Sunday Sunday

A wet and windy weekend spent...


Cat sitting for a friend


Avoiding the outside whenever possible


Baking cookies (excuse my Sunday don't-care hair)


Listening to Tom play tunes




Visiting some friends' cosy new home


Drinking tea


And relaxing... how did you spend yours?

Book sculpting

Just wanted to share these amazing book sculptures, made by artist Alexander Korzer-Robinson. They are created from old annuals and encyclopedias, using images found on each page to create layered artworks. See more here. [found via english muse] Happy weekend folks x

Film Friday: Almost Famous

It was good to give 'Almost Famous' another watch. The film is based on Cameron Crowe's younger days when he became a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. I'd forgotten how many well known people star in it too (including Dwight from the Office very briefly.. and Fairuza Balk, playing the character she always plays!) And I know it's a bit of a girly cliche but I did really want all of Penny Lane's outfits..

Things to do on a rainy day..

As the rain seems to be continuing for at least another week (according to weather reports..) I thought I'd do a little guide on fun things to do in Nottingham when it rains! (Though they probably apply to other cities as well.)

1. Soak up some culture at the local galleries

Nottingham has some fantastic galleries. Nottingham Contemporary, based in the historic Lace Market is a great space to explore (and the shop is ace), the new exhibition there begins on May 5th. Also worth a visit is the New Art Exchange in Forest Fields, a simple couple of stops from the town centre by tram. A new exhibition has just begun there and there are other events worth going to (including the upcoming Superhero Saturday which sounds great fun for families!)

2. Play some board games in a cosy pub

If all else fails or you are fed up of shopping, retire to one of Nottingham's pubs and play a few games. Pubs with board games include the Peacock on Mansfield Rd, the Ropewalk on Canning Circus & the Malt Cross.

3. Go for a tea and cake

Nottingham has some great places to go for a cuppa, including Lee Rosy's, the Jam Cafe and the White Rabbit Tea Rooms. Although be warned, they do get quite busy when the weather gets bad!

4. Check out a film at an independent cinema

The Broadway has a great selection of films coming out (including the new Wes Anderson film next month, hurrah) and the Savoy is a really lovely old cinema with cheap tickets to boot.

5. Go for a cave tour

Nottingham has a huge number of underground caves, which you can visit on numerous cave tours throughout the year. Tours start from the Broadmarsh Centre or the Castle and are a guaranteed way of avoiding the weather.

Ada's Adventures in Nottingham

Last week I had a special visitor arrive on my doorstep - Ada the globetrotting doll had arrived! In case you're unfamiliar, Ada has visited a huge number of folks around the world, in faraway places including Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong and merry old England. See part one of her trip to Nottingham here.

Sketchbook Sundays

This week I thought I'd share a few pages from some of my old sketchbooks. A couple of years ago I started using sketchbooks as a sort of daily diary which I no longer seem to keep up, but it's really fun to look back through them a few years later. Me & Tom also used to go to a weekly Drawing Group which was a great way to practise our skills by drawing the different people who attended.


Berlin


Kat & Rosie


Watching Evil Dead


Woman on the U-Bahn, Berlin


At Drawing Group


If you'd like to share pages from your sketchbook just drop me an email.

Just a minute - April

Well so far this month has been a bit of a wash-out! I'm not sure what happened to the sunshine last month but it has been replaced with April showers meaning many a wet walk to the bus stop and back. However this means more time to stay in, cook nice food, read and watch numerous box sets!

Reading How to be a Woman, and enjoying it so far!
Watching New Louis Theroux episodes. I love Louis.
Loving My red polka-dot umbrella, a very useful Christmas present indeed!
Wanting May, sunshine and holidays to arrive.
Playing Scrabble, Jenga & Taboo with friends. You can't beat a good board game.

Film Friday: the King of Kong

Nothing to do with the original King Kong, this documentary looks at the competition between two video game fans to become world champion of classic 80's arcade game, Donkey Kong! This was recently recommended to us and it was pretty entertaining. Steve Wiebe ("the nice guy") claims he has broken the reigning champion's score set in the 80's (Billy Mitchell - the mean arch enemy) but Mitchell has other ideas. The film is full of interviews with slightly geeky gamers and has a lot of funny moments to boot.

