café blackboard

alan & i are doing some blackboard's for his mum's café & this is one i did today. it's not perfect (that's what i get for not stepping back every so often), but i like how it turned out. was pleased to discover that because posca pens dry matte, the black ones are like tipex/white out for blackboards. perfect for tidying up little mistakes & straightening edges.

petite noël

i think i've just about recovered from helping to organise craft markets this december - classique noël, an intimate jewellery event on 5 december, & petite noël, a handmade market just in time for christmas on 15 december.

as you may have guessed, i only took part in petite noël, & trust me when i say i'm not being biased - it was a great night. though we've not had feedback from everyone yet, the general consensus from both sellers & visitors is high-five-heck-yes. the vendors were brilliant, the handmade goods were wonderful & well crafted, the music was great, the crowd was ace & the hall was busy from start to finish - i'm only sorry i couldn't peruse my fellow seller's stalls for more goodies, but i could barely escape from my own table. i had a lot of lovely customers, a few who stayed for a chat & most people i spoke to left with a little something. postcards were the main sellers, but prints, notebooks & cards found new homes too. take a peek at the blogs of my fellow dundee jamboree organisers, nikki & lauren. those two juggle these events with jobs/studies + personal practice - & they do it all so well!

december has been a good one, but a busy one. along with writing approximately a million christmas cards, learning some new skills, having one of the busiest months in my shop so far & all journeys taking an additional ten minutes or so due to all the snow, a project i'd hoped to repeat after the last two years - every day a drawing in december - has fallen by the wayside (though i do have a few images still to upload). but i'm not going to beat myself up about it - one of the things i think i need to do in 2011 is find a little more focus, make more time to see friends/have fun & to remember not to sweat the small stuff.

arrow scarf

with petite noël just around the corner (wednesday 15 december!), i've been trying to get a few more products ready in time to fill up my stall. this includes a giclée print of my drawing inspired by hilary grant's beautiful circle scarves. i did the drawing as part of my annual every day a drawing in december project (which i am on top of, i just haven't had time to scan & post the images), & it got such a good response that i've turned it into a print. you can purchase one if you feel so inclined.

little mint-coloured house

i've sold out of a few items in my shop recently, which is kind of wonderful. the only downside is a dwindling stock, especially when petite noël is next week (!), but i'm certainly not complaining. make sure you order asap if you're in usa/canada/western & eastern europe/uk if want something before christmas - this weather certainly isn't helping post get anywhere fast.

above you'll find a new addition to the shop. this two colour screen-print is an update - & larger sized version - of my (sold out!) there's no place like home gocco print. i wish i could live in this little house. a porch, a veg patch & a tree. & the mint colour is inspired by a house i spied in gothenburg. dreamy!

suitcase

we're off to gothenburg! looking forward to exploring somewhere new & hopefully uncovering a few of the kinds of places that make you want to return somewhere asap. see you after the weekend!

hello september

long time no speak! the number of readers of this blog drifted over 300 since i last posted, so i felt i was due an update.

august was a busy one (actually, 2010 as a whole has been rather mental). since joining my local print studio, i've been trying to make it in once a week - i wish i could spend more time there, i've got so many ideas floating around. as well as the prints i've posted recently, i printed the above design in the form of a card, have done two more editions (green & yellow) of my life is good print (there's only one left for sale from the original edition!), & i've also produced a small run of a print for an exhibition, toy shop, in manchester, which i'll post at a later date.

as well as gaining two new stockists (the shiny & new hannah zakari in edinburgh & lovely frank in kent), the next dundee jamboree is almost upon us - as part of n_ilk micro-music-festival at the botanics, we're holding a mini-market, with some previous sellers & new faces. it's looking to be an excellent day, you should come join us if you can - tickets can be purchased here.

in other news, my little etsy shop is just shy of being a year old. august has been my most successful month, which has been a nice way to finish year one. i'm going to be having a blog giveaway & shop sale soon so keep an eye out.

i really ought to update more often; these big monthly updates are long and i'm pretty sure the only person who reads them is my mum (hello mum! x). until next time!

anything you can do

hurrah! at long last, i've started screen printing again. as much as i love my gocco, it felt so good to produce a print that is larger than A6 in size. a simple two colours, i got an edition of eight prints out of this session, with a few extra prints that weren't registered well enough to make the cut, but will be available at craft fairs where people can see the print for themselves. i can't wait to get back into the print studio & print some more. the above print is available on etsy for just over £20. since it was a test as well as a finished print, i feel okay with letting it go at a lower price.

