Another Brownie

 
 

You might remember a while ago I posted about putting a roll of film through an old Kodak Brownie (see the post here). Even though the images were overlapped and far from perfect, I’ve always liked what I got out of it. I can’t find the brownie I used… I either sold it on or it went missing when we moved or I gave it away, I don’t know. But it’s ok as I managed to pick up a this one for next to nothing on ebay.

After a bit of stress trying to get 120 film to fit (nail scissors to take the edge of the spool off solved everything) I managed to fire through a roll on a morning dog walk at Tynemouth. I really really like what I got out of it. It’s nice shooting something that you know isn’t going to be perfect, and not aiming for a super sharp clean image all the time.

Obviously had to get Steven to shoot a self portrait for me too at the end there.

Slowing Down

 

The last few months I’ve been feeling really run down. Last year was consumed by the stress of selling our flat and buying our new home, and then getting in there and trying to make it liveable as soon as possible. I just cannot relax if I don’t feel happy with my home so I literally threw myself into the work and spent every moment I wasn’t at work, fixing up the house. As soon as we got it to a decent standard, the Christmas retail rush began at work and I had the busiest December I’ve ever had.

It got to January and my body freaked out and I ended up being rundown and ill for about a solid month. That, plus not having had an actual holiday since last Easter when I shot ‘Flat Land’ in Holland, and also just generally not seeing any daylight for so long, really did me wrong. Oh, and I turned 30 so I may or may not have been having a slight life crisis. I actually very nearly put the house on the market and was ready to pack up everything and move to the countryside. Luckily I talked myself out of that and realised I just need to get back to real life and slow down. I’ve taken more time for myself (I can happily spend a solid day just pottering around the house), and more time to work on my online shop (which will soon be in physical form at Tynemouth Market and hopefully other places in the future).

The shop will be a mixture of my prints, things I make, plants I’ve propagated and vintage homeware I’ve collected. It’s basically a plan for me to be able to spend my days doing the things I love, and making some sort of a living from it, which is obviously the dream for anyone. Fingers crossed all goes well, and for now, watch out for shop updates on my instagram. Everything can also be purchased from my online shop here in between market days.

 

Wales - Part 2

 

After spending the first few days in the north of Wales, we set off to explore the Brecon Beacons and the rest of Wales. I don’t plan much, but sometimes I’ll do a quick google search to see if there’s anything nearby that I might miss out on seeing. One of the places that popped up was Goytre Wharf. We spent a morning walking along the canal, looking at boats and absorbing some of the freakishly hot February sun.

 
 

Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you where we spent the rest of the trip. We just pottered, stopping off at bookshops and antique shops and having breakfast and second breakfast at every opportunity we could. It did start raining again towards the end of the trip so we came home a day early, but it was fine. My batteries were fully recharged and I had a good batch of film to get developed.