When A Week Seems Like a Day

Oh my dear hearts - how I have missed you!! Gosh where has the time gone this past ....... week and a half.....has it been...it couldn't possibly....I think it has. Busy, busy, busy...and I have so much to catch up on. Blogs to read, catching up on all your adventures and dreams and activities, yes that is what I shall have to do. I am so sorry I have not been commenting on your wonderful tales, I have had the occassional brief visit to read and gaze but so little time for writing and thinking.
Life has been too busy this past week, work and business courses and commissions and teaching and worrying about money, and being frustrated as I have had zero time to create, my etsy shop is severely neglected, the work table covered with half and almost but not quite finished projects. The exhibition looms (oh just wait to see the image Jen stiletto heights) has made for the corset project - can I show it? It has already sold in her store, it is more than I could have hoped for and I am off to get the leather printed this week. But how can the exhibition be so soon!!

I am excited and terrified all at the same time. So much to do and I want it all to be perfect. There is such a buzz around the event, with a big weekend party with press and burlesque dancers, all very exciting. There will be progress images as I do the work for it here, so look out for those!
But life as ever is never all rosy, and my spine and neck problems are making it all very difficult at the moment. The last week has also seen a visit to the doctors yet again (a lovely and very sympathetic doctor this time who vowed that to get me pain free until my appointment at the spinal unit was her priority) so a change in medication, tears of frustration when my fingers and hands haven't worked when I have had deadlines looming and still hours of hand sewing to do (the deadling wasn't met, the white elephant of a wedding dress is still weighing heavy on my mind and my time) and I have had most of the day in bed today as I just couldn't get up having overworked myself the past week or so. So there we have it - the life is like a box of chocolates scenario - most of the them are lovely and sweet and just right - but then you bite into the one that you just could have done without. Oh am morose today....do I delete the last paragraph or just be real and leave it in? Okay I shall be real then.....you will get to see a more rounded image of me rather than the one dimensional 'isn't life wonderful' me that I sometimes wish I could portray - but it wouldn' t really be me now would it!
It is amazing how writing in this kind of public way can sometimes be freeing, sometimes achingly difficult. When things are great I want to tell the world...when things are not so great, well it has to stay inside somehow. I was never really one for keeping a journal as a child and only wrote my first one in my twenties when it felt like I would burst otherwise. I have not kept a journal for a few years now, life is more settled and I am generally a much happier person, more content - for me a journal was to cry into, to try and understand myself, not so much for celebrations or to write achievements - and now I express myself and find my self and feed my soul in other ways. Oh I am waffling a wee bit here!!
I would love to hear why people blog - it is something I am still getting used to, being more of an old fashioned girl myself I am really intrigued by it. I have always been a voracious reader more than a writer (I dream of being a writer of course - with notebooks of ideas - maybe someday) and I just adore meeting new people. I am living in a city where I can sometimes feel very lonely - I am a member of a wonderful group of artists but we meet so irregularly. Most of my close friends are so far away and it seems strange but emailing and texting can sometimes make it harder, if I miss someone I want to SEE them! To laugh with them, reminisce, come up with new 'in jokes' that you can only have with that particular set of friends, that no one else will understand. I am the worlds worst at keeping in contact with people, and it is never that I don't miss them but that I am just waiting to see them again!! Nothing else will do.
And so my friends (old and new) I wish we could meet for a coffee (and cake of course), discuss art and life, relationships and 'oh how gorgeous that pendant is' or did you see that dress she was wearing at the oscars'. 'real' sleep overs, movie nights, what did you want to be when you were a child - I wish we could do all that for real!! But isn't this wonderful nonetheless. That I can meet you all in blog land, a peek into a pocket of your lives, see your art, your loves, read about your mini adventures, your passions....yes it might make me a teensy bit wistful and sad but it is mostly wonderful and illuminating, and is also one of the highlights of my day. Whether it is a great day or one where you can't wait for tomorrow.
Oh but I cannot finish without mentioning the absolutely incredible piece of art I received through the mail this morning from the wonderful stiletto heights. It is here and is just even more beautiful than the image suggests if that is even possible. It is so appropriate that it arrive today, a tuesday and really captures the way I am feeling today, a wee bit sad, lost in my own thoughts, but there is always tomorrow. And would you believe that when finding the link to this I even had to buy some more!! But you know when you are just drawn to something and it fits, well what more can I say.
Have a wonderful day my dears.

Sleep Over Stories and who ate all the cakes!!

Well my lovelies - I was a fairly rubbish guest yesterday - did you notice I had crawled behind the couch and fallen asleep whilst you were all partying!! After an exhausting day of teaching on very little sleep it all just got a wee bit too much for me. (There was also a little trail of donut crumbs courtesy of Aimee which would have led you to my partied out presence!)
Okay so it is 11am here in the UK and I am up and about with a wedding dress to finish and I am going to sneak out for a bit with my sweetheart for Sunday Lunch! But before that I have to show you what I have brought to the party today!


