#NakedSundays with Valesman at Slogical Studio

I'm home after another 24/7 busy tour of England! Nine days of craziness this time- shooting every day, sometimes two or even three shoots per day, sleeping in a different bed every night, lots of driving, all that rock 'n' roll! I guess it is kind of like being a band on tour except you're not allowed to drink, stay up late or sleep all day ;) I still get tired though, so I always pack my Bareskin Beauty products. My favourite atm is the Illuminating Facial Serum because it doubles up as a night cream and makeup primer.

Shooting lovely old #1930s style #pinup and nudes in the studio today, as well as some interesting experimental bodyscapes, w/ Valesman. #nudemodel #nudephotography #photography #modelphotography #studiophotography #artnudemodel #modeldiary

A photo posted by Anita De Bauch (@anitadebauch) on Mar 19, 2015 at 5:03am PDT

This was the last shoot I did in the Southwest before I went on tour. They were shot by a photographer I hadn't worked with before called Michael Valesman at Slogical Studio in Yeovil. We were going for a 30s-influenced look, so I did classic hair and makeup with hot rollers and red lipstick, and brought some fabrics with me for draping around.

I tried out three different fitness classes three days earlier and thanks to my (mostly) vegan whole foods diet and freakishly mesomorphic body, was already showing a difference in muscle tone at this shoot. Yay! I did Pilates, yoga and something called Body Balance, which is a combination of Pilates, yoga and tai chi, which was my favourite, and even gave me some ideas for new art nude poses :)

I also like the idea of perking up my butt and triceps in the gym or going for a stress-relieving swim whenever I feel like it, so I think I'm going to sign up for the Gold membership at my local gym so I can do all the Body Balance classes, yoga, weights and swimming that I want :)

I missed my boyfriend SO much on this particular tour that despite being so tired on the three hour drive home that I nearly fell asleep behind the wheel, we somehow managed to stay up till 4am reconnecting and drinking champagne. Love is a funny thing :) I think my cats missed me too. They've been all over me since I got back.

I'm actually considering going on a proper holiday with Liam and the cats for the first time ever next month... let's see if that works out!! I might try to get a tour of the Southwest in first, if any Somerset, Dorset, Devon or Cornish photographers would like to work with me? My email address is contact@anitadebauch.com and my day rate is £300 all-inclusive.

Anita x

Lady Allura's Latex ballgown editorial in Twisted Edge magazine

Woohoo! I was on the cover of Twisted Edge magazine last month, and this month I have another great Lady Allura's Latex inside!

I had an impromptu day in Glastonbury today- the fact that I'm even able to do that is one of the reasons I'm so grateful to be living where I am right now. It probably won't last forever, so I'm seizing every day I can in this beautiful area and making the most of it! I really fell in love with Somerset when I came here on holiday from London last spring, and am looking forward to spending more time here this spring, especially with offering photographers a series of beautiful outdoor locations to shoot at during my Somerset Photographic Tours, starting in April (package prices start at just £290- please email contact@anitadebauch.com for details).

I discovered the Goddess Temple today, which was a nice girly chill-out place, but apparently the incense they were burning smells weird to cats as Dexter and Lilith have been going MENTAL since I got home over my cardigan, to the point where I had to take it off and leave it on the floor for them! It's taken them about three hours to calm down.

Fittingly, the Twisted Edge/ Lady Allura's Latex editorial has a vaguely hippie-goddessy sort of vibe, I think! I have it in my head that blue is supposed to represent friendship, which is something I would like to offer to (nearly) all my blog subscribers, of course. I just love translucent latex!

Just click each picture to see a larger version!

Photographer and location scout: Magpie Tommy ~ HMUA: me

Tom should also be given credit for giving me a fireman's lift over the stinging nettles blocking the entrance!

I have a great shoot lined up in Yeovil tomorrow and am really feeling my creative juices and energy bubbling up! I'm surprisingly excited for Friday and am planning a fabulous day of travel, appreciating nature and reconnecting and rebalancing, before this month's big tour starts and I'm shooting every single day with so many different photographers and other creatives, all teaming up to make art and have fun together! March is a great month :) All I need is a raw chocolate egg connection.

