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Random Thoughts

Dear Georgia

Dearest Georgia aka Butterface,

The house seems empty without you this morning as I wake up during the time when you and I would be getting ready for our walk. I think I’ve only missed a handful of morning walks with you, and despite the darkness, cold, and rain, I never resented our time together in the morning. It seems apt that I spend this time that we would normally spend together to recount some memories, because I don’t want to forget. I’m sad that we didn’t get time to give you even more experiences and memories, we thought we would have many more years.

We’re all heartbroken that you never got to celebrate your first gotcha day with us. Lana had planned to make you a mince and cream cake and I had got you a new sloth collar. The day would have been spent at the beach followed by naps and food.

In the time that you were with us you have captured our hearts in different ways and we really hope that we in turn gave you the best final months of your (short) life.

While the children may have complained about you not being a “normal” dog in the sense of what they might have expected, I always understood that this was your retirement and so all those frivolous things that puppies might do was beyond you and you just wanted to do things at your pace and in your own time. I can totally relate to that. You suited our family rhythm so perfectly.

This is how I think you ranked the humans:
Me = the bossy one who told you off but who loved getting into your face the most with kisses and hugs
Paul = the affectionate one, who always stood up for you and spoilt you because you could do no wrong
Lana = the one who loved to spoil you with treats and when she thought I wasn’t looking even more treats and managed to take the best comedy photos of you
Lex = the fun one who would run with you and took you to hidden park and who you allowed to wrestle and put you in odd poses and positions without ever once complaining

Thank you for also creating these memories:

– answering to “Roger”, “Idiot Dog”, “Gorgeous Girl”, but not Butterface
– the ability to leap from lying down to begging by the kitchen when you heard the snap of the plastic tub
– the inability to hear your name when you were told to “get off the sofa”
– your love of roast dinner
– the breath of death that could kill an elephant
– impressive farts that always cleared the room
– our early morning walks that never went too far as neither of us could be that bothered
– your sheer stubbornness when you didn’t want to go a certain way
– your ability to be spooked by fluff in the air
– your gentle and docile ladylike nature
– the need to be close to us physically, but not actually touching
– putting up with us when we demanded cuddles and hugs
– the way you would lift your head and look at me when I stopped scratching your chest as if to say “did I say you could stop?”
– keeping me company (being underfoot) when I worked from the sofa
– standing at the top of the stairs and whining when you wanted to go out for a wee
– when you try to chatter but you can’t properly because of your missing teeth
– the way you walked so politely on a lead
– pushing your head against and in between our legs when you wanted a neck rub
– sneaking into the boy’s room or under his desk when there was a storm/fireworks/car backfiring
– insisting on nibbling on grass even though you were told not to
– digging holes along all the fence line even though you were told not to
– the time you ran off down the street and had the human chase after you in bare feet
– leaping up for walks when you heard your collar being jiggled or you heard me say “come on then”
– your sleep whoops and dancing feet as you chased imaginary fluffy things in your dreams
– your roaching within a week of being with us
– chewing through a wall your first time being left home alone
– your random walk-by licks on an arm, leg, knee, shoulder, to show your affection
– the way you would bound down the stairs as soon as you heard a car door close to look outside and then have a drink
– the way you would come and greet the children at the front door when they came home from school
– when you barked at the neighbours dog as it came up to the window – we could count the number of times you barked on one hand
– how you were not really fussed about other dogs and seem more content with your own company
– how you loved meeting new people when they came to the house with inappropriate crotch sniffing
– the time the Crowthers came round for dinner and you had escaped to the back yard through an open door and you ran rings around Paul and in the end he had to rugby tackle you down to the ground by the ensuite windows
– at the beach when you ran along the surf with Lex but didn’t want to get too far into the sea
– at Lake Taupo when you drunk the lake water
– all the times you sleep startled and lashed out and then got confused as to why you were being told off
– the way one ear would perk up when you were half asleep as if you were worried you’d miss something
– how the consistency of your poop became a daily conversation piece
– insisting on drinking rain water from the bucket on the balcony
– going on the balcony when it wasn’t too hot and sunbathing
– poking your nose outside of the window in the lounge
– sticking your head outside of the car window and slobbering all over the leather car seats
– the first time we got you in the car journey home you laid on Lana’s lap and yesterday you did the same thing with Lana
– the way you came into the lounge and always tried your luck to get into the corner gap
– having the softest ears
– how you would get playful and air-bitey when get excited from head scratches
– learning within a few days that the kitchen floor was out of bounds but that didn’t stop you from bending your neck around the cupboard as far as you could
– tolerating impromptu showers on the balcony with Lex scrubbing you and pouring water over you

