NaughtyMutt.com

Twitter Art Show Twitter:140

2009-07-01T15:34:00.007+01:00

I am part of a group of artists taking part in the Twitter Art Show here's what you need to know - it's exciting, it's a challenge and the people involved are diverse, fascinating and Worldwide.

So what is Twitter? “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers)” WIKIPEDIA

This is how thw Twitter Art Show started back in May with an online post by Sheree Rensel @wizzlewolf on Twitter:
'So what does this [Twitter] have to do with ART? Artists use Twitter like everyone else. The cool thing is that it connects artists all over the world. The members of this Twitter Art Show group are coming together and creating a proposal for an art exhibition. Once the proposal is complete, we will submit it to exhibition venues in hopes of exhibiting our work all over the world. In order for this to come to fruition, we all must work together as a cooperative group. We can do this. Our vision can become reality if we work together to make it happen.'

Well, after much work and layering (140 layers actually) here is my contribution to the Twitter Art show:

Here is the link to the call for artists: http://twitterartshow.blogspot.com and to Sheree Rensel the organiser's site http://www.wizzlewolf.com

It's a bit spiritual this...

2009-06-13T15:29:00.015+01:00

This house used to be full to bursting both with people, animals and things. In the past two years two child-adults have left home, two fish have met their end. Small boy child has hit an age where football, cars and mates in the front garden are his focus and the daughter 3 is mostly at school, putting on copious amounts of bright make-up and singeing her hair or watching Waterloo Road...

So, in a week where husband and son have upped and gone to France to watch the Le Mans 24 Hr race leaving me in the house with daughter no 3 and her straighteners. It has been quiet like never before, I have taken the opportunity to do various things:
Turn out 'stuff'
Relax
Think
Write
Draw and paint loads

Today, whilst daughter no 3 is in town at the local Carnival I have been pottering. Really, after a week of the above list several times over, pottering means I have nothing to do. Yes I have a book I could read, the Kite Runner, is shouting "read me". The weeds have been pulled out and the washing done. I have even done some filing and filled out our Tax Credit renewal. I am not used to hours of nothing at all. It is very strange.

So, whilst sitting in the garden doing a bit more nothing amongst the fabulous lilies and magenta climbing roses, I had a thought. If I were you and looked through my window what would I think?

I did look through my window as if I were not me. Now I feel totally satisfied. I am grateful and happy. Sleeping easel with half a picture painted, pens and pencils all over my desk, tidy bright pink kitchen, snoozing dogs on their ancient chaise longue. I had a warm feeling at the long pine table etched with years of 'hello mum' and smiley face graffiti. More visions of the same table surrounded by laughing children and of arguments worked through on the big wooden settee full of big red cushions.

They may not be here right this minute, but the spirit of this home is set.

Yes that is what it has been about, building this life with people we love, about looking after friendships outside the home carefully and with consideration. Right now, I have everything I need and all is reflected in these surroundings, in our cherished build-up of 'the stuff we will never turn out'. And I don't just mean physical 'things'. I mean memories, family - the wider family; people we know and those we choose to meet. Things as in the lessons we have learned and are learning. It's about learning to trust your own instincts.

It may all be right now or it may, when you look through that window seem a little skewed: Listen to what you tell yourself, see what makes you comfortable, be honest and be guided and never stop looking from the outside-in.

Be grateful, be kind. The future is yours to build and nurture.

Go on, in a quiet moment, have a look through your window.

Linkety links
My Artwork
My Design work

Oh, and before I go. . .Reporting back on my Twitter experiment: Stop thinking about it and do it I have met some interesting people, learned a lot, gained some commissions, sourced some useful materials Joined two art projects, twitterartshow - a diverse group of artists hoping to show together and MailArt2 (MailArt1 was all over the internet so I am excited). I have also laughed loads!

Link to Twitter
Twitter

California poppies in the garden

Absorbed

2009-05-25T16:37:00.012+01:00

We are so very very busy at the moment in our businesses, Pink Digital web design has gone mad with everyone needing a new website 'by the end of the month'. We are working on a really exciting web-to-print project which will see a swift turnaround for customised printed cards and posters. Naughty Mutt, our printing business is going strong with a high demand for our PDF design skills - PDF is a great way to produce brochures and marketing materials that can be put online and/or printed on paper. Off to see Sarah Roberts at WiRE tomorrow, if you are a woman in business, take a look at their website which has loads of really useful information.

Painting non-stop to produce Monet inspired canvases to show to the children I am working with at Sundorne Infant school in Shrewsbury. I feel the need to be able to show my work as well as the work of other very much more amazing artists. So I set myself a goal to produce three canvases by the time we start muralling on 2nd June...after starting at 6am every morning to catch the light that I can see colour in, the second small canvas is below and the larger third painting (underneath) is very nearly finished - fingers of fire! (the first canvas is below in my previous post).

The Twitter experiment continues. OK, I admit this now, I am meeting some interesting people and have learned some new skills. I have joined a painting group which is going to put on a touring show Twitter Art Show, exciting! I have re-made some acquaintances. I have learned to moderate my posts, to post pictures and links of interest, not to add every single person who wants to be my friend and most of all to converse in a maximum of 140 characters! I have even been able to pass on my new knowledge to a client or two. Find me at @naughtymutt

Also via Twitter and the Help Save Bees campaign, in my role as Graphic Beesigner I produced a new bee sign. This sign was for Karen Thorne of Hopton House B & B, Hopton Heath near Ludlow, Shropshire. She had been provided with a bee house by the husband of Eleanor who bakes in Shropshire. How else but with a sign would the bees know where to go? Bees can read - fact.

I shall be producing some lovely printed metal bee signs for gardens in A6 size, drilled centrally top and bottom so they can be fixed to a post. If you would like to own one of these to enhance your garden please E-mither me for details.

And I'd like to thank...

2009-05-10T22:32:00.009+01:00

Painting all day for days, how lucky I am

Merci!
The Artist Dea Paradisos's husband Richard Benjamin, for making me a new lightweight easel which does not slam on my hands and feet at odd moments like the old-school one I use.
Claude Monet, for the limited palette
Joe Plaskett for continuing to make me feel inspired and really driven to do things
Mario Doucet for dragging me out of a hole a few weeks ago
Rachel Moore for believing in me
My husband for support and years of love
Paint, brushes, fantastic light etc

30 day Tweet Trial

2009-05-09T16:03:00.025+01:00

I have decided it is time to Tweet. I signed up to Twitter some months ago and then abandoned it in a middle-aged pfft way as inane waffle.

I have been online since Demon Internet sucked me in in the late 90s, but have never been an early adopter of anything much else. Well, apart from of things I should not have adopted early-on, like blonde 80s highlights, sandals and socks (how else to be warm and comfy between October and April?), toastie bags and an iPod pillow. That's it really, the rest of my life is made up of old stuff, second-hand things and ancient rituals. I even still wear Rimmel Heather Shimmer lipstick. Happy as I am comes to mind.

So Tweeting is like my mum and the words 'USB pen drive'. No relevance, or so I thought.

Anyway, I started in earnest (in my office) on Tuesday and have committed to Tweet once a day for the whole month of May and if I like it, for longer. The early signs are worrying, as Stephen Fry would say - and he is a famous Tweeter - it's quite interesting. I can definitely see how people in business find it useful.

Watch and learn. I have been Wiki-ing all the abbreviations. I now know what an RT is - Retweet, quoting another person's tweet to your followers, what #Follow Friday is - a day you recommend interesting people to your followers. I learned that you use @twittername to refer to another Tweeter. I found Twitpic and have another use for the lovely Tinyurl

Using Twitter, I have re-met some people I know and found that there are some nice projects online like this one, The Draw your Dad art project. It seems a good place to get fast answers, a colleague Tweeted that the car her daughter was in had broken down, a rescue was initiated via Twitter.

