Night of Shivers

So I was going to upload a bit more of my weekend with Faithy today, but on Sunday night it was such a moment of failure that I had to upload that story instead!

So on Sunday night I was playing my computer game when I remembered I actually had stuff I was supposed to be doing (such as tidying up).

(Bonus points to you if you can guess the game from my mumbling there… :P)

While drawing this picture I also realised that I’ve been drawing my hair wrong all this time – I’ve been drawing it as it would look in a mirror, not as other people see me. So I’ve changed it. Whether I’ll remember for future comics or not is another matter entirely…

So I got up, and I closed the curtain on the spider-invested fire-escape. And there was one right next to the window, I swear it waved at me with one leg!

So then I moved on to tidying up, and was picking up things for washing the next day…

And of course, the result was a manic rush for the hoover.

At moments like this, I really appreciate that Nick is much more a master of his fears than I am! He does these things like a boss, while I shiver in a corner xD

And then (after the inevitable hugging and consoling), we went upstairs to get ready for bed. And as we were brushing our teeth…

They sounded like they were RIGHT outside… But let’s face it; cats are much less scary than spiders even if they are fighting. It’s still eerie though, especially when you can’t see them and they sound so close. So… Yeah. A night of shivering in a corner for me! I’m surprised that sleep came so easily in the end! But then, Nick is very good at making me feel better.

And with that lovey-dovey thought in mind, I bid you adieu!

Faithy Tales I

Hello everyone!

So today my update is about my weekend with Faithy, which includes two nights and two days!

Our first night is (mostly) covered in this post.

Firstly: To introduce the lovely Faithy, who was kind enough to house me, feed me, drive me and indeed to book the tickets for Go Ape too!

And my reaction to her Grandparent's beautiful home!

And the thing we seemed to spend most of our time doing - making and drinking tea!

And while we drank our tea, we would stand at the sink and look out the window into the garden! Very beautiful and tranquil and just plain amazing it was <3

Sorry it's short again, and not a funny one, but the funny will come in lots in the next set, where there's wet ground, Go Ape and many hilarious antics!

Thanks for reading!

Fail!

So my sincerest apologies but I've not got the update finished (by which I mean, it is still only in the sketch format), so I'm afraid I'm going to cop out and upload some older sketches. I'll give you a proper length update on Friday, I hope!

Sorry again for the cop out everyone!

Whittards Adventures I

Today I bring you a few adventures from work! Also it's a day early as I'm going out to an awesome weekend of wine and Go Ape (not in that order, obviously - health and safety people!) and I didn't want to try fitting it in tomorrow. Still, early is better than late, right? :P 

Texty bit following - Feel feel to skip!

A little bit of background (especially for those who are interested in what I’ve done with my life since university):

I started looking for a job as I was revising for exams with a mind to starting work straight away (and after a month of looking, I decided anyone willing to take me is the job I’d go for). So I ended up starting at McDonalds the day after my last exam. I met some great people and made some (I hope) life-long friends, and grew up quite a lot in quite a short span of time. All the lovely people in the world couldn’t have made McDonald’s a nice place to work, what with all the chavs and the dicks who go there just to make life miserable for the workers, and let’s face it, you don’t ever get along with everyone you work with anyhow. Still, after five months of never having a day of work where I wasn’t called an offensive name at some point, I decided enough was enough (also, I was working a lot of evening shifts by then – 3 until 11:30pm at the time, now 4 until 2 or something horrific, and never got to see Nick). For a few months before I left I was looking for other work, but found nothing (by which I mean applied to everything and got no responses). We agreed between us that the best thing to do was for me to quit McDonalds and look for something else then, and to just be basically a house-wife until I found something. While I hated this idea of Nick being the one supporting us both, I really was in a bad place inside my own head at McDonalds and it was most definitely time to back out. So I left.

Within two weeks of leaving McDonalds, I was up and working at Whittard of Chelsea, although only part time. I love my job there. I’m never sworn at, and never shouted at or intimidated. Both the staff and the customers are all wonderful, and I no longer wake up in cold-sweats after dreaming about work, hooray!

So I’ve got an awful lot of notes about working in Whittards in my little booklet of posts to write up, and you’ll see many more over time I should imagine. But to begin, here are three of the things which have recently struck me as amusing enough to share with you all!

Well, this picture is illustrating how Whittards have an awful lot of varieties of one product, in this case it was a 6 cup stove-top espresso maker. We had four different packages, and four different prices. My manager and I then spent a good half an hour to an hour sorting out the shelves and making sure all the prices were right. That one espresso maker wasn’t alone, either. We have many products (especially in the coffee equipment section) where there are more than one type and occasionally more than one price. 

And here we have coffee tasting. I’m not a huge fan of coffee (although it’s certainly grown on me since I expanded my knowledge of different types), so my first few experiences and indeed many subsequent ones of tasting coffee is just a few minutes of me getting up the balls to do it. Then I try not to rush though doing it but inevitably more chug the tasting than taste it. While there are a few of the Whittards coffees that I love, I certainly don’t love many more, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that so many of my tasting experiences end in this fashion!