I probably won't have time to blog again between now and April, so I'll say it now: remember to get outside Friday morning and see the eclipse! That darkness will be reflected more than usual on Friday night too, as it's a new moon, so perfect for some star-gazing if it's not too cloudy.

You can stay in touch with my weird/ funny/ naked adventures on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (I've forgotten my Tumblr password). Remember that Twitter is the only I can post nudes on, and to click the 'Liked' button on Facebook and select 'Get notifications' from the drop-down menu, so you get an unobtrusive little notification when I post a new picture.

Peace out!

Fashion nude Penthouse magazine editorial shot by Adam Goodison @ SHOWstudio

I'm in an editorial in the March 2015 "British Invasion" issue of Penthouse magazine, including a double page spread! :) Here are the original photos by wonderful Adam Goodison @ SHOWstudio. The entire editorial was shot with a wide-angle lens, which is a really unusual and avant-garde approach!

All skincare provided by Bareskin Beauty.

Penthouse has been on my "hopefully one day!" publication list for ages so I'm really happy to have been booked for this shoot. Penthouse is such an established name! They've been going for 50 years, now.

The editorial is called Digital Displays and is about Passarella Death Squad clothing, including the rubber mackintosh I'm "wearing" ;p You can order your copy here :)

Latex & "shoe porn" #FetishFriday with Fabulously Fetish and Bareskin Beauty

It's #FetishFriday in Anita World!

New black latex catsuit photo shot and art directed by David Radford at Manse Studio during my trip to Wales earlier this month.

Hi-ho, Silver!

Knee-length patent boots by Fabulously Fetish, catsuit by Murray & Vern!
Skincare by Bareskin Beauty, inc. my new lip butter. I did the hair and makeup :)

Prolly woulda been quicker to ride this horse to North Wales than take the motorway ;)

I drove up there first from Bristol for a full day location shoot with a call time of 8am. GoogleMaps said it was a 4 hour drive so I decided to drive up the night before and stay in a hotel. Thank god I did! The drive ended up being six hours thanks to the entire thing pretty much being dug up. Cue having a rather late-night dinner in bed of kale salad and vegan tom yam soup out of tupperware/ soup thermos rather than going out for dinner as I was far too tired to stir a foot outside of my room until the next morning, when the lovely landlady made me almond milk porridge and a veggie full English (Welsh?) breakfast that REALLY set me up for the day! ^_^

After a chilly but productive day of shooting summer fashion and nudes at pretty locations around North Wales, I drove to South Wales, stayed the night in another hotel (again finding myself too tired to go anywhere for dinner once I arrived- just hot shower, kale salad leftovers, brown rice cakes dipped in houmous, cammomile tea, book and bed!) and then drove to my sold-out Manse Studio Day, at which the "horsey" photo was shot :) If you are a photographer interested in booking me at a studio day, please read my last blog.

Although it added a lot of time onto my trip, I really enjoyed driving around Wales. The drive from North to South at night was most amazing because you could drive for ages without seeing a single light from a house or street light. There was just nothing except the car's headlights, winding round the mountain passes, in and out of valleys, and occasionally through sleepy little villages with long hyphenated names on the signposts. The only other light was from the stars :) Living in England, I always forget that wild places like this still exist in Britain. I would love to live somewhere so magical and untouched.

The drive from the hotel to Manse Studio the next morning was even more heavenly and breathtaking as I had to drive through snow-covered mountains in bright sunshine! It was just glorious to drive through the most stunning snowy panoramic views with the heater and the music turned up high!

I was in an amazing mood when I arrived! and more than ready to jump on a fake horse in a rubber catsuit and pull a range of silly faces for David ;)

Much love,

Anita xxxx

Cover of USA's Twisted Edge magazine- latex cat and mouse!

I'm on the cover of issue #20 of the USA's Twisted Edge magazine.

It came out a while ago but I've just been too busy to post about it, even though I'm thrilled!

