a room of one's own...

Whilst listening to the radio this morning I heard a piece about Virginia Woolf’s writing cabin at the bottom of her garden.  I’ve just started reading A Room of One’s Own so I was intrigued to hear what they had to say about the space.  After taking a look at some other artists’ and writers’ spaces I am now longing for my own studio shed.

Here is some shed studio inspiration for you…



The inside of Virginia Woolf’s writing cabin.




George Bernard Shaw



Dylan Thomas



chocolate making business run out of this lovely blue shed.

From this article on starting a business in a shed.




Shed Space is a project that uses sheds as unusual portable art galleries.

If you’re looking for more shed studio inspiration then head to Shedworking which has the most comprehensive collection of shed work places.

And finally, when I get my own shed studio I’m definitely getting one of these stoves - called the pipsqueak!

20 years of answering machine messages.

This morning I was listening to The Call on Radio 4, a great programme that is generally about a life changing phone call someone makes or receives.  This morning the story was a little different, it was about a man called Mark Craig who bought an answering machine in 1985, once the first tape had filled up he didn’t feel right simply rewinding it and recording over it so he took it out and put it in a box.  He continued to do this for the next twenty years and has now compiled them into a short movie.  It was fascinating to listen to all the different messages from cheerful happy birthday messages to messages about the death of a pet goldfish or updates on hospital appointments - almost like an audio diary.  Now we are so used to just phoning or texting someone on their mobile its hard to remember what it was like when you just had to leave a message and wait for someone to get back to you!  (On a similar note I saw a man in Sainsbury’s garage using a payphone yesterday and it really seemed strange, its just not something you see that often anymore!)

The Call is definitely worth a listen and you can watch the short movie by Mark Craig here. 

Ana Chua

Heard Ana Chua talking about her book on Woman’s Hour yesterday.  Unusual parenting style but after reading this book I see where she is coming from!