On the very last day of 2014, baby Hunter arrived in a spectacular fashion - two weeks ahead of schedule in the early hours of the morning on Waiheke Island. The ferries weren't running, so no trip to the hospital as planned, instead he made his entrance after a mere four and a half hours in the spare room at his grandparents house.
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A place for me to burble about things I'm working on, talk about things I like and complain about things that annoy me. Mostly nonsense.
In early 2014 I flew home for a couple of weddings and to visit my family, but also to meet my goddaughter Ruby for the very first time. Wandering around Hamley's one afternoon in search of a present, I saw Paddington Bear. With his little suitcase, his red boots, anorak and hat, he was perfect.
Read MoreWe've started using our lightbox as a lamp, which adds a warm little glow to the room. This evening I noticed the nice silhouette the lamp was casting from the glass of irises in front of it. The light was heavy, and the flowers colours subtle. I snapped a few experimental shots with some handy props.
Read MoreOne of my oldest friends is having her first baby. While she's a million miles away in New Zealand, I got to be there for the baby shower in a small way by making some baby prediction and wishes cards for the parents-to-be. They were printed onto Laid textured paper, so they had that nice tactile feel, and filled out at the shower by friends and family.
Read MoreCorporate writing has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. When you think of innocent smoothies or Pret, and you think happy, friendly, quirky. All of their writing upholds their brand values, and they take every opportunity to help you to like them, whether it be a label or a napkin.
Read MoreHere's a quick peek at Whitney and Marc's save the dates for their wedding next year. Marc is from Luxembourg, Whitney is from the US. They are getting married on Independence Day, so wanted a red, white and blue theme, but also wanted to reference the two countries uniting. I stumbled across a gorgeous old stamp from the 1960's and adapted the lion to be marching along with a simplified american flag.
Read MoreMy mum just turned 65. You wouldn't know it though, she rushes around like a mad woman and has a better social life than I do. She's still going to keep working for now, but she'll cut down on her days a bit, and play a bit more golf. And despite never needing to take it, she's quite excited about the prospect of free public transport.
Read MoreIt's been 17 years since I first learned In Flanders Fields by heart. A chorus of 13 year old girls dutifully reciting; children who had never known war or conflict, who were far more concerned with gossiping about boys than the stories of a war long past. But here I am so many years later, on a different continent, at the place it all happened.
And unexpectedly, I am in tears. It starts with Atatürk's message.
Göreme at 6am is still. There's a slight chill, but no wind. The light filters through the sky, inky black softening around us as we stand on the roof of our hotel. At first you can just make out a few of the little clusters, black rounded shadows, dotted around the the outskirts of the town. But then as your eyes adjust to the light, you see more groups surrounding the town and out into the distance. Now and then, you see a burst of colour, a glow in the darkness as one of them is filled with burning gas.
Read MoreI saw an image on Pinterest a few weeks back, and liked the shadows as type effect so today I had a bash at making a few of my own. It was a bit of a brain exercise to get the text orientation right, more than I can really be dealing with while slightly hungover. Cutting in a straight line was difficult enough.
Read MoreI've recently moved out of cacophony that is Brixton, and to the leafy suburbs of Surrey. I've swapped the 24 access to dubious fried chicken and easy of the Victoria line commute for a quiet flat nestled on a lake that is home to some friendly and inquisitive ducks.
Read MoreSo yesterday I popped into Selfridges and saw their #beautyproject campaign. I'd seen it before a week or so earlier, but this time I paid a bit more attention. And it annoyed me. These people are all ravishing. Yeah sure, they are a bit alternative, they have quirky haircuts or tattoos, or don't fit into the 16-25 age range of most models. However not one of them looks remotely curvy.
Read MoreThe modern day designer phenomena. You can almost hear the despair. There are few things more mind numbing and soul destroying than trawling stock image sites looking for something, anything that might work. What most of these sites need is a 'no crap' filter. Or just a ban on anything with arrows, silhouetted men in suits pointing, ladders, three-dimensional bar charts, handshakes. You get the picture.
Read MoreWell hello there, first blog post of the new site. Now if only I had anything interesting to say. This is going to be more of a personal project I think, I don't expect anyone to actually read my ravings, but it's nice to have a place to catalog design-related thoughts and not bore distant relatives on Facebook.
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