tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14071827073521707552024-03-14T04:35:33.526+00:00Breakfast of ChampignonsI gave up an academic career to persue a more authentic existence through art and printmaking. Also, I was a bit insane. But mostly it's a spiritual quest.Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.comBlogger236125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-61769046039149526932019-12-24T15:05:00.001+00:002019-12-24T15:05:46.554+00:00<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-e52e149f-7fff-c811-22d5-ae55b3936046" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Four years ago, when we moved into Winchester road, i took my son to buy a christmas tree. I buy the trees in pots, the traditional kind, so I can make them last several years, if you keep them in a shady part of the garden. I cant bear the sadness of cut trees, and can’t bare plastic either. They first year they will look good, but when you bring them in, they lose needles, those traditional trees. Every year, they lose more needles. The first year they look good, the second year they are getting sparse. After that, you start needing A LOT of tinsel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Four years ago, we left the Christmas tree behind at the old house because it was so bare it didn’t seem worth the effort. That year they sold reasonable sized nordmann pines, the fancy, expensive kind, the kind that doesn’t drop needles, at the Wilkos for only 25 pounds. I remember how happy Finn was when we said we could have one. I remember how he skipped and hopped a few steps ahead of us all the way to the shop. It’s what christmas is all about. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The trees were already in netting. They were half the price of trees anywhere else, and when I unfurled the netting, there was a bare patch in the middle, with no branches. My son didn’t notice; he loved his tree. It was the best christmas tree in the world. He named it Rooty and held it’s branches and promised that when it got too big he would find a place to plant him so he could grow. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I created fake branches for bare patch and disguised the nakedness with tinsel, and left my son to decorate it. When I came back I found he has put all two packs of the clip on wooden mushrooms on the two false branches because he didn’t want to pinch Rooty’s real branches with the little pegs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rooty has been our christmas tree since then. He’s never made any effort to grow a branch in the bare bit, but as the other branches grow longer it’s harder to create fake branches big enough. I promised myself a new christmas tree next year. One that didn’t have netting on. A nice thick, bushy tree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plants do not like moving house, and since we have moved house twice this year, because we were housed in the temporary house for nine months, many of the plants have been unhappy. Rooty was particularly unhappy. Pine trees are not happy here really, its too hot down south for them, and the temporary house had an unshaded yard where the sun beat down all summer. To make matters worse, the temporary house did not have a working outside tap, so I could not use the automatic watering system. It’s very hard to supply enough water to keep a tree looking good manually. Rooty survived, but he did not look good, and needed planting to recover. We have a big garden now, so it’s not a problem to fulfill My son’s promise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By late November, I started thinking about replacement trees, doing a bit of research online. I suggested to my husband we check out the ones at B&Q. He said it was much too early. Later in the day I suggested popping in on the way back home to get some curtain hooks; obviously my nut and I investigated the tree situation. The situation was this; all the potted Nordmann Firs in B&Q were £38, and one of them was CONSIDERABLY bigger than all the others. It was bushy! Dense healthy foliage. In fact, it was the same size as rooty is now. An absolute bargain really, really makes sense to get your tree in early if it’s in a pot and can live in the garden for a couple of weeks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr nut was delighted with his purchase. It stayed in the garden a month and then we brought it in and decorated it with mushrooms. Decorating the tree and fireplace makes me happy because my friends have bought or made many of the foxes and mushrooms and I love seeing them all again! Apart from the silver one that was bought because of its very phallic nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And now it is nearly Christmas once more! I hope it is a joyous one, and a happy New Year ❤️</span></div>
<br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00821838005102449753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-46190904097346229632019-03-11T16:12:00.001+00:002019-03-11T16:19:57.913+00:00<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pagan celebration for the start of spring, Imbolc, always seems to be too early to properly celebrate, taking place somewhere between the 31st of January and the 2nd of February. This year that was precisely when it began to snow, which covered up the only signs of spring; the Snowdrops and the Hellebores. Yet they must have been there, for only a few weeks later we were fully in the swing of things; the birds are singing,nesting, and feasting on insects, and I can count many flowers on a tiny walk to the local shop: daisy, shepherd's purse, violet, dandelion, daffodil, crocus, speedwell, purple deadnettle, plum blossom.</span><br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my practises is drawing local flora and fauna, in order to better know my new home. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There’s a special way of knowing something to be had by drawing it.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Obviously I'm only an hour away from Southampton, but living more rurally brings new friends: Red kites and Stinking Hellebores to name a few; Violets seem to be a roadside plant here, which is a delight. I am documenting the things of interest in a journal I have started for the purpose, just a Seawhite’s cardboard sketchbook, nothing fancy. The kraft pages make a good sound when you turn them, and like Seawhite's cartridge sketchbooks, they hold media well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nature senses something when winter is seemingly at its darkest, and the ancients are correct; March is the season when </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">notice the spring, when it is acknowledged metrologically, but nature doesn't wait around till the sun comes out. It is preparing underground, ready to burst forth, so when the conditions are right, it is ready to bloom quickly. It does not waste time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I however, am more like the some of my house plants, which, shocked at being moved, are in a kind of winterborne stasis; but I am slowly growing used to living in Oxfordshire, and have now painted two Hellebores- the Helleborus Foetitus I found (it does smell, and it is poisonous) and also a Helleborus Niger I saw in a garden, and later bought for myself. Obviously I want to create annotations of pertinent facts (both botanical and magical) to create a beautiful page, but that hasn’t happened yet. </span></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-82812686105407700872019-01-24T13:19:00.002+00:002019-01-24T13:19:46.340+00:00<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-8436f90f-7fff-f3b1-12b0-f50ffbbc0f60" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abingdon. There are a surprising amount of seagulls here.