dog tired

Took the dog for a run in the woods today. She's been asleep ever since. I'm feeling a little sleepy myself. It's the Chrimbo Limbo innit.

25 and 26 THE END

Christmas... hope it was a good one.

24

Twenty four miscellaneous festive items. All recycled from previous days. Sustainable design at it's best.... and I can't think of any more county items for the sodding thing. Obvs.

23

Twenty three pressies in Santa's sack.

22

Twenty two brussels sprouts for Christmas dinner.

21

Twenty one stars.
Cos it's bloody dark ALL THE TIME here.
And they're quick.
Ho ho ho.

20

Twenty Christmas cards.
A dying breed. Loads of people have told me they're not sending cards this year. Maybe they're not? Or maybe they just don't like me 😬

19

Nineteen snowflakes. Nice and quick. Nexxxtttt....

18

Eighteen Christmas crackers.
To anyone not in the UK who is wondering what the chuff a Christmas cracker is:
It's a thing that you pull with a friend over Christmas dinner. It breaks in half and spits out a load of tat, including a paper hat and a shit joke. The more they cost, the better quality the tat... but the joke's still a bit shit.
You're welcome.

17

It's beginning to look a lot like crowded...

16

Sixteen winter warmers. Cos it's bloody cold.

15

Fifteen Christmas puds. All destined for the bin. Cos no-one has room for christmas pud after they've spent all day stuffing their faces with Quality Street, fancy M&S chilli coated peanuts and an enormous turkey.

14

Fourteen christmas stockings. One mouse. Trying to liven it up a bit.

13

I was THIS close to packing it in (hold finger and thumb together and screw face up in a strained manner)
But I'm not a quitter.
I started the bloody thing, I have to finish it. No-one needs Christmas presents this year anyway.
So... Thirteen very realistic robins...

12

Twelve pretty boring trees. Cos frankly I have not got time to draw 12 of anything more interesting in the run up to Christmas and I don't know what on earth I was thinking starting this whole thing.

11

Eleven cats in hats. 
Because nothing says Christmas like a cat in a hat.

10

Ten little dudes in the school nativity. The other kids were trees and rocks and chickens and stuff.
Do I miss the school nativity now the kids are big? I do in a rose coloured spectacle kinda way. Well, I miss the actual 37 seconds they were on stage. I don't miss the rest of the whole palava surrounding school christmas events and the total stress of fitting everything in and remembering to buy a christmas jumper before the shops all sell out in November and having to turn up at church, the christmas fair and the nativity all in the same week as 70 thousand top urgent deadlines. I don't miss that bit.

9

Why did I think this was a good idea? The numbers quite obviously go up and up. Which means more drawing every day. At the busiest time of the year. What an idiot I am.
Day 10 will just be 10 stars I reckon. And day 11 will be 11 stars.... that's perfectly acceptable isn't it?

8

Eight elves hanging about waiting to wrap some pressies. They could be there a while cos I haven't bought them yet ha ha.

7

Seven randomers wearing Christmas jumpers. A full week before Christmas Jumper Day. Maybe they're stupid. Maybe they're just excited? Or maybe I couldn't be arsed to draw 14 christmas jumpers next week.
I guess we'll never know...

6

Six Squashed Snowmen Sitting Side by Side.

This needs to be a book....

Six squashed snowmen sitting side by side,
One snowman melted and the others all cried.

Ha ha...best seller 👌🏼

5

It's only day 5 and already I'm suffering from Christmas fatigue.
Also the eldest has been having interviews at a local-ish shopping centre for part time jobs and I am totally over hanging out with manic Christmas shoppers while I wait for her. The shops are full of tat, the traffic is horrendous and everyone looks totally stressed out. I can't even be arsed to buy anything. I'm just gonna do it all online. (Sorry shop owners, I know I know....but it's just eeeeasier 😬) 
In better news I bought new jeans last night to replace the ill-fated faves. And the eldest got offered 2 jobs. Yay. 