I have become a follower of a group of interesting souls including @helpsavebees a campaign run by Damien Grounds which I care about so much, I love bees. I have made a sign in the hope of attracting some more of these beautiful creatures in to my garden - I KNOW bees can read.

I am having a handful of these lovely signs made up as postcard size in acrylic. If you would like one of these for your garden let me know by email and I'll send you details.

I might be a late(ish) adopter but I do like a nice learning curve. Watch this slow gradient.

Twitter
Help Save Bees website
Naughty Mutt Graphic Design
Carla Boulton - Artist

Google Street View hmmm

2009-04-24T23:06:00.018+01:00

So, a hypothetical cyber-stalker-type person can look up my address and see where I live. They might be able to see a blue toaster by the window in my kitchen. This has been possible for some time now, at least since I bought the toaster in March.

OK, you couldn't actually look 'up' a street online and see the dandelions growing through the cracks in the drive before the last month or so. Apart from this litter-on-the-garden type detail you could certainly get a pretty close-up aerial view, enough to see our badly-laid wiggly garden path anyway. Without using the interglobalsuperhighweb, it has been possible for years to search the electoral roll for the written record of people's whereabouts.

It's a bit like this: If you have relatives several thousand miles away that everyone would rather forget about - you know the type, hell to be with, hell to get rid of. Well, provided the Google Street View photo car thing has been up your street, these wierdo relatives can now have a closeish look and potentially gauge that you still have the same clapped-out old car that you had when you shooed them away years ago. They might learn that your new house has a funny looking spiky plant in the front garden, that your garage needs painting and, in a soul-lightening way, that if they are now in a wheelchair, access would be OK because there is a ramp up to the front door.

This is my hmmm. It stops at the front door. It's my door and it's closed unless I want it open. If anyone wants to have a steady drive past my house at say, 5 miles an hour to see these aforementioned details they can. I probably would not notice or care, (actually I might because I'm a nosy old bat). The point here is most information is available if you want to find it but it still doesn't give much insight - apart from to marketing bods - as to what the real nitty gritty innards of our lives are. Google Street View just provides pictures. Pictures for house-hunters, bored techies and for the five minutes while it's still interesting for everyone who wants to see the house where they lived when they were six.

As a business-person when I am asked to quote for any new-client work over a couple of hundred pounds I do a finance check. I can use any number of credit agencies and retrieve information, I can visit the Companies House website to make sure that people are who they say they are - and I do.

If an email plops in and I need to check out the person I can search online for their details, I can tell that yoohoo@daftaddress.com posts regular messages in the 'Care for your chinchilla' forum. I can easily see who owns a domain name, when they registered it and what other domains they run.

I can work out who called me by searching online for a phone number, this might tell me an area or an address. If I know a surname and vague address I can probably use the BT website or indeed the printed phone book to find a number and full address.

From my Google Analytics I can see who visits all of my websites, where they are in the world, what pages they look at most and how often they visit, I can even tell who their internet service provider is - clever eh?

I am not a deranged-stalker-beast. I am just always careful about who I engage with and like to know how people are finding me. As an adult human I am picky about friendships and picky about who I do business with. As an artist I find it fascinating how people connect and how in our techno-times we can be connected even if we really don't care to - I feel a project coming on. I don't think Google Street View encourages psychos either, they were there before, using less obvious methods to look at my toaster.

It's all OK anyway, in the UK we have been advised from on high that Google Street View does NOT invade personal privacy, I'm not sure I ever thought it did more than CCTV, good legs and a detailed map. Now I officially know it's my ally, I feel warm and fluffy and much more secure.

Useful links for stalkers and chinchilla lovers
Companies House
Experian credit check
The BT website
Chinchilla Care
Carla Boulton Artist
A great Web development company
A great Print design company

Woo

2009-04-22T08:47:00.006+01:00

I did this, it's bizarre but the thought of sitting on the fourth plinth and being part of Antony Gormley's art really appeals.

I have discovered an artist whose work made me cry, Cliff Holden, he is part of the Borough Group (Paula Rego etc), he studied with David Bomberg, he is 91 and his experiences shine through. I can relate so much to his work.

Fin?

2009-04-13T13:51:00.010+01:00

From woodlice to ginger ninja cats, we are a family and business with familiars. One of these furry companions is the very elderly Percy (shown below). At 119 in human years he's as old enough to have been on the local news at least once. Rescued as a pup, he's now the ancient wise-man of the pet hierarchy. Sometimes grumpy, mostly asleep, always emitting foul old sock and wee smells and often forgetting where he has left his glasses, Percy is the geriatric force to be respected.

Wisdom says that having pets teaches children lessons about life, death and caring. When several weeks ago the youngest of our two goldfish seemed to be on his last gills, I as an adult gained a new perspective on these subjects.

The fish was so poorly, he swam sideways, he gasped. I fed him peas which is supposed to help with fish constipation, in response, he floated upside-down. I conditioned him with Fish Conditioner - he looked worse. Every time I thought the end had come and braced myself with a slotted spoon to help him into his fully-lined wooden Turkish Delight box coffin, he perked up. This went on for days. I cried, he floated more and looked very sad. In these days we renamed him, he had always been 'Boring Fish', he was always dull, but now it seemed cruel so when we remembered, he became 'Hopeful Fish'.

During the few weeks that Boring was poorly all family members had ideas about how to help. Youngest son suggested "feed him to the cat, it's recycling", my farmer-dad suggested "knock it on the head" - with what? The fish's head was all of an inch wide. I just wanted to get him out and shout "Get better Boring...". We came to no conclusions; we weren't keeping him alive for our pleasure; he couldn't tell us how he felt, it was quite a strain.

Boring continued to trick us into thinking he was dead then he would miraculously loop the right-way-round loop. Until one morning, as I made tea, I noticed he had expired.

As a family we have had many discussions - never gloomy - about how it would be very kind if humans had an 'off' button. When life is just too tedious, or at a previously agreed moment the button could be used. We have talked about natural burial, about pretty shrouds made of sheep wool (no good for me - makes me itch!). About whether if you scatter ashes bits of the person are trying to find other bits as they float around the countryside...

All this candid grown-up, frank conversation has clearly been no use at all. I now worry about my previously steely nerves and can see I will have to re-open talks with my elders. If I can't flush a half-dead fish how am I ever going to get on the plane to Switzerland?

New work in a new space

2009-04-13T10:33:00.018+01:00

Visited Bridget Rogers at Down to Earth Gallery in Whitchurch on Saturday to take some new pictures including the Theatre Severn drawings. Having moved sideways into a new ground floor unit and taken on a new upstairs gallery Down to Earth now has loads of natural light and good display areas - it's always really interesting to see different gallerists ideas of how to show work and Bridget and Phil's creative minds come out in their use of the available space. my drawings will be there until 9th May in the upstairs gallery. See more of these drawings on my own website.

My artist friends who form the group Severn8 have a show Personal Statements at the Hive Gallery at Belmont arts centre from 17th April - 22nd May. This is a group who met at Shrewsbury College of Art and continue to work and show together - it's a mixed bag of work ranging from abstract to portraits with mixed media and photography inbetween, worth a look if you happen upon Shrewsbury during this time.

With the weather being so amazing, the bright spring light is almost too much for my digital camera to cope with but it is still at hand most of the time. On our journey through Shropshire countryside yesterday my stop-start-leaning-out-of-the- window to get the elusive shot of a pheasant or just-right sprig of blossom was coined as 'danger-photography' by my daughter. Dangerous on single-track roads it may have been but when else do you get such gift pictures of dust-laden April skies and boingy little lambs?

