This morning I woke up with a strong desire to be waking up with a job to go to. This isn't unusual, but today more so, I'm not sure why...I've applied for 5 occupational therapy jobs in the last couple of weeks and several support work jobs and hoping, everything crossed, that something positive happens with one of them. A job offer before Christmas, which turned out to be not so firm has ended my plans for a 'new start' back oop north and with it chances of spending more time with Nellie. His mum is very poorly right now.
It's been quite a creative day today. In the morning my friend Liv and me met at 'All fired up', a pottery cafe which is always a great place to visit...and they do the best hot chocolates! We took advantage of a 2-4-1 offer and both painted a plate, Liv designed a 1st anniversary plate for her in-laws and after seeing teapots and cupcakes that were available to paint, I tried to draw these on my plate. It was great to catch up and we both found the painting very relaxing and the time flew. Liv was glad of a bit of a breather from the hectic daily life of having a 2 year old boy! She's my oldest friend, meeting on our first day of high school sitting opposite each other in the form room. I can honestly say that without that quirk of fate, school would have been a much more lonely experience.
Then in the evening, it was week 2 of an evening course in screenprinting and other print techniques. This is another 'New year challenge' I've set myself, to get out from in front of t'telly and learn something new and meet people. It's not entirely new to me as mum previously being a community arts and crafts worker meant that we often joined her at youth clubs for craft days, and hence got the chance to try out a lot of crafty stuff, screen printing being one of them. I've already met some really friendly girls, one of them (the only female plumber on her course!) said something brilliant last week, that she does her plumbing course and another 'academic' course and her choosing to do this was like her 'yoga'! She's a bit of a star.
So tonight was starting a linocut, using some jansdotter vases stencils as inspiration. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out as you slowly build up 3 colours in 3 stages. I couldn't quite work out, how it would all fit together, but Bill the tutor does..and thats ok!
And..yes, the creativity floweth more! tomorrow , mum, Gwen and myself will be heading for deepest , darkest Dorking to stay in a B&B and on Thursday we're attending a one-day felting workshop. This has been planned since the summer and is kind of my way of making up for the poor show I gave to mum's birthday the previous year. Her birthday is on Boxing Day and despite our earnest attempts it sometimes gets a bit overshadowed by Christmas. We have the option of felting a bag, tea cosy or wall hanging and am veering towards a tea cosy. This is largely down to a memory of sitting down with my friend Fumiyo in a wonderful cafe in Kobe, and being served chai tea in a teapot with a felted cosy on. Doesn't take much to please me does it!
If I ever manage to return to Kobe, I'd like to revisit this cafe and another fantastic one with Fumiyo. Over there, there are magazines dedicated to cafes you can find in a particular city and we have spent several hours choosing which ones to go to by the photos of the sweets on offer. Actually finding the cafes is another matter entirely!
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