Just For The Halibut at Leather Lane Market

Hello all you lovely fish fans around the world.

Well life in Just For The Halibut land has been hectic-a-mungo of late but deliciously filled with festive fun, mince pies, loved ones and preparing for the excitement of this week!

Is anyone else's life like a buses? Nothing happens then EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT ONCE. Ok the buses analogy doesn't really apply here (when in Rome...) but this week is so packed with excitement I'm off my fish fins!
Top 5 highlights of the week...

1) The Jelly Empire creator Selina is coming to stay from the far shores of NYC, I'm so happy, we will have hugs, mulled wine and skip down the street holding hands!

2) Just For The Halibut is having a stall at LEATHER LANE MARKET on thursday and friday of this week, 16/17th. Come along and say hello, finish off your xmas shopping and see if I've frozen to death! 10-4pm, yes just pull a sicky and come along.

3)Just For The Halibut is having a stall at QUEENS CRESCENT MARKET on Saturday 18th Dec! Yes its a double whammy, 3 in a row style fish stall off. Come along if you can't make leather lane(probably because you have a proper job) and Saturday is your only day to come and see me! Directions and details to follow!

4)Our house Christmas Buffet happens on sunday, we plan to decorate the house, fill it with delicious people and delicious smells (the 2 go hand in hand), and wish everyone a wonderful Christmas before we all scatter off to our respective family homes.

5) I'm going to my 1st Christmas carol concert with my lovely man and his family. There is nothing more festive than listening to xmas tunes with a santa hat and holding hands with the one you love, awww tis the season and all.
The stall preparations continue......

Just For The Halibut in ECCA Newsletter

Image by Stephen Morris - Louise Salmon, Just for the Halibut, winner of the special award for best stand at the Creative Fair.

Hello all, Just thought I would share this image with you from the ECCA Newsletter. I'm the blonde one clutching the champers with my friends Sophie and Sam.....who are clutching their JFTH purchases!
Read the ECCA blog here
They put on loads great workshops and talks to support students and graduates to help with the big wide scary world. Have a goose x

Last day competition!

Good day to you all and happy snow day!

Its the LAST DAY OF THE COMPETITION today! Entries have been flooding in and we have had a diverse range of style but Just For The Halibut loves it!
There is still time until midnight tonight....scan your designs in, at least 300dpi and email to
justforthehalibut@hotmail.co.uk

good luck fish fans!x x

Youth Club!

Let me present to you Carnaby's new pop-up shop stocking Just For The Halibut tees!! yes...fish fans will know the winner of competition time will also have their tee stocked in this visual delight of an establishment!
Set up by PYMCA ...'the worlds leading global youth culture research site' who represent hundred of photographers. Youth Club is a gallery space, shop and cultural archive and just a flipping cool place to hang out! Its 1 min from Carnaby St, 35 Marshall St....go along say hello to Jolene....say Just For The Halibut sent you and be part of this exciting venture. For more info please email info@youthclublondon.com
see you there halibutarians x x

Competition Time!

Design your own T-shirt screen print
and have it made by Just For The Halibut!!

Hello all,
Just For The Halibut is launching its 1st competition and reeling in some talent from the fishing loving world. Put down your nets, lay aside your waders, give those maggots a break (all fish references) and pick up a pen!
Drum Roll.....Dun Dun Duuun..........Winner will..
Receive a free copy of their design and see their design stocked in
YOUTH CLUB shop just off Carnaby St. They will also receive discount
for friends and family for up to 5 tees! XMAS presents ahoy!!

To enter....
Create you artwork on an A4 piece of paper,
scan in at a high resolution, at least 300dpi
and email to justforthehalibut@hotmail.co.uk by 30th NOV.
Remember to include you name...all runners up will be
featured here on the BLOG!!

Rules..
Print must be either 1 or 2 colours......ie not a photo, we won't be printing digitally kids.
Can be either men or womens design
Be creative, quirky, funny and an original design.
Good Luck Fish Fans!!

~STALL SUCCESS!! BEST STALL WINNER!