Interesting people

2009-04-06T20:51:00.011+01:00

Today I became a gallerist-for-the-day at my exhibition at Bear Steps Gallery in Shrewsbury. Playing shop-keeper can be a bit of a challenge for the fiddly-type on a quiet day so I had armed myself with current amazing book The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford.
Writing now at 9pm it's good to reflect how at 9am I could have been so wrong. I have had one of the most interesting days. A fusion of great conversation, fascinating people, encouragement and useful feedback, the unexpected loan of a fab book - Faces by photographer Jane Bown - and the sale of a drawing (Country Trio, below) to a man who I know, (after his three visits to my show and much discussion) will really appreciate my work.

I was so pleased when I got back to the office to find a new Email from Marcella Savaget talking about how she loved the work of my good friend Mario Doucet to which I had sent her a link. Marcella also passed on news about the important exhibition at Fondation Cartier in Paris of works by our mutually admired artist Brazilian, Beatriz Milhazes - I am so excited at this thought that I need to find a way to go and see the show.
I find it amazing how people are linked by their love of certain things, art, cars, film, architecture, children - we all have so much knowledge in common, my potentially quiet day has shown me this. Next time I want to entice people to appear and teach me things I know to take a book and intend to read!

More drawings on the wall

2009-04-02T09:51:00.004+01:00

Off to the Bear Steps Gallery in Shrewsbury yesterday to hang three more drawings in the exhibition which I have there until 9th April. This is a gallery run by the Shrewsbury Civic Society, the work which shows there is varied from local watercolours and oils to cartoons by Steve Bell which will be showing as part of the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival in April. Not sure my work is quite in the vein of what usually hangs on the walls but it's getting a very good reception so far.

From a business point of view the Bear Steps exhibition is a great opportunity to show how my drawings are developing and to invite other gallery owners to see what I am doing now. With this in mind I contacted Down to Earth Gallery in Whitchurch, Shropshire to ask if they would like to take the drawings when the show finishes on April 9th.
Down to Earth Gallery is in what used to be craft units next to the Heritage Centre in the market town of Whitchurch, Bridget and Phil Rogers a garden designer and contemporary metal sculptor opened the gallery in one unit last year. Phil and Bridget's selection of unusual, beautiful contemporary British artwork has been a great hit and they have recently expanded to take in another unit. I was in the first tranche of artists to show there and am very pleased to be going back between 11th April and 7th May.
It's all go, with the flowers coming out and pens at the ready it would seem like time to draw...

Carla Boulton, Artist

2009-03-31T22:42:00.008+01:00

Spoke to artist Marcella Savaget (mentioned in my post below) by Email to tell her I liked her work and that it reminded me of the work of Beatriz Milhazes she told me she had visited the atelier of Ms Milhazes in Brazil - how amazing is that!

Have been to the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury again today drawing and loved it - the pics are developing into how I want them to be now. See below

See more of the pics in this series at my drawing website
Carla Boulton Artist

Ooooh I like this

2009-03-30T16:16:00.004+01:00

Nice art:
The website of Marcella Savaget Madeira an artist from Brazil

Weeks of Nothing

2009-03-25T14:35:00.013Z

In a weekly family-life newspaper column, I read recently about how the author tried so hard to relate from the heart but occasionally she had a week where nothing happened at all. She disliked engineering situations or exaggerating but sometimes there was just not anything worth writing about. Short of causing a major 'pet ate other pet' drama or deliberately losing the sports kit to initiate a morning riot I can see that sometimes life just 'is'.

This made me think about how many weeks we have in our lives and brains where nothing much happens and whether these weeks, rather than being dull are really the ones to appreciate. Just as Albert Camus suggests we should stop looking for the meaning of life and accept its absurdity, perhaps we should also accept its occasional nothingness?

Being of the mind that appreciation of something makes us think more, I shall be starting a tally of 'frothy happy weeks of nothingness'. From now until the start of July, (this is my birthday month so something had better happen then or else), I shall be keeping track of when time slides by in a haze of warm plateau-like comfort.

I realise this may appear not much of a challenge but really...with two businesses, four children, two dogs, a cat, a fish and a man, if I rack-up one of those weeks each month I will be entirely satisfied. In-fact I am now wondering whether this is one of those ideas which should have stayed firmly in my head because if I do have had a FHWON will I even notice enough to make a note?

I am spending time drawing at the new Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, (first of this batch of pictures below). My idea here is to document a building growing. Many have criticised the new development as a little-needed folly, I hope it will develop into an arts hub, a venue for Shrewsbury to be proud of.
Alongside other work, I will be showing some of these drawings at Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury from 30 March until 9th April 2009. If Shrewsbury's a bit too far you can see some of them on my website.

Shopping and business, business and shopping

2009-03-10T14:41:00.013Z

Last month's supermarket excursion saw me fill my trolley to bursting point. Meal planning is the way to go - the whole family thinks I've gone mad or am just proving their point about previous madnesses. But you know, working out exactly what we will eat on each day of the month and making the list according to our having 'mince, 500g, lean steak not beef ' or 'chicken breasts not legs, wings or thighs' five times a month and using '32 soft white, not quilted toilet rolls' seemed to be working. We are spending less time and money in that dreaded T-place.
Well, it was working until Child A came to look after the house and dogs for a weekend and brought in contraband white bread and ate the wrong meals on the wrong days. The system was also fine until Child D did his homework on the back of my monthly list - which I had been laughed out of town for suggesting we should type into the computer. It seemed fairly reasonable to keep the list on the worktop in the composting heap of 'important things that we need to do something about' until it became 'How the Vikings Lived'. It was a daft idea anyway.

Anyway, that's enough about lists for now. I have decided that it is time to teach the T-place a lesson in small-business methods. Next month I shall be up and down the aisles until the cart of doom is stacked like an overloaded skip. I will then sail confidently through the unmanned checkout, unclipping that no entry magnet thing that children think is funny to stick to handbags and belts. I'm going to see if anyone notices and when they do I will be ready.
"Excuse me madam, you don't seem to have paid for your shopping"
"No, I just haven't got the money"
"But madam, you have to pay"
"I have decided that the T-place has enough money for now, I'll pay you when I get some"
"If you insist on continuing to unload these goods madam I will be forced to call for assistance"
"Ha, ha. I've been coming here for years and you can just wait a bit longer to be paid. I need my money for other things like a holiday, petrol and clothes."
"Madam, I will need you to stop now and accompany me to the office"
At this point I shall calmly tell Mr Pseudo-policeman that I will be able to pay him in three weeks and that he should know that I am a good customer and if he accepts my deal I will come back for lots more food and tell all my friends about the great experience I've had. I know this will work.
In my small-business world this is a daily scenario. It's not agreed credit it's actually weasling out of paying for a service which has been used or goods which have been delivered. This behaviour is breaking the back of small businesses.

The solution
Communication is the key, I like people to talk to me and will be kind when they do
When you order, if you know the terms are going to be hard to meet, ask for longer to pay
Don't place the order if you know you can't pay - this is called 'stealing'
Stick to terms, if the invoice says 14 days, pay in 14 days
If you can't pay have the good grace to pick up the phone before it becomes a crisis, say "sorry" then agree further terms
Don't waffle on about how you can't pay because you are owed £50,000 and you are on holiday next week and will pay when you get back.
If you are having money problems do not ignore them, talk to your bank and accountant - get help
Never ever lie, we have heard it all before, "The cheque is in the post" is so old it is on its third facelift

And just a little more about lists. In the name of further happying-up our already interesting lives, I present to you...Shopping List Nonsense. After this you will never write a boring shopping list again. Next time you go to the shop, (not the monthly shop mentioned above but the must-have things you dash out for in-between), write a fabulous list. It must be interesting and include something that if it were picked up by a stranger would be intriguing:
Ear hair straighteners
Oven ready chipmunks
Tish shoes
Go Cat Go
Now, when you have unloaded the bags - leave it in the trolley, words upwards, so that who ever picks it up can't help but react. You sniggered when you wrote it and they laughed (or thought what a sad nutter you were) when they read it. Either way it's a bit of light entertainment when no one can afford to go out anymore because their customers won't pay!

