Grace and Sean on a tour of drinking

Yeah, Grace and Sean got married and everything, you've all seen that. It was fun. Then they went on holiday to Dublin, and took their monsters with them and took some photos and sent me the photos. I am doing well with sentence structure tonight! Aw yes.

I asked Grace if it would be okay if I posted these beauteous photos here, but she didn't reply yet because I guess her dongle is playing up. So I'm just going to do it anyway. I don't think they're private, as far as I'm aware they're on Facebook anyway. So if you know the Galdos you have probably already seen these. If you don't, you're in luck! Here we go!


Okay so here they are with a shot of whiskey or tequila or something.



This exotic location is apparently Preston town centre. Monsters on tour! Woooooo!



Here they are sat in a load of... seeds? I don't know.


A kiss on the baps.



Right so we are definitely in Dublin now. I like the pose, guys. You are cute.



This one's super! Look at that spangle off Grace's sequins! I love this.



Now we are at the whiskey factory!


I don't know where this is but it's nice? I'm not doing too well with these here captions, I suppose I could have just ASKED.


More baps, or more probably, the same baps.



Jameson's time again! My favourite part of this is the little hands holding them up.



Oh that's nice.

So Galdos, you either spent a lot of the holiday in pubs, breweries, distilleries and bakeries, or you only took monstery photos in those places. I want to think the first one. Either way, I love this, I want more, MORE! Please send me monstery holiday snaps everyone. Unless you don't have any monsters in your life, in which case you should totally get one! PLUG.

Oh and Nic sent me a photo, and I don't think she will mind me showing you because it's oh so terribly pretty.



You will recognise Nic because she is all over the background of my blog. Here she is with her and Bob's monsters, and a load of her own knitting. Nic is a bloody good knitter. She can knock up a wicked jumper. She's better than me at clothes because I hate measuring and following patterns, which you can see if you look at the length of Bob's blimmin' legs in this photo. Anyway I like this photo, it's just about the loveliest thing ever and oh by the way they're in France. I think.

That's it for now, give us a shout if you do actually want a monster, because I meant everything I said and I mean EVERYTHING. x

Big Sammy!

Hello. I have been doing another knitted drawing, a little one, for Catherine. She has a big silly dog called Sammy, and she wanted a knitted representation of him in lurid technicolour. Well, I added the technicolour bit, that's how I do things y'see. I have met Sammy twice. The first time he lolloped about and made me nervous. The second time he sat nicely and only tried to eat an entire cake once.

Here is beautiful Sammy, posing for his royal portrait.



His front feet and tail are missing off this photo but you can imagine what they look like.

So what I did next was draw Sammy onto some squared paper and then colour in all the squares methodically. I decided to go for blue and green, told Catherine I was going to knit it with dark blue and greys (so it wasn't all black), and then changed my mind afterwards. So here's that.



He's just such a fabulous model, I love it.

Then I knitted it. This turned out to be a harder task than I had anticipated, partly because I had accidentally coloured some squares half one colour and half another, so I had to kind of wing it in places. Came out all right though. I did it in four parts and sewed them together.



Looking at all the pictures together, it's kind of obvious that I forgot (again) that knit stitches are not square, they are wider than they are tall. So if you make a knitting pattern with square stitches, it will come out squatter and wider than it's supposed to. Luckily, this drawing is small enough that it doesn't really matter. It still looks like Majestic Sammy.

Just look at that face.



I haven't even showed this to Catherine yet but I hope she'll enjoy it. I hope Sammy feels that it is a flattering representation. I think it's quite funny to get a portrait of your pet made, especially a knitted one, but it's also kind of amazing. I might make a portrait of my parents' four cats sitting together like a nice family, and not running away from each other or smacking each other round the face like they do normally. Or all fighting to sit on my dad.

Two Monster Weddings

Hey friends. I have had the most mammoth weekend. I've been all over the shop and been lucky enough to see two sets of friends get hitched, yeah! Both weddings were so beautiful and special in their own ways, and I'm so happy for both couples! Hooray Rachel and Dave and Sean and Grace! You are ace. Oh that rhymes! I'm a poet and I didn't mean to be one.

