I've got horses...

I've got horses in my tummy!

We were at the 20 week scan today, all's well! Poppy seemed a little more interested than the last time (more detail?)... anyway, we celebrate by going to see Megamind in 3d, so it's a bit of a long day, and late home.. which gives us the chance to watch a little of "Eragon", whilst we eat our supper in front of the TV... Poppy then grabs my mouse and pretends to scan her own tummy, and we pretend that the pictures on the TV are the scan pictures! (my goodness! she's full of trees, witches, swords, rivers, dragons...)

'ello

'Ello!

After hearing a noise upstairs, Gabi and I thought that Santa must have gone into Poppy's room when we were still awake... so we headed upstairs to check (and to go to bed, seeing as it was late). Her door was closed, so I had to open it slowly (to avoid waking the previously excited Poppy) and check that Santa had been, by noting if a bulging stocking was left on the end of the bed.. and it was! Satisfied that Santa had done his amazing job, I turned, only to creak a floorboard... Poppy stirs, still asleep and cracks out "'Ello!" (always polite and friendly!)... mean while, Gabi is snorting and chuckling as I (shakingly) creep out the bedroom and close the door, ready for Christmas morning!

Fit like!

Fit like! Nae bad, yersel?

gabi was showing at the Dundee jamboree (petit Noel) craft fair. She decided to take a few wooden 'fit like' badges to test them out a wee bit further south... Seems there are a few escapees living in Dundee! Even one from the Brough! Sailt a pucklie few, n'ah. Grand.

If you eat a drumstick when you are seven...

If you eat a drumstick when you are seven, all your teeth get sucked out

Don't they? (A dentist told me!).. we visited Anstruther today, Gabi dropped off a parcel of Small Stories clobber to "the Lovely Pigeon" pop up craft shop, she's their best seller!... hooray! We bought some lovely things too... (Tommy Perman Postcards for one... he did say he'd send a pack...bah humbug to you sir! I "FOUND" them myself. thuurrrp!).
Anyway, after our wee shopping spree, we had some fish n chips, then a visit to a sweetie shop (how healthy!) Bubalishous! Melody Pops! oh! Drumsticks! we're all kids today.

I like the three Penguins...

I like the three Penguins, they are my winner!

Gabi and I were asked to judge the Christmas card competition for Anne Begg today, Poppy was very excited about it too!... We went through around 500 cards! So many great designs to choose from... ah, but only one can be the winner... this will of course be announced in December...

Beth, do you want to...

Beth, do you want to go outside?

We were at the Foveran Store's Christmas Crafts Fair today, it's a fantastic farm shop, with delicious local produce. We were sharing a space with Lindsay (Daisy Glaisy)& Beth (Lindsay's daughter)... Poppy and Beth got on like a house on fire, and Beth was a superb surrogate "big Sis" to the demanding (but always polite(!?)) Poppy. Good turn out, a lovely day out for everyone!



This is Lindsay's BlipPhoto from today

Oh look, there's children over there...

Oh look, there's children over there, can we chop them up and have them for breakfast?

Oh yes indeed, there are actually two doozies today, hard to choose... the other cannibalistic dinger from our delightful 4 year old was (when eating noodles at dinner time)..."is there any baby skin in these daddy?"... Now, I think the watching of the BFG and Poppy's penchant for baddies might have culminated in these quotes... I am slightly settled by Gabi's assurance that "Real psychos keep that stuff to themselves"... fewee!

This is the best class ever...

This is the best class ever, I don't want it to finish!

Gabi and I had the pleasure of running a mask making workshop for danceLive, in line with Gabi's images she was commissioned to produce for the "Games for Scotland" (Aberdeen). We didn't have many kids attend sadly, but the ones that did come, were brilliant and loved every minute of it. We even had Poppy with us, and she made a few new friends! (in the cardboard fort and outside!). Young Amy gave us the Quote for the day, as she made a dragon mask, fake flames on a stick, and some double sided fire bugs to boot! ace fun.

I was also lucky enough to host a CCS networking night in cityMoves too, where Andrew Dixon (head of Creative Scotland), Professor Paul Harris (Head of Gray's) and Ian Spink (choreographer) gave us an interesting night of talks and performances... thanks to everyone that came

I'll give you pocket money...