Business Link help for Troubled Businesses
Great Graphic Design
Great Web Design
WiRE have advice sessions for women in business
Network With Style, Telford & Shrewsbury Business Club

If you see a door, go through it

2009-02-17T13:35:00.014Z

Insignificant words last heard on a trip to Florence? Possibly not.

A group of friends and I peered through the enticing door of an artists’ studio. Sensing a missed opportunity about to happen, I wooshed us all inside with the words, ‘If you see a door go through it’. Using our best 'Engtalian' we learned that the inhabitant, Clet Abraham, is a well-known Italian commercial artist whose etchings and paintings are astounding, showing fine control and technical ability. Had we not gone through the door we would not have been inspired by his craft.

So, could this be a phrase to live by, a way of life? A metaphorical opportunity for growth in our times?

How many times a day or indeed in an hour do we hear how miserable our economy is, how this will in turn make us miserable as people, poorer in spirit and so it follows, lacking in ideas? Well, I want to tell you something you already know….repeating phrases, hearing and re-hearing the same bad news does indeed engender a feeling of helplessness. As long as we continue to perpetuate the ‘terrible times’ theme there will surely enough be ‘terrible times’. So, quite reasonably, actually definitely, the reverse is true.

Since as early as 2003 we as a business had been predicting a hard kick for the many who had been living on credit and 'fairytale projections'. I have no idea what the future will hold but to be very honest I never have and 'the beginning' or as it is also known 'the present' has to contain a bit more honesty and fulsome behaviour. We're all in this together.

In suggesting that the current economic climate is an opportunity I am in no way proposing taking advantage of others’ misfortune. As business owners we are largely in the same situation as we were before February 2008 when many of us will recall the first utterings of misery and pervading of doom. For many years as business people we have had to ‘invent’ our own work, chase in late payments, drum up enthusiasm for our products and services…here lies the key. Why is now any different? Now is time to use these skills and gee-up those around us, to squash this sad negative state with feelings of optimism.

The opportunity for us is to draw upon our strengths as the providers of our own future and to work together to promote a more positive outlook. The choice is stark: Join the self-fulfilling media bandwagon of misery or do as we do best and use our positivity and enginuity to spread the word that all is not dis-ease and discord.

I suggest that to travel forwards as businesses we all need to promote our fantastic products and services and never utter the words ‘recession’ and ‘downturn’ again. We need to bolster confidence by talking positively and truthfully. The climate is very wrong for the kind of bull marketing we have previously seen. No consumer wants to have to fight for a good price - they expect one. What is needed now is great service, great products with longevity, good advice and a smile – always a smile.

So what can I do?
Turn the news off - no one needs half-hourly-business-killing-sensational-tripe, once a day is enough and only when it is countered with positive action
Highlight your strengths, be the expert in your field
Offer great prices all the time
Have clarity and quality in your marketing
Talk up the longevity and stability of your business
Offer client testimonials
Join a 'nice' networking group - they do not have to be torture. I'm not one of those banging-on about networking people, read this about Networking for the Terrified
Use email newsletters and blogs to promote your positive outlook
Ongoing price reductions devalue your business – don’t do it
And… 'If you see a door, go through it’

www.naughtymutt.com
www.pinkdigital.co.uk
www.academyfineart.com/clet_abraham.htm

Florence with friends and art

2009-02-12T19:18:00.004Z

Florence, what a place. What an inspirational trip I have just made with seven friends – a group of us who were at Art college together. Seven women and one (brave) man who, by the end of the trip was declared and honorary girl.
We had never been away together before though the time we spent at college together had been amazing and incredibly important for us all with many a tear, a mass of revelations and much personal growth. We all knew that being together for two days a week is a different thing to spending ‘living’ time together in another country.
It was fantastic, the city is wonderful. As artists the light was awe-inspiring. As business-people the break, away from office/work life was a real jolt.

The Duomo which we saw on our first bright day, glows red and white stone, the carved and polished doors amazed us and the Golden Door opposite shone in the unexpected sunshine. It being late January there were few tourists providing plenty of spaces to just sit and think. The frescoes in the dome of this cathedral are very beautiful and very odd too, one figure appears to be climbing out of the roof, his leg dangling from a great height. The colours are vibrant and the effect is that you want to just lie on the floor and stare – of course I may have been trampled had I done this! People walking around the edge of the dome having climbed the 400 or so steps look like ants circling the fresco.

Santa Maria Novella a huge church (Florence has many) is wonderful and we were all struck by its beauty and calm. The colours in the wall paintings and the carvings which adorn the font and the altar are so intricate, it is so hard to imagine that man made these pieces without CAD programmes, without much more than crude machinery and with years of patience.

On this first wander I chose to leave my camera in the hotel and just took sketchbook and pens, even if you feel you can’t draw (and we all can) I would urge you to try this if you visit a significant place. The effect of looking at something to draw rather than pointing and shooting a camera is that you are forced to look with your eyes wide open. During my time in cities I see many tourists engage very briefly with the sight, that they feel they ‘must see’, they take a picture and then leave – in fact I drew people with cameras as I felt this action so significantly shows how we forget to look properly.

The second day was spent wandering – this time with a camera and we must have walked miles. After splitting into two groups four of us went to photograph the food in the market – piles of funghi, amazing meats and herbs. Of course lunch of fresh bread, big tomatoes, cheese and ham was bought and with a lack of green space in the vicinity eaten amongst the pigeons and tramps on a traffic island opposite the Accademia!

Curiousity took us into the studios of the Accademia. We spoke to students who, in creative tradition have been sitting-in in protest at the government’s proposals to privatise the universities. The students say this will result in censorship of their work, I tend to agree, this can happen when big businesses become involved in art. They have partly won in that they have been granted a return to four years’ of study with an accent on practical art-making rather than the proposed three with more theory.

Next, just 100m along the street to see Michelangelo’s David, he is huge, he is amazing, the veins stand out on his arms as if his long-held pose is becoming a strain. When asked by a friend what I thought, I had to say “very clever”. And this I mean in the most respectful way, how on earth was this achieved? The immaculate work sculpting those muscles, the smooth and convincing body contours and again, all without a computer! The other work in this particular gallery at the Accademia is profound; religious icons showing faces with deep expression; backgrounds so heavily gilded that they appear to sparkle and patterns etched into to thick gold leaf so precise and carefully made.

The highlight of my day was the scramble to the top of Piazzale Michelangelo to see another David (he is everywhere), perched on top of the hill. We arrived running almost chased by one of our number to “not miss the sunset” over Florence. This time the cameras were out and the shots are beautiful, with all the fantastic monuments in the distance it was a wonderful way to nearly finish our day. Bizarrely my favourite image is of a little red Fiat 500 rounding the corner with all Florence as a backdrop!

All this art was exhausting. I did say that the hill-climb was 'nearly' the finish to our day…the finale was a chance to eat good Italian food, drink good Italian wine and be with good friends whilst watching the world go by.

We flew for £20 return with Ryan Air, a real bargain. I can heartily recommend the lovely Trattoria Enzo & Piero (meals for under £15). Mia Cara was a great central cheap hotel (rooms around £30 a night with breakfast). If you would like to see my pictures please follow the Flickr link.