Shooting/ organising shoots around the clock is also why the editorial is not accompanied by an interview with me- I was offered one but very sadly didn't have time to actually do it.

I just ordered a copy of the issue here so I can see what images they used :)

This is the cover and contents page:

The editorial was shot by one of my favourite photographers, Luci Alice, and fetish designer, Lady Allura's Latex. I did the hair and makeup :)

Yesterday was such a horrible grey day here in Somerset that I just stayed chained to my computer until I basically passed out at 11pm, slept 10 hours, and woke up to gorgeous sunshine! :D

Time for a trip to Glastonbury to buy my organic hair dye, get some beauty treatments and maybe treat myself to a natural lavender candle for my trip to Wales on Thursday (I'm free anywhere between Bristol and Bangor on Thursday, btw, if anyone wants to shoot). I'm shooting two full days and then spending two nights in hotels, so I think it would be good to just relax, read my books, write about my thoughts and maybe try and meditate during the evenings at the hotels. I love to light scented candles in my hotel rooms, it instantly makes them feel more luxurious and like home!

It seems I haven't really written anything except ads in my blog since 4 January, which is a bit crap, so here's a quick run-down of wtf I've been doing since then! I suspect most of it will be excuses for why I've not been updating very much...

• deciding whether or not I can buy land in the countryside, build a log cabin on it, and live in it right now, or if it's something I need to wait a few years for,
• had a kind of triple birthday celebration: Madame Bink came to visit the night before my birthday and we camped out in her van in Cheddar Gorge in the snow! What an experience! When we woke up in this incredible landscape in the morning, the sun was shining off the snow, the birds were singing and the wild goats were everywhere! The next night, I went to see Die Antwoord, then got driven back to Somerset for a private party at a hotel being thrown for me, which was a lovely surprise! I will really miss my friends in the Southwest if I ever have to move away!
• completely sold-out, packed-out London Tour, that then got extended to London & the Southeast, then London, the Southeast and Hertfordshire, then London, the Southeast, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, then London, the Southeast, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, so I ended up being unexpectedly away from home for two very productive weeks of shooting dawn to dusk every day.
• I got to see Roswell Ivory tons while touring and really felt like we bonded :) We had an awesome end to my tour by raving our arses off at Perou's party in London for the launch of the second issue of Edict magazine, and meeting some interesting people in our little industry like David Wood and Viktoria Modesta.

• Back home in Somerset after the tour, I slept for 48 hours and then went to the White Spring Temple in Glastonbury for a belated Imbolc on 3 February. One corner of the temple is dedicated to Brigid, so it seemed the appropriate place to go!

• Madame Bink visited us in Somerset on her way back to Cornwall after her January Tour, so we got to have a good gossip and put the world to rights before she headed on the next day ;)

My next big tour is in March, so if you are interested in shooting with me in or around Hertfordshire, Kent, London or anywhere between Bristol and London (Norfolk is now sold out), please email me at contact@anitadebauch.com asap. I can offer suggestions for local studios to shoot at at discounted prices.

PETA is looking to work with me again, so hopefully I will be in London towards the end of next week (27 February - 1 March), if anyone would like to shoot while I'm there.

Much love, and I hope you are all enjoying the winter sun!

Anita x

'Anita De Bauch on Nylons' editorial in Sinical magazine

My second editorial in Sinical in two months is now out :) (I was interviewed about my thoughts on modelling, fetish and what I like to do in my spare time in the last issue, the Nylons Special Edition.) This time, instead of being interviewed, I wrote an article on my love of vintage nylon stockings to accompany a lovely pictorial in my Playful Promises lingerie, shot by my friend Adam Robertson. I did the makeup and bed-head hair, and the skincare was provided by Bareskin Beauty :)

^ Click the image to see a slightly larger version.

