Microscopic Me

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One of the christmas presents my dad's family bought for me (I mean boy*jelly) was a digital microscope.

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You plug it into your computer and then think of things you want to look at microscopically.

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So in the name of science, (and because I've shared pretty much everything about me), I give you:

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(Click any picture to see it bigger - if you really want to!)

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My scalp:

. Look! I have two hairs growing out of one follicle!
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My eyelashes:

.A bit blurry because I couldn't keep my eye still long enough for the screen-grab.

Look how much my eye is watering!

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One of my fingernails:
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I promise my hands are clean!

This is the corner of one of my fingernails.

I don't bite my nails - do you?
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My skin:

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This is on my forehead.

Lest you all think I'm a liver-spot, blackhead ridden person, those "spots" are sebacious glands - where you secrete oil from.
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My tongue:
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Those are taste buds.
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And a buzzing gnat thing which just happened to die in front of me *ahem*

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It's so brilliant!

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I (I mean boy*jelly) can't wait until the summer when there are flowers and insects to look at.

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Can you think of anything else I can put under there?

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Leave a comment but keep it clean!

I'm (I mean boy*jelly) not sticking the microscope anywhere ikky.

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All Together Now ...

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Yes. It's the last birthday I'm ever going to celebrate publicly!
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The last one that begins with a 3!
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(PS - keep the music playing ... it's a real toe-tapper!)

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A Little Help Please ....

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Which style camper van looks best?

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Shiny bumper, shiny hubcaps, red stitching on white and stitced on logo.

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. White felt bumper, white stitching on white felt, red button for logo.
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I can't decide which I prefer?
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Please leave any comments below
(but not if you're going to say "they both suck")
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Busy As A Butterfly ....

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I don't often use blog-posts as a place for self-promotion, so I shall hit you with a big whammy in one go ...

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New designs added to the jellybelly*jellybrain product range :

(clicking any of the photos will take you to the right page on the website)

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Personalised Tractor PE bag - with really funky wheels

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Personalised Rocket PE bag - with the shiniest of windows

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Personalised Butterfly PE bag - she's ever so sparkly
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And updated (better) photos of the Personalised Dinosaur, Car and Flower PE bags
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I have two more girls' designs to do - just waiting for some fabric to experiment with, and then I'm sure I'll be introducing them to you!

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Please tell all your friends!

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Fancy A Drink?

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What course of events happen to you if you decide to go out for a drink?

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Is it something like this?

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(Click to see them properly)

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I Spy ... 10 Minutes' Peace!

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I don't know how many of you remember this book from the eighties?
(yes, I know some of you were born in the eighties - sigh)

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Each page represented a different letter from the alphabet and your task was to find as many objects beginning with the letter in each piece of art.

(Click any of the pictures to see larger images)

I can remember spending hours gazing at each drawing and ticking things off as I found them.

Then when I was having a search on Amazon for books for Christmas for boy*jelly, I came across the "I Spy" books by Scholastic.

Each page is beautifully photographed, and they use a huge variety of knick-knacks and trinkets.

boy*jelly spends ages totally absorbed with finding the different objects that the book tells you to find on each page.

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If you have children that can read but don't necessarily enjoy reading to themselves, I thoroughly recommend these books for them.
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There's quite a collection of them listed on Amazon - all I would say is the paperback versions are aimed at younger children and the hardbook ones are for older children.

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(NB - my photos are scans of one-half of a page, so don't go trying to find the things - they may not be on that side of the page!)
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Revealing My Inner Ballerina

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I've just launched our newest design of PE bag - The Ballerina :

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I love how she's turned out - she wears pink gingham bows in her hair, has sparkly stitching on her dress and tiny pink roses on her shoes.
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I enjoyed doing the photo-shoot at a nearby ballet school - although all the girls wanted to be in the shot!
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Available to buy from the website

Oh, and the ballet teacher's name was Sally and her assistant's name is Ally.
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Ally and Sally who teach Ballet.
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You couldn't make it up!
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Choppy Waters

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Okay, so I went swimming last night.
(well I did shave my legs on Sunday and it seemed a shame to waste them)
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Whilst the swimming itself was fine, I've never touched so much human flesh before.
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It was like swimming in human soup.
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There were 3 lanes - fast, medium, and down-right pathetic.
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In my opinion they should have more lanes.
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One lane for proficient swimmers in goggles and swimming-caps.
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One lane for people who can swim well but like to stop after every couple of lengths.
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One lane for people who don't like to get their hair wet so swim with their chins out of the water pulling a gurning face.
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One lane for people who do two lengths and then sit and talk to their friend hogging up the end bit where people want to turn.
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(And men in peach coloured swimming trunks should just stay in the changing room because I nearly drowned thinking he was naked.)
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Still, it wasn't as bad as this pool in Tokyo:
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They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

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There is only so much of the Playhouse Disney channel I can take.

