Art, vegan food and stormy skies in Glasgow

I arrived home yesterday after a week away: three days in Glasgow before a cross-country train journey to my mum's in Yorkshire for the Easter weekend.

Glasgow is Thomas's home town, so I have an excellent tour guide on hand. We had two lovely evenings with his family and spent our days visiting galleries, eating all of the vegan food, and dodging rain and snow storms (it seems strange to think now, when I've spent all morning out in the garden, but it was bloody freezing last week!).

Glasgow is pretty hard to beat when it comes to vegan food: I missed the amazing burgers at The 13th Note on this trip, but we made sure to eat at Mono, The 78, and Stereo, all part of the same chain of vegan bar/restaurants (with Mono and Stereo also doubling up as gig venues). I was particularly taken with The 78, a few minutes walk from the Victorian splendour of Kelvingrove Museum, which has the feel of a country pub in the middle of the city.

The weather meant that we did rather less wandering around and rather more hiding in art galleries. The Hunterian Gallery at Glasgow University currently has an excellent exhibition about history of printing, including examples of many very early printed books - called Incunables - from around Europe. We also enjoyed the Alisdair Gray exhibition at GOMA (where this great neon installation can also be found) while Thomas took advantage of the kids art room to sketch a not-so-flattering picture of yours truly!

Glasgow is also home to Elise, who I met for tea and cake (and being a very poor blogger, completely failing to take photographs of the amazing interior at Cup).

On my final morning it brightened up a bit so we were able to take a relaxed walk through the city centre, snapping away at the huge murals that grace the sides of buildings in the Merchant City area. I love Glasgow, and would heartily recommend a visit to anyone looking for their next weekend break destination. Just make sure you wrap up warm!

At home: A bedroom picture shelf

I'm ridiculously obsessed with pictures and prints. You know when you go round to someone's house and they don't have anything on the walls? Yeah, I find that really weird. My walls are crammed with photographs, posters, screenprints... you name it, I'll have framed it. So it was odd that for a very long time I had a huge blank wall above the bed.

In the end, it became a case of needs must: Thomas needed somewhere to store books as there's no room for a bedside table on his side, and I wanted somewhere for a plant and a few other bits and pieces I'd been collecting. So instead of a standard wall of pictures, we decided on a picture shelf. We could have opted for a specialist picture shelf but they're usually too narrow for books, so instead we went for normal shelving timber and brackets from B&Q. In the absence of the usual ridge on a picture shelf that stops the frames sliding off or toppling onto sleeping people, I've secured each one with a couple of sticky pads.

With fantastic timing, just as I was finishing up buying the timber eFrame got in touch with me to ask if I'd be interested in trying out a couple of their frames. eFrame offer a range of standard picture frames but of more interest to me was their custom framing service, which is especially handy when you have hard-to-frame prints and pictures in non-standard sizes or shapes.

I was especially keen to try their new Print & Frame service and had spied a printable PDF on Etsy featuring a line from Thomas's favourite song, Go Your Own Way, as a pretty art print. This seemed like a great opportunity to have it professionally printed and framed. The website allowed me to play around with different options for the frame, the mount and the size of the image: in the end, I went for a simple white frame with narrow white mount, and I love how it looks. I also popped a second frame - without mount - into the shopping basket, this one for my 30cm² Screw The Patriarchy print, which wouldn't fit into a standard off-the-shelf frame.

I was really impressed with the service I received from eFrame. Everyone I dealt with (there were some delivery issues - entirely my own fault, I hasten to add - so I had to get in touch a few times) was super friendly and lovely, and the frames themselves are great quality and a very good price for custom framing. I'd heartily recommend their service next time you have something tricky to frame.

Details: 

Timber & shelf brackets - B&Q

Aloe Vera plant - Ikea (in an old pot)

Vintage shop sign 'K' - Bringing The Outside In, Holkham, Norfolk (it might be a little weird to have a letter that doesn't occur in either of our names, but k is the first letter of my mum's maiden name, a name (and family) which is very important to me)

You Can Go Your Own Way printable PDF - Etsy

Screw The Patriarchy print - Redbubble

It's A Wonderful Life poster - eBay

Black Ribba frames - all Ikea
Small white frame - Wilko
Custom square frames - eFrame

Disclosure: eFrame gifted me the two frames in exchange for an honest review, but all opinions are entirely my own. No, really... I would never be less than honest even when getting something for free (I think my rather scathing reviews of some of the free books I've received makes that clear!).

