Meet Sunday George who went off to have an adventure at the Wellcome Collection, where he was officially registered by the artist Keith Wilson, and given a dedicated calendar date of his own. February 11th is Sunday George Day, so remember to celebrate with robots!

You can see more pics here, and see the whole Things calendar here. Check it out; there are some great little stories to discover. Here are some of my own favourite things.

I'm not totally happy with mine, because the sewing pattern [pdf] left me with fat hands and really skinny legs. Also, the mouth is too pale and I forgot to add eyebrows, because I was so busy trying to work out how to make curly hair (I eventually wrapped tapestry wool around pipecleaners, which kept their twisty shape). Here I am, in mini-me form:

And here I am posing with her at last week's Comica Social Club (photo taken by Sarah McIntyre).

You can't really see from the photo, but I'm actually wearing the same outfit as the doll! Sarah has loads more fun pics from Thursday night, with everyone wearing my blue feather boa, on her blog. While I remember, I should link to this too, just for this amusing quote, which I thought might horrify and amuse some of my readers (especially Billy):

"I love Islay whisky, but I can never forget that my grandmother used to go down the road to Bowmore Distillery with a bucket to collect raw whisky for washing her windows. (Cuts the grease like nothing else, she said.)"

Speaking of booze, one thing I want to do this summer is buy a couple of bottles of this and go and drink them somewhere along here…

And speaking of miniature things, I am off to this place tomorrow. I've been wanting to go for years. I love miniature things.

Did you know Post-It Notes are officially 30 years old this year? Actually, they're a little bit older than that, because the men who developed them started in the mid-70s.

Last week, at the third meeting of Stationery Club, we got to talk to one of those very men, Geoff Nicholson, via the medium of Skype. He told us a few funny anecdotes, like the one about his colleague who was trying to stick airplane wings together, but created a "useless kind of glue" that didn't really stick to anything. Or the one about how they schlepped up and down the street trying to sell them even though they all had jobs as industrial designers. But what he most wanted to talk about was how much he liked the fish and chips at some place in west London that burned down last year.

This particular meeting of Stationery Club had a different feel to the previous two. It was in a different pub, which was more expensive and less friendly than the other one, and it was sponsored by some newmedia company (who booked the pub, brought along the tech gear and arranged the interview). Sponsorship meant that when we arrived there were cameras being shoved in our faces without warning (or permission), and there were posters all over the room which had our photos on (taken from the Stationery Club Facebook group, but again without permission).

On the other hand, corporate sponsorship meant freebies from Post-It, although they mostly got utilised in rather silly ways.

@LNT89

@OyeBilly

Funnier still was that it ended up in the local paper. You'd think it would be easy to come up with a short silly message to put on a Post-It for a photo, but there was much discussion and rearranging of said Post-Its before the photographer finally settled on something he was satisfied with. I guess that's what makes him a professional, even if the article is full of errors.

barrysarll

Even funnier than that, though, is the fact that we ended up as an item in the News of the Screws on Sunday. We went out to celebrate on bank holiday Monday, where it all got rather messy, and for some reason rather full of MORBID DETH again, as there were protracted and intense discussions of peoples' favourite serial killers (because apparently people actually choose favourites); what longpig tastes like ("it's very gamey, far more like venison than pork"); and then someone took us to a dingy overpriced bar in Soho and tried to persuade us to eat off a coffin. But we sent some postcards to Adam Ant and there was much love to be shared.

Stationery Club co-founder @iamjamesward with @biltawulf

Stationery Club co-founder @wowser with @biltawulf

(And in between both Stationery Club events there was Comica social club and the MCM Expo but they get blogposts to themselves.) More drunky pics from Stationery Club 2b (i) here.

Incidentally, if you want to make your own Post-It Notes peel-off-paper notepads, here's a crafty how-to on Knotty Yarn.

Day #11: nothing. I'm sure I meant to make something, but I couldn't find anything in the mess of my table, so it looks like I didn't. Oops.

