Helen's Paws for Thought » Christmas

New year, new challenges

helen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:03:35 +0000

Happy New Year - copyright Helen White

I hope you all had a good start to the New Year.

It has been a bit quiet since my last post, mainly because I have been busy in the run-up to Christmas, working on a proofreading assignment, making further improvements on the website (the shop layout is now horizontal instead of one long row) and my PTLLS course, which I have finished before Christmas. I am now waiting for my City & Guilds certificate to arrive. My tutor reckons it will take until about March. However I am happy to say that I passed my nerve wrecking micro teach – a teaching session of only 30 minutes, which is rather challenging for someone who is not keen on public speaking! And planning for only 30 minutes isn’t easy.

One of the reasons why I have done this course was simply to be able to teach jewellery courses on a 1-2-1 basis to people who are interested to learn but not keen on going to big classes. But I also hope to teach journalism courses for the NUJ. So these are already two things on my ever increasing list of things I’d like to do and achieve.

Last year I have featured a lot of crafters and jewellery designers and in December Kirsty Sullivan from Ladybird Beads has returned the favour and featured me in a long interview on her blog. You can read it here:

http://www.ladybirdbeads.blogspot.com/ I hope you like it. I also hope to improve my own PR and get featured in other blogs or magazines to get my brand more known.

Another thing on my list is to simply get my health back and being able to create jewellery without inevitable shoulder and neck pain. So I am hitting the gym and start exercising again. I haven’t been able to create new stock in the last 2 or 3 months and it’s not a nice situation to be in, especially as I have so many ideas in my head for designs. So this month I will ease myself back into creating things – and decided to work with one or two different techniques and materials each month.

As it’s very cold in the conservatory I am dreading the work bench a bit and so will spend January working in our living room. This means mainly bead work, as polymer clay is messy and the pasta machine is tricky to clamp onto our round table.

Once it gets warmer – hopefully in February I want to work with my new texture plates and get back to my polymer clay. My dad gave me a tumbling kit for Christmas which I want to use a lot too – which means working with PMC again. It’s unfortunately not a cheap material, so will start with a few designs and see how well they sell.

By the end of this year I want to change my logo to something that I think represents my jewellery better. The “logo” I have right now can be confusing as it just shows beads (photographed with my old camera before it started to tint everything pink!).

What I also like to do this year is to work with silver and copper and am currently waiting for a book to arrive by Jinks McGrath to help me get back to metal work.

Animals, especially cats, will still be one of my main themes for jewellery designs as I have noticed that my animal jewellery is quite popular with customers.

And finally – if finances allow it – I would like to go on another jewellery course, as I think it’s important to learn new or improve existing skills.

So these are my plans for this year. I would love to hear from you. What would you like to achieve this year?

Happy New Year

helen — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:05:21 +0000

I wish you a Happy New Year. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We spent Christmas in Cologne and getting there last year wasn’t as straight forward as usual. In the run up to our departure we were not even sure if we should drive through the snow all the way from Cardiff to Stansted to get the plane to Cologne. It was snowing heavily in the morning, but we decided to go anyway, because our flight was not cancelled. We just got through the worst, if we’d set off an hour later, we would have been caught in massive traffic jams and possibly an accident.

The plane was delayed for only two hours and a very chatty Austrian taxi driver drove us safely to my parents’ place. Cologne was covered in beautiful snow – and stayed that way until after our journey back home.

Apart from a spell of a nasty migraine we had a great time and I managed to buy some fab Goretex boots – much needed as the shoes I was wearing had massive holes – no wonder I had cold and very wet feet! I also found a fantastic stall at one of Cologne’s many Christmas markets (Neumarkt) – though I imagine not everyone would get a kick out of cookie cutters. But this stall had a wide range of them – including the Statue of Liberty, bats and the Cologne Cathedral. The cutters are not for cookies though – I bought them for my future polymer clay and PMC creations.

