Sunday, December 12, 2010

London Santacon 2010


Time for some more Christmas cheer: Namely the Christmas cheer that was spread all over London yesterday by the participants of the 10th annual London Santacon. Hundreds and hundreds of Santae gathered at Trafalgar Square having marched through London, giving out free Santa Hugs, sweets and brussel sprouts to the unsuspecting public, singing their very own 'special' Christmas carols on the way. Lucy and I managed to find ourselves in the midst of the chaos that ensued...!







Now, if that doesn't make you feel Christmassy, I should imagine there's not much hope left for you!

We also took a trip to the Super Christmas Market at Somerset House for some last minute gift buying, sadly, in comparison to previous years there was nowhere near as many gift stalls, and only a handful of interactive stands, each with rather large queues, so was a little bit of a let down. The Santa's more than made up for it though!

My Christmas shopping is now complete, so I can now move on to my age old tradition of wrapping in front of Home Alone! So very excited! I'll be inducting Lucy to my wrapping regime this week, cant wait to see the living room covered in a mass of gifts, wrapping paper, ribbons and tags!
x

Sunday, December 05, 2010

20 days to go...


Little by little I'm managing to cross things off my monstrous pre-Christmas to do list. Today, I'm crossing off Christmas cards: The making of - not the writing of, sadly! That's a job for this evening!


I made a set of five cards, the concept being that Christmas is the perfect antidote to any bad mood, and that all those little christmassy bits and bobs can turn even the hardest of scrouges!


So yes, very glad to have these done and dusted. I'm feeling even more Christmassy today... I wonder if i'll reach the limit of Christmassy-ness soon, or if I'm just going to keep going and going? I think the latter is more probable. Last night was our annual Christmas Party complete with mulled cider and legendary onion soup, we even cracked open a tin of Quality Streets, which is probably the reason for my topped up Christmas levels today. Yes, I am aware that I have now said 'Christmas' 9 times in this post...! See! I told you: OBSESSED!!

x

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Christmas is coming...

Christmas can never come quick enough in my book, and so with only 20-something days left to go, I'm feeling a little bit giddy! I've been super organised this year - only have 3 more gifts to buy and my wrapping to do, and it's not even December yet!

With it being Paul and my first christmas since we've moved in together, we've had the added bonus excitement of getting our first tree. It's a rather small little number, but it does the job rather well. We've been decorating the tree using only handmade decorations, it's not quite finished yet: I'll need to make a few more pompoms, and am planning on making a second reindeer, but here's what we have so far:



The reindeer was made from this lovely little pattern here, and the angel/fairy tree topper was a pattern I made up myself. If anyone would like the pattern, let me know and I'll put it up here.
I've also almost finished my annual batch of christmas stockings: a big achievement as these are normally a very last minute job! I just need to fill them now!


If only Christmas wasn't so cold! The heating in this old house is not standing up to the frost weather outside. Time for another jumper and a hot water bottle!


x

Saturday, November 27, 2010

A lion & a giraffe...


A friend of mine is running a pub quiz night in London and asked me to design a poster to promote his very first night on the 9th December. If you're going to be in the area, do pop along, it's bound to be a good'un.


In other wildlife news, check out this rather lovely giraffe scarf (which rhymes in my southern accent, not so much in Paul's northern drawl...!). I picked it up this weekend at a gift fair in town whilst Christmas shopping. And speaking of Christmas shopping, I really must get on with it!

x

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Old & New


I recently had another commission for Insite, (the New Civil Engineer's education supplement) published. This time the brief was Wembley Stadium - Old & New. I received my copy in the post this week. Coincidentally enough I was lucky enough to be treated to hospitality tickets to an international game at the stadium just a week after receiving the brief!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Birthdays



Just a couple of birthday cards from September - one for Paul, and the other for a Vivienne Westwood obsessed friend. Sadly, i've got printer/scanner/copier issues, so these cards ever actually made it into physical existence, and still remain as an intangible muddle of pixels and megabytes, but I'll be sure that the birthday boy & girl eventually gets their cards when I'm back up and running.

Am seriously missing scanning capabilities now! Can anyone recommend a decent all-in-one replacement printer - all suggestions will be gratefully received!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I am not a patient person...


Bank holiday weekend involved lots of shopping - car shopping! A very fun (and expensive) kind of shopping. And now the waiting begins.

As I'm not very patient, I've taken to drawing my nice new shiny car in the hopes that it might make it arrive that little bit quicker... probably not going to happen...!

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend too. 3 day weekends make such a huge difference don't they?!

Monday, August 23, 2010

مرحبا


Merhaba! I am back from super sunny Turkey having had a really very excellent time, and although it's been rather rainy and miserable back home, I'm not missing the 46 degree heat too much...! I've never experienced heat quite like it, but it was the perfect excuse to do absolutely nothing and relax, in a rather indulgent fashion every day! And also, of course, to sample many a cocktail to cool one's self down on an evening!

And now it's back to the real world - plenty to catch up on, but will be back here soon with any luck...!

Friday, August 06, 2010

We're all going on a...


