Bristol, Bath, and now I have the Murder She Wrote theme tune stuck in my head again....

Well, I've been quite busy recently, doing fun things to the extreme, and work things to the extreme.
I have another market to organise for this weekend, so I've been promoting that in all facets, including a super cool raffle to raise money for Dogs Trust. Also catching up on the scary amount of emails piling up since my holiday, as well as finishing some guest blog posts for Create about creative selling, interviewing artists for UKHandmade, writing my first business article for UKHandmade to go in the actual magazine about Brand Identity (Eek!) and doing a jewellery tutorial for a magazine in Singapore. I feel like Angela Lansbury in the opening sequence to Murder She Wrote, the title music actually plays on repeat in my head sometimes when I'm tap tap tapping away at the keyboard, and will not leave!!! GO AWAY MURDER SHE WROTE! I think if I was a writer full time I would go mad! If I'm not already, anyways, I went to Portugal on holiday in September which was amazing, more about that in another post when I have time, but this weekend I took a long overdue trip to see an old friend in Bristol.

Bristol rules! Very cool city, with an alarmingly fabulous amount of urban art. I'm pretty sure this is the same artist who I saw in the Algarve, called ROA. Love his stuff, its really unique. Don't get me wrong, some graffiti is clever with hidden messages, (not naming anyone famous here otherwise I'll get shot down!) but often the end artwork looks like a cheesy filtered photograph effect in Photoshop. Sometimes you just want to look at a giant illustrated fox holding his tail! 

Apparently one thing you have to do is scare the bejeezers out of your friend when she comes to stay. I  was made to walk over the Clifdon Suspension Bridge, which is SO HIGH and the pedestrian bit is RIGHT UP CLOSE to the edge. I am not scared of heights, but I hate industrial heights. Things that are not natural. I will quite happily stand on a mountain edge and look down, or even jump off a cliff into the sea (look before you leap, mind!) but theres something weird about manmade alternatives. I didn't like the top of the Rockefeller Centre in New York, or the scary see through lifts in the hotel, or the gallery in Barcelona with a glass floor. I don't even like walking up the stairs in an Apple shop as they are see-through. Not cool. Gives your brain weird mixed messages! I thought we were crossing the bridge for a reason, because there was something interesting on the otherside or something. But there wasn't. We went over it to marvel at its beauty and vastness. Could have just looked at it from the edge for future reference McV.  My legs were like jelly afterwards.  

Drank cocktails from a teapot! 

We went to Bath. Its super posh. 

Solar powered bins. Which at first glance seem pointless (why does a bin need power?) but on closer inspection (googling) turn out to be big bins that can hold 8 times as much rubbish and then text staff to let them know when they need emptying. As you do.  Posh Bins. 

Wanted to eat all these meringues... 

Walked along the river which was lovely, loads of canal boats floating about...

Saw an unusual heron. Maybe... This is a rubbish picture as Bean was running toward it as I took the photo and it flew across the river and stood there instead. An intense debate then took place; whether it was a heron or not a heron (me - no - herons are not usually grey all over- McV yes, don't be an idiot thats a heron) So I've been a-googling again. Did you know there are 64 species of heron? I'm used to seeing the grey heron, but never seen this little cute fellow before. I'm still not 100% sure as you do get mostly grey fluffy Grey Heron babies but this one didn't look like that, it was all shiny and sleek and bigger. I think it was a Blue Heron, not a Grey Heron as we commonly get here. But seeing as only a handful of blues have been spotted in the UK since 2007, I highly doubt it. My birdwatching skills are appalling. It was probably a penguin. 

 

Sleepy Bean tired from all the walking. 

Will update you when I'm back on track with my designs next week, as I want to show you some of my new work made with the shells I collected in Portugal. Oh, and its my birthday weekend so there will be lots of cake (I hope!) too! Hope you have a lovely weekend x

Goodbye, untill next time!