Hobs hairdresser

Given the choice of reading magazines about celebrities or chatting to the stylist and sketching I'd rather give the magazines a miss. Before going to have my hair coloured I asked son Tom to trim my very long hair, so that the hairdresser had less to deal with. However he got a bit scissor-happy and for the first time in my life my hair now brushes my shoulders rather than my waist. I like it, but it’s odd.

Knitivity – for all you knitters out there

I tried knitting when I was a girl but as I tried to hammer my knitting needles through the ever tightening gaps in my knit one, purl one I realised it probably wasn’t something I had a talent for. However, like sketching, I think it’s a wonderfully creative way to fill in the gaps in the day. My super talented friend Fiona has brought out a book which shows you how to create a delightful knitted nativity scene, so if you buy one now you’ll easily have time to create all the characters in time for Christmas. Go here to buy the book for next to nothing.

Verulam sixth form evening

Faces at the Herts sports partnership awards

Robin was nominated for community coach of the year (male), for his paddling coaching. Sadly he didn't win, so the highlight of of the evening was when a parent received a prize on behalf of one of the winners of a youth award. The presenter asked the mother why her daughter couldn't come and she said that she was working at Euro Disney over the summer, to which the presenter quipped "Bit of a MickeyMouse job isn't that?"

Colder weather and wearing a jacket inside

Winter is coming and we never really had much of a summer. A truly awful year to choose to have a ‘staycation’.

Sorrento holiday

After an entire summer holiday selling school uniforms, Flo is off to have what I’m sure will be a wonderful holiday in Sorrento. And if she brings us back a bottle of Limoncello I promise I’ll make this dessert.

Hugo again

I missed the first couple of series of Dragon’s Den because I couldn’t abide watching a Dragon who many years ago had commissioned me to produce some design work and then simply hadn’t paid me. However it seems as though in the end there was some rough justice over treating suppliers badly and a bankrupt Dragon really couldn’t be seen on television telling other people how to run a business – and we can now enjoy watching this silly programme without having to look at the Dragon who didn’t pay bills.

Since then I’ve in the main had wonderful clients who appreciate the hard work I do for them. Of course nowadays with the internet and the ability of graphic designers to quickly design very effective search-engine optimised websites I imagine most businesses would regard paying their designer as a greater priority than paying any other supplier!

Great relief – the train journey home

Another endodontic appointment at Guys’ Hospital, but great news something had healed so only 45 minutes of dental treatment rather than the expected two hours of painful root canal treatment.

Guest artist – ‘The Media Student’

I’ve been busy over the past fortnight giving my son Hugo crash courses in Adobe Creative Suite applications in preparation for his ‘A’ level Media Studies course. I’m very proud of this piece he created, which shows his use of different media (the size of each of the planets reflect the number of hours he spends on each of the media). I knew someone would find a use for the 3d rendering facility in the latest version Photoshop. What particularly impressed me was when I left him to play with filters and effects, he had the good taste to choose subtle over bleedin’-obvious-and-what-everybody-does-when-they-first-try-out-photoshop. I think he’s going to find the subject fascinating.