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We arrived in Abingdon a month ago. It doesn’t feel like a month ago, because the learning curve has been so steep, and I have done so many things in that time. I remember the yellow moon rising full as we drove into Abingdon with the final load of possessions stuffed into a aging blue transit van, which I took to be an omen of sorts; here we are at the full moon* again, and if the moon says it has been a month, who am I to argue? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wanted to tell my swimming friends back in Southampton that I enjoy swimming at the leisure centre here, where they have extra wide lanes and much better changing rooms than Shirley pool. I’ve been going to the leisure centre pool rather than the one at Radley college because they are the same distance to my new house, and the leisure centre is cheaper, has lane swimming most of the day, and a free sauna, and I’m not allergic to the water. They’ll find it hilarious that I was greeted last week by a notice warning me of cold shower temperatures (it was nothing compared to Shirley pool, where there were only freezing showers for months after the boiler was replaced and then kept breaking in various ways. They fixed it, just before I left)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve done a bit of exploring, which is much easier than last time I moved because now my telephone can tell me where to go. I have discovered that when google maps says ‘Head NORTH along Northcote road’ what it actually means is ‘Turn around, idiot woman, you are actually walking in completely the opposite direction’. I would like to respectfully point out to google maps that if I instinctively knew what direction north was, I wouldn't need google maps to tell me where I was. It's still much easier than getting lost the old fashioned way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We got a new mattress when we moved, a handmade orthopedic one from John Lewis. When they say hand made they meant it was carved from granite, with particular attention to sculpting painful little buttons that lie in deep dimples on the surface. I bought a memory foam mattress topper for it after I putted a sword embedded in it and accidentally became king of England. Turns out, if you feel tired all the time, it might be because you are getting no sleep. Especially if your bed is a rock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I have mastered the art of finding the swimming pool, the post office and delivering my son to school, as well as the advanced achievement of catching the bus into Oxford (they don't tell you the upcoming stops here, and the windows are heavily stained with countryside, so you can’t see where you are, either), and am finally getting a decent night's sleep, I have enough energy to get back to drawing. I’ve been learning to use Affinity Designer on my new Ipad so that I can make up my acetates and start printing again, which I am looking forward to. I’m mostly drawing crows, which I mostly see bickering with red kites in the skies outside my bedroom window, plus some plants I've found. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, there you have it. We're Settling in OK and good things should be happening soon. Watch this space! </span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-82806244067547849722018-10-30T17:00:00.000+00:002018-10-30T17:00:02.101+00:00IAM (not) Colibri<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I took my son to the hairdresser, she admired my dress. ‘I love a smock dress’ she said ‘all the little girls come in wearing them! I wish they made them for adults’ I complimented her on her dungarees. It seemed we both liked dressing like toddlers- and why not? They are dressed to be comfortable, practical and colourful. Adult clothes are terrible, when you think about it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People complain dungarees are not </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">flattering</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> but that’s part of the appeal, if you ask me, dressing for yourself, not for other people. Anyway, my son assures me all the cool people wear dungarees, like children’s TV presenters and plumbers, and I have made these blue dungarees and I feel most amazing in them. It’s almost impossible to feel unhappy if you are dressed like this (as my son has pointed out, they are like the poncho from the mighty booth in this regard). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m wearing them here after a particularly tough day, as we are leaving Southampton soon, and my son had some trouble adjusting to that. My own response to a substantial house move has been fairly </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">typical- I have bought myself a bloody great house tree. I should point out that I have NO IDEA where I’m going to be living, but I trust it will be large and suitable for trees. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I enjoy wearing my dungas intensely, from the colour, to the softness to the general ridiculousness and comfort of them; and when someone bumps into me I say ‘that’s alright, I’m wearing my camouflage trousers, after all!’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pattern is a modified Iam colibri. I’ve modified it so much that I now refer to it as ‘Iam not colibri’: I added proper straps because I don’t have time for tying and untying ribbons (dungaree clips are fun, guys) and also, the grosgrain ribbon twizzleing through an eyelet might be perfectly comfortable, but it doesn’t look it. I added a front pocket for pin badges, and made the legs full length and tapered. I sized up and added a little around the hips as these seemed to be designed to skinny French waifs (I found the sizing disappointing as to only went up to a size 16, and everyone deserves dungarees). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally I changed the facing so that the full bib was covered in nice spotty fabric, so everything is nice and covered when the bib is down- I even made match bias binding as covered the leg seams so it looks nice then the legs are rolled up. I’m also working on a dress version. Other than that, I followed the pattern exactly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Iam colibri is a simple pattern, with no fiddly adding bibs and fake flies (flies! Do the not just add insult to injury for ladies dungarees) so it doesn’t take long to sew up, but making all the patch pockets and the topstitch take me approximately forever, so for this reason I strongly recommend sewing a muslin for this pattern, unless perhaps you are a skinny french waif with a taste for danger.</span></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-12425090304287361942018-09-26T14:29:00.001+01:002018-09-26T14:29:50.448+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve always had good hair, so I’ve always taken it for granted; I wash my hair, and maybe brush it, and other than that it runs feral. Even now I am older, and it is thinner, and greyer, than it was, it’s still pretty good hair. When I moved to Southampton I stopped cutting my hair. Not particularly on purpose, I just don’t like going to the hairdressers, and it didn’t look too bad, so why bother?. It grew to what my friend called ‘clinically long’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s always been long, though. When I was young, people would comment on it and I would wonder what I would do if it all fell out. I can’t remember how I found out about The Little Princess Trust, a charity that makes wigs for young people that have suffered hair loss, but it seemed obvious that my talent for growing hair had a purpose, so I gave them 20 inches. I meant to cut off ten inches but the hairdresser was sufficiently incompetent that she could cut off more hair than most people have, despite being told the length I wanted in three different ways. I didn’t go back for a while, but my son has been urging me to get it cut, since a lot of the girls at his school have donated hair.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This time they got 15 inches, thanks to the more than competent team at Glitz hair in Southampton, who measured very carefully, and were very nice, and competent . You can donate anything more than seven inches, but they need donations of more than 12 inches to make long wigs. My hair is still long, and I am enjoying having to at this length, so I don’t need any congratulations, I just wanted to let people know that hair donation is a thing, and you can also support the Little Princess Trust financially- some of my friends chipped in to get my hair made into a wig, and that makes me feel far prouder.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-7268026942802963662017-12-06T22:15:00.001+00:002017-12-07T09:28:58.445+00:00‘If you feel tired, you should try working’ <div>
