When I don't know what to draw, I draw my cats!

These are 5 of my 6 cats... Yes, 6!! My inspiration for when im stuck for an idea or feeling creative!

Classroom Murals, no2

So, after painting murals of the "Hungry Caterpiller" and "The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me" in one of the classrooms last year, I have been asked to paint another one!! This time, I had two themes to chose from; Disney's The Jungle Book or Winnie the Pooh (Disney style). The brief was to decorate the empty space(s) in the classroom with something in particular that could be used as an alphabet line for the reception children to learn from.

I felt that of the two options, Winnie the Pooh would be the friendlier, lighter option; The Jungle Book  is visually quite dark and jungle-ly with some quite scary characters that might be intimidating for 4 and 5 year olds (I remember being quite scared by it myself!). An Infant school classroom needs to be bright, cheerful and friendly so Pooh it was!

I had quite an unsual space to fill; long and quite thin across the top of the display boards and the door so I looked at some of the stories for inspiration. I went through a lot of ideas for the alphabet line; butterflies, honey pots, bunting, leaves and dandilion seeds but I settled on the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Bees, where each bee will (eventually) be holding a letter.

Here's the results:

 Over the cupboard doors:

I want to do a Tigger in the last empty space in the room at a future date but for now, I just hope the new intake like their classroom come September!

If only I could do this sort of thing everyday... It would be a dream!

Some things that caught my eye in Agadir, Morocco

Me and the other half took our first holiday together (in seven years!!) in June to Agadir in Morocco. Our hotel (Riu Tikida Dunas) was beautiful; very clean, large rooms, massive lagoon type pools and an abundance of food to choose from in the restaurants. The staff were lovely too and although the evening shows weren't West End quality, everyone enjoyed them and had a good giggle.

We went on two excursions; a camel ride which was enjoyable but after 2 hours in the sun, in the desert wasteland of Agadir, we were cream-crackerd! Our second excursion was the Atlas Mountain 4x4 trip and my favourite of the two. The scenery was breath-taking and we saw lots of little villages who, although have no running water, every house had a satellite dish and a TV!! We had a Berber breakfast in a traditional Berber house of "Moroccan whiskey" ( mint tea with honey), Berber bread, argan oil, olive oil, honey and this stuff which tasted like watery peanut butter. It was ok but I'm not a fan of peanuts so not something I'll be recreating at home! The only downside to the day trip that I got quite ill on our return so that was me out for the count for the next few days! Still, we saw and tasted some amazing things and, although I probably wont go back to Morocco ( I don't like to go to the same place twice), it was good to get away and relax! But the question is, where do we go next holiday?!!

In the lobby of our hotel, there were loads of these huge and beautiful paintings signed by an artist called Garcia Gutierrez. I'm still trying to find out who this is but all of the paintings are stunning. A sort of quirky mix of traditional Moroccan life with a modern, vibrant twist. If anyone knows who this artist is, please tell me

Again, I haven't the foggiest who did these (I imagine one of the chefs) but different food sculptures were displayed in the hotel restaurant every evening and they were a visually edible delight to see!