Day #12: card design
Here are various colourways of a card I designed, which was based off this photo but cleaned up and practically redrawn in Photoshop, which took quite a while.

I did print one off but forgot to resize it and it was too big even for A4. I didn't print any more off because I didn't have the cardstock I wanted (also need to replace printer inks, because the teeny samples they give you when you buy a new printer don't last very long). I'm not sure which colourways I like best, either.

Day #13: nothing again. Oh dear.

Day #14: First version of this year's Christmas card. It's based off this photo of agave trees in Hastings.

There are also blue and pink versions, because I originally planned to print the cards on coloured paper and paste them to white cards, but that seemed too fiddly in the end, so I scrapped that idea.

Day #15: Version 2 of this year's Christmas card. This is the version that I gave to people.

Everyone liked it, hurrah!

Day #16: Mini photo zine using photos of found faces. This is one of the early versions. The title comes from the Hello Little Fella group. These pics show it unfolded.

Day #17: Really teensy version of the Hello Little Fella photozine, made for the lads at BERG. The top pic shows it properly folded.

I squeezed four copies to one sheet of A4. Each side was duotoned in green and red colourways for Christmas, but for some reason the red version, which should have been pinkish, came out purple.

Day #18: And nothing, again. Some catching up to do…!

Day #19: Prototype mini photo album made using recycled paper and card, two holes punched, and bound with a plastic straw.

It was supposed to be a stocking-filler gift, but I'll have to make a proper one after Christmas, and give it late. I had to prototype it because a) I hadn't decided how to bind the book, b) the ink in my printer was running out c) I didn't have the photo paper I wanted (these photos are just printed on regular paper), and d) I've discovered I'm crap at cutting straight lines and should get a guillotine to do it properly. Also, I want to give it a better cover, so the plastic straw is hidden.

Day #20: Handprinted wrapping paper. This was made by covering a cardboard triangle with gouache and pressing the shapes onto a sheet of wallpaper liner paper. You can't really tell from the photo, but it's a huge present and printing the paper took quite a while. I think it looks pretty good, though (it actually looks better in real life than it does in the photo).

DAY #1: gift tag notebook (prototype)

Take two gift tags and some strips of remnant wallpaper. Punch holes in the paper and thread with gift tag string.

Easy-peasy. Good for shopping lists and teeny sketches. I'll probably make more, given how easy they are to do.

DAY #2: mince pie dish xmas decoration (prototype)

Take an old mince pie dish, a scrap of card and a picture from a magazine. Cut the base off the pie dish, and cut a hole in the middle. Fold it around the card (as a base — see top picture) and the magazine picture. Fashion a loop from the rim of the pie dish, and attach it to the main part. Hang from Christmas tree.

I might do more of these. This one's a bit messy, but I could be neater now I know what I'm doing.

DAY #3: foam-covered notebook (prototype)

Craft foam, paper strips, staple.

Easy-peasy, again. But not particularly useful, as the foam cover doesn't lie flat (as you can see from the photo). Bit annoying, that.

DAY #4: photo album (prototype)
No pics of this because I took it apart and reused some of the card and paper for other things. I'm going to try it again when I get more card, though.

DAY #5: box (prototype)
Cardboard and paper. I traced the pattern from a box I already had, but should have measured properly because it was a mess and so I abandoned it. Will try again when I get some proper card for it. (bad pics are in my 100 days photoset for completion's sake)

DAY #6: woven paper pocket

Two strips of paper, folded, cut, woven. Bit fiddly, this. Here is my second attempt (the first was a mess)

DAY #7: woven paper pocket

Much neater on the fourth attempt; I feel I can actually use this for something/someone nice. And I will definitely make more now I've got the knack.

DAY #8: decorate the Christmas tree.

Yes, I'm totally counting this as something creative, because it required me to thing about colour/shape and balance. No pics yet, though.

DAY #9: paper ball (prototype)

Cut circles of paper/card, stick one half-circle to the next and repeat

Easy enough. A little bit messy but I can clean it up and stick nice things on the pages.

