Monday...

Last week I got a bit caught up with sending out masses of my calendars...it was one of those things I thought would take a whole day, and which actually took nearly a whole week!

The other thing I’m currently working on at the moment is my new blog...

I’m moving everything over to Wordpress, and weirdly I’m actually quite enjoying the re-categorising and organising of posts and images...it feels a bit like re-decorating the house...

The blog ( which is www.5ftinf.com ) may well be ready by sometime this week, although it is already live...just not quite finished/re-decorated, so this is just a little heads up that things will be changing a bit and hopefully you’ll be able to all shift over with me...

The temperature has definitely changed over the last week. 

The seasons are gently moving; cranberries are appearing at the grocers, I lit a fire for the first time this season and I’ve worn gloves twice...

I thought it would be a great idea to roast the giant chestnuts I’d bought from the green grocers, but unfortunately I forgot to cut them, and they loudly exploded over the fire guard, narrowly missing the cat!

I did manage to scrape a bit of the soft chestnut, which was left, out of the shell, and sprinkle it with salt, so at least I got a small taste of the Winter to come...which is probably all I want just at the moment!

Wednesday...

The garden is thinning, but there's still colour hidden amongst the sticks...

Monday...with Yellow Canvas Beauty

This is the second of four posts showing some of the process and images I shot for Australian based Canvas Beauty who asked me to create some unique table photographs for them...

I had so many shasta daisies over the Summer that I decided to work on two yellow themes...

As the daisies are bold, I tried to soften them with honeysuckle, ferns, marjoram, fennel and seeds whilst reflecting the yellow centres with the lemons...

As Canvas use loads of natural products I wanted to include at least a few edible and aromatic flowers too...

( although these beautiful hand made wooden boxes used for storing oils smelled amazing anyway! )

As Canvas is based in Australia I found a couple of vintage maps to include in the composition...

( you can see the other one here and here... )

Canvas Beauty pride themselves on their products which are full of wonderful herbal extracts and unique essential oils harnessing natural power as well as a natural healing therapy.

Follow them on Instagram @canvasbeautyau and on Facebook where you can see more of my photos

* this is a sponsored post 

Friday...

It’s been a bit of a busy, multi tasking week, as tonight I have the Private View for my new exhibition ‘Sea Marks’ at 35 North Contemporary Art Gallery in Brighton...

It’s an exhibition which combines all my work process with sketches, texture studies, paintings and photographs with inspiration from Brighton, Hastings and Cornwall...

I’ve been cutting it a bit fine with the painting and some of them were still a bit wet when they were framed and when  I hung them yesterday! 

You can read a bit more about the gallery and exhibition here, and if you’re in Brighton over the next 4 weeks and fancy a nosey, the gallery is open Thursday - Sunday.

Next week I’ll be tidying the garden which is getting overrun by Autumn!

Thursday...

Just a quick post to remind you that you still have a few days to pre order your calendars on my etsy shop with the 20% discount using code: 5ftinfcal20 ( you use it at the checkout )

...and I've also just listed some packs of cards too! 

(...and the floor is definitely getting a re-paint next month! )

Monday...with Pink Canvas Beauty

Over the last few months I’ve been working on such a lovely project for the Australian based Canvas Beauty.

Canvas asked me to create 4 unique table compositions with various colour themes and, like their products, connect with nature.

It was a perfect project for me as its a joy to compose these pieces...

Over the next 3 Mondays I’ll be posting pictures of the process of how I put their images together, starting with today’s pink theme...

Part of the joy of my compositions comes directly from nature itself, so when these Japanese Anemone petals were scattered over the garden path it sort of got me started...

I was working with one of the Canvas oil burners and decided to include a hydrangea petal to highlight the water, but to reflect that beautiful thing when petals just fall into ornamental ponds...

I wanted to re-create or at least capture some of the prettiness of the anemones outside...

as well as the freshness of the flowers in the morning...

...I lit up the burner last of all and I was so pleased that the warm glow of the candle picked out the centres of the shasta daisies as well as the anemones...

One composition often informs another, and although the rose petals didn’t feature in this pink composition... I just couldn’t leave them out!

Canvas Beauty pride themselves on their products which are full of wonderful herbal extracts and unique essential oils harnessing natural power as well as a natural healing therapy.

Follow them on Instagram @canvasbeautyau and on Facebook  and you’ll be able to see more of my photos.

* this is a sponsored post 

Saturday...

This week has been dark and rainy...

It always feels strange when the light changes in the mornings...I’m a very early riser and I really miss the light mornings of Summer...

However Autumn holds such amazing colour, and even with rain preventing me from being in the garden more at the moment, there’s something cosy, reflective and completely fulfilling to the senses about it....

I went out early this morning, even though it was still quite dark and the starlings were chattering like mad ahead of their Autumnal murmurations...

There was a big storm last night so the garden was soaked...

( This is my new Autumn purchase by the way, as the old one wasn’t going to withhold another season! )

I burn a lot of my garden waste and then use the ash to dig into the garden during the spring as it helps with soil drainage, and I also love the fact that I dig everything back in to where it started from....

The nasturtiums are, of course, going strong and I’m still picking loads of them, but the rain last night had weighed them down and damaged them a little...

They will basically keep going until the first frost, which then kills them all in one morning!

...so the snails have only got a few weeks left!

(I took this picture yesterday, before the rain...)

but it is the way their leaves hold the rain which was my inspiration this morning...