A trip to Cologne’s biggest cd and electronics store was also a must and I bought cds from the fab Cee Lo Green, Kristin Hersh’s Grotto, the new Charlatans, Kula Shaker’s Pilgrim’s Progress (which is right now on heavy rotation, great album), Depeche Mode’s Barcelona dvd and an album by Die Sterne. So I am sorted with lots of new tunes for the next 5 months.

The highlights of this Christmas were sleighing down the hill at Beethoven Park on my sister’s old wooden sleigh– so much fun. Last time I did that was when my sister was little, she’s heading towards her A-Levels this year, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it – one’s never to old for sleighing. One family had the brilliant idea to use their inflatable boat!

On Sunday we travelled by train (with lots of changes and delays) to see my gran and almost all of my family was there. So we had a massive snowball fight in her garden. My aunt brought her cats again, who are now grown up. Findus is a very curious and friendly black tom and he immediately came sniffing my nose. Peppa is shy and avoided most of us hiding upstairs. She’s such a sweet cat. Findus enjoyed being outside in the snow, as my aunt can’t let her cats out where she lives in Hamburg. So Findus made the most of his temporary freedom.

Dusty was a delight and made our separation from our own Bobby tolerable. She’s the most dextrous cat with the loudest purr I’ve ever known. It’s always fun watching her sliding across the floor chasing a paper ball.

Our journey back home was uneventful, but the next day I woke up with a massive cold, hence I didn’t update my blog.

We stayed at home over New Year’s Eve and watched Hootananny. Not exactly exciting, but when you’re sick the last thing you need is a party and having to walk home because you can’t get a taxi.

Happy New Year everyone.

A Catty Christmas

helen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:24:13 +0000

Dusty's paw marks in the snow

I’m back from home in Cologne, where I spent Christmas with my dad and my sister and Dusty the Norwegian Forest who was originally my mum’s cat. She’s is the most adorable pretty cat.

Dusty on small Balcony

Dusty looks into the camera

In and out

And she’s very different from Bobby – Dusty is an excellent hunter. She brings in mice, much to my dad’s delight who often just shuts both mouse and Dusty into the bathroom to get on with it. My sister usually tries to rescue the poor things. She recently told us that Dusty once brought home a bat – no birds though, which is a relief. It seems that Dusty has the most of the back gardens to herself – they stretch over several houses and there used to be a lot of cats. Thankfully most of them moved including those awful yappy dogs. Dusty’s claws are incredibly sharp and never get clipped, which Paul noticed the hard way when he attempted to play rough with her. Bobby regularly gets a “pawicure”, which works like this: dangle a treat or prawn over her head, while she sits flipped over on her back on Paul’s lap. He trims them. Mainly because she panics, when she gets stuck on the carpet, the sofa (which she ruined) and on our jumpers. Dusty however needs her claws, so she can access the gardens and climb trees. And boy can she climb- I’ve never seen her doing that before – but it’s really amazing how fast she is. She is a lightweight – what you see is just a lot of fluffy and very silky long fur, which moves up and down when she runs.

Dusty is not as cuddly as Bobs, but good natured. She tolerates being picked up and during the first few nights she came to the bed for a cuddle which was nice.

When we arrived it was very cold, Cologne was covered in a thick layer of snow and it was -15.

Snow in Klettenberg

View from my parents' kitchen

Our Turkish taxi driver Hakan said they had over 70 accidents. He also told us about his kitten and how he regretted that he never paid his old cat much attention when he was alive. Hakan really regretted it, because he now realises how much fun his new kitten is and how much he cares. When I told him that I write for a cat magazine he revealed that he is writing a book about his experience as a taxi driver in Cologne. And this is his website: http://taxic25mkoko.de/index.html

