Time for an Overdue Blog Post - Part One!

Well it's been a while since my last blog post at the end of October so figured I'd better put finger to keyboard and get writing!

Thankfully I've had the presence of mind to make a few notes over the last few weeks as I'd really like to try and keep the diary approach to writing going. So what's been happening and where to start?

Let's kick off with a bit of Disney travel news. For the first time since 2019 I can now say we have a Disney holiday booked but this time it will be a first for us as we have booked a cruise! Not only will this be our first Disney cruise but it will be our first cruise ever!

After a lot of debating and being swayed by friends who have this year experienced both Disney and non-Disney cruises we have taken the plunge and booked ourselves a place on the Disney Dream sailing out of Southampton, UK next September. Our 7 night cruise will see us venturing north as we take in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and Sandnes in Norway. This does mean lots of research ahead for me not only about the ports we will be visiting but also all about cruising Disney style.

Since the end of October we have continued with our early morning walks getting out most mornings although we have now resorted to wellies when we venture out over the fields. 

Our cold showers each morning are now embedded in our routine and I have now joined Simon with the Wim Hof breathing method. I have surprised myself by being able to let myself 'indulge' in this 10 minute practice and this in turn has resulted in me giving meditation a try. I have always been reluctant to try meditation as the thought of 'giving in' to something really didn't sit very well with me at all...the act of 'giving up control' felt very alien to me. But after getting used to the calm of the breathing I have now started with some simple 10 minute meditations and have surprised myself with how easy they have been and how I have actually been able to 'let go' and simply 'be' in the moment.

At the end of October we were able to join a Star Wars troop with our Joker Squad buddies at Leicester Comic Con. This was the first time trooping with Joker Squad in over three years! And although we were small in number we were still able to entertain and make people smile. 

Then in November we hooked up with our East Midlands Garrison crew at a local pub's Sci-Fi quiz night which helped raise money for the charity PASIC. 

Not sure how good Stormtroopers are at pulling a pint!!

We had hoped to attend PASIC's Christmas Party earlier this month but as we both had a very slight cold we decided to stay away as all the children attending would be immunocompromised and we didn't want to risk passing anything on.

At the beginning of November Simon had a week off from work and we took advantage of the time productively. We dragged Ethan out shopping with us for a day, luring him with the promise of food and coffee and while he came home empty handed Simon did pick up a couple of shirts.

Next I had a day booked with Saint Heywood at Acadia Tattoo for my latest round of Disney ink. This time it was combining my love of the attraction 'It's A Small World' with the art style of Jerrod Maruyama...

Work in progress

Line work done and colour just started

Finished result

It was then time to take a trip 'up north' for a few days. We started by having a couple of nights in York staying in an old fashioned style of hotel which kind of evoked 'Fawlty Towers' type vibes! But York was as lovely as ever; we walked for miles, drank lots of coffee, had some lovely meals out (great to find a Byron Burger restaurant and a fab tapas too!), more walking, chance to play with my new camera, shopping and more coffee! A short trip which resulted in new shoes for Simon and new jigsaws for me courtesy of the York Outlet mall.

After York we moved a little further north to visit Stockton-on-Tees for a couple more nights. The reason for visiting here was to revisit an area that is very familiar to both Simon and I. For me this is the part of the country where I was born and so consequently I still have lots of family members who live in the surrounding area and who I hadn't seen in a fair few years. For Simon he had spent around 5 years working in Stockton, and living there during the week as it was too big a distance from home to commute. We both have lots of great memories of the area, and of the people, and so it was great to get the chance to re-visit after a lot of years away.

We were able to see quite a lot of my relatives over the course of a couple of days and we have vowed to return when the weather is kinder (it was rather wet!) and the days are longer so that we can explore further.

Throughout the last couple of months I have been trying to clear stuff from my dads house and as a result have become quite skilled at using Ebay! Consequently there has been lots of cataloguing of items, photos taken, items listed, sales made, items packed and trips to the local post office. And every time we get a delivery it means that boxes and packing materials have to be saved; thank goodness we have a shed for storage!