DAY #10: booze ball book

Same as day 9 but with a theme, taken from magazine pictures.

Again, a bit messy, but fun to look at!

Now I have to think about stuff for the next ten days. Hopefully less prototype and more quality…

I didn't make it to the model trains at the Peoples' Palace, but I did make it to mini comics at, er, the Peoples' Palace. How many Peoples' Palaces are there in London anyway?

Anyway, nomenclature aside, it was a good event, by all accounts. I deliberately arrived late, as past events have seen me run out of money and have hours to hang around doing nothing until everyone packs up to go to the pub. On arrival, I (typically) got distracted from looking at the tables by catching up with friends, including running into some stray Lithers, which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't seem to come away with huge amounts of comics, but I still spent about £30 (including a couple of things that didn't end up in the photograph at the top of the post). I'm not sure how good everyone's sales were, but the event was pretty crowded right up until closing time, which seemed like a good sign.

I must be getting O-L-D though, because I left the pub early, which is something I've been doing a lot of late. Me, who always stays until closing time. Not anymore, it seems. I'm not sure if it's a good thing, or not, as I never seem to get to bed any earlier than if I'd stayed out all night… Instead, I found myself getting a few strange looks on the tube, because reading through my haul of mini comics was making me giggle. Comics that are actually comical, who'da thunk it? Although I was a little disturbed that two comics out of the ten featured villains made of sentient facial hair! (That would be Airship by Sarah McIntyre & David O'Connell, and Francesca Cassavetti's Striptacular Comics Revue.)

There are a few things I regret, though. There were a couple of times when I got distracted by friends just as I was considering a purchase and then never went back to buy, which I feel a bit bad about. And I wish I'd thought to take a photo of Ellen Lindner's glamorous outfit (apparently it was her second choice and she wasn't sure about it, but let's be honest; she always looks great). I did, however, manage to grab the last copy of her brand new collected edition of Undertow, which I've been awaiting the conclusion of since I read the first chapter in her self-published comic Blonde on Blonde in, ooh, 2003 or 2004. Undertow was updated regularly on Webcomics Nation, but it was one I much preferred to read in paper format, so I'm delighted to now have a copy of my own. You should go and buy yours, too, although in my opinion, nothing beats the drama and linework of the last two pages of the opening chapter. Which is not to say that the rest ain't good, 'cos it is!

Also recommended:

• Chloe Noonan – new thing from Marc Ellerby, which is sardonically fun, though I'd love to see the whole thing done in colour. I know, I know, too expensive, but the colours on the front cover are so pretty. Watch Marc's LJ for details on how to get yours.
• Mugwump The Great – pocket-sized lunacy from Roger Langridge; ace as always.
• A Nice Cup of Tea and a Deadline – fans of Sarah McIntyre's blog will already know about this, a collection of some of the cute and funny illustrations and comic strips Sarah posts daily (with a lovely titular headnod to A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down), but you should buy a copy because the selected strips sit really nicely together. Except, I don't know how you can get one 'cos Sarah doesn't have a shop on her site¹. But, you can read her report on the Thing.
• The Everyday – simple, autobiographical strips by Adam Cadwell, with nice low-key observations about the small pleasures in life, illustrated with a lovely, elegant line. I didn't actually buy a copy 'cos of low funds, but I made Fimb buy one, and now I'm pointing you lot in Adam's direction, too.
• Whores of Mensa – I bought the latest issue last year, but now's your chance to buy up all the copies under this particular title, as Ellen informed me that they've just received a Cease-and-Desist from Mensa so they'll have to change the title, and may have to destroy existing issues.
• Tequila Monkey – not comics, but these handmade sugar skull brooches were doing a roaring trade, hardly surprising, as they're cute and affordable (although I'm considering commandeering mine for use as a pin-cushion, is that wrong? It's just that it's perfect!)

¹psst, Sarah, Folksy is a good place to set up an online shop!