Sock it to me!

Ever made a sock monkey before? I haven't and i'm totally clueless as to how you can make something quite so cute from a pair of old socks. But never fear there will soon be guidance in the form of Cheeky Monkey Workshops; a new indie biz started by the lovely Jo Sullivan a former Made In Newcastle contributor, and guess whose done their logo - yep yours truly.
I'm honored that Jo thought of me for this, and i had a lot of fun doing it -

Hope you like him. Once the workshops are up and running i'll be sure to point you in their direction so you learn how to craft your very own sock monkey.

Bears

Blimey i'm so busy at the mo I don't have time to think. So i'm simply going to share this new illy with you -

Hopefully next week i'll get a chance to do a more full post, but for now i'll say farewell.

Deer Friends

This new illustration has taken far longer than I wanted it too. Sometimes when i'm developing a piece of work it can be a real battle, especially when things don't quite work out the way I expect them to & have to make more alterations and additions than originally intended. This was one of those pieces.
When an illustration starts taking shape I always have a vision for what the final result will look like, but particularly with my more recent style of working i'm never quite sure where its going to take me & theres often a self doubt period of 'oh shit this isn't going to work'. Perhaps i shouldn't really be sharing this admission, but on the plus side so far though it has worked out and the result is often better than i expected.

Anyway i'm dedicating this piece to my sister Jennifer, whose been going through & has gone through some very tough times. Its just a token to express how I'll always be there and to say thanks to her for being a wonderful role model and influence over the years. Without her I may never have got through my New Kids on The Block phase, and would now probably be listening to James Blunt or something, hahaha. I wish I could make a positive difference to her life as much as she has to mine, and somehow erase all the crap that shes had to contend with, but I can't.
All I can do is say i'm here for you my dear sister and friend -

Mmmmmm

My husband & I were married for one year on Sunday (just gone) and to celebrate rather than go out, seeing as we had a couple of nights in the Lakes the weekend before to celebrate being together for 10 years (now thats a landmark), we made a posh meal at home.
We managed to bag ourselves 2 lobsters for the bargain price of 10 quid.

And made a lobster paella (possibly a little sacrilegious to use lobster like this)...

but it was bloody lovely. This was followed up with the richest chocolate mousse known to man, made from a Nigella Lawson recipe. Look at that selection of healthy ingredients:

Its was amazing but so rich we could only eat half, although you'll notice below that we did have a huge glass full of the stuff as i didn't have anything else to put it in -

We ate the rest last night, and it was even better having been in the fridge overnight - it sort of became like ice cream.

New designs update

So last Friday I blogged about a new image which is going to form one of a series of new greetings cards to replace the current designs in my Etsy & Folksy shops.
The aim is to create cards that are character led, fun and different.
I'm continuing to work on these so this is just a super quick update. First off here is one i've just finished:

And heres one i'm working on. This ones a bit special as i'm dedicating it to someone who means a lot to me.

In addition to new designs I'm also going to rework a couple i did last year and add to the collection.