'gators and porcupines and otters and more!

Mum and Dad came up for my birthday weekend and on the Saturday we went to Thrigby Hall Wildlife Park. None of us had ever been before and it turned out to be really good. It's not a huge zoo but they have some really interesting animals. My favourites would probably have to be the alligators and the porcupines, mostly because I'd never seen either of them in real life before but also because they were amazing. Everything was really good though. It's animals. Animals are good. We walked round almost all of it, stopped for lunch then went back to our favourites. It's a really good size for a day out, you get to spend a good amount of time with everything. A lot of the enclosures have really good high walkways and stuff so you get really good views of the animals. The tigers sit on a ledge right next to you which is incredible.



The video is pretty much unedited clips from the day and has some pretty good otter play and a 'gator blink and I also have a lot of photos for you to scroll through if you'd like :)







































Animals being kept in zoo's can be a bit of a worry but this one seemed pretty good and knowing that the ticket prices go into various conservation projects is a good feeling. We also heard how the male snow leopard was found in the wild with his injured mum and they both would have died if they hadn't been brought into captivity which I know not everyone would agree with doing but I like that he still exists.

Pride and My Birthday!!!!!

It seems like aaaaaaages ago but I started the week (or last week, or something, I'm uploading this later than normal so who knows) with Norwich pride. I'd had a leg tattoo the day before so I didn't want to be up and about on it too much but I went for the march and I'm glad I did. It's a good feeling to be a part of something that is still so important but also Pride is a good time ^_^







I re-greened my hair and didn't wear gloves then made my dad a card out of glitter paper and I liked how it looked kind of alien. I also made some more bracelets. I'd had a couple of pastel ones I'd made for a while but I recently got the same beads but bright and finally sat down and used them.



Then it was my birthday!!!! Will decorated the living room all fancy with lots of confetti and we went in to the city basically just to eat various things then came home and ate more things. It was a good time and I am now officially old (─‿‿─)







Will's family got me some really nice presents off of my amazon list, I'm pretty excited to try the origami kit that only has japanese instructions.



Will secretly saved up for ages and bought me a new 2ds xl and I cried and it turned out that he'd got me Animal Crossing to play on it and it's even more adorable than I could have hoped. Buying things isn't what makes you happy but getting to a place where it's possible to occasionally buy things like this is such a strange feeling of overwhelmed relief and fear lol.
There aren't really that many things that I want but not having them can kind of make me feel a little detached from the world. I don't if that makes sense or just makes me sound super consumery and shallow but it can be hard to not have things you know you'd really love and be inspired by and to be able to start having some of these things feels really nice. We've worked very hard for it. I also got some birthday money which I can't wait to spend on some of the creative people I follow online
╰(*´︶`*)╯♡



Will decorated a cake for me too, ain't it pretty?!

hama, shirts, clothes, tattoo

These mini hama beads are really fiddly but it's so satisfying making the little picture bit by bit. These are badges and I put them in my etsy just as cheap little extras. I really want to just be making things all of the time and then have them for sale, I don't want to be really restrictive in "what I do". Maybe it's a huge mistake and I should be more worried about branding and making a specific set of stuff but I don't think I'd be happy like that. The pizza badge has already sold so at least these weren't a mistake to list :)



I actually managed to buy some new clothes!! You can see them in the video. I find clothes shopping so stressful it was nice to actually come away with something. I ran out of fabric medium at the start of the week (and then missed the post so I still don't have it...) so these shirts are waiting for the rest of their colours.



Norwich can be kinda pretty. I got a new tattoo! I filmed a little bit while I was there and tried to show it off in my vlog once I was home and sleep addled so that's a bit of a mess but the tattoo isn't. Will has a bunch of sketchbooks where he just draws out of his head with poscas and they're great. I asked him to do me a Bride of Frankenstein how he draws in those books and it turned out awesome.

No more Snickers :(

This week was a super lame week. On Monday Snickers (our syrian hamster) died, he was old and he literally went to sleep in his nest and that was that. It doesn't stop it from being sad but of all the ways to lose a pet it was probably the best. He kind of prepared us for a few days and then just went, the whole while being fine in himself, just getting slower. Losing pets sucks. He was such a presence in the house and now he's not there anymore. When we got a hamster I thought, "yeah that'll be adorable" but I wasn't expecting him to have such a personality.
Fucking jerks lol, why'd they both have to die in the same half a year span?! Now we are pet-less and miserable about it.



So overall the week felt a bit slow and sad (still having little cries when I bump the table and go to apologise and realise he isn't there) but I did get started on some things. I started lining out the shirts I will actually be making available in my shop (rather than just keeping for myself lol) and I also started stretching my ears. Tiny tiny first stretch.
This one may have lost momentum slightly because of the sads but I'm really enjoying making my weekly vlogs lately ^_^

all the things i don't know about embroidery, yet

The start of the week I was out and about in the city which I posted here. The rest of the week was shrouded by hormonal brain and I didn't get as much done as I wanted to but I did do this little embroidery over a couple of afternoons.