The first three days I spent freezing my butt off. Mainly because I am not used to really cold temperatures anymore (Cardiff has crap weather, but it’s never that cold) and I didn’t bring any tights, proper shoes or lots of jumpers. The first night I didn’t sleep at all because the old duvet was devoid of much filling! My dad gave me his fancy duvet he never uses because it is too warm for him – but it was warm enough for me. Driving from Cardiff to Stansted to fly with German Wings was exhausting, so we spent the first day resting and the next few days my lower back was in a right state. I spoilt myself with a super Thai massage (one hour) and my lovely masseuse warned me that I will wake up with sour muscles the next day and advised to take a pain killer. She was quite shocked by the state of my back – well I rarely have a massage over here as it is expensive and I wonder if I could find someone as good as this lady. If you ever happen to visit Cologne and want a proper massage this is their website:

http://thaimassagekoeln.de/

On Monday we went to Cologne’s biggest and cheapest CD and electronic store “Saturn” to buy CDs for my sister and myself and a headset for my dad so he can use Skype and save money on both our phone bills. I am not sure if he has spoken to my aunt in New Zealand yet, but we talked to her and were impressed by Skype’s clear reception. The only difference is that there is a slight delay, but you get used to it.

We visited my aunt who still lives in the same place in Ehrenfeld, where I also used to live. She lives with my younger cousin Bouba, who is 1 year younger than my sister, and their two cats: Kitty, who originally belonged to my cousin Markus, but as he moved around a lot he gave her first to his brother Manuel, and eventually the poor thing ended up at my aunt’s. Kitty is ancient – 18 years – neurotic, scaredy and hates Tapsy, the younger tom, with a passion. They just don’t get on, which is a shame, but unfortunately this happens often in multi-cat households. Tapsi is friendly and cuddly and my aunt adores him. He spent most of the afternoon curled up in the living room, while we didn’t see much of Kitty, whose tail is never straight up, always lowered down.

It was nice to see my aunt, my cousins Markus and Bouba and Markus’ lovely girlfriend Fen, who is an actress and very pretty. Think Natalie Portman, but way prettier. I really like her because you can have good conversation and we share some interests and like the same actors. When I was younger I thought of becoming an actress and had lessons for half a year at a private acting school, but thought it was dreadful, because we never really worked on roles – all just improvisation and body work.

When we were about to leave, Kitty appeared and got really friendly and curious, sniffing our bags! Talking about the wrong timing!

Tuesday we went shopping for presents in town and Paul had a field day in Cologne’s biggest outdoor shop: http://www.globetrotter.de/

It’s situated in the Olivandenhof, which used to have several smaller shops- now it’s just this massive outdoor shop. It’s got a cold chamber, a wet chamber and a small pool with kayaks in it to test. While he was busy looking at all the gear, I disappeared into the neighbouring Karstadt (similar to Debenhams over here) and bought tights and velvet to use to display my jewellery. One of the things I wanted to get was Fimo Polymer Clay, because I want to learn how to make my own beads- but to my surprise the three shops I could have bought it in were all gone – Malkasten – gone, Wolkenaer (where I used to buy my paints) – gone. Feldhaus – Cologne’s biggest and oldest toyshop – gone. I was really upset about that. What’s happening to my hometown?

In the end I found two different shops where I bought a few Fimo items and ordered the rest from the net.

However we found a Lego shop, which was fantastic, and bought Lego for my 4-year old cousin Bela. The shop assistant was a proper Lego-nerd. When we told him about Paul’s ancient Lego and that he even still has all the brochures with the descriptions, he was impressed and a little jealous. We briefly went to the Christmas market next to the Dom, where Paul enjoyed a proper curry wurst.

Cologne Cathedral with Christmas market

I ate so much junk food that day including some sort of marshmallow type waffle, a sausage and almonds that I felt a bit sick in the evening . Due to the cold and overdoing things a bit I had a mig attack when we got home. The same evening friends came over for dinner, so I had to get my act together. Thankfully the meds worked quickly this time, because I took them fairly early on.

Wednesday we bought a proper Christmas tree from one of the pubs close to my parents’. When we tried to decorate it the next day we discovered the lights weren’t working properly, but unfortunately it was too late to buy new ones. So Paul tried to fix it with more tape or something. In the olden days – well when I was little –we always had candles –even when Freddy was still alive. Nothing ever happened – and to me the real deal is a real tree with candles – it just looks and smells better and more Christmassy.