I took a brief itenary of my day for the person that told me ‘if you feel tired, you should try working’. Hope it explains my fatigue, despite my obvious indolence :)</div>
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3.30am Soothing child who has apparently fallen off a building in a dream</div>
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3.45 Remember I haven’t filled to advent calendar. Fill advent calendar. Other things to remember: make appointments for opticians and dentist, create costume for child’s Christmas play by Friday. </div>
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3.50-6.30 Fail to go back to sleep</div>
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6.45 Awoken by child climbing in bed</div>
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7.00 Yesterday I got up at 7 to do the dishes and tiding but realise this is not going to happen today because I’m actually dead.</div>
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7.30 Get up. Try and feed a child that won’t eat anything but mince pies because the squishy frog in the advent calendar had put him off food (except pies). Pack water bottle. Pack snack. </div>
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8.30 Walk child to school. Swear. Walk home, collect goddamn trumpet, walk back to school, deposit trumpet in school office. Walk home the scenic route to try and reconnect with nature. Trees. Birds. Autumnal dampness.</div>
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9.30 Pack orders. My printer refuses to connect so I’m trying to hand write all the address labels and I’m so stressed I’ve forgotten how to write and my face has gone numb.</div>
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11.00 Post office. Manage to not fight the man standing behind complaining. Even when he gets very racist about Megan Markle. Get the incompetent post lady who is trying to put my letters through as large letters; it’s going to cost me a fortune. Incompetent post lady is also deaf. Manage to resolve the situation though a combination of bellowing loudly and looking like I’m going to cry.<br />
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11.30 Trying to find something quick to eat in sainsbury's but they don’t have any food that I can eat immediately, and suitable for a lactose intolerant vegetarian. Desperately want a pie. Get frozen Linda McCartney ones; choose a ’Country Pie’; I hope it’s a tasty country and not one of the ones currently causing me indigestion (eg, Britain, or America). Manage to get out without hearing ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham, I’m nailing the Whammageddon challenge this year.</div>
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12.00 Put pie in oven, and set timer because my future happiness really depends on this. Have a cup of coffee with actual caffeine in. Remember why I don’t drink caffeine. I think they call these racing thoughts but that’s misleading because races are orderly and happen in straight lines. I think they should call them ‘swarm of angry bee’ thoughts. </div>
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12.15 Carry on making the zipper pouches I started last night a presents for my friends, while anxiously debating the merits of zipper pouches as gifts. Conclude they are obviously great gifts. What else would you get the person who has everything but a zipper pouch to put their everything in? I am a genius. Pleased to have done all my sewing for the year now! Victory! Hurrah!</div>
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12.30 Pie time! Mmmmm pie. I wish I cooked both pies, I’m still hungry. For pie. Maybe I should have chosen the pie with leek in, I haven’t eaten anything green for a while. Is leek green?<br />
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1.00 Sort out some problems with a file for my printer caused by my computer refusing to connect to the internet last night and subsequent small breakdown on my part. Chase up invoices to the galleries which is the worse, why can’t they just pay me? Sort out someone whose order went missing while feeling grateful she’s being nice and not screaming at me.</div>
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2.00 Choice between tiding or listing, blogging and taking pictures for Instagram. Try and do all, ineffectually. Realise I have not fixed the hole in my sons trousers so haven’t finished sewing for the year. Fix trousers. Can now definitely pack away sewing machine and vacuum all the many bits of thread and lint clinging to my person, the carpet, everything I own.</div>
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3.10 Collect child, make popcorn, feed him. Ask many questions about school.The washing up has kindly waited for me, an I also do the ironing so I can pack away the ironing board as NO MORE SEWING means NO MORE IRONING. Also, I’ve walked my 10,000 steps now, so I’m HEALTHY.</div>
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4.30 Tea and mild hysteria. Also find an unironed shirt in the tumbledryer. That ain’t gonna get ironed this year. Arrange to swap some sticky animals for Pokemon with another parent struggling with advent calendars.</div>
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5.30 Time for yoga class which is good because my spine hurts, along with most of the rest of me. Also means it’s not me that has to make dinner today. Aaaah, such relax (except my legs, which are very tired, though obviously not tired like they would be if I were WORKING) </div>
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8.00 Read with child, put child to bed. Try out some new apps. Do instagram. List things on Etsy; definetly not work because I’m doing in bed on the iPad, which is obviously just playing on the internet. </div>
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11.00 Go to bed. Sleep until 6.00 when I wake with the realisation I haven’t filled the fucking advent calendar AGAIN. Fill advent calendar. </div>
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7.00 Up and ready for another fun day full of NOT WORKING.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00821838005102449753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-85607558760393641532017-10-31T16:07:00.000+00:002017-10-31T16:07:10.717+00:00Happy Halloween <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U5z4iSPAW94/WfifJbYfReI/AAAAAAAAA_I/FGKSgPYIvywLhiwj7fFQDQu3jnBrbIy0gCHMYCw/Dress"><img title="Dress" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U5z4iSPAW94/WfifJbYfReI/AAAAAAAAA_I/FGKSgPYIvywLhiwj7fFQDQu3jnBrbIy0gCHMYCw/Dress" alt="" width="499" height="750" data-json="" /></a></div>
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Hello! Happy halloween!