Ready for a trip to the post office

And with it being the run up to Christmas I decided that a review of my Christmas decorations was in order, particularly my outdoor lights. I knew I had a couple of sets that were not working 100% so I decided to invest in some new sets; this resulted in three sets of string lights and a light-up tree!

Obligatory testing of lights!

This did then mean a few days tidying the garden (in the rain) to get everywhere ready as well as planning out how to get everything plugged in. Having had some new outdoor sockets installed over the summer I had the power but needed to make sure that we had sufficient weatherproof boxes for all the cables, plugs and extension leads. Plans were drawn so that when it came to putting them all up it should be a relatively straight forward process.

And we have reached mid-November so let's leave it there as I make a start on a new post.

See you soon.
xx

Since we last spoke...

After a few weeks away from the keyboard I thought I would check back in with a bit of a look back over what I've been up to of late...and if truth be told I've attempted to start this post many times over.

It's not that I haven't had something to write but that I've simply gotten out of the habit of writing. Whilst doing my 'lockdown diary' (for want of a better description) I had a 'reason' for writing something every day. I had given myself a challenge of writing a record of what was happening to me and the world around me. But after completing 893 days worth of my diary I had begun to feel that all I was recording was the mundane, the every day happenings of my life and that if I was to write it needed to be less often and with more to write about.

I knew that recording my life as a 'diary' would have days where nothing much happened or nothing that I felt was worthy of being written down, and as the pandemic moved on and life became more 'normal' there was less for me to muse about and pass comment on. And on the odd occasion that I did venture out into the realm of opinions I was disappointed by the negativity levied my way in return. After all I was writing to document my life and my thoughts and not to please others. But I discovered that this did not sit well with my innate nature of wanting to please and not cause anyone upset...so I stopped writing. I didn't want any confrontation with anyone and I let that (and them) stop me doing what I wanted to do...so here we are and I am going to attempt to write more often than I have of late just because I want to.

So what have I been up to over the last six, or more, weeks?

Well, our usual routine has continued and we attempt to get out first thing most mornings for our daily walk. Weekdays we tend to be out and about around 8am and stick to a shorter route of a couple of miles while at the weekends we may stretch our legs a little further or simply venture into the likes of Nottingham for more of an urban stroll. Since getting a fitness tracker back in the middle of May I have now recorded just over 300 miles walked, which I think is pretty good going. Not only is it good for us physically to be out and about by simply moving and absorbing vitamin D, but there is something about being outside in the fresh air that is good for the sole. It also gives Simon and I the time together and the time to talk without the trappings of 'life' getting in the way.

Cold showers are still apart of my daily routine although I have drawn a line in the sand and am sticking to my limit of 3 minutes and 30 seconds! I understand the beneficial effects that cold showers can produce but it doesn't mean I have to like them! Simon is now persuading me to try the Wim Hof breathing method which I think I maybe taking him up on...I will report back at some point in the future and let you know how I fair!

Over the course of the last few months we have made a few tweaks to our diet and exercise routine. We are still following a keto/low carb way of eating but have reduced the saturated fat content to see if it can make any difference to our overall good health. We have also increased our strength training sessions from twice a week to three times a week with a further two workouts that concentrate on body-weight exercises aimed at core/abs and legs. We have found a doctor to work with who understands the keto way of eating and approach to a healthy well being and we are fine tuning what we do and how we do it. As part of that we are still using an intermittent fasting approach to our meals with our first meal of the day now being around lunchtime rather than first thing in the morning. All of these approaches seem to be working for us, both physically and mentally.

The beginning of September saw us take a little day trip over to Macclesfield to visit my tattooist Saint Heywood at Acadia Tattoo. It had been about thirteen months since my last tattoo and I still had a number of ideas for what I wanted and where. By the end of the day I came away with a new piece to my left leg, a small addition to my right wrist and Simon came away with some script to his right arm.

Left leg - Three Good Fairies from Sleeping Beauty; Fauna, Flora & Merryweather

My smaller tattoo was in remembrance of my dad who passed away in March. When my mum died in 2015 I had a small gold star inked on my wrist to remember her by, as we all inevitably become stardust when we pass, and so it was only fitting to have the same again in memory of my dad.