Thursday (24^th) we celebrated Christmas the German way, which means – working in the morning in the kitchen and tidying the place until late afternoon when we had coffee and “Plaetzchen” – cookies. My sister baked this year and we also bought Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and Spekulatius with almonds, and marzipan. My dad likes his Panetone, so he got that too. And some other evil sweet stuff. After that we had to sing – my sister insisted and played the piano. Poor Paul didn’t understand and know the lyrics on the sheet. It’s quite weird singing religious Christmas songs in a mainly atheist household!

After the singing it was time to unwrap the gifts. My dad gave me money – not romantic but useful and a silver spoon made into a pendant -very clever design. My sister got me a CD by Germany’s funniest and versatile band Die Aerzte (http://www.bademeister.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%C3%84rzte ) I haven’t’ listened to it yet but the CD case looks funny: it is made of blue plush and is very soft!)

I already had my main present before Christmas which was a professional photo tent, but Paul surprised me with one book which I look forward to reading – Charlie Brooker’s “The Hell Of It All” which is essentially a collection of his Guardian columns from the last 2 years. Some of them are of course familiar, but it’s great to re-read them. Nobody can have good old rant better than him and it’s great fun. One of my favourite presents is a DVD by the world’s most adorable and talented comedians – Tim Minchin. Though I watched it already on Channel 4 it’s great to watch it again. A lot of it is available on You Tube. And here are some of my favourite Minchin songs for you to check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIm8WgwkTeI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6raVzrbqrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UO6YlkYNJQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUc_kATGgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-OrfALplXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrmOTkcfZgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCyMtNl8T8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLYO8Hd_sE

For dinner we had turkey – my dad loves cooking, and he loves his cooking gadgets – he has a fine collection of frying pans and kitchen knives – to which we added another one as a present. All was lovely and we ended up going to bed fairly early, because my dad was quite tired –plus we promised my gran to visit her the next day.

Friday we went to a place called Goch to see my grandmother. My uncle and his girlfriend were there; their son is having a whale of a time in OZ and is enjoying a summery Christmas over there. My other aunt Bettina was there with my cousin Bela and true to her word – she brought her two kittens Findus, a very cuddly black and white tom who doesn’t look like a Findus (who is a tabby cat out of a children’s book) and Pepa, who is a gorgeous petite Tabby with a crippled tail. While Findus enjoyed the fuss and attention and explored my gran’s home, Pepa stayed mainly in one of the rooms upstairs as she is a bit shy. Both cats were rescued from Ibiza, if I remember correctly. and though not related get on very well and Findus seems protective of his smaller female friend (who looks more like a Findus). Bela chose her initially and didn’t mind the tail at all, and because Findus got on well with her, they took both. They are a delight and I am so happy for my aunt that she finally can enjoy living with feline company.

Findus (left) and Pepa (right)

Pepa

Me and Bettina's cats

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay that long in Goch and I felt a bit sorry for my gran, as I think she couldn’t always follow conversations and there were just too many people. My uncle converted her downstairs area into her main living area, so now she has her bedroom there and an extra bathroom with a walk-in-shower. It looks really good.

Saturday we went to the cemetery and my dad showed us a grave of someone whose relatives chosen the same design as my mum’s gravestone. It’s actually very beautiful – her gravestone- as it tries to emulate one of her favourite earrings. He said he was first not sure about his discovery, but then he was chuffed that someone obviously has seen his design!

The journey back to Cardiff was long and we gladly arrived to an incredibly clean and tidy house with a very happy cat and Paul’s parents were still there waiting for us.

His mum bought me my favourite Christmas present – I live in it most of the time and our postie is already familiar with the sight of it: it’s a white, snugly M&S dressing gown. Lovely and warm.

Hope you all had a great Christmas – we definitely had a catty one.