Hello World

You’re still out there? I am still in here!

I have been well, and busy doing creative things. Not so much with the organising my way out of a paper bag (or a piss up in a brewery). In addition I have mainly been watching book binding and ukulele videos*.

And Oh my they’ve updated the blog interface while I wasn’t looking – its been a while since May! But I hope I can find what I need and not die of frustration in the meantime.

And Lo! An actual bit of content – below are what I have taken to call my External Brain, as the one I was issued with at Birth is a bit glitchy. I’ve started 2021 early in an attempt to locate myself in reality – something that slipped a lot this year.

Top L > R ‘Array’ print project book, notes for small/ random projects, Bullet Journal Bottom L >R page per day diary kept during lock down, Travellers Note Book with home made inserts

I’ve been keeping a Bullet Journal (top right) since july 2017 and it revolutionised my life even before my ADHD diagnosis. It was, and is very important to things outside the house and studio. So at the start of lock down in March I changed to the Lemon note book which just happened to be an out of date page per day diary to keep a record – that way I didn’t have to freak out so much at time slipping by. I moved back in August to the Bu Ju which was fine…

I was not Fine in November.

The Book June ’19 (top middle) was, suprisingly, started in June 2019 and from the start I filled it with a bit of everything, Pop-ups, Flower Type Things random things that caught my fancy. It quickly became the book to make notes on one off projects; like decorating a bathroom cabinet and recording the form of a ply-split braided pot. Yes, I told you I had been busy.

The blue book with the Toy story? aliens (top left as if you care 🙂 was actually started in Jan 2017 when I was groping around looking for direction with my Printing – so many false starts! When Morley College reopen this September I picked it up to continue in the same vein. I use this book to think about What and Why I am printing what I do. Print Diary Vol.v (not shown) is used to organise/record what I actually do in the print studio; prints made, ink used etc.

Also not shown: workshop/shed diary – used to record activities and time spent on tasks, many Crochet note books, three Brooklyn Art Library sketchbooks that need to be finished and returned by mid Feb, several volumes that could be files under Flower Type things and a book for my book binding notes (which I did not make).

In conclusion, on struggling out of the hole that was the 11th month of the year, I realised that I need a place to take notes for things that fell between the “public facing” Bullet Journal, the continuous stream of IDEAS of June 19 and specific large/long term projects records. Things like shopping lists, Ikea orders, research questions, items to the ever expanding To Do list (currently at 5 pages, i note absently). Nothing precious, but something more substantial than the waiters note pads I had been using. Which brings us to the last volume in the photo – a travellers note book. So shiny. So expensive. So tempting. Then I couldn’t even bring to use it even when I actually did travel.

Then I realised I could easily make† low cost inserts and turn it in to a Stay At Home, a !Travellers Note Book. When they’re full take them out, put them somewhere safe and make a new one. It’s the indexing that’s going to be the challenge… Then I can really treat it like an external hard drive for my Brain

Well. that was my year. I did take pictures of things as I made them. And at one point was planning to post them without much text – my english is FAIL you might have noticed. My current intention is to post things back dated as if they were posted at the correct time and fill in the gaps in my the story of 2020. This is in addition to posting new stuff as it happens. [what am i like?]

So Best Wishes for the New Year. Take care. Be safe

MER

*So I have a tag to add to may collection and its not about my attempts to learn the uke.

† The inserts are about the size of the square you get from cutting down a sheet of A4. My sections are a gathered of 8 folios of cheep printer paper sewn into a pamphlet º , but you could use more. The off cut 8.5cm can be bound into a separate little book for a specific subject. Mine are Books and Shiny Toys.

º Now my foot notes have foot notes! Don’t worry only the first 4:40min is strictly relevant, I used a sheet of lightweight decorated card on the outside of the section for minimal protection.

Busy Busy

Apologies for the radio silence.

As well as freaking out over one year anniversaries and stuff I’ve also got the builders in.

Oh the piles of stuff

The initial ‘Oh noes! Stuff to do!’ of coping with a the death of a close family member has more or less passed. And I (there is no we) have moved into the ‘what to do with the piles of stuff’ phase. I’m not going to talk about the emotional bit because I don’t really have any kind of handle on that (watery smile).

Aaaannnny way. So much stuff. And all part of my childhood and family memories so can’t really be shredded out right and chucked in a skip. Did I ever mention that the house I grew up in had six bedrooms… space for plenty off stuff. (Looks like I actually get to use my default category as an actual category for once.)

For example in the back bedroom, where I used to sleep when I came home to look after mum, there are now over a hundred labelled items that I need to process and find homes for. And that’s just one room…

At the weekend I was looking for some papers of my grandmother’s that date back to the 1930’s. Haven’t found them yet, will be most pissed if they got chucked in the last year after all this time. Why is life never simple? And finally sorted through the shelves of A4 and A3 folders. {Found the paper theatre that Phil’s going to get when we meet up for coffee. Happy belated Birthday dear heart. I’m not sure he’d appreciate the two packets of Barbie fridge magnets, but there was also a selection of cut out fashion dolls and houses in the same place.}

So much stuff the shows what kind of person my mum was, and by extension my brother and me. My Dad is all over the house too; his art is hanging on all the walls so it’s a kind of background noise. Mums stuff is a jack-in-box that has to be opened at least once.

Wow! This post has become angst ridden.

So to the part that I was intending to write about this week – the bricklaying career.

Holiday Snippet 1

When ones retail therapy tends to stationery, that time of year when diaries are reduced is always difficult. So I told myself I use this one to keep a pictorial record – figuring its okay there is an empty page because I would have actually done something with my time. And if I take it away with me I get at least one drawing done a day.