One thing that both weddings had in common was that they had MONSTERS in them. You may remember me making these and these ages ago. Well get ready to see them again. Yes!

First up I went to Belfast on Thursday to the Rachel and Dave shindig. It was so good. So good. Rachel and Dave are well into their country music and everything, and all the men in the wedding had cowboy hats and bolo ties (I had to look that up) and stuff and it was all wicked. Here are Rach and Dave with the original monsteroos:



Beautiful! The big monsters sat up at the front while the wedding was going on and on the top table at the meal, they are awful sycophants. They had a good time, I could tell.

Now you know I made little cakey monsters too:



There they are on the cake. It was beautiful and simple so it looked well good. Just a simple white sparkly cake, plus cupcakes and biscuits, so pretty. That Calamity Jane poster had Rachel and Dave's faces superimposed on it, well good. They were all over the tables, my favourite was the Lone Ranger one with Rachel's pretty face and Tonto's big veiny man hands.

I'm ashamed to say I was pretty excited about seeing what the monsters would look like on the cake. Nearly as excited as I was about the actual wedding, if not more. No, not more. But excited anyway.

Moving on.

So I stayed in Belfast with my friends for a couple of nights and then pegged it home on Saturday morning, back to my flat for a shower, then straight out again to Preston for Sean and Grace's do. I was a bit demented with rushing around but I eventually managed to calm down and it was a really nice day. Here, have a picture:



Aren't they perfectly GORGEOUS. Couldn't you just dip them in your tea.

Those are little mini monsters for the cake by the way, which is here:



It's a cake of cheese, as in three or four wheels of cheese in tiers instead of cake. Fair enough, it makes no difference to me at all because I do not partake of the dairy produce anyway. Fruit salad all the way me. It's pretty though and I love the royal blue and bright orange combination. Bright colours are my faves, I don't know if you have ever noticed that.

So after the 'cake' had been cut and dished out, Sean put the monsters in his pocket where they remained for the rest of the night.



He also took some of my business cards and flyers and became my impromptu agent, on his blimmin' wedding day. What a guy. You are a guy, Sean. Ta very much.

Both couples will now be on holiday and not read this, but I wanted to get it up here because I'm proud to have played a tiny role in their days. I love them all, they are lucky and they deserve it. I'm totally weddinged out now. If any more people talk about how much they love each other I'm going to gip in their pocket. No, no, I don't mean that.

I do enjoy making the wedding monsters though, what do you think? I could add them to my repertoire. Monsters monsters monsters.

Inky pinky pen and inky

I can smell a dirty stinky. Oh wait! Sorry, I thought I was 6 then.

So my branding, as it were, is still pretty shoddy. For some reason I have generally eschewed getting business cards and flyers printed (easy! Fairly cheap also!) in favour of making them myself (hours of work!) My first ever business cards looked like this:



That's the rubber stamp I made by carving into an eraser (and my fingers). I was really pleased with that. The back had a sticker on it with my email address and this blog and stuff, printed off-kilter on Calps' printer because I had no idea how to make things fit in a template.

So when Jim made my website he used the lettering from my stamp in the logo, but NOT ONLY THAT, he invented an entire font just for me, out of the 8 letters in 'helen makes'. How unbelievably cool is that, I was so made up. So all the lettering on the website is based on the original stampy scruffy thing I made.

Also Jim made me this logo, the smiley monster/ball of wool guy, and I'm abandoning the toadstool effort that means nothing. I currently have no promotional materials with my website URL on, only this flyer with the blog address:



So guess what I am doing!



That's right, I am STAMPING! Making myself some business cards the old fashioned way. I love it.

Here's Step 1:



And here's Step 100000000 because I didn't stop to take photos of the in between stages.



I also made a stamp with the URL on, to go on the other side. That looks like PINK INK! And I said, will that ever come off? I don't think! (The Cat In The Hat Comes Back, sorry) It used to be red, but I've had it for about seven years and it's not any more.



