Workspace

I am lucky/greedy enough to have 3 workspaces - my dining room/home office, pictured above in all its messy, colourful glory, my studio at Hot Bed Press and the shop at the Craft Centre.

This is the wall in front of my desk at Hot Bed. Not very inspiring is it?? Need to pop some posters of my favourite hunks up, should get the ideas egg grooving.

This is the print room downstairs from my studio. It's rad. I'm planning on getting stuck into some printing next week. The problem I am a little disorganised, so it's easy for me to get sidetracked. This morning, for instance, I am sitting here in my pyjamas, writing this blog and no doubt I'll answer some emails in a bit, which eats into the time I should be spending at Hot Bed. My computer is here, it's hard to leave this guy. I am good at being disciplined sometimes, but other times I AM NOT.

Various items being made in the Craft Centre. Badges, bibs, baby wear.

 Treats for sale in the shop.

How do you stay focused? Come on, I need some help here!

Best thing about being an adult

I missed yesterday's post as I was busy doing the following: running a personal best 10k in terrible heat, hanging out in Chorlton meadows watching some filming, drinking free beers, eating sausage rolls in the sun and arguing with idiots. My time was 51:32, should you care about such things.

That is a weresquirrel.

Anyway, as I was lounging around reading comics, drinking beer and eating pizza whilst pondering this question the other day, I realised that the best thing about being an adult is that I basically get to act like a teenage boy and there's NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO TO STOP ME!

A load of free beers.

Home Sweet Home

I bought my house in December, with a HUGE amount of help from my family. My boyfriend and I split up last Summer and it was a pretty horrible time, having house hunting to focus on helped me to get through it with minimal freakout. I saw a few gross houses, the most comedy one appeared to have a corpse in the front room and the owner was sitting smoking cigs in the back doing his VAT return. Erm, do you actually *want* to sell your house?? I was worried at first about living solo, but I really love having my own space. Eventually I intend on getting a lodger, but I'm enjoying my bachelorette lifestyle too much at the moment! I even know how to turn off the stopcock. If you do happen to know any solvent hunks/hunkesses through, send them my way. Anyway, here's some pics of my sweet abode:

 The day I got my keys. Thumbs up! I love the dark green tiles in the hallway, they remind me of a pub, my natural habitat.

 Dining room, the blue is one of my favourite colours.

 Living room

 Enough room for friends to hula hoop.

 At maximum capacity for my birthday.

 I must con-fez I love my home.

Beautiful painting by David K Goodwin above my fireplace.

Local History Month

I live in Chorlton, a suburb of South Manchester. It's very nice and I feel extremely fortunate to live here.
A few groovy things about Chorlton - Cosgrove Hall used to be based here and I know a couple of people who worked there on various animations, notably the lovely Andrea Lord of &made and Luke Marsh.
I once queued up behind Bez at the fishmongers. He was buying salmon. Badly Drawn Boy once nearly mowed me and my friend down in his car.

Aside from that, I don't really know that much about the history of the area. There's a really beautiful park about 10 minutes away from my house called Longford Park, which was founded by John Rylands of John Rylands Library fame. He used to live in a big old grand house which he built, it's no longer there, just an archway remains. I like to go running there, it's so pretty, birds a-plently to be spotted. There's also a gym and athletics track, where I have spent many a painful hour being shouted at and doing multiple weak lunges. My house is very close to Chorlton Ees too, great for walking, running and cycling. You can get to Dunham Massey and Lymm via the Trans Pennine Trail, it's flipping great!

 The canal at Stretford.

River Mersey.

Chorlton Water Park last Summer.

What is your blog all about?

Hello! This is my first blog post of the Blog Every Day in May challenge! I though I'd sign up as my blog has been woefully neglected for ages.

I first started blogging as a way to promote my business, so I guess it's supposed to be about that. Along the way other things have crept in, especially during Juneathon last year, when I was blogging all about jogging and suchlike. I really enjoy writing and it seems a shame that I leave such big gaps in between each post. I think the pressure of having something interesting to say gets to me. It doesn't really matter if anyone reads this or not though. I am going to use this challenge more as a writing exercise rather than for promotion I think, although naturally I will be writing about my work, it's what I do and who I am! Here's a picture of me in my old studio, printing away. My hair is much better these days.

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Arf arf. I went to Berlin for a few days with my gentleman friend the other week and my oh my did I love it. A lot of my arty friends in Manchester have been and raved about the place, so I was very excited to see it for myself. I did a lot of sightseeing and walking, with many a pit stop for wurst and beer, an ideal holiday really!
One of my favourite places was a tiny museum I'd read about online, called the Büchstaben Museum, which was hyped as a typography museum, but was actually more like a sign graveyard. Either way, I loved it!







I'm now pondering my next trip and have been looking at the Russian Red Arrow train from Moscow to St Petersburg, can't beat a good train journey in my view. This old beauty even has its own theme music! What's your dream holiday?

Scramblin' gals

Sunday saw me and my good friend Liz (of Lily Greenwood fame) embarking on a little adventure to the hills of Edale. The day started out grey n'drizzly, in true Manchester style, but once we were further into the countryside, the sun came struggling through the clouds.
I haven't been walking in ages, it was so, so good to breathe in the fresh air and to take in the beautiful scenery...and laugh, drink rum and stumble around.
I'm teaching again tomorrow and feeling a little nervous. Positive thinking all the way!