Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

Black and White Cat with Bamboo I was once asked why my paintings were so expensive? It was for a Chinese painting titled 'Black and white cat with bamboo.' Its a large 46cm x 64cm framed watercolour and ink painting on rice paper that had taken many hours to paint in layers as well as traditional style backing with more rice paper and then framed. Now if I paid myself the minimum wage for the 25+ hours I had spent painting it would be far to expensive and no one would buy it, so I thought £65 was a good price. When I explained it was an original painting that wasn't mass produced but created with love and attention to detail in the traditional Chinese way they began to understand.  I then explained it didn't include all the years learning Chinese art techniques or the many hours and experiments that went wrong preparing and trialing this artwork, it was just for the materials, frame and approximate time spent on this artwork alone. They were then astound...

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 bucketf...

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 ...

Just love this video. Make sure you turn the sound up and just enjoy being on the footplate. It was made by one of our volunteers on the Watercress line and it just shows how wonderful these magnificent steam trains really are. We are hoping to have one made for the countryman coaches. This is where I volunteer either behind the bar or waitressing, however we all do what ever is necessary or needed to keep everything running smoothly.  I wonder if my Fitbit will really register the distance travelled when working on the train. I may confuse the hell out of it by selecting 'map my walk' and seeing just how many miles I walk when waitressing on a Sunday lunch on the train whilst travelling up and down the track. Did you know all the food on the countryman dining is cooked in a tiny kitchen on the train? From the soup to the coffee it is all cooked in the tiniest of places. I must add the meat is roasted at the station canteen but finished off on the train, bu...