phew!

I made this Christmas stocking for my little boy just in time for Santa, phew!
Happy Christmas!

carrot

Wishing you a magical Christmas and a happy 2013!

This year, my little boy learnt to walk and talk and dance and sing, and is growing and changing each day! He started nursery, which meant for me enjoying a little slice of freedom and getting back to my other love -  making pictures, hooray!
This was one of the first images I made, inspired by a certain carrot loving little boy :)

art & craft sale

I will be having an art & craft sale at my house next Friday. Here's a little flyer I've made for it. 

There will be original artwork, limited edition prints, greeting cards and handmade toys for sale, as well as myself and my boy (not for sale :P) and tea and biscuits, yay!

Please pop in if you're in the area. 
Maybe you can pick up something for Christmas :)
I'm also available for commissions all year round, whether it's personalised greeting cards, original artwork for your child's room, family portraits or handmade toys.

Hope to see you on Friday!

The race

Thinking back to when I was pregnant....this is how it felt going up the slightest incline!

Summer to Autumn

Here's a couple of pics. 

Top: "What I wore today" on an autumn day's walk in the park with my little boy. I know it looks similar to my last one, but I'm just warming up, exercising my cutting and pasting skills after a loooong break, looking after baby. 

Bottom: My two favourite boys on a summer's day outing :)

Oki has started nursery now, which means I get a little slice of my old life back, making pictures again HOORAY! I'm a little overwhelmed by my 2 free (well, not free exactly) days a week, after having no time at all for myself since he was born. There's so much I want to do, I don't know where to begin! So many ideas swimming around in my head...
My little boy is a constant source of inspiration now. Amazing how such a little one can teach me so much :)

GRRRR! Dinosaur jumper

I've completed Oki's second jumper, hooray! This time it's a dinosaur - a fire breathing one who lost an arm in battle! Oki growls when we put it on :D

The lovely buttons are from the fantastic sewing shop Ray Stitch in Islington.

Oki's rainy day jumper is already looking a little short for him. He's grown over 3 inches in the last 3 months so it's no wonder.

In return for his knitted jumpers, Oki gives me these beautiful things.

         

Baby Kanato :)

     

I made these pictures for my friends Rie and Kenji, whose baby boy was born in September. Welcome baby Kanato!

rainy day jumper

HOORAY! I finally managed to finish my Rainy Day Jumper for my little boy :D

I don't know how many attempts it took - he kept on growing and growing, and I kept on making mistakes, so I had to start over.  I loosely followed a jumper pattern and made up my own rainy day pattern. Lots of mistakes but lots and lots of fun, and I'm so happy to finally see him wearing it, even though it will probably only be for one season.

I'm already thinking of his next jumper pattern :)

What I wore today

It's been so long since I've done one of these...almost a year in fact! You can see my last wiwt picture here. 
He was teeny tiny back then. Now my boy is walking, albeit in the style of an orangutan! Today he gifted me with a mammoth 3 hour snooze, so I got busy and made this picture, which made me very happy :)

In my shop...

These little creatures are now in my Etsy shop!

Animal parade

I worked on these cards some time ago for PK Press. Happy to finally receive them in the post, yay :D

new friends

These new felt friends will soon be available in my Etsy shop, along with a few others :)

Jumper!

I finally finished knitting a jumper for my little boy, and typically, it's been much much too hot to even mention the word WOOL without breaking into a sweat these last couple of days. I've started and unravelled so many since he was born last summer, as he grew so quickly that I could never keep up. That, and the fact that I can't seem to follow patterns too well sometimes. It could have something to do with a certain little boy depriving me of sleep since the day he was born :P

I just hope he can still fit into it when the weather becomes a little cooler.

Box 2 - last weekend!

Here are a couple of pictures from Box 2. It's the last weekend coming up, so please pop along if you have the chance. There's a 10% discount on all my stuff, ooooh!

Box 2

I'm taking part in an artists open studio again, this time in Peacehaven, as part of the Brighton festival Open House trail. It's a little bit out of Brighton but well worth the visit. The beautiful studio is set on top of a cliff! I dream of working in a studio like that.

It's called Box 2, at Lighthouse Point, 33 The Highway, Peacehaven BN10 8XL, and will be open every Saturday and Sunday during May 2012.

These little felt toys will be there, along with a few knitted toys, original artwork, limited edition Giclee prints and greeting cards.

And of course, beautiful works by Box 2, Grahame Baker-Smith, Owen Davey and David Ellwand.

New book!

I received copies of my picture book "Trips with my friends" the other day. It's an English reading book for a Korean publisher, and was my last big illustration project I worked on before our little boy was born last summer. It's funny how I'd totally forgotten the madness of this project; 7 spreads illustrated over 7 days, whilst being 7 months pregnant! You can see pictures from my old studio here.


Here's our little boy enjoying the book :)

Pan Macmillan Art Space

Long time no blog...my baby boy has been keeping me busy!
Some happy news! My piece "Being followed" has been selected to be shown at the Pan Macmillan Art Space, hooray :D 
It's not open to the public unfortunately, but if you are a member of staff, or a guest, you'll be able to see it when it launches in March.
Hope you are all keeping warm!!

Lovely things!

Happy new year! I hope you had a good winter break :)
We have some new residents in our house. The moustachioed 2 on the left are by Bobby Dazzler, and the 2 stripy fellows on the right are by the wonderful Donna Wilson. A funny little motley crew to keep us entertained!

I received a surprise package from Japan, which included beautiful handkerchiefs spelling Oki's name in Japanese, and a fantastic book by Bruno Munari. This lovely package was put together by Nishiyama-san from children's book publisher Froebel-kan, who I met in Japan nearly 3 years ago. Oki and I enjoyed the book very much :D

A couple more beautiful picture books we received this Christmas...oooh very inspiring stuff!! It makes me want to make pictures!