been busy the past couple of weeks. spent the weekend in edinburgh/fife. went to view the new analogue books show, turn up the colour, & also visited edinburgh printmakers and the lovely new hannah zakari shop. had my first ever coffee (yes) at peter's yard, & after wandering around edinburgh with alan for a while, we made a stop on the way to visit my sister to walk along the coast, so nice to be outside by the sea. an ace weekend.

creatively, i've been trying to squeeze in doing work. i'd love to be able to tell you that i managed to prepare a brand new zine for the zine workshop at welcome home on sunday, but alas, my schedule has worked against me. never mind. you can still come & hang out & make stuff with marceline & i. she's been much more organised than me & is unleashing a new zine at the workshop. stop by & say hi if you can.

weekend away

feeling good after a long weekend away. spent time napping & sleeping accompanied by the sound of the tide, on beaches, drinking beer & not worrying about how i've barely done any work lately & how much i need to tidy. have given up on a book i was struggling to get into for months & have started reading something new. making pacts with myself to spend less time procrastinating online. funny how just a few days away from routine can make everything feel better.

few little things:
- this illustration by jack hudson is seriously smashing, it's fun to momentarily get lost in a piece of work.
- these hand-drawn badges by ruefive are close to destroying my much needed buy-less-things mentality.
- if you didn't manage to catch the first edition of lizzy stewart's wolfdream gocco print then have no fear, the second edition is just as beautiful.

back to blogging

as usual, i've been too busy to blog. this is a good thing. the past few weeks have been craft-filled, which is splendid. i don't have time to update about events separately, but here's a quick recap. the handmade nation screening at DCA was brilliant. the embroidery workshop with faythe levine was inspiring & i got to chat to the woman herself. she joined myself & helen & michelle (collectively of craftsville, they had come up for the screening & were staying the night with me) for a cup of tea, & we all ate a delicious dinner with some of the DCA education team before the film. was great to meet some other folks too, namely the ladies of the glasgow craft mafia who had travelled through for the show. great night.

another craft-based evening was the dundee jamboree etsy craft party last friday. it went so well! people came, made, swapped skills & ate cake. kind of perfect. you can view photos over here. so grateful to everyone who helped make it what it was.

now that the craft party is over, i feel like i have time to be getting on with my own work. it's literally been weeks since i've managed to work on something of my own. i'm in the early stages of two very different projects, & i'm looking forward to getting my teeth into them. of course, it's not always easy, especially since i'm in the middle of learning to drive & still taking part in other people's ideas, but hey, it's good to be busy.

a few other things you should take note of:

- amy of pikaland has launched her first pikapackage of the year! you can buy a package here. i'm in this round, & there are so many great artists involved, i'm honoured.

- i added my first new item in what feels like forever to my etsy shop. just five bux for four illustrations that i really wanted to see in print.

- i'm not having much luck over on folksy, & i'm not sure i'm going to stick with it. however, the next two sales get a free mini-zine, so have a nosey.

big top jamboree

i am so very tired right now, but i feel it'd be lazy of me to hit the hay without posting about yesterday's big top jamboree (especially when so many have been nice enough to post about their experiences). in short, it was amazing! to start off the day, there were workshops by catherine of pale face, plus fellow jamoree-ers lauren & nikki, & if you fancied a snack whilst making badges, zines & corsages, loren brand was selling her delicious cakes. & as if that wasn't enough excitement for a monday afternoon, we were also proudly displaying cut-click's mail art exhibition on the first outing of it's tour, meaning more artists than i can count took part in our jamboree.

after a smooth & swift changeover, the evening saw a wide range of handcrafted goods on sale from local (& some further away) artists, including prints, plush, bunting & even bread (as you can see in the above photo by joanna montgomery). i made a couple of awesome purchases; a stitched badge by rosie barthram & the most amazing lambswool triangle pillow by hilary grant (i'm enjoying it's softness as i type). was also very happy to get a zine from illustrator extraordinaire, david galletly. as well as stalls there was more cake, a raffle & sweet musical interludes, plus some brilliant projected animation & film-work. i didn't have a stall this time so took the opportunity to wander round, chatting to both familiar & new faces, vendors, visitors & amazing volunteers.

for more information on the night you can read about the run up over on the jamboree blog & see some feedback over on twitter. if reading about it isn't quite good enough for you, then you're in luck; jon mcgill of superfly kindly recorded the event, so take a peek at his mini-documentary of the night.

thanks to everyone who helped make it what it was!

one of those posts

i wish i'd post most often on this blog, but days seem to fly by. yep, it's one of those oh-man-i've-been-so-busy-here's-a-catch-up-of-sorts. i'm sorry, dear readers.