What an amazing night! My first stall, and quite frankly I had a great time. I met some great people, made some sales and yes.....WON the competition for BEST STALL. Thank you ECCA. So I trundled upstairs to hear the winner of the best stall, only to stand there and hear....."and the winner is Just For The Halibut"!!
Needless to say I had NOT prepared anything to say as it was so unexpected...I think I bumbled some thanks and some congratulations and legged it off stage with my bottle of CHAMPERS in hand!!
So I'm going to thank the people who I really should right now (I've gone all Halle Berry at the Oscars here)
...to all the people at Ecca who put a great evening together and brought together many creative people from all disciplines.
.....to my tolerant and suportive flatmates, friends and boy.....who've all helped me and encouraged and put up with a phenomenal amount of mess making!
So now Just For The Halibut will have a stall at East London Design Show....arrrh!!!! Watch this space!!!

STALL DAY!!

Good Morning all!!! Stall day is here!!! I'm flipping excited and on my 3rd cup of tea!

Looking forward to seeing you all there from 5pm here is a link to a map
3 Torrens St, UNLIKE what I said in previous blog, come out of ANGEL, turn left, walk, turn left then left again down Torrens St and you are looking for CANDID ARTS. The reason I failed my 1st driving test is cos I couldn't tell my right from my left, nuff said!
SEE YOU THERE x x x x x

Prepartion for wednesdays STALL!!

Hello all! Just for the halibut has had a hectic weekend doing muchos preparation for the ECCA stall on wednesday ( please do come along, deatils to follow) I've been sewing up, tagging labels, taking photos, making banners & display frames and admin admin admin! and of course a massive thank you to the Just for the halibut helpers, you know who you all are!
Bags of goodies for the stall...

In progress.......yes everything, and i mean everything is home made!!

Yes we even have branded bags....one free for every customer that purchases something!

So come along and see me....its open to the public, its free, its in Candid 3 torrens st, 5 mins walk from ANGEL tube. Come out of angel tube and turn right , walk up to city rd, then 1 minute later turn right onto torrens st...its basically on the road behind the tube.
5-10pm, booze, stalls, and DJs and a chance to start your xmas shopping!!
see you all there x x

Come and join the fishy ways!!

Hello all!!
Exciting news Fish Fans!
Just For The Halibut is having it 1st stall!! and yes you guessed it...You're invited! The event is a party/awards ceremony hosted by University of the Arts on Wednesday 17th November 5pm-10pm. There'll be a market place...with a Just For The Halibut stall....DJ's, booze and a chance to start your Christmas shopping early.....all items for sale will be £10 and under!

Bargins all round!

So come along...its free, bring some friends...have a drink and come and talk to me to make me look v popular! The event will be at Candid Arts, 3 Torrens St, Islington
London EC1V 1NQ, Right next to ANGEL TUBE!

There will be a special competition to enter to get your designs ACTUALLY MADE!
See you all there...lots to do....plus a run today, I am one busy Fish!
xx

1 MONTH CHALLENGE DAY 1

Move over Anneka, Challenge Louise is here. (Big Brother voice, geordie accent)
Daay 1 of Challenge, 16.36pm Louise goes on a run.

Right kids I am undertaking a 1 month challenging of exercising. Its 50 something days till Christmas and I'm going to want to pig out so the challenge starts here!! Please join me, add your comments, helpful advice and for god's sake go on a run too.




Yes 1st priority of course is to get some good gear to sweat in . Must be dressed well to distract from hot, red face.
Challenge is to prevent looking like this....
...and to look more like this!
off we go.......

All Hallows Eve

MUHAHAHAHA!
Yeah, I heart Halloween, tonight is pumpkin carving, toffee apple eating and getting ready to dress up and scare people. My outfit is on the side of ridiculous....photos to follow next week. Have a great weekend of fancydress, sweets and trick'n'treating!

