Bunny

I made this bunny a while ago now but I wanted to make a post about it to get some thoughts down about it. I wanted to make a 3D figure and making a soft toy seemed like a nice way to do that. It was fiddly because I'm not used to sewing, but I ended up really liking the rough look of it. The fraying edges and uneven stuffing fit quite well into the visual world in my head for all my little people and animals. I'm a huge fan of imperfection and I suppose an underlying theme of my stuff is to promote that kind of unevenness. My art is much more about me enjoying myself than about me being objectively or measuredly skilled at making things. I want to celebrate mistakes and rough edges and mismatched things, so I think my favourite things about the bunny are its loose threads and its lumpiness.

S H A P E

Every shape is so cool and I am getting back into a phase of making shapes really freely and spontaneously. I'm painting over all the pages of an old sketchbook I filled up. I really like recycling my sketchbooks and notebooks like that because's it's a bit different to be painting over and altering old things instead of drawing new things on blank paper. It feels more organic somehow, like echoing nature. I guess in the natural world everything becomes something else so it's similar - old things die to feed amazing new things. I also want to draw more people and animals in all sorts of different shapes. For ages I didn't give anyone noses, but now I'm enjoying giving people lots of different noses and hairstyles and ears.

Everything is just shapes and I am gonna draw every shape.

30 Fun & Creative Blog Post Ideas

If you're a blogger, you probably know that feeling - the one where you'd rather pour a Pot Noodle over your head that write a single sentence. For those who need a bit of post inspiration I've compiled this (hopefully slightly unusual) list of ideas. My creative life is propped up by some serious inspirational scaffolding in that I always keep lists (on paper or on Listography) of lots of ideas and other useful things. It's the number one thing (other than making sure I'm not bored, hungry, grumpy, etc) that keeps me going and allows me to be prolific and happy.

So, here goes:

1. How about a fictional account of you meeting a childhood hero - who WOULDN'T want to read fanfic about you and The Chuckle Brothers?
2. What's your favourite film/a really weird film you've seen/a film you've seen recently? Talk about your favourite moments, the best character outfits, or things you think could make it better.
3. Make some spontaneous collages with nearby materials or magazines.
4. Poems or prose. Google for a prompt or pluck something from the air and write something flowery or silly or scary in a few hundred words.
5. "A Day In My Life" - take photos approximately every hour from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, and then caption, annotate, or even draw over them.
6. You could keep a notebook or diary of thoughts and drawings, maybe just once a week, or just as a one off. It's a really fun and really personal thing to do.
7. Talk about what your favourite smells are and why.
8. Make a post about some people that mean a lot to you, whether they are friends, acquaintances, or people you don't know at all. They could even be fictional characters, mythological creatures, animals, or celestial bodies!
9. If you feel good about your look one day, why not make a post of a bunch of selfies and maybe a little pep talk for yourself or a run down of things that made you feel good that day.
10. List posts! They can come in so many forms and can be so useful later on. You can make lists of tasks, ideas, favourite artists, words, or anything you can think of.
11. Mood boards. My pal Bethany Rose Lamont makes mood board posts often and they are really cool. I also love Tavi's mood boards. It's fun to curate a visual theme or share a visual of what you're fixating on right now.
12. Go for a walk and take photos of anything that catches your eye, then make a post all about it. It's pretty fun to pretend you're a little kid and go off on a little local exploration. I also find that this cheers me up a lot if I'm feeling sad or tired.
13. Try a new craft or a new art material and document your experiments. You could try drawing with sticks and credit cards, painting with your nose, or making a sculpture out of food.
14. Talk about the best or strangest things about where you live.
15. Post your childhood photos. I'm always excited to see these! You could also post some childhood drawings or stories.
16. Scan yourself. I already do this one all the time because it's so variable and fun! You can make simple scans of your hands and face, or add a collage element by scanning objects - like plants or toys.
17. Write about what you do when you're sad/gloomy/tired/inspired/excited.
18. Draw pictures with your non-dominant hand.
19. Pick a TV show you've never seen before, watch the very last episode, and make guesses about what happened previously in the show.
20. Share pictures of your haircuts and colours over the years.
21. Recreate some childhood photos or famous photos.
22. Make a photo series of your most sentimental possessions.
23. Drawings of what's in your bag or your room.
24. Make a blog post about a past family holiday or an embarrassing story (with old pictures, or you could illustrate it with new drawings or photos).
25. Talk about how you tackle a self esteem or confidence issue.
26. Goals! This can be goals in general, reading goals, or goals for something specific.
27. Make light drawings with torches - this is extra fun with a friend.
28. Collect random objects from outside and make a collage with them.
29. Do a style write up on an unusual subject, e.g. Dr Odine from Final Fantasy VIII, Bodger from Bodger & Badger, or H from Steps - all very stylish.
30. Live blog an episode of Come Dine With Me (or something else). Here are some choice live blogs of The Brit Awards and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