lately, it feels like i'm too tired when i get home from my day-job to do my own work in the evening, & that i'm using my weekends in the way that most people do - spending some quality time with the couch & doing those chores that build up throughout the week. it bums me out sometimes when i feel like i'll never conquer my ever growing to-do list. but then i remember that somewhere in between the couch & chores & job i've managed to start organising another craft fair with the other two ladies on the big top jamboree team, re-do my website (almost done), visit glasgow & the GI festival, partake in a whole bunch of art-trades, do some worthwhile charity shop rummaging, meet friends for drinks, make a small pile of pom-poms... when i take a minute to go over what i've actually done, i realise i shouldn't be so hard on myself.

i know that i'm not the only one who does this, but i think i need to try remember more often that i'm just one person & there are only twenty-four hours in a day.

beach in april

coming back to 7˚c weather after blue skies in new york wasn't great, but scotland hasn't let me down this weekend. it was so nice out today that my boyfriend & i went to the beach, thus getting me one step further in my list of things to do this year: #5 is 'visit three beaches', so that's one down, two to go.

it's been a pretty good week. the organisers of jumpers & jamboree (that's lauren, nikki & me) have announced the date of the next event: big top jamboree is going to take place on may 17, & we're looking for submissions! have a peek at the blog to find out more.

i also scored off #20 from my to-do list by opening a folksy shop earlier in the week. i'm giving it a trial period to decide whether i want to keep it or not. if you missed out on getting a free copy of climbing out of a canyon in my etsy shop a few weeks back, here's another chance; the first five orders from my folksy shop get a free mini-zine!

couple of other things: i took part in now now's zine showcase a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't attend thanks to being away. also, one of my older pieces (bottom left hand corner) was in design week last week, which was my submission to 'how many ways can you draw an apple?' by something to do zine. would have been better if they'd actually credited all the artists properly, of course. sigh.

i think i should probably try to update more often to save having so many catch-up posts!

wanderer returns

after a bit of a quiet period blog-wise, i'm back! life itself wasn't so quiet though; over the past three weeks i've either been getting some last minute things tied up, or been in another country! i got back yesterday from a short trip with my sister to toronto & new york city, & it already doesn't even feel like i've been away.

we had a great trip though. in toronto we spent a lot of the time exploring (mostly ending up either in kensington market or the west side of town), visiting lots of vintage & boutique stores, plus we met up with my friend ian & saw an inuit art exhibition & an ace jazz band, the happy pals, before i joined him & his friends for a party. my sister wasn't well some of the week which was a shame, & it was sometimes hard to find good places to eat (though when you found somewhere good it was really good), & the weather could have been better (but i got to wear a nice new hat which was a plus), but toronto's a good city if you know what you're looking for & what's going on - NOW is a great local paper to find out what going on. thanks to everyone who recommended places, plus a special thanks to anabela/fieldguided (& to geoff for telling me about it) for her amazing in-depth review of her toronto. i visited a lot of places she listed, & would have gone to more if i'd had enough time!

next stop was new york city, & it was nice to be somewhere a bit more familiar, if only slightly. the weather was awful when we got there, we had to write off our first evening of walking around thanks to the rain, but by the end of the week it was 25˚c & sunny so who am i to complain? we visited central park & the natural history museum, did shopping in uniqlo, anthropologie (four pairs of tights for $25 instead of $92!) & beacon's closet in williamsburg, brooklyn, which i definitely wish existed closer to home. visited a few flea markets, & while we didn't do much of the art gallery scene this time around, we went to MoMA on the free evening (not sure i'd recommend this, it was mobbed) & giant robot, where i met up with the lovely sara of brown paper bag. did a lot of walking, a lot of eating & a bit of people watching whilst sitting in parks in the sun. oh, how i miss the sun.

back to reality now though; i return to work tomorrow & my to-do list has doubled from what it was before i left. it's nice to have gotten away though. will need to start planning my next trip.

long weekend in london

i'm feeling pretty sleepy as i got back late last night after a long weekend in london. i had a brilliant time though, & it was so nice to escape my usual routine. myself & my co-workers got the train down on saturday, & i spent the evening with some old friends, eating fish chips & hanging out. on sunday we went to spitalfields market - i'm kind of glad it was impossible to find a cash machine there, otherwise i'd be the owner of a gorgeous new leather satchel, a beautiful chiffon dress & a much smaller bank balance.

i then went to check in at my hotel before heading off to leicester square to meet the lovely thereza rowe, an illustrator based in london who has a wonderful imagination & makes beautiful work. we spent a couple of hours chatting over hot beverages & exploring bookshops. just a short visit but it was great to meet her, i've borrowed the above image from our meeting (where you can see the prettiest little zine that she kindly gave me, plus my new fox friend) & you can see some more images over on her blog.

