Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

Today I am wearing my Harry Potter 'Dobby has no master' socks.  WHY? I hear you ask! Is it because I do not have a lord and master, and I am free? .....NOPE! Is it because I have done something wrong? .....NOPE! ....Well not that I know of anyway. Is it because I can materialise in different places or make Elf magic? .....NOPE!  (Although my Grand Daughter called me a 'Dream Maker' recently.) Is it because I am small and wrinkly and seem to spend my day serving and clearing up after other people? .....Possibly Ha ha!!  No! It's simple!  ....I am ironing wth a bag of ice strapped to my fingers as I am so tired, I just ironed my hand. Just like poor Dobby. ( click here to see the Dobby scene in Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets.)  Dobby the house elf Sadly though, the bag of ice keeps splitting and melting all over my ironing so it's taking ages just to iron a t-shirt as I have to iron it more to dry it out!! Ho

Sleep over sunrise It's the little things in life that please me. I think after you have watched a love one (or two) fight an illness, sadly breathe their last breath and slip away whilst holding your hand, you realise what is important. That is not meant to sound morbid, but help you understand why just a simple sunrise with the right people can be all you need for a perfect life. Missed buses, stupid arguments and other daily issues we all get stressed or worried over are merely noise in the overall scheme of things.  Our Granddaughter stayed over as a treat this weekend for her birthday and was a joy just to spend some quality 1-2-1 time with her. She is easily pleased and has good conversation skills now, so watching the sun come up while chatting and drinking hot chocolate is just a perfect start to the day.  Birthday cake Pancake Pancakes for breakfast are a given on a sleep over and this time we added an arty twist to them. The Birthday cake pancake I made

 Purple Wedding Bells, The Finale. A cement goose and 2 cats. Well the wedding came and went. The Bride was beautiful and the Groom handsome, but I'm informed it wasn't a true wedding, and I will explain later. Purple is the new Black The day before the wedding I treated myself to getting my nails done and did a little artiness on them to match my dress which I absolutely love, especially as I had to take it in a bit as my strategy for dieting worked and I have lost 6 kilos over the past year. Woo Hoo! (Don't worry, I will share my strategy in another blog)  My £5 hat I purchased from a 'buy and sell forum' was just perfect and my hairdresser managed to put my hair up inside the top of it so when I took it off I didn't get a flat hair do. My little gold bag from Oxfam was a find at £3. The hat pins (which turned into Hair sticks when I took my hat off) and jewellery I made were matching my nails, and also, as it happens matched the cake topper wh

David, my Husband seems to have a problem taking time off and using his holiday. He's not a workaholic, but he does care about his work and his team, so taking time off is always a worry to him. But today after some persuasion he took a day off to go to Windsor Castle. I put the place in the sat nav and off we went, after a few minutes we realised the sat nav was having a fit. All the way there it was trying to send us in a different direction. It wasn't until we got there David realised I had spelt Windsor without a D in it. I had a dyslexic sat nav. Who knew there was a place called Winsor near Brighton.! Was great seeing some shire horses and the fantastic building and paintings and all the beautiful items in the castle. I particularly loved the Rembrandt selfie portrait. Talking of selfies, there we were trying to get a selfie and we got photo bombed by the Queen herself and her Hubby. Obviously both also taking a well earned rest today too, but it was a little n

My lovely Hubby David looked at me tonight as if I was mad. I only asked him to retire.... OK and to sell all our stuff, rent out our house, buy a motor home or big bus and travel to world. He then told me I was too old to be a Hippy. TOO OLD!! Ohhh.... he was lucky I didn't have anything pointy in my hand, lol.  He also said he didn't want to live in something that didn't have a decent toilet. Ha ha ha. He said it's ok for a holiday, but not to live in one permanently. I then happily mentioned he said it was OK for a holiday. HURRAH! My ploy to get David in a camper van for a little travelling holiday was working. Ask for the moon and stars, and although you may not get it, you may get a little star dust. Sadly my plan then failed. Realising what he had said, David promptly retracted his statement that a camper van was ok for a holiday, and there it was gone. Ho Hum! my devious plan nearly worked. Do you think buying a big bus was a ste