A trip to the Botanic Gardens

Saturday was one of those weirdly hot, muggy, cloudy days we seem to be having a lot of lately. It's like the weather hasn't got the memo about it being almost October but instead of nice sunny days, we're getting the worst kind of summer weather. The forecast had promised some lovely sunshine so we'd packed a picnic and made plans to visit the annual Sculpture in the Garden exhibition at Leicester's Botanic Gardens. When the day dawned overcast and grey, we decided to stick to our plans and off to Oadby we went.

We've been talking about visiting the gardens all summer and in a way it's a shame we waited so long, as the majority of the plants are past their flowering now. But the sunflowers were still spectacular and I enjoyed crunching through the autumn leaves.

The Sculpture in the Garden show runs every year from June until October and features a wide range of art. I love the way in which the natural surroundings of the garden blends with the sculpture; sometimes very literally, as with this spider web.

A weekend in Bristol

Banksy's most famous work in his hometown, sadly vandalised at the moment

36 years after being born there (my parents only stayed for 3 months after my birth, so it's not exactly my hometown), I returned to Bristol to celebrate my birthday with The Boy.  And what a weekend we had: endless blue skies and sunshine, delicious vegan & veggie food, walking for miles while popping in and out of brilliant independent shops and spotting street art along the way. The more I saw of Bristol the more I fell for the city, and it's now shot straight to the top of our 'Want to Live' list (perhaps even knocking Hebden Bridge off its number one spot).

We found so many fab places to eat and drink.  My favourite was probably Roll For The Soul, a veggie & vegan cafe and bike workshop/community space.  The burrito I had for lunch on Sunday was HUGE and so delicious.  We also liked the chilled-out vibe of The Canteen, in Stokes Croft, where we drank cider on the terrace on Saturday afternoon (we were on holiday so daytime drinking is totally ok, right?).

It sometimes seems like there's not a wall in Bristol that hasn't been decorated with street art, from murals to graffiti tags to some amazing 'clean' stencil work (where the dirt on an old building has been blasted with a jet cleaner while a stencil is on the wall, leaving patterns in the clean bits).  As much as I loved the little cat, I think the fox is just stunning and the picture doesn't really give an idea of scale: it was on a building about five stories high!

We had a super-relaxed start to Sunday morning (gotta love a midday check-out) and then wandered back through the city to see the Jeremy Deller exhibition at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.  I love Deller's work but the exhibition - English Magic - wasn't the best of his I've seen.  I did love the multiple references to Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, though, which ranged from some typically Deller banners to an amazing steel band rendition.  We walked via Castle Park and St Peter's Church, which was bombed during the Bristol Blitz in 1940 and is now just a shell, albeit in beautifully landscaped gardens which seem so peaceful, you'd never know you were mere steps away from the main shopping centre.

A weekend in the North West

 

This year, we decided that, instead of Christmas presents, we would take a couple of short trips away together.  The Boy chose a few days in the Cotswolds for his trip (you can read about it here), while I made the admittedly strange choice of the North West for mine.  Strange, because my dad has lived in Manchester for the past twenty years, so I visit often.  Stranger, because I also briefly lived in the city in 2001, before coming back to Leicester to finish my degree.  But I've always felt like it's a place I want to spend more time in, and what better city to be a tourist than one you already know your way around?  I'd also found an exhibition at Tate Liverpool that I really wanted to see and when we realised how frequent and fast the trains between the two cities were, my choice of weekend away was cemented.

The broad theme of the weekend was alternative and left wing culture; we spent most of our time in Manchester hanging out in the Northern Quarter, epicentre of the city's indie and alternative scene, while in Liverpool we went off the beaten track to find a great veggie cafe/bar/'creative hub' (Mello Mello on Slater Street - much recommended for tasty food and lots of boardgames to while away a Sunday afternoon).  Meanwhile, we visited the Art Turning Left exhibition at Tate Liverpool, which examines how art has been influenced and shaped by left wing values, and The People's History Museum in Manchester, immersing ourselves in the history of socialist movements and trade unions in the UK.

