Les Fleurs...

Tomorrow Mark and I will have been married for a year...we have been sent some flowers from his wonderful mama!


Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the Bonbi Forest survey so far. I am amazed at how many of you have, and there has been some really insightful and inspiring responses, thank you! Don't forget that you have until Tuesday night to take part if you haven't already. You can receive a £5 off code to use in the Bonbi Forest shop for your efforts, and entry into a £50 voucher prize draw...hurrah!

29 Project: The finale!

I am posting this LAST 29 Project update a little later than I had hoped for a reason that only became glaringly apparent to me when I edited the last few pictures and the very last one was only day 364...Surely there should be 365?!

Somewhere along the way, around the Day 188 mark I got a little confused and doubled up my day numbers, there are two day 188s on this blog and day 184 has been marked as a second day 183 on Flickr, whoops!! thankfully all the dates are correct and I haven't missed any days out, but how on earth did I manage that?

ANYWAY, so it's over! A year of photographs and amazingly I only missed taking a few pictures which I replaced with drawings or things I had seen that I found interesting. I think there were 4 missed picture days in total, not bad going for me! I have enjoyed doing the project, and looking back over it, it has reminded me of things I have experienced, made, done, enjoyed, cried at and stressed about, as well as forcing me to take note of the seemingly mundane aspects of life, or things I see every day, just so I'd get a picture on those days where not much of any note happened.

So here it is, the final installment of the 29 Project:

Day 359: Monday 16th May - Strawbs are on their way! After returning from ATP, Mark and I headed over to my folks house to see my brother who had returned from hospital in Belgium. My dad has lots of strawberries on the go which are well and truly on their way. I love fresh garden strawberries.


Day 360: Tuesday 17th May - Video Star. this is actually a still from a video Mark and I made to send to our friend Mr Jack T Cooper, whose 30th birthday it has been lately too. He had a big surprise birthday party thrown for him in Brighton, and all the buddies that couldn't make it were asked to send videos instead. What a nice idea!


Day 361: Wednesday 18th May - Garden Pretties. So sweet and I LOVE this colour.


Day 362: Thursday 19th May - Scruffy Snoozy Face. Clifford has taken to snoozing right in the middle of the floor in my parent's conservatory...


Day 363: Friday 20th May - First Married Birthday - This card came in the mail today (Mark's nan's writing, I can tell) addressed to me as a Mrs. It's not the first Mrs mail I have had by far, but it is the first birthday card...


Day 364: Saturday 21st May - Yay, Horse Cake! My friends and I celebrated my birthday a couple of days early (since the actual day is a Monday, boo.) and they made this AMAZING cake for me! After consuming some bubbles and lots of this cake, we headed into Falmouth where I got bought copious amounts of rum and mojitos. Ace!


Day 365: THE LAST DAY! Sunday 22nd May - Lanterns. So the last day of the 29 project and this 'exciting' picture is all I could come up with! It's in keeping with the rest of the project, yeah? Anyway, it was the last day of my 20s and I spent it feeling fuzzy with friends, doing a spot of weeding in the garden and hanging lights that I have been meaning to hang for ages...pretty normal really.


...and turning 30: So day 365 was the last day I used my old Olympus camera too as my wonderful beau, Mark, bought me a brand new shiny, soopa doopa camera for my birthday!! For various reasons I had known about it for a while, but I didn't get it until the actual day.
Here is me in Panoramic mode having a 30th birthday glass of Rosé on the ay home from the Lost Garden of Heligan. I had a lovely day, and 30 isn't so bad really!


I need to think of a new project now...It will be weird not doing this! Thanks for sticking with it and all your comments and likes over the course of the project. I do hope you have enjoyed it!

I wanna know what you think...

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Click the pic to take the survey...Thank You!

29 Project Update: Days 351 - 357

Sorry for the lack of updates this last week or so...It's been a funny old time getting over jet-lag (up with the sparrows most days, most unlike me), worrying about my brother, and his girlfriend who is also very poorly too (Get well and come home soon Mo xxx), generally trying to get back into work, and then scuppering all that by whizzing off to All Tomorrow's Parties for the weekend!

Anyway, I am back on it now...I can't believe how few 29 project pictures I have left to take, my birthday is on Monday! I thought I would update you until the last week, and then you can have a complete last week in one go...

29 project: Days 351 - 357...

Day 351: Monday 9th May - Ginger fail. It almost rivals Carrotgate back at Christmas time where I ordered 3.5kg of carrots instead of 350g. I don't know what happened here, but I only needed 3cms of ginger. Woops!


Day 352: Tuesday 10th May - Sketching with Printing. I had cleared most of my admin from the holiday and I decided after so many weeks not doing much making at all, I really, really, really needed a day doing just creative stuff. So I played with some screens and some colours and sat down with some books and had a great afternoon.


Day 353: Wednesday 11th May - Miniature Forest. Loving the garden at the moment (though you may have noticed I always love the garden, it's just that this time of year is so special...)


Day 354: Thursday 12th May - ATP Fodder. The night before All Tomorrow's Parties festival and for once I am being organised about food, rather than stopping at Indie Tesco in Minehead right before we get into the festival and queuing at the checkout for ages with loads of other festival peeps buying beer and crisps and pizza.


