XKCD cake

For those of you unfamiliar with XKCD let me just say 'Why are you wasting time reading my blog when you could be reading the XKCD back catalogue?' Go, now, read it. Go on.

XKCD is a webcomic of geekery and romance and philosophical musings. 'That's not your achievement' I hear you say, and no, indeed I am not the genius that is its writer and illustrator Randall Monroe. My housemate is a major fan and so for his birthday I illustrated his cake painstakingly using black food colouring and a cocktail stick with his favourite comics. A strip around the side and one frame on the top. It didn't transport very well but here are the pictures anyway:

 The top is the end frame of a comic strip about a woman who fills her flat to make it a giant ball pool, because she can. The text reads 'because we're grown ups now and it's our turn to decide what that means.' Yes, I was secretly hoping he'd agree to do this with our living room but apparently it might stop the signal getting from his controller to his PS3.

The sides, now a little worse for wear after walk and bus to the pub are a shortened comic strip featuring the stick man in a beret character, who is very philosophical. He has seen a woodpecker that he saw last year and bought it a birthday present. The final frame shows the woodpecker flying off with a power drill.

After all that inking with a cocktail stick, which is incidentally how I use glass pens as well, I am considering investing in an edible felt tip as they're only about £1.50 and would have saved me a few hours.

The cake tasted good too, which is always a bonus!

A few more sophisticated pieces of jewellery. And no I still con't have my ears pierced - but I do have a shoebox full of pretty earrings. Never pretended to be sane.

Why I've been quiet for a month...

For the last month I have not written on this blog, which let's face it does not matter as nobody actually reads it.
I have achieved a few things though mainly this month has been bed ridden with illness so my second biggest achievement was the record breaking amount of biscuit crumbs in my bed. I also learnt to eat with chopsticks, albeit slowly.

No, the biggest achievement of the month has been NaNoWriMo (or to the layman national novel writing month). I had a hankering to get involved with the wonderful 'Movember' moustache growing campaign, but alas my bosom gave me away every time I tried to fake it, so I just sponsored a friend with the appropriate hormonal equipment instead.

For NaNoWriMo the rules are simple - write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. This was actually my second NaNo and I was very nervous to try again in case I failed and ruined my unblemished success record of one. Again illness rendered me unconscious for 3 days during a few days of the final weeks (which is a rather odd repeat of last year) and I woke up going a) what day is it? and b) oh bollocks, that means I am 5001 words behind. The helpful graph to track my progress suddenly didn't seem so helpful.

My story is about a war time love triangle that made a few friends contort with empathy and agony (and these guys play Warhammer - if you know what I mean). Death, love, war and a victimful crime with no one to blame - I guess that is all I can say without spoiling the twist. What I will say is that it is definitely still pants but this time more comfy M&S black cotton knickers than the big granny pants I churned out last year.

Anyway, although I struggled, I completed with a few hours to spare and can now proudly put up my blog badge for Nano 2011. Will I be a glutton for punishment in 2012? Not even if you paid me - then again, I said that last year!

Nihil illegitimi carborundum...

or 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'. Yes, I had to go to London last week. No offense to you Southerners, I'm sure there are good eggs among you but I only seem to meet the privileged and ignorant sort who seem to think my illness is not a problem because I don't loudly lament about it and are not aware of the poverty that exists down the street.
I had a particularly awful conversation ending in valium when a woman tried to convince me that it was OK to discriminate against poor and disabled people because at least they were only discriminated against and not being subject to female circumcision. Well, I did not know how to react.

Finally, back in Shefland my friend put it eloquently for me...
"That's bollocks, if everytime a problem arose people did nothing on the premise that something worse was happening somewhere else then no problem would ever be addressed." What takes precedence for action, the immediate devastation of a tsunami or the on going politics behind an horrific genocide?

Yes indeed, it is 'bollocks'. And I shall continue to fight for the 'small stuff' that the rich don't deem worth the time they charge out at £50 per hour to the even richer. Luckily, being unemployed and unwell, my time is only worth what I can achieve with it. Where there is misery, pain, fear or shame on whatever scale I want to be able to help. You have to fight for your ideals, for everyone. I refuse to be one of those people who looks at another's suffering and say 'others have it worse than you'.

Never let anyone belittle your emotions. You have a right to own your feelings, to express yourself and to roll your eyes at those who would have you believe that your pain is worth less than someone else's.

My latest cake - a big pink owl based on a soft toy owl from Tilly's Barn (my aunt's company) for my neice, Kate. It did have eyes made from dolly mixture but by this point she had eaten them. We had a very nostalgic little party. My sister made a pass the parcel, which being her first birthday Kate didn't understand but she enjoyed the music and the sweeties anyway. Then Dad hit the music again for musical bumps. Hats off to my eldest sister, Kate's mum, who managed to get half way through diving on the floor with the baby in her arms. My Mum, who's nearly 60, joined in too. It helps that she's only 5 foot tall.

I've got more pictures still on my camera to add at some point.

The Final Wedding Cake

A Fairtrade Princess

I LOVE Fairtrade. I rarely buy new clothes as I prefer the prices and ethos of charity shops and the late night convenience and packages from eBay(where you can add a donation to charity at the checkout to ease any guilt over buying something spantangly you didn't really need). When I do buy new I buy Fairtrade.

Believe it or not, it's not all tie-dye and kaftans (though they're available) and because it's not all over the high street people are always brimming forth with compliments.

My top reasons for buying Fairtrade are:

• The materials are high quality and often organic
• I don't want to be dictated to by high street fashionistas (sorry friends at BSB)
• You can buy online or support small, independent shops
• They're just as cheap as the high street
• Compliments make me feel pretty
• The clothes are prettier and often designed to S/M/L so they are elasticated and comfy
• and of course, I can be sure that my clothes were NOT made in sweatshops.

We all win. Go on, try some...

NOMADS -  a small mail order company in Cornwall. Buy online or through retailers or join me in a bidding squabble on eBay.

I've got this coat in blue and purple!

http://www.nomadsclothing.com

NAMASTE - A Hindi(I think) greeting and a wonderfully colourful clothing company. Because of the hand made nature of their clothes and the recycled sari fabric they use many of their designs are totally unique. Their sale stock is often at really good prices and they do gifts, accessories and furniture too!

I don't have this particular dress but I have a few similar.

http://www.namaste-uk.com

They also have a totally awesome logo...

                                                                  ...see, told you!

GOOSE ISLAND - this is where I got my dress from for my sister's wedding and I've linked you to it already!

GRINGO - is a wholesale brand, so give them a Google to find shops that stock them online and in the flesh.

There are heaps more but my brain just isn't playing ball right now. The point is, they're the BEST way to respect third world producers.