Today it was my partners birthday so after having a full english (I'm so going to miss having a real breakfast once christmas is over) we decided to have a venture out and went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a day out together. It was actually my idea to go, because james is quite indecisive I carefully played this so I could go see the rob ryan exhibition which Becca had told me about at the YSP. having sampled some of his cards in london a couple of weeks ago the exhibition was no let down, his work is so romanticised and with great attention to detail which is a trait I think I often carry in my work. Sporting many of his hand-cut words ranging from a few hundred to eight thousand pounds there was also lots of merchandise items such as books, ceramics and stationary. Of course I had to step by the gift shop just to have a good mooch and I spoke to one of the assistants whom directed my to the shop's buyer of the YSP which I can speak to about selling some of the cards I am making for Valentines day which I am going to start making soon. For the rest of the day however we had a walk around the park which was completely covered in ice and the lake itself was from edge to edge encased in ice strong enough to support my weight, after we had to warm up and went home for homemade birthday cake and tea. What a perfect day.

Thought I'd have a bit of a trip out into town, having done most of my christams shopping it was an opportunity to just to have a good mooch at some craft fairs in town. The ArtsMix at the Loft (Leeds Centre) was really nice, full of lots of handmade items such as jewelry, canvases, photography, and such as well as some knitted items, cosmetic and even graphic design. Pleb. is a design shop selling creative clothing and quirky items which is definitely worth a look sometime in nearby keighley, having spoke to the owner of the stall I found out the was a lot like myself, seemed more interesting in selling his made graphic design rather than creating design for someone else for a company which is what I would like to do. There was also some lovely illustration by Claire Cooper, and some other quirky gifts by Framedup and Big Tree Little Tree whom had some lovely potted creations.
I also popped into Paper Scissor Stone and asked about creating some cards to sell which I am going to get straight on with for Valentines day. Ive had a couple of ideas in mind which I want to produce but I'm gonna get on with christmas I think first before I start losing sleep.

The second craft fair was at Brudenell where Ian and Tim had set up their stall and were selling their postcards and other creative goodnesses. It was quite nice to see some of my work being sold and I even got a free pack, Chloe Galea was also selling some of her handmade cards on the same stall and Ian also had a couple of t-shirts of his awesome illustrations he had made during the summer. There was some more lovely illustration by Katie Rose Gill, TwoDucksDisco and ManyNiceThings I also ended up also buy a brooch from AmyPanda which was in the shape of a camera having spent money on my secret santa earlier I was running low on pennies so that was unfortunately the end of my trip. Unfortunately I have to sit down and do Enterprise & Innovation tonight. Boo.

For a change of scenery myself, Luke, Becca and Matt decided upon ourselves to go to London for the day to see some sights and sounds. I had a fantastic day, we ended up going to the Design Museum near the Thames where we saw some architecture and product design by Braun and of course stopping by the gift shop. I found the exhibit really interesting in particular the spacial design and use of labeling in exhibition space and such which I have been of keen interest lately. From there we plodded on to have some dinner, at this point of course we had spent nearly six hours on the coach ride there and had wandered around the Design Museum for over an hour. The headed down to the Tate Modern which was awesome because I had never seen it, looking at the exhibits which were needless to say 'interesting', basically it involved lots of Andy Warhol, pretentious art thinking and 18+ screened areas, and of course spending money in the gift shop again.

From there we also had a look at the London Graphic Design Centre, which is fantastic for every graphic designers needs, Covent Garden, Kidrobot store, Hamleys Toy store and after a very tiring day we had to stop at platform 9 3/4 before we left. An amazing day indeed, to which every opportunity was taken to visit a gift shop.

Pictures taken by Becca Liggins & myself.