That's it! Now go forth and enjoy your day (perhaps have a nice fruit). （ つ⌒▽⌒)つ★

Diary: Turnip Tyranny

This week I have seen the return of lots of old, familiar things. I've been to the hospital, I've been back to uni, and I've played Skyrim for the first time in about three/four months! I have also been hanging out with a pigeon, as you will see in the video at the bottom of this post!

Small Pals

I made a little bunny pal for myself. As you can see the bunny is a big fan of stripes and socks. A pretty stylish bunny. I always draw little people, bunnies, ducks, etc, and I think they are sort of the mascots of all the positivity and curiosity and hope and expressiveness and everything inside me. They make me feel so supported, almost as if they are real people and friends helping me out and encouraging me and being there to remind me of things. A lot of the time I'll draw myself and it's like another me is there to encourage me and tell me that I should go make some toast or put on a jumper or take a nap. I know that drawing is definitely a thing I do to take care of myself and make myself happy and inspired, but it's interesting to think about how that works specifically through characters. I make a cute world of people and animals - a world where all these characters have ideas and emotions. They are all there to support me, like they are everything I need from inside myself. Cute bunnies and bunheads and watchful moons.

Top 10 Reasons I Love Buns

Buns are one of my top favourite hair forms, and here's why:

1. They feel fluffy and bouncy, which is my ideal state
2. Having a sphere of hair on top of your head sounds futuristic
3. Less hair will get in my mouth and the mouth of anyone in my immediate presence
4. It is less obvious that my hair is a bit greasy
5. Sailor Moon loves them
6. I can shelter small animals inside them
7. I can easily trick people into thinking I have less hair than I really do
8. I can show off my formidable forehead to its full extent
9. I keep all my secrets in there
10. There's a wealth of both rabbit and pastry-based humour that never gets old

Fitting Room Focus: Jewels & Reindeer

I dropped into H&M the other day to have a look at their sale items and found some jewelled/stripy/knit goodness.

top - £5 (reduced from £12.99), skirt - £15 (reduced from £24.99)

I found this nice and simple pink and white stripy t-shirt. It's slouchy and really cute and delicate, with a nice little pocket too. This is pretty much my ideal t-shirt, because it's both simple and interesting. It has long sleeves, and has a nice scooped neckline - not too high and not too low. It looks great with this jewelled skirt! I think the skirt is really cute and eye-catching, but it wasn't the most comfortable as it's made out of neoprene or a similar material (which also makes it bunch up a little more).

jumper - £10 (reduced from £24.99)

I also spotted this adorable winter jumper. Some of my favourite Christmas jumpers are the more simple Scandinavian types. I love a nice reindeer or snowflake pattern. This jumper was disappointing though, because for all of the two minutes I had it on for, it started to me itch because it's so course! I also dislike the three quarter length sleeve. Full sleeve or a proper short sleeve, please (I'm a cap sleeve hater), especially for a jumper!