Fig 7 Its so nice to be beside the seaside

This is a little montage of my week away spent with my sister 'Gems' who is lucky enough to live in such a beautiful place as Sandbanks, what a retreat away from all the city smoke and the furious speed of London life. We paddled, swam, cycled, danced on a log, hunted for red squirrels on Bramsey Island, sunbathed on stripey deck chairs and beneath blue sky's bigger enough to make a pair of sailors trousers. Am dreaming about my next visit.

Fig 6 My Mum and Dads Shared Sheds

These montages are of my Mum and Dads 'Sheds' Which they call 'Shareds' as they are join together, I love the contrast between my Mums tranquil Summer House compared to my Dads studio, and the way they are so personalized and unique to them individually. My Dads shed has a rustic hands on approach, Its messy and creative. While my mums shed is calm and pretty with a vintage edge. I took these photos as I am always inspired by peoples spaces and work stations, private places to be creative or to collect thoughts or putting thoughts on paper.

Fig 5 A Childs Garden of Verses

It was a rather grey day today, my sister mentioned to me earlier on in the week, that she keeps driving past this very intriguing ' brick a brack ' shop called the "treasure chest". Which she has always wanted to stop by and have a look. So as it was such a dull old day we thought it would be a good day to find some treasure . After about half an hour of rooting and rummaging through endless piles of books & photographs and other memorabilia . My hands pulled out this rather gorgeaous book 'A Childs Garden Of Verses' Illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen, written by Robert Louis Stevenson's. It was printed in 1951. What an absolute treasure love the graphic screen printed illustration which evoke such wit and energy.
The first page starts like this:
" The World is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be so happy as kings."
I walked a away with this beautiful books and two 1920's jelly moulds all for £2.
Not such a bad grey old day after all.

Fig 4 Vision Board

After recently finishing 'The Artists Way' I got very much into making vision boards / mood boards, I use them like I would a diary - a visual diary.

I find images which represent my goals, my aims, what I want to achieve in the future.
So far I have made three for myself and a load for friends and family, they make great birthday presents and christmas presents.

Your wishes and aims change from day to day so its good to keep them lucid.
The small VB top left of pic I made for my friend Fiona before she went to India, she sat down with me and told me her aims and desires for the future and I put it all in a 'Vision Board' which she could keep and look at every day to keep her on track. I have my 'Vision Board' saved on my desktop screen saver, so I can look at what I want to achieve everyday.
Someday I might just get it all.

If you are interested in having your own personalized 'Vision Board' for a small price, let me know I would love to create one for you.

Fig 3 Vintage Deli Beautiful online shop

One Sunday, bitterly cold afternoon in late November. My friend Katy Coe came bouncing in with a huge bag of clothes, and one very big idea " Im going to call my shop 'Vintage Deli ", she beamed at me with her wide grin and smiling eyes. I was completely taken away with her energy and enthusiasm, so we sat in front of our fire and started sketching ideas, not long after I came up with a mark which did and said exactly what Katy wanted, and designed a homepage to show off Katy's collection of beautiful clothes. Her website is up and running and well worth a look...
go to http://www.vintagedeli.co.uk/

Fig 1 Personality Wheel

Fig 2 Alphabet Hunt

During July, I got my friends and colleagues to search high and low for a found letter in a everyday surrounding, to be exhibited in our gallery space ' The wonderwall' in our works reception, I displayed all our found letters on a washing line, which then made a huge word search, I hid eight words so the hunt didn't stop. Life is exciting and beautiful if you open your eyes, this exercise really taught that . My favorite is the letter 'M' above, shaddow of two lovers, who are my close Friends Wendy and Joel who are to be married in the New year I shot this in Victoria Park one fine day.