You can order a copy of the magazine here or download a free PDF of it here (I'm on pages 10-13) :)

I love this elegant style of retro lingerie... elegance really had a greater meaning in decades past! It wasn't just a costume you put on once or twice a year for a wedding or a New Year's do... it was something intrinsic to everything you created around you. Not just the visible dress at a fancy party, but the lingerie underneath, the perfect manicure with matte polish, the earrings, the chic handbag (never a knock-off!), the hair styling, the subtle hint of perfume... and the home you got ready in, the lighting there, the furniture, the wallpaper, the music you played and the cocktail you mixed while your curlers were setting... the way you straightened your hat and put on your neatly tailored gloves before stepping out to go to the Post Office, the bank and the train station that day.... oh, it was another time! I love to recreate it in my life and in my work, exactly as I imagine it!

If you are a photographer and would like to shoot something like this with me, I am currently available to shoot at Creativus Imago Studio in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, at:

• 2pm onwards on Thursday 22 January
• 10.10 - 1.10pm on Saturday 24 January

There are great all-inclusive packages on offer, e.g. 3 hours on the 24th for £167.50 for me, the studio, the sets and a professional hair and makeup artist! Please email me at contact@anitadebauch.com with your preferred date, if you have one, and I'll give you the full run-down on what's on offer :)

And now I finish today's blog so that I can carry on doing my tax return... how very glamorous!

Anita x

NSFW in #Singapore

I should re-title my blog, 'NEVER Safe For Work' ;)

I quite like seeing modelling photos where you can the area surrounding the "photo zone"... the lighting, the assistants, someone with a can of hairspray tucked under their arm texting on their phone, the photographer themselves taking the shot, that sort of thing. It makes the photo seem to dynamic and gives you a sense of all the energies that go into making even a seemingly peaceful mood photo :)

This is another shot by Lem, who I blogged about on Sunday. After shooting on the cool, two storey  high fire escape set he created in his studio, it was nice to shoot something simple on a sofa. It may sound odd, but some of my favourite photos have been taken in ordinary places like people's living rooms. All you need is light :)

Skincare by Bareskin Beauty

Here is a last shot from the cool metal fire escape set Lem created in his studio, but this time, nude. I do like the contrast of soft, pale skin in hard, dark settings!

If you are a photographer in England interested in shooting some studio nudes with me, I have a great package offer available this month at Space Studio in St Albans. There are three 2 hour art nude bookings currently available, each of which is £100 all-inclusive of myself, the studio, equipment, hair and makeup, the signing of any releases, parking and light refreshments.

10am - 12pm: BOOKED

12.10 - 2.10pm: BOOKED

2.20 - 4.20pm: BOOKED

4.30 - 6.30pm: BOOKED

Please click here or email contact@anitadebauch.com for further details or to book, for which you will need to provide your full name, a contact number and a non-refundable deposit of £50. Thanks!

Photographer Showcase: Latex shoot with Lem Cheng Hai at DStudioLab, Singapore

I've been shooting with Lem in Singapore every year since 2011. In fact, I think I had my very first shoot in Singapore in his studio, DStudioLab, which is still my favourite in the area.

On my last trip, Lem set up this cool industrial metal stairway/ fire escape in front of the huge shutter door normally used for letting in vehicles for car shoots, for me to play on, which was mucho fun in 8" spike heels :o

 Latex by Shhh! Latex Couture

I think the next two are my favourites- wearing my long black Lady Lucie Latex leggings and extra high platforms up there really got me channelling some sort of sexy, sensual spider creature..! And although I love a bold lipstick red, I do like this industrial-looking metal structure in black and white- it makes it feel less cheery and more gritty and urban to me.

I hope to return to Southeast Asia again in November- if you are a photographer based in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Japan, or even Australia, please email me to register your interest today on contact@anitadebauch.com, and I will let you know when I am taking bookings :)

If you're a photographer based in England and would like to shoot some edgy, industrial, fetish-y, steampunk, alternative fashion-inspired images with me this month, you might be interested in these two fun package deals I've set up this month, one studio-based with optional hair and makeup artist, and one location, with just me ;)

• 2 hour Urban Camden Fashion Tour with me in London on Wednesday 21 or Friday 30 January, 2 changes in 4 locations plus organic cappuccino, £100 all-in!

• 3 hour studio shoot in Hitchin, Hertfordshire on Saturday 24 January, 10.10am - 1.10pm, complete with themed sets. £150 all-inclusive of me + studio and sets, or £168.75 for me + studio and sets + hair and makeup artist!

