Red Clogs and Blue Toenails

Bit O'An Update

Hello, Blawg. Seems an age since I posted properly. Now, where was I? What's been going on? Well, the main thing recently has been my good, old friend Crohn's Disease playing me up good and proper. I went to the hospital last Wednesday so the gastroenterologists could have a good look inside me and see what was going down. I got to have a look at the same time, and I must say, far from being totally disgusting, it was actually fascinating. Even I could tell where the bad bits were, so they must be pretty bad. It's a bit of a relief to be able to pin-point what's happening, to be honest. I've just been feeling generally ick since March, and, although I've taken an educated guess at what's wrong, it's nice to have it confirmed. Anyhoo, the plus side is I now have some fabbo new pills to take which are hopefully going to sort me out ASAP so I don't have to feel tired and grouchy anymore. Awesomesauce indeedy.

So, enough of the feeling ick, and on to more work. The first half of The Project has been completed, we're now on to the second, which starts in earnest tomorrow! My August is going to be much like my January: two roughs per day for the whole of the month. Going to be cream crackered, especially as I have to fit in a weekend away with Hubbo, my birthday (30!! Arghh!) trip to the theatre to see the luscious Mr. Tennant in Much Ado, another weekend away for a wedding, hospital check ups and generally trying to get out of the house before cabin fever and madness sets in. Wish me luck!

This is Spot the ladybird, by the way. Better get back in the swing of drawing her ASAP!

Hello, Chicken

Traffic Lights

In Every Job That Must Be Done There Is An Element of Fun

Check out my Poppins-esque "carpet" bag:



I have to put "carpet" in quotation marks here as it just feels wrong to call it a "carpet" bag when it's made from quilting cotton. Although it doesn't hold quite as much as Ms. Poppins' carpet bag (hers was made of carpet, so it doesn't need the quotes, see), it's plenty roomy enough to hold my umbrella, purse, phone, knitting bag, scarf, keys and still have room for a bit more. In the pictures here the bag is empty, so it looks a little flat, but once packed with all my gubbins it looks good and plump.



The pattern is this one sold at U-Handbag, with the tubular frame (awesome invention, btw) and interfacing and what-nots all from there, too. When I ordered the pattern and all the interfacing etc, I only went and forgot to order the frame, didn't I, so had to go back and try again when my order arrived sans the most important element. Honestly.

The fantastically 50s pink and grey dog fabric is from Michael Miller, a reproduction of a classic 1950s handkerchief design by Tammis Keefe; the spotted lining fabric I'm not sure. This is why I should keep my selvedges. The colours do look a little yellow here in these photos; the pink is very vibrant and the grey nice and charcoaly in real life. I think the light was fading fast as I took these photos, or maybe it's my ancient camera which will need replacing one of these days. This, I think, is a better representation of the true colour.



It was quite easy to sew it all together, once I'd figured out which was the top and which was the bottom of the pattern! The lining shows on the outside as you turn it over to make the casing for the frame, but there's no reason why you couldn't turn it to the inside instead. The pattern called for fabric handles, but I went for these retro-tastic bamboo handles instead, just making little loops to hold them on which I just placed under the casing and sewed down in one go.

Now I've got the hang of it, I think I'll be making plenty of these for pressies, maybe even in carpet.

Growing

Sunset, 8.55pm Yesterday

Buttery Biscuit Base

Earworm. Of the highest order. Bloody genius, too.

Multicoloured Pretties

This beautiful yarn is called Posy and is from The Yarn Yard. Gawjus colours. It should knit up like the photo at the bottom here.

I am so, SO close to finishing the current part of The Project. Fingers crossed it'll be done tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest, so hopefully I can have the WHOLE weekend off, then flatten/tweak and send off the lot on Monday ready for my Tuesday deadline. See you on the other side!

Update at 8.10pm - done!

Blue and Red Pretties

Out on a Date

It's not often these days that Husband and I get to go out on a Date like we used to in the good, old days. When we started going out over three years ago, Husband was living in North London and I was staying back at home in Cranners, so I used to get the train up to London from Guildford, pulling into Waterloo to find Husband-to-Be waiting for me under the clock by Paperchase. We'd walk out of the station and along the South Bank to enjoy the sights and hold hands in a disgustingly mushy way. One day, we went into La Pain Quotidien to have a croissant and a hot chocolate that was served in a bowl instead of mug, which just seemed really cool. And, until this weekend, we haven't been back since.

I'd been wanting to go up to Lahhnndahhn for ages, but having been a bit cream crackered due to illness recently, it was only this weekend that I felt up to it. So, we left home at 10am, got into Waterloo at 11.30am and immediately went to La Pain Quotidien for the most carb-heavy breakfast ever. Check out this gorgeous bread basket served with 5 or 6 different types of jams and spreads:





Not only that, but I also had a cheese & ham croissant, Husband had scrambled eggs with mushrooms and we both had two rounds of tea/coffee. Suffice to say, I was quite full. We stayed for ages, chatting about random things and taking in the very cool interior of the bakery, which is underneath the railway arches and has awesome little booths around the walls with old-school luggage racks above.

We then headed for the South Bank itself to check out all the celebrations commemorating the Festival of Britain in 1951. The river bank itself is bedecked in lovely bunting and is sporting a collection of beach huts and a beautiful old ice cream van, typically none of which I took a photo of, but you can see them here. Inside the Festival Hall is a fab exhibition called The Museum of 51, showing many of the promotional items that were created for the Festival sixty years ago, along with models of the whole site, and, my favourite, a 50s living room:














I want an armchair like this for my living room SO BAD. Gawjus.





Excuse the wobbly photos; I was taking them on my phone and the lighting wasn't great.