Gold star for my dad

Script for Simon...a quote from the book Slaughterhouse 5 'So it goes'

And I already have another date booked in the diary for the beginning of November as I still have more ideas for yet more Disney themed ink.

Around the middle of September we had another road trip and this time we headed over to Birmingham as we had a concert booked. We have been long time fans of an LA based band called She Wants Revenge who over their career have had moments where the band has no longer been together and so getting an opportunity to see them live in concert has been rare. We saw them for the first time in a very small nightclub in Sheffield back in 2012 and we thought that would be the only chance we ever got to see them. Fast forward to 2019 and an announcement that they were back together and touring which led to us seeing them in Islington in London; and again we thought that would be the last time we would see them live. And then lo and behold a new tour was announced which seemed initially to concentrate on the US but before long they announced dates for the UK and Europe and with a date announced for Birmingham it meant it was a no brainer for us as it was only an hour away. So the band we thought we would be extremely lucky to see once we have now seen three times, and each time we have seen them they have played small venues and each time they have been phenomenal.

A little later in September we were able to join our fellow Star Wars cosplayers at Huddersfield Comic Con as part of the East Midlands Garrison and spend a day making people smile, posing for photos and raising money for the charity PASIC. We opted for Stormtrooper for Simon and Governor Pryce for myself.

This was our first time out trooping since Simon had broken his wrist back in May and happily we have another date coming up towards the end of October with our good friends from Joker Squad.

And in other 'geek' news Simon was approached by the soon to be opening 'Derby Computer Museum' about his time working for Derby based computer games companies Gremlin Graphics and Core Design. Inside the museum there is a room dedicated to British computer games from their beginning up until around 1999 and Simon has been able to provide them with some artwork as well as a video interview. Core Design produced the game Rick Dangerous which Simon developed way back in 1988/89 and still to this day is the game he will get asked about more than any of the others he has worked on.

Simon was only too happy to get involved and donated a signed poster, scans of his original drawings and notes, as well as spending a couple of hours recording the interview. Although we did have a slight recording issue when memory cards became corrupted so he did have to sit for a second recording! But this did mean that on our second visit I was able to donate a working Nintendo Gameboy and games to add to their collection. The museum will be opening on Saturdays from the 3rd December and we have been invited to their launch party towards the end of November!

At the end of September we had a few days booked away to go and see Molly and Dan down in Bournemouth. The last time we'd seen them was in July when they had travelled to see us for a weekend so it was great to be able to take a few days off and spend a little longer with them. 

The visit also involved a trip to Ninja Warrior in Southampton! Molly and Dan had been there earlier in the year and were very keen to get Simon to have a go (they knew better than to ask me!!). Thankfully Simon had recovered from his broken wrist (with no help from the promised physiotherapy that never materialised!) and was more than happy to join in the fun. I took on the role of videographer and photographer for the day while they all threw themselves around from one obstacle to another. And whilst it was not something that I would do it was a great couple of hours of fun and sweat and was very well organised. There were two courses to complete as well as a very large inflatable course all of which you could complete as many times as you wanted within your booked session time. I think Simon was pretty pleased with his efforts and managed to 'keep up' with the 'young 'uns'!

Posing after two hours of warrior stuff!

Over the course of our time in Bournemouth we had some lovely meals out, walked lots of miles and encountered an arts festival that had taken over the whole of the town centre. There was even a 'Drum and Base on a Bike' event happening which took us slightly by surprise as we wandered through the town. It was a completely separate event to the arts festival and involved around 200 or more people cycling while drum and base music blasted out; it was a most peculiar, yet invigorating site to see.

On our way home from seeing Molly and Dan we took an extra night to stop over in Surrey so that we could catch up with Simon's work colleagues who are all based in that area. Simon had not seen his colleagues in person since February of 2020!!

Just before we embarked on our time away down South I decided to buy myself a camera; a proper DSLR camera! Photography is something I've fancied having a go at and have never really had the time or the inclination. With Molly having studied photography and subsequently set up her own business (Shutter Studios) I've always hand someone on hand should I need something 'proper'! My photography is normally limited to my phone...which to be fair does a really decent job but I wanted the challenge of learning a set of new skills, and proving to myself that I can rise to the challenge.