My good friend Roswell Ivory will also be in London on 30 January, if anyone would like to book us together while we're both in the same town (we're off to a party in the evening!). She has a real-life alternative fashion look that perfectly fits in with Camden's vibe. We used to do shopping and lunch there quite regularly when I lived in North London :) Her portfolio is here.

Email me on contact@anitadebauch.com with any questions or booking enquiries. Many thanks :)

Urban Camden Street Fashion Shoot

Happy New Year, everyone :)

I had a very quiet evening compared to last year, when I was raving to The Prodigy at the O2 until 3.30am. This year I had a bit of a sore throat/ was generally feeling too tired to socialise and so stayed in with boyfy, drinking bubbly and watching the fireworks on TV, before sloping off to bed with the cats at 1. Rock on!

I thought I'd share these fresh street fashion photos from a shoot I styled and modelled for last year in Camden. I also did the location scouting and tour guiding :) The photographer was a lovely chap called David Benzie, who I can thoroughly recommend :) We had a good old chat as well as shooting!

So much colder than it looks! :p

I'll be in Camden again on Monday 19 Sunday 18 Wednesday 21 and Friday 30 January, if any photographer would like me to take them on another Urban Camden Street Fashion Tour :)

There are lots of cool little places to shoot there, and in a historically creative and arty neighbourhood easily reached on the tube. I'm delighted to be able to offer one photographer a two hour Urban Camden Street Fashion Tour at 11.30am - 1.30pm on Monday 19 January anytime on Wednesday 21 or Friday 30 January, meeting by Camden Town Station and ending at a suitably Camden-ish coffee shop with a complementary organic cappuccino to warm up before heading home! I can drop you back off at Camden Town Station.

The all-inclusive price for this shoot is £100, which covers me, arriving photo-ready in full hair, makeup and wardrobe; one change of wardrobe, as well as a couple of different coats and accessories to play with the two outfits; four different locations; the signing of any releases; and a delicious organic cappuccino :)

These unusual shoots will be booked on a first come, first serve basis, so please get in touch as soon as possible to avoid disappointment on contact@anitadebauch.com. I hope London photographers will consider taking advantage of this opportunity! Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share this blog using the little buttons below if you know someone who you feel this might benefit :)

3 Goals for 2015

1.   More art nude shoots

Here's to an Art Nude 2015!

I've been desperate to focus more on this side of my work for months, and really want to make it happen more in 2015. I think that I am more known for my stylised fetish and retro looks than for shooting natural, dreamy, classic art nudes and figure studies, so this is something I need to address. People tend to only know you for the last photo they saw of you.

Some of my previous art nude work:

Photographer: 25th Century Quaker in New York

Photographer: John Murray in Dublin

Photographer: Dirk Glassly

I'm going to spend more time studying important art nude photographers' work and planning how I can bring something special to my shoots, including finding great locations and props to work with, but also working on myself and my posing. I'll also see if I can find an appropriate course to do on the history of nude art.


2.   Appreciating British and Irish heritage

I want to try and see as many ancient/ mystical sites as possible in the UK and Ireland this year, which I will hopefully be able to tie in with modelling tours, and quite possibly art nude shoots, for the more remote ones! I have to travel more anyway now that I'm not living in London, so I'm going to turn that into a positive and make the most of it :)


3.    My own hobbit hole

I want to buy the cutest dwelling on the planet this year, and live in it!

A cottage would be okay, but I also like the idea of a more alternative way of life, for example on a boat or in a caravan, generating my own energy, growing my own food and living amongst nature rather than in a concrete box. It was fun while it lasted, but now I want something different! :)

*goes to set up a Pinterest board*

What are your goals, hopes, dreams or ambitions for this year? Tell me all about them!

2014 in Pictures

2014 is nearly over and we're past the Solstice, which I now learn is considered the New Year from a yogic perspective, so maybe I was onto something when I was waffling on about it the other day ;)

I bring you my 2014 in pictures:


JANUARY

January was a lovely month, with all my shoots bursting with love and romance: bridal fashion and couple's portraiture.