Graffiti'd London

Spray paint galore!!! I'm a big fan of Graffiti, see previous posts, when its done tastefully. I'm always snapping away as I think graffiti is such a temporary art form, turn around, and its gone!
Saturday saw me pottering round Broadway Market, I went to see my friend Lizzie's stall of trinkets and wonderments.... read her blog here, She is a talented lady making fashions and jewellery and braving the english weather every week.

I was lucky enough on my travels down to Old St to find Graffiti ACTUALLY HAPPENING. Spray cans, mess, masks, on lookers, and slightly abstract art. This estate agents was being shown who's boss.

This is pretty good too, made up of spots, look closely! Cross eye'd is under rated if you ask me.


This is one of my favs. This face has be etched out of a painted wall. Its very hard to see in a photo but the brown is brick underneath...I would recommend going to see for yourself, Found next to the Big Chill Bar just off Brick Lane. Most reasonably priced gallery is the streets of London!

GUNS 'N'ROSES!

Guns and Flipping Roses last nightin the O2. It was awesome. We rocked out hard with Axl Rose, during November Rain he played the piano with his foot. That in my books, is pretty cool.
Bursts of flames on stage, red and green shoots of fireworks during guitar solos. Tattoos, crazy GNR tee shirts in every direction, mohawks, men with ponytails, and some great people to share it all with. I recommend it folks, get that eyeliner on and rock it out!

The sea magnified

This is incredible. I've had this National Geograhic image stuck to my wall for the about the past year as it fascinates me. A splash of sea water magnified 15 times. Mother nature is a print designer if you ask me. Her colours, icons, scale and composition is a winner. I can't help thinking we should be putting more stuff under the microscope to see who's living there. Mmm, maybe people do. AND maybe those people are called scientists. I've just come across this pic of plankton soup of the world wide web and wanted to share. Those little guys are out there, hanging out, unseen by the human eye. the mind boggles!

Autumnal Delights

Autumn is officially here! This pleases me. It ultimately will lead straight on to winter which will please me much less. Delicious sunny cold days with walks in forests with friends, pub lunches, trees turning from yellow to gold to red.
This is Delamere forest in Cheshire where I spent a chilled weekend in the country catching up with old friends and quietly brainstorming to myself the benefits of this time of year.
This is what I've come up with so far..
*Glorious weather and refections upon a summer well spent.
* Pumpkins in the shops, inspiring me to do some carving and pumpkin pie making.
*Scented candles, ok this one isn't typical but something about this time of year makes me want to bring delicious smells from outside inside.
and
* new coats, boots and woolens. I have spotted this gorgeous coat by Biba. House of Fraser have re-launched this 70's labels with new key autumn pieces with fresh prints. ME LIKEY. now to find some pennies as this feline number is £165. I must have it.

Camber Sands!

Camber Sands! 3 things come to mind now when I think of the sands, firstly Inbetweeners and that episode when they go to Camber Sands caravan club. Secondly Caravans and thirdly a wonderful group of friends. So we trudled off to Camber Sands, me at the helm of my little Polo packed full of funny people to arrive to a grey grey shoreline. I always get a little over excited at a weekend away and have notoriously bad luck with the weather. his last weekend was no exception....it rained and rained and rained but I still had an incredibly fun weekend and James celebrated his 30th admirably!This is what it was supposed to look like....

This is what it did look like....

A wicked selection of people, a 3 storey log cabin, a roast dinner, silly party drinking games ,
a photoshoot and a lethal punch! What brilliant time! I now have lurgy as a result of having such a good time! Thanks guys!!x x x

The Good, The Bad and The Weekend away.

Hello all! I haven't posted in a couple of weeks but have a valuable excuse. I've returned to England, moved house and tried to get everything in gear. Just For The Halibut is my priority fish fans so fear not, new excitement is on the horizon including a new website. All will be revealed!
In the meantime I've been to some shows ,one was brilliant and the other truly terribly but for the benefit of comparison I'm glad I attended the latter!