I'll give you pocket money if YOU DON'T listen to me

Poppy turns the tables on Mummy's bribery ... I fear our milkman in London was a Tory.

I'm not Poppy!

I'm not Poppy! I am Derek!

Seems that when poppy gets her concentration on - drawing a portrait of mummy (in a sitting, I kid you not!) she's channelling a famous artist called Derek... (not Derek Robertson, wild life artist, he's still with us thankfully!)... was Picasso's middle name Derek?

Happy Birthday mummy, here's your card...

Happy Birthday mummy, here's your card, you can throw it out when it's not your birthday!

Well, that's certainly a way to start a "happy " birthday! he he... "but I want to keep it poppy, it's beautiful!" "well, you can throw it out when you are an old lady"... he he... nice.

Yes gabi, that's a photo...

Yes gabi, that's a photo of the small world inside my pocket!

I'd discovered that my phone had not been locked, and was doing a bit of cocksurfing (it went online! as opposed to cockdialing)... I then took some photos (with no flash) of the Lovely candle lit UTG event last night (fantastic night!) - gabi then said "did it take photos in your pocket too?" (not knowing I'd taken them)... indeed, it appears that there's a candle lit vigil going on in my pocket too!

When we get old...

When we get old we all dance

Yes, Poppy still has her morbid fascination of people dying... she's into saying "when we get old, we die" and Gabi doesn't like it! so... she keeps "mishearing" poppy and states this... cue the dictionary definition of feedback. Still, the view was nice to Dundee today...visiting the DCA for a meeting about Arts orientated small loans / credit systems... it's more exciting than it sounds... I promise...

well that's six hours...

Well that's six hours down, just a few more to go!

Emma and Gabi did a sterling job in mapping out the 2010 NEOS participants tonight... on paper... so now, I've just got to put them onto the digital print set up...



NEOS booklet is nearing print completion.. we just need some maps to stuff into them now!

We were rattling...

We were rattling them ooot!

We (Gabi and I) were at Peacock's for the second day's printing today... and the pressure was on to get the final print run done... gulp. Needless to say, with all the screen prep, paper cutting and sheeeeit out the way, Gabs and I get tore in... I think we'd managed to cram the most exposures on to one screen in the whole of Chrissingdom! - Parcel tape and some clever uses of "the Sun" (the only good use of that newsprint with ink on) served us well. so, after 7 hours of printing today, we managed to rattle off 12 two colour prints each... not all the seps we had prepared, but, pretty damn good.

Wowzers! check out the three...

Wowzers! check out the three forensic coppers!

On our way to Peacock Visual Arts for a screen-printing sesh today - we drive past a crazy scene of police, men in white forensic suits (no, it's not an Altern8 gig) on Golf Road ... A pretty bizarre sight.. sad news, that 10 people seem to have kicked a man's head in... news.stv.tv/scotland/north/184322-gang-leave-man-57-lying-in-street-after-vicious-attack/

well!

Well! That's that then!

Last day of the coast festival - it was peeing down this morning, no visitors and pretty darn cold. Suddenly, as if by magic, every cloud disappears and with that, the tent is hit with hoards of festival goers (550 yesterday, 470 today!) - the buzz is fantastic, so many happy people loving the opportunity to meet adn speak with artists, interact and produce artworks... and as all good things do, it comes to an end, and it feels like it lasted 5 mins... great weekend, great people - and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to show the north east of scotland a little insight into digital art... I'll post some outputs later... Big thanks to the friends of Duff house for inviting me (and gabi) to show with them.

What are you going to do?

What are you going to do? Put plasters on my teeth?

poppy was naughty today, she bit mummy's hand, as she didn't want help crossing the road - mummy said "I'm going to have strong words with you when we get to the other side! And poppy snaps back with this! What would you do? Ah, hello the next 17 years. I hope it's not a metaphor for Tory rule!

Shall I put on the Shrinking...

Shall I put on the Shrinking Crap?

He he, Gabi got a bit tongue tied today, when pretending to be "granddad" when Poppy was "Jason Mason"... now she thinks it's a shrinking crap too.