Hello everyone!

I know that February is the shortest month of the year, so I shouldn't be surprised that this one absolutely flew by for me! It's been another busy month, so read on to see what I've been up to. 

I've made some wonderful new friends through Revival Retro over the past few years, and I've gotten closer to some of them in recent months via vintage meet-ups and Instagram. This month, Charlotte (aka @tuppencehapenny) had made a new dress that she wanted to have photos taken of for Valentine's Day. She invited Bee Townsend (aka @missbeetown) and me (@rachelmarquezactress) to join in for the photoshoot with Nicole Engelmann and make a girls day of it. It was SUCH fun, and the resulting photos are beautiful! There are also some fun boomerangs and photos we took of each other that we've shared on all of our Instagram feeds, so click our names above to check them out! You can't miss these colourful outfits :)

Surround culminated this block of meetings with two workshops: One with Casting Director Sharon Sorrentino, and a re-direct session with TV/Film Director John Dower (above). They were both extremely helpful and great fun to perform for! 

I traveled to Winchester to do a shoot with Neil Buchan-Grant. We'd talked about working together months ago, but we finally made it happen! We both work quickly, so we shot pretty much every outfit I brought, and even had some time left over to wander around and get some natural light shots with one of his new cameras. I absolutely love the resulting photos! These are just a few of my favourites.

I also got to do a shoot with photographer Mat Newcomb and makeup artist Viktoria Kohl. We all live fairly close by, so we met up at my flat in Guildford for hair and makeup before walking to several locations nearby. It had snowed overnight, so we went up the Mount for some lovely shots in the snow. After another makeup/outfit change, we decided to head into Guildford town centre for some different scenery... but we didn't get far before it started to rain... then hail! Luckily we were able to grab a few shots with the raindrops before my makeup and hair got too crazy ;) The photo edits are still coming in, so stay tuned to my Facebook and/or Instagram for more to come!

A week after my shoot with Neil Buchan-Grant, I traveled back to Winchester for Little Star Events' Spring Wedding Fayre. It was a fun day of singing, and I met some wonderful people including makeup artist/model Amy Dolly, and harpist Lizzy Bennie. At the very end of the fayre, she asked if I'd be interested in doing a few Disney songs together... Harp music + Disney? Of course I said YES! Here are the two that got recorded. One is unfortunately very blurry, and the other is a half-failed selfie (totally my fault! I'm rubbish at selfies to begin with, so combining a video selfie with singing at the same time? ...yeah), BUT I'm SO glad we have them! I hope Lizzie and I will get to collaborate together again sometime in the future!

This month brought a few lovely singing gigs for some care homes in the Surrey area. After some videos of my singing at Silvermere Care Center went on their facebook last month, The Grange in Chertsey saw me and immediately asked me to sing for their Valentine's Day Party. Here's a little video of the resulting gig! 

This is a fairly new addition to the many freelance things I do, and I've really been enjoying it. These gigs allow me to get my voice back in shape after years of little use, practice solo singing, and get some sets together all while bringing some joy and fun to these lovely people's lives.

My husband, Erick Hayden, has recently launched his new Youtube Channel: Eccentric Nature. It's a fun weekly series of videos focusing on the odd and bizarre histories, facts, and uses of herbs and plants. To help illustrate some of his points, I've been providing some illustrations and animations. Here are a few from the recent couple videos. Click here to view his channel! Please like the videos and subscribe if you enjoy them! It really helps a lot :)