london tattoo convention and rat update

I started the week making friends with a pigeon then we had our re-check at the vet that we knew wouldn't just be a check up because Pixel was still squeaky. The rats all did really well, they were much calmer this time which was really nice. Pixel is on another week of the same meds. At first he was even more resistant to taking it this time but we seem to have found the right mix of roast dinner baby food and meds that he'll eat it without too much hassle so fingers crossed he keeps that up and gets better. He hadn't got any bigger over the week and at his age he really should be growing so I hope he gets better this week so he can concentrate on getting bigger, poor little thing. He's got me so stressed!





Then at the end of the week we went to london!!! I haven't been to london in years and I miss it so much. We saved up and advance booked and made it generally as cheap as possible and headed down to the london tattoo convention. Even just the end of the train journey was magical, I love london so much then we got off the train and were actually there! We spent the whole day in the convention so didn't get too much of a london fix but I soaked up that walk between the tube and tobacco dock. Hopefully it won't be as long before we go again, for an actual wander about this time. Anyway the tattoo convention...







It was really good, I have a lot of issues with the tattoo industry in general (such a fucking exclusionary, dickhead boys club) but at it's root the art and the culture outside of all the dickheads is something I really fucking love and we got to talk to some really nice people and there were some really good artists working. I love the hand done stuff, I could watch those guys all day and in general the feel of the day was really creative and it left me feeling really inspired to work hard at my own art.





There was an art gallery too which had some really nice stuff in it including the Kintaro Kite Project and some pieces by Horiyoshi III. The two pieces of his here, under the kite pictures, have his own blood on which is pretty cool. You know it's actual blood as soon as you see it, I don't think you could use anything else to look quite the same. We got to hear someone from the Japanese Gallery talk about the process behind japanese woodcuts too and it was so so so interesting.





It was a really good day and we came home with some pretty things. There were some seriously good business cards kicking about, Will got to buy some actual useful supplies and we got these two pins from Three Tides Tattoo, a japanese studio. They're so cute and we were lucky the guy behind the table when we got them was Nami, the guy that designed them :)




I look forward to going again next year, hopefully with a bit more spending money!

Indie Art Haul ~ Mostly Zines

I spent my birthday money on some bits I've had my eye on from artists I love and thought I would make a haul video to share it all because artists are important and deserve to have videos made about them.



And here are the links to everyone's websites :)
Bunny Bissoux http://www.bunnybissouxart.com/
Synchronise Witches http://cherrystyles.co.uk/synchronise-witches/
Sarah Graley http://sarahgraley.com/
Kawaii Market http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Kawaii-Market
Rayne Klar http://rayne-klar.squarespace.com/
Holly Casio http://www.coolschmool.com/
Gemma Flack http://www.gemmaflack.com/

a poorly rat :(

After a nothing-y weekend I started my week in the library. I've been interested in the Wollstonecraft book for a while and it was on display so I grabbed that and I've never read any Virginia Woolf and thought it was about time.




On Tuesday we took the rats to the vet. Pixel was squeaking and it's really common for rats to have respiratory problems. It was a new vet (recommended by our old vet because rats are exotic apparently) and they're new rats and this bacteria is really contagious so they all got checked out. They weren't fans, the vet may have got pooed on (she definitely did). Luckily Tank and Sharky came away with a clean bill of health but Pixel is on antibiotics and an anti inflammatory. He hates it and it's almost impossible to get it in him and I think he's going to need more. I feel so bad about it but we're doing our best, he's just so young and wiggly and not that bothered about treats! And he's pretty good at walking along with his mouth on the floor to scrape as much of it back out again afterwards and what can you even do to stop that! He's getting pretty used to being handled though and we're getting better at handling him so even if he needs another round of meds at least it should go a little smoother. He has a check up this week so we shall see, fingers crossed. He's doing fine though as far as you can tell by watching him, hopefully he doesn't know he's ill.



I managed to tear myself away from the rat cage (a good thing because listening to Pixel make those little noises is heartbreaking) and made some more badges. I actually got some listed too, I've been making groups to list together so needed what seemed like a good amount before I could put them up in the shop. So far I think the collage-y ones with the stickers are my favourite.

zines, badges, rats

I group my weekly vlogs into Saturday to Friday weeks (no reason, I think that's just a day I started doing it) and then use photos from those days in these "weekly" blog posts but today is already Wednesday again and I can't believe the photo of those new shelves is in this set. I had no energy and didn't sort the video out when I normally do and then it took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to upload because our internet is lame and then we had to go to the vet yesterday and I still have really low energy and it's thrown my ability to know time lol. But we did put up our new shelves and I like our living room so much more now. We finally have our video player set up again!



Sometimes people ask me to add notes into orders they're sending to friends and it's super cute // making more glitter badges // saving flowers from the reduced bucket



I got these badges listed, they're printed designs from my print to order shops // got my wasp zine listed too. The wasps are gone now btw, just one day they suddenly had left. I hope the queen found a good spot to hibernate.



Sharkey // Tank // Pixel




My August zine is done, I explained the whole process of my monthly zines in this weeks vlog and you also get a pretty good look at Tank.

plodding along

Last week kind of continued a bit slow and brain fuggy but I did make these glittery badges. I had an idea about drawing on the plastic of the badge and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.



My noodle pot and Will's noodle pot. That chicken is my hero, look at her belly (☆ω☆) // The rats learnt to climb in my tshirt.



Glitter cutting for badges // These guys kill me. I am dead. So cute.(⊙_⊙)



Food shopping in the rain // Seriously, these guys. They're getting real big too. (I wonder if I'll ever get a 'good' photo of all three of them together ?...)





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I made a zine about a wasp nest we have over our back door. I took some photos of this piece of hornet nest Will has so I could use it as background.



For most of the week I felt really slow and useless but I started to perk up towards the end so I think this week will be much better. *fingers crossed*