Holiday time is here again! I'll be flying off to sunny Bodrum tomorrow and I really can't wait! A week of sunshine, seasides and super relaxation is exactly what I'm in the mood for! So, with only 1 more sleep, the countdown has begun!
I'll be back in a week's time!
x

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Housewarming


Now, we haven't quite had time for a housewarming party, but I have just about squeezed in the time to make the invitations! As soon as the last few boxes have been unpacked, and we're on top of the washing (having had no washing machine for 2 weeks), it will be party time!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Keep on Trucking








This weekend was Truck Festival which of course meant the annual monster production line for Lucy and I. We managed to leave it all a little last minute... (we were still attaching lanyards in the car on the way there on Friday night!) but we got there in the end, and the little blighters sold out yet again within a couple of hours!

After all that hard work, we concentrated our efforts into relaxing in the campsite on friday night with a picnic and a drink or two, before having the pleasure of seeing some of the music on the Saturday - Stornoway of course being the highlight! A very nice end to a very busy week!











x.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Grazing



My first Graze order arrived on my desk this morning, and really do have to shout about it! Graze is a great little company who deliver 4 punnets of nutritionally balanced natural treats, personalised to your tastes by post, straight to your desk for you to nibble at while you're at work! Yummy! I particularly recommend the honeycomb flapjacks, and the funky gibbon (milk chocolate puffed rice, cashews and banana).

You can even have a box and a half free when you follow THIS LINK!

I've brought my box home to keep me going whilst making another pile of monsters for Truck. If you're heading down to the festival this weekend, hope you have a super time!
x.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Moving slowly...




So the reason I've been rather absent of late is a good one: I've moved house! I'm making my excuses from beneath a pile of empty flat-pack boxes and there's still a pile of things to do, we've no internet, no washing machine, and so on and so on, but we're getting there. Slowly!

x.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Tales Of Montréal


Even though I only have a slight whiff of jet-lag left lingering around me, my trip to Montréal still feels like yesterday!

The world is such a cruel place where a job can make a whole 5 days disappear into what feels like 30 seconds... But still, 5 days later, and I've managed to find time to slip in a whistle stop (more photos, less words...!) post about my recent travels!

So, here goes: 10 Tales Of Montreal... (in no particular order)

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1. Casa Del Popolo & La Salla Rossa
These two bars/restaurants/venues are the source of some great nights out for Mile Enders - beautiful settings and great music. They also have some very pretty posters: screen printed and pinned to almost every lamp post around Plateau.

2. Local 23 & General 54
Two great thrift stores with some wonderfully eccentric merchandising and interior décor! Vintage clothing along with local music, and yet more screen printed delights! Definitely worth a visit at 23 Bernard W.

3. I really can't remember the name of this store, but I'll be sure to add it in as soon as someone can jog my memory! It was expensive, but in a justifiable way: in that everything inside was beautiful and 100% desirable! intriguing old globes and maps, fabric picture frames, letterpress artifacts and some very whimsical furniture. As soon as I win the lottery, I'll head here first!

4. Distroboto
Distroboto machines are old cigarette machines that now sell all kinds of art, film and music etc. For $2, you can take home your very own masterpiece! And even better, as long as your artwork fits within the size restrictions, you can mail it in to be sold in one of the 9 Distrobotos across town!

5. Monastiraki
A gallery/shop/studio/museum extraordinaire! Monastiraki sells heaps of crafty bits and bobs, paper ephemera, posters, zines, antiques, local artwork and so on. A place to spend hours scouring the shelves uncovering more and more little treasures as you go!

6. Drawn & Quarterly
The notorious outlet for the Québec based publishing house. A veritable cavern of artists books, zines, comics, journals alongside classic literature and independent magazines. D&Q also run screen printing and lino printing workshops in-house.

7. Poutine!
Poutine is a classic Montréal dish. Fries, gravy and cheese curds is the staple base, with the more recent addition of, well, pretty much anything! Poutine is in fact so popular, that even the Quebecois fast food restaurants have acquired the dish for their menus! And don't worry, it tastes a whole lot better that it looks, and sounds!

8. Montréal Festival Folk Sur Le Canal
A very lovely day out by the scenic Lachiene Canal in the industrial grounds of the St Ambroise Brewery. Very much enjoyed sipping my apricot beer to the sounds of Anais Mitchell, Lake of Stew and Kathleen Edwards.

Then of course there's the typical tourist-type action!

9. Biosphère
This was mainly geared for children, but due to it's setting in the middle of Parc Jean Drapeau, it's magnificent spherical stature, and the amazing views over montreal from the 5th floor platform, there's plenty to wow your average 25 year old tourist with!

10. La Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal
Possibly the most beautiful church I've seen, the alter is full of the most spectacular detail, and the blue lighting is somewhat reminiscent of Baz Lurman's Romeo and Juliet. The kind of place that will completely throw you, and make you want to go back, just to make sure you didn't just dream it up!

Ok, so more words than I had originally planned, and still not enough to mention Parc Mount Royal and Tam Tams, the Yiddish Musical, the opening of the jazz festival or La Fête de la St-Jean. Or Benjamin! My very kind host for the week! It was lovely to see both Ben and Montréal. Now all I have to do is get back on Greenwich Mean Time...!

x.