Sit there for the present

I loved that story in Cider with Rosie when Laurie Lee is instructed to sit at a particular desk on his first day at school. "Sit there for the present," he is told. He waits all day for the promised gift that never arrives!

Well, right now I am sitting pretty in my new home - a little present to myself.

This weekend we converted the spare bedroom/box room/junk store into my new office. No more will I be working in the kitchen and having to pack everything away every time we want to sit at the table to eat a meal. I am Queen of all I survey. As my business grows, so does the accumulation of paperwork, notes and mind-mapping exercises!

Of course, I would have loved for this to be art studio too; but space constraints meant I had to choose one or the other and so the activity that will one day fund a move to a bigger house (with room for an art studio) nabbed the space. I do have some of my art on the wall though!

I'm decidedly pleased with my present. Who knows what the imagination will conjure up in here!

Somewhat fortuitously, Sunday's Scribble theme today is 'present'. Just perfect!

Picture is a bit rubbish, but you get the idea (and the size!)

The Cool Hunter

I can't quite believe I never knew of this site's existence, but there you go - I guess we can't know everything!

So, readers, why not step inside a world of creative inspiration this very day and let this team of 'cool' hunters take you on a culture safari that is definitely outside the box. Open up your mind to the colour, design, innovation and originality of art, offices, architecture and lifestyle.

I was directed to the site as part of a project I am working on for an office move - we're opening our minds to what makes a unique and special work environment and there are some wonderful examples here. Some require six figures, but there are plenty of others that any business could adopt - whatever their budget. Thinking differently, after all, is free!

The pic I used was a personal favourite. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather's offices in Guangzhou offices. Imagine how much more creative your output would be having a meeting in that room compared to the usual grey box we think sufficient for extracting innovation from the deepest, sleepiest corners of our mind. I remember a few years ago I was working for Siemens. I hadn't been there long when I was invited to a communication session where the Board encouraged us to feed back on what we thought about the company. Without really thinking I piped up "Can't we do something about all this grey. The walls, carpets, furniture - they're all grey (a lot of the people were too, but I did resist mentioning that). It's like working on a battleship..." I did wonder if it was perhaps a career-limiting move but you know what, they did actually listen. OK, so the result was a only a few splashes of colour here and there - but better than nothing I say, better than nothing.

Anyway, I digress. From the cool office spaces showcased on the site, I naturally couldn't resist a quick peek at the art page. Go take a look - some wonderful stuff!

Today was also 'exciting post day'. I just love shopping online and then coming home to find that cardboard wrapped, book-shaped package on your doormat! So, I will settle down later for a browse through Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachary and maybe get through the first hundred or so of 1000 Artist Journal Pages. I also have a further confession to make - and I blame Natasha May for this one (in a nice way of course). I sort of bought another art book which hasn't arrived yet. You see, she wrote a lovely blog post reviewing her favourite art books and this one called Drawing Lab kind of caught my eye (and my credit card). So, I just sneaked onto the Book Depository and it forced me to buy it - I swear it did... Honest!