Carla Boulton
www.naughtymutt.com

Links
www.flickr.com/naughtymutt
www.hotelmiacara.it
www.trattoriaenzoepiero.it

Networking Schmetworking

2008-03-20T12:25:00.006Z

Breakfasts, lunches, evening socials, little gatherings, it made no difference what time of day a networking event was or what it was dressed up as. For me as many others, the word 'networking' had always struck terror into my heart. . . until I found a formula and, being a Feel the Fear kind of girl, tried it. It worked, so I'll pass it on:

Prepare: Most events ask the business person to say a 60 second piece about their business. Follow this simple five-point structure and you will fly through:

1. Hello, my name is Confident Business Person, my business is called Your Business Name, thank you for asking me along today.
2. Your Business Name was established in XYZ Year and we are based in Region, Town.
3. We specialise in Your List of Things (what you do, who you like to work with, how you like to deliver and look after people)
4. We are offering a special deal on XYZ to meeting attendees today please see me afterwards. This is important it gives listeners a reason to talk to you (You must prepare an offer - 5% discount perhaps? A discount if a group member introduces you to a new client?)
5. Again, my name is Confident Business Person, my business is called Your Business Name. This repetition is important, listeners remember the last thing they hear from you.

The key to this trusted formula is to start and end by saying your name and your business name.

OK, that sounds DULL but I promise that if you have a meeting to go to and you practise this over and over again it will not do you any harm to be Mr/Mrs Dull for a couple of meetings until you feel confident.

Practise: Your business is what makes you a living so you need to get this right so you will be rehearsing this in any situation where there is a clock! In the bath, in the car on your dog-walk, you get the idea.

At first your spiel might be under 60 seconds. I am not being obvious here, I know we all need to breathe but, if you take a breath at the end of each sentence then the speech will even out. In conversation you will notice, if you start to watch, that people do this when they are thinking – taking a pause makes you look like you are considering your audience and what you say – not faltering.

Now when you have this ready, go to the meeting and on the way rehearse in the car – it'll be fine.

If it's your first meeting with this group there is no reason why you should feel at home – who would? It's unfamiliar and you don't know anyone, take deep breaths and accept it for its oddness and newness!

Tactic: When you find a seat, sit in the middle of the table/room, this way you will be neither first nor last to deliver!

Whilst others are delivering their 60 seconds watch them and learn. There will be masters of networking in the room! See how those you imagine are calm stand, what do they do with their hands, where do they focus. Do not be panicked if they are cracking jokes and seem good at talking, you will be doing this at a later date!

When it comes to your turn, smile and remember to breathe, if you need a prompt card make one using the bold words in my five points above. Extend your gaze around the room, not just on one person, talk to people not at them and smile. And remember everyone has felt like this.

Networking & Milling Around: During the bit I have always found difficult, find a friendly face, have business cards in your pocket in case you are asked but don't thrust them at people as it can make you seem a bit desperate. Ask people about their business and listen to them, it's hard when you are a bit nervous but so much easier to let someone else do the talking. You won't get business by being pushy but I have won a lot of business by being kind and attentive - apply your life rules to networking and it can actually be pleasant!
Always ask 'chatters' for their card, be aware that in some groups it seems to be a sign that the 'chatter' is moving on when they ask for a card, if they ask for a card then you ask them too.

Etiquette Notes:
Before you go to the meeting ask the leader:
• if there is a set running order.
• if there is a dress code – there's nothing worse than looking scruffy or overdressed
A lot of networking gigs have a table for cards and flyers try to see if you can spy this when you walk in and if you can't see it ask the group leader if they have a display table or if cards are passed around at a certain point in the meeting. Knowing this kind of thing can make you more comfortable.

Business Cards Note: Do not give anyone a nasty looking business card ever! It is all the person you have met has to remember you by, like laddered tights or dirty shoes.
A cheap looking business card = bad press for you.
Invest in some nice cards and hand them over with pride.

The seasoned Pro – that's you!
When you have used this routine a couple of times you will be a pro then you can introduce a joke; a little anecdote; props – there really is time in 60 seconds if you work it out. I have delivered 60 seconds on flash cards because I'd lost my voice and it worked – people remember it. At a longer talk for budding business people I once took a beach towel, sunglasses and suncream, to puzzled looks I explained to the group these were their essential tools for starting a business – they would need a holiday first in preparation for the hard work ahead. The key to feeling relaxed is to relax your listener.

Reverse tactics for the pro: When you have been to a few meetings . . . sit next to the host, at the end of the table or the edge of the room, this way you get a chance to be first or more importantly, last to deliver!

Happy Networking, or as we say in Shropshire, 'Networking Schmetworking'. We're all people underneath!

Believing in yourself

2008-01-18T15:27:00.001Z

For decades I have made New Year's Resolutions, they always seem so impossible to keep - partly because January can be such a miserable month and mostly because making a resolution is a set-up to do nothing!

This year I did not 'resolve' on January 1st. For me 2008 doesn't feel like a new year it just feels like a continuation of the amazing time I am having - how lucky is that?

I am also very lucky to be going to see my good friends and business associates Mr Mario Doucet and Mr Joe Plaskett soon in Paris. Seeing them work hard as practising artists inspires me and it's such an opportunity to go and look at other people's artwork in the mass of galleries in Paris.

Talking of other people's artwork, I saw the bizarre and very clever images by photographer and digital artist Carl Warner in the press late last week and thought I'd share - odd and amazing at the same time.

So here is a picture I painted on Wednesday and Thursday this week and I'm very pleased with it. I'm so interested in the older faces I see, for me they talk about life and experience. I am proud enough know several people in their eighties and nineties, they must have seen and done so much. Imagine if we were all divided into little squares of experience and knowledge and as we learned more these increased, think of all the squares of knowing in someone of greater years - fascinating...

Painting faces

2008-01-14T21:48:00.000Z

It's been a whole month since my last...blog.

And what a fantastic month of being with family, relaxing and painting.

Back to college on Wednesday last week and finishing off the painting I started of two women grieving for a Thai Princess, sister of the 'Yellow' King of Thailand.

Intensity and New Things

2007-12-14T09:46:00.000Z

The exciting first term is over, both for my daughter at university and me at college.

We have both learned things about ourselves:
We are very competitive
Only the best work is good enough
Focus is King
We are driven to know more

We have both met some wonderful kindred spirits, learned about things we did not even know existed and found our strengths and weaknesses...

Would I ever have guessed how exhausting it would be trying to fit in work and two days at college? Definitely not. Is it worth it? Yes, absolutely every minute!

I have a set of prints in this year's Mini Print Hull 2007- so exciting to be submitting to exhibitions again.

Painting birds

2007-12-06T15:59:00.000Z

A whole day painting a copy of a painting of a bird. The original was created in 1654 by Carel Fabritius and is so wonderful, the light is stunning and the one tiny white speck in the bird's eye brings the whole thing to life - marvellous! I am in awe of this painter and many others with such amazing ability.

That's all I have to say really.

Crinkled Pods and New Life

2007-12-04T23:08:00.000Z

At the end of August, after a summer of admiring their amazing blooms and pungent fragrance, I pottered in the garden to make my annual harvest of the pods from the Sweet Peas left to go to seed.

Wrinkled and spotty after a funny summer of rain, heat, wind, bizarre cold snaps and more rain, the pods looked rougher than they usually do. Briefly, I contemplated not gathering, but buying some seed.

I love seed packets, they bring a splash of summer to a dreary winter day. Every autumn I spend ages drooling over what will grow in my garden, how high the stems will be and how many blowsy flowers I will pick. Wandering around a garden centre I will pick up piles of packets, only to be that really annoying customer who, realising I have tens of pounds worth of seeds in my hand, have to embarrassedly put them all down in a muddled heap by the till and run away! I fill in the order forms of seed catalogues, tantalised by the amazing photography and wild colours, when the forms are complete I lose the catalogue and eventually when it is re-found, shred it into the compost bin. . .

To sate my floral passion and save my financial sanity (a bit), I have learned how to gather my own seed, to dry it and keep it carefully until it is time to sow. Cool, dry and no mice works well for me.

So, during November I have driven my family mad by collecting every plastic bottle and tub available and cutting them down to make 9-inch high pots. Finally when the stack of 'pots' began to take over the kitchen, regularly fall over and occasionally be used for craft projects, the time had come.