So over the course of our time away and the last few weeks I have started to use the camera and begun to figure out what all the buttons mean and even dip my toes into the proper lingo. Although I do feel the need to carve out sometime to watch videos and read up on the subject so that I can get the best out of it. The organised side of my personality wants to learn how to do this all 'properly' and in a logical orderly fashion and the challenge for me will be to 'just have a go' and figure it all out on the fly. So this will be a challenge not only from a technical stand point but also allowing myself the time and the creativity to simply try and not worry about conforming to any 'rules'!!

And before I waffle on anymore I think I will bring this post to an end and make a start on the next one!

See you soon.
xx

Day 890 & Day 891

Day 890...Friday

The morning was bright, sunny and a little chilly but within 36 minutes we had our usual 1.9 mile walk completed.

My morning started off with a few household chores; some laundry and some cleaning around. But once those jobs were out the way I took the time to paint my nails; not something I do that often and apart from an odd occasion where I've paid to have them done, it's something I tend to do myself. I do have a UV gel nail kit that Simon bought me a few years ago but it still takes a fair while to get them done that way so a cheap bottle of quick drying, one coat varnish is my preferred go to option!

Not a bad effort for a £1 nail varnish from Primark!

Maybe now that I am retired I could take advantage of the extra time and actually indulge in a manicure every now and then. Trouble is I know once I start it will become a habit, and not a cheap one at that! Best dig out that UV light instead.

But with freshly done nails it gave me the perfect excuse to sit outside in the sunshine (to let them dry of course), enjoy a coffee and catch up on a little reading.

After lunch it was a mixture of little tasks. I had a present to wrap ahead of going out tomorrow evening, there was another 3D print that needed cleaning up, more research on the ideas for my next tattoo, some jigsaw time and re-connecting with an old friend over social media.

An old friend of ours had posted on social media about the different medications they now find themselves on and so both Simon and I had reached out to chat about diet and lifestyle choices. With both of us living a low carb/keto life we are keen to pass on what information we have gained over the years. Often people do not want to know what we do, they are content to carry on as they are and just take a pill that will make everything alright. Our approach is to do the utmost that we can to eat right and live right to try and stack the odds in our favour so that we can avoid as much of the possible downfalls of getting older that we can. No-one can ever rule out getting something horrid but at least we can try and put ourselves in the best possible position for dealing with it or avoiding it completely. For once our old friend didn't dismiss what we had to say and so we started chatting and hopefully we have been able to point them in the right direction. 

On this blog I have a couple of pages 'Eating Well, Staying Healthy' and 'Getting Real' which document my approach to a healthy lifestyle and my progress. Both of these pages are a few years old now so I think they are due either an update or a new additional page and I'm hoping to find some time to do just that. Please check the pages out if you want to know a little more about what I do!

Friday was rounded out with a gym session although I really wasn't feeling it tonight for some reason. My left shoulder can sometimes cause me issues and I think tonight was one of those nights and I perhaps just need to give myself a little more recovery time in between those sessions where I focus on my shoulders. But I still got down the gym and did something which has to be better than nothing.

Day 891...Saturday

We had a more gentle getting up this morning and with a coffee inside us headed out for our morning walk. As we had a few things that we wanted to get done today we just stuck to our usual 1.9 mile route and in 37 minutes we were back home again.

The morning was taken up with helping Simon with an interview he'd been asked to do for a retro gaming journalist in Russia! A fair few years ago (like over 20 years ago) Simon had been the lead designer on a game called Shadowman that seems to have developed a bit of a cult following as he often gets asked about his time working on it. Often Simon will be approached with questions for magazine articles but in this case the journalist is working on a documentary and so Simon thought it would be better to video his answers to the questions. This involved a little bit of set-up to get the positioning and lighting just right. We had decided to invest in a stand that will hold either a phone or video camera that comes with its own light ring as well as a small clip on microphone which once set made the whole process so much easier. And before we knew it the morning had flown by and it was time for lunch.