Do you like my new friend? He is a very big spider.
Do you like my new dress? It has a pocket, and it doesn’t show my pants when I lift my arms up, which means I made it myself (although i made my pants myself too, and they have giraffes on). I’m very pleased. I made three dresses over the summer, one dottie angel frock and then two fitted bodice numbers. I felt i should try a fitted number to increase my sewing repertoire. I did learn lots, important things like how to made a bust dart that isn’t so pointy it’ll take your eye out, and techniques like stitching in the ditch. It was enlightening, but the main thing I learnt was that I don’t like wearing fitted dresses. Particularly not when it’s hot. So I’ve gone back to making loose fitting sack dresses.
Now inktober has finished I’m going to do a little round up of all my favourite inktober pieces so prepare for a little October retrospective n the forthcoming days.
<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00821838005102449753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-24664614607052316392017-10-04T11:18:00.004+01:002017-10-04T11:18:47.170+01:00Happy post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ah, autumn, don’t you just love it? The leaves, the pumpkins, the endless rain (a continuation from summer, which I am no entirely sure happened this year). Anyway, as some of you might know, I have had a period of illness this summer, which resulted in rather more time off work than I expected, and as a knock on effect I have found my post rather scarce and disappointing due to, well, impoverishment. This happens when you don’t work for a month or so, at least when you are self employed. As a result of this terrible state of affairs, when I saw Laura over a <a href="http://lupinhandmade.com/">Lupin handmade</a> giving away postcards on twitter I didn’t hesitate to bag one.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mf4MjxTdAhI/WdOHurHHg2I/AAAAAAAAA9o/0--6TVgNwAkIeVuOojT4gD9afr0ykUR7ACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Stamp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mf4MjxTdAhI/WdOHurHHg2I/AAAAAAAAA9o/0--6TVgNwAkIeVuOojT4gD9afr0ykUR7ACPcBGAYYCw/s320/Stamp" width="320" /></a></div>
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As you can see, they are book themed and I got <i>British Herbs </i>along with a stamp more appropriate for my reading age. Laura wrote (and it must have taken a while to write out those postcards) that she is busy reading Roger Deakin’s <i>WildWood, </i>a book I have, and have been not-reading for a good couple of years. I have read another of his books, W<i>aterlog, </i>which my husband gave to me because I enjoy wild swimming. I don't think I enjoyed that book as much as my husband, though, perhaps because it was by its nature so very observational, which is contrary to the reason I swim in the sea; observation requires a separateness, and I swim to merge and flow, to forget myself. Still, that wouldn’t make a very good book and he does write beautifully, so I shall look forward to finally reading about the woods. Thanks for the reminder Laura!</div>
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I have a few postcards around myself I you yourself are finding your postbox a desert and need cheering, though I can’t guarentee an awesome stamp (sorry)</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00821838005102449753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-4867020375337048552016-06-30T09:50:00.001+01:002016-06-30T09:50:45.186+01:00 ....and relax <div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">I've been hiding a lot recently, I feel at times like this it's important to have a safe place to hide in. One where you control everything that happens there. So that's obviously where I've been spending a fair bit of time, and I said I'd put a post up for June's 'crafting is my therapy'.</div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"> He's a suit I made my doll. It's quite hard to find a suit jacket for a 17 inch doll, and when you do it's nearly always black, very expensive and probably isn't going to fit very well (the dolls, like humans, are all slightly different in shape in a way that makes off the peg clothes buying for fitted garments difficult)<br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1pkMH3S3_xE/V3TdQ3Xbt8I/AAAAAAAABWE/tPYX4tWmffs/s1597/Photo%25252020160630094958206.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1pkMH3S3_xE/V3TdQ3Xbt8I/AAAAAAAABWE/tPYX4tWmffs/s500/Photo%25252020160630094958206.jpg" id="blogsy-1467276643790.862" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="625"></a></div><p> This photo makes things look worse than they are (he kept falling over) but I took it so you have to look at it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OktJHqEUKuU/V3TdVSlYjxI/AAAAAAAABWM/THKBXU_vxqI/s1920/Photo%25252020160630094958306.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OktJHqEUKuU/V3TdVSlYjxI/AAAAAAAABWM/THKBXU_vxqI/s500/Photo%25252020160630094958306.jpg" id="blogsy-1467276643783.617" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="751"></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Anyway, I know why this is. Making a tiny suit is very, very tricky. Especially if you doing it using actual suiting material. That stretches. And if you are idiot enough to try that, I recommend a patchwork iron and lots of super lightweight interfacing and heat'n'bond to give those sews a nice sharp finish. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sFsUiyK7qY0/V3TdYixrkVI/AAAAAAAABWU/WrcNWzhE36k/s1525/Photo%25252020160630094958371.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sFsUiyK7qY0/V3TdYixrkVI/AAAAAAAABWU/WrcNWzhE36k/s500/Photo%25252020160630094958371.jpg" id="blogsy-1467276643723.507" class="aligncenter" width="500" height="418" alt=""></a></div><p align="center"><a href="http://www.meyouandmagoo.co.uk" rel="nofollow" title="Me You and Magoo"><img src="http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/pouchbags/crafting_is_my_therapy_blog_badge_ONE_zpszefd7734.jpg" id="blogsy-1467276643744.5967" class="" alt="Me You and Magoo" width="150" height="150"></a></p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-63965444779875000712016-06-16T14:06:00.001+01:002016-06-16T14:06:17.133+01:00And finally, summer. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NuOUYXcg8ps/V2KkDzkfxwI/AAAAAAAABVg/g41YeOEDZjc/s1665/Photo%25252020160616140512425.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NuOUYXcg8ps/V2KkDzkfxwI/AAAAAAAABVg/g41YeOEDZjc/s500/Photo%25252020160616140512425.jpg" id="blogsy-1466082382438.163" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is June. The garden is alive with all sorts of previously undiscovered delights, as if tending to one small vegetable patch has somehow effected the entire system; it blossoms all over at the care. The seed bombs leave patches of windflowers and long grasses shelter butterflies and bright cinnabar moths, and a large dragonfly is found drowning in the bucket pond.</span></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> The violets, my small springtime friends that cover the lawns, are done and gone, as too are the lily of the valley that has become scorched and withered on the stalks by a few days surprising heat.</span><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EZR9D5YBMH0/V2KkLWIugNI/AAAAAAAABVo/fjNLWJbaOLo/s2048/Photo%25252020160616140512531.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EZR9D5YBMH0/V2KkLWIugNI/AAAAAAAABVo/fjNLWJbaOLo/s500/Photo%25252020160616140512531.jpg" id="blogsy-1466082382369.7627" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="408"></a><br></div><p style="text-align: left;">Depression recedes. I recover after a long bout of continual illnesses. Here's a photograph a pumpkin to illustrate what my tonsils have been looking like recently:</p><p> </p></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center; clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-slih0PmqkBg/V2KkRviCJ_I/AAAAAAAABVw/hodcFPTwJbA/s2048/Photo%25252020160616140512675.jpg" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-slih0PmqkBg/V2KkRviCJ_I/AAAAAAAABVw/hodcFPTwJbA/s500/Photo%25252020160616140512675.jpg" id="blogsy-1466082382370.3223" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">So, after that recap we'll resume regular blog posts. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-6817627453538351872016-03-22T19:21:00.000+00:002016-03-22T19:21:49.830+00:00March meet the maker<br />I've not missed a day of this Instagram challenge yet (though I was late the weekend we went to London)<br />
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Here are my favourites! Catch the rest on instagram (@champignons) <br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-45717618092977056542016-02-17T18:22:00.000+00:002016-02-17T18:22:17.670+00:00Things I am obsessed with this week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Candy striped bags... <a href="http://treverbarber.tumblr.com/" target="_blank" title="(Here) ">Trevor B</a>arber zine... </div>
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Typography sketchbooks....<br />
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This book, not because it's useful, just because I'm pretty sure that's a pen name Homer Simpson thought up. <br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-26246792702826976032015-08-15T09:01:00.002+01:002015-08-15T09:01:51.688+01:00stellerI joined steller. I've been having a need to tell stories, so when I heard of it, it seemed right. I also got an email to say my story had been featured (I don't know if that happens for all the newbies?) which answered a question I had: can I embed stories to my blog. Hopefully yes. <br />
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<script src="//steller.co/site/static/js/steller.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-28420149321221803302015-07-22T17:13:00.001+01:002015-07-27T12:08:49.716+01:00Illustration .. Treasure
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<p> Well, it's treasure to me (possibly because I have the mentality of a seven year old). I did a print just of beetles and bones and feathers called 'treasures', Mr nut loves it. </p>
<p> I know it's not Friday but I've got that Friday feeling because school is broken up for the summer now. In case you're wondering the nut trotted into school very proudly this morning holding the prints he'd made.</p>
<p>This is the first beetle in the forgetting beetles series, where I drew a beetle and then re-drew the sketch from memory. The original beetle I rescued from someone's else's garden, due to a strimmer accident. I think you can probably tell that there was carapace and leg damage, but I tried not to get too obsessed with the picture, more to observe closely</p>
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<p> Here's the final beetle series. The detail and time spent on the sketch decays dramatically, but the final cartoon is so fully of life. Well, I think so anyway. I have more thoughts, but, another post maybe. </p>
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<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-47835977005182885102015-07-21T20:19:00.001+01:002015-07-21T20:19:25.991+01:00Printing with kids
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">If you follow craft blogs or Twitter accounts like I do, you'll be aware that it's the time of the year every seller, supermarket and shop are trying to peddle items to give to your child's teacher. I generally do a good job avoiding fabricated commercial holidays like Mother's Day, Father's Day or Valentine's Day, but this is sort of thrust upon us, like an onslaught of low quality chocolate (I mostly dutifully eat this, as Jim, the teacher, is not so keen).</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> I actually like Mr Nuts teacher this year, so it seems a bit unfair to, say, bake <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> a biscuit and have the child decorate it himself with smarties and icing and (undoubtedly) bogies. Last year </span>I contributed £2 to have my child's hand drawn portrait put on a tea tray, mainly as he drew himself dressed as Spider-Man, rendering the whole concept pointless.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 1.3em;">I don't mind giving money, but I do mind wasting it. Ten quid might not mean much to you but it means a hell of a lot to some people in this world, and I'd rather give it to them, to be honest. That's not to say giving and gratituding and saying thank you isn't important. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With this in mind, Mr nut decided he'd make a print. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">He chose this wolf design. He really wanted the stag beetle one, but it's just not ready. Neither is this one really, but close enough. I'm using these as proofs and will be having a little fiddle before releasing it. Here he is pulling his print, heave ho! All my printing inks are non toxic and super safe, so nudity it easier than aprons for small children.</div>