Before we go any further, I sense a mass mumbling about throwing Sweet Pea seeds into the ground outside in April and poking a few sticks next to them. I do this as well but the fiddling about in the paragraphs below is an annual ritual and does produce a different plant and flower. It's a bit like making a Christmas pudding versus going down to Lidl and getting one for £2.99.

On 25th November I filled the tall pots with cheap compost and planted about ten seeds per pot. Why tall pots? These beauties can stay put until they go outside in May, they like a long root-run and Sweet Peas take patience anyway so who needs to be fiddling about re-potting?

Today, a week later and the seedlings are an inch tall, bright green and waving towards the light each morning until they are spoken to kindly, given a drop of water and turned for their daily exercise.

During the next fortnight, as the leaves open I will watch for the first centre shoot, when this appears it will be snipped off with sharp scissors. Sounds cruel but encourages side-shoots and good strong stems. The poor things get their middles chopped out every couple of days until mid April when they are left to ramble before their 'release' into the garden. I told you it required patience!

Some years ago, my Sweet Peas began life as various types of specialist seeds bought at the Wem Sweet Pea show, who knows what the Sweet Pea Officionados would think of the plants that my seeds produce but I have not bought seeds for some time and each season the blooms are profuse, fragrant and amazing in colour.

This Autumn, along with the Sweet Peas and seed-heads from the huge shaggy purple and pink poppies which I collect and throw at the garden in about May, I also gathered a load of Cosmos seeds. The first batch of Cosmos for me, these fantastic bright pink and purple flowers grew to four and five feet tall and waved all summer - so much pleasure - I couldn't let that go. Lets see if I can do the 'Sweet Pea thing' with them.

Now, back to the seed catalogue. . .

Bulgaria's Abandoned Children

2007-11-19T19:40:00.000Z

On 18 November I watched, with my 18 yr old daughter a programme on BBC1 called Bulgaria's Abandoned Children.

This programme, directed by Kate Blewett, describes a children's care home in Bulgaria and investigates the conditions in which the children live. It had already been shown on BBBC4 in September and caused an enormous reaction (I hadn't seen it then).

Bulgaria's Abandoned Children lasted for an hour and has been in my mind since. First thing this morning when I woke up I had images of sunken eyed children in my head.

The neglect shown has shocked me to the core. My words won't describe the sadness so here is a link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/bulgarias-children.shtml

My worst feeling is of helplessness.

Moaning, whingeing and going on and on...

2007-10-20T21:18:00.000+01:00

Old fat chefs, binge-drinking men, swearing editors, teenage belly-waving women, bad driving wheelie bins, pierced phone-hugging web-surfing babies, networking tattooed young pensioners, middle-aged old thin meat-eating orange-skinned vegans, brightly dyed grey long-short haired undergraduates and pregnant traffic wardens wearing those plastic clogs with holes in, really make mad.

There, I've said it, now read it again and have a think about where you have heard it before...

This is how I hear the subterfuge, the burbling miserable moan-barrage that seems to be a carpet that we walk on, a wall that surrounds us, the whinge-soaked media is driving me bananas.

SHUT UP! Stop moaning. There are more important things to think about.

Drawings

2007-10-12T13:36:00.000+01:00

Well, Friday again and what a great week I have had. Working with Jewellery designer Joanne from Callula to pull together her logo and marketing materials, a pleasure as always to work with a 'maker'.

Waiting for the Continence Foundation to send me text corrections for issue 5 of Continence Review, so nice to work with them and crossing my fingers and toes to hear about a magazine tender for a national supermarket chain. . .all between swinging from the clouds being immersed in art (I quote my good friend Mario Doucet here!).

From my sketchbook: What a wonderful opportunity to draw every week and to progress.

The Magic Roundabout of Life

2007-10-05T09:36:00.000+01:00

Sometimes you ask yourself, "Why did I not do this before?"

At 19 I had a shared exhibition of paintings and drawings in a small London gallery with a friend. I had painted and drawn most days since the age of about 10 and expected life to be full of art and 'knew', (with the arrogance of youth!), that I would do well as an artist. Then at 20 the baby thing happened and time became all-consumed by necessities like money and washing (washing . . . a major part of the last 20 years). As the family grew to number six, so did the washing pile and the cash demands.

Art simmered on the back-burner, never leaving my life but never being a main income nor what I had expected.
Through the years I have worked on art projects, been closely involved with Foundation for Women's Art and I run a successful graphic design business, producing commission illustrations when asked. Creativity had always been there in some form but not directly in terms of picking up a tool and creating what is in my mind, working to commission as a graphic designer is a very very different thing.

Two years ago I started regularly drawing again and set up a website where I could show potential clients my work. I produced various drawings but nothing constant and still felt that the youthful confidence would not return. In that same year I got as far as filling out the forms for a course, this being the same year my eldest was taking AS levels, the forms stayed in the drawer. The next year I did the same trick - that time the forms even got to 'in the envelope' stage but not crucially 'in the post' . . .

This March with my daughter's University applications made and change in the air I made a decision that I would do an Art course and commit to it. By August I had an interview date set for a degree course called 'Art for Employment' - a path to work, for artists who realise they need to eat as well as create! All was looking good.

At the interview, everything went well. After saying that I was ideal for the course and that I could have a place, the tutor told me that there had only been a few applications and the course would not run until 2008. Disaster, I had psyched myself up so much, what a let-down.

All was not lost, the tutor suggested I apply for an alternative course for this year and hone my skills, get into painting and drawing for a year and try some new media. As I walked away from the interview I felt dejected and sad but then with a sharp bootstrap jerk I realised I had been offered a great opportunity.

In the name of discipline and with much direction, I'm now three weeks into the Fine Art painting and drawing course. 16 mature students, some outstanding work going on and I have not had so much time to draw, paint and read for years. Feels a bit naughty but with development firmly in my brain I am so excited.

Full circle in 20 years I suppose that's not bad!

From my sketchbook: Bright Heart

New things

2007-09-20T21:15:00.000+01:00

Life seems to have overtaken itself with great speed.

This last month has been a blur of A level results, university offers, gathering packing boxes, enquiring as to what will fit under the average bed at Aston Uni (answer - nothing much/ fluff?) harvesting kitchen things from relatives and making lists and lists of what will be needed. And I'm not even going...

My first child is about to leave home. If you have been through this you will be wearing a wry smile, if not you would not imagine the state of flux this has put a family of six into. Two younger children are vying to take over the soon-to-be-vacant bedroom, older child is alternating bad behaviour with despair at losing a sister. One parent swings between jokes about how many days to go and practical provision of computers and other technical stuff. . . I meanwhile am trying to do anything possible to take my mind off the situation.

I observe my Uni-bound daughter going through a strange process. Leaving some friends behind before she goes, signing off relationships which we all thought meant so much. I am so sure that this is not as serious as it seems to those who are feeling left behind. She seems to be trying to make space to embrace new things and needs a clear head to do this. I am positive it's about knowing herself well and not being able to cope with too much - like having a messy desk and being unable to work until it's filed and sorted out. I am just crossing my fingers that her truly-loved friends can see this for what it is.

"It feels like if I don't pack I won't have to go". The last comment made by Uni-bound daughter as she ran out of the door tonight for another "I'm leaving home" booze-up, this one with work colleagues.

She goes in two days and nothing is sorted. I have done nothing more than gently chivvying to encourage the packing. I imagine that on Saturday morning we will throw all the very important beer glasses, clothes, and hair straighteners, along with the unneccessary cutlery, crockery and cleaning gear into some boxes and go up the M6 - this has to be the only way to leave home! There will be no time for tears nor tantrums.

When I left home it was on a National Express coach with one over-stuffed bag and a wedge of money. Needs seem to have become more complicated, as well as a credit card and several bank accounts, a multitude of electrical appliances and a new outfit for each day of the first fortnight are mandatory. Apparently after the first fortnight, "no one will care what they look like..."