Well what do we have here? Mmmm homemade coconut and almond squares - all 2 of them, me thinks some one has been gatecrashing the party and has got to them first! Martini, red wine on a sunday morning! Scandalous! No actually these were taken last night.

Okay I have 3 tales of slumber parties of old and I would love to hear of yours!!

#1 When I lived in London aged 9 or so I used to stay at my best friends Suzanne where we would watch and laugh our socks off at Dolly Parton in 9 - 5 - we were so 80's! Dancing to cheesy music and munching on chocolate ice cream!

#2 Aged 13 and in Scotland now - staying at Dawn's and a terrible experience with a ouija board and a 'ghost' named emily who said she had come to scotland in the 16th century and died in a huge fire - and she could tell us things about us that we did not know about each other - cold draughts and 2 terrified girls!! Was it all for real - I still wonder even today!

#3 This is my favourite! Now aged 15 and I used to stay at my friend Jane's house at least every 2nd weekend - In one adventure ridden weekend with many a catastrophe!

- She had an old horse called Fred Flinstone and we both rode him a few miles down the old railway line to a picnic site where we unpacked our picnic delights. Fred was a tame and slow old soul who never usually needed to be tied up - alas on this occassion he decided he had some spirit still left in him and decided to bolt through the woods and out onto the main road and gallop off into the distance!!! With us in hot pursuit! A car stopped and asked if we needed a lift to go after him - a polite young man - but we had left the saddle and bridle and food at the picnic table - so Jane told me to stay to look after it all and she would come back for me. It was only when she had gone that I started to panic - thinking she was going to be murdered or something - she had just gone off with a man in a car for goodness sake! I sat sobbing while a group of children cam along and asked if they could eat my food! I sat there crying for about 20 minutes with children eating my oranges and yoghurt not knowing what to do, till Jane returned with her mum to tell me Fred had been found right at the back door of her house looking very sorry for himself.

- The VERY SAME weekend - we decided to have a game of seeing how far up the stairs we could jump off onto a pile of blankets and pillows at the bottom of the stairs and who would chicken out first (because that is what you do when you are 15 isn't it). We thought we were keeping ourselves out of trouble after the 'Fred incident'. It was only later that night when we were in our beds that we heard her mother cry 'Why is there a huge dent in the floorboards at the bottom of the stairs!!! She would probably have never known about our antics if I hadn't of let out a shreek of despair under the duvet and discoverd Jane in absolute hysterics under hers!! Needless to say Jane's dad had to pull them up and completely replace the 3 broken floor boards the next weekend - gosh we were popular.

And what do we have here - pie-jimminies and mickey mouse socks! and yep one is inside out!
Okay truth or dare time!! I want to know who your oldest and most embarassing celebrity crush is - and I don't mean the length of time you have had the crush! I mean OLDEST!!

Okay mine are 1) Harrison Ford 2) Jack Nicholson 3) Billy Idol 4) And I think Willie Nelson is just so cute!!!

So you have to write about yours either in the comments or in your blog - and come up with a truth or dare for everyone else too!

Oh Mr Wonk (my dad's old teddy bear since he was born) looks most annoyed that we are about to make face masks out of his honey - oh I am sure he will get over it - honey is not just for eating Mr Wonk!! It will make us even more beautiful too!

Okay peeps - My sunday lunch is calling me now and Mr Cox is impatiently waiting for me to interrupt the party to get dressed so we can go out.

Don't forget I want to hear your slumber party stories and you secret 'oldy' celebrity crushes. I shall be back to visit you all later!!

I am such a dufus!!

Okay I don't really know what it means but I take any excuse to use the word dufus as I love it - is it rude? I don't really know - please don't tell me if it is!!

BUT I missed all the recent comments you lovely people have left me on here as I have been just using my typad account lately and hadn't realised anyone was visiting here!!! But I shall now keep it up.... now that I know you are visiting that is....if you still are....please come again soon!

Okay enjoy the party this evening ladies - I have to get my ass into my entirely British bed as it is after 2 am this morning - sorry to be such a party pooper but I am up in 5 hours!! However I shall begin partying again, playing truth or dare with myself, maybe have a glass of wine and put on a face mask and be ready to begin again tomorrow - and with photographs even!!

Love and hugs to you all.

Dancing to David Bowie and The things I do to avoid putting in a zip.

Oh my gosh - how did this happen!! Over a week since my last blog post - I haven't wished any of you a happy valentines - and well things just have been running away from me!!

