Jammers and Windy Pops

If you recall this summer I told many of you stories about jam. It seemed to be a running theme at West Dean for a while that kept cropping up. I told Jill about "jammers" this summer and she immediately latched on to the idea and even came up with several new ways of using the word. Well since I've been home I have had the privilege of meeting Alex for the first time and got a real kick out of him being called "Tooters" by his mother. This is a very appropriate nickname......as in if you hold him you are destined to be tooted on more times than you ever have in your life. This made me think of my new favorite British phrase "windy pops", doesn't take much imagination to figure out what that means. I knew Jill would get a real kick out of that one and sure enough she has started to say things like it's "windy pops jammers".

Four Girls and a Baby

"sittin' in my office with a plate of grilled bacon"

I can NOT get that line of Michael Scott's traing video out of my head! Have I mentioned I've watched series three of The Office all the way through plus ALL the bonus features and commentaires at least 4 times since school started?! I clearly need to bring back more dvds.

Dear Readership,

It's been a while, but the good news is I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow!

Love,
Kristi

Maroon 5 Concert

Well last night I had a little night out in Brighton and finally got to cash in my Maroon 5 tickets! It was quite a different experience from the last time I saw them in the McKay Event Center in Provo, Utah where their show included a sizable banner and a couple lights. This round they had a huge light board behind them, a giant Maroon 5 logo that changed color, loads of lights, huge screens, smoke, some MAJOR amplification and much much more. I gotta say of all the guys in the band I have a new found love for the keyboard guy Jesse Carmichael who showed up wearing a pink button up and always seemed to be sitting at his keyboard playing one finger at a time but doing so VERY well. The concert went by far to quickly and after one oncore the house lights came up and immediatly people with hard hats swooped in to take down their kit. All in all a little too short for my taste, but a good concert none the less.

Mouldy Stuff

Well for the last week or so I have been trying to work up the strength to write a 3000 word essay about moisture and its effects on books. Needless to say I only have about 1200 words so far and am struggling to keep going. May the gods of bookbinding and mould give me the strength to keep going and finish this baby off.

Lookie lookie

Every year at West Dean the students in each department make a raffle prize in order to raise money for the Christmas party. This year each bookie made a photo album, and here is mine. Just thought you might want to see a little something I've done lately.

Somethine I love about England

When people here say the word "boogie" they pronounce it like this "boo--gie". As in they say boo and add gie to the end of the word, unlike us Americans who would make more of a U sound. Anyway, I woke up to the song "I found a place, where we can boogie. Boogie tonight" and the radio DJ kept saying "boo--gie" over and over again. Fantastic!

A Phone Call Between Catherine and I

Catherine: Well, Chicken, I'll talk to you later.
Me: Did you just call me a chicken?
Catherine: Ummm...yes.
Me: From now on you will be known as Turkey Leg

*Apparently in Ireland calling someone a "chicken" is a nice thing....interesting.

Fingerless gloves?

I made a purchase today, and that purchase was a pair of fingerless gloves. When I actually take the time to think this concept over I can't help but think that these things are the bastard children of a nice normal practical pair of ACTUAL gloves. I realize that it is the point of gloves to keep your hands warm, and that your fingers are the integral portion of your hands, so why would anyone need a pair of gloves sans fingers? The answer is I have no idea, and probably never will, however when I saw these a couple weeks ago a little virus entered my brain telling me I needed these babies, and today I gave in and bought a pair. After a day like the one I had yesterday fingerless gloves just seemed to be the only remedy...after chocolate and a nice viewing of The Blues Brothers.

Dear Kanye,

I'm sorry man.

Love,
Kristi

Birthday Report

Well, it's official, I'm 26. As of yesterday I lept over the hurdle that is 25 and began my progression towards the big 30. As Jackie put it I'm in my "late 20's" and am now quickly approaching the great dirt nap....and I am 10 months closer to that nap than Jackie. It was a good day filled with sweets, cards, phone calls and a fantastic Thai meal. I went out with Catherine, Sonia and Stephen and then drinks with a bunch of other people from West Dean. All in all it was an excellent day that could only had been made better if a few of you were there too.

My Pet Snail

Well since I moved back into my room this year there has been a little yellow snail slowly circulating around the panes of one of my windows. In true English tradition I have decided to share my space with him and embrace nature....if it were pretty much any other bug this would not be true, but oh well. Today when I opened my window he was stretched out further from his shell than normal and to my dismay he started heading for the other side of the window. After nearly 5 weeks of making his way around the window he decided to head out, I'm not gonna lie I was pretty sad. Luckily moments later he realized just how lucky he was to be my roommate and came crawling back to me.

Decorated Papers

Well last week was one of those full on jam packed weeks. All of the postgraduate students were on a decorated paper course which taught us all sorts of things, 0ne of which was that when I grow up I want to make decorated papers. We learned several techniques including suminagashi (bless you), traditional marbling, block printing, guilt papers, and paste paper. It ended up being a really good course that was very tiring as we worked from 9am to 10pm. Here are some of my favorite papers I produced.

My attempt at a traditional stone pattern

A fun paste paper

A form of marbling called Ebru where you make pictures with the marble

Suminagashi

A Party to Remember

Well the West Dean Halloween party took place this weekend and it did not disappoint. Here are some pictures of the costumes.

Catherine as a witch and Sarah as a gargoyle

Alex

Removing my brain freeze

Zack in his sweet mask

Matt, Catherine and Julie

The costume contest

You can't milk an oat

Catherine and I were in this really cute tea room this weekend drinking yummy hot beverages and enjoying the lovely atmosphere when I started perusing the menu. One of the beverages had the option of coming with "oat milk" what is oat milk? You can't milk an oat....can you?

I miss you Michael Scott

A dyer situation has come upon me. As many of you most likely know The Office is no longer sold on iTunes....wtf?! And the completely illegal highly questionable web site that I was watching copy-write questionable versions on has been shut down....AND all the episodes that were posted in segments on YouTube have been removed. NBC you are killing me. What are poor Americans living abroad supposed to do in this situation?! I think you should stream the episodes so that people in foreign countries can still view the show online....PLEASE!

A decision has been made

Well I figured out what I'm going to be for this Halloween party that is taking place on Saturday night. After much thought and consideration I have decided to be the guy from the game Operation. This will involve sticking various pieces to myself such as the "breadbasket" and the "Charlie Horse" and somehow attaching one of those cyclists flashing red lights to my nose. Needless to say it's going to be a pretty kick-a/jankity costume. I will be sure to post pictures and share the entertainment with you all.

Another Herd of Dog Deer

This weekend Catherine and I took a little day trip to a place called Knole, another run of the mill stonking British home filled with history and antiques. The house was fantastic and had loads of conservation going on which is interesting to the two of us. The house contains some of the oldest original textiles in the country (which I must say are really worn and a bit ugly but textiles are quite fragile). The most exciting thing about the visit was that the house has a deer park much like Petworth House had. You may remember a previous post about "dog deer", well this time I was able to feed one of them. We had some dried berries in the car for a snack and lucky for us dog deer happen to love dried berries, so one of them ate them from our hands!

Dear Readership,

How cute are they?!

Love, Kristi