Hello lovely family and friends

Grateful thanks to all the Google reviewers!

A couple of friends have asked where I get all the memes from – I originally found a post with some fab ones on Bored Panda, but now I make many of them (it’s so FUN!). All the ones in this blog are my own.

When you were a kid, did you used to hate being told it was bed time?

I did.

I always wanted more time to read, and my kids are the same. Times have changed since we tucked them into bed at 7.30pm and had a child free evening stretching before us. We have reached the point where they both want to stay up later than their parents. And if one of them starts showering in our bathroom before we can get in there, add another hour before we can go to bed. I’m naturally a night owl, but being forced to rise early for centuries to help them get ready for school has curtailed my evening hours. That is why Saturday is wonderful – waking up naturally, no alarm buzzing, drifting in and out of sleep, mulling creatively and finally rising in a leisurely fashion after 9 or 10, sheer luxury. I have, however, been very sleep deprived recently for several reasons.

a) General tiredness due to being a night owl forced to rise early during the week and unable to switch my brain off for ages after putting the light out at night. My husband lies down and is asleep within seconds! SECONDS! How does he do that?

b) A teenage boy sleepover happened – 6 teenagers watching ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’, and laughing until 1.30am in the room next to our bedroom, followed the next day by me preaching a sermon, which involved props and acting, and was actually more like a one woman play. Quite demanding. I was still quite wound up on Sunday night, so poor sleep then due to post-adrenaline Nitro Circus.

c) Monday night we were out for the evening, which always wakes me up.

Then came Tuesday. Tuesday of blessed memory.

Everyone was out. The house was quiet. Golden sunset light was streaming in through the windows. ‘Shall I watch a movie?’ I wondered, as I sat forcing my eyes to reopen after every blink. I could have, but in order to do that, I would have had to use matchsticks to hold my eyelids open, like Mr Bean did, while driving on his holiday in France.

So I went to bed.

At 6.30 pm.

And went straight to sleep.

And slept until the alarm went off at 6.40 am.

It was FABULOUS!

I highly recommend it. 12 hours of sleep is the way forward.

After your refreshing sleep, you stroll into the studio, coffee cup in hand, and mix up some paint.

The glamour, you have no idea.

Yes, that is a yoghurt pot lid, reduce, reuse, recycle… And then you paint an orange:

Detail from the painting Puffin Perch.

And then you drink more coffee. And work on your website.

If you would like to buy a surreal print (for yourself or someone else) they are 25% off until the end of November:

https://barbarapodmore.com/shop/

If you would like to buy a wildlife print (for yourself or someone else) they are also 25% off until the end of November:

https://barbara-magner.pixels.com

And, if you wouldn’t like to buy a print, you wont.

My husband was looking at my print shops and commenting on how many paintings I have made. Yes indeed, that is 10 years worth of work. Spiders keep on spinning webs, artists keep on making art.  If you want to go on a mini safari, have a browse through the wildlife pictures. Makes me yearn for Africa!

So this week, may you do something you love! May you eat 2 minute noodles! And may you sleep!

XX Barbie