 I am 'Living the Dream'. I have always said i'm not sure who's dream it is, as it's not quite what I envisaged, but here I am doing my best to keep everyone happy and when i'm lucky, do something I want to do too.  So how strange it felt to be asked to return to work in my Quality capacity. I often offer David advice at work when he has an audit, or quality issue etc.  (..only when asked of course) He decided he needed some extra professional advice. So after a quick interview at temporary staffing agency I have returned to work as a Quality consultant. Mainly performing internal audits and offering help and advice. My first day was rather nerve-wracking but I soon got into the swing of things and my first audit was under my belt. My second audit was easier and after some adjustments to the audit form and audit process, as well as some homework looking into KPI's for the department, I feel my presence is value added.  It's interestin

Interviews... eek! Currently trying to make my way in life as an artist. Its not easy. Today was particularly bad, as a customer who requested a commission has changed her mind. So for the first time since my return, I was considering returning to 'normal' employment. Sadly 8 years ago I had to give up being a Quality and Environmental engineer to move to Malaysia for my Husbands career. Returning to the UK 3 years ago we decided to continue the art career I started in Malaysia and not return to the rat race as I had been out of the loop perhaps a little too long. So today we were discussing my retuning to the workplace and I mentioned that I haven't been to an interview in years.... and recalled the weirdest one. It was for a global auditing company we all will know, but I won't mention the name. During the interview they asked me to draw how I see myself on a white board..... weird I thought but not one to shy away from a challenge........I drew a wooden ch

I think I have explained enough how much I hate shopping, and to shop for something specific is my worst nightmare. Well we needed a new mattress so the thought of weekends going shop to shop and  bouncing around on beds of various styles is just too awful to think of. So think of my joy to see a site which offers you a 100 day trial of a mattress in your own home, and if you don't like it, you can return with a full refund!  So we are currently trailing an EMMA mattress that received the WHICH best buy 2018. It seems to be mainly foam, I thought it was meant to be special memory foam but I'm not sure where the memory bit it. It actually reminds me of sleeping in a caravan on the tacky foam seating as a kid, certainly not worth all the money for this supposedly high tac memory foam, you don't sink into it at all and just lie on top of it. Well we have another 98 nights to go and I'm hoping I like it more as the days go by, but I'm not holding my breat

Me with Tim while he signs Davids book    Today was very special for me and I shall remember it always.  There was a dedication at Monks Hill, Westbourne (Just a couple of miles from my house) to UK Astronaut Major Tim Peake and an Oak tree was planted in his honour. He also opened a new playground in the park where he used to play as a child.    I met Major Tim Peake and shook his hand, happy days indeed, between you and me I even shed a tear I was so happy to finally meet him. Also met his parents, and someone I have been hoping to chat to for a long time, his Mum. Now don't get me wrong, I think Tim is amazing and an inspiration to us all, but I feel his Mum is truly a star, how does she cope with the worry?    Tim signed his latest book I brought David for Christmas last year and our son Oliver's HSX Antarctica Trek prospectus. Then I was lucky enough to meet his parents Angela and Nigel and we chatted for some time about Oliver's trek to the

Just a little update on my shopping nightmare. No it's not the dress for the wedding. I have the dress now and it's been approved by the Bride to be herself. PHEW!! To be honest she said I could wear anything I wanted but I really wanted to please her. No, the next shopping nightmare is the shoes.  Think of my utter joy when after just a few minutes I found a perfect pair of shoes in Tesco's. Yes Tesco's for goodness sake. I had been to Next, M&S, Primark, Clarks and even Top shop. I had already given up after 15 minutes and thought I would grab a few items in the supermarket. As I walked past the shoes there they were... glinting in the artificial light. I cannot believe my luck they are the perfect colour and even had my size, and to top it all..... they are mega comfy!  I keep walking round saying.... " I have shoes" to anyone who will listen. Although the strangers I passed on the way home did give me a funny look and a wide birth! lol. 

