Button ring

James bought me this cool, knitted ring to cheer me up as I've been feeling down lately.
It combines two of my favourite things- a big, bold ring, and a funky button! Because of the way the button is cut, it sparkles in the light too as you can see in the top photo. Thanks James x

Mermaid revisited

This is a mermaid illustration I did last autumn. I was very pleased with her but didn't really work on the background. Today I've done the sea and the seaweed at the bottom. I don't usually like revisiting old work but she deserved an environment to live in. I think she's ready to go on my website now.

Retro Boutique

Just look at this *fabulous* shop! James and I discovered Retro Boutique at the weekend. It's a big shop on Hyde Park Corner in Leeds (for anyone who may want to visit.) I'm a total sucker for retro and vintage shops, and if someone slaps the word 'vintage' on anything it instantly looks 10 times more attractive to me! I think a lot of shops know this trick now, so finding a genuine vintage shop is a treat. Everything was set out beautifully with gorgeous furniture and clothes, fabrics and jewellery. Delicious.

Before and after

I did these card designs which I was happy with but after talking to the very helpful Penny, I decided to re-design them to make sure more of the 'action' was happening in the top third of the cards. I think the designs below are ready to be sent out to publishers now.

Ideas

Here are two card ideas with the same girl but different coloured outfits. I need to put text on them so that they'll be ready to send out but apart from that they're finished. Think I prefer the red and pink girl myself. Bright pink is my favourite colour to use in my work and yet I would never ever wear anything in any shade of pink! It's just not me. Weird.

Sally Go Round the Sun

Sally Go Round the Sun is a children's rhyme book I found in Oxfam. It is illustrated by a Venetian man called Carlos Marchiori and the book was printed in 1969.
The illustrations are so cool and I've been meaning to put them on my blog for ages. All the illustrations look like prints (not sure exactly how they were done) and there are quite a few thumb prints that the illustrator has used in his work. The heads of the clowns at the circus with the elephant above them are all made of thumb prints. Most of the illustrations use a maximum of 3 colours which is something I really like and would love to be able to do myself.
The book itself has lots of rhymes and songs in it, a lot of which would probably not be allowed to be published today! Many of the rhymes are really silly or weird or mean...I can't see any of these being published now!
Fatty, Fatty, two by four,
Couldn't get through the bathroom door!

Peter and Paul and Pinch Me
Went down to the beach to bathe.
Peter and Paul were drowned,
And who do you think was saved?
- Pinch me.

Ice cream and jelly
And a punch in the belly.

Open your mouth and shut your eyes
And I'll give you something to make you wise.

Look at all these red and pink buttons that arrived today from Ebay! I love buttons and have a few craft projects in mind for these. They were a bargain at £2 for over 150!