In the Northern Quarter we discovered craft superstore Fred Aldous; truly, my life was not complete until I found this place.  I could have bought half the store, but limited myself to just a couple of things.  Top of the list to buy from their online shop is this collection of redesigned modernist rock posters by Mike Joyce. 

The Boy also delighted in the discovery of V Revolution, a vegan diner/food shop and punk record store at the end of Oldham Street, where he feasted on fast food.  I couldn't quite stomach a burger-based breakfast, so we also visited Blue Daisy Cafe, which has a wide range of veggie and vegan options, for amazing French toast (me) and fruit (him: I think he was trying to mitigate the burger). 

I enjoyed introducing The Boy to my old haunts in Manchester, like the Night & Day Cafe (a fab place to grab a drink and see both local and national up-and-coming musicians - please sign their Change.org petition as they are currently threatened with closure) and the four storey indoor market Afflecks Palace.  As a weirdo hippy indie chick in the 90s, Afflecks was a haven for me; a place to buy knock-off band t-shirts and rainbow tie-dye laces for my Doc Marten boots.  I was heartened to see that it hasn't changed all that much in the past twenty years, and I was much taken with the loos (see below), because I favour juvenile humour.

  



Perfect prints

I went to the Leicester Makers Mart on Saturday, and the highlight was meeting artist Barry D Bulsara and buying one of his prints.  I've long been a fan of his work, after seeing the Dr Who and 30 Rock prints on the walls of various local bars, so I am thrilled to finally have one of my very own.  I did go a bit embarrassing fan-girl when I met him, though, gushing. "I love your work," like a total loser.

The amazing Dr Who screenprint, which I am dying to buy for someone; fancy it on your walls Richard?!

In the end, I didn't opt for the print I thought I wanted (the Liz Lemon quote that I featured here back in March), instead falling head-over-heels for this new High Fidelity "The music or the misery?" screenprint.  I remember reading the novel for the first time and exclaiming, "yes!" when I came across this passage.  As a teenager who tended to wallow in her unhappiness while listening to the Manic Street Preachers and The Smiths, it chimed with me.  I'm so pleased to have such a lovely piece of art featuring some of my favourite things - music, vinyl records, typography, books - all in one.

Joy in people

I've had a good first week of the Easter break, starting with a lovely time in London.  Walking in the sunshine from Angel to the Southbank, I stumbled across many a good bookshop and, more excitingly, an entire pub devoted to cider!  The exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank were both brilliant.  Jeremy Deller, whose Joy In People show was downstairs in the Hayward, wasn't an artist I was that familiar with, but I loved his skewed take on modern life and pop culture.  Some pieces were overtly political - such as a large-scale reenactment inspired by the miner's strike - while others were more playful, like the posters presenting famous lines from indie music as quotes from the gospels.

I've long been an admirer of David Shrigley's art, which is heavily tongue-in-cheek and often extremely funny.  This piece, Lost Pigeon, is one of my favourites.  But one of the most amusing sights at his Brain Activity show wasn't an artwork, though, it was a group of people standing, intrigued, at a doorway, only for the lift doors to open and the group to look embarrassed and disperse.  I love the idea that modern art is so inscrutable, one can mistake a lift for a work of art. 

Last night I went to a wonderful event at a bar in Leicester, The Crumblin' Cookie.  Craftwerk is billed as a "night of music, fun and craft," and I can attest that it was all of those things.  Music by everyone from Grooverider to Screaming Trees on the sound system, a table full of crafty bits and an hour-long deadline; I'm a competitive person so was in my element.  Our egg-based Donnie Darko diorama was beaten by a plasticine Alien creation in the film category, but our bunny-themed Easter bonnet won us a table full of chocolatey goodness.  Annoyingly, my photos didn't come out right (might have something to do with the cider I was drinking...).  Ah well, you'll just have to imagine the majesty that was this scene rendered in fake eggs and sticky-backed foam:

Now I'm up in Yorkshire for a few days of walking, reading and relaxing with my family.  Have a lovely Easter weekend all!