I spent five days shooting bridal and couple's portraiture with my boyfriend, which I styled:

I don't think I mentioned it in my blog at the time, but we danced our asses off for hours to The Bug and Fuckbuttons at Brixton Academy for our anniversary.

We were still living in London and I don't recall doing anything for my birthday, probably because I was shooting a bridal catalogue in York outdoors that day and nearly freezing to death :) But you can't tell from the photos, right?

I did a fairly full-on strict detox for the first week or so of January to give me a little boost into having a generally detoxifying diet in 2014. It seemed to help my skin, muscle tone and energy levels quite a lot. I found I didn't need to work out every day to maintain my ideal weight and muscle tone anymore, which was good!

My photos also started appearing on Vogue Italia's website, including this one, by Marcus Jake:

And somehow, I also found time to shoot a shoe campaign for Fabulously Fetish with Phine Ka, and do the hair and makeup for it, too.

Bareskin Beauty looked after my skincare for the whole year, so a big and heartfelt thank you to them!


FEBRUARY

February was more of a high fashion month. It was London Fashion Week, and I walked for several international eco-friendly designers at the EcoLuxe show. The after party was really fun, and I still have and use some of the goodies from the environmentally friendly goodie bag :)

I had an androgynous fashion shoot with MrGlen in London, one of my very favourite photographers to work with. It was challenging to pose in a completely new way and NOT be girly in the positioning of my hands, and so on! Being a guy is tough!

Despite this, I was named one of the sexiest bloggers on the net.

MARCH

Shot one of my favourite figure nudes I've ever done at a workshop in London:

I also love this shoot I did with my sponsors, Playful Promises lingerie and Fabulously Fetish shoes:

The photographer was David Morley. We had two awesome shoots together, and then he seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. I hope he's all right and still shooting.

I toured Norfolk and did this hair shoot for Robert Owen Salon, which was shot by Andrew McMeekin. I did the makeup and wardrobe styling:

I was on the cover of Spain's BeDeSeMe magazine, with a 14 page interview and pictorial shot by Luci Alice! I was wearing Lady Allura's Latex and Fabulously Fetish shoes.

I also met Dita Von Teese in New York and shot a music video in London with SHOWstudio.

Photo by Jennifer Mitchell

I rather overworked myself in March by trying to shoot more or less every day, including ten days in New York and New Jersey, without a break, except for falling asleep on planes and trains, and ended up in bed with a cold and a lot of souvenirs for a few days when I got back home.

APRIL

I had a much-needed holiday in Somerset in April, which was a wonderful time to visit. The countryside was such a contrast to London, and I loved seeing all the trees in full bloom with pink blossoms, the lambs springing around in the fields, and the weather warm enough to visit Glastonbury Abbey. I felt so happy and relaxed that I think this is when I started to subconsciously get the idea to move here sooner rather than later, and get out of the rat-race a little.

I also had a couple of shoots in Helsinki for Damian McGillicuddy and Olympus Cameras, which was especially fun as I'd never been to Finland before.

My boots were custom made for me by Fabulously Fetish to match my hair :)

MAY

Got my butt out in Bo Ningen's music video for Slider, which was directed by Marie Schuller of SHOWstudio. I learned the whole song in Japanese short-notice, then on the day, didn't need to lip-sync any of it after all as none of the other actors had learned it so the idea was scrapped. Ha! Went for drinks with the band and the crew in Shoreditch afterwards and they were totally lovely. Cue drunkenly waffling about creative expression with the guitarist for aaaages.

JUNE

I met the legendary supermodel Twiggy at a photo shoot in June. I was almost speechless with starstruck-ness and she was very kind to me, including pulling me in for this shot and approving it on the spot so I could post it here. She approves ALL her photos before they appear anywhere. Imagine that!

Afterwards, I shot some bright sunny commercial stuff with Stephen Perry:

My most exciting news in June was that my book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, got picked up by a publisher, meaning I no longer had to worry about self-publishing on Amazon or whatever. As far as I know, this is the first book on freelance modelling that has ever been deemed good enough to sell by an actual publishing house, and I was (and am) absolutely thrilled.


