a(nother) weekend in the Brecon Beacons

Last weekend 11 of us drove to the Brecon Beacons for a couple of days of walking, boozing and just generally enjoying each others' company.

We stayed at a pub called The Dragon's Back which I would highly recommend if you're planning a trip to Brecon. The owners were absolutely lovely plus they've got accommodation to suit all sorts (we opted for the bunkhouse which included breakfast) and, speaking of food, the pub grub was spot on.

On Saturday we took the easy route up to Pen Y Fan, with a slight detour to the peak of Corn Du on the way. It might be called the easy route (a 2.5 - 3.5 hour walk) but I was a bit out of practice so it suited me just fine! We were engulfed in clouds during our ascent and when we reached the top of Corn Du there was no view to be seen, but there was snow! Still surrounded by mist, we pushed on to Pen Y Fan and then, to everyone's relief (we've been on a few hill and mountain hikes only to be denied a view), the clouds cleared. The scenery was breathtaking, these pictures really don't do it justice.

The descent would have been straightforward had it not been for the crazy weather! We got snow, sleet, sun and a bout of horizontal hail stones, which, I can tell you, are painful and make it difficult very difficult to see when they're hurtling into your eyeballs. We all reached the bottom in one piece and headed back to the pub for an afternoon and evening of well-deserved pints, pies and boards games.

Sunday was altogether more chilled: a quick visit to Llangorse Lake before exploring some incredible caves at The National Show Caves park which also, rather randomly, featured A LOT of 90s-looking dinosaur sculptures. The park was 14 quid to get in which, on reflection, was a bit pricey given that all you really need to see are the caves, particularly the Cathedral Cave which is gigantic and, so everyone kept saying, is sometimes used a wedding venue! A bit too wet and slippery for my liking but to each their own.

After a quick pootle around the farm (which involved petting a variety animals include miniature Shetland ponies (who knew they could be more miniature!)) back to London we went. I feel v.lucky that I get to bugger off to fun places at weekends, fingers crossed for a few more trips this year :)

pick me up London

Pick Me Up, London's graphic art festival is now over (this has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while) but I wanted to share some of the awesome stuff we saw anyway. It's held over two weeks at Somerset House and definitely worth making a note of if you're into artsy stuff.

My favourite thing at the exhibition were theese 3D printed dinosaurs designed by Jack Cunningham. If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that I'm a BIG dinosaur fan so these guys were right up my street.

The joyously detailed pen and watercolour artworks by Laura Callaghan. And this Ice-lollies print.

The excellent 3D paper constructions by Hattie Newman.

There were also workshops and fun interactive things to do, talks and plenty of opportunities to buy notebooks, cards and of course prints :) I wouldn't advise going on the last day as it was pretty busy. Hopefully, next year I'll have some money to spend (and fingers crossed, our own flat to put them in)!

Lastly, I liked this plate from Lazy Oaf a lot :)

 

Start button

First off, thank you for your lovely encouraging comments on my last post, they were v.much appreciated :)

I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to start working again. As is probably blindingly obvious, if you've been following at any point during the last four months, I didn't get on too well with unemployment, it was all rather depressing and I hated going to the job centre (although, the CV and practice interview appointments with the careers people were v.helpful). But now, I'm one week in at the new job and so far so good! I'm still getting to grips with everything and there seems to be a lot to learn but that's cool, it's great to actually face completely new to me scenarios and experience a challenge again. Also, I have met so many new people! Always a plus point in my books. I'm v.much looking forward to being independent again - not having to rely on Mitch or my parents or bloody job seekers to bail me out (although I must say that I am hugely grateful they did otherwise I would have been in serious shit) - as well as getting back on track with our plans to save for our deposit and look for our own home. For the first time this year I can hit that start button.

Four months of unemployment taught me some v.valuable lessons, not least that it's always a good idea to have an emergency fund and that, even if you are super confident and write pretty good cover letters, be prepared that finding a job you want will probably take longer than you think! For anyone out there currently unemployed and job searching I wrote a list of motivational ideas which might be helpful. It is shit some days, rejection emails, or just deafening silence, is the worst, but chin-up, you ARE an excellent candidate and, although people say it all the time and you're thinking "please shut up", it's true: do not lose heart, you WILL get that job soon.

In other news, during my final week of unemployment, I made this little fella ^^. I had some fabric scraps, lavender and stuffing leftover from these a few years ago and a lot of free time; a dinosaur lavender bag was inevitable :)

We had an amazingly lazy day yesterday - reading, chatting, sewing, catching up on game of thrones - which was perfect, nothing like a first week in a new job to leave you absolutely knackered! Today will be much the same :) Hope you're all having excellent weekends too.

Tuesday's Tees - Pinned!

There are so many lovely things to be found on Pinterest including, you guessed it, tees! But, like with all things on pinterest sometimes the images click through to nothing (does this make anyone else sad?). Most of this lot have an origin of sorts. If they've sold out I at least know which shop they came from but my favourite (the glacier photograph one) is lost in the maze of the interweb :( However, it must belong to someone (it looks like it's hanging behind a door) so maybe one day it'll be tracked down...

they'll never find us

floral

stripey

glacier

pattern

mermaid

brooklyn

stars

tee dresses

Tuesday's Tees - t-rex

My new addition - Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton t-shirt

It's actually not that new but I've only just got round to wearing it for the first time - I love it!