After lunch I decided to get caught up with writing this blog as I'd run out of time yesterday while Simon edited the mornings video before sending them off. It was also chance to get some more tattoo research done (yes I know more...but it has to be right!) so hopefully I can now get the images sent over to my tattooist at some point this weekend.

I decided to get a little jigsaw done before taking the time to get my make-up sorted ready for going out later in the evening. We are helping some friends of ours celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and they have hired out a room at the pub across the road from where we live, which is very convenient. So for the first time in a while we are going 'out, out' so I thought I'd better put my best face on. I don't tend to do full make-up very often as it's normally just a bit of mascara, touch of blush, some lipstick and off we go so today I got chance to play with some eye colours. I'm not one for 'natural' colours and have always preferred to go for something brighter but I always feel out of practice so I made sure I gave myself plenty of time rather than rushing at the last minute.

And that is where I'm going to leave it for today...time to go out and have some fun.

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 491...Ink Day

Day 491...

...and day one of my summer break from work. Working in education I am extremely fortunate to get six weeks off over the summer months and thankfully Simon has been able to book a couple of those weeks off too.

But I couldn't have started my summer break any better as today was ink day! I was due to have a tattoo back in April 2020 and this became one of the first victims of the initial lockdown. When restrictions were lifted this time last year I debated whether to get re-booked but with all the uncertainty and subsequent lockdowns I never got the chance.

So this morning I drove the 48 miles to see my favourite tattoo artist Simon Saint Heywood at his studio Acadia Tattoo in Macclesfield. It took me about an hour and forty minutes to get there but it was another beautiful, sunny and warm day and it is a stunning route to drive across the Derbyshire Dales.

Simon has been responsible for the majority of my Disney sleeve along with my Star Wars Rebels tattoo and my Disney Carousel thigh piece and today it was time to add some more Disney...well what did you expect?!

Today's tattoo was inspired by a dream that my Simon had a while ago that involved Peter Pan & Wendy flying together. I wanted the design to represent Peter Pan flying slightly ahead encouraging and supporting Wendy to fly along with him. This very much represents Simon and I; Simon as the ever youthful Peter guiding, encouraging and supporting Wendy (aka me). Providing me with the confidence and self belief that I struggle to maintain but with Simon by my side and pulling me along to achieve what I may not always realise that I am capable of.

A few hours of lying down and keeping still and I was able to take this awesome creation home with me...

...and now I have the ink bug once more and need more ink!!

I arrived back home to a fresh pot of coffee and once refreshed I had to pop out to collect a prescription for my dad. The pharmacy is still adopting a policy of only one person in the shop at a time and so I joined the queue outside to wait my turn and prey that the storm clouds didn't deluge me with rain. Thankfully the rain held off until I was at my dad's house, although it didn't last for very long and the few rumbles of thunder didn't do much to clear the air.

By the time I got home again Simon and Molly were in our 'gym' lifting weights...I decided to give the weights a miss tonight using my freshly inked skin as an excuse.

And with all of that Thursday was done, now it's time to chill and watch this week's RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 472...Saturday Art

Day 472...

Well after a particularly rubbish nights sleep (thanks to night sweats!) Saturday morning fnally rolled around.

Before we headed out to get Molly to her guitar lesson Simon jumped online to source some brackets for the garage and to see if we could actually buy them from a DIY store near to where Molly's music school is.

Molly, once again, drove us over to her guitar lesson and once she was dropped off we headed to the aforementioned DIY store. We were able to buy the brackets we needed along with a piece of hardboard so that Simon can construct some storage for some long pieces of strip materials that we have.

We then grabbed a drive thru coffee and had a chat with one of the employees there who we have now become friends with through a need for coffee and a love of tattoos! Molly then drove us home and we took a different route to normal just to mix things up a bit for her and she did brilliantly.

After a quick bite for lunch the next task of the day was for me to collate together some images for my upcoming tattoo. I'd already gathered a few images but liked different parts of each image and wanted these to be 'mashed' together so to speak. So rather than try and explain what I wanted over email to my tattooist Simon offered to work up an idea for me. This meant a few hours sat with Simon at his computer and watching his amazing art skills take three of four different images, plus a little more googling, and create one complete cohesive piece.