Your favourite spots to lie in the house in order:

– on the corner of the lounge suite in the gap between the new ottoman and sofa (only when you were allowed)
– in front of the TV
– in between the sofa and the recliner blocking the door
– in the office
– along the black chaise
– by the alcove
– by the bookcase
– by the comic chair
– in the middle of the lounge by the kitchen (most inconvenient)
– on the stairs landing

These are just some of the things I can recall on the first day you are not here, I’m sure there will be more moments that will spring to mind and they will be accompanied by more tears, but I hope the sadness will be replaced with happy memories of what we gained and not what we lost.

That final Thursday we treated you to ice-cream with a waffle cone which you demolished in the back of Paul’s car and you laid on the woolen cot blanket that belonged to Lana and Lex. You seem content to lie there just chilling out as I brought the children home from school early. When you were carried upstairs you were allowed to lie on the black sofa which must have really confused you (because you were not normally allowed on the sofa).

Paul opened the expensive ham, cooked you some sausages and roast pork belly. We knew how much you loved those things and we’re glad you got to indulge that afternoon. You also got to walk around the back garden and even though you tried to paw at the piggie’s hutch you were so well behaved.

When the decision came to let you go before you suffered any further, I knew that I had to hold it together for the rest of the family and that if I could do one final thing for you it was to let you know that you were loved and safe. I was always going to be there with you until the very end and as I held your head and looked straight into your eyes in the last moments in the back of the car at the vet’s car park, it was important that you knew that you are loved and that you saw me and I saw you, my good Georgia-Borgia girl.

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Free Resources Random Thoughts

Say no to Comic Sans

From homemade party invitations to a corporate assets and Government signage, people have made the choice to go for Comic Sans for the following reasons:

1. It’s an informal and fun font
2. It’s easy to read and the audience will understand the message better
3. It’s included in my computer fonts package

Image taken from Huffington Post article.

In reality, because a font that looks like a five year old can read and understand, does not mean that it has the same effect on an adult. The font was originally designed for cartoon speech balloons and lemonade stands, not for tributes, shop signage, van decals or resignation letters. It’s about how you want your brand personality to be perceived. When used in any professional context it looks lazy, unprofessional, and lacks seriousness.

It is all about choosing the right tone of voice that matches the way you want your message to be perceived.

There are many free fonts available that still allow you to be informal, fun, easy to read, and appropriate to your audience. For your convenience a small selection is listed below!

Thank you for converting. Happy fonting.

Click on the image to go to Google Fonts.

Comfortaa
Handlee
Muli
Poppins
Categories
General Random Thoughts Soap Box Uncategorized

Let’s organise a STEM Festival!

When I first came up with the idea for a STEM festival in 2016, I hoped, but never imagined that we would inspire so many people to action to make an event of this scale a reality. With the support of the wonderful Joff, Andy, and new recruit Liz, we have managed to pull off the second festival and made it even bigger and better than before!

We knew that if we could organise a quality, independent, and inclusive event the people of Peterborough would want to attend.

This was proven this year when we released the first 200 early-bird tickets by email and they were sold out within hours! We doubled the number of tickets available for 2017 and we were thrilled when they were all taken up, all 1100 tickets. At the initial count, we welcomed around 750 people through the doors in 2017, even on a wet cloudy day this was a great achievement.

You won’t be surprised to hear that the ‘Make some Slime’ table was the most popular. We had over 300 slime makers during the day. Phew.

750 people through the door
300 blobs of slime made
70 Aldi bananas consumed
50 Workshops and activities
30 Volunteers
26 Exhibitors
4 Exhausted Organisers!


I was also delighted to have Suw Charman-Anderson, founder of Ada Lovelace Day and inspiration for STEMFest attend for the day and meet some of our visitors. It was due to attending an ALD Live! event in London in 2015 that I came back to Peterborough totally buzzing with the (crazy) idea of organising our own little indie event. I talked to Andy and Joff, totally expecting (and perhaps hoping) that they would pooh-pooh the idea, but they got behind it and the rest, as they say, is history!

It was so lovely to be able to (proudly) show her all the amazing exhibits, play a duck challenge game and meet some of the friends and supporters who have helped us make the event a reality.

Last but not least, a huge thank you to our DPiP friends and supporters who continue to offer their time and expertise for free. Without their support we couldn’t have made this festival happen.

Did you know…

It is worth mentioning that DPiP and STEMFest is run entirely by volunteers. We work on these projects and events for free and in between our day jobs (you know, the ones that are required to pay the mortgage and feed the family). It’s a credit to the team that we have achieved so much in such a short space of time, and that there’s no intention of slowing down!

As I write this post, it is tinged with pride and sadness as I know this will most likely be the last time I am involved with STEMFest. I will be moving onto pastures new — pastures located 11,387 miles away to be exact. I am confident that I leave the STEMFest ship in the very capable hands of Joff, Andy, and Liz. Big plans for STEMFest 2018 are already underway, so brace yourselves Peterborough 🙂

I organised a STEM Festival and all I got for it was this T-shirt.[/caption]

Goodbye and thank you for the memories, stay curious and awesome my friends!

Signing off for the last time as a STEMFest co-organiser,

Tia Lush
Founder of Peterborough STEM Festival
Co-organiser of Digital People in Peterborough (DPiP) and hoarder of too many brush pens.

Categories
Graphic Print Design Random Thoughts

New year, new planner for 2018

This year I has surpassed* myself with my efficiency. The planner for 2018 has been designed and ready to hit the virtual shelves.

I have gone portrait this year, having designed landscape versions in the past. Miss Crayons is not impressed and voiced her opinion on the matter, but that’s mainly down to it being a change and not the design itself.

*scared

In the words of a wise cigar chewing white-haired American, “I love it when a plan comes together”.

If you would like to purchase a planner and be in the cool planning gang, you can currently buy it and get free upgraded P&P within the UK!

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Random Thoughts

Coping with the differences in New Zealand as a Brit

Having just returned from a family trip to the land of Hobbits I thought I would write down my thoughts on what I found fabulous and not so fabulous about New Zealand with my Brit hat firmly on.

As a disclaimer, Mister Crayons is a Kiwi so in some ways we are already biased.

We had an amazing time. The children were old enough to enjoy and appreciate the experience and make some of their own memories from the people we met to the places we visited.

Some of our highlights in picture form.

Things that made me love NZ:

  1. Family and friends. Being able to spend time with the antipodean side of the family was wonderful for the mini Crayons. They got to hang out with their cool cousins and new connections have been formed and old friendships have been renewed. It was wonderful to catch up with good friends, the type of friends who you may not have seen for ten years, yet it did not matter one jot. We are grateful to them for their generosity and putting up with us as we travelled the length of the north island – literally.
  2. Reunited with the BFFs. Seeing how well our BFFs have settled into their new life and visiting their new posh house made us all very happy.
  3. The beaches. Beautiful blue/green sea and golden sands, not over-populated and not a windbreaker in sight and not taking ages to get to! Bliss. The children would have been happy to stay on the beach digging trenches and playing chicken with the surf all day long.
  4. Driving. We hired a great touring car, with all the bells and whistles, including beeping bumpers and cameras. I loved it (I miss the reverse parking sensor!). Mister really enjoyed driving around NZ at a slower pace than in the UK (100kms is the limit on open road, which is 60 miles in real money).
  5. Landscape. Breathtaking scenery and twisty winding roads pretty much everywhere you look. Every scene outside of our car window was like a captured photograph. Just wow.
  6. Laid-back lifestyle. Maybe we were in our ‘holiday bubble’ but things just seemed more casual and relaxed and everyone we met was super friendly. Apart from the dude who stole my parking space behind Briscolls on boxing day.

Things that sucked in NZ:

  1. The cost of food and groceries. Everything was generally 20-30% more expensive. I’m pretty sure raspberries were more expensive than gold per gram.
  2. The lack of variety and choice of food. There has been a huge change since I was last back in NZ nine years ago. You can definitely get everything you want, however compared to the UK you just don’t have the wide choice. Go and hug your local Lidl and Aldi and show some appreciation immediately!
  3. The extortionate costs of printed books. Wow, this was a really eye-opener. Hardbacks ranged from NZ$30-40 (£17-22). The same applied to children’s books as well. It made be sad as it was obvious that the high price would mean that only families who have the resources and funds could treat their children, something we totally take for granted. I have since been told that the libraries are amazing, so that is a saving grace.
  4. Insects/mozzie bites. We were all bitten to death by the critters. My ankles and legs took the brunt. I’m surprised we had any blood left to function by the end of our trip.
  5. Hayfever in December. Seriously, WTF. Okay, this is not New Zealand’s fault, but it still sucked as I felt I was suffering two summers’ worth of sneezing and itchy eyes – at Christmas time.
  6. Technically this isn’t ‘in’ NZ, but the flight time to get from UK to NZ is a tough one. We spent well over 30 hours travelling and not being able to get any decent amount of sleep during that whole time, was really tough on the body.
  7. Washi tapes cost $7.95 each *insert weeping emoticon here*.
  8. White goods and electricals very expensive! You’re been warned.
  9. Sucky mobile phone data packages. 700MB per month was the best I was offered. What a load of codswallop.

Tips for next time:

  • Bose noise cancelling headphones. A MUST on the flights. Money well spent for the sake of your sanity.
  • A sleep stopover halfway will make a huge difference. We managed to squeeze in a cheeky city visit to HK on the way back, but the children were so exhausted that they couldn’t really appreciate how magical HK is at night.
  • Don’t book a flight leaving Auckland at 9am. Rookie mistake.
  • Bring a stash of builder’s tea, percy pigs, Heinz tomato ketchup, and A5 perfect bound notebooks!

I think you can tell that we had a wonderful time in NZ and it was really difficult to leave for many reasons. It’s a magical country and we have made some wonderful warm memories that will sustain us while we have to endure the cold British winter.

New Zealand

Categories
Graphic Print Design Random Thoughts

New year, new planner

For the past four years I have been producing and designing my own personalised wall planners. This was partly due to the fact that I couldn’t find anything that was pretty enough for my wall (yes, I am a design snob) and that I enjoyed the challenge of producing something like that, but I think that it was mainly because Mrs PinkMilk asked me to make one. I tend to do as I am told where she is concerned. It’s just easier that way.

Regardless of how it all came about, it’s been really fun working on these designs and through the years people have been buying them and enjoying them, which gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

Over the years there have been quite a few test samples where I have tried to find the right printer to outsource my large format printing to. You would be surprised at the variations you get based on the papers and inks used. Some samples were poorly cropped or had a rubbish saturation of colours and others where the paper weight wasn’t to my liking — yes, it turns out I am THAT picky. However, after much experimentation, I have finally found a printer that I am happy with and I’ve managed to keep the costs down. So everybody’s a winner!

I love being able to plan ahead and being able to see all the (many) school dates, playdates and holidays at a quick glance makes my life so much easier. But, then I am a total control freak, so I would say that.

I get the feeling that 2017 is going to be an important and busy year for Crayons HQ and I look forward to making lots of exciting plans and pretending to be in control by writing down things with pretty coloured pens (because it makes me happy).

So, allow me to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy new year and may it bring you everything you have planned for.

If you would like to purchase a planner and be in the cool planning gang, you can currently buy it and get free P&P!

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Random Thoughts

Protected: Cake by the Ocean for the Crowthers

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Random Thoughts Soap Box

How to organise a STEM festival and still remain sane

As a self proclaimed veteran (having organised one STEM festival for Peterborough), I thought it might be helpful to impart some useful tips to anyone looking to embark upon the same insane journey.

Before I start, I’d like to point out that this is not in any kind of logical order. It’s almost as if I am sat perched on the sofa with thoughts spilling out of my (cake deprived) mind. Maybe.

