December 2025

In some ways December is my favourite month of the year, and the main reason for that is that there's a blessed period of around 8 days where no one emails me

 

At the start of the month however, I was still BUSY. This day, specifically, using the pen plotter at uni to make my Christmas cards. Never again :) (It was a faff and my boss Keir did most of the hard work! Also I don't think anyone even knew they were pen-plottered). Next year note to self to just do something easy.

 
While pen-plottering the last of my cards, Keir and I also plotted the entire next term of our MA delivery. I embellished my already quite chaotic big-piece-of-paper diagram for my visual diary because I was so pleased with it

Another example of 'I am too tired to visual diary but I made something cool at work that I am going to hack to pieces and turn into something else' — I was teaching some illustration evening classes with teenagers from around London, and this session was about creating fantastical visions. Fantastical creatures, fantastical buildings, fantastical modes of transport, and fantastical people. This is really not the kind of thing I usually draw, and I was mostly focussed on helping the students with their ideas and chatting with them, but this was what I did, and later pieced together the individual elements into a strange scene.

10% of the time, the food in the uni canteen is truly excellent I am genuinely delighted. 30% of the time, the food in the uni canteen is just straightforwardly good. 50% of the time the food in the uni canteen fills a hole at a reasonable price. 9% of the time, the food in the uni canteen is actively unpleasant. and 1% of the time the food in the uni canteen is so bad that an hour later I genuinely feel like I am about to vomit in front of an entire class of students.

I am obsessed with barrel trousers. I need to stop buying more pairs of barrel trousers.

December is the season for artists open studios, so on this Saturday I went to TWO — Cockpit Studios where my pal Lucy is Marmor Paperie, and my other pal V's ceramics studio. (Then I tried to draw some of Lucy's lovely marbling and V's nice vase)

There was always this weird 'shop' down the road from us that wasn't actually a shop at all. But it had the 'express dairy co' sign immaculately maintained, and there'd always be weird artistic assemblages in the window. Anyway, the guy who lived and worked there died this summer, and his family opened up the house and all his weird art for anyone in the neighbourhood to go in and explore, and it was great.

KJ refused to go for a walk for a couple of days, but there was nothing else obviously wrong with her. Maybe she was a bit achey, or maybe she is simply a strange little person who is allowed to have her whims.

Went life drawing but was not particularly good at it, this time. (Always fun to try though)

Teaching my final evening class of the set, my young students combined their banal still life drawings of mundane scenes around the building with some of their fantastical elements. I took my drawings of chairs and added a (slightly) futuristic raised railway, obviously.

 

I bunked off all of my work christmas parties because I was tired and not in the mood for being social :)

AND because I wanted to save my energy for pal Jade's birthday Ceilidh in Brighton the next night! (Which was very fun as always)

When I was growing up we were only allowed to get christmas tree after school term ended, and I stick to that principle now (uni ended on the 12th!)

 My partner's friend sold us his second-hand BOB countertop dishwasher, and I LOVE BOB

I like the few days where the willows drop their leaves and they're still bright yellow on the ground before fading to brown

As part of my professional train-liker obligations, I went to see the 'Cockfosters' comedy play at the theatre with my partner and our friend Kath. It was... fine :) A little too slapstick/OTT for my liking, but they did get in a LOT of good train references

KJ's here to let you know — she'd like more dinner

I went to the work 'staff development day'. (AKA stuff fun activities day) but the wreath making workshop was sold out so my heart wasn't really in it for the life drawing I did go to. Mostly I just wanted my free lunch at Mercato.

I took a couple of months off volunteering at Samaritans because I was so overwhelmed at work, but it was nice to be back to all the familiar routines like getting too much free stale bread from Gails and everyone being scared of the boiling water tap.

Drew this while watching the strictly final on the assumption that Carlos would NOT win and then he DID win (so he's not only my winner but also like, the winner winner). (Karen is also good but I am really in it for Carlos and Julian tbh)

 
Went to my parents overnight for a little pre-christmas festivity with an Indian takeaway, strictly final, and cuddles with my dog sister.