It's all over the place, I know, that's actually intentional. I wasn't trying to make a good piece I was just experimenting. I have a go at embroidery every now and then and I make my patches which are quite simple for the most part but I still don't really have a lot of experience with it so I wanted to try a couple of things and just see what the results would be.
I used regular sewing thread rather than embroidery floss for the first time. I did the right side of the hair with embroidery floss at first to compare them but I unpicked that to try two types of stitching with the same thread. You can see in the photo above that it's shinier on the floss side which sometimes bothers me with embroidery floss but regular thread is so thin that I guess it's more work to fill an area and I found working that many stitches on this fabric was pulling the fabric too much, I can see where there are little "holes" that are just the fabric being pulled too tight in both directions. That could probably be solved with slightly heavier fabric though I guess? This fabric was too thin to hold so many stitches I think, it'd be better for simpler, mostly line work designs maybe.



I love the look of embroidery with my drawings though. I'm going to get some little hoops and make some pieces to hang on the wall. When I take my fabric out of the hoops it gets so wavy, another missing piece to my knowledge, am I being too critical and that is just how embroidery looks, is the fabric wrong, is how I do the stitches wrong, am I pulling the fabric too tight in the hoop, do you take it out of the hoop and re-stretch it somehow, some other thing I haven't thought of?? I think hanging work in the hoops looks cute though so there's no rush to figure it out at least.



In an attempt to clear my grumpy head I went for a quick stroll round the meadow which I haven't been too in ages. It was nice, I saw some cows and ate a blackberry ^_^

Lord Mayor's Celebrations 2017

The Lord Mayor's Celebration was at the weekend which means a parade, street performers, food and fireworks. I generally avoid going out at the weekend but if I'll get to see a giant bear then I'll make an exception. (which is why I'll be at Pride later in the month haha)






Baba Yaga and her hut were out and about terrorising children. Look at how beautiful the hut is! And Baba Yaga herself was gliding around in her mortar, it was super cool.




Those samosa were the best samosas I have ever had and I've been thinking about them ever since mmm samosas.





I was pretty achy by this point because I am a weakling but we hung around to watch the fireworks because public displays of fireworks are magic. You're meant to stand round the other side of the castle but we go where there are fewer people, that's why it kind of looks like two separate displays, a short one and a tall one lol.






On Sunday we went to see the duck race. It turned out that the tide was going in one direction and the wind in the other and they kind of cancelled each other out so it wasn't so much a race as a float about but in the end a few ducks made a break for it and there was a winner. It was fun to watch, the ducks get dropped off the bridge to start the race which was what I was most excited to see (I tried to film it so it might be in my vlog at the end of the week).





Overall it did reinforce the fact that I like to avoid weekends, I definitely had to experience one too many dickhead lads, but I had a really good time. I'm glad to live somewhere that puts on something like this each year, it's a lot of fun ^_^


Edit: here's the blog post with the video from this weekend

painting shirts and making key rings

June zine done. A whole year of zines, DONE! I'm so proud of my 12, tiny, little baby zines ^_^



I added this marker drawing to my Redbubble and Society6. I actually took this straight from my sketchbook and just tidied it up a bit around the edges. I'm hoping to do this more often. I really like the look of drawings on paper scanned in for use on other things, scanning things well can be a bit tricky though and obviously if I wasn't intending to use it when I drew it it might not be usable but I like how this one turned out ^_^
I do really like digital colouring too, I want to do all the things!



I went into the city to post orders and came home with lots of nice things. I fucking love libraries. Also love cheap stickers.




I bought these key ring blanks ages ago not really sure if people would actually want one or not but I made one for myself and I really like seeing it on my keys so I found some glitter paper and they're in my shop now whether people want them or not lol. I think it's a pretty cool idea to have an original drawing on your keys though.



I spent the second half of the week hunched over my desk painting shirts. These are for me because it took me three shirts (one older one not pictured) to realise I really do need to use textile medium to make the acrylic not crack. That's why we test things though, plus I'll wear them anyway. I found some old medium though and have added it to the hearts on the girls shirt so at least I can test that too and then hopefully get some shirts actually done for the shop! It's a slow process painting on fabric with a brush but I really love it.




I'm so lucky to have a garden, it's so nice to sit outside (♡˙︶˙♡)

I've been trying my hand at making videos for a while now and I think this might be the first one that I think turned out alright/am not totally embarrassed to have people watch lol. I really want a video editor that would let me add stills/video on top of/next to each other and play with the brightness/contrast/colours etc but I'm doing what I can with what I've got. It's probably too long for other people to enjoy (I quite like a long vlog but I work from home so have time to watch them at my desk...) but I like this vlog I made ^_^