My action plan is as follows:

Tell anyone who cries that every time I think about Uni-bound daughter, I feel like crying too and bargain that if they don't cry I won't either.
Try to remember what it's like to be damned scared of doing something new.
Buy something wholesome and filling every time I go shopping, on returning from the supermarket open Uni-bound daughter's bedroom door and throw this item in.
Know that it will all happen in it's own time and just go with it!
As usual say "Yes" to anything people ask for - in particular things I have never done before - logic here is that having something massively scary to do takes my mind off worrying about the impending 'leaving thing'.

The reality is that I will cry when no one is looking, worry that she will be OK, text her to distraction and check her Facebook account to see she's alive if I don't hear from her every day - but please don't tell her!

Refuge from Deluge

2007-08-13T15:46:00.001+01:00

At midnight on 23rd May my half-asleep-husband drove to Manchester airport to collect my 82 year-old Nan. Although sadly tinged by the death of a friend, which she wisely said "is just something that keeps happening", her stay in Spain had been very relaxing.

Back home, as they stepped through the front door they were met by a terrible smell, described by my husband as "like something had died in there". With no evidence as to what had died or where the smell was coming from, my very tired Nan was left alone and got ready for sleep. When she got into bed, the mattress felt wet. Assuming there had been a leak (remember this was 2am) she made a bed on the lounge floor and, exhausted, slept until she woke in the early hours of morning feeling damp. When she stood up and her feet squelched on the carpet, she realised that there had not been a leak but a flood.

That morning we telephoned the housing association, plumber and insurance company. Then began a web of denial and mindless dodging by every official 'partner'. The plumber blamed the drains, the water company blamed the roof, the housing association blamed anyone who breathed and neighbours suggested the freezer had leaked. My Nan insisted that the water had come from inefficient drains in the street above, over the damp course and through the house.

Eventually the housing association lamely decided the water had come through the front door and a man from 200 miles away was dispatched to replace the seal. Another man from the opposite side of the country repainted her bedroom. The house still stunk and all parties retired to their respective corners to faff around and blame each other.

The faffing continued, insurance money was paid to replace the carpets, the housing association offered no help at all except denial, a door seal and paint. We waited for a carpet fitter and Nan tried to get on with life.

On 15th July my Nan's eldest brother died. This "is just something that keeps happening". Even though Nan was still living without carpets in a house which stunk like a rotting toilet, her mind was now on bigger things, losing a brother, her big caring brother, was awful. We spent a really happy morning shopping for the most elegant suit to wear to the funeral and the next week passed quickly. She seemed to be managing really well and left in stoic mind on 19th July for the funeral.

On 20th July, the day of the funeral, my husband and I were summoned to my Nan's house to check the damage caused by yet another flood.

When we got there the water had receded but the house was still very wet, this time, unlike last, water was still inside and it was obvious it had gone right through all the rooms. Not really knowing what to do first we raised as much furniture as possible and commandeered plastic boxes from everywhere, filling them with anything which could be damaged by the damp. After an exhausting day we went home and scrubbed ourselves until we shone, the smell pervaded every bit of our skin and clothes.

The next day at 10am an elderly friend of my Nan called to say 'it' had happened yet again. We shrugged our weary shoulders, pulled on wellies and laughed about how 'it' couldn't possibly have happened again and how this particularly lovely man seems to exaggerate every situation to maximum effect.

Driving the 10-minute journey to my Nan's house we laughed about how we were taking cameras and buckets to witness a puddle.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth, when we got there I was forced to misquotedly point out that John Donne was wrong when he said 'no bungalow is an island'. The bungalow was in fact, along with its attached neighbour, an island. Water lapped over the doors, plants floated by, and the bird table sat sadly in the centre of the newly-created mere. Knowing where paths lay, we managed to tiptoe past the half-submerged shed to the front door without the water getting into our boots. As I pushed the door open a teabag floated down the hall toward the kitchen.

In these situations a kind of odd fascination comes over me, I took loads of photos which have proved valuable to insurers and those 'partners' in denial about what happened.

On that day my Nan, in fact, the rest of my whole family were travelling 200 miles westwards back from the funeral. I had been left behind to look after family dogs and so found myself in sole charge of the soggy mess.

After pondering for a couple of hours, lifting up precious antique furniture, rescuing clothes, reeling from the smell and getting cross with the estate manager who still insisted the water had come through the door, I decided to call in the fire brigade; I had only not done this earlier because a neighbour had said 'they won't come unless it's two feet high...' After the initial shock and able to emotionally detach myself a little, I realised that I should call the fire service and find out the real answer. Within fifteen minutes they appeared with waders, pumps and offers of practical help.

As the pumps were being set up, a posse of elderly neighbours gathered to disagree the cause and look in wonder at the spectacle. A call came on my mobile from Nan she was on her way, how was the house? I come from the school of not making people suffer by telling them things they can do nothing about, so at this point she had not been told that there had been a third repeat performance. I did say that there had been more flooding but that it was under control - sitting in a car floating in 'what ifs' does no one any good.

After a worried night at my mums, she was in the car, ten minutes away. You must imagine the scene, around twenty pensioners, ten fireman, water company officials and various 'partners' were all gathered outside watching the latest episode of 'You've been Flooded'. My job was to politely get rid of all the bystanders, it felt very rude to be saying 'I know it's interesting but can you just go inside so that when Nan arrives you are not all gathered around, I think it will make it much more upsetting'. Apart from when the mobility scooters have been turned up to number eleven I have never seen those lovely older people move so fast.

The uniting family emotion between the five of us (my mum and aunt, myself and my husband and nan) that day was disbelief. Every new bag of photos we found stuck together and every small wet thing which had been carefully stowed in a safe place brought another sad sigh. We spent hours baling out water in dustpans and buckets, mops and brooms, as we baled out it seemed to come back in under skirting boards and up through the floor. Outside was still 8 inches deep and the fire service had confirmed that the water contained sewage.

That first mega-flood day went past in a blur. It is a massive tribute to my Nan that she didn't crumple, remember she had just lost her brother and now on the face of it everything in her home had been damaged or ruined.

The sighing continued for another week as we returned to the house to clear up and meet with surveyors, water officials and loss adjusters. This process was exhausting and aggravating as once again no one could agree not only about who was at fault (if anyone) but who should remedy the problem.

The clearing has gone on now for four weeks and work has begun to re-lay floors. Finally all parties have agreed that the water did indeed rush down from the street above when the inadequate drains could not cope. As the bungalow is on a private estate, we wait and wait to see who will agree to responsibility for the drain repairs. We wait with baited breath and pray for no more heavy rain whilst work continues to put things right inside the house, after all without better drains 'it' will all happen again...

After an initial week of spare-room hopping, this will be my Nan's third week in a hotel which, although warm and reasonably comfortable is not home and only provides breakfast leaving her in a position where she must eat out every day. It sounds luxurious but is creating a very unhappy lady who still has to face eventually returning to her home knowing she has lost so many treasured possessions and is, in effect having to start again. She has transformed from a happy lady with many subjects of conversation to one disillusioned by the lack of help from the officials she felt should care and obsessed by what will happen next and how she will manage.

Miraculously after weeks of no help, when a letter from our local MP was sent and the word 'solicitor' was mentioned, we finally saw things moving a bit faster. If the problem with drains had been dealt with in May when this first happened, if only all officials had not written off the wisdom of a 'silly old woman', it could have cost so much less in time, possessions, emotions and energy.

Our whole family has become embroiled in the problems: we love our mother/grandmother so we are comforters, carers, meal providers, letter writers, emailers, and bashing posts when things do not go well. It sounds mean but it is so hard to deal with so many different officials all of whom pass responsibility to each other and we all feel every single day as if we are encroaching upon the life of a normally independent woman.

