new blog!

it's been a few weeks coming, but i'm finally moving blogs. from now on you'll be able to find updates here. remember to update your google reader & blogrolls!

it's been fun over here, but a fresh start feels good. thanks for taking the time to keep up with my occasional outpourings.

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.

weekend

every weekend should be as good as this weekend. the sun was out in full force (for scotland, in april) on sunday so we headed to a car boot sale (where i found the tea tray above) followed by the beach. today we chillax. apparently it snowed this morning, but the sun's out again so i'm going to pretend it never happened. i've also squeezed in some time to work on a couple of fun jobs, so this weekend gets 10 out of 10. same again next week please.

since people are asking where the mugs are from; i picked them up in fishs eddy in new york. i don't know if they still do the graph paper mug, but i found the memo note one online.

new prints

been pretty quiet on the blog front lately, apologies. though i'm still planning on moving my blog i'll be using this one in the meantime. just a quick update to let you know about a couple of new prints in my shop: we did good & [waves crashing].

also, hello to new followers, all 500+ of you. my blog came to the attention of blogger after it was compromised, & they graced it with the title 'blog of note'. getting 8000+ hits in a day is kind of daunting. but hello nonetheless.

[waves crashing]

went to see submarine last night. so nice to see a film that i've been looking forward to for ages & not be disappointed.

on an unrelated & disappointing note, my blog account was once again compromised. i'm currently undecided as to whether i'm going to move my blog elsewhere or give blogger a third & final chance, but i'll update you when i know. if you notice anything unusual in the meantime, you can check other online avenues (twit, flick) for info.

charity shop challenge - march

the charity shop & second-hand rummaging i did in march further cemented my love for recycling via clothing & avoiding fast fashion. as well as the above shoes & the trousers seen here, i added two cardigans & a top to my wardrobe (perhaps i'll share them next month - i'd done my photos by the time i found them this morning). i'm starting to think i might have to have a one-in-one-out policy with clothing if i keep finding things. it's nice to think that if some items from my wardrobe made their way to a charity shop, someone might like them as much as i like my finds.

studio sweet studio

meg lewis & tuesday bassen teamed their superpowers to create studio sweet studio, & they also very kindly did a feature on my little workspace today. so pleased to be invited to share. if you've not got sss on your blogroll yet then add it now. not only is it a great way to get a peek into other artist's studios, there's interviews, tutorials & other excellent snippets too.

mini celebration

the last 24 hours have been a headache in terms of the internet. you may already know, but someone managed to hack into my blog yesterday, revoking my admin access which meant i had no control over my blog - i was later deleted from my blog altogether. fortunately the internet gods must've taken pity on me or something as this little space of the internet is mine once again. lucky girl. hooray!

ps. there's just over a day left to bid on my print okushon print - go!

print okushon

in light of recent and tragic events in japan, i'm really happy to be a part of print okushon, an auction of artist's donated prints organised by ciara phelan, where all proceeds raised go towards the red cross in japan.

i donated the above print, which some of you might remember. my fox gocco print has been sold out for over a year, but i put the print that i'd kept for myself up for bidding. you can put an offer on mine here (three days to go!) or peruse the work of others up for grabs; there's a jaw-dropping selection available, lots that i'd be happy to give some wall space to (but i keep getting outbid - good for raising funds!)

new books

i'm one of those people who saves for a rainy day. i'm no scrooge, but i'm definitely not frivolous. one thing that can always nudge me into loosening my pursestrings, however, is beautiful artist's books. above are a selection that i've added to my bookshelf recently. if you're looking for some new things to pour over, i'd recommend any one of these.

clockwise from top left: pebble island by jon mcnaught (£10 from nobrow press) / strom by nigel peake (£12 from nigel's online shop) / onwards by kaye blegvad (purchased from kaye's online shop) / temporama by clayton jr (birthday gift from boyfriend, available from nobrow) / rain day by hannah waldron (£15 from duke press, also came with a beautiful risograph print by hannah) / toska by lizzy stewart (£6.50 from lizzy's online shop)

misprints packs

whilst tidying up my desk yesterday (pictures of my clean tidy space soon), i found a pile of misprints from printing sessions - prints that, for one reason or another (the reason often being me being a perfectionist), i hadn't considered good enough to make the cut when finalising the edition for sale. so i decided to make up five misprints packs for selling.

the pack inclues three prints & one postcard, with "mistakes" being ink being too thick/not coming through in small parts & misalignment. it's possible that someone who wasn't me might not be able to spot what was wrong with some of them. but anyway, i'm not going to use them for anything so i thought i'd offer them up as a small pack that meant someone could fill up some wallspace quickly & cheaply. the editioned prints & postcard would be £30/$47+ altogether, so i figured £10/$17 was an alright sum!

find out more (including image examples of why they're leftovers) over in my shop.

we did good

all quiet on the blog front, so here's a piece i completed at the weekend (which will become a submission for lovely pigeon's beards & tiaras exhibition). this is the only project i'm working on at the moment that has nothing to do with food (unless he's hiding a banquet in that beard, which is entirely possible given the size).

charity shop challenge - february

here's a charity shop challenge post for february. i'm a bit low on the ol' funds so should probably leave further shopping until next month. this image isn't of something i actually bought in february however. i picked up this dress for £3.99 in a charity shop a few years ago - the only difference is that it was about twelve inches longer. i finally fulfilled my intention of taking it up this weekend, & bust out my new sewing machine for the first time in the process. hurrah all round.

