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We are settling into the new office. One bonus is a lovely new coffee shop that’s opened up round the corner – Me & Mrs Fisher. Great coffee, cake to die for, vintage goodness and friendly people.. what’s not to love?

Last summer I spent a weekend in the beautiful Farndale, North Yorkshire Moors. Just one of the delights was The Band Room where Citay were playing. My post about it has just gone live on the Nothing To See Here website

Until today I never knew York had a Cold War Bunker or that it was open to the public. It was nice to discover something new in York. When we booked a tour the lady on the phone said we were “in for a treat” and she was right.

More photos on Flickr

We are currently waiting to move into our new office on the lovely St Saviourgate. Today I had the opportunity to explore the street a little more and look inside a couple of beautiful buildings that were open as part of York Residents Weekend. The Unitarian Chapel and Central Methodist Church. Both unexpected interiors, I particularly liked the wonderful seating with lots of light.

In 2010 I was lucky enough to see various corrugated iron buildings around the UK. The best of all was The Band Room, a concert venue in North Yorkshire, where the interior was as delightful as the exterior.

Our Lady of Mercy, Dull, Perthshire

Near Land’s End, Cornwall

The Band Room, Low Mill, North Yorkshire

Low Mill, North Yorkshire

Near Byrness, Northumberland

St Fillans, Killin, Perthshire

Christmas card time and there is nothing like a good kick up the arse to get creative. While designing the gocco print I managed to keep it simple (I have to remind myself simple works best). A two colour print using florescent pink and gold.. slightly overlapping colours with little registration to worry about. I’m hoping the moleskine notebook ‘card’ will be a nice mini christmas gift that will be kept post christmas and prove useful in 2011.

Prints and notebooks available for sale in the Maraid Etsy shop

I love found photographs, although sometimes a box full of jumbled up and discarded memories is a little sad. I picked up this photo album in a Berlin flee market and was happy to discover that is was the life of one lady. She had collated ‘Meine Memoiren’ starting from her birth in 1914 to old age. The album is split into two distinct halves. The first half ending on her life with a German solider in 1945 and in the second half, ‘Memoiren II’, he is gone. She does find love again, their life and travels are happy and well documented. The last entry is 1988. I am still to figure out her name (Lotti?) but with many captions and the odd letter I’m sure it is in there somewhere.

My highlights are the ski trip that ends with pictures of her posing for the camera in the hospital bed with a broken leg, her confident teenage years (she knows how to strike a pose!) and the plethora of photobooth images, displayed together they perfectly document her growing old.

This museum is unlike the usual. The Museum of Letters is bright, light with a modern feel. The objects are relatively modern too – large, colourful, often plastic letters from signs, salvaged from Berlin shops and stores. It’s simply done, visually stunning and it makes me happy to know that people care about about this important and beautiful element of urban culture.

View all of my Buchstaben Museum photos on Flickr

Buchstaben Museum website

The original curator of Ilfracombe Museum was Mervyn G Palmer who worked for the British Museum. Housed in the old laundry room of the Ilfracombe Hotel, the Museum is stuffed full of a variety of fantastic collections. You don’t know what you will find around the next corner, from a cupboard of pickled bats to 1960s hair dryers

More Ilfracombe Museum photos

Annoyingly I didn’t give myself enough time for this museum – its a little gem. It has a great balance of contemporary pieces, old display cabinets, original rooms, novelty and the unexpected. Highlights were the modern police vans and motorbikes that already look iconic and then the surprise of more – through the courtyard into the old booking room, cells and courthouse. Run by ex-police officers with plenty of stories. Next visit I’ll give myself more time to take in all the information and films, I’m sure I missed some good stuff. Open one day a week – its one to plan for.

More pictures on Flickr