There was a fab food market out around the back of the Hall with some FANTASTIC looking ice cream, but we were still too full of bread to take advantage, dagnammit.

The outside of the Hayward Gallery has been dressed up with lots of "typically English" countryside paraphernalia, like sections of dry stone walling and piped bird song, I think as part of their "The Lands" exhibits. My fave part of this was the ENORMOUS straw fox sitting by Waterloo Bridge:

This lovely photo is by Smudgetikka. Go to their blog to check out their review of the whole Festival of Britain celebrations and to see lots more gorgeous photos.

It all runs until 4th September, so if you can get up there, do.

By 3pm we were both a bit knackered, and I thought it was best to get home before I fell into a big, weepy heap of tiredness, so back home on the train we went. So nice to get out of Brighton for a bit, as much as I love it, and very nice indeedy to spend that time with my favourite dude*.

*Mush is now over, normal service resumes.

Patchwork Cush

This is the patchwork/sewing/birthday project I was on about a few posts ago. It was for Eldest Sister's birthday, which was this Monday so I can finally share it.













It's the first "proper" quilting project I've done, which is to say I used a walking foot on my machine (LOVE it, going to use it for every project whether patchwork or not), and batting, and actually quilted all three layers together instead of tying it as I did with the only other quilting project I've attempted. I'm pretty chuffed with the outcome. Next on my patchwork list is a larger quilt for our bed/watching TV on the sofa. Just got to find the time to do it!

Thursday on Thursday

A great animation by Matthias Hoegg, a fellow Kingston Uni Illustration graduate, although he began just as I left. Beautiful stuff.


Thursday from Matthias Hoegg on Vimeo.

Stocks

I bought these three lovely bunches of Stocks from Aldi, of all places, on Sunday; I definitely needed something to combat the dismal weather. I've never bought Stocks before, I just went for them because I liked their lovely, elegantly tall stems and fab colours. Their scent is kind of sweet and spicy at the same time, a bit like a cinnamon cookie, and is currently wafting lusciously around the flat.

First Sketch on an iPad

Self Awarding

I have discovered that the illusive "KC" is Karen Collingwood, who had her work in a very nice open house in Hove over the May weekends. Alas, she has no website, but to walk into the room and be surrounded by her lovely acrylic brooches was almost too much for me to take. She was offering THREE of her regular brooches, like the apple and pear I already have, for £20, but I restrained myself and bought just this special one. The mirrored acrylic is just fab (Shiny! Shiny!), and, of course, will go with anything. Gotta think of these things.

It's June Already!

JUNE, people! Where have the last few months gone?! May was an odd month for me. I expected to be really busy on the next section of The Job, but, actually, that section only turned out to have one piece of work in it - the apron I've been nattering on about. So, I've had quite a bit of free time, but didn't actually realise I was going to have it. I expected to be emailed at any moment and be asked to draw the next thing, so I didn't really plan anything else to do. Doofus. So to stop me feeling bored until the comments come in, I've been sewing up a few things in the last week or so. One is a birthday present for the end of the month so I can't show it yet, another is an iPad case (yup, got offered one of those on a good deal so obviously took it up. Am trying very hard not to play with it all the time. It's a business expense, right?!) and another is this guy:



Lovely Sam bought him as a kit for me for Christmas and so naturally I've only just got around to sewing it up. He has chick peas in the base to keep him upright and hold open the door, and plain, old stuffing in the rest of the body. He's by local Brighton artist/printmaker Sarah Young, whose work I like very much and who prints at the same print studio as me.

I've also been having a few health problems this month, which hasn't been fun. My Crohn's is playing up a bit and I've hurt my legs somehow. I've been to a couple of appointments with an Osteopath who reckons I've knocked my pelvis all out of whack - probably by lifting boxes while moving house - which has put undue pressure on my knees and ankles which have been compensating for it. Hopefully it's going to improve soon; not being able to bend my knees properly is making stairs rather an issue!

On the plus side, a nice chunk of money for The Job has come in, so I've been able to pay off the bills and get a few luxuries in, including a GAWJUS bike, which I must take a photo of. Of course, with the knee issues I've barely ridden it, but I hope a few gentle laps round The Level will help stretch my muscles. It's so nice not to have to worry so much about money right now. The comments on the last lot of roughs I did came in today, so on Monday it'll be back to work. But right now I'm going to wait for Husband to get home, scoff down steak followed by strawberry ice cream, maybe watch a film, and enjoy hanging out with him all weekend in the sun. Have a good one, y'all.

Books!

After waiting months and months and months, this week I finally received copies of some books I wrote and/or illustrated last year. They're for a Korean publisher who I've worked for before; they've come out quite well. "Bunny's T-Shirt" pictured below was the one I wrote and illustrated, the others are just my text. It was the first time I used my Wacom on a professional job, so I was a bit unsure of myself, but it looks surprisingly OK. It's all collaged together as I usually do, but only using swatches of scanned gouache paint to give it a textured, hand painted feel without the hassle of actually hand painting it. 















The funniest thing about this job was that I did a sample spread in colour for them and painted Bunny brown, as you probably would. The company got back to me to tell me that they wanted Bunny to be pink, which was fair enough. They then told me that they thought Bunny was too big in relation to Tiger and that it would be more realistic if she were smaller. It took quite a lot of tongue biting to refrain from mentioning that as Bunny is pink, making her a realistic size seemed rather moot.

Naughty Piggy: Now in Colour

WIP: Poor Pony

WIP: Naughty Piggies

Finally, something I can show! This is a character from a sample spread I'm putting together for my new agent.



What's really shocking is that it's drawn with a REAL PENCIL on REAL PAPER. Whoa!