Right there has been an awful lot of text to today’s post, sorry about that! The next few will probably have less, as now the background has been laid! Thanks for reading =D

Royal Mail Adventures

So! This adventure started with a whole bunch of annoyance, misty rain (the worst kind of rain, in my opinion) and stupid mail systems where no one really knows what’s going on except the last person you’re directed to!

Let me start from the beginning, and sum it up quickly so you don’t have to listen to me complain for many, many paragraphs about something relatively minor (and oh yes, I could certainly do that if I let myself!).

Nick and I had a package coming, and when Nick checked it online yesterday it said it had been delivered the day before. Well, we have no package and no card saying it had been missed. So, he checked the online services and rang DHL. DHL handed it over to royal mail and have nothing more to do with it, and the website we ordered from just said that if it was sent back to them, they’d re-mail it. So this morning after Nick had left for work, I rang Royal Mail. The woman I spoke to (who was appropriately tired-sounding for half 8 in the morning) said it was in a PO box in Canterbury but couldn’t tell me where, and suggested I just go to a post office. WELL. I decided that it was better to just get it out the way before I went to work at 11:15, so I left for the post office then and there. Long story short, I went to Wilkinson’s (for light bulbs), then to two separate post offices, then to the WRONG entrance of the sorting office, and then to the right one where they said we should have had a card because they did indeed have our parcel but there was a £13 customs charge on it. So I couldn’t have it. So they are re-sending the card, and now we will likely have two of the damn things. So I spent two hours walking around in misty rain for no reason. Getting annoyed.

So when I walked past our oriental supermarket I bought myself some consolation Pocky. Strawberry flavour. I even saved some for Nick – Shock! So yes, here are various moments from my long, miserable, frustrating morning!

And that about sums it all up!! We did manage to get that parcel that evening, though! I'll upload a photo of me wearing half the contents some time soon =D

Thanks for reading!

Chibi vs. Chibi!

Right then! Today it’s another shorter one, unfortunately. I’m working on a few longer ones for Friday, though.

Today’s picture is the difference between the actual me (or a close semblance there-of) and the chibi which I always draw in the comics. I said briefly in the post ‘Bleach Tears’ (here: http://searingwings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/bleach-tears.html ) that drawing people to look like themselves is a challenge. Well, turns out that drawing myself as I should look was harder than drawing Nick. I don’t look at myself! Still, here we go to the picture! Underneath will be a list of differences, but feel free to skip those!

On to the differences!

Chibi doesn’t wear glasses – I do.

Chibi’s hair is often in a high ponytail – while I CAN do this, it’s difficult and painful and looks terrible. I go for the low pony tail or a middle-high one.

Chibi’s hair is just a yellow I’m fond of in the default palette in Open Canvas (the program I use to draw on the computer), whereas my hair is more of a straw-coloured, dullish blonde with bits of darker colours in there.

Chibi’s hair also tends to have more volume. I have thin hair, so it tends not to have much volume. Also, my hair in reality starts much further up my forehead. I’m a big-forehead girl. :P

Chibi never has any tattoos – I have three, one of which is on my right forearm and would in reality be always visible in my comics with short sleeves.

Chibi wears that purple strappy t-shirt. I don’t own such a t-shirt, although I draw her in it because I like it and wish I had one. I have a pinky-purple one which is a basic strap top, or this black vest top which I wear more often.

Chibi’s skin tone is based around orange, whereas mine is more pinky.

Chibi never blushes – I’m always blushing.

Chibi tends to wear a bracelet on each wrist – one is her watch which is true to life, one is a small bracelet belt thing which I do actually own but seldom wear. Again, I like it and wish I wore it more often, so Chibi wears it.

Chibi never has detail on her trousers – I always wear jeans or PJ bottoms around the house, and black trousers when I’m going out to work that day.

Chibi’s proportions are out, while you’d expect that to some extent, breasts tend to be exaggerated. Having said that, I don’t have small ones, but I tend to wear clothes which don’t necessarily bring them out so much. Another thing which is on my wish-list of things to do.

Chibi also tends to make expressions which I wish I could make – many of these I have some semblance of, as I make many similar expressions, but obviously it’s easier to manipulate a drawn face than my own (though it’s squishy enough that many have given it a good go!).

And there you have it! That’s all I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure there are many, many more!

Thanks for reading =D

First World Problems

So only a little one today, sorry >.< I have more of this series, but they've not yet made the leap from sketchbook to computer.

Tuesday's update will most likely be a form of 24-hour comic which Melissa, a friend from work, reminded me of on our shift yesterday.

Anyway, here's the little comics for today!

Isn't life hard? :P Like I say, more of these on the way eventually!

Bleach Tears

Hello! So the first post of the new update schedule! It's a fairly long one so I hope you enjoy ^^

I just feel the need to clarify that while everything in my blog happens, some is exaggerated (for instance, in this post, Nick runs to open a window, not to flee overall xD). On a side-note - drawing people so there is a decent likeness is really hard! I'm not bothering to do that for myself, as I'll tend to be the main character xD Like, can't be bothered to continuously draw my glasses, for example.

Anyway! On with the pictures!

And there we are! This is from back when we were moving house, so a back-dated one really. Still, happy Tuesday!