So what do you think of this. As usual I am uncertain. I am also terribly sorry about the post I did the other day, yikes. I hate to boast and I felt like I was. I suppose I should get into the boasting in a big way, but I am not ready yet! Bob's video's good though int it!

I am also going to draw some kind of flyer thing to use as well, I'm not sure how this is going to end up but I'm sure I will show you. My head is full of a cold and also full of job applications, ideas for knitting, bits of old rubbish, etc. I will leave it here for now. Lots of love xx

Monsters On Film

So I have been busy doing various things, half finishing them, abandoning them, and wandering off. That's what I've been doing the last week. How about you?

I made Bob's monster ages ago, and he now lives in a caravan somewhere on the continent so I wasn't expecting this to plop into my inbox:



How exciting! I love it. Music made by Bob as well. What an all round talented dude. Serious.

Oh yeah! I have other things to talk about.

After I posted the Kimya Dawson/Merrill Garbus monsters last week, and plugged it on Twitter, I saw that Kimya had written this:



How good's that? I asked her if she would like me to send the monster somewhere she could get it, and she ignored that. So I guess she doesn't want it. I'm still chuffed with that response though. I am so glad Twitter exists. I'd never talk to anyone otherwise.

Speaking of which, remember how I made Adam and Joe monsters once and met Adam Buxton and gave them to him? I don't think I ever mentioned it here, but he posted a very nice thing on his blog, which I was made up with.

Ugghh, this is really hard to write, I am not good at it. The monsters I've made as part of my People I Like thing are all people who've had some kind of influence on me, or whose work I admire generally, so to get such lovely feedback from them is actually awesome, to me. I'm not just shamelessly self promoting honest! I'm allowed a little show off, once in a while!

(I AM SO GREAT)

People I Like part III (LADIES' EDITION)

Hey. So a lot has happened recently. One of the things that has happened is, I have changed the way my blog looks, you may have noticed that Nic is smiling at you all over the place and the header is LOADS worse than the old one. Do you like it? I really DO. I was trying to get it to look more in sync with my website, with the blue and everything, but my blog is essentially like a scrapbook where I sling everything, so I thought it'd be good if it looked a bit scrappy, too. Luckily, I am very good at making things look scrappy. Result! Also, look over to the right. If you get stuck on here, and you want to go to my website but you've forgotten how, you can click on my fringe there and you'll be transported magically. Hooray! You can just go back and forth all day. But don't, because I don't want you to get the sack because of me.

Another thing that has happened is, I made some stuff. I will get right into this because I think it's going to be a long one. So make yourself a brew NOW, or you might regret it in about three hours.

So all the People I Like so far have been men, that is all right, I like men. I do have a load of women though, that inspire and delight me and make me feel happy.

First up is Merrill Garbus. If you don't recognise her name, she's the singer from tUnEyArDs. This is her, lookit:



I only got wind of tUnEyArDs' music earlier this year, and I was INSTANTLY obsessed with it. It was like, 'this is EXACTLY what I want, it's PERFECT for me, I am so pleased yes'. I went to see them in June and it was fantastic, oh my lord. One of the best things I have ever, ever seen in my life. Merrill looks amazing on stage, she belts out these powerful, crazy, mental noises and loops them and layers them and bangs drums and it's so primal and animal, it blew my mind to bits. I stood there for the whole show practically shaking because I was so overwhelmed, and on the way home I nearly cried because I know that I'll never exude such confidence and power, she is clearly having a great time and she whips the crowd into a right frenzy as well. It's wicked. Argh! I am such a loser.



So I tried to dress the monster like Merrill was dressed when I saw her live, but I couldn't remember really. I know she had face paint like that, and I think she had huge frilly sleeves made out of, like, tulle. Or whatever that stuff is that you make petticoats out of. I used a hyperbolic crochet technique to make big fat sleeves, which turns out to be kind of hard to photograph:



Hmm. It's a cool technique and a really easy way to make something which looks pretty great. You can see what I'm talking about a bit better here. You get a lot of people making coral reefs this way. I think I was also thinking of Bjork's dress at the Biophilia show, which made her look a bit like a coral reef. There aren't any photos of it on the internet, apparently. Oh well!