A flood sounds so benign and when we see TV images of people happily employing the 'blitz spirit' we see only the surface. The depth of the problems is much more complex. In comparison to those whose houses will never be re-inhabited, this story will eventually have a happy ending, through terrible sadness and the sense of loss it has caused we have learned a lot. We think daily about others who have experienced this and will always understand more about how much a home means and how wise an older person can be.

Doing something you love

2007-07-30T14:46:00.000+01:00

Every day you should do something you love.
Today I am working on the monthly Property Law Website newsletter. The website is run by Barrister and property law expert Gary Webber and the newsletter goes out as a PDF to all subscribers and is available as a download.
When I first started working on this I was determined to not let it look 'dry and legal', a year later and I have a nice tradition of my taking a pretty, seasonal picture and using it on the front page.
Last month we used the poppies below, this month's picture was the sunflower and bee (above).
So this is what I mean, Whatever you do, do somethng you love'.

All-round oddness

2007-07-22T09:56:00.000+01:00

On Monday an email plopped in to my inbox announcing that I was to be the Art Director of a new magazine and listing others appointed to roles within the publication, it read like the royalty list for a small country.

Being a friendly soul I emailed the list introducing myself professionally (I should have said 'Hi, does anyone know what this is all about?'). Piles of emails followed along the same lines 'Hi Mrs Art Director (person who knows what is going on), I'm Mr/Miss high profile designer/photographer. I've been doing this for years, I'm really good at what I do, the project sounds interesting, how much will I be paid etc...'. A common thread ran through the emails, not one person had ever read or seen the magazine. Spanning a couple of days and many emails I spoke to and emailed a lot of people, all the proposed participants had one question still unanswered 'what fee is being offered?'.

By Thursday I had written the project off as unrealistic. Unless produced by unpaid new freelancers in need of a portfolio, by my costing the magazine - which I had learned was being entirely funded by the editors, who had full-time jobs elsewhere - would have staff costs in the region of £20,000 before printing. That day, I made a final request for an outline of the fee and was offered a sum six times less than what I would quote for such a job.

Rather than being an irritating waste of time the whole exercise was joyous, one of meeting new people and learning how many of 'us' there are out there working hard in a professional way on our bread-and-butter jobs but still looking for a fantastic creative project to get our claws into.

Had a client of mine been approached in this way and asked about whether to get involved I would have advised them to steer clear as it sounded too good to be true - funnily enough this is exactly why I followed up the initial email. I'm having a drive to say 'yes' more and to follow untrodden paths. The editor actually seemed like a nice guy, and who knows where meeting all these lovely creative people might lead. I really do wish them well.

A really funny aside to this tale is that when I looked back at my reply to the fee offer I realised I had mistakenly added one too many zeros to the and of the amount making me the highest paid Art Director ever - no wonder I didn't hear back!

Workwise, Friday was wiped out by another flood in a family member's home. Soaked furniture smells nasty, watching a teabag float down the hall is just strange. The fireman told me he had seen '...dogs and chickens..and even people floating around in the past'. I think I'll stick with my arty floaty job for now.

I have so much to do, The Continence Review magazine is about to go to last proof. I suddenly received two rewrites last Wednesday after everything had been finalised so had to reset five pages and throw out any ideas of pretty pictures as the authors had done that authorly thing and expanded the copy. Wem Carnival programme is nearly finished, I like this annual job, it's the only local work I do and it's generates a warm squishy feeling about committees doing good things not being groups of bickering people who hold up work.

One of my favourite clients The Legal Easel came to see us last week, they had never been to Shrewsbury and we just wanted an excuse to buy nice biscuits. The Legal Easel's director Dr Sheinman wants to rework his publicity so I have to give this some thought next week. Rural Support which has now split back to county level needs new leaflets and Karen from Martins Dried Flowers needs some quotes made pretty. Unusually for July, it's all go here.

A little bit OCD

2007-07-15T23:40:00.000+01:00

My sharing this experience will stop many of you in your tracks, I promise you it will.

At the till in Tescos, having driven the tangle of environmentally friendly bags five minutes down the road for their daily outing to the shops, I scanned the queues to the left and right. I was the only person (nutter) trying to wrestle with my own bags. Rather than keep this thought to myself I was compelled to announce to the cashier and then loudly to the bloke next to me that it struck me as '...just a little bit bloody OCD bringing all these bags with me...'.

Embarrassed looks all-round, not least from my husband. He then spent the car journey home telling me just how strange I had looked in the past few months on my one-obsessive-woman crusade to save the planet using two huge orange and green canvas bags which cannot be lifted once full of shopping.

I now have visons of staff on teabreaks sitting around weeing themselves watching Tesco TV's new series (think Easyjet's Airline ), Wrestling with Big Bags, Highlights from the Shopfloor

Next time you are out there being ecofreak remember this, you are being watched.

Wind and colours

2007-07-06T08:05:00.000+01:00

Poppies earlier this week in the garden before the wind

Every plant in the garden over the height of about 8 inches is getting blown over, this doesn't stop me being amazed by the array of wild colours. Colours put together by humans often screech and look nasty, yet naturally in the garden, purple can be next to red, blue and pink with green all around and it looks fabulous. Little tiny cuttings and mangy looking plants have turned into beasts with flowers and smells - amazing. The petunias we grew did nothing but the sunflowers are 7ft tall and flowering, sweet peas are weaving their way up the bean stems, the roses grown from cuttings pinched from other gardens are in bloom and something called Nolana is producing lame leaves but a mass of wide blue bell-shaped fowers with yellow winking middles. I have to ask myself why, when I grew up with parents running a nursery, when I could see the amazing power in a painting, was I completely disinterested in the magic and beauty that develops in the garden? Teenage apathy I reckon!

Workwise, I have to get the editorial into some kind of shape for the Continence Review magazine, quarterly and 40 pages long it always takes ages to knock into shape. One of my self-assumed - in the name of making incontinence more popular-culture - tasks with this one is sourcing appropriate pics: a tangle of hoses for a catheter article; a huddle of emos for a teenage incontinence article...The Continence Foundation bods are good to work with and when it actually morphs in to a magazine I always feel proud. Then this afternoon I am off to see Linda Crane who runs Shropshire Autistic Supporters - a dame formidable!

OK I submit...

2007-07-04T11:15:00.000+01:00

I quite like the thought of a blog: Somewhere to mumble.

Todays mumbles...
Had a haircut, 8 inches off the bottom. The hairdresser asked me who normally cuts my hair "me" I said, the look was a killer. As I was leaving she said "see you soon". Ha! Is five years' time soon enough? Why do they not have signs in hairdressers saying "We specialise in nervous patients"? I have to give her credit though she didn't ask me about my holidays or if I was going out - the holiday was rained off and I rarely go anywhere except the office. The hair looks good enough to denote responsible parent at tonight's yr 10 prize-giving (aaargh) - and I didn't cry in the car.

Anyway back in the office, fielding a few enquiries. A record shop owner who is paying £300 a month (yes a month) to just 'have' a website. This is not hosting, this is not for maintenance this is just what he agreed after paying £lots to have his very basic Actinic site 'designed' in 2005. It saddens me to think that there are still companies out there who are happy to rip-off their technically challenged clients just because they can. . .Pink's hosting starts at £150 a year, domains are £30 and once the site is paid for unless the client wants/needs a maintenance contract then that's it - just the domain and hosting - nothing more (except clients get to talk to me every so often). I still keep muttering "£300 a month for nothing!"

Spoke to the printer who has just printed the dried flowers brochure I've been working on, it looks stunning and he's about to run me off some copies to use for publicity. It's so nice to work with a company who want something beautiful - the flowers are amazing, had a lovely afternoon taking the pics with Shirley Carnegie and the owners of Martins Dried Flowers are lovely too. An all round lovely job.