Trip To Liverpool With Tweet

Last Thursday me and Clare from Tweet trotted off to Liverpool for a day out. We didn't have much planned other than going to the Tate. I love that place but this time it was better than ever.

The view from inside a mirror sculpture.

The Lobster Telephone by Salvador Dali, wasn't expecting to see this beast!

The view from outside of the mirrored sculpture, with Clare. Denim all round.

The exhibition had some major big hitters, Piet Mondrain included.

A bit of Bridget Riley's Op-Art

Loved this odd yellow egg timer door.

Curly cumberland sausage or dog poo, either way I liked it. 

Silent disco alert! Music on head phones was composed by Wayne Hemingway.

After that we took a load of at the "Liverpool One" deck chairs. It was a lovely day all round, seeing the images again makes me want to go back very soon. We tried to look for somewhere to grab a nice pint but we couldn't decide and ended up buying sweets at the train station.


Has anyone else been to Liverpool or the Tate lately?


Images mostly by Clare


Thanks to all the entries for the Ray-Ban Competition up to now, still plenty of times to enter if you already haven't.

Richard Woods Goodness

When I came across Richard Woods' work the other day when I was getting my weekly hit at Hapsical(one of my favourite blogs), his work proper jumped out at me. And I think you can see why, POP goes the colour. It ticks the boxes of surrealist and modern, of what I usually look for. Pretty eye catching hey.


Thanks to all the entries for the Ray-Ban Competition up to now, still plenty of times to enter if you already haven't.

COMPETITION: Ray Ban Sunglasses For All You Cool Dude

It's time for the second competition on Buckets & Spades. I did one last year at some point but it was before I met loads of new people in blogger's world. I've had this blog for nearly 3 years now and I've enjoyed ever minute of it, now it's my time to give something back to my readers.

So here we go, as a special treat for all my readers, courtesy of the super lovely people over at Equip, who have been kind enough to give me a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers in white & black the giveaway. The sunglasses are unisex so even if you don't fancy them I'm sure your best friends or boyfriends/girlfriends will!

To enter the competition it couldn't be easier, you all probably now how it works already. Leave a comment on this post and:

1. Follow me on Google Connect - click the follow button on the right hand sidebar

2. Follow me on Twitter

3. Mention the giveaway on your Twitter/Facebook(by tweet or RT) or on your own blog

Please leave a comment on this post stating which of these you have done (you can enter more than once but PLEASE leave separate comments for each one). Include links to mentioned and tweets in the comments too, so I know where we are up to.

The competition will be open for 2 weeks, until Friday 9th July at midnight GMT. It is open to everyone in the world so you are all in with a chance, the winner will drawn at random and announced over that weekend.

Thanks again to Equip and GOOD LUCK to you all!

Street Inspiration From Milan

Tommy Ton from Jak & Jil shows his skills at capturing the most stylish gents at Milan Fashion Week.

Giving me plenty of ideas of what I hope I'll look like when I'm older. This guy is the bomb in my eyes.

Briefcase as a makeshift backpack, note the super mustard trousers too.

Brilliant without that tattoo, even better with.

Oh, would you look who is it! It's Steve from Style Salvage rocking the double gingham and his prized shoes.

Denim shirt worn smart with a db wool blazer. Key point, glasses backwards in the pocket.

This chap reminds me of Jeff Goldbloom in Jurassic Park, we're all up for a bit a "nu-safari" right?

It's not only the girls that are nailing the combat pants at the mo. Also, freaking love the suede driving shoes, a pair is high on my wish list.


So much inspiration for us chaps. Be interesting to hear from both girls and boys about your thoughts on the pictures though, nice to hear both sides.


You can see more from his snaps at Milan here

Yannick Dixon Photography

Ahh nearly the weekend again, this week has flown by for me! The weekend pretty much starts with the England game tonight, I just hope they win. Anyway, Friday's Inspiration comes from Blackpool based Photographer, Yannick Dixon.

His work ranges from culture, nature to travel. Being based in Blackpool does have its advantages, it's a bit of a photographer's dream in some sense, just because it's so varied and colourful. Maybe not the classiest town about but certainly entertaining;

Aloha From Blackpool - I adore this photo, the grey side of Blackpool.

Championship Playoff Final 2010

The Living Statue

The Wave - This is a piece of art that was commissioned in Blackpool town centre.

