Claire's blog

It’s a slightly worrying place, applying for new jobs.  I’m lucky, in that I have family to support me, but it’s still a bit dispiriting sending job applications into the ether and keeping your fingers crossed.  But today I got an invitation to interview in just over a weeks time – lovely to know that […]

*Sweeps dust and cobwebs away, lots of coughing* So it’s been a really long time without posting, but it seems time to start again.  Since last posting I got a new job and moved to Wales, and then got made redundant a few weeks ago.  So it’s back to job-hunting for me.  In the meantime […]

I’ve been meaning to get some for a while, but haven’t been sure what I wanted or how to choose.  But I came across this company last week, and loved the fact that in a box of 100 cards, you can have up to 100 different images!  Perfect for me, as I wanted to show […]

It’s that time of year again, and Patchings hold an exhibition of work by all of the studio artists and tutors.  I’ve just finished the last of my pieces, ready to be dropped off tomorrow. I’ve done a couple of pictures, one a re-worked version of the central panel from my Icon, the other a […]

It’s Grandad’s 80th birthday tomorrow, so today we had a family get together.  We don’t often get this many of us together in one place, so took the chance to have a big family photo – here we are, almost all of the Crouchleys plus hangers on 🙂

Mandy dropped by Patchings today to meet up with all of us, and we had a meal together.  She’s looking pretty well, although she tires easily at the moment, but it was lovely to see her.  We all brought something (I made fairy cakes), and it worked out to a great meal and a nice […]

As part of the birthday/anniversary celebrations, Mum and Dad got tickets to go and see the Sound of Music on the West End.  They bought tickets for me and Rob as well and for our grandparents (Dad’s side), and we arranged that we’d all meet in London at the Dorchester for Afternoon Tea today.  My grandparents live in […]

Put in more work on my Bead Journal Project page – at this rate I might even catch up!  I think I’m going to have to gild the face as well, but I’ll wait until the page is finished before I do that. It’s Mum’s birthday today (happy birthday Mum!), and she and Dad have […]

I’ve just got back from Pembrokeshire, where I was visiting a couple of friends I used to share a house with in Liverpool.  Caroline is now a vet working at a practice in Wales, and as we hadn’t seen each other since Ruth’s wedding (5 years ago now!) she invited myself and Ruth to come […]

Ok, so I’m a sucker for a funny website – especially one with pictures of kittens - and I just got sent a whole batch of them… Review: Juvenile felis catus Kitten standard configuration CAT user manual

Wilbeary’s off on his travels again, this time to Hungary.  Mum, Dad and the bear are driving there via London and Frankfurt, touring some of the country, and coming back via Nuremburg and Brussels.  As always he’ll post about the trip on his blog.

It’s finally come, I’ve moved back to the UK (Nottingham to be precise).  The movers were here until 2.30 this morning, and I had to leave for Dublin to catch the ferry at about 4.30am, so in the end I didn’t bother with going to bed.  I just gave the flat a quick clean, had […]

The streets of Galway are loads of fun at the moment, as the Arts Festival began on Monday.  It’s a real shame I have to leave tomorrow!    

I’m going to be tutoring at the Patchings Art Centre Childrens Activities, so I’ve been trying various things trying to come up with a suitable project.  I thought this little bear was rather cute (turned out to take too much time to be used for the activities though).

My last full weekend living in Ireland (I leave next Saturday), and it was a beautiful day when I woke up so I decided to take advantage of it and take myself out for the day.  I started by driving west into Connemara to Spiddal, partly because it’s a nice drive, but I also wanted […]

I had to go into London today for a meeting, and when I set off home was in time to see some of the Tour de France taking place around Trafalgar. They came speading down the Mall into Trafalgar Square, before turning down Whitehall. I hung around for a while watching, there were tv screens […]

One advantage of living in a rainy country – we do get good rainbows 🙂

It’s my last day at work.  Very sad 😥 ETA: Well, my official last day.  As it turns out it looks like I’ll be in and out next week, so doesn’t really feel like my last day…

My work computer is now fully fixed and running at full speed (hooray!), so I’m staying at work to finally finish going through ALL of my emails.  I’ve been skimming them, and trying to keep on top of stuff, but quite a few have piled up.  I’m also hanging around because it’s summer student season […]

I’m on a computer!  Ok, this might not sound like much, but I’ve been without one for about a week now.  My personal laptop is having problems (it works fine once it’s started, but it takes me about 30min-1 hour to get it started properly), and when I came back into work on Monday (after […]