So in Lurve With This Laydee Right Now.

The new album is rocking. Fact.

WIP: A Little Bit Further Still

I Heart Fabric

Check out these lovelies:







Even though I had last week off from library duties, I don't really feel like I had a week off at all. Can I have another now, please, so I can do all the things I wanted to do? No? Oh. OK then. Poo. Anyhoo, I made sure that I had Friday free to spend with Boyfriend, and we took the opportunity to get out of Brighton and do something different. We got on the train to Chichester and ended up in The Eternal Maker, which is an AMAZING fabric/craft shop I've blogged about in more detail over on Brighton Craft Guerrilla. I got the top two lovely fabric bundles above at TEM, and then, after a picnic lunch in the cathedral grounds and a walk around the town, the purple 70s pillow cases in a charity shop for the bargain price of £1.49. That's the kind of fabric price I like.

I also just have to show you these pictures of these wonderful Hemingworth threads in their little plastic cases because the colours just look gorgeous all together, and the fact they're all neatly in their little homes makes my Virgo heart sing:

Yum. A lovely day out.

End of Week 17

WIP: A Little Bit Further

Getting Ready

Here's all my stuff packed and ready to go off to Jubilee tomorrow morning. Luckily, Boyfriend has booked this weekend off so I get to wake him up nice and early to give me a hand taking it down there!

And here is Alice in all her glory:

I'm so chuffed with my Giclee prints. I had them done through Spectrum here in Hove and they are ace. The PV/opening is next Saturday from 2pm in the Learning Centre up on the top floor of Jubilee Library and runs every weekend in May. Come along and take a gander!

WIP

Beautiful Buttons

Look at these lovelies:

Buttons are the bestest. Check out Jan's blog post over at BCG on our button bracelet and brooch making exploits this week.

Mr. Fox at LBF

Here he is:

It was a bit of a disappointing day, actually. The winners were asked to be there at 2.35pm (precisely!) to meet a mystery VIP. 2.35pm came and went. At 3.30pm we were rather bored. A trip to the info desk later and a call to the person who had organsied the meeting, revealed the VIP had cancelled and the organiser "hadn't got round to telling us". Humph. It was apparently supposed to be Camilla Parker-Bowles. No curtseying from me, I can tell ya. But the other winners were very nice and it was worth it just to meet up with them.

So I had a wander round with Clare (Hi Clare!), who I bumped into there, and also came across Jon (Hi Jon!). It all seemed very quiet. That's volcanoes for you. Apparently, many people are cutting their losses and packing up early today. I gave a few people my card, but I find it so cringeworthy.

Then came 4.30pm and the "networking event" we had all won the honour of attending. That was just odd, quite frankly. It was very poorly organised; a bit "here's a glass of wine, now mingle." I had rather thought the judges of the illo comp would be there and possibly make some kind of welcoming speech but no speech was forthcoming. It was just a huge crush of young illustrators all vying for the attention of the very few ADs and Editors who had shown up. One AD who I did manage to talk to didn't even know there had been a competition! I hate that kind of arse-kissing get together anyway, so maybe it was just me. I decided to take a handful of my cards and do a mad dash around all the booths that were still manned and hysterically say" Can I give you my card?!" before dashing off again, cards trailing in my wake. So not exactly the reception I had imagined it would be. I suppose it was the first year they had run something like that so hopefully next year will be better.

I have made up my mind to make it to Bologna next year, at any rate. It seems that is the place where all business is done and decisions made. I'm sure I'll cope with a few days in Italy!

End of Week 16

Another Hobby I Don't Really Have Time For!

I'm sure this happens to you all the time, but I was just sitting on the sofa a couple of nights ago and had the strong urge to just embroider something! You know how it is, right? I haven't actually done any embroidery since I was about 13 years old and they got rid of the haberdashery in my home village (and that was just cross stitch), but Sam lent me one of these. The Sexy Librarians.

I went and got myself an embroidery hoop and some floss from good, old Cocoon yesterday afternoon and got working. The designs come as an iron-on transfer. I dug out a bit of muslin and away I went. (That's my spotty ironing board cover you can see through the fabric, btw.)

Cool, huh? They're not exactly neat, but it was good fun. I certainly had no idea where the evening went. I must say, though, that only a crazy librarian who is a glutton for punishment would wear those kind of shoes to work! It has given me the idea to make my own stitch patterns, though. The two blues and the red and grey are the colours I used in my Fairytale Alphabets last year, so I could do Little Red or Cinderella as a pattern...who knows?!

I have the next week off from library work, but I seem to have filled up my days with other stuff already. It's the London Book Fair on Tuesday, of course, and I think Boyfriend and I will go on a little out-of-town adventure on Friday. Hope the weather stays nice.

Pweeeety Flowahhs

Paper Cranes

Paper lovelies everywhere. All photos by Jan.

Sneaky Peaky...

This aftenoon I have managed to finish my piece for the Open House, get it sent to the printers and make up some postcards of it. Phew! I've been faffing around with it for ages, liking the background but not the main character. I've been drawing and re-drawing, nothing looked right. And then you get that weird thing where it just PINGS! in your brain and there it is on the paper. Easy peasy.

Anyway, here's a little peak at part of the finished thing:



It should only take 48 hours for the printers to complete my order. I've had seven Giclees done (a first for me!) so I hope they look good. One will be framed and on the wall, and then the other six will be in cardboard tubes ready to buy along with some screenprints and postcards. I've got to get it all to Jubilee Library next Sunday morning at 10am, and so far I have no idea how I'm going to get it all down there by myself! Will probably get a taxi or hire a car or something.

In other news, we had a great BCG session making paper cranes this week. I'll post some photos soon and there'll be a write-up over on the BCG blog. We may also have a venue for evening craft activities that anyone can come along to! Woo! Watch this space...

Today I have Been Mostly....

...reading through all the horror stories here. What makes them so funny is that they're so true.

And while we're on the subject, this film says it all:

End of Week 15

Beach Huts, No.24

Red on Red

Yum, yum, yum. Can't wait until my little tiny plants are producing mamas like these! I just love the red fruit next to the red of the bowl. It was literally glowing in the morning light in the kitchen.

Pet Behaviour Brochures

These came through the post for me yesterday:





These are the American project I was working on just after Christmas. They've turned out really rather well, although I did plan three of the covers to be in pink, which the publishers didn't go for, so those three had to be changed. I'm not sure if it effects the balance of the set or not, or if I'm just being a poncey artist about it all, and, really, no one else will even notice! These are a few of my faves:

As well as the covers, there was also a spot illo inside each one with background colour to match the cover:



They sent me a huge envelope full of sets of these babies, so I have loads of them if anyone wants a copy. They also wrote me a lovely thank you card, which I've never got from a publisher before, so that was extra nice. I'm going to have to update my websites with these now, plus Fantastic Mr. Fox, of course, and definitely before I go up to the London Book Fair on the 20th.