Simon in his natural habitat

Can you guess what my next tattoo will be?

I was then able to send Simon's one image plus a few reference pieces over to my tatooist ready for a couple of weeks time...can't wait!

We then used the remainder of the afternoon to put up the brackets we had bought in the garage and were pretty pleased with the results. We just need to cut the hardboard to form a base for the storage and apart from waiting for a tool storage unit to arrive the garage I think is done!

It was then keto pizza time and just as we were cooking we were subject to a massive thunderstorm with extremely heavy rain...so heavy that we had water coming through a few of our windows. Thankfully Molly had the sense to check on a window that she'd opened earlier and in doing so discovered another window that was leaking and letting in a rather large amount of water onto our new wooden floor!! We now have a house covered in towels soaking up water and curtailing the amount of water being let in. At least this confirms that our decision to get new windows fitted in a week or so was is the right decision!

Well, I think that's it for today, time for wine, chocolate and TV.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 464 - Friday

Day 464...

And Friday has rolled around once more and for me it was another full day in work and for Simon he had an appointment with a needle...but the good kind...the tattoo kind!

But my work day was again a busy one. I was able to start the process of looking at cash-flows, budgets and more in preparation for September with my deputy manager as we begin our planning process. This then led to more figures being calculated, more notes made and more scenarios drawn up.

The rest of my day saw me chatting about the progress development of specific children and relaying important information to their key-persons; there was banking to do; admin tasks to catch up on and emails to respond to and write. There was also a little research into some new technology that we would like and although we can't afford to upgrade what we have we do have a local council grant that we can apply for which will be my first job next week.

On my way home I popped to the local supermarket to grab a few things and reminded myself of the reason why I normally call by on a Thursday lunchtime rather than a Friday teatime! The traffic alone was enough to deter me in the future for leaving any shopping until Friday.

By the time I was home Simon had also returned from his day getting inked. His tattooist Rachael Huntington lives only a few miles away and she had managed to complete yet another pin-up for Simon in about four and a half hours; this time it was a sexy incarnation of Princess Leia...

Line drawing/stencil for Simon's latest tattoo

...this sits on his inner forearm and compliments the three other pin-ups that he has, although at the moment it is wrapped in clingfilm and a little red. Pictures to follow when healed.

Then it was time to take Molly out for another drive and yet again she did really well and her confidence and intuitiveness grows each time we take her out...really proud of how well she is doing and looking forward to having an in-house taxi service in the future!!

But now it is time to make some keto pizza and then settle down with a martini to watch Star Wars: The Bad Batch and the second episode of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6.

Take care out there.
xx

And some more Disney ink!

Anyone who has visited this blog in the past knows that I love my Disney ink and this week saw the addition of some more...but not to me!

My daughter took her first step into the world of tattoos by getting herself a Disney themed tattoo - like mother, like daughter!

So we took a trip over to see my favourite tattooist Saint Heywood over at his new studio Acadia Tattoo. And there Molly sat like an absolute pro. She went for a decent sized tattoo after chatting through with Saint about placement and detail, deciding to 'go big or go home'!

I reckon the tattoo must have taken about 5 hours or so to complete with only one short break about half way through. Saint was his usual lovely self and made sure Molly knew what was happening and making sure she was involved in the whole process to get exactly what she wanted.

Initial outline complete

Sitting like a pro!

And in goes the colour

And the final result is this awesome piece of artwork

But of course I couldn't spend the day in a tattoo studio without getting a little something done on me! And while this one isn't strictly Disney it does have a nod to Disney in it.

Earlier this year as part of a routine mammogram I discovered that I had breast cancer. Thankfully it was found at a very early stage and was very small but I still needed to undergo a lumpectomy operation to remove the bad stuff and as I type I am waiting for a course of radiotherapy to make sure we've done as much as possible to get rid of it! It therefore felt right to get a pink ribbon tattoo to symbolise these last few months. When the cancer was discovered we kept referring to it as some 'naughty pixie dust'; it therefore seemed apt to get the words 'Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust' worked into the tattoo. After all having faith and trust in those around me has certainly helped me get through this whole experience; Simon, the kids and my friends have been amazing and I feel truly blessed to have them all in my life.