Did a cheeky lil bit of London loop!

I did my last Samaritans shift of the year, and thus my final proper-out-of-the-house errand before Christmas. YAY! But Kelly Jessie got kennel cough! BOO. (Only a mild case, she's fine now)

My partner went to do christmas with their mother up north, and I fulled leaned into the luxury emma lifestyle (of just leaving things out everywhere)

Nice chill Christmas day of me and KJ watching TV and playing video games and eating tasty food. (I love solo Christmas where I have everything my way :)

 
Gift from my parents was some cash towards a new ipad. I got my current ipad in 2020 secondhand from CEX (I think it was a 2016 model), so it's done me really well! But it was starting to lag and the OS alone was taking up over half the paltry 32gb storage, so given I use it so much for work these days I decided it was worth getting a new(er) one, still secondhand from CEX. It's good!!! (You will not be able to tell from any difference in my drawings but it was starting to get to the stage where there was sometimes quite a lot of lag, so hopefully doing my visual diaries will be a little bit more pleasant!)

Here is self-portrait with new ipad (on sofa, with heated blanket, where I have mostly been since the 23rd)

 

Me and some of my best friends are going to go on a holiday later this year! It was a fun challenge trying to choose a holiday cottage to make us all happy (Dav, I am sorry about your moustache. I don't know what happened)

 In a vague attempt to revive my old 'christmas II' tradition (on a much smaller scale and not in my house), me and some lovely friends went to Toby Carvery for a roast (there should have been many more lovely friends but sickness/childcare woes/fatigue hindered the full gang). Anywhere here we all are as badly drawn Toby jugs.

I went out walking in my neighbourhood around sunset and I saw this tree and wanted to draw it. (I really like how it came out)

And today I did a LONDON LOOP!! A full one this time too, in the always-lovely company of Jay. Good to end the year on a solid nearly-nine-mile hike in the glorious sunshine (also I have been to Cockfosters twice this month and seen the Cockfosters play so I am obviously having my Cockfosters moment)

Happy 2026 everyone, and thanks for looking at my silly drawings for another year. It's nice to have you along for the ride xx 

November 2025

It has occurred to me many times this month that were I not having such a nice time I would probably have burned out by now 🙃 (It's fine, Christmas is just round the corner)

Sadly the never-ending freelance fear of saying no will forever burden me (You can say no to work Emma!!! Especially work that is no fun and not very well paid!!!), and I am having such a nice time with my teaching work for the most part that I am definitely doing more than I need to there as well... 

Have my visual diaries suffered because I am working 9 – 10 hours most days?! PERHAPS. You, my lovely readers, can be the judge...

 

 

Kelly Jessie doesn't have to worry about working too hard. She just falls asleep with her licky-bowl on her head. (Ironically Kelly-Jessie is part of the reason that somehow despite working so bloody hard I'm still, frequently, broke, as she is somehow the most expensive dog I've ever owned)

 

 

Someone at my Quaker Meeting said this to me, and I took it as very high style praise. (Doin' this daily visual diary thing since 2013 and I still can't draw hands)

 

 

To further add to my stress, both my laptop and tablet are DYING (my laptop has been dying for over a year, but no really this time), and I have no money to replace them. However, after some persistence with the IT department at work I managed to get my work laptop actually functional (you have to go through a very convoluted process to install various software that I need in order to function, like Dropbox, Notion etc, but I did ultimately manage it after lots of admin). So the immediate crisis has been averted, though I don't entirely like having to work on a laptop that is not actually mine, needs must for now. Plus there are one or two pieces of software that the IT overlords will not let me have, like Affinity Publisher and Audacity with the right plugin. Sigh.

