Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

 Best Buddies - Pressure King Pro 24 in 1 and my Thermomix TM5 I have had a Thermomix for a number of years. Starting with the robust TM31 and moving on to the larger TM5 with it's cooking chips, (no not potato chips but electrical recipes for the machine), and later upgrading with the aid of a cook key, to online recipes uploaded onto my machine for total ease of cooking. It's the most hard-working thing in my kitchen.... other than me of course.  My TM5 can weigh, cook, boil, simmer, stew, chop, mince, blend, mill, grind, knead, whisk, puree, and has automated white rice, custard and yogurt functions. You could also buy recipe chips for guided cooking which plugin to the machine for you to follow the recipe directly on-screen. And now with the use of a Cook key chip which links to the internet, I can download over 500 recipes directly into my TM5. What a team we make, especially during all this Coronavirus stuff when I am cooking all the time without even one take out. The ...

Today was a day I will remember for ever. We laughed so much I had tears rolling down my face. We started the day eating spaceship pancakes in defiance of the poor Dr Who shows recently. “We defy you Dr Who Team.” For all those missing real aliens, monsters, time travel and a decent story, here is one of my pancake space ships. (Yes my Husband David and I had sweet pancakes for breakfast, and according to someone special, we are adults so we can have what ever we want, even chocolate cereal)   Be warned BBC, it is carrying a new life form that was cloned from Steven Moffat and Matt Smith. It will be known as a ‘ Smatfat,’ It will   write great stories and act them out with exceptional aptitude. There will be no long boring scenes talking of morals or feelings, as this is not what Dr Who is all about. Time travel will be beyond our earthly thoughts and the aliens will be of such awesomeness we won’t be able to get out from behind the sofa. Spaceship pancake The day...

No title - Any ideas comment below - Mixed media It’s been a pretty gutty few months but I actually feel that I am back in control of my life and my feelings. Things had built up and like a contained pressure cooker, it exploded taking casualties. Now I must admit I wasn't the one to blow up, but I am certainly one of the casualties who almost melted into oblivion. When I was younger I would sit on Hayling Island beach and look at the waves, staring at their shapes, size and colour, (Yes, they have colours). They have a hypnotic, rhythmic almost cleansing sensation to me. The sounds of each wave crashing on the shore, cleaning the sand and my soul, it just calms me. It's what I listen to at night via an APP called CALM when I can't sleep, or my body is dog tired but cannot keep up with my racing cat alert mind which just wants to play all night. Sometimes when things go bad for us, we just want to cut our losses and run to save ourselves from further stres...

This years challenge is reading A friend told me that this year she was going to challenge herself to read a book a month. Thinking that I haven’t read a book for quite a while or actually made much time to just relax, I decided to join her challenge. Normally I would paint to chill out but it’s quite cold in my studio at the moment and by the time I get home from work it’s just too dark, so reading seemed like an excellent idea.  That same week my Niece told me about ‘Borrow Box’. It’s a free app from your local library so you can borrow ebooks and audio books for free. The fact it’s free is brilliant, but what is even better is I can read books without a light on at night which could wake David or, if I want, I can just listen to an ebook and someone will tell me a story which I just love. It reminds me of my childhood and being read to at bed time, and yes, it still sends me off to the land of nod dreaming of the story as I drift off to sleep with unicorns or beautiful mo...

We recently went to one of our favourite restaurants, the award winning  ‘Sams at 33’  for a Sunday roast. These two roast dinners must have been the most expensive roasts we have ever had at a whopping cost of over £200. And a pretty cringeworthy moment during our Christmas dinner.  Let me explain.... Every month we like to go out for a roast dinner, and the best one we know in calm surroundings of the Denvilles club with lovely staff  is  ‘Sams at 33’ . Sam is the Chef and his Sister Danielle is the Head waitress and what a lovely team they make. Nothing is too much trouble and they are always welcoming. So there we were just a couple of weeks before Christmas enjoying our roast beef dinners when Chef popped over and said hi to us. I exclaimed how surprised I was to see he was working Christmas Day but not surprised to hear he was fully booked within days of offering a Christmas Day dinner.  “That’s a shame,” I stated, “We may have been inter...

Well thats 3 hours of my time I will never get back! With Christmas close at hand I thought I would put up some Christmas lights. After finding the box of dangling blue lights in amongst the multitude of Christmas tat we own, I spent a further 30 mins untangling them outside in the cold late afternoon.  Carefully I put the instructions and detachable plug back in the box for safe keeping while I started to hang them. Considering I have no hooks or places to put hooks, the job was done in just over an hour and the only war wounds came from the holly in the garden and trapping my fingers in the window when routing the electric cable into the house.  Light outside was fading fast, and with everything almost ready for the official lighting of The Shrubbery, all that was left to do was plug in the lights and enjoy. However I couldn't find the plug in the box, it has disappeared. The box had a hole in the bottom and with the ground covered in bark, and being the same...

Today was a ' Voice activated lift ' kind of day today. I spent some of my morning yesterday emailing a company that had offered 'optional extras' for something that wasn't really an option. And in the afternoon it was speaking to a machine to book a boiler service and being passed from pillar to post to sort a faulty strimmer. Now if you have not seen ' Voice activated lift ' then please do click on the link, it is one of the funniest sketches I have ever seen. There are other funny sketches like Deathstar canteen which I often recite when picking up a wet tray in a cafe (..'..This tray is wet..'..) Ok you have to see it to understand the humour! And of course the ever laughable pizza company question... ' Do you deliver ?? The phone call to sort the strimmer was lengthy, 20 mins on hold to be told I had to redial a different number only to be told to redial another number was infuriating. Then to call that number and eventually told...

