So, this is what I got.

1)  News that a photo of me by Simon Gauduchon was selected to appear on Vogue.it on 12th December and may well be published in Italian Vogue magazine in 2012 :D

2)  Four days off in a row at my mother's house in the beautiful Somerset countryside with my family :)

Lilith and Dexter having their first Christmas <3 

3)  Christmas presents! I got some adorable ones this year, including the Sex and the City complete shoebox set from my brother, the iPad 2 in a baby pink leather case from my father and these gorgeous vintage china trios from my mother :)

The pink set is from the 1930s and the white is Victorian <3

I got lots of other lovely vintage inspiration for Christmas too, so I'll have plenty to watch while I'm experimenting with new hairstyles :D

The cover girl of Style Me Vintage looks familiar... anyone know who she is?

4)  Speedy stomach/ thigh/ arm toning courtesy of three Pilates sessions in a row on Christmas morning, Boxing Day and this morning ^_^

5)  Christmas food, my favourite! Turkey, potatoes, tons of veggies, my homebaked mince pies, clementines, sherry, cheese, red grapes, apples and plums, red wine, Be Good Christmas pudding with Alpro Soya cream, cinnamon-spiced hot chocolate, smoked salmon, champagne! <3

6)  Liam and I had an early gift exchanging session when I got home from KL on the night of the 21st December <3 I got him some JPG aftershave, a dark blue Kindle cover to match his trench coat and a watch, and he got me a fab selection of books to feed my little brain with :) Freud, Jung, the new Daniel Clowes and some Discworld books too, which I always love! I've already started reading Freud's analysis of Leonardo da Vinci and it's fascinating!

Genius #1 on Genius #2

I'm off to Exmouth for a shoot with a returning client tomorrow and then back home to London on 30th December, ready for my shoots on 2nd and 3rd January :)

According to my schedule, I then have a week off in London before a week's work at the SWPP Convention. If I don't get booked at the last minute then I will probably spend my week off having a big, therapeutic clear-out of all my stuff and donating a bunch to charity, getting post-Christmas beauty treatments, hitting the sales with Hannah Ashlea and maybe visiting an art gallery or two :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones and is looking forward to NYE! :D

Peaches and cream :)

Plans for my first European Tour this summer are going well so far (yeah, I like to plan things 4 - 5 months in advance, what of it?). I'm especially looking forward to shooting for Buffies in an eighteenth century French chateau in June, woo! :)

I'll be shooting fashion and glamour assignments in Portugal for the last week of April then heading back to the continent again in June after my Scottish and Irish Tours are over and visiting various cities in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. I also want to visit Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid, if I have time!

In the meantime, here are some more glamorous portraits by Barrie Spence, taken in completely natural light :)

Tomorrow's photographer had to postpone so I have train tickets to get me to Sheffield but nothing to do when I get there! I may do some Googling and see if there's any touristy things to do there so I can have a little day out :) If not, I might just stay home and prep for Tuesday's shoot in Kent :)

Figure Studies from Livingston

I had a wonderful shoot in Scotland recently with Barrie "Entropic Tendencies" Spence. Those who follow my Twitter will know I had my first experience of the sleeper train as I had to leave Euston at midnight in order to be at Livingston at 8 am for a 9 am -  5 pm shoot. The train I needed to use had no berths or First Class section, which kind of sucked as I had to sleep in 30 minute bursts sitting up in a cold carriage with a group of lads who sat up drinking Stella until at least 2 am (the last time I checked the time) >.< I felt surprisingly awake after washing my face and brushing my teeth in the onboard toilet (!) just before pulling into Livingston, though. I didn't really crash until we stopped shooting. Then my body suddenly realised how tired it was and I fell asleep in the car both to and from the networking party in Glasgow that evening!

Anyway, we started out shooting some single light source nudes in Barrie's home studio. It was a lovely way to start the day, sort of like doing photographic yoga :)

Speaking of art nude, I've now been officially confirmed to model for Bryon Paul McCartney's Tuscany Fine Art Photography Workshop in July, alongside my friend Ulorin Vex (Chris) and another model called Ruby Slate Balthazar, who I look forward to meeting :) I like that we all have contrasting hair colours- Chris: neon orange, Ruby: white-blonde and me: jet black. It would be cool to get some colour shots of the three of us together with the contrasting hairz, methinks :)

Happy Valentine's Day, and all that shit

I'm overrun with treats today! Fantastic news #1: I'll be modelling for Bryon Paul McCartney's Tuscany Fine Art Nude Photography Workshop in July! I love Italy!

Liam and I don't usually celebrate Valentine's Day as it's a bit commercial and crass, not to mention only three weeks after our anniversary (so we've just had our annual lovey-dovey celebration) but I did get Liam a gift this year as I found something that was totally perfect, a navy Burberry trench coat to replace his disintegrating non-designer black one, which he was really pleased with :)

Liam's cooking us meze tonight and opening a bottle of bubbly. I don't know if I mentioned before, but on our seventh anniversary he finally popped the words that every girl, deep down, wants to hear from her S.O. at a certain point into the relationship... "Buy any shoes you like, darling, and I'll pay." :D :D :D

I had a £200 budget, so instead of going to a shop and buying one nice designer pair, I've raided my local charity shops for second-hand bargains and ordered several cut-price designer pairs from eBay ^^ Shoooooooooooooooooe lurrrrrrrrrve!!!!

 

I'll probably use the grey and white ones for bridal modelling, and all of them for various styles of boudoir :) And I couldn't resist buying myself a new pair of vintage fully fashioned seamed nylon stockings to wear with them!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone- and if you're single, buy gifts and celebrate with your friends! :) This year, I sent Gemini Rayne a wall calendar full of vintage fashion photos and some chocolate that I thought she might enjoy! You don't have to be in love to show love to your loved ones on Valentine's Day, it's a great thing to do at any time of the year :)