So I may have slightly over ordered on a job involving gold glitter a few weeks back. Since then I have tried my very best to see what I can dip in my 5kgs of surplus glitter. Turns out the answer to that dilemma is EVERYTHING!

Here are some pics of my glitter escapades, and I still have 3kgs of glitter left!!!

There is also a giant garden gnome but he's not quite ready for his close up yet!

WARNING! If your going to try this at home it is EXTREMELY easy but also EXTREMELY messy...be prepared to be finding glitter absolutley everywhere for the rest of your life!

What is often the best (and sometimes worst) part of my job is where I end up staying and who I stay with when doing various jobs  around the country...and recently I was fortunate enough to stay in 2 stately homes in the space of a week! I stayed in Plumpton Place whilst working on a film set, and the Goodwood House dorms working on the build up to Festival of Speed! Oh to see how the other half live!

But before you get too jealous, no matter what your digs look like on the outside they are almost always pretty grim on the inside (although I must say Plumpton place was quite lovely!). However, it will take me a while to erase the image from my brain of big bellied security staff wandering around Goodwood dorms in their pants and nothing else...lets just say that I'm ever so glad the ladies had separate facilities... and that we were the only ladies in the building.

I had such a great time last weekend working with a group of pupils from South Lee school to create a backdrop for their school production of Alice In Wonderland (appropriate!). It was designed by Lucy Howard who came up with a brilliant dark and mysterious looking design.

The pupils artistic skills (especially their drawing) were seriously impressive and we finished the cloth in 3 hours flat which was pretty good going I'd say. By the way, when I say "WE finished" I mean THEY did...I hardly painted anything!

So next time I need to paint a backdrop, I know who I'm roping in...then I can put my feet up and have cup of tea while they do all the hard work!

Well done to all of the pupils and a BIG thank you to Miss Wright the art teacher for organising it all and giving up her Saturday to be there!

Workshop mugs are in a league of their own, when it comes to being in a workshop environment, mug hygiene goes out of the window. I suppose what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but when one of your work mates has to take your mug and bleach it in order to get it clean again (it has been known), maybe you have gone a step too far. Here are 3 mug shots for you...

Just thought I would take this opportunity to write a quick blog with some pics as I sit as passenger on the way to Yorkshire to start the next two weeks work...

Yesterday I went to the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum on my way back from a weekend in Great Yarmouth. It really is a fascinating place, and don't expect the typical museum with modern interactive displays and games. It's not like that, as well as the indoor displays of aviation related objects, there are planes of the past outside, which are big and a bit scary. There is also a plane graveyard which gives you chills as you read how a whole crews lives were lost as you look at the bent and twisted propellers of the plane they came down in.

It's all very real, and for all you plane enthusiasts it is full of things that I could not really understand or relate to but were no doubt very interesting to those in the know. Personally I liked the nose art best, in the war time if you had any sort of painting ability you would probably find yourself painting the artwork on the noses of planes going to war and also onto pilots flying jackets. I loved this part, there was so much of it and it is clear that serving men and women enjoyed making and seeing the artwork as a colourful bit of relief from the otherwise dreary looking wartime planes and equipment.

I found out about wartime artwork and was especially interested in the story of a woman called Annie who as a 24 year old keen painter was drafted in to paint the walls of the aero club. She then became in demand as a painter of flying fortresses and airmens jackets. She worked in Great Ashfield, 5 minutes away from where I live, and being a 24 year old painter myself, I couldn't help but think that maybe 70 years ago, that might have been exactly what I was doing.

Go and visit the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation museum it really is worth it, its free admission (make a donation) and it seems that on Sundays they have a Bric-a-Brac sale!
http://www.aviationmuseum.net/

So I painted the toilets in LP bar and nightclub, Bury St Edmunds didn't I! And there's talk of more toilet artwork to come in other places...it seems like your life's not complete unless Als been and made your shabby lavvy look fabulous. Possibly the best penny you've ever spent?

Artwork designed and painted by AlsYaGal

Yesterday...with no hangover to ruin my productive plans for the weekend my sister and I decided that we would paint a chalkboard on her kitchen wall together. With my love and devotion to my sisters and their kitchen, my abundance of artistic skill and a load of left over chalk board paint (don't ask) I began. The second I started drawing, Harriet was conveniently called to work (good plan Harry)... I'd forgotten the overhead projector so just went straight on the wall freehand and painted the black bit, made a cake whilst I waited for the paint to dry then finished the job! Im not looking for praise or anything but I think that alone makes me a top quality sister.

So it took me an afternoon including time spent going to the shop getting ingredients for a cake then making and icing the cake...which makes it a quite affordable option if you want a chalkboard on your wall and a cake on your table... £45 (without cake).

East London that is! I just thought it would be nice to share a few things from the almost annoyingly arty area that is Hackney. Columbia road is lovely, Bethnal Green road has some great shops, but the best stuff is found by walking a bit slower and looking at the walls around you, sometimes you have to be very observant as the smaller things often go unnoticed.

Having just got back from South Africa I thought it would be only fair to share the pictures of the great stuff I saw  there.  I spent every last Rand I had on art and all manner of handmade objects.  Not a "made in china" mass manufactured souvenir in sight.  I bought stuff  from Art Galleries and Co-operatives where a lot of things are made from low cost materials and are just the most incredible pieces of craft work.  I was absolutely in my element and really quite jealous of these peoples skills and ideas!

Even the rubbish bins were amazing!

Sorry the pictures didn't work on the last post...here they are!