Planet Ruby Starrs

Its 5 years this January since I started writing this blog and this is the 500th post... it started as a college assignment - something we had to do to showcase our work in progress, our inspiration and our creative journey.  For many that's where it stopped but as a compulsive diary/notes/list keeper I have kept it up - admittedly its a lot more sporadic now - partly because my degree journey ended and also due to a lethargy brought on by lack of adventures as life is a little bit on hold while Covid sweeps the world.  For the most part this blog has been about my creative experiences but all of those are in turn influenced by my general life and being so there a lot of me in these posts as well.   Five years is a long time to reflect back over and just whizzing through the post heading shows a multitude of experiences - creative and otherwise - slowly documenting some of my life and that of my friends and family - it has slipped by quite fast in places.. ...

I cannot believe how tedious scraping anaglypta wallpaper is - wallpaper that seems to have been stuck on with cow glue leaving a grotty sticky mess even after being scraped, rubbed and and washed down with sugar soap!!! its a foul job and I will NEVER  buy a house so covered in it again!!!  However it is keeping us occupied in this lockdown period - I am still suffering from lost mojo for the more creative projects so a practical task is the next best thing..... I'm not really patient enough for all this prepping malarkey  but I do know that it needs to be done and believe me I'm only doing it once so it needs to be done right!  We have spent over a week engaged in the thankless task of clearing the paper from the hallway - it feels like three months but its done and its job well done as its a task I have been dreading ever since we moved in.  Some of it came off in massive satisfying strips but for every big piece there were a million wee nasty scrappy bits th...

Chair covered quite unsuccessfully - most times my project work but every now and again it goes wrong and this is one of them... it is still better then the original but not really what I wanted so I will mull it over and think how I can proceed either with a new beginning or possibly a new chair!!!! Like a lot of people I'm finding it hard to keep my mojo going - I'm normally quite a busy person but I feel a serious drift going on and while my days remain the same they are becoming more nocturnal  we sleep late and stay up ridiculously late and then not sleep very well - both Dr Fred and I are wandering the house at silly times unable to settle but also unable to apply ourselves to anything productive.  Mostly I appreciate that we do have a nice space, warm fires and grub to keep us happy and plenty of decorating when the whim takes us... I have just today cleared the hall of all the accumulated rubbish to continue stripping the wallpaper.  This is a mammoth job - the wh...

 welcome 2021 - HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE - In spite covid numbers soaring - government still faffing... no sign of friendly hugs even through there is a vaccine on the horizon - but which horizon - still I am trying to remain optimistic - getting up every day and mostly getting dressed... however very little other news.... We had a very good Christmas - missing number one son and his partner but my girls were able to join us as they are our bubble - we were nervous as there is the school factor and while Doris goes to great pains to make me understand young people are less likely to be at risk of infection in my limited world they can still be carriers - teachers and other staff are present and all these lovely (potentially non infectious) infants have families that are external to school bubbles etc so the girls self isolated for 6 days and then we took the risk - a week on we all remain well so I'm hoping we are all okay... It would be a shame to have given up so much - come this ...