Sketchbook Sundays

This weekend I'm really happy to publish some pages by Derbyshire illustrator Andrea Joseph. Andrea often uses ballpoint pens in her work and every sketch is amazingly detailed. Make sure you check out her blog for more inspiring moleskine pages or you can buy prints and zines from her Etsy shop here.

Film Friday: Back to the Future

When you're feeling a bit low or under the weather there's only one film to reach for! Back to the Future never fails to put a smile on my face (especially any of the parts with Crispin Glover in them).

Nice things for Spring

For some reason a lot of my friends and family (including myself!) all have Spring birthdays, so I thought I'd do a little nature-themed treasury of nice things for Spring time.

Clockwise from top left: Wooden butterfly necklace, £7 by Ladybird Likes, Abby egg cup, £6 by Urban Outfitters, Kite & Ribbon brooch, £9 by Lucie Ellen, Wooden bird house, £12.50 M&S, Hello Magpie print, £12 by Amy Blackwell, Wooden deer brooch, £8 by Layla Amber, Prairie Rose bike seat cover, £5, Paperchase, Vintage Ladybird Book of Birds, £3.50, eBay.

Film Friday: Honey I Shrunk the Kids

As it's Easter weekend I thought I'd choose a classic 80s kids film. I'd not watched this since it came out so it was pretty fun to rewatch. Some scenes still stood out in my memory more than others - the cereal scene, the dying bee and the bit where they run over the dog's nose! And Rick Moranis is pretty great as the clumsy scientist who accidentally discovers the key to making things tiny. Have a happy long weekend folks x

How to make a Camera Obscura

On Saturday I helped out at another workshop at the New Art Exchange, this time learning how to build a camera obscura. For anyone unfamilar, a camera obscura is a device that projects images onto a screen, which was the precursor to the camera which was invented in the 1830s. Artists such as Vermeer reportedly used them as a drawing tool in the 17th century.

They were often found in seaside resorts in the 19th century and these days you can see examples in Edinburgh, Bristol, Greenwich and other towns (as well as Rufford Country Park here in Nottingham!)

To make a simple camera obscura yourself, all you need is a lense (which can be taken out of a normal magnifying glass), a cardboard box, a ruler, tracing paper and some tape. Cut a hole a bit smaller than your lense in the centre of the bottom of the box, and affix the lense with tape. Then measure some tracing paper the same size as the inside of the box and affix it to the other side. When you hold it up against the light you see an upside-down image projected onto the paper. It really is quite magical! (for better instructions there's a really simple tutorial here.)

Everyone really enjoyed the workshop, run by photographer Jon Legge, and it was amazing seeing the end results all together in the window, projecting images from the street outside.

The end result, we put all our creations in the window together, they look a bit like TV screens but showing live projections of the outside world.

Weekend in pictures

This weekend kicked off with a fun workshop (more on that soon), followed by an amazing Oriental feast cooked by our friends (I really want to make this as it was so delicious), two desserts and a game of Dingbats.

On Sunday a wander round the Park in the sunshine, taking photos on my new charity shop purchase, and catching up on the second Mad Men episode all made for a relaxing end to the weekend. I'm excited about the Easter weekend coming up soon too (making for slightly shorter working weeks!) hurrah to that.

Sketchbook Sundays

To go alongside the release of my boyfriend Tom's single I asked if I could share some of his sketches. Tom has a ton of sketchbooks which he started years ago, they kind of act as a visual diary of sorts, but lately he has been delving more into drawing fictional characters, monsters and spacemen! At his band's next gig there will be comics given out featuring artwork to go along with the songs too. Thank you TG! x

Singles Club

House vs Home is a local record label run by my friends Laura & Alex, who are putting out singles by a different band each month this year. This month it's the turn of Tom's band, Nordenfelt. You can hear or download their single, Steam Powered Submarine (featuring Tom's artwork above) here. Hurrah!