Planet Ruby Starrs

Delayed postings... pretty much covering the last couple of weeks.  2016 is practically gone - For some people it has been a difficult year, some people have lost close friends and family, Iconic and national treasures from the entertainment world have passed away reminding some of us of how old and vulnerable we actually are, but also conjuring up past memories of teenage crushes and adventurous exploits... (the lost car at the Milton Keynes Bowie concert). The political world has been turned upside down even for those who got what they voted for (if anyone actually knows that), but I've been lucky, for me personally it was a good year, we had lots of good trips, Skye, Ireland, Wales, Yorkshire, more Scotland, Peak District... loads of great get togethers with family and friends, college was mostly fun, the Snow dog experience was fab,  I feel we got a moderate amount or sunshine which makes such a difference to life in general so up to the the last three weeks it was ok... ...

Quick post to give festive greetings ... but I'm not particularly festive as I am full of cold and flu, snot pouring from facial orifices and a huge amount of balm tissue consumed -  hence the lack of postings... I am in Leeds visiting my family and I'm sure its very seasonal out there... I'm about to find out as I have three days Christmas shopping to fit in and then I meet my daughter to do the food shop... never been so disorganised for christmas ever.... C'est la vie...  I've missed seeing a lot of friends I hd hoped to catch up with but nobody wants a red nosed Ruby Starrs even at Christmas and really my energy levels have plummeted - however I will recover and I will spend some lovely time with my family and count my lucky stars that I have family, food, shelter, presents under the tree and gin so on the note I send you all good tidings and joy, enjoy the season of goodwill an lets hope 2017 brings joy and happiness round the world.

Its been an expensive and manic week in the Ruby Starrs household... we have been bracing ourselves for the imminent replacement of the clutch on Beryl the Yellow Peril our beloved camper van - and then catastrophe struck - my car went clink clink clinkclink BANG and its now having an emergency engine transplant and some serious rehab time in the garage - huge expense I could have done without but I really can't do without the car!!! Now we have everything possible crossed to hope that Beryls' clutch sees us through Christmas so we can head out and do the family rounds and make it back home before having to remortgage life in general to have all wheels fully functional!!! C'est la vie - these things happen and there is never a good time we would all rather spend hard earned cash on something other then car maintenance but living out here in the sticks means a car is absolutely essential and worth every penny! So after a few cups of tea, we've survived the shock of...

two layers waterbased ink on calico fabric Two full days of screen printing practise has left me with an aching back but considerably more skill at getting nice clean crisp prints,some of which are multilayered and multicoloured.  I like screen prints, I like the clean sharpness they have but because of that I find them hard to work into with embellishment.  And.. the truth is I really like the embellishment business more then the printing...This difficulty is further compounded by my chosen design being very busy - lots of line work and detail, so because of that I decided to spend some time masking out lot of the detail and trying a different approach to the print finish. In the end after careful consideration I masked out most of my 'bottom' layer-  some very busy linework  originating from a tall ships drawing - and immediately the prints started to look tidier. silver foil on black velvet I also spent quite a lot of time experimenting with different f...

Well the The Great North Snowdog adventure is over - The grand auction was held last night at the Sage Gateshead, and it was a really fun night, 63 dogs, large and small were auctioned off over the course of three hours and there were a lot of very good spirited people in the room and lots of cash was splashed! http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2016-12-07/great-north-snowdogs-raise-over-250-000-for-charity/ Thanks to the generous bids across the room, by telephone and from the internet the dogs made a total of £252000 - which is amazing and we were thrilled to bits when our Wor Geordie contributed £4500 towards that total.  I am so very proud to have been part of the team and part of the whole event.   Theres live coverage of the sale on this link... https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleCollege/videos/1475793682449149/ While I have to admit being a little disappointed about our Crowdfunding attempt, I know I was always very optimistic but nothing ventured nothing...

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas... I decided against even trying to have a tasteful tree, so its a real slam it in Ruby Starrs special with disco lights and every kind of bauble from around the world... drew the line at tinsel though.... All topped with a rather demonic fairy made especially for me by my eldest granddaughter. I think its a model of her her mummy dressed up....

Last week we went to the Tyneside Cinema to see 'One More Time With Feeling', a film directed by Andrew Dominik about Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds album 'Skeleton Tree'.  The film also depicts the deep emotion of loss and grief experienced by Cave, his family and his fellow musicians felt when Caves 15 year old son fell to his death. Its a raw film, intense and moving.  The music is haunting and beautiful, and I'm only a vague Nick Cave fan - but I have always liked the softer more downbeat arrangements.  Cave cautions about reading too much about his loss into the  lyrics of the album, he wrote most of it before the tragedy occurred but it carries a deep sense of foreboding and loss, he comments he was unable to write anything meaningful afterwards.   When Caves son died in July 2015, the album was well underway and Cave wanted to finish it and release it but was aware that doing so may invite unwanted intrusion into his private family life.  So instea...