Friday 30 October 2009

Friday 23 October 2009

Words and Gorillas



Gosh! 
It's busy around here! The studio is a tip and the dogs have gone doolally and are being incredibly naughty (again) ...
Today I've been doing some hand-lettering for a nice fiction job I'm doing - chapter headings for a very exciting story. Hopefully I can tell you a bit more about it soon. In the meantime: 

Things I've been excited about this week:

  • creating my own font (above) using this amazing site - www.fontcapture.com. It's brilliant and I'm planning on making a whole range of exciting fonts to use on everything! YES PLEASE!
  • I've also been obsessed with Gorillas. They are just lovely aren't they . I remember spending my 20th birthday at Edinburgh Zoo and I just loved watching the big gorilla there lounging about in his den - picking his teeth and scratching his head. I'd just quite like to hug one I think...
  • I've been chair-dancing to the Flight of the Conchords album. My main love on it is the song Robots.
  • tonight I am going to make some cupcakes iced with orange icing and dotted with white chocolate drops. Yum!
P.s The final image above is a little, silly present for my girlfriend Jem. She really is quite lovely. Especially when I accidently make some soup too spicy for her and she has to sit fanning her mouth as she eats it. :-)

Monday 12 October 2009

Baguette problems...

In other non- fashion related news, I have a very traumatic cycle home from town today. First of all a butterfly flew straight into my forehead, then half of the baguette I'd just bought broke off and flew across the road. 

I am not happy.

:-(

Wednesday 7 October 2009

What's Hot + What's Not...

Click to enlarge ( got that problem sorted now!)

Well it's Wednesday which means, according to the brilliant Loobylu,  it's time for a post about What's Hot and What's Not with me today. 

Here goes:

What's Hot:

* Autumn!
I'll be honest with you, this was almost resigned very firmly into the NOT category. Yesterday was revolting here - wet and rainy from morning until night, thick grey clouds everywhere and our heating decided not to work, then suddenly kicked in and the boiler made a horrendous clanking, shuddering noise. I thought a Borrowers reenactment of the First World war was going on in the airing cupboard. 
Today, however, Autumn has redeemed itself - beautiful sunny skies, a brisk chill in the air and a great big fat orange pumpkin is sitting on my kitchen unit waiting to be whipped up into a spicy soup! YES. PLEASE! 

*Finding the 3 Moleskin Sketchbooks I bought Ages Ago Then Promptly Lost.

Horray! I've found them! 
I'm new to the world of Moleskins and I'm really enjoying working in them. ( see image above) That soft yellow colour of the pages is a beautiful surface to work on and for some reason a lot less scary than a bright white page. Usually when I start a sketchbook I shyly start scribbling on the back pages, but not with my new/newly found Moleskin - I've jumped straight in at the beginning and am loving it!

*Radio Four.
Something else which I'm new too. In the past I've been a bit of a flitterer - diving about here and there to different radio stations during the day whilst getting increasingly irritated either by the presenters or by hearing exactly the same collection of songs  pretty much in the same order, every hour ( I'm looking at you Radio one...). Either that or I gave up and either popped on Spotify or worked like a hermit in silence. 
Now, I've discovered Radio Four. The  Home-Workers Companion. The Deliverer of Knowledge, Culture and Opinion into my Very Own Ears from morning until night (well until Jemma arrives home). It's just brilliant - a variety of different programmes covering a multitude of subjects and no music to either get bored with or distract me in terms of having to chair dance whilst I'm grappling with a difficult picture or a problematic paragraph. JOYFUL!

*Properly Waisted Trousers.
Low Riders - BE GONE! 'Sits low on the Waist' - you no longer seduce me! I am no longer your friend or slave! I will live a life of hoiking up my waistband as I walk or worrying about my botty being exposed when I sit down no more.  I am now (and I pray this isn't a sign of age or an on coming quarter life crisis) a fan of the properly waisted trouser (I hear a ripple of applause from Jemma, my mum and my grandmother who have been nagging me for ages to get some proper slacks and put my botty away) I am now converted to the charms of vintage styled trousers proudly worn on my wait. The comfort is delightful and the slightly rakish look of a 1940's spiv it gives me is an added bonus!

What's NOT:

*Worrying abut the Owl in our Street.
 The other evening whilst strolling down the street whilst walking the dogs we noticed an owl swopping from the rooftops. It's moved in somewhere down the road we think and we are now very concerned that it might mistake our Chihuahua for a mouse when the poor little thing is outside doing - well - you know what. Unfortunately, I don't think Mr. Owl will be swayed by The Chihuahua's winning smile, big googly eyes or  his likeness  to a certain easy listening legend and leave him alone.  I am now forced to stand out side of an evening like a minder for the dogs, glaring at the rooftops  whilst armed with something to throw incase of an Owl attack.

*Cold Mornings.
These are not fun. Anything which makes me leap out of bed and slam the windows shut like Nanny in the Eloise books is absolutely NOT HOT in my book.

* Glade Plug -In CHRISTMAS Air Freshener Adverts Being on TV in OCTOBER

Not hot, Glade... Not. HOT.


Friday 2 October 2009

Dancing!

Above is the image I've created for niecey's birthday party invitation this year. 
This seems to be becoming a bit of a annual commission having started last year with a High School Musical themed invitation for a sleepover/HSM party.This year there's an outing to the cinema to see FAME in costume I believe. 
I'm planning on adding some glitter to the picture above when it's printed because, to be honest you can never have enough glitter at a party.

Seems to be a bit of a dancing theme this week as Jem and I started our Rock and Roll dance classes - was fun if  a little like stepping into a Victoria Wood sketch. Roll on next week!