Ok so not quite possessed but certainly acting crazy to anyone who happens to walk in on me in the bath room. This is because I get really bored cleaning my teeth. Sooooo I do exercises while my electric tooth brush does the tooth scrubbing.  Everything from The Grape vine walk, to side leg lifts, and if i'm cleaning a particularly sensitive part of my mouth, (mainly where my bone graft scar is,) I am particularly careful and  I concentrate a little more while cleaning, so simple buttock clenches suffice during this time.  My electric tooth brush has a 30 second timer for each section of my mouth so I use that as a timer to change my exercise.  Sometimes I get carried away and clean my teeth a little longer while I do another set of squats or pelvic tilts. So win win all around eh? Even my dentist is seeing the difference... In my teeth that is not my buttocks!! lol  But it must sound weird me marching up and down in our bathroom. Now that ...

Mr Pepper - Headmaster of Hayling School Paid my respects today to the best Head Master I knew. He never made me feel I was just going to school, he made me feel like I was part of the school, part of something special and he always made me laugh. He was firm and fair but more importantly, he put children first, raising funds and spirits with school plays and the infamous Halloween Fair where we sold all the things we made throughout the year whether Mum and Dad wanted them or not. (I loved my Salt and Pepper holder!) Today I saw, and also thanked Mr Robinson my Maths teacher for having faith i n me when numbers just jumped around on the page. Mr Stretch for his kindness and Miss Edney for inspiring my art. Mr Hepworth Taylor for helping me get my Human biology O'level so I could become a nurse, (however I later found out I pass out if I see  blood so that never happened) Miss Drew who luckily forgot (or kindly did not mention) I used to find any excuse not to d...

Graduation Degree My step son has just got his masters PHD and his graduation ceremony is next week. Not sure what to wear, and I didn't want to wear what I wore at his degree. Just couldn't remember what so  I looked back at Facebook and there you have it. Black with lace trim.....well thats annoying as thats what I was going to wear this time. I'm certainly not going shopping (remember I hate shopping!) for something new so I may wear the first dress I brought for his Brothers wedding which was the wrong colour..... Am I still ahead of the game? Could I be that lucky!! .... Long story  Click here for   Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,    The wedding finale , and  Ahead of the game -  for some light hearted, head slapping entertainment. Guan Ying Now I'm off to check the dress still fits as I cant help but notice my washing machine is shrinking all my clothes!! But first I will continue with my latest commission 'Guan Ying' while I decide ...

At the Palace Theatre   Today I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, and the day certainly did not disappoint. After winning tickets in the  Friday Forty Lottery  we only had a couple of days to wait to see the show, 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'. I really didn't believe I would see the show until I had the tickets in my hand and was sitting in my seat. I caught the train up to Waterloo and sat in the Quiet Zone ...with a Hen Party..... That's two phases that truly shouldn't be together. They popped Prosecco and were all as bubbly as the drink they consumed, and I sat there quietly hoping the Bride to Be would be as happily married as I am. Even though I always wear my 'I am a free elf, Dobby has no master' socks when ever he is away on business. ha ha The person winning the tickets has to bring ID to pick them up and I used my Driving Licence which never really looked like me, but since my facial surgery I was sure they would not b...

Steak and Kidney Just been to the Westbourne Cafe  as Friday night is Homemade Pie night. It opens at 6pm so early enough for Hubby and me who are early birds to grab some dinner. I believe you can take your own bottle too but we were happy with a soft drink. And if you wanted to take a wine or beer it would certainly make it a cheap night out!  Now they also have their usual menu but as pie is my Hubbys favourite word then pie it had to be. Some lovely choices of vegetarian, chicken and leek, lamb and mint, steak and kidney, steak and ale and fish. But on chatting to Jules the chef and owner, if they have it and you want it in a pie they will make it for you. Sausage and bean, mash topping, even mac and cheese , etc. they will make it if they can.  Lamb and Mint Hubby had steak and kidney with chips and beans. I chose Lamb and mint with mash and peas. The portions were huge and the pies were full of tender meat, very tasty and not a soggy bottom in ...

For months I have been entering the Friday Forty to win tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child . This week was my lucky week... I won discounted tickets to see both parts of the play for two people. Total cost £80 and I'm told they are good viewing seats too!! How lucky was I, and of course the person I intend to take! After some googling it seems you can't take snacks in, I do hope they let me take my water in. I use a refillable bottle I purchased so I will be upset if they confiscate it as some reviewers and bloggers have said. Anyway, I'm too excited to care. I re read the book yesterday, yup I read the whole book in a day so no painting got done which is a little naughty I know but its really rare I sit and have some 'ME' time, no matter what people think I do all day at home. Guan Yin test piece 2 So I had better stop typing and get painting. Today i'm trailing how to do a Buda / Guan Yin painting for a friend. (My friend and I saw ...

Thought a picture of Scarlet Johanson's nose job would be nicer than me Face Ache! Well that's a name I was used to being called when I was younger, (one of many,) now I actually am a face ache. It's been 3 months since my surgery.  Surgeons call it Rhinoplasty and Septoplasty, but my Husband calls it body juggling, where they moved more bits of my body to sort out my face. So to date I have had, rib bone, pelvis bone, ear skin and cartilage and skin from a place i'd rather not mention, all put into my face to sort out the cleft palate. I have also had a prototype brace which 40 years ago was just fuse wire and clips which impaled itself on the inside of my mouth for over 2 years and cracked my back teeth, had a tooth removed in order to have a bone graft and ended up luckily with a bridge rather than dentures.  And to be honest I have no idea if Scarlet has had a nose job, the picture is meant to show celebrity before and after from a website POP Hitz . Now ...