My Big little bro and gorgeous Sister in Law are visiting from New Zealand and there is a gathering at her Dads house. I'm so excited I could burst. We haven't seen them in 8 years and never met their son Jasper, who, I must add with pride, I helped name. As they are so into organic healthy living on this lovely planet, and do so as Environmentally friendly as they can for themselves and this beautiful place we call Earth, I felt his name should reflect this and suggested his second name be Forest which they chose.  The request for the gathering is for me to bring dessert or a cake so it was to be Caribbean carrot cake   easily made in my Thermomix. ..... or so I thought. now I always check the mix by tasting the batter but the mix tasted a little weird. I should have just stopped there and looked at what I had done but I stupidly did not.  One hour later the cake was removed from the oven and promptly sunk! To be honest I was pretty angry as there was a fresh pineappl

Sadly unlike my Hee Haw Zebra, I was not laughing today.  A couple of days ago I moved some paving slabs and dug out lots of plants ready for a new patio which, thanks to the lovely sunny weather, I made the most of one evening after one of my Emsworth Art trail days. I cooked a quick BBQ to christen it, I say quick, I had to make the burgers from scratch, but with my trusty Thermomix they were made in no time. The other 2 days of the Arts trail were tiring but I gladly enjoyed chatting to the visitors and even sold a few pieces of jewellery, T-shirts, bags, lots of cards and even a painting. Happy Days indeed!! Emsworth Art Trail 2018 Yesterday I spent the day cleaning the pond which was exhausting but seeing all the fish happy in their newly cleaned home it was worth it. After the digging, the slabs and now the pond my back was now letting me know it was not happy. ....So many bucketfuls to empty the the pond, scoop out much of the silt and then so many bucketful f

This was a bespoke card in watercolour for a couple who loved their camper van and model helicopters. I thought it quite apt for todays blog as a friend recently asked me how I knew my Husband was the man for me to marry.  It's a really good question and one I have given considerable thought to, so here are 10 answers from both me and my David. I know there are more, but these just came to mind.  You know it's love when: 1 - Even though you never got an engagement ring, but they proposed with a cement goose..... you wouldn't part with that lump of painted cement for any diamond! 2 - They say you are beautiful/handsome the moment you wake up, with the drool still on the side of your cheek! 3 - They get up even when they are tired and pour you a glass of wine because you are too exhausted to move. 4 - They ban you from doing the smelly dirty jobs with the words, "That's for me to do, not you." 5 - They apologise when they are wrong.

I am currently preparing for a craft market and an Art trail so I'm pretty busy as you can imagine. So it's helpful to have easy recipes that you can prepare early in the morning and just stick in the oven when needed. This gives me the day to concentrate on my art and feel confident I can get dinner ready easily and quickly.  Healthy KFC - Kind Fit Chicken I love the taste of KFC but hate the fact all the coating is on the skin and of course it's fried, so how happy was I to find a recipe for a similar coating that I could bake in the oven. I have changed it slightly for our taste and suggest it's covered for the first part of the cooking to keep the chicken succulent.  Well I promised you a recipe so here is one of my favourites, a healthy baked chicken with a coating most people will recognise a certain Colonel makes. All you need is 1 egg, flour and of course the Herbs and Spices mentioned below. Spice & Herb mix 2/3 tsp Salt 1/2

The Yin to my Yang? Do you have a soul mate? What is a soul mate anyway? I'm married to a great guy but he's not my soul mate, I'm not sure I even know what one is. If you know then please do enlighten me by simply commenting below. He's not even my best friend, that job goes to another soul who knows and understands me better than I do. He's not perfect and he doesn't complete me as i'm not an incomplete person. He sometimes infuriates me (and I him) and sometimes we even have to leave the room to hold our tongues, but that's so rare it's a shock when we feel that way.  What I am sure of though, is he's a good man with good morals and a kind heart. He makes me laugh, supports my dreams and does his best, and I try to do the same for him. There are a lot more positive thoughts I could add but i'm sure you get my drift? Occasionally he makes great choices and decisions.... e.g. - When he said "I DO" all those years a