Cover Illustration – Bamboozeled (by sarah)

So this is what I have been working on for Revolations Bamboozeled - it is slightly wonky as I'm having trouble fitting the sketch book into the scanner. This is the first proper picture of The Punk and shows the Tower of Babel and the placenta tree from the Punk stories. There is space specifically left for the title and my name at the bottom as well which mucks up the layout of the image for me slightly.

What I want to know is - what sort of software would be good for processing this and cleaning it up? Would I be better off trying different art mediums - this is water colours and colouring pencils and I kind of haven't used water colours before this. Does anywhere have a bigger than A4 scanner that want bankrupt me/allow me to borrow/use? And in general what do people think?

Drink and Draw (by sarah)

Last night part of what I did was go to the second ever Drink and Draw in Cheltenham organised by Proud Lion and the True Believers Comic Con team. I wasn't there for all of it due to poetry stuff but I did abandon my family there and later came back for them. It was a hive of activity with people chatting and eating and drawing, Jean and Mary had a great time drawing and playing with lego.

I kind of failed at networking but then I always do, it's kind of just not me - it's called being shy! I tried to start a couple of convos but Mary or Jean interrupted and that was it.

I false started 3 and finished one concept sketch for my Punk series and reconciled myself to being the least talented person in the room - and I mean that - you should have seen some of the stuff being drawn!

Anyway for those of you interested in the process here are three concept sketches.

The city Babel with it's Tower - based on coral reefs and sea shells.

Placenta tree which is where the clones both Masters and Slave and highbreds are produced.

Punku with her laser pen - I am still not entirely happy with her but think she is almost there.

These are all elements that will go into the front cover which I designed in my first Script Frenzy.

I'm looking forward to the next drink and draw and also am steaming ahead with the drawing stuff - my plan is now to attempt to do some water colour back grounds.

I My Life (by sarah)

Mary:

'I got little tiny life I like my life In my Gloucester I got a tiny life I happy cos' I got Harry Potter in my life And I got Dr Who in my life I has a cat dog in my little life Look - HERE KITTEN (kitten comes over) I got strawberries in my life In my Gloucester Can I get strawberries?'

Me:

'Yes' (we pick strawberries)

Mary:

'Oh wow! I got strawberries in my tiny life I like my life I got eggs for lunch Come on chickens make lunch! I feeds strawberries to you I got aaaaaaaaa cute in my life I sad'

Me:

'Why are you sad Mary?'

Mary:

'I lost my Jeany And my Daddy They not in my Gloucester'

Me:

'Jean's at school'

Mary:

'oh'

Me:

'Daddy's at work - they'll be back'

Mary:

'Back to my gloucester? (I nod) I like my life I got a Jeany and Daddy and Bear... My best friends James and Molly and Lilly but she's at climbing not school I like birthdays In my Gloucester I like my life I like cake Hello kitty is pink I like pink I like hello kitty I has a little life'

(scurries off and shows me that she knows how to put a DVD on including turning the TV and xbox on - earlier today she resigned herself to the fact she can't undo the doors to the outside world as I've locked them and hidden the keys so she tried to pick the lock with a paper clip instead. She was going to take her dog to the shops Lithium was indeed standing by her waiting.)

p.s. she babbles in a way Jean just didn't!

What A Lot of Allotment…. (by sarah)

This week we made it too the allotment twice during the evenings and Saturday we were there from lunch time until the night was closing in and as I think that was the longest day that is saying something!

During the week I also used up the produce we had harvested last weekend - namely the raspberries and the broad beans - the raspberries are the main reason we are going during the evenings as there are more ripe ones every few days. We have already gotten to the point of making smoothies and stuff 🙂

We also got to try out are roof rack for the first - I told my Dad that we needed a chair for the allotment or a bench or something and that I had been trying on Freecycle to get one for ages - we talked about making one from the spare decking and old table that is lurking around our garden. But what happened is when he went home he restored a chair frame he'd been given for fire wood and made a seat for it and painted it so it would last outside and sent it down with my brother. I kind of didn't believe it was for the allotment but it was! So it got tied on the roof rack.

We picked up some coloured sharpies on route so the girls could decorate it.

Jeany did get a bit frustrated with her sister as she kept scribbling over bits Jean was trying to do nicely but it all worked out well including decorations from Alaric such as a castle and rocket and snake that he and Jean did together.

There is still more to be done on it but that is fine as we can just keep taking the sharpies with us 🙂 Jean also made sure we all knew what the seat was for 🙂

Whilst there I did so much weeding I lost count - I know I did at least 7 buckets full and filled up the new composter we had to buy on Friday (or rather Al bought whilst I was walking Jeany to her drama group). To be fair the first of the buckets only was weeds and all - the others were damage limitation (ie cutting the tops of the thistles that wouldn't pull nicely) but the last two buckets where veg bed weeding and I even managed to do some hoeing and raking whilst Al was off getting shopping.

Jean collected a bag of lemon grass, a bag of hay and a bag of dandelions as well as harvesting the raspberries 🙂 She was most excited about dandelion stalks that were as tall as she was 🙂

I have crowned her Jean Bean the Allotment Queen 😀

We were also gifted some french bean plants by one of the other allotment holders which we planted along with the spare tomato plants and the runner beans I got fro Prinknash Abby last weekend. These are in were the sweetcorn has failed to come up. Radishes and spring onions are doing well and we are quiet happy with it though there is still a lot of work to do to get the site maintainable. Alaric brought dinner back to the allotment which was great 😀

We were also given a load of peas and half our fridge was full of home produce - this is the way we like it 😀

Sunday morning I cleaned the chickens out and made pancakes with home grown eggs, I picked the strawberries in the garden - unfortunately breaking our bench chest that the neighbours gave us. And I made a coolie from some of the raspberries 🙂 We also used the neighbours home made cherry syrup and it was fab 😀

Lilly - Jean's chicken is sadly still ill and sadly producing soft shells again - she is the only one of the four rescue hens not to have grown all her feathers back. I found the rabbit eating the soft shells so we decided he had to come back out of the run which is unfortunate as they provide him with company, but with Lilly sick as well we just thought it was best.

Of course the hutch which was origonally Blacky's now has no doors so we've bought him a little run thing for now whilst we build him a run that is big enough for him and a friend and he is being let out for supervised time to hope around the whole garden.

(it's just as well we are growing lots of food as it cost our weekly food/domestic shop budget!)

ALso we have discovered that we have corn and wheat and stuff growing in the garden where we used to feed the chickens and rabbit before their new run was built!

Apart from that we didn't get the tip run done though we did build a mount for the festival trolly to go on the roof of the car (on the roof rack) and we found Elmo and a funky car.

Of course I also cried because a) the pedometer and stuff shows I am active even though it hurts and long walks are with a stick and the calorie counting shows I am eating 2/3 what I am supposed to as a woman and I am still expanding round the waist :/ and b) Jean wanted a hamster and I am so broody that though I said no I really wanted it so when I didn't get my coffee I cried but it wasn't really about coffee - sigh. But mostly all fab at the moment.

Musical Mary (by sarah)

Mary has been gifted Jeany's old Uke that my aunt gave us - mainly due to the colour thing 😉 Mary loving pink and Jean detesting it these days. At two events we have been involved with recently there has been miniature music which is something my friend Zaphire is involved with. They give out ukes to the kids and sing songs - that is were the ooo ooo eee bit comes from that Mary is singing.

Mary has always been really musical - I know she isn't really playing this and it's out of tune and stuff but I'm still impressed! I need to dig out some other vids we have of her including air guitar when she was tiny and recorder tutting when she could sit up and stuff.