you can see a couple of my other purchases from this month over in the charity shop challenge flickr group. need a reminder of the guidelines? see a couple of posts back, or click here.

ten fingers issue #2

back in may last year, helen entwisle (aka memo aka screen-printer extraordinaire) compiled ten fingers issue #1, a collection of illustrations based on contributer's hometowns. now she's gone & done it again; ten fingers issue #2, again hand-bound & hand-printed, contains a series of prints/postcards depicting childhood memories.

alongside jay cover, will bryant, mia chrisopher, anthony zinonos, lesley barnes, gemma correll & helen, you'll find a drawing by me illustrating my three childhood imaginary dogs. their names escape me now but i do remember their breeds: an australian shepard dog, an italian greyhound & a chihuahua (dog breeds are my secret skill).

i have a few copies up for sale over in my etsy shop. this is definitely a good 'un to add to your zine collection.

charity shop challenge

one of my goals for this year is to cut out high street fashion and to instead soley buy clothing direct from makers or second-hand. thanks to twitter, a small group of some friends came up with charity shop challenge yesterday, where people are encouraged to find new clothing in charity shops & post about their finds at the end of the month. fancy taking part?

guidelines:

1. your outfit must comprise of a key-garment from a charity shop plus any other pieces/accessories etc to make up an 'ensemble'
2. annotate your outfit. include a description of the garments/where you bought or found each piece/price of charity find
3. upload your image onto your blog by the last friday of each month
4. on the last friday of the month tell everyone about it & tweet with the hashtag #charityshopchallenge
5. extra credit for those who customise their charity shop find

the image above is a few things put together in spirit of the challenge: the dress (as well as being my first purchase for myself of 2011!) was found in a charity shop in liverpool on monday, the belt is a charity shop find from a couple of years ago & the cardigan is from ebay. hooray for second-hand!

update! charity shop challenge can now be found on flickr - so if you don't have a twitter account, no worries.

uppercase eight

happy to have another submission accepted for uppercase magazine, this time the open call for modern matchbox labels in issue eight.

mine wasn't so much modern, more a take on old czech & russian matchbox labels that showed pictures of the country's wildlife. the three labels i submitted portrayed three animals found in scotland - a deer, fox & red squirrel - plus their names in gaelic (what i hope it scottish & not irish!). hand printed in three colours, i allowed for mistakes & misalignment, echoing old labels that would be quickly produced, leaving no room for perfection (not that this distracts from how lovely they are - see an amazing collection of vintage matchboxes here). my three labels are also available as a print in my shop, & i'm already halfway sold out of the edition.

us, we

so far this year i've managed to see, visit & hang out with so many of the people that matter to me. my family, extended family, all of my old flat-mates, most of my close friends from university, creative types i've met since, my best friend from school, people i've met via the internet. one of my resolutions this year was to visit out-of-town friends, & those who were close by too, & it seems i've managed to get on top of this goal already. i'm looking forward to more visits already lined up in future.

of course, it's not always so easy to be able to visit people thanks to clashing schedules, the cost of travelling and distance. there's always good old snail mail to fall back on however; not quite as great as meeting face-to-face, but one step better than an email or text message. until 5 february, if you buy any two cards in my shop, i'll send along an extra random one for free. good for writing to someone to let them know what you've been up to & how ace you think they are.

january goal

i have to say, i'm doing quite nicely with my 2011 to do list so far. made a start on quite a few items, & have even scored off #19 after a quick trip to london with my boyfriend at the weekend. wonderful! however, something i didn't mention when noting my 25 things to do on my blog was that as well as that list, i've also set myself monthly goals. this month's: buy nothing for myself.

i've made an attempt to be a much more conscious shopper of late. i've completely avoided the big guns in terms of supermarkets over the last few months (screw you tesco!) & in perhaps the last half year have bought one item of clothing from a high street chain. i'm hoping to continue these shopping habits in 2011 & beyond, & thought i'd start the year by buying no new things for myself, with the exception of food/art materials/toiletries (all of which i'm trying to buy sensibly/sustainably).

so far, so good! there have been a few temptations in the form of hand-made goodness, but rather than buying things that i know i don't really need i got excited about buying my first tube of 100% natural toothpaste (i know, what a loser). i've also not made up a mental list of all the things i want to buy come the start of february, pat on the back for me. one of the things on my to do list was to buy a plant every month, but rather than buying one, i got a cutting from a co-worker's plant which will hopefully survive our office environment. best things in life are free!

hopefully all of the above doesn't sounds terribly arrogant. i'm in no way perfect in my shopping habits but this is a topic that interests me. if it perhaps makes people question what's right for them then i don't think it's a bad thing.

ps. instances such as gap ripping off gemma correll only cement my decision to avoid the high street.

portrait

drawing-wise, i ended the past couple of years with a self portrait. kind of a way to see some sort of progression perhaps. i was a little late with producing it this time around (no time on new year's eve!), but better late than never.

2009, 2008.

& just before it ends: you can get 10% off everything in my shop until 8 january. enter the coupon code HAPPYNEWYEAR at checkout. go!

flossing

i know that as an adult i shouldn't need a reminder when it comes to flossing. however, some of us like lists, charts & little notes of encouragement. in hopes of helping with goal #13 on my 25 things list, i've made a flossing chart (inspired by eerika's creativity chart). a copy will hang in my bathroom - laminated - & i'll score off the days as i go. my dentist would be so proud (though probably more likely think me a weirdo).

ps. if you use the code HAPPYNEWYEAR in my etsy shop, you'll get 10% off your purchase if you order before 8 january. only a few days left!