Morning // Evening

This week we've had a mini heatwave of sorts, each day has been sunnier than the last! I've really been enjoying the beautiful light in the mornings, and the warm Autumn evenings too. I bought some sunflowers on Tuesday and their sunny yellow has been cheering me up over breakfast each morning. In the evenings Tom's been busy painting signs for his gig tomorrow night. I'm excited!

Retro Tesco

I'm not the biggest fan of Tesco, but I enjoyed looking through some of these photos of a replica 1960s version of the supermarket, which popped up last weekend as part of the Goodwood Revival. Looking at all that packaging, it's interesting to see how much or how little different brand designs have changed over the years. You can see more pictures here. [seen via computer arts]

Cycling through the city

On Sunday me and a couple of friends joined in on a Cycle City Ride through Nottingham. About twenty people showed up despite the grey weather, to cycle from the Toll Bridge to the University Park. It was a lovely way to try out new cycle routes and we stopped off at the old Raleigh building on the way. We finished the ride at Nottingham University cafe and had some lovely soup and cake to energise us for the trip back!

You can see me on my red bike second along! Photo taken by Julian, the organiser

Our rewards at the end of the ride, yum!

You can still see the Raleigh logo on the building, above!

The famous Raleigh Bicycle Company began right here in Nottingham in 1887. There is still a Raleigh centre in Nottinghamshire but the bikes are now manufactured in Asia. It's a real shame that there isn't a proper Raleigh museum here - some bicycles can be found at the transport museum at Wollaton Park but it would be great to see a proper place dedicated to the history of one of the most successful bike companies in the world. I also found out that my bicycle is a Triumph, and the company also began here in Nottingham, hurrah!

Scary Monsters

On Saturday afternoon we invited some friends over for a spot of finger painting! Who says it's just for kids?! The idea was to make some Halloween bunting for a shindig next month (you have to prepare early for these things!) so we all painted scary characters onto some triangles to string up at the end. The results were pretty funny! Finger painting is actually pretty hard so we did resort to brushes in the end!

Film Friday: Buffalo 66

This was the second time I'd watched Buffalo 66, but for some reason I'd completely forgotten how it ended. The film is written by and stars Vincent Gallo as a troubled man who has just got out of prison. He bumps into Christina Ricci's character and decides to kidnap her and take her to meet his parents. Say what you will about Gallo, the film is original and has a lot of awkwardly funny moments, such as the scene in the photobooth which still amuses me to watch!

Inspiration: Kareena Zerefos

I really love these paintings by London based artist Kareena Zerefos, aren't they lovely? They're inspiring me to make more animal hats to join this one! See more of her portraits here. As seen via design work life.

Weekend in pictures

This weekend we headed to Manchester to celebrate Tom's sister's birthday. We had a lovely time eating sushi at Wasabi (and trying Bubble Tea for the first time - I had a Lychee flavoured one with added 'explosion' bubbles, it was interesting to say the least!) We then went tried to dodge the rain as we explored some pubs in the Northern Quarter before ending the night dancing to a brilliant ska band. Manchester is definitely a great place to to spend a weekend, and I hope we can head back there soon to explore a bit more!

Tom's sister decorated her table with transfers of Totoro and friends, isn't it cute?

In the mix

I've made my first couple of mix cd's for peeps! They'll be winging their way to their recipients this week. Two more to make after this!

Currently reading...

A few books I picked up lately.

1 52 Photographic Projects by Kevin Meredith.

This book is jam packed full of great photo project ideas, and beautiful photos for added inspiration. A few of the projects I've already tried, like 'jumping' photos or experimenting with lights but there are lots of others I'm excited about doing, like taking long exposures of starry night skies or taking photos of mundane objects every day, making them appear beautiful.

There's also chapters on polaroids, redscale film and other lomo cameras to experiment with. I might try and work my way through the book soon and report back with my results!

2 Cake Days - The Hummingbird Bakery cook book

I recently picked this up from the library, the pictures are gorgeous and there are lots of great cake recipes to try, divided into seasons.

I'm most excited about making some Halloween themed things for next month and this Spider web cheesecake looks ace. Has anyone else tried making any of the recipes in here?

3 How to Be Free by Tom Hodgkinson

I recently read about this book on Words that can only be your own and decided to get a copy myself. How to be Free is a book about how consumer culture is getting the better of us, and how to lead a simpler life by rejecting supermarkets, bureaucracy and more. A lot of his suggestions we've already done; learnt the ukulele, got a piano and cancelled our TV licence!

But a few of his suggestions do seem a little contradictory, for example choosing not to purchase things but also treating yourself to fancy foods and alcohol.. hmm. But it's interesting reading how society has changed over the past few hundred years and the message of living a life free of modern stresses is a good one.

Film Friday: Better off Dead

Hmm, what to say about this mid 80s comedy starring a young John Cusack... on the surface it's a film about a boy whose girlfriend breaks up with him, leading him to attempt suicide in a number of 'creative' ways. The plotline gets more ridiculous as the film goes on as Cusack's character attempts to impress the ladies with his skiing skills whilst trying to avoid a crazy paperboy. You'll have to watch it to make any sense of it, it's certainly bizarre!

Weekend in pictures

This past weekend was a good one, starting with a flying visit to see my Nan in her new house. She seemed very happy, we all had a few games on the iPad (you can play Boggle on it, who knew?!) and I can't wait to visit her again soon. On saturday night Tom's band performed their first gig! At a David Bowie covers night. We all wore masks and had a thoroughly Bowie-filled evening. How was your weekend?

Goodbye old house

Recently my Grandma moved out of the house she'd lived in for nearly 60 years, to a new smaller home which I'm visiting this weekend. The last time I stayed at her old house I took a few photos to remind me of the place I have so many fond memories of visiting as a child. I'm also writing a comic about the story of the house which I'm going to give to my Nan for her birthday in November.