I can do both good cop and bad cop, as a tutor :)

Last year it seemed like Jessie didn't mind the fireworks, but this year she really did mind, for some reason. Had a stressful few days of desperately trying to console her to a cacophany of incredibly loud bangs, while also furiously working into the evenings on a laptop that was rainbow wheeling every few clicks, sob

One of my amazing MA Design for Data Vis students set up her own independent exhibition exploring the topic of TERMS AND CONDITIONS!! (https://didntreadthetandcs.com/) It was great and she is great (and I got to hang out with lots of cool people) 

Having been watching all of Adventure time for MANY MONTHS, we finally finished Adventure Time. What a fuckin' masterpiece, eh lads? (We are now watching spin off Fionna and Cake which is also surprisingly good)

After a long hiatus, somehow found time to do a London Loop with Jay. Progress!!

I used to hate when it started getting dark early, but somehow it's okay these days. No SAD for me!

 

I still hate rain though! (Took this photo during a brief beautiful moment of sunlight on an otherwise dismal grey day) 

Was up all night feeling like I was about to vomit (Emma's phobia) and convinced I had norovirus (Emma's worst fear), but in the end I was... fine? (And crucially did not vomit even once). 

I like to think I am mostly keeping on top of things, but I did arrive half an hour late for a teaching session (in my defence, the time was changed!!) — the students all whooped and cheered when I walked in, which I initially thought was lovely and then realised it was because they were all super annoyed with me, oops

One thing about teaching that I totally suck at is learning names. I can remember faces, and I can mostly connect students projects and ideas to said faces, but actually recalling their names desperately eludes me. I often have to refer to the little photo sheets the admin team give us, but annoyingly because it's the students themselves who supply the photos during the application process, they are often... unhelpful.

My partner got a cute little boardgame called Botswana which everyone else likes more than me (it's quite good but it doesn't like, set my world on fire). We had our old housemate Beth and partner Angus over for dinner and games, and it was fun (and had been way too long)

 
Mum took me to see the Kerry James Marshall exhibition at the RA and I really enjoyed it (but there's absolutely no way I would have paid the £££ they charge to go see it myself, so thanks mum!)

 
My partner managed to get some old Mario Kart games running, so we played a little. This continues to live rent free in my head, and probably will forever.  

 
And then suddenly, it's SHOW TIME! Degree show time, that is. The 15 month MA courses at LCC have their shows in November (unlike most courses which have shows in summer). I've never been quite so closely involved in making a show happen before, and hoo boy it's a ride.

Formerly reasonable students suddenly become extremely unreasonable...

...And I have to summon what limited DIY skills I have buried deep down inside me (actually untrue, my colleague Keir does it all and I just hold things in place while wearing dunagrees so I look like I might be good at DIY)...

But we did it!!! And I collapse.

Collapse... straight onto a train to York to see those boys! (Also new friend Alina was there briefly)

 On Saturday we did an escape room! It was great! We were slow!

I love staying with Justin and Dav, but I also wish they perhaps had 1 (one) more comfortable armchair...

This was the first time we had left KJ behind with a house/dog-sitter. She had an extremely good weekend and literally did not even care whether we ever came back or not. 

 AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH (every day is like this at the moment)

 

Because I am a huge idiot/glutton for punishment/ambitious individual trying to progress in her career/still somehow broke, I agreed to teach a short run of evening classes with 16/17 year olds thinking about coming to study creative arts subjects at uni. They let me teach illustration!! Woohoo!! Here is a REAL DRAWING I DREW ON PAPER (for the first time in yonks) (It was fun, actually!)

Had fun trying to capture the feeling of everything being a bit much

And then spent a rare no-teaching day trying to clear the inbox, only for three separate freelance clients to email me AFTER 5 on a FRIDAY with tasks. I should be safe after 5 on a Friday!!! Nothing more on the pile please!!!

Yesterday I had a nice treat, which was getting the train to Margate and sitting behind a table at a zine fair with my pal Keir all day. Margate was anticipatedly grey and rainy, but I still got my chips with curry and mushy peas, and was treated to a lovely sunset on the train home.

I feel like I should probably print this one off and pin it on the wall of my kitchen.

Evergreen (pun intended) advice.

Onwards to December, where hopefully Emma will finally log off for a bit. (I will never log off)