Doodles

I've had a welcome week off this week after an exhausting few shifts, which left me physically and emotionally drained! Here are some drawings I did - just good old ink. More to come.

The book is Bambert's book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung, and published by Egmont, as far as I know still in print. It's a quirky and sad book much liked by me, so I decided to illustrate it myself!

( Oh and happy 3rd birthday to my lovely pooch Poppy!)

4 Days Left to Pledge!

Want to see a brand new, independent comic for 9 - 12 year olds, packed with scrumptious words and pictures from emerging and established writers and illustrators? Want the 9 - 12 year olds to be able to come to workshops and see their work in print too?

Yes? Well head on over to the Loaf Magazine People Fund It page and pledge what you can afford (in return for treats). There are four days left to get this project up and running.

No? Then I cannot help you.

Niceties

 I love September. It's my absolute favourite month of the year. The weather is usually golden and lovely, and the air smells nice, with memories of summer but promises of winter. The best month to take the dog for long walks. It's a new year too, really, for everyone going back to school or college. And you know what that means...new stationery! Sharp pencils, fresh exercise books, exciting pencil cases...all things that have made me very happy over the years (and still do!).

Of course my years of official serious studying are over. I still started a new sketchbook though. Seawhites print these for schools, and sell off the ones they do wrong cheaply - I got this one for 25p. The Mister went to Langdon Park School so I was especially pleased with this book! Because it was so cheap I could be breezy, even daring, about the first page.

In other news I spent an  afternoon with a very dear old friend yesterday. And today I made Career Plans. Hurrah for September!

Pugh! Pugh! Barney McGrew! Cuthbert! Dibble! Grubb!

After living in our house for seven months, the Mister and I decided we needed dining chairs. So we headed off to the local secondhand furniture shop. I wanted the funky sixties ones and he wanted the posher-looking ornate ones. I convinced myself I could recover the seats of the posh ones and make them look Indian-y, so I relented.

While the Mister was paying for the chairs, look what I found lurking in a battered box in the corner...

Being a sucker for 3D models and all things retro, these were irresistable to me. The Peter and the Wolf record is in really good condition so I'll give it a whirl when I get a turntable. The Trumpton one looks more scratched though, so I may never actually hear the town clock "telling the time steadily, sensibly, never too quickly, never too slowly", or dance to the three o'clock waltz. (Readers under 35 or from overseas...I haven't gone mad, really...)

The Mister did not share my excitement and was very disapproving of my purchases. I told him he should think himself lucky that he's with the sort of woman who is really happy with two scratched LPs for a mere quid, rather than demanding of spray tans and Jimmy Choos. (And anyway, his chairs are huge and awful and don't fit under the table).

Sleeping

It's been an exhausting few days - mainly through work. But I did have a day in London last week with the Mister, joining some of my lovely uni friends to see the wonderful, talented, inspiring Shaun Tan, who was giving a talk and doing a drawing demonstration here.

Of course we couldn't go to East London without having pie and mash. The incredible Maureen's in Chrisp Street Market was closed but we had almost as nice a lunch at another one round the corner.

It was the day of the opening ceremony of the Paralympics, so East London was filled with important-looking people with badges and pink tracksuits.

Olympic fever is still going strong.

Team GB stand a great chance of gold in the London 2012 Men's Freestyle Sleeping Event.