V. ~Good 9/10 Ghost Stories, a play at the Duke of York Theatre in Covent Garden. An unusual style of play set to scare and delight the audience. I loved it altho I prepared myself mentally for the fear factor. Ideal date to take a lady on if you would like to the squeal and jump on you several times during the show. I was lucky to have my boyfriend sitting next to me to hold my hand but the combination of the theatre effects in lighting and sound, the fact that if you leave the theatre re-admittance is prohibited and you aren't allowed to talk about the show once its over (its like fight club, the 1st rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club) makes it a really good show. Check out their website scaredy cats Ghost Stories

V. Bad 2/10 Going The Distance, film attempting to entertain in cinemas nation wide. Starring Drew Barrymore and Justin (looks like a neglected puppy) Long. I still may have not quite recovered from watching this film last night. It was a cheese board of predictability! Admittedly we did set out to eat popcorn and chocolate, chill out and engage in a chick flick so something with Drew Barrymore in I thought, must be good! All I want to know is who wrote it...sat back in their chair and thought....thats quite good, we should make it into a film. Non engaging emotional scenes that just filled in the gaps between the 3 jokes in the whole film, I failed to laugh, I did think about crying and left feeling frustrated that they didn't feel the need to challenge the audience in any way. Surely do they not realise that we have all been in long distance relationships? Ok, I don't think that was a plot spoiler but that is the pretense for the film, weak weak weak, like my feelings how attractive Juston Long is. If a film is coming to be rubbish I at least need some totty to get me through.
The weekend away is this weekend to celebrate my housemate's/co-worker's 30th..happy bday James....updates this week! Happy weekend y'all

Two Sided, probably my favourite shop on the planet.

Whilst this blog is turning into Louise's rough guide to her travels this summer I have to share this shop I have found with all of you. We took ourselves off for a day of exploring and came across this little beauty of a shop in the outskirts of Chicago. Think Portabello market in London meets Urban Outfitters and they go on a date to the Contemporary Museum of Art in Chicago covered in chocolate sauce and everything is reasonably priced. Are you with me yet? This shop was the definition of lush and I fell just a little bit in love. I have always had secret fantasies about owning my own shop filled with trinkets, art, cats and things which make me laugh. All for folks who are as cheap as I am. Here are some pics to wet your appetite.
Check out there blog too!......Two sided, 2958 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60657, United States

SOCK MONKEY MADNESS

Knitted Monkey Madness. When I saw this exhibition I did a little squeal and decided this was undoubtedly blog worthy! This is the work of LA based artist Mike Kelly featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago....a brilliant day out for anyone available to pop to Chicago any time soon!
Kelly's 'Craft Morphology Flow Chart' 1991 is a collection of children' toys from past years. Religiously scouring thrift stores (charity shops) flea markets and yard sales Kelly to build up a varied collection. Items that evoke a feeling of the past and feel dated, represented in real and photographic form. Hand knitted sock monkeys of all shapes and sizes, curly poodle dogs and those crazy clowns with the curly long necks.

Street Art of Chicago

This actually happened......

The Shiny Silver Bean of Chicago! At least thats what the tourists call it, also known as 'Cloud Gate' by the artist Anish Kapoor. We found this little gem in Millennium Park....its so much fun to take pictures with, in the reflection of, next to, lying upside down of etc etc. My fav bit is the fantastic reflection of the skyrise building of downtown and the distortion of the cityscape!

Just a minute away from the shiny bean in what I call 'Millennium park of arty fun' is this installation. Two 50ft high glass boxes known as the 'crown fountain'. Eerily the towers project the faces of Chicago citizens, very slowly moving so you have to pay attention. Every once in a while the expression of the face alters and a spurt of water comes from the mouth to the delight of the baking hot tourists. The ambiance and sense of fun these 2 towers created espeically for several hundred toddlers splashing about between them was refreshing for a central city park. This was flipping cool refreshing outdoor fun. Chicago you arty farty entertainer.

In amongst our journeying around the city and suburbs of Chicago we came across lots of street art including this fakey Banksy monkey ( well i think its fake, hard to tell tho...its unsigned). I'm such a massive fan of Graffiti (when its thoughtfully done) and street art I'm sharing some images with you!