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<p>And here he is with his work! Very proud. He learnt to do a three colour gradient, and I think he did a very nice job. Well done Mr Nut. There's one for the teaching assistant too of course- hurrah printing! And if they don't like it? It's recyclable (I'd totally put it on my wall, though)<br></p>
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<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-51531775899494014312015-07-17T19:00:00.000+01:002015-07-27T12:20:15.589+01:00Homoeopathy.
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<p style="text-align: center;"> Chemists call water the universal solvent, because it can dissolve most things eventually. It's the ultimate recycled product, wandering endlessly round the planet. The water you drink is the same the ancients drank, think about it. Dinosaur wee. It's ok, it's been purified since then.</p>
<p>Someone told me that water holds a memory of what was once in it, a mildly terrify thought considering all the things I've seen floating about in it in my various roles as swimmer, oceanographer and occasional cleaner of toilets.<br></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">How long does this memory last? Which things does it remember? How does it forget? Imagine the things it will have touched in its endless travels - every glass must be a veritable elixir vitae.</div>
<p>The liquid from your tap may well be a tincture of whale.<br></p>
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<p>Water, its cycles and patterns seem to be a good way to explore the interconnectedness of life regardless of my views on homeopathy <span style="line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;">(they were more fun to draw than a turd too). It also ties in nicely with my theme on memory, which I hope to release a little zine on. You can get them here: </span><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.champignons.co.uk/product/killer-splash">Killer</a></span><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.champignons.co.uk/product/a-big-splash-humpback-whale-linocut-hand-pulled-print-a4">Humpback</a> </span><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><br></span><span style="line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><br></span></p>
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<div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-74755537413188631602015-07-10T12:51:00.000+01:002015-07-10T19:22:55.702+01:00inspirations- beetles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
Big news. Stumpy the stick insect, prize pet of the Nut, having been procured with tooth fairy funds the week previous, has shed his skin. He now has a new leg, so he's now called longy. He's also not dead, which is good.</div>
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Also exciting, Jim returned from France and supplied the Nut with beetles. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 1.3em;">These ones are incased in acrylic resin, which is good because someone at Mr Nuts school has the complete collection of beetles in resin magazine, whereas I, in my infinite meaness, only let the Nut get the first introductory issue for 99p, which seemed a good price for plastic coated scorpion (unlike £5. 99 fortnightly). They are not supplied with names but they sure are shiny.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 1.3em;"></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 1.3em;"></span><br />
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Summer, round here, is a very beetley time as the stag beetles emerge from being a completely gross looking lavae and take flight in all their glory. I'm not sure how they get airborne- when they are they look like they shouldn't be. They remind me of a tipsy relative getting up too fast from unsteady seating at a barbecue, chaotically teetering along flailing their arms for balance whilst shouting the beetle version of 'in coming!! Coming throughhhhhou OW' before crash landing in the shrubbery and spending a good ten minutes extricating themselves (or maybe it was just that particular beetle that was graceless?). Anyway, I think they are breeding under the decking. <br />
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The other reason I'm thinking of beetles is, I'm thinking about a beetle print I did called 'forgetting beetles', where I looked a a stag beetle hard, drew it and then re drew it periodically over a week or so without looking at the beetle again. It's a surprisingly fun and intresting thing to do, so I shall be doing it again I think. The thing I find is, that when you draw from life you get a good drawing that look like what it's supposed to, and all the nonartists will applaud you, because I've been on pintrest and we all know that good art is drawing a glass of water so realistically you have to put your pencil next to it to prove it's a picture. <br />
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However, for me, my favorite drawings are the ones are a subject I have drawn, and know, but am not drawing from life. It is as if the very essence is distilled, and though it's not how it appears in reality, that's how it appears to me, inside, it's key charactieristics. I think I'd like to work on a book of those drawings- but I also think I am wandering and thats a job for another blog post. Let me know your thoughts on the matter and I just might do it. <br />
