Superfrog Unleashed!

Well, what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. Rushing here, there, and everywhere, finding places to live, filling in paperwork, getting ready for a craft show, library work, a wedding, shopping for said wedding, running out of money, trying to kick ex-Boyfriend's arse into gear, updating websites, filing my Tax Return, getting a cold.....the list goes on and on! Anyway, in the midst of all the chaos, a huge box of Superfrog books arrived for me last week:

















Now they are out there in the cosmoverse, hopefully travelling wide and bringing me universal acclaim! It's strange to think about all that hard work I started this time last year, and how it kept me busy for five months. It was tough going at times, seemingly never-ending, and it was bloody difficult trying to think up different ways of incorporating white areas for the text that weren't just obvious blank patches in the illustrations! I'm pretty happy with them, though. One of the rare occasions where you get the finished product and don't hate it! Obviously there are bits that stick out like a sore thumb to me, bits I would do differently now, but overall I like them a lot.

Congrats Caroline and Martin!

Logcabins A-Go-Go

This is my first attempt at any kind of patchwork:







I did it Sunday evening while making Boyfriend cook the roast dinner instead of me! I just sat down at my newly-service sewing machine, took a whole load of Ikea fabric I had left over from making my aprons back in the spring, and just started cutting. I have to confess I've never read any kind of quilting book - bar sighing at the pretty pictures in a few - so I'm probably not doing it "right" at all, but I like the kind of "free and easy" approach to making a wonky logcabin square like this. It's really quite addictive, and uses up so little fabric; I've still got loads left even though they were remnants to start off with. You can see in the photos that some of the corners are a bit dodgy, but I'm rather chuffed with my first attempt. It ended up measuring 80cm square, so I think I'm going to turn it into a big cushion cover FOR OUR NEW FLAT!!! Boyfriend and I found a nice flat in Hove last weekend. We've put a holding deposit down and are just waiting for the results of the referencing. I don't want to say too much right now as I'll only jinx the process. Suffice to say, I am already skint and likely to get more so before moving day!

Handmade Brighton 4th October

I am currently in the process of getting ready for this:



Do come along if you're in the area. (And if you fancy buying a few things off me, I won't complain!) There's also a blog here to accompany the show telling you all about the work of those who are taking part. I think I'm on the second page. Busy! Busy! Busy!

More Signs of Autumn

OK, OK, So I am RUBBISH...

I said I'd blog over the weekend, but those two days turned out to be rather crazy. I'm aiming for a good, old, proper update this Thursday instead. To keep you going, here's a lovely, shiny, autumnal conker:

And The Time Has Gone Where, Exactly?

Whoa. What a crazy week or so! Deadlines here, work there. It's all been going on. I promise I'll do a larger update over the weekend, as I have plenty of images and photos to share, but I need to wait for daylight and five minutes in which to take and/or upload a few photos.

In the meantime, here is a photo I took with my Fisheye camera last summer in Preston Park, but I only got the film developed this week. What would I do without my digital camera?!

RV Postcards Are Here!

And they're looking pretty good. (They're not the best photos as I took them last night as the light was rapidly fading, thinking I'd blog them right away. Shoulda waited, eh?) Woo! There's a little glimpse of the back there, too. They've come out a little darker than I was expecting, but that's actually quite nice as it adds to the night-time feel. I'm very happy with the b&w back sides - I went for a vertical back, too, which is unusual but works well with the front image. Very pleased. Just got to get posting now.

I've had my feedback on the cover roughs I did over the weekend and generally the comments are good. Not too many changes and they love the characterisations I came up with. Hurrah! Off to tweak them a bit more now...

Barry the Spotty Piglet...

...is a character I've been playing around with for the two book covers/new illo job I mentioned last week. This is just a sneaky snap-shot of a section of my initial idea for cover no.1. I'm sure it'll change a lot in the following weeks!

I was just getting used to the idea of autumn, when today turned out to be summer again. It even seemed a bit frosty as I left the house this morning just before 8am, so I took my scarf! My scarf, I tell you!! Suffice to say I had to slap on some Factor 50 for the walk home. It's supposed to be nice all week, too. But I'm in the mood for soups and socks now!! Bah.

I went to look at a flat after work today. It would've been perfect (ticks all the boxes size, price and location wise) had it not been in the basement of an awesome 1930s block. Just too dark. Oh well. Plenty of time to keep looking! I just got carried away with the idea of living there, as I always do.

Well, as I've sent off my cover ideas and not heard back from them today, tonight I shall eat rigatoni with home made pesto and tomatoes, watch cookery programmes on iPlayer and maybe even do a bit of ironing. Rock 'n' Roll.

Totally in Love with This song and Especially This Video

So glad it's back up on Youtube.

Superfrog!

Two of the four "Superfrog" books I illustrated late last year/early this year are out next Thursday. The other two are out later in the month. Check out the Amazon page here! Woo!

Getting Excited!

So today is the 1st September. If I could get up to London and back again in time for work, I'd be at King's Cross Station right now with an owl and a trunk freaking out the commuters! There's a definite "back to school" feel in the air, and I'm restraining myself from going down to Paperchase and buying a new pencil case. My letting agent has written to ask if I'm staying in the flat at the end of the tenancy, and Boyfriend and I have already started to research suitable places and locations for our new place.

Autumn is fast approaching. Hurrah! I'm not the biggest fan of summer. Alright, I like the lovely vegetables that are around, and barbeques, and the long evenings and sitting out in the garden on them, but as I don't have any kind of outdoor space I feel I'm rather missing out on the best of what the season has to offer! Bring on the crisp, brown leaves, golden sunlight, frosty mornings, scarves, boots, coats, roasts, stews, hot chocolate, walks in the park or on the beach, feeling schnuggly and warm as the evenings draw in ... lovely, lovely, lovely.

I hopefully have a new illo job in the pipeline. I was getting a little anxious about the lack of work, but I keep reminding myself that summer is always slow, and once everyone gets back from their swanky holidays and starts panicking about the lack of time left until the Frankfurt Bookfair in October, the jobs should start to come in again. I'm on a tight budget now, though, as I have to save to be able to move; it's such an expensive process. No more afternoon teas out, then. Better for my waistline, anyway, as I'm starting a diet today, too! I always feel much more motivated to start things at the beginning of the school year, rather than the beginning of the calendar year. At work, the kids will come back on Thursday, so my six quiet weeks of learning about how this library works will be over, and there'll be a whole load of new stuff to take in!

Red Velvet is now a postcard that is being printed as we speak, so until the details for the new job arrive, I'm working on re-vamping my website. It'll be a larger job than it should be as I lost all the files for it when the old HD died on me. This means copying it all from the website that's up there, rejigging it all to fit in my new work and uploading it all at the end of the month. Sigh. The same thing happened with my accounts, so I'll have to sort those, too. Can't be helped, I suppose. Technology, eh?

Ooo, all raring to go now! Stuff is starting to happen and that's always exciting.