Hong Kong Metro

Starlings Above #6 - Dixon's photos feel really atmospheric and shows Blackpool in a whole new light.

What do you think then? I think he captures scenes so well.

Has anyone else been to Blackpool? Not such a nice town with all the stag and hen do's every week, but if you look hard enough you will find a pretty wonderful place. There is actually lots to do in Blackpool but most people just think of endless boozing. Think again!

If you like what you see, check out Yannick Dixon's website for more. He is also an Associate Lecturer at UCLan uni. All images owned by Yannick Dixon

Painting Is Finished Part 2

Hello all. I've been a bit slow this week but onwards and upwards. Cast you minds back to a few weeks ago when I posted about my first completed painting, I had to change it half way through because I mess up. So this time I decided to do the same again I try to not mess up this time, sticking to the original plan.

The only differences are that is the colour combo and i ripped the masking tape in half on random sides to create a raw edge;

Quite similar to last time but the outcome is fairly different.

Close up of the raw edges.

What do you think, which do you prefer? I do like this one but I think I much prefer my first attempt, somehow I find the other one much more exciting. Feedback is welcome, be honest please!


Not loads of outfit posts at the mo, but I can tell you know I've been wearing a lot of mustard, beige, khaki, brown, grey and navy. Some shots soon to follow hopefully. In other news, I'm hoping to sort out the 2nd Buckets & Spades competition, I'll keep you posted.


Any enquiries about my work please contact bucketsandspadesblog@googlemail.com

Chap's Style

It's all about the little details for chaps.

1) Copenhagen Street Style 2) 3) 4) 


Details of the last 3 shots to follow, I can't for the life of me think where I found them. If anyone knows just let me know and I'll add the detail up

Trip To The Park

The other day I was stuck for things to do, I had a whole afternoon free and the sun was out in full swing. Thinking back about it I really should have worn shorts, as I clocked the temperature at around 30 degrees. What a wally, well fews a few snaps from the park I visited which is literally 5 minutes away from where I live;

Nice start to the day, right next to the gates.

Unmissable apparently, the sign is better than the village, sadly.

The boating lake, perfect day for it.

Cheeky dude, shame I didn't take any bread to give him a snack.

Steps to the bandstand dating back to the 1920s.

I had a sit down in the woods for a bit, no need to rush around on such a nice day. My whole outfit was made up from different shades of blue. I was probably the least summery person in the park, as it was packed out.

This little scene was probably one of the cutest thing I have seen, a whole duckling family, just catching the rays!

I decided to snap the clock tower, witch does actually chime every hour. I can actually hear it go off from my house, that's how close I am. There's an entrance to the tower, every since I was a kid I always wondered what it was like inside. I'm still wondering.


I really don't take advantage of Stanley Park, it's the biggest park in my town and has some lovely architecture, cheeky looking animals and lots of areas where you can just whittle the days away. I'll be back soon no doubt.


Hope everyone has been enjoying the second wave of heat in the UK and everyone else is enjoying there's too.

Blogger's Swap Shop - What I Got

You may remember back to a few weeks ago I proposed a Blogger's Swap Shop. Lots a people did seem interested but in the end I only did a couple of swaps. The point of the swap was to pass on items that you have leaked all the life out of or just finished with. The items left over will be going will be going down to the local charity shop.

So here's what I received;

First up, I traded the Mighty Boosh DVD with We Spy With My Little I -

A thank you note came in form of a cool postcard.

For the swap I was sent the excellent Taschen book called "Chairs", straight to the point!

The book is crammed full of antique and contemporary types, plenty of reading for me to do. This was a very thoughtful swap, as you all may know I'm a big fan of furniture design at the moment.

The second swap, I traded the 2 nautical necklaces with Jazzpad - 

This time the thank you note came in form of neat little "designer seats" card. What a coincidence!

To a twist to the swap I was send something a little different here. The gift I received was some hand written old family recipes. This is certainly exceeded my expectations when I set up the swap, I can't wait to try out these babies. In the past 6 months I have started cooking much more, so soon I will be added these to my repertoire! Special Baked Bean & Bacon Hotpot, yum.

Thanks guys. If anyone else wants to take a look at what else is left to swap, see the original post. This week I have also finished my second painting and yesterday I had a lovely walk around the local park, where I took lots of photos. Will post them over the weekend. Have a nice one!