Also I only made one sleeve, because it took me about three hours. I think it looks pretty good balancing the cascade of hair on the other side.

Okay so that's her. She's wicked.

Another Person I Like is Kimya Dawson. She's an old school girlcrush of mine.



I don't know what I was going to write about Kimya Dawson because I made this monster ages ago. I've been listening to her for years and reading her blogs and stuff on the internet for slightly fewer years. She seems like a nice person and she does a lot to champion people with problems, addicts, shy people, people who don't fit in very much. I find her tremendously inspiring. She looks amazing as well. I think I'm drawn to women who find their own style and who embrace this sort of colourful DIY, punk aesthetic, because that's what I like as well (says the woman who wears the same hoodie every day).

This is how I chose to represent her tattoos:





What a copout, eh? This is supposed to represent an inner lip tattoo: it says '2 LEGIT'.



Thundercats T-shirt:



Uh huh. Aaaand, these are the ears from my Superted costume that I wore once. I doubt I will wear it again, so Kimya can have them.



Anyway so I guess I will post those monsters off, to frighten and confuse some people who I have a great deal of respect for. Yesssss!

Aaahh. The third thing that happened was that I finished my job at the Arts Council. I was absolutely gutted to leave and I was really touched by all the lovely comments from everyone there. I never realised I had made any kind of impression on anyone, I hardly ever even spoke to anybody. So that's the end of that chapter, I will be looking for a job from now on, AGAIN. I feel pretty okay at the moment. Hopefully I will stay like it.

All right guys, phew! My mega-post has come to an abrupt end. Hope you weren't too bored. Take it easy and see you again soon, x

G-force and S-express

Well hello there, welcome, welcome! I hope you are well. It's been ages again hasn't it! I'm a right slacker. Not to worry, I am about to present you with the WORST photos I've ever taken, so its all right.

Remember ages ago, I made some monsters for Rachel and Dave for their wedding? Well it appears I'm making a habit of this. THIS is Grace and Sean.



I don't think Grace will thank me for this one to be honest, but it's not like she's never posted photos of me on Facebook, falling-down drunk and looking like a spanner, is it?

I met Grace and Sean about 6 years ago in Seville, where we were learning to teach English as a second language. We all lived together in a big house with a load of other friendly people, and drank a lot of horrible sangria out of cartons. Then the course ended and we all went our separate ways, but through the magic of social networking we have managed to stay in touch, more or less.

Anyway then I came back to Manchester to concentrate on being miserable and temping, and Grace and Sean went off and had some adventures and stuff, and now they are married and everything, and best of all moving to Manchester to be near ME! That is the only reason!

So because Grace is English and Sean is American, they have to have two weddings, don't they. The English one is pretty soon and they asked me to make them some little monsters to celebrate.

Now before I show you these: they ARE the worst photos ever. I have a wack camera and not enough light, and I like to saturate all the colours and I have no skills. There I said it.

So here's Grace:



I decided to indicate that she's wearing a long dress by crocheting a worm emerging from a flower, and not giving her any legs. I think it works well.

This is Sean.



He favours big trainers and a baseball cap, so you know, why wouldn't he wear them at his wedding too? I put a star on his cap as well, why didn't I just embroider THIS BOY IS AMERICAN across his face? Because there isn't room, that's why.

The happy couple.



Hope you enjoyed that. If you want to see some more monsters, or order one, or something, then you're in luck because I'VE GOT A NEW WEBSITE! It was designed by Jim McDougall and it's the complete biz. Take a look. Unless you were directed to this blog from there, in which case never mind.

Oh my lordy this month has been crazy. I've been going mental what with one thing or another, and I haven't had time to do anything much to show you. I am sad to say that my job at the Arts Council finishes next Friday, which I'm upset about, but hopefully I will have a bit more time to do some work, which is Good News. I have some other stuff which I will post very soon, so keep an eye out, okay? Okay? Hasta luego x