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You can learn about stag beetles and how to help them <a href="http://ptes.org/get-involved/surveys/garden/great-stag-hunt/">he</a><a href="http://ptes.org/get-involved/surveys/garden/great-stag-hunt/" target="_blank" title=""></a>re <br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-34456990272523115802015-06-16T20:52:00.001+01:002015-07-27T12:22:55.908+01:00Winners!<p> Prize winning peeps are: Jenny Galbraith, Sam Austin, Julie Robertson and Debbie Black- please drop me a line with your address so I can post you a raven. </p><p> </p><p>I was going to do a video of the drawing names from a hat but then I would have had to go inside and get a hat and I'm too lazy for that, but at the same time I want you to imagine I used a hat and not a shoe filled with names written on bits of paper from a torn up medication fact sheet because that's what was to hand. So that's why there's no picture, sorry. </p><p class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-29420905405280300162015-06-11T18:12:00.000+01:002015-07-27T12:21:52.781+01:00Missing Type giveaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jW0jrabGEbo/VbYUTH419yI/AAAAAAAABSA/hnGEpGTu7Ag/s2048/Photo%25252020150727122118281.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jW0jrabGEbo/VbYUTH419yI/AAAAAAAABSA/hnGEpGTu7Ag/s500/Photo%25252020150727122118281.jpg" id="blogsy-1437996112407.7102" class="aligncenter" width="500" height="493" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><p>A couple of people have been asking about the raven prints, so I was printing them today, and then I remembered it was national blood week, and I thought that the nature of the poster seemed sort of fitting so.. So well I'm afraid some of the type <a href="http://www.blood.co.uk/news-media/campaigns/national-blood-week/">went missing</a>.</p><p>Since the aim of this sort of event is to raise awareness, I'm giving these away these five limited prints.<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some of you that know me will know that when my little boy was born, he was quite poorly. In fact, he needed a full blood transplant just to survive. That's a picture of him there, getting better after the transfusion.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A2XRaLvlemo/VXl1UuUVxWI/AAAAAAAABNo/ulmNafK9cYQ/s2048/Photo%25252020150611124659183.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A2XRaLvlemo/VXl1UuUVxWI/AAAAAAAABNo/ulmNafK9cYQ/s500/Photo%25252020150611124659183.jpg" id="blogsy-1437996112402.7756" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p>Someone took the time and effort to go to the blood bank and they saved my baby's life and I'm so grateful for that.So, if you want a print, please share this post (I'll share it to my facebook/Twitter/tumblr/Instagram page to share from), or any #missingtype posts you can, remind your friends how important it is to give blood, and I'll stick your name in a hat. If less than four people are up for that, you'll all get free prints- fancy that. Dont forget to leave a comment/tag me if you share to somewhere I can't see, or are giving blood in real life cus that counts too.Here's a silly video of me printing (one handed)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6CEm8thU7k0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6CEm8thU7k0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><p>The rules again: Share. Save lives. check back Monday to see if you have a prize.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i8ZwIx-31ms/VXnCb3oEZhI/AAAAAAAABOM/udb0eUUaAB4/s1920/Photo%25252020150611181610630.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i8ZwIx-31ms/VXnCb3oEZhI/AAAAAAAABOM/udb0eUUaAB4/s500/Photo%25252020150611181610630.jpg" id="blogsy-1437996112399.3716" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></div><p class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</p><p class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</p><p> </p><p class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</p><p> </p><p class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-63103985478675563692015-05-25T20:00:00.000+01:002015-07-27T12:55:47.226+01:00Journal progress. It's been a short term, so it's half term already, but I've been surprisingly productive with my time and painted a lot of dolls and printed a lot of prints, which I'll list in a week. Tomorrow is my birthday- there's an exciting pile of presents in my room to open before I pootle off to the Eden Project on my way to Cornwall.<br />
I'm really interested in the work I'm doing, so it will be hard to take a holiday (well, maybe not that hard), but I will be taking take my journal with me (and a large quantity of pens). It's been a month or so since I made my journal so I thought I'd make a little video thingie to show how many pages I've managed to get through (surprisingly few). Looks like I won't be needing a sketchbook for a while, which is a shame, because I quite like making them. <br />
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This is my first attempt at a video with cheesy music etc, so I hope it works ok and doesn't bore you too much. </div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-35714996560702614432015-05-13T19:05:00.000+01:002015-05-13T19:05:00.189+01:00Sketch book album<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here's another book I made from fake leather (for the cover) and hinged rings. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SJXtmd6nYk0/VVNqanLxoWI/AAAAAAAABMY/1HCtFir6d0o/s2048/Photo%25252020150513161417508.jpg" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SJXtmd6nYk0/VVNqanLxoWI/AAAAAAAABMY/1HCtFir6d0o/s500/Photo%25252020150513161417508.jpg" id="blogsy-1431530132234.3813" class="alignnone" width="500" height="500" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> It has some collector card pockets to keep my instax photos in</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z6U4a_Udhi8/VQK2UJ9CsHI/AAAAAAAABF8/r-75OLGxEoM/s640/blogger-image-1271558123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target=""><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z6U4a_Udhi8/VQK2UJ9CsHI/AAAAAAAABF8/r-75OLGxEoM/s640/blogger-image-1271558123.jpg" id="blogsy-1431530132215.3376" class="" alt="" width="480" height="480"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And it has various pages in (I have a single hole punch, it helps).