Day 355: Friday 13th May - Shoot 'em up at ATP. We did watch some bands, but in between times there was some gravitating towards the arcade machines and bowling and hanging out in the chalet...


Day 356: Saturday 14th May - Quack Quack....and also between seeing bands we did some feeding the ducks...


Day 357: Sunday 15th May - Watching Bands. Well, I have to be honest and thought that musically this was the worst ATP I have ever been to (and I have been to a lot of them in the last 10 years). Despite that, I had such a fun time hanging out with some good buddies and it was a fun weekend. There were some gems in the line up, Beach House were my favorites and Actress and Omar S played some really fun sets too. I really want to go to the Christmas Battles/caribou one too this year...we shall see!


Right folks, the next 29 Project update will be the last...a week all in one go! I can't quite believe it has been nearly a year...

29 Project: Days 339 - 350

I'm back from my travels! Seeing family in Australia was super, and Mark and I had a fun few weeks with them...the weather in Perth was spectacularly good to us (despite some of the Aussies saying it was getting cold...c'mon, 25˚ is like high summer here in Blighty!) The jetlag hasn't been too bad and I am back to work today...

We didn't return to the best news though...My brother, who is a talented racing driver, suffered a serious crash this week in practice at the Belgian race track of Spa and is in hospital recuperating after breaking his back for the second time (He had a much worse crash in 2006, which he eventually recovered from came back to win the Australian F3 championship in 2009...), it wasn't his fault and is ever so disappointing for him. Horrible, scary stuff for everyone, not least my parents and his girlfriend. Get well soon and come home Joey!

Anyway, after all that here is quite a big 29 project update for you from the last days of our Australia trip.

29 Project: Days 339 - 350...

Day 339: Wednesday 27th April - At Daniel Kitson. Not the best picture I am afraid. Mark, his brother Ian and I went to see comedian Daniel Kitson who was brilliant...If you get the chance, I highly recommend you see him, his stories are incredible!


Day 340: Thursday 28th April - Butterflies...Mark and I took a trip around Perth, saw some shops, bought some stuff, drank some beer and visited the museum where I saw these and many more butterflies...


Day 341: Friday 29th April - Royal wedding Day! We watched the wedding at our sister in law's parents house where they had laid on a delicious spread of meats and salads and champagne bubbles, all complete with a heart shaped cake, aww! In the daytime however, we went for a walk around Lake Monger, where I had been told by the visit WA website there would be lots of black swans...there wasn't! We saw about 4, these guys included, lots of ducks and some turtles. It was a beautiful day and a nice walk anyway...


Day 342: Saturday 30th April - Drawing and a journal. I have been trying to get to grips with some water pens I bought before we left for Australia (much easier than hefting brushes and water jars everywhere) and here is one of my little doodles alongside the Jill Bliss 'Drawing Nature' journal that I spied in a shop in Leederville and couldn't resist!


Day 343: Sunday 1st May - Tasting at the Vineyard. A trip to the vineyards is always in order if you visit Australia I find...we did some tasting, bought some very nice wine and then went to the Margaret River Chocolate company where I gobbled as much free chocolate as I could. Lush.


Day 344: Monday 2nd May (my mama's birthday!) - In Kings Park. Mark and I took a stroll around part of Kings Park (which is HUGE!). Here is a view over the river towards south Perth. It was a beautiful day.


Day 345: Tuesday 3rd May - Looking pretty cool here, yeah? Wearing my mandatory cycle helmet. We took a trip to Rottnest Island for the day where there are no cars and you cycle everywhere. It was beautiful and much quieter than I expected. We cycled a long way, looked at some pretty beaches and swam in the sea...a grand day out indeed. A little word of advice though...if you ever go, and you really don't like boats like me, do try NOT to get the 'Mega Blast' ferry. Hellish is the only way I can describe it. It's like being on a rollercoaster, but in a boat for half an hour. Bleurgh!


Day 346: Wednesday 4th May - Giraffe crane in Fremantle. We went on another little outing to Fremantle, a really lovely place full of old (by Aussie standards!) buildings and cute little shops...I spied this crane and couldn't help thinking it looked like a giraffe!


Day 347: Thursday 5th May - A no picture day. Well, today was the day I woke up and found out about my brother's crash, and to be honest, what with that and packing for the trip home, it wasn't the best day. Mark and I did get to the pool for a swim but with my brother's health hanging in the balance, picture taking was the last thing on my mind. So for the 3rd (or 4th?!) time in the history of the 29 project, I forgot to take a picture. Sorry about that peeps!

Day 348: Friday 6th May - Sunrise over the Southern Hemisphere. We left Perth on a jet plane at 6am and for a good few hours the sunrise chased us around the world. It was so sad saying goodbye to Ian, Natalie and Morwenna. We don't know when we will see them again...Goodbye for now Australia!


Day 349: Saturday 7th May - The green (and fog) of home! I love going away, but it is nice to get home (especially in the circumstances we have found ourselves)...I just wish we could have brought some of the Perth warmth with us. Brr!


Day 350: Sunday 8th May - View from a sick bed. So to finish off a week that started well and slowly descended into something scary, full of sad goodbyes and gloomy weather, I found myself stuck in bed on Sunday with a stomach bug. Oh yay. Anyway, I am feeling much better today and hope to be right as rain tomorrow!