Thanks to Simon (Saint Heywood) at Acadia Tattoo for looking after us girls and doing an amazing job as always. The only problem now is what to have done next...

More Disney Ink

Well here we are again to chat about my Disney ink!

It really is true what they say about having tattoos; you can never stop at just the one! I had never thought I would be the one to be adorned in ink, in fact growing up tattoos were one of those taboo subjects and always associated with 'certain types of people'!

Well here we are and I have fell in love with having tattoos! I remember watching 'Miami Ink' on TV a fair number of years ago now and gathering a whole new perspective on tattoos; it was hearing the stories behind the tattoos, watching the artists at work and realising that people of all types and backgrounds could celebrate the art-form together that got me intrigued.

Once I'd made my mind up to have a tattoo I had two conditions; first it had to be something designed by my husband, Simon, so I could have a piece of his artwork on my body and second it had to have a Disney element to it. I'd also decided that my first tattoo would be somewhere 'hidden'...I don't think at that point in time I was overly comfortable with the idea of showing off the fact that I had a tattoo...Oh how times have changed!

So my first tattoo was on my lower back; designed by Simon and tattooed by Gray Silva at Rampant Ink, Nottingham. It comprised of a Mickey head silhouette at it's centre before spreading out in a graffiti style. Simon even managed to incorporate his and the children's initials into the design.

Next I decided that my foot and ankle would make an ideal spot for a bit more ink...not one to shy away from choosing areas of the body that can be challenging to get inked. Rachael Huntington was my tattooist of choice and was very patient with me as every now and then I would twitch involuntary as the needle moved around my ankle bone area!

I thought I'd choose somewhere a little less challenging for my next tattoo and went for this Mickey design across the back of my neck. This was taken from an initial design by Simon that Rachael then embellished.

The next one I had was also taken from some of Simon's artwork. Simon had undertaken a project called '365 Mickey's' where he drew a Mickey a day for a year. One of these drawings was a take on my ankle tattoo, so Rachael took the design from his artwork and came up with this tattoo for my inner wrist.

Four tattoos in and I had the idea of a complete Disney inspired sleeve! This was started by Rachael, but with the majority of the ink completed by the ever lovely and talented Saint Heywood (now running his own studio - Acadia Tattoo)

These photos taken by my talented daughter (Molly Phipps Photography) show my fully completed arm, this was completed over a number of months and mainly 6 hour sittings with an odd 3 hour thrown in!

Then we decided to move over onto the other arm, for a Star Wars inspired tattoo - see my previous Disney Sleeve blog post which details the reasons behind this one!

And that brings us up to now...and my latest tattoo. Now this has been a work in progress that lasted about 4 months and was completed back in October of last year.

The inspiration this time came about while watching a burlesque show. One of the performers, the amazing Chi Chi Revolver, had a tattoo of a carousel around her thigh and I fell in love with it. As everyone who loves Disney knows it was watching the merry-go-round at Griffith Park in Los Angeles that is credited with inspiring Walt Disney to develop Disneyland. This gave me that connection to Disney that all my tattoos have. A carousel, around my thigh, inspired by the carousel at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, with horses like those seen in Mary Poppins! An idea was born!

The carousel at the Magic Kingdom, once known as Cinderellas Golden Carrousel but now named Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, was themed...obviously...after the film Cinderella. So with that in mind, plus Mary Poppins horses, plus Disney and plus a garter style tattoo I once again paid Saint Heywood a visit and after about 20 hours or more of tattooing my newest tattoo was complete. The whole tattoo was completed over a number of sittings most of which were 6 hours with a couple of 3 hours thrown in for good measure and I absolutely love it!

A big thank you to Molly once again as it proved a little tricky to get photos of this one!!

So what next? Well...I have just booked in to see Saint once again and this time it's going to be a mother and daughter affair! Molly has her heart set on her first tattoo being a Disney one while I actually have a couple of small pieces in mind...

If you'd like to know more about my tattoos and how they came about please have a look at my previous posts;
Disney Inked
Disney Ink Update
A Bit More Ink
My Disney Sleeve