1. My New York pictures were published in a new magazine called Border this week. It smells really really nice...
2. I had a sale in my Etsy shop last week and have been packing up the prints ready to send off all over the world (as well as putting together a few surprise gift packages. Wink wink!). Thank you to everyone who bought a print. I'll be putting that money in my USA fund!
3. I haven't had a fashion magazine in ages so Chris bought me Teen Vogue. Teen Vogue is waaaay better than regular Vogue. Everything is brighter, happier and more optimistic. It kind of worries me that I'm a bit old now though... erk. I also got this amazing colour Polaroid Zine in a part trade on etsy with Vickeh. It's fantastic, one of the best zines I've read in a long time. She also makes these cute little moustache brooches which I can't stop thinking about. Must buy one soon to wear on my jacket. How can you ever be miserable with a moustache?!
4. Umm, that's a blurry photo there... shameful! Anyway, this month I actually spent money on proper advertising for the first time ever. I'm trying to get a few more wedding photography bookings sorted so went for a quarter page ad in Your South Wales Wedding magazine. I hope it works out. I'm also trying to decide between putting an ad in Cosmo Bride's summer issue or on the You and Your Wedding website. Tricky decisions. Have any of you lovely readers advertised before? I'd love it if you could share your stories as this is all new to me.
5. While testing a Polaroid camera to sell on ebay earlier this week I was surprised when a photo popped out! The colour saturation is a bit messy and faded but still quite impressive since the film expired in 2001. I'm selling the camera & a pack of film from the same batch along with some other goodies (beaded 1920s evening bag, gold knot shoes, vintage Christian Dior and Nintendo Wii games anyone?) here if you're interested.
Looking at my snapshots from last week it seems to have been one of magazines, magazines, magazines!
However, one of the best things I've done in the past seven days is lacking photo documentation due to the fact that I was way too excited/hungry to take a decent picture. Chris & I had an anniversary to celebrate on Sunday so for a bit of a treat he took me to the most incredible restaurant ever, Canteen on Clifton Street. If you like eating and care about what you eat... you MUST go!
Canteen is tucked away in an unlikely and slightly ropey area of Cardiff called Adamsdown, just past the old infirmary and east of the city centre, but once inside you wouldn't know it. Diners clearly travel from all over the city to eat here and it's blatantly obvious why. Head chef Wayne Thomas is a genius (and he also lectures at Bristol West of England University where I had my swanky exhibition back in 2008)! 23 years vegetarian and 23 years of munching on disappointing restaurant food compelled him to open Canteen and I love him for it.
The menu changes ever 3-4 weeks and it really does cater to everyone. All but one option is meat free and if it's not vegan or suitable for coeliacs, chances are it can probably be made that way. When we visited there were 4 declicious mains (well, I wouldn't say the spiced beef and oxtail ragu sounded particularly appetizing to me but the linguine aspect certainly was), three of which were vegan and two of which could be tweaked to be suitable for coeliacs. This was perfect for me as although I don't have coeliacs, I am currently on a wheat free diet in an attempt to figure out what pesky little food stuff is causing my new (& quite frankly, extremely tiresome) allergy.
I wanted EVERYTHING on the menu but Chris and I eventually ended up ordering the same - like fools really as had we ordered differently we could have done a little extra sampling; ginger, lemongrass and cardamom risotto cake with sweet potato and cashew nut curry, coconut chutney (WOW!) and a roti. The risotto cake had an incredible crispy crust and I know it sounds really silly and pretentious but the flavours, especially the cardamom, were so sophisticated and delicate. Wayne Thomas definitely knows how to cook. If it was me in the kitchen I would have over-flavoured everything to the extreme... me and my unsophisticated pallette... ho hum! I don't know, it was just so perfectly seasoned and cleverly done, you could honestly taste the love and care that had gone into its preparation.
I reluctantly had to bypass a starter in order to fit a pudding in my belly and I'm glad I did as my gluten free chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce and ice cream was yummy. I know I probably could have chosen a little more adventurously and I will next time, but that night I wanted pure, unadulterared chocolate stodge! Chris had the caramel cheesecake with apple custard. Both of which were perfect, dirty, satisfying puddings. I was intrigued by the coconut and tapioca pudding with kaffir lime syrup as I'm still on my coconut bender, but as I said, the desire for stodge won out.
Two courses are £11.50 and three courses are £13.50 and it's fantastic value for the quality of the meal you get. I heartily reccommend going well out of your way to eat there!
