Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's not quite over yet, but 2011 has been very good to me! I went full time with my modelling in January after 2 and a bit years of modelling part time as a hobby and it's done me well, I'm glad to say. I've met some wonderful people, created some stunning images, travelled to other countries for my work, been accepted by 2 agencies and gained the front cover of an online magazine!
2012 is sure to bring me even more of the above, as well as trying to make it over in Hong Kong, where I'm moving to in just 1 month and 7 days!

My Christmas went very well, starting in Denmark with the boyfriend's family where I ate more than I like to remember, danced around the Christmas tree singing traditional Christmas songs and learnt a lot more Danish than I thought I'd be able to do. This was mostly due to Ras' 6 year old niece, who despite knowing I don't speak Danish, insisted on speaking to me non-stop for 4 days :) It's really rather magical, spending Christmas with children. I'd never done it before, we don't have any youngsters in our family really, the youngest being 16.
We got back to the U.K and headed up to my parents for a second Christmas, filled with more gifts, games, chocolate and chilling out.
I got thoroughly spoilt this year...here's a sample of the wonderful things I received.

 I absolutely adore Soap and Glory's products. My mother bought me 2 or 3 of their products for Christmas a few years ago and I've never looked back! I don't use anything else if I can help it. It's always great to find a brand that you like! Above is what I got this year and below is my ever growing collection!

I also got a few books, some gorgeous bath bombs from my boyfriend and a manicure set from my little brother. The manicure set is actually the first one I've ever owned, since I was a terrible nail biter since I was 5 or 6 and I have a feeling no one in the family wanted to buy me anything for my nails until I'd proved I could look after them ;)

 

 

I've already made two recipes from my new cookery book, both were absolutely stunning and exactly what it says on the tin: Easy! The novel by Jodi Picoult was a beautiful book, very imaginative and so captivating that I barely put it down until I was finished!

I also got the cutest set of Pyjamas. I'm a bit of a dinosaur nerd, so these were a great idea!

 

On top of all of that, I got a gift voucher for Primark, so my friend Anita and I are heading there next week to do some post-Christmas January sales shopping! 

I'm off to a party this evening, so it's time to log off and go and pamper myself with some new toiletries and make myself all sparkly for the New Year's celebrations!!

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Sun, Sea, Vintage Dresses and Shopping!

I got back from my holiday in Turkey on Sunday feeling refreshed and wonderfully relaxed.
I went out there with my boyfriend, Ras for his parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. Lots of his family were there, which was great as I love kids and got to mess about playing make believe with a 2 year old, 5 year old and 7 year old and meet his sister, who I hadn't met already. All of his family but his parents live in Denmark, so we rarely get to see them, so it was really nice to have the week to chill out and catch up :)

We started the week with a Turkish Bath, where I was laid on a hot stone and exfoliated head-to-toe before being washed with this amazingly soapy...soap. They then poured hot and cold water over me to get my circulation running, then led me out to a relaxing room with candles and soft music for my facial. Then into the massage room for a 50 minute deep tissue massage. Boy, did I need that! All this posing is like doing yoga for 4, 5, 6 hours a day, so having someone release all the tension in my back was great!
We also did some sightseeing in Side to see the Greek amphitheatre and ruins, along with Apollo's temple, then some white water kayaking (super fun!) and jet-skiing in the sea (also super fun!).
All in all I think it went well!

Yesterday I had two shoots, the first with Stuart Freeman of Salisbury in his studio (which has under floor heating - win!) for some stunning art nudes and then with Alan Fretten in the brand new Curves Studio above the Nikita Sablier shop in the heart of Salisbury. I got to prance around in stunning vintage inspired dresses and corsets and generally act like a laaaadddyyyy all day. I'm sure I'll be posting a few pictures up very soon!
If you haven't already been to Nikita Sablier or booked Curves for your photo shoot - why not? The studio is fantastic ad the clothes in Nikita Sablier (which are available to hire for your shoot) are simply beautiful!

Now I'm off to Marble Arch to meet Anita De Bauch for some shopping (I hate shopping, so she's coming to ensure I don't buy the first thing I see and run back home), before starting my intermediate classes at my fencing club this evening!
Busy busy busy!

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Hong Kong, Magazines and Vintage Chic!

So much has happened! I flew off to Hong Kong for 3 weeks with my partner, Ras, for a holiday in June/July, which is why I haven't been around much! We are planning on moving to Hong Kong late this year/early next year, so this was Ras' chance to show me around and make me fall in love with the country I'd agreed to move to (before having even been!). As luck would have it, I fell in love instantly, depsite the monsoon style rain for the frst 3 days.
Hong Kong is such a vibrant, fast, bright city full of friendly, interesting people and suprises hidden around every corner! Before setting off, I asked a few friends of mine who had been for some ideas of what to see and the overwhelming response was "The Big Buddha!". So, as well as sampling the amazing local food, seeing the wild monkeys in Kowloon and dodging giant spiders (hand sized, bird eating monsters) on Cheung Chau, we headed over to Lantau Island for a wander around a traditional Buddist village (complete with a Shaolin Monk show) and the long climb up to the biggest, outdoor, bronze, seated Buddha in the world!

Moments later, they all ran away, so I was quite lucky to get this shot!

Hope he doesn't fall off!

Samping the local cuisine

Golden Silk Orb Weaver. They are HUGE. Thank goodness for giant zoom lenses!

I take no creit for this beautiful photo, it was taken by my partner, Ras.

Funky angles, anyone?

 I won't bore you with more pictures from Hong Kong - we were there for 3 weeks so, as I'm sure you can imagine, there are a LOT of photographs!
In all, it was an amazing experience and I simply can't wait until we finally move over there! It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one which I am going to grab with both hands and enjoy to its fullest extent!

Just before I went off to HK, I was shooting at the fabulous Light Spot Studios in Hackney. Whilst there, a photographer who I worked with back in February at another studio mentioned that she'd seen me in a magazine. As I was unaware of this, she told me which magazine it was and I started a hunt for a copy of it (it was an old issue, and the company had run out of back-issues). After a day or two, a lovely photographer from Net-Model offered to give me his copy. So when I arrived back in the U.K, I was greeted by a copy of Advanced Photographer magazine, with my face gracing on of the pages!

The picture in question was taken by Phil Winterbourne, a fantastic photographer who I worked with in March.

Whilst we're on the subject of publications, I may as well tell you of another magazine I found myself in, but this time it's an online magazine for a vintage clothing company called solovesvintage, for whom I did a shoot a few months ago. I was very excited to get the e-mail from the lady who owns the website, as not only am I in their online magazine, but I have the front cover and 6 pages inside! The clothing is beautiful and it was a really fun day! You can see the magazine at the website - just click here

In other news, I've now added an "About" section to my blog, which you can access from the link at the top. My website is under construction at the moment, so for the time being, this is my internet base, as it were. I'm still working on getting a small gallery up here somehow, so watch out for that!

 Today will mostly be spent working on aforementioned gallery until 4pm, when I'll be heading to the National Portrait Gallery with my friend Anita DeBauch to see the Glamour of the Gods exhibition, a collection of Hollywood portraits, featuring Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Clark Cable, to name but a few!
It should be excellent, and will also give us the chance to pop into the BP National Portrait Awards exhibition and take a look at that, including the stunning painting of our friend Ivory Flame in a painting titled "Holly" by Louis Smith, which was awarded 2nd place.

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