The most excellent fantastic Daisy Hirst!

On Saturday we went to a most excellent fantastic printmaking workshop run by author illustrator Daisy Hirst. It was my first visit to the House of Illustration where the workshop took place, and I felt excited and inspired the moment I stepped in, with it's shop full of beautiful cards and books as well as the gallery filled with beautiful original artwork.

I was a little worried about the length of the workshop (3 hours for a 5/6 year old could go either way!) but he loved it and we made it through without any tears or tantrums, phew! He got stuck in right away and created some lovely prints and we both came away inspired, wanting to carry on doing more at home :)

I loved how we were able to have a real printmaking experience using simple, familiar and safe materials. Daisy was brilliant at planting a seed for an idea which set off the children's imaginations! I loved the village scene she had drawn on huge black sheets of paper, which she then invited the children to print on. Soon the buildings were filled with a whole array of intriguing characters and narratives. 

She shared her sketchbook with us, which was absolutely fascinating! Crammed full of teeny tiny lovely drawings, with each character only measuring about 1-2cm!! 

Below is an A3 sheet of paper which our boy crammed full of dragon and alien sketches today. I imagine they were inspired after seeing Daisy's sketchbook.

We've been reading our (tinily) signed copy of "Alphonse, that is not ok to do!" throughout the day and it's been top pick for their bedtime story 2 nights in a row - the boys LOVE it as do I :)

Carwash

SLEEP seems to be a recurring theme when it comes to illustrating motherhood, especially when you have 2 terrible sleepers :'(

These days we often end up with both of them in our bed, rotating and wriggling non-stop (with Daddy getting booted out) and so I name this new position "The Carwash".

You can find previous sleep positions here and here.

What are you doing H?

I found him casually leaning against the wall with his legs arranged like a no 4, so I asked him,

"What are you doing?" and he replied,

"Being a flamingo". 

Obviously.

I turn my back for 1 second...

...and find him drinking a puddle through a straw.

Wild Bats

I asked my boys what musical instrument they would play if they were in a band. Eldest answered electric guitar, youngest said electric rattle, haha :D

I asked who else was in the band and what's the band's name?

So here are WILD BATS, with Oki and Leon on guitar, Hoshi on electric rattle, Emma on drums and Tom on electric piano. With a name like that I feel like they should appear on stage like this: