Overdue Blog Post - Part Two!

So we pick up this blog post from the middle of November 2022 and something we had not done since the early Summer.

Every few months we venture into Nottingham to spend an afternoon drawing; life drawing to be precise. Our friend, and burlesque performer, Scarlett Daggers runs an event called Dr Sketchy's that takes place above a pub in Nottingham and is aimed at artists of all levels. And because Scarlett is a burlesque performer the models are always from the world of burlesque and cabaret and we are even treated to a performance from one of the models.

Suffice to say Simon is able to produce some wonderful art work using his digital drawing tablet while I on the other hand stick to paper and pencil!

A couple of my attempts

There are even prizes handed out and Simon was lucky enough to get picked for one of his drawings...

Simon with fellow 'winners' and Scarlett Daggers

I, on the other hand, was just happy to produce something that didn't look too bad!!

The last week in November took on a decidedly Christmas theme as it was time to get prepped for a weekend of decorating. So prior to that happening there was a lot of organising and cleaning through that needed to be done. 

Molly and Dan visited for that last weekend as I was not allowed to decorate without Molly being home! So we started late on Friday afternoon and by the end of Saturday we had everything in place, both inside and out. Which considering we had three trees indoors to assemble and decorate, numerous ornaments to place around the house, swags to hang and then two gardens to illuminate I don't think we did too bad.

One of my three Christmas trees...this one is ALL Disney!!

And even R2D2 got in the act with Simon having 3D printed a special Santa hat for him!!

My forward planning for the outdoor Christmas lights proved to be very helpful and everything seemed to go very smoothly and relatively easy. And I even have a remote control for some of my lights! I had a couple of outdoor light sets that didn't have a self timer which would have meant me going outside each night to switch them on so Simon introduced me to remote switches for plugs. Wow, what a simple and very satisfying product; not only can I switch my outdoor lights on from the comfort of indoors I can also switch on tree lights that are plugged into hard to get to sockets. Best buy ever!

It was then time for another week off work for Simon as he needed to make sure he used all of his holiday allowance before the end of the year. We had a day out shopping at Meadowhall, Sheffield with the aim of getting a little Christmas shopping done. So although no Christmas presents were bought we did come away with some new boots for Ethan (introduced him to the world of Dr Martens!) and some more Christmas lights for my garden and this time they were Mickey shaped ones!

We then enjoyed a couple of nights away and this time we ventured over to Birmingham. Again we thought we would be able to get some Christmas shopping done but alas we came home empty handed...suffice to say all our shopping has been completed online instead!

But Birmingham had a lovely, and extensive, German Christmas Market which was great to walk through. We had a couple of nice meals out, we walked lots and consequently had lots of stops for coffee and chat.

Back home and with our shopping focus being online I took advantage of a price reduction and bought my first ever Disney Spirit Jersey...now these are a big thing with Disney fans and whilst there have been some lovely designs over the years that have tempted me they are not the cheapest purchase. But I couldn't resist this one as it combined my love of Disney and Christmas and at a price I was happy to pay!

And while I was shopping I couldn't resist picking up this decoration just for Simon!!

Because every Christmas tree needs a dancing stormtrooper!!

And now we were into December and the season of chocolate...high cocoa and high quality chocolate of course...

Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar

And as we moved into December the weather decided to acknowledge the season and turned rather frosty and cold. After a couple of early morning walks in freezing temperatures with very icy pavements we decided that staying home in the warmth with a hot coffee was the better and safer option. Although we still maintained our routine of cold showers, Wim Hof breathing and meditating.

We enjoyed a fabulous night out for my birthday (actually on my birthday) at La DeDa Cabaret in Derby. It was another fun filled night out with burlesque, comedy and cabaret and I even had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me by the audience.

Out, out!

The following morning we were out early with Ethan in tow to head out for a posh breakfast as part of my birthday celebrations. We have discovered a deli in Nottingham (Delilah Fine Foods) that does an amazing breakfast that suits our keto way of eating perfectly...the pancetta is to die for! I even picked up a few Christmas pressies from their array of food goodies on sale too.

Oh and I also did rather well on the present front with even my old team from pre-school surprising me with a rather appropriate Star Wars themed gift...

My birthday weekend also saw us take a trip up north to hook up with our very good friend, and my podcast co-host, Michelle. This was a chance for a catch-up as well as an exchange of Christmas presents. We decided to meet up at Meadowhall Shopping Centre as this is about half way between where we both live. 

The day started out a bit grey and foggy but as we ventured further north the weather conditions took a bit of a turn. It started with seeing reduced speed limit signs, along with signs warning of 'salt spreading ahead' and then everywhere turned wet which quickly turned into slush on the roads and before we knew it all but two lanes of the motorway were covered in snow! And that was all in the last five minutes of our journey. But we arrived safely and after a few hours spending time with Michelle (and shopping!) the weather improved and the roads were all clear for our return journey home.

But seeing Michelle did mean that we could surprise her with a very special Mickey Mouse figure...

Michelle & Mickey!

...all printed, assembled and painted in Snow White (Michelle's favourite princess) colours. Suffice to say Michelle was blown away with it. I will share more details in a later post to explain how this all came about!

And then the day ended rather strangely and unexpectedly. We arrived home to find a lady wandering along the road to our house...she looked lost and so we stopped to ask if she needed help finding somewhere. It turned out that the lady was homeless and on seeing us asked if we had a phone she could use as she needed to call the emergency services as she wanted to 'kill myself'. At that I quickly phoned through for her and we then spent the next few hours trying to get her the help that she needed.

Both the ambulance and police services were reluctant to help explaining that it wasn't a job for the police but for the ambulance and vice versa! They were both experiencing severe delays and could not give us an estimate of when someone would be able to get out to help the lady. So in the intervening time we found a bench and supplied her with hot cups of tea, biscuits and a blanket to keep her warm as well as talking with her to see if we could figure out what had happened and whether there was anyone that could help her.

It turned out that she was under the care of a local trust who support the homeless so we decided to try and sort the situation ourselves by calling them. As luck would have it the person that Simon spoke to was an old school friend which helped make everything that bit easier. Ultimately we ended up driving the lady to the local trust just a few miles away and cancelling the ambulance. The police did call us back when we were enroute to advise us of the same information that we'd already found out ourselves. We explained what we were doing and they expressed their gratitude. We can only hope that the lady herself has been able to get the help and support that she very evidently needed.

On a lighter note...I did manage to complete two suitably themed jigsaws during the lead up to Christmas...

As we moved towards Christmas we had another busy weekend that saw a night out for me with the pre-school ladies and a busy Sunday for Simon as he was a guest speaker at Nottingham Video Games Expo.

Simon has been asked numerous times over the years to speak at various video game events about his career but has always declined. He is always much more focused on what he is currently working on rather than looking back at what has been. But as this expo was so close to home he decided to give it a go and see whether or not it was something that he would like to do more of in the future.

And Simon being the organised and professional individual that he is had spent the preceding weeks producing a presentation that documented his career making video games that spans over 35 years!! Check out his website for more details of his extensive portfolio! www.simonphipps.com

Simon in full flow delivering his presentation

Signing autographs for fans!!

I think it probably surprised us both at just how interested people were in all aspects of his career and we spent a lovely couple of hours chatting and reminiscing. So will Simon be taking part in more of these type events in the future? Who knows...I think it will all depend on where, when and the time involved. But as least Simon now has this experience to refer back to and will be in a better position to make decisions around any future requests.

And this brings us to the last full week before Christmas. Ethan's last day at work was the 16th, as he'd got left over holiday to use up, while Simon had to wait until the 21st...and it is from there where I think the next post will pick up!

xx

Day 557...Getting Arty!

Day 557...

Today was a Sunday with a purpose as we had an event booked to attend.

But before we headed out the door Simon managed to get another layer of plaster filler onto the walls that he is repairing with a view that tomorrow he will be able to sand back and hopefully have a smooth and even surface ready to paint.

So late morning we set off for Nottingham and ordinarily we would have driven into the city as it's only around twenty minutes away but today there was the Robin Hood half marathon taking place which meant most roads from our direction were at best restricted but most were closed. Thankfully, we have a tram that runs into Nottingham and which has a terminus just a couple of miles from home so we decided to make that our mode of transport for the day.

And whilst the tram is a great service; easy to use, free parking at the terminus, relatively clean and no more costly than car parking charges in the city it does take around double the amount of time compared to driving. And I will admit that by the time we got to our stop the tram was quite full and I was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic and also wished that other passengers had perhaps used a little more deodorant!! 

As we are not great users of public transport it was interesting to note that the take-up of people wearing masks was around fifty-fifty. We have opted to not wear masks as we don't feel the evidence supports their benefit to us or anyone around us and am I always astounded, and confused, at the way in which people do use them. Groups where some were and some weren't, couples were one half wasn't, people with the mask under their chin, getting onto the tram without a mask and walking through people to find a seat and only putting a mask on once they were seated - just seems to go against what they would appear to believe in. 

Arriving in Nottingham we were a little early so we stopped for a coffee before heading to the Canalhouse pub where, in their upstairs function room, Dr Sketchy's Nottingham was taking place. This is a burlesque/cabaret themed life drawing event that we have been going to for a fair few years now. Our last in person event was in February 2020 and although host and performer Scarlett Daggers had held a few online events it was great to be back doing something that had previously been one of our regular outings.

Dr Sketchy's are held all around the world and the Nottingham event has been running for 12 years. Simon, being the artist in the family, had discovered it many years ago and had attended a handful on his own before he eventually persuaded me to join him and 'have a go'. I am no artist by any stretch of the imagination, but the whole point of Dr Sketchy's is for anyone, of any ability, to come along and draw, enjoy the entertainment (the models will also perform), have a drink, maybe something to eat and giggle at the choice of music played by DJ Spike as he attempts to put the models off their poses with his musical choices.

It really is a very open and relaxed affair welcoming all abilities, all ages and all backgrounds. It's chance to switch off for a couple of hours or so, get out the pencils and doodle....or in the case of Simon get out the digital drawing tablet and create some wonderful images. 

Today, we had Scarlett Daggers modelling along with Starla Bright, who also entertained us with a cheeky burlesque number. We started off with a few one minute poses, then a few more two minutes poses, some five minute ones followed by 10 and 15 minutes ones before finishing off the afternoon with a 20 minute pose.

Here are just a few of my 'efforts';

Two minute poses - Scarlett Daggers

Five minute pose - Scarlett Daggers

Fifteen minute pose - Scarlett Daggers

Twenty minute pose - Starla Bright

As it is a while since I have picked up pencil and paper I was pretty happy with my results, and despite hating (and therefore avoiding) drawing faces I was pleasantly surprised with my efforts on my last drawing of Starla and when she commented that she liked it and thought it reminded her of her sister I was a bit shocked and maybe a little pleased with myself!

And with pencils packed away it was time to head home but with a date in late November in the diary for their next event. We had a small wait for the tram and found ourselves standing for the majority of the forty minute journey home.

Back home it was time for a coffee and chance to look over what we had done this afternoon with the obligatory posting to social media. Here are a couple of Simon's pieces...

Starla Bright

Scarlett Daggers

So nice to have a Sunday that revolved around actually getting out and 'doing something' and doing something that we have always done in the way we have always done it.

See you all tomorrow.

xx

Woohoo it's the Weekend

Day 374...

And we have another stay-at-home weekend!

Our Saturday morning was a fairly laid back affair culminating in our usual walk for a coffee...and cake for Ethan. Another 3.6 miles in an hour and ten minutes which brings our total for March to 41 miles walked in 14 hours! 

After a spot of lunch we popped to see my dad; we had a couple of things to drop off with him and it was a good excuse to check-in with him and makes sure he was doing okay. We spent an hour or so with him and gave him another tutorial on how to use WhatsApp in an attempt to get him a little more tech savvy and easier to keep in contact with.

When we returned home our task was to see if we could make some progress on Simon's R2D2 droid build. It was time to assemble the legs and then attach them to the main body. The leg assembly was surprisingly straight forward and took us much less time than I think we were anticipating but the next bit was a little more tricky.

We moved R2 into our living room so that he could be fully assembled in the room that he is going to live in. It was then a case of figuring out just how the legs attached to the body. After a couple of attempts threading bolts through from the leg, into the 'shoulder' section and then into the body we realised that something wasn't quite lining up. Thankfully Simon was able to figure out how all the various pieces connected together which meant that we were a set of bolts missing. But a quick jump online and Simon was able to buy some ready to be picked up from a DIY store just a five minute drive away.

Once we had all the right bolts we were able to get all the pieces connected correctly and with a little bit of balancing and holding into position we managed to attach the two side legs and then the central 'foot'. A little minor adjustment and voila we have a droid living in the corner of our living room...

How cool is this?

...there are still a few details to add and then there will be some weathering as apparently it looks too clean to be in Star Wars!

And with that all done it was time for dinner which was our now usual Saturday night keto pizza which this week included a video chat with Molly and her fella, while Molly helped his mum dye her hair! Random I know, but that did all happen together!!

Today I shared this Mickey with our Disney Dream Girls family on Facebook. This is from Simon's 365 Mickey project 10 years ago...and would you believe it the timing couldn't be more perfect as this is exactly what happens today...

...time to put the clocks forward an hour and spring into British summertime!

Take care.
xx

Day 372

Day 372...

The penultimate day of the working week...we have a Thursday!

My morning was spent in work and was pretty standard with the usual bits and bobs of admin and accounts to contend with. I am just beginning to get  ready for when we return after the Easter break and have numerous bits of paperwork to sort; we have one more week of pre-school to go before we have two weeks off.

I nipped to a local supermarket on my way home for a few bits and pieces before stopping off at my dads. I had a couple of bits to drop in for him and just wanted to make sure he was doing okay. I had a little tidy around for him before I headed home for the afternoon.

Once home and shopping all sorted and put away it was time for a coffee and a little sunshine. The afternoon has been beautiful and fairly warm so though I would take advantage and have a little half hour topping up my vitamin D. This then led to weeding as I could see all the little shoots that were popping up since I'd weeded on Sunday. Unfortunately due to the large sycamore trees close by we are plagued at this time of year with the 'windmill' seeds fermenting and shooting up!

The remainder of the afternoon and into evening was spent chatting with my brother online, dealing with a few more pre-school emails and reading an interview with Simon in a retro game magazine called Freeze64...

Cover Art by Simon

Eight page interview with Simon

...Simon had also drawn the cover art for the magazine. The art is actually available as a signed print on his website. His game, Rick Dangerous, which he made back in 1988/89 is a much loved and remembered game and he often gets fans messaging him or publications asking for interviews. It's a fab interview...although I may be a touch biased!

And there we have another Thursday. A day when the government have overwhelmingly voted to extend their emergency powers until October. The emergency powers that were brought in this time last year as we entered the pandemic...powers that will now extend beyond the 21st June, the date that is being dangled as the 'back to normal' date. So, if we're supposed to be 'back to normal' by the end of June why does the government need these 'emergency powers' until October?? Do they not want to give up the control that they have had for the last year? Where is the opposition to this? Why does this not feel right?

I am not a politician but this infringement on our liberties and freedom is wearing very thin and somebody, somewhere needs to do something about it.

Take care, see you tomorrow.

xx

Manic Monday

Day 369...

Well today has been a bit of a non-stop sort of Monday!

So the day started with a phone call from my Dad, which was good. He is still in hospital and after a number of calls yesterday evening I had finally managed to find out a little more about what was happening. It was great to hear him sounding like his normal self and simply wanting me to check a few things at home for him.

So we headed off to my dads house before going to collect the weekly grocery shop as is our Monday normal. Once home I sorted all the shopping while Simon nipped out to a local DIY shop to pick up some large screws needed for some more R2D2 assembling later today.

Then the rest of the morning was spent catching up with our personal financial advisor to chat pensions and money stuff...whoop! Afterward we headed back to my dads house to spend a couple of hours cleaning around for him and getting everywhere tidy as things had been left in a bit of a mess after he was taken into hospital yesterday.

Back home again and this time it was to meet with a flooring company to measure up a couple of our rooms for some wooden flooring. This will be the third company we have tried so far, so we are hoping it's third time lucky. We have resorted to using a national company as the two smaller, local businesses we had tried were very nice and they came out and measured up and promised to provide quotes and sample flooring but we never heard back. I would much rather support the smaller guy but if the customer service isn't there then I'm afraid I'll have to go with the company offering the better service and who actually want the work!

Simon has, during various pockets of time throughout the day, been able to get a little more assembly of R2D2's feet completed. Lots of drilling, gluing and screwing together and fingers crossed he is now into the final stretch of getting it all put together.

Over on the Disney Dream Girls Family Facebook page I have been sharing each day some drawings that Simon did 10 years ago. He had a project called 365 Mickeys, where he drew a Mickey Mouse a day for a year. Today's Mickey from 10 years ago seems to sum up today pretty well...the description was 'Jayne does a lot of running around'!!

So I think it's now time for a well deserved 'feet-up' in front of the TV time.

See you tomorrow, take care.
xx

Monday Once More

Day 355...

Monday has rolled around yet again.

There was the usual trip to collect the weekly grocery shopping and once home and packed away there were some household chores to do. Simon has been working on his R2D2 build off and on throughout the day; a process of wet sanding, pieces drying, spray painting, more drying and then repeat for numerous different parts!

We did take a walk out for coffee and although it decided to rain while we were out it wasn't too heavy thankfully. Another 3.6 miles in one hour and eleven minutes...total for March so far stands at 16 miles.

After lunch there were a few more jobs to get done; cleaning round, a little garden tidying and sorting out a returns parcel. Simon has spent some time updating his website (simonphipps.com) as he has a new limited edition print up for sale; a piece inspired by a game he worked on in 1999 called Shadowman.

The day was rounded out with a trip to the 'gym' for Simon and a trip to the living room for me to complete my body-weight workout.

So here in England we have seen the return to school for all our children today. Those attending secondary school are having to be subjected to three lateral flow tests before they are allowed to attend and then each week they will have to be tested twice. They will also be requested to wear face masks all day, if social distancing is not possible - all seems so ridiculous and over the top.

The evidence is out there that masks make no difference what so ever, that testing will eventually turn up positive cases because of the false positive rate that comes with any test and yet all these kids want to do is to go back to school, see their friends and try and learn something. 

While some children will take this all in their stride I fear there is going to be a large amount that will struggle. Struggle with catching-up on missed education, struggle to relate to others, struggle to adjust to new routines. There will be those that have missed out on so much because of their home life situations, those that have suffered both mentally and physically and those that will simply slip through the cracks.

It is very easy if you have been able to 'carry-on' during lockdown relatively unaffected to assume that everyone else is like you and not appreciate what it could be like in someone else's shoes. But there are lots of families out there for whom lockdown will have been devastating in all sorts of ways and we will not know the true affects until much further on down the line.

Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, take care.
xx

Day 44

Day 44...

Last day of the working week and we were actually up and about pretty early today which turned out to be a good thing as Simon sold another Mandalorian helmet! So first job of the morning was packing and posting it out to the US.

Next job was the online grocery shop as tomorrow is pick up day! Which took me way longer than I would have liked; time spent finding alternatives to unavailable items and noticing a fair few items with price changes and not in the direction I would have preferred!

There was also a little more online birthday shopping followed by trying to track down icing sugar of all things. Molly's birthday is in about 10 days or so and she has plans to bake her own birthday cake which needs icing sugar to make the required buttercream. Now I do enjoy baking and I think Molly has picked this up from me, although she's a lot more adventurous than I am, but being a low carb house it's not something we do that often and consequently I don't tend to keep baking items in the cupboard. So as there was no icing sugar available via the online grocery shop my next option was Amazon (of course) which would be great if I wanted to buy in bulk or wanted a flavoured icing sugar (which I didn't even know existed) but that won't be delivered until Molly's actual birthday (at the earliest)...wonder if I could wrap it as a present for her!!

Lunchtime saw our usual 2 mile walk despite the grey clouds and a few spots of rain as we returned home we still managed a good pace. Thankfully the rest of the afternoon brightened up and ended with a bright and sunny evening.

This afternoon I spent a lovely hour or so chatting with my friend Michelle and recording a new podcast episode with her. It was lovely to chat away and hear how well she is doing with this horrid virus; she sounded so much better than when we last spoke and although it has really taken it out of her she is getting there. She has another test tomorrow to determine whether she is now negative...fingers crossed for her.

Knowing someone who has been diagnosed with this awful virus really helps to confirm that this is a disease that we need to stop and that the only way we can do this is to keep this lockdown going for as long as we need to. I really think an approach of 'slow and steady' wins the race is needed; there is no point in jumping back into normal life too soon only to have to go back into lockdown later on. Let's get this thing sorted now; let's adopt an attitude of a bit of inconvenience now is going to save us all so much in the future. And while we all do that can the government please get themselves organised with testing, PPE, research into treatments and vaccine and formatting a plan out of this..Oh and please make sure our NHS staff get the rewards they deserve? Don't think that's too much to ask?!

xx

Day 35

Day 35...

Well another day of this lockdown is complete and I'm finding that writing today's post is a bit on the difficult side...not sure why but think it probably has something to do with the events of the day being a repeat of previous days.

The day was a mixture of housework and pre-school work to just keep on top of things. We had our usual walk out at lunchtime completing yet another couple of miles in the gorgeous sunshine.

I sat outside this afternoon and topped up my vitamin D levels while I had a coffee and read some more of Dr Shawn Baker's The Carnivore Diet.

It was lovely to jump online later this afternoon to chat with my fellow Disney Dream Girl Michelle as we recorded another episode for our podcast, this time chatting with a fellow podcaster over in America.

Simon is busy working on a art commission for a retro game magazine and he has just had a couple of orders come in for the Mandalorian helmets he makes; pop over to his website to see what this is all about simonphipps.com.

So we are in this weird state of a new normal. Work life is carrying on as best it can. Home life has now found a new level where everything that we would normally have done now gets done from the comfort of our own home. 'Going out' is a simple walk in the fresh air around paths that we are becoming very familiar with. It is difficult to see when all this will end and when it does I don't think we will ever go back to how we were, at least not for a long while.

xx

WDW Summer 2013 - Day 8

So just over half way through our vacation and today was a gentle sort of day.

We started it off by meeting someone who we'd known for a long while but had only met in person a couple of days ago...Lou Mongello!

Simon had a couple of paintings for Lou so we had agreed to meet up at our hotel to chat and pass on the paintings.  Now Lou knew we had one painting for him but he knew nothing about the second...that was our little surprise!

So we met Lou and sat outside in the morning sun and passed over the first painting. This was a painting of Mickey Mouse as Peter Pan and was for the WDW Radio upcoming charity auction which forms part of the Dream Team Project that raises money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The painting went for $75

The second painting was a surprise for Lou and was one that Simon had done especially for him as a way to say thank you for all the Disney magic he has brought into our lives, and all the new friendships we have made as a result of the Disney community that he is such a part of.

(You can see more of Simon's fabulous artwork on his webiste www.simonphipps.com)

Suffice to say Lou was blown away, I think he was even speechless at one point and there may have even been an odd tear or two - a job well done I think :)

Me, Simon and Lou

After we had said our goodbyes we decided to head to Downtown Disney for a spot of lunch and retail therapy!! Lunch was at one of our favourite quick service restaurants, and if you're on the Quick Service Dining Plan one of the very best value places to eat - Wolfgang Puck Express.

The food here is always amazing and always feels more like table service than counter service.  This is always a big must do when at Downtown Disney.

So once we were full off we set on a bit of shopping!  It was a pretty successful shopping trip and my haul included; a dress, top, 3 t-shirts, bracelet, 2 pairs of earrings, handbag and a matching purse.  Molly spent her money on some key-chains whilst Ethan bought more food...an enormous piece of fudge from Disney's Candy Cauldron!!

View from Downtown Disney West Side across to the Marketplace - beautiful day!

We had a lovely few hours at Downtown Disney; I just love wandering around and checking out all the merchandise even if I don't buy anything!  It's a great place to spend sometime away from the hustle and bustle of the parks whilst still getting a big hit of all things Disney!

We then headed back to the Wilderness Lodge and whilst the kids messed about in the pool Simon and I spent a little while uploading photos and videos and just generally chilling out.  A lovely day to re-charge our batteries ready for another full day tomorrow!

My Family and Other Vinylmations

Due to having a very talented husband myself, family and friends now find ourselves immortalised in Vinylmation form.

Vinylmations are a plastic figure, in the shape of Mickey Mouse that have been painted to represent all sorts of themes and characters and are available from Disney in their parks and stores.  They have become a collectors delight and have a huge following amongst Disney fans.  They are issued in sets and are bought blind, so part of the fun is trying to get a complete set and then 'swapping' or 'trading' any duplicates.

Over the course of our last few visits to WDW and Disneyland we have, ourselves, purchased the odd one or two.....in fact our son has enjoyed the challenge of finding those knocked down in price and then 'trading' duplicates in order to get the illusive full set!

And for the artistic amongst you there are blank, plain white, vinylmations to buy and 'decorate' yourself.  Now for Simon this was too big a challenge to pass up, as soon as we saw Vinylmations for the first time in the parks he started talking about how fun it would be to paint one and then low and behold we discovered the blank ones!

Initially Simon decided to paint me and him;

Me and Simon with the stack of 365 Mickeys Project

When Simon posted pictures of these online he was 'hassled' by fellow Disney fans to recreate them in plastic form.....so as a compromise (and not wanting to infringe any Disney copyright) Simon created a couple of 2D drawn images for friends Christy & Emma.

But Simon couldn't stop there and after a friend in Japan had sent us a Vinylmation all the way from Tokyo he decided to repay the favour and re-create our friend, Nana, Vinylmation style.

Nana

Along with a special commission from Emma

Emma

And after the success of creating Simon and I in plastic form our two kids were keen to see themselves as 3 inch high figures, so with a weeks holiday presenting itself Simon set himself the task of creating the rest of our family;

The four of us, and me with new eyes - Simon decided to re-do them!!

Not bad going, the detail is amazing and likenesses are uncanny!