postcards and stickers of my art work arrived for moo so I gave him some one of each which he seemed really happy about 🙂 He also told me I should be selling them.

Somehow three hours disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Then I went on to Centre Arts who are running an Arts Cafe on Saturday afternoons. I managed to fall off my chair - a prelude to passing out and stuff later in the day which was unfortunate but I recovered and they were very helpful and understanding as always!

I felt stupid but a cup of coffee and several poems inspired by the artwork later, I was having a fine chat with an artist/nurse who was in there drawing away.

I also managed to talk to my friend who runs the place about the Science-Art Exhibition we will be running in March which is very exciting and lots of organising needs to be done!

Alaric was concerned about me so bought me a four pack of irish stout which did seem to really help - he then made me lots of green veg for dinner and we discussed the bleeding problem :/

I've also had a neck spasm for the last week or so which is making typing and drawing and reading hard but I am steadily working my way through it. On the plus side the continual headache I've had for the past year seems to have disappeared with the coil 🙂

I finished the day off by sorted out my poetry mug - I love this cupcake tea cupe 🙂

It may not sound like work but with the aememia acting up it was very exhausting for me but it was definately worth it. I'd been in on Tuesday as well to watch a talk about The European History of Warewolves which was interesting by (Deborah Hyde)[http://www.jourdemayne.com/about-jourdemayne].

It was a narrowed down talk so covered a later bit of history than what I have been researching lately. However it did tie in with the time period of the first Punk storyline and I'd very much want to add in the warewolf, witch and vampire myths on top but within the context of actual history, science and the storyline itself. Well that was really the point of going!

From a writing point of view Tuesday was a very productive day - I spent it trying to get an overview of Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Tudor period but completely side tracked myself in disease history (as you do!).

This was all whilst cuddling Mary who was in one of her slightly grumpy I am teething moods so wouldn't be put down.

After the warewolf talk, I wrote a horror story based on real accounts of the Black Death - I should have been sleeping but had brain over load!

I freaked myself out slightly and ended up having to wake Alaric up - this is a good sign though - I feel my best horror stuff is written in this way - though poor Al was not amused!

I have a story idea that came out of the talk too but it is very disturbing so can't face writing it yet. It maybe shelved until GothNoWriMo or something.

The talk was good in another way though - I realised as I miss people who think and know stuff. I was sitting there and some makes a comment about us and chimpanzees and I know it's wrong and before I can say anything someone else corrects the guy! It just sort of felt like uni again and I have always really missed that atmosphere.

Writing wise this month is being hectic with me running WoPoWriMo too and I really want to donate some more poems to charity cause - one for the disabled and their fight at the moment and some for Freedom - a book shop that was fire bombed in London on Friday.

So I am chugging along with the work thing - never as fast as I want but little bits will build-up.