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I'm fed up with hearing about Winnie The Pooh and his scooter adventures

(yes, I did use the words "Winnie The Pooh" and "Scooter" in the same sentence)
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I really don't like Handy Manny and his stupid tools any more.
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And as for Johnny and The Sprites
(or "sprouts" as boy*jelly thinks they're called)
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So after much heated discussion

(which basically went along the lines of "aaaahhhh, no more"!)

we alighted on the subject as to what I used to watch when I was six. M

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My absolute favourite was Mary Mungo and Midge.
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(click the picture to watch an episode)

I had a look on t'internet and found a couple of episodes for him to watch.
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He was transfixed.
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He sat and watched 2 full episodes in one sitting.
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I had no idea until I watched it again just how "Ladybird Books" it was in style.
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I showed him Bod ...

(whilst of course making the obligitary "boop, boop, be, dooop, doop, doop, be, doop, doop" noises to the theme tune)
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(click the picture to watch an episode)
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I did try him on FingerBobs, but he wasn't keen.

(click the picture to watch an episode)
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And he's now currently on his sixth viewing of the film Mary Poppins.

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(I have tried to explain to him that Dick Van Dyke does the worst British accent ever, closely followed by Adam from Mythbusters, but he's not bothered).

I'm sure Winnie, Tigger, Handy Manny and The Imagination Movers will be back in favour soon, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying experiencing the innocence of my youth all over again.

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Why I'm Not Talking To Julia

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Earlier this week on the telephone :
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"Hey Emma, it's Julia!

Do you fancy coming to a pilates class on Friday morning?

It's a new group and we need more ladies to come.

There's no pushing or anything energetic involved".

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(I distinctly remember her saying

"no pushing or anything energetic")
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Me : "Um, yeah, okay. Sounds like fun"
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So this morning I turn up 1 minute after ten and there are 3 ladies plus one very nubile instructor in the middle of their warm-up.
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I was done-for by the end of the warm-up.
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"Okay, everybody grab a band and we'll get started on the

body conditioning element".
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Me (looking quizzically and pointedly at Julia) I mouth the words
"Body Conditioning?!"

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She pretends not to see me.
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The only time I get close to rubber bands is to tie my hair up or when I'm picking red ones off the drive from where the post-man has deposited them.
(I like to think he's keeping them for a later date rather than just dropping

them like a litter lout)
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"And stretch. And hold. Arms out to the side. Keep your back straight."
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And then she utters the words I've been dreading ...
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"Keep your tummy muscles pulled in tight"
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Lady, the last time I could pull my tummy muscles in tight, Queen and

David Bowie were singing "Under Pressure" on Top of The Pops
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Just when I think my arms and leg are on fire (which apparently can become "addictive" - err, not on my planet) we move on to the pilates session.
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Now that I can do.
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Any exercise that involves lying down is okay in my book.
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So now I'm not talking to Julia (or, as she will henceforth be known, "The Liar") and I'm waiting to see if I can get out of bed tomorrow or whether I will stay under the duvet whimpering and curled up in a fetal position .....
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Posterize Your Cinemascope!

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Okay, so reading a lot of UK based blogs, it seems we're all struggling to take decent photographs because of the grey murk we call our weather.

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So now I'm going to let some of you into a little secret ....
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There's a whizzy website called Picnik - I'm sure most of you have seen it popping up on flickr, but maybe you've never got round to having a play with it?
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Here's a photograph I took the other day for my blog post about my bedroom.
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It's okay I suppose, you can make out everything, but it's a bit gloomy and it would have looked great if I'd taken it on a nice, sunny day.
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So here's what I've done with it in Picnik - I've increased the exposure and taken down the temperature :
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Now I would say the above photo has pretty much true-to-life colours
(although it does kind of depend on your monitor of course)
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Here is a picture of one of my PE bags, taken next to a window on a background of white card.
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In the photo above it looks like I've used fluorescent, day-glo red felt and the card looks quite blue.
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In the photo below, I've experimented with the saturation and exposure and now the card looks pretty close to white and the red is a much more natural and less scary colour.
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Once you've familiarised yourself with all the buttons and gizmos, you can really play with your photos!
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Here I've used The "Orton-Ish" feature and applied it to a photo I took in the summer of a peony in the garden.
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On this one I've used one of my favourite features, "Cinemascope" - use with or without the letterbox effect
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This is a photo I took of a Giant Allium plant - I've used the "Focal Soften" tool to make the plant in focus and the background soft.

Have fun with your photos!

Shift Your Point Of View

Remember those fab sets created for TV shows like Thunderbirds and Thomas The Tank Engine?

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Fascinated by Model Villages?

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.Well now you can miniaturise your own photos with the help of this fab website

Here are a few of my own photographs that I've tilt shifted

(click to see larger images)

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Recognise this one? It's the harbour at St Ives in Cornwall
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Don't the boats look like little models?
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This is a photo Mr Jelly took when we were on holiday in Majorca - he climbed a big hill and took this picture of the view for me to see

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Here's another picture taken in Majorca.

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Look at the parasols on the right!
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Another one in Majorca ... couldn't you just picture a big plastic dinosaur coming into view like in a Ray Harryhausen film?

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.And this is my absolute favourite
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.High Street in Castle Combe, which doesn't really need any help to look like a chocolate-box village but this could be a photo of a miniature village!

Some images work better than others, but it's great fun trying it out!

.With thanks to Nikki at WhiMSy love for giving me even more excuses to not do the housework!

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