Ah Tee & Cake what wonderful tee-makers you are. This one is particularly favoured as it's grey (they normally do a lot of white ones) and my wardrobe was previously without a grey t-shirt (bizarre! I've probably got one of every other colour)!

This particular gem has sold out online but quench your dinosaur thirst on this lovely number.

Heavy Brachiosaurus

Plasti-scene!

A few weeks back the folks over at Little White Lies magazine set their readers a task: Create a well known scene from a film using plasticine. Never one to allow a creative challenge to pass by (especially one that involved plasticine  - so many childhood hours making monsters and the like with plasticine) Mitch and I set about re-creating a famous movie scene...can you guess which film it's from...

Yes it's that bit where t-rex eats the lawyer off the toilet in Jurassic Park - classic moment and much loved film. Plus it meant that we got to make a dinosaur out of plasticine. Although I roughly shaped the body, Mitch deserves the credit for all the important details on t-rex :)

And here, for all those who are un-familiar with Jurassic Park (I hope there aren't many of you!), here is the real scene from the film.

Work in progress...

Sadly we didn't win the competition but it was great fun playing with plasticine again. Plus, we got to see all the other creative entries some of which are truly awesome. My favs: Little Miss Sunshine (which won), Wall-E, Ghostbusters, King Kong and Up.

See all the plasti-scenes here or on the Little White Lies facebook page.

When I grow up I want to be...

Last weekend a very good friend celebrated her 25th by throwing a fancy dress party, the theme: come as what you wanted to be when you were little. So, I had a good long think about my younger self and what she wanted to do as an adult. I loved drawing, writing and making things - particularly with plasticine - (nothing much has changed there) but I couldn't say that I'd actually wanted to be an artist or writer or animator. I called my mum and asked if she remembered whether I'd expressed any particular interests in possible professions. The answer was no, I'd never really said anything about growing up and doing this or that. I reckon as a child I was probably so involved in the 'now' (whatever character I was drawing or comic I was writing) that the distant future of adult-hood never really caused me much concern, secondary school changed that of course - cue panic about where my life was heading and "career planning". Aside from entering the idea of becoming a writer, and that's certainly taken a back seat, I've never really known what I wanted to do... Anyway back to the party, my mum did say one thing though: I was always very interested in my dinosaurs - trips to the natural history museum were an absolute treat. And so, I went to the party as a dinosaur fanatic, not quite a paleontologist because that includes ALL prehistoric life and I was just all about the dinosaurs. The Iguanodon was my favourite.

The party was awesome, the hosts provided food, jagermeister AND vodka jelly, the flat was v.cool indeed and everyone made lots of effort on their costumes. I was initially worried about the fancy dress element but on reflection it was a brilliant theme not just as conversation starters but also the opportunity for a creative riot! Fav childhood aspirations of others: Indiana Jones, Noel Edmonds and The Pope.

Wedding Guest

Sporting Alternative

After a relatively civilised Saturday, I prepared my vocal chords, psyched up my competitive side and donned my beer helmet (sadly not literally) and headed for the Excel Centre for the Sunday half of Anarchy in the UK - the international roller derby bouts. Teams in attendance: London's Brawling (London), Steel Hurtin' (Pittsburgh USA), Charm City (Baltimore USA) and New Skids on the Block (Montreal, Canada).

The games were fast and high scoring. The teams from across the atlantic were phenomenal, particularly Clitty Clitty Bang Bang when jamming for Charm City - no one could keep her back. Our own London Brawling gave them a tough time - awesome performances from jammers Vagablonde, Kamikaze Kitten and Fox Sake - and a massive whoop of praise for the Blockers who did a superb job at keeping the opposition from scoring and the game together. Since I've been coming to roller derby for a year now I felt it was high time to invest in some merchandise so I got a t-shirt (obv).
www.londonrollergirls.com

Elsewhere I enjoyed a spot of Jurassic Golf. We weren't exactly fighting off T-Rex and pals whilst playing a few holes but it was amusing all the same. I lost and I blamed the disney music (where was the Jurassic Park Soundtrack?) - clever girl.

Cake, Tee & Wheat-Free Fun

Instead of spending another Friday in the office, today I took a holiday to cater for the cast and crew of my sister's short film. The scenes being filmed today were in my parents’ house and so I arrived at midday with ingredients for a pasta bake and cakes (baked and iced the night before). Lunch had to be ready by one'o'clock as my sister had a tight schedule to keep. I figured that an hour was more than enough time to cook a simple veggie bake…

Things I learned from catering today:

1. Cooking for 11 v.hungry people is pressuring (even more so when they are standing around you in the kitchen)

2. Wheat free pasta cooks way quicker than regular pasta.

3. Grating cheese takes longer than you’d think

4. Cooking for more people than I’m used to, within a set time-frame and taking into account people’s dietary requirements was a recipe from Master Chef – my head was filled with pumping dance tunes and JohnTorode’s voice ‘Cooking doesn’t get tougher than this!' (It does of course, but in my mind I was battling it out in the master chef kitchen!)

The food was ready on time and eaten up. The cup-cakes were also a success even my wheat-free chocolate ones (even though they didn't look as pretty)!

Lastly, a little shout out to Tee and Cake who have managed to combine two very special things in my life: t-shirts and cake. They’ve actually managed to add something to the mix (a subject that is also dear to me), creating an awesome trinity if you will…Yes. It’s a dinosaur t-shirt and yes, I totally bought it.