4

Four polar bears. Slipping on the ice. Like me this morning. Only they didn't fall over and rip their favourite jeans like I did. And they don't have a hole in their knee.

3

Three angels just hanging about. Like angels do.

2

Day 2 of the ChristmasCountyThing...

definitely not an advent

It's a counting thing. OK? Not an advent. I'm sooo over the advent. This is similar. But not the same. Not the same at all.

november 18

This was November....
November had a lot going on.

wake up call

At least when the kids were toddlers you could shove them in bed at 7pm and, apart from several middleofthenight shout outs, they'd largely remain there till some un-godly early hour when they decided it was morning. 
Fast forward to the teenage years and all routine goes out of the window. They seem to suddenly come alive around 9pm and finally decide to embark on whatever task you've been nagging them to do since 4pm. REALLY LOUDLY. And it seems that 10.30pm is the optimum time to have a shower. With loud music on. And singing. And who doesn't want a late night snack when the house has been locked up, the alarm is set and all the lights are out?
The other half has taken to wearing ear plugs in bed. So if there's a fire in the middle of the night night he's probably fucked.
The mornings however are a different story. They've obviously got hold of Neil's ear plug stash because they don't hear a bloody thing. No amount of shouting and banging seems to rouse them. I'm beyond bored of hearing myself say that it's time to get up. It's like REALLY time to get up. Will you just P L E A S E get out of bed. YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE! JUST GET OUT OF BLOODY BED NOW!!!!!
Matters have not been helped by the fact that I'm allowing the youngest to stay up and watch I'm A Celebrity. Every night. Because he can't possibly be the only kid at school who doesn't know what's going on in the jungle can he?

Is it nearly Christmas?

cats and dogs

Just a bit of faffery...

This week....

....it was mostly GREY...

....with a splash of colour at the weekend cos it was my birthday.
I'm feeling very old but as my friend just pointed out, getting old is better than the alternative. Wise words indeed.

winter

It's chucking it down. And it's bloody freezing. And dark. And I don't have a holiday booked. Guess my mood.

folktale finale

Folktale week was mucho fun. I managed all but one...cos Saturday was a very busy day for the charity I'm involved with...and...well..."mirror"?!...

folktale week continues

Also this week I stuck to the daily prompts for Folktale Week....

print and pattern

This week the lovely Marie featured me on Print and Pattern. Yaaayyy! Go have a nose...

folktale week

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and doing Folktale Week on instagram. Well....I've done one day. No promises for the rest....

catch up

Dear Blog
I keep forgetting to add new pics. 
I just put them on insta instead and forget that you exist.
Soz.
Love Dawn x

trapped in the house

JimNextDoor is having his drive done. This means that all week there has been an endless stream of diggers, lorries and massive trucks at the end of our drive, totally blocking us in. Yesterday the youngest needed something he had forgotten dropping off at school. (10 empty envelopes in case you're wondering. That is a whole different story and one I don't have time to tell right now.) There was a flatbed truck and a digger on top of a massive trailer at the end of our drive. I just couldn't face asking the arsey and very bloody grumpy builders to move. AGAIN. So I walked! It's only 1.1 miles each way so it wasn't like running a marathon or anything. But still! 2.2 miles in the pissy wet Yorkshire drizzle was preferable to the palava of getting them to shift.
I have no idea how long this construction work is going to go on for but I'm guessing it could take a while cos the lazy sods seem to spend most of their time sitting in their lorry having a cuppa...yay.

scarf season

It's scarf weather again in Yorkshire. Scarf season lasts around 7 months here so it's lucky I have a vast selection. Worn inside and outside the house cos even though I have the heating on full whack all day every day I'm still always bloody freezing.

alphabet

Here's the full alphabet together.
If I was a whizz biz entrepreneur I'd be getting flashcards and posters and shit printed up and I'd be flogging the arse off them everywhere you looked.
But I'm not.
So that's the end of that.

W X Y Z the end

Well. I made it to the end. With a bit of cheating on the final letters cos no woodland words worth drawing start with X or Z.
Yay me.
Think I'll start on an advent now. 
Jokes.