I really have to ap0logise, I have been religiously reading all your blogs as usual this week (I could never miss out on them now, they are part of my daily routine, I look forward to them so much) but I am not sure if it is laptop trouble or just me trouble but I am having real difficulty commenting on blogs - blogger is just a long tortuous process and typepad (the very blog device I use!! - having completely neglected my blogger account) well the damn thing will not allow me to leave a comment! It takes FOREVER and then seems to time out with no comment left. I tried to resort to saving my comments so I could try again - but after time and time again it just wouldn't work. If anyone can help me on why this would be it would be much appreciated! But please know that even if I do not leave a wee message I am still popping in to see how you all are.

Anyway onto more delightful things. Did you have a wonderful valentines? I hope you all did my sweets no matter whether you were with a lover, friends, family or spoiling your own self rotten with long soaks in the bath and chocolates by candlelight.

As for me, well I had to have a self imposed banishment from the computer for the day as after waking up before Mark as I usually do, I went through to the living room to peruse blogs, etsy and all my usual other daily things when he came through with such a look of mock disgust on his face that I would 'choose' etsy over a lie in with him that inbetween laughing at his utter dismay and trying to appease him with cups of tea, I thought I should actually spoil him with my undivided attention!! Seriously, he was devastated! But I have to tell you, he spoiled me rotten. He bought me the much coveted Ray La Montagne album, Trouble - I have wanted this album for so long! We went for a glorious breakfast at our favourite deli for the gourmet breakfast (sooooo delicious). And then he had to go work, which was a bit sad. He works 4 late shifts on weekdays which means most of my evenings are spent alone, I guess I get to watch what I want on the TV though!

The rest of this week has gone by in a bit of a haze due in part to ridiculous levels of back and neck pain and migraines - and in all of that have I made sure I have enough of my prescription pain relief? - no I haven't. And I can't get anymore till next week as I can't get a doctors appointment. Damn and blast.

So what else have I been doing? Oh yes dancing at sporadic moments inbetween working to David Bowie's Greatest Hits - yep even with back pain I can still dance to David Bowie. I love him. And it is great when I need a break from working. Speaking of which - I have to finish a wedding dress for Monday (this was part of a semi-distastrous workshop I tried to teach a few months ago - I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say I have to get this thing finished for Monday and it has become the bane of my life. Invisible zips - who designed them anyway!!! Buttons and loops - Can I sew them in half an hour? Of course I can't - it will take at least 6 hours which I seriously don't have.

So what is the photo we have here? Is it the wedding dress? No. Is it the leather Pirates hat I need to have finished by Tuesday? No. Is it the hand bags and lesson plan and instruction leaflet I have to have done for teaching the accessories workshop with the ladies group TOMORROW!!? No my dears it is not. Is it the many other distractions I have been playing with to prevent me thinking about all of the above? The stamping on the back of ACEO's cards to work on. The 2 box canvases I am painting. The 2 flat canvas cards I am thinking about what to illustrate with. The cuff I am knitting, the headband I am finishing. The trinket box I have started. Yep it is all of these things. Is there a zip in sight? No, that has been banished to the other room so I do not have to look at it.

Oh goodness - so many other things to write about!! Should I? Or should I get back to work. Oh why not use it as a delightful distraction! I received the most wonderful parcel from the incredible and beautiful Stiletto Heights - 2 more of her Art Cards and the 3rd instalment of her comic - wonderful!! I did not think it was possible to show such emotion and heartbreak in a comic, but it absolutely is!

And I have to tell you however briefly about our forthcoming collaboration! I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet - but I am seriously excited about it. The exhibiton is in Nottingham and is called Ooh La La Burlesque Inspired Art March 2007. I am currently designing work, or should I say WILL be designing work in the way of a costume, corsets and artwork to display here. I have previously made printed leather corsets and costume parts and am incredibly honoured that Jenn from Stiletto Heights is going to be making a piece of her stunning artwork for me to use on a corset. More details as it happens!!

And the final thing.... (I have been interrupted by so many phone calls whilst writing this that now I really have to get back to work) but I am going to a slumber party tonight!! It may even be my first one since childhood or at least since I was a teenager (not including the sausage casserole, eybrow tinting, gin, although I would always forget to drink it, and any Joaquin Phoenix film filled sleep overs from when my best buddy Kate would come over to stay when I still lived in Edinburgh) and YOU could come too! It is a virtual party (which means I am not really sure how it will work - but I don't care, all I know is it will be a hoot and it is all weekend long!!). There are many glorious and fantastic people who will be popping in over to the weekend long party. More details will be on Jenn's blog where there is also a guest list. I have to think of what to bring..... of course cakes, a face mask, my pyjama's..... oh and maybe an unfinished wedding dress and damn blighty invisible zip? And lots of dancing music....anyone for David Bowie?

Bye for now my sweets and hopefully see you at the party!!