JULY

I had a jam-packed sold-out tour of Ireland for two weeks in July, which was very productive. I dyed some clip-in human hair extensions to match my real hair before I left, and had a go with them at shoots, both loose and tied up into a big up-do:

Photographer: John  Murray

AUGUST

My lower half made an appearance in a fashion film called The Masters for Selfridges by SHOWstudio, which involved many different "masters" of fashion like Jean Paul Gaultier and Oscar De La Renta. I was in the Stella McCartney segment. It was playing on the big screen in the window of Selfridges on Oxford Street on a permanent loop, along with a shop window dedicated to my scene with a mannequin leg to represent me, lol! I don't know if it's still playing or not.

By this this point, we had done some sums and realised that we could almost afford to buy our own place, rather than keep renting the flat in London, and also, that we never wanted to have a flatmate again, so much of August was spent packing, ready to move, at least temporarily, to Somerset, while we figured out what to do next.

SEPTEMBER

I had this fun Star Wars themed editorial in Rebelicious magazine, wearing Shh! Couture latex, shot by Magpie Tommy.

Trying to extricate ourselves from our flat in London was stressful, to say the least, which I guess is why I didn't blog much that month. I think I was just trying to take in my newly peaceful surroundings in Somerset and let go of all the nonsense.

OCTOBER

I did a couple of shoots in London in October, including for Hair Colour Clinic, but most of my shoots were in beautiful Southeast Asia :) I also had a makeup lesson with MAC at Harrod's to brush up on my skills.

Shot in a Malaysian jungle on a mountain by Raoul Alfamuz. I could see wild monkeys and gibbons playing in the trees right above my head! ^_^

NOVEMBER

I did my "Everywhere but the Southeast" Tour of England and Wales in November. The trip included a day at The Pit in Nottingham, which I'd never been to before, but will definitely be going back to. What a fab location!

Photographer: Caught in Action

I also particularly like this retro boudoir shot by LanesRo1 in Wales. I did the hair, makeup and wardrobe styling; the lingerie is from Playful Promises and the heels were custom made for me by Fabulously Fetish.

DECEMBER

The highlight of my December was taking Nan to the Winter Solstice ceremony at Chalice Well in Glastonbury. I thought she would probably enjoy it, but she LOVED it and was still talking about it on Christmas Day! It certainly was very interesting and uplifting to see such a nice group of gentle people coming together to celebrate their religious diversity- Christians, Dianic Wiccans, Brighid worshippers, Unitarians, Buddhists, Sufi Muslims and Pagan Gnostics were all represented in the lighting of the fire ceremony. The Chalice Well's motto is "One Source, Many Paths." I also got some great Christmas cards from the gift shop.

On the modelling front, I scored a great interview and pictorial in Sinical magazine, which you can read here.

I saw the Manic Street Preachers on the last night of their Holy Bible Tour, and was at Stonehenge at 7am the day after Chalice Well for the Druids' Winter Solstice/ free entry into the actual stone circle. I'm really trying to make the most of my time in Somerset because I have no idea how long I'll be here :)

Yesterday I was disappointed to learn that a traditional gypsy caravan is basically just a bed on wheels, and therefore not something I could live in for more than 24 hours (i.e. until I wanted to have a shower or plug the blender in), and that basically takes you up to where I am now.

I've definitely changed a lot this year. I've achieved a lot of my career-related goals- well, all of my goals were career-related, really- and as a result, my priorities have changed.

I no longer see money as a measure of how much I'm worth.

I no longer rate my personal success according to my professional success.

I'm not interested in box-checking anymore, as in: husband? Check! Kids? Check! Mortgage on an overpriced house in the suburbs? Check! Am I happy yet? Maybe I'd better check a few more boxes!

I was never deeply into any of that but I feel that I've managed to let go of it completely the last month or two, and truly not worry about it.

I'm 29 next month and I think it might be my most interesting year yet.

Lots of love,

Anita xxx