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This has been a most exciting month for me, I'm well chuffed! After receiving another few rejection letters from some jobs I applied for, but gaining some commissions, I went for it: I am now self-employed! I'm going it alone as a sole-trader under my deviantart name "Ubermidget", and I'll be selling plushies, making commissioned dolls and getting prints of my work made to sell too. I've made a new poll asking what you would buy from me if you saw me at a convention, will you guys let me know what you want from me?

I went to London Expo last month for the first time, and had a fantastic time! I didn't expect it to be quite so friendly and insane though - free hugs and hi-fives in the queues, lots of Cosplayers willing to have their photos taken, crazy dancing lessons and a mad toy seller urging me to buy an unofficial Pink Link! I did buy the Pink Link in the end because he was damaged and in need of fixing! And some TLC cos I'm a big softie myself! It's meant to be Vio Link from LoZ: Four Swords Adventures but the manufacturers got him terribly wrong! I was in Cosplay too, as a "Here Be Demons" minion for , complete with Ram-style demon horns, red shirts and black skirts! I was immensely impressed by 's "Scorpion" Cosplay, I saw her perform in the Cosplay Masquerade. It's a well made outfit and she put on a great performance! I'm hoping to be in full Cosplay for the next London Expo in May and would like to have stuff with me to sell too!

One of my childhood dreams came true this month too - I have my own Yamaha Alto Sexyphone, er SAXOPHONE now! (then again, they ARE sexy eh?)No need to borrow an instrument from the school or University bands I was playing with, I can play my own to my heart's content! I started playing the Clarinet when I was 9 years old, lessons were free as long as I played in the school bands. At 14, I upgraded to an Alto Saxophone (bit strange because the Alto is in E flat, whilst the Clarinet is in B Flat, so I should have been given a Tenor Saxophone. Ah who cares, it's a Saxophone!!!) I've not played for a good 2 years though, so queue the angry neighbours banging on the walls and all the local pets wailing along to my own squeaks and screeches!

I volunteered to help out with the Bradford Animation Festival 2009 last week. Along with 13 other volunteers, we helped the organisers and staff at the National Media Museum in Bradford to do the following: pack goodie bags, handing out festival passes, collecting tickets at the door, ushering, escorting guests to and from the venues for screenings, talks and workshops, fetching water for guests, microphone running in Q & A sessions, guarding luggage and looking after the special guests. In turn, we were given free accommodation and vouchers for our food, and we got to sit in on films, workshops or talks we wanted to see - they really looked after us well, so I felt compelled to work very hard! Not sure I could call it work though - there was a lot of "networking" (ie gasbagging until I'm blue in the face with a sore throat!) being done too! Ian Livingstone from Eidos was there, Joanna Quinn, Claire Jennings ("Coraline" Producer), Alan Gilbey (Awesome Scriptwriter), Billy Allison from Team 17 (he autographed our T-Shirts, he's a great guy and a great animator!) and more! The other BAFettes (volunteers) are amazing people, I miss you all already! Felt weird not having breakfast with you all again on Monday! You're all lovely people and I hope to see you all again next year, or sooner!

I must say hi to all the deviantartists I met at BAF and congratulations to Andy Sykes who won a BAF award for his film "Stupid Table" (about his experience of being placed on the "Stupid Table" in school because he had a hard time reading, then finding other artists that had exactly the same problem!). It struck a chord with me, because I was placed on the "Stupid Table" in primary school for Maths lessons! Here's some food for thought - after watching his film and chatting with Andy and Kerry Drumm at the afterparty, I wondered how many of us are dyslexic with words and numbers, but we excel in the arts and creativity?

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