I heart heels

To start with - Im sorry. I know. I havent posted anything in AGES and this was one of my "things" to get better at this year. Can I say that, like exercising I just havent had the time? Nope I thought not. I promise to get better. So why did I decide to post today? It all started like this.

Running upstairs, thick carpet underfoot, the creek of the door opening after being taken off the grey door-stop. I was excited. Like really excited. Turning to my left I was in front of another door. This time it was the door of the wardrobe...and inside (no, not Nania) were a pair of royal blue patent heels. HEELS. There they were sitting in the bottom of the wardrobe, waiting for me. I would gently take them out and carefully put them on. They were gorgeous. I would then parade downstairs - elegant, sophisticated, regal - at the age of 8 clomping about in shoes to big for me. Looking back, not all that sophisticated, but I didnt care. It was amazing to just be wearing patent heels.....The love affair hasnt ended and whilst I can no longer fit into my Nana's slim size 4's I do have a pile of somewhat more giant sized 8's, all deliciously uncomfortable, impractical but that make me happy just looking at them.

Home

There he went striding along in the English countryside, commanding voice as he proceeded to explain that the pile of earth he was standing on was in fact the foundations of someone's new home. I heart Kevin McCloud and Grand Designs! There's always the possibility that they wont get the project in on budget and schedule - and usually they dont, but there is a fair amount of tenacity that they have to have which got me thinking about our building project. I was 9 years old at the time. No it wasnt slave labour. My mum bought a home for us which was just short of a roof and three walls.

I dont think I will ever know what it was like to build a house from scratch pretty much single handedly with three kids playing, squabbling, eating and sleeping in the background. I remember that when we came back from school she would always ask us so what is new today with the house? We would then have to wind down the windows of the car and start shouting out our answers as the car drove up to the house, whether it be a roof, doors or a new bit of wall...The hardest one I remember was when the glass went in the windows - but I still reckon that was a trick question because it's transparent!

I guess she just had bucket loads of tenacity and vision to see it all through and create the family home that we all love. Its more than just a house, it has our soul.

Happy Harvest

It always felt like the kitchen had been turned into an Aladdin's cave when it arrived. Sacks of juicy sultanas, boxes of extra sweet dried apricots, piles of sugary apple rings, bowls of crunchy banana chips and sticky trays of dates. My mum would give each of us children a job around the large wooden table, weighing, labelling and re-boxing all the health foods. This was a bulk buy on what seemed like gigantic proportions between about 12 families. And if you were lucky enough the bulk buy would be delivered to your house, and for a week you would be working at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (without the chocolate)...of course the flour, sugar, syrup and other stuff was totally safe, but the dried fruit definitely needed testing before it got shipped out again!

I still love the dried fruit and am a total sucker for sweet stuff (show me a girl who isnt)! I have just polished off both cup cakes that my Nana has just brought round so will have to guiltily explain the second empty case to my boyfriend tonight.

Here's a picture from last years trip to the Black Forest - I always have to order the blueberry cake, Black Forest cake and the cheese cake...happy.

Each Peach Pear Plum

Eeee...I let out a rather high pitched squeal. Not only did the shop assistant know what Each Peach Pear Plum was (without giving me a crazy look) but she also had one in store! Its funny how things in your childhood really stick and you have such vivid memories. I remember this book so well. I think our mum must have read it to us about a million times, and then I read it about a million times after I had learnt to read. I loved the pictures, beautifully drawn in pastel colours, with wiggly lines and a homeliness feel to them. I used to search for the nursery rhyme characters on each page but more than that used to get absorbed in what was being described as a beautiful day where at the end of it they all eat plum pie....yep Im a bit of a dreamer...and also a lover of plum pie! Oh, and if your wondering I didnt just have some crazy idea to buy it to recreate my childhood but to give it to a friend's baby who I hope will love it as much as I did (do)!

Lists

I am definitely one for lists...Lists for shopping, lists for what Im going to do today, this week, this year....I feel like I am constantly chasing and trying to get ahead of the lists I am making, especially when it comes to my business. I have so many things I want to do, I am inspired by the blogs I read, the photographers who've "made it", the industry pros like Martha Stewart, and all the viral stuff that make me think - ooh thats such I good idea, can I do that? I want to get better with what I do, how I do it, my business savey, marketing, who I am as a person and give more back. Its a way long list of things to do, and I am impatient to get things done, especially when I can visualise what I want, its difficult to sit still until I have achieved it! But Im sitting still today, and hope that each small step I take on this journey will take me closer to crossing off those things on that list of mine.

I cant leave without a photograph or two, and thought that as it feels like the end of summer, I'd post a couple of pics of my sister and I at the Blur concert last year. Neither of us have been cool enough and gone to a music festival, but we LOVED Blur when growing up. That night it was hot, the band were playing in Hyde park, there were thousands of people all singing, the full moon rose behind the stage, and as we walked away at the end of the night people broke out into spontaneous bursts of song, that would be caught up by another bunch of people - the mood was amazing.

Tower Bridge at night

I've felt restless this week and I reckon it must be something in the air as my friend I had dinner with last night felt the same. I've got a four week break between weddings and am busy with designing a new sample album and website - its all new fore me so taking forever just to understand how to import a photograph, make a revolving gallery etc, but extremely exciting...so there should be some fun new things to look at soon. In the meantime I thought I would share with you some photographs I took in the City a few weeks ago. I really wanted to end with a shot of Tower Bridge at night for Paula and Jo's wedding (you'll see why when I blog about it in a few days). These are a few photographs that didnt make the cut, but beautiful all the same.

I like the unusual view - for you Londoners the Gurkin is in the background - had to squat down to try and get the angle right, and a little balancing act having another camera on my other shoulder.Love the fact that sky is red! Makes it look like London's burning. I spied the colour which I zooped up a bit by making it a slightly over-exposed shot. Had to have an extra steady hand.

Im not sure why but I just like this shot. Colour I guess - what with London Bridge being lit up in yellow and red and the boat on the Thames having blue lights.