Here goes:

1. Choose co-organisers on your team who are generous, like-minded and level-headed. You’ll probably need to call on their ability and dedication to put up bunting and event decoration with you at 10pm the night before the big day.
2. Make sure one of your co-organisers is good with words. He’ll need these skills so that he can reply to the emails that make you want to curse like a fish-wife.
3. Surround yourself with awesome people who know what they are doing so that you inadvertently bask in the glow of their achievements and talent.
4. Recruit a team of dedicated and wonderful volunteers, supply them with a complicated spreadsheet so that it looks like you have put some thought into their roles and then step back and let them do their jobs on the day.
5. Use your influence on your school mum friends to get them to help you spread the word to their networks and then nag them into booking tickets on the pretense that they are ‘testing’ the booking system for you. Repeat this several times.
6. Use all your skills at begging for freebies and calling on people’s generous nature, because you will have zero budget to work with.
7. Wait for your friends to offer to help with a small task and then somehow escalate their role until they end up managing the front registration desk on the day.
8. Don’t organise another major digital event four days after the festival day because you’ll end up feeling knackered.
9. Be sure you are married to a supportive partner who is unfazed by your crazy schemes (this one should probably be the first thing on this list).
10. If anyone asks you when you will be organising the next STEM festival, don’t start sobbing and rocking on our heels, it makes people feel uncomfortable.

So, those are my top tips. Unfortunately, they don’t guarantee any success for organising a STEM festival, but I can guarantee that it will be a once in a lifetime experience, and you will make some amazing friends along the way.

Peterborough STEM Festival 2016

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Random Thoughts

One friend to rule them all…

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rubbish at blogging frequently. I am more of a ‘micro-blogger’ (aka twitter) kind of girl.

But the last couple of weeks I have been on an emotional rollercoaster. A real case of Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to feeling happy and excited one moment and weepy and sad the next. What has caused this? My bestie of 10-11 (ish) years has taken the family and is moving back to the motherland that is New Zealand. I know that this is an amazing opportunity and wonderful new adventure, but still – how rude.

It seems like the other day that they told me they had decided to leave and then all of a sudden the house was sold and the packing company arrived to put everything into a big wooden crate to be shipped to the other side of the world. Literally.

csamfojwaaaeqywWe’ve been able to spend the final two weekends together, to say our goodbyes, having lots of tearful hugs, exchanging lovely gifts (see my awesome print above) and buying of new matchy-matchy bling. I had a great idea that it would be cool to get the kids to help me make a music video for them during their final goodbye BBQ with their closest friends and colleagues. I didn’t really think it through, as I ended up doing most of the work myself (the children found it more interesting to play minecraft – the swines).

It was rather bittersweet to go through all the home video clips and photos (there was a lot, having two budding photographers on the scene) of our families together, at parties, on joint family holidays and just generally messing around (like all families do). Our children have grown up together from those chubby baby photos to the toothless grins to the early school days and many many joint birthday parties. How time flies when you spend it with the people you love.

It was very emotional to look back and see all the lovely memories we have made together as two families and I did experience a few moments of ‘oh no, this will be the last time we…’ feelings, but I also know that new memories will be made and shared and while it won’t be as frequently as we would like, time and distance will not change how precious they will be.

20160916_184846I was remarking to the Mister that we were rather lucky to find people who ‘get us’. What were the chances that we would all become besties, adults AND children alike. We seriously lucked out on that front. Aye?

I’m not one for song lyrics, but having recently fallen in love with the musical WICKED (yeah – I’m always late to the party), this really sums up how I feel about Mrs PinkMilk.

[warning: gushing cheese alert!]

So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You’ll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend…

So, while A is sipping cheap airport hotel wine and N is attempting to gross me out with his man-boobs photo and the girls are treating me to fish-lips selfies, on the night before they leave Blighty, I want to say… thank you for the memories, beautiful Crowthers. It’s been EPIC.

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Random Thoughts

Doing my bit to help: Japan Tsumani Appeal

As we have all been seeing and reading in the news recently about Japan and the desperate situation where people have lost everything, including loved ones and family and friends. I cannot even begin to imagine how it must feel.

I have been trying to do my bit and sent some much needed cash via the official organisations that are out there assisting people. I wish there was a way I could directly help those who have lost everything, by sending clothes or food, but I suppose it is just not practical, so donating cash is the next best thing.

Thank you to all my lovely clients and friends who have purchased origami cards, ordered graphics and printed stationery. Together we have managed to raise a respectable £71. Not a fortune, but I hope it helps.

What is it, one evil-giant supermarket uses as their slogan? ‘Every little helps’.