monday was spent with work friends, mostly on our feet exploring some galleries. my favourite show was one i'd been looking forward to for a few weeks, céleste boursier-mougenot's commision for the curve at the barbican, which you can see above (not my image). in layman's terms, it was a huge room full of sweet & fearless little zebra finches inadvertently playing guitar! you can see a clip here.

back to reality now, but not for long; this time next week i'll be in canada! hooray for adventures.

late night catch up

it's 11.30pm & i really ought to go get some sleep since i have to head to the post office before work tomorrow, but i thought i'd ponder a little here instead.

i can't believe how hectic the next few weeks are going to be. within the next month, i'm going to london, toronto & new york, have two films i really want to catch at dca, driving lessons, friends to catch up with, exhibitions that i want to attend, projects to submit to: this doesn't include the every day stuff i have to do, like working, chores, hanging with the boy &, y'know, sleep! i think i need to write it all down to enable myself to process it all, & work out how much free time i have left over. 2010 has been a whirlwind so far. i am low on cash & i am tired, but it's been excellent.

onto other things: all ten free copies of climbing out of a canyon that were up for grabs over on etsy have been claimed! i've had some nice feedback on them too. i wish i could give more goodies away with everything i sell, but i don't have enough time to make things! never mind. while we're on the topic of etsy, my giclée print this is tomorrow is currently on sale with 25% off, in case you'd like to welcome it into your home.

bricks-&-mortar-wise, for those of you over on the west coast, there will be a few opportunities to see my work in the flesh soon. one place includes the super duper welcome home, who will have a selection of cards, postcards, zines & the above badges on sale some time in the near future.

okay, enough pondering. i'm going to get myself some sleep.

jumpers & jamboree

it's high time i updated about jumpers & jamboree, an event organised by lauren gentry, nikki mcwilliams & myself, which took place last tuesday at kokomo's in dundee. all three of us had no idea how the event was going to turn out - we organised it in less than a week from conception to completion! but with twenty wonderful exhibitors/sellers, several live musical interludes, an abundance of cake & some smashing raffle prizes, our little event was a complete success. for three whole hours the places was heaving, we seriously couldn't have asked for a better evening.

you can see some more photos from the event over on flickr, & read a little more about the event here. thank you to those of you who came, saw, bought raffle tickets, listened to music, supported local artists & sang happy birthday (!!). we're already planning our next little jamboree, & are going to give ourselves longer than a week this time (but only slightly!)

jumpers & jamboree preview

here a third of a sneak preview of some of the artists exhibiting/selling at jumpers & jamboree tomorrow night. from top to bottom: filipa oliveira, kieran duncan, jenni mackenzie/frogged, john alan birch & sean mcalister.

you can have a look at the other artists who will feature over on lauren & nikki's blogs. jumpers & jamboree kicks off tomorrow night at 7.30, at kokomo's in dundee. as well as art & craft, there's cake, live music, armchairs, fireplaces (that will be on!), & a raffle with some sweet prizes. excellent combination.

jumpers & jamboree - coming soon!

lauren gentry, nikki mcwilliams & myself are planning an evening of arts & craft goodness next week: jumpers & jamboree! if you'd like to show/sell your work, we'd love to hear from you. e-mail lauren (laurengentry[at]hotmail.co.uk) with a brief description of your work, plus up to five images or a link to your website/blog. if you're in the area, please do come along & have a browse, + drink & chat.

p.s. only three more free copies of climbing out of a canyon are available over in my shop. next three purchases get them!

travel tips

i can't believe how busy 2010 has been so far, & it's showing no sign of slowing down. one of the things i'm looking forward to (like you wouldn't believe) is a trip with my sister to toronto then nyc at the end of march/start of april. there's a mental list of things to do already (since my sister hasn't been to new york before), but i hate to think i'm missing out on the unique little spots thanks to just not knowing about them in advance. this is where i'm asking for your help: i want to know your preferred eateries, thrift stores, hangouts, recommendations, hidden gems & favourite things to do, for either city. any tips are welcome.

as a sort of continued entry from yesterday, my poster submission for central station's pop-up tour can now be seen around town. for a sneak online peek, you can see all the posters on superfly's (the poster project's organiser) website, plus there's a further preview over on formfiftyfive (which was a nice surprise).

& while i'm on the subject of nice surprises, seabear, the band, found my seabear illustration, & liked it enough to post on their blog. awesome.

winter fox

after a successful couple of days with my gocco, there's a new print available in my shop. there's only fifteen of these available. this print was a time for firsts, being the first gocco print i've produced using more than one screen, & also my first gocco print without any text on it. look out for more new things over the next month.