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's a good sort of book for when you need to take pages out and rearrange them, or put them in without gluing, so I often do projects like comics in books like these.<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> I prefer</span> bound books, but find them better for single sketches since I have no ability to plan ahead, and make a lot of mistakes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I mean, I plan ahead, but the drawings never do what they are told. Besides, this way, you can easily clip in that bit of paper you happened to have on you when you had that really good idea out and about, so I will always have a ring bound project book on the go as well as all the others. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-stkoSdaBQPU/VVNqkEep95I/AAAAAAAABMg/e6LRzCz4yFA/s2048/Photo%25252020150513161417569.jpg" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-stkoSdaBQPU/VVNqkEep95I/AAAAAAAABMg/e6LRzCz4yFA/s500/Photo%25252020150513161417569.jpg" id="blogsy-1431530132169.6257" class="alignnone" width="500" height="500" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><p> </p></div><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-91665566534686066342015-05-11T19:22:00.001+01:002015-05-11T19:27:09.381+01:00The weekly roundup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0jtBjSsANVA/VVDze9Gn05I/AAAAAAAABME/lRIE67CF3TI/s2048/Photo%25252020150511192208934.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0jtBjSsANVA/VVDze9Gn05I/AAAAAAAABME/lRIE67CF3TI/s500/Photo%25252020150511192208934.jpg" id="blogsy-1431368770964.056" class="aligncenter" width="500" height="500" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">This week I printed out a big bunch of positives for printing, did a few sketches of wolves, let the nut colour in my sketchbook at a festival and devalued my nobrow magazines... By cracking open the cellophane. </div><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-26951194675555329632015-05-01T17:49:00.002+01:002015-05-01T17:49:35.363+01:00Happy May!Happy mayday! Are you celebrating? Hopefully we will tomorrow.<br />
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A couple of years ago a girl gave me a whistle on the condition that I teach others how to make may whistles, so here you go, the instruction sheet she gave me. Feel free to teach others! </div>
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Have fun ringing in the summer- and make sure you do it properly.... I need a hot one!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-32882165463166013952015-04-28T05:30:00.000+01:002015-04-28T20:10:03.694+01:00It's my birthday in a month, so I thought that I would have a little sale at <a href="http://www.champignons.co.uk/">www.champignons.co.uk</a> and type in <span style="background-color: white;">the coupon code: MAYBIRTHDAY </span>to claim 20% off screenprints as your mighty prize. <br />
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Here are some of the birthday treats I won't be buying (because bills)<br />
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Firstly, a comic. Comics are always good. This one is called 'The Encyclopedia of Early Earth' and I am desperate to read it. That and Nobrow 8 (the hysteria one)<br />
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Also, I am about to suffer the dreadful fate of running out of mini instax film. I always need more instax film, so it's the perfect present. It's odd that no one has ever given me any, really- you could give it to me every year and I'd still be happy. Unless my camera broke, which is a fate worse than running out of film. Let's not think about it.<br />
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Next we come to the woeful tale of my plant life. I have to admit my airplant collection did NOT like moving house. Everything but my caput medusae is now firmly dead. I feel terrible. Sorry airplants. I'd like to say I'll never forget you but what I really want to do it buy some more so I can forget I killed you, which is preferable.<br />
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Lastly, another horticultural tragedy is my kumquat, lovingly named <i>death</i>. I bought death about 10 years ago and he has spent the majority of time dying, but never quite achiveing the status (hence the name. Never gave me a single kumquat, the miserable shit. Last year, death had an uncharacteristic growth spurt, and looked verdant and lush yet still strangly fruit free. Close inspection revealed this is because death is no longer a kumquat. His new name is death the bitter orange- the root graft has survived and is growing enormous spikes (he's very bitter) while the kumquat has finally done the honerable thing and kicked the bucket. So I'd like to replace my kumquat too, particularly as I have kept my calamodin orange fighting fit and full of oranges for many years now, so firmly feel that the fault is with death (both the kumquat, and the principle)
But anyway, I digress. Coupon code. Use it.
<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1407182707352170755.post-69038087891106361582015-04-23T16:49:00.000+01:002015-04-30T16:04:07.173+01:00Another new sketchbook<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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call me addicted but yesterday but here's another new sketchbook (and new decking actually) </div>
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It's important with new sketchbooks to jump right in. Don't dither about. Grab it and make a mark, a good mark or a bad mark, probably not a dialogue about how if you write in this lovely book you will ruin it and so you are writing a formal apology to the book before you get to ruining it. </div>
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My first page is on the second page. This is very good for me. My inability to start at the beginning and finish at the end annoys my friends.</div>
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Have you ever doubted the claims that Colgate total makes? There are a lot of them. It's pretty much the cure for everything I think. I might have made the last few up. </div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.deborahchampion.co.uk</div>Deborah Championhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07369649606109125771noreply@blogger.com0