up'north

up'north

My boyfriend and i spent last week up in north yorkshire with the cows and the sheep, which was rather nice.

On our last night up there, we went to the last night of the proms at Castle Howard: a classical music spectacular if you will.
The rain managed to hold off so that we could enjoy our pic nic and not get soaked whilst waving our flags to the William Tell Overture and other such delights.







And... i couldn't resist - The T Pot!




ey-up, ee-by-gum and all that other northern nonsense!
x.

cooo-eeee!



Its been a much longer time than we anticipated since issue B hit the shelves, but finally-finally- C has arrived.
and its crammed full of lazy soosan goodness. so yes - you know the drill: pick yourself up a copy right here from our etsy shop

and also, for those of you have already bought yourselves a copy; click here for the answers to that practically cryptic crossword...!




x.

hello stranger!

yes, hello stranger!

hope everyone is having a lovely time in the sunshine. thank good-ness that summer is finally upon us.
In other news, i've been shopping. shopping for ribbon. a very good kind of shopping indeed.

be back soon.x

wood

wood

This weekend, lucy and i went to wood festival; a brand-spanking-new, eco-friendly, folk festival celebrating music and nature. fabulous!


As well as live music for entertainment, there were heaps of workshops to participate in; Print making, jewellery making, harmony singing, tai chi, mural painting, aerobics and junk instruments to name but a few.

Lucy and i were most upset, however, to discover that the 'make our own costume and march in a parade' workshop was actually for children...!


What with it being May an' all, and the weather having taken a turn for the worse, it was rather darn cold! So, rather understandably, the campfire became the place to be as the night drew on, and also, the perfect place to start the day feeling a little worse for wear whilst waiting for the workshops and music to begin!


To help minimise any negative effect on the environment, each stage was powered by a different renewable source of energy: the wood stage by solar power, the tree tent by bio diesel (chip fat!) and the most exciting: the magnificent revolution dj/cinema tent was powered by people cycling on a row of bikes lined up at the back of the tent; a perfect way to work off those 'one too many' beer calories!


The eco-friendly self-composting toilets however, weren't quite such a novelty, as you can imagine!

The music was folk-and-country-tastic! best of the weekend though has to be Stornoway and the wonderful Sam Isaac for sure. I downloaded everything they both have available on itunes as soon as i got back, and haven't stopped listening since!



And now we're back in civillisation, although we almost didnt make it out of the field due to my car being stuck in a ditch..! but yes, we're showered, rested and back in the land of the flushing toilet, which will never be taken for-granted again!
And we're doing it all over again in a couple of months at Truck festival! hoorah! roll on July!

x.

dont panic

dont panic



this is my entry for dont panic's monthly 'design the poster' competition, and i would very much appreciate your vote!
so yes, pop along and...

...vote for me!

ta very much!
x.

fan-tastic

fan-tastic


Instead of your average, run-of-the-mill birthday card, i decorated a plain fan from hobby craft for hélène, and it turned out pretty nice. i am now officially a fan, of fans.



x.

museum-o-rama

museum-o-rama

Last weekend, what with it being bank holiday an' all, Louise and i decided to spend the day culturing and educating ourselves by having a museum day. We visited the Natural History Museum, The V & A, and the Science Museum.

At The Natural History Museum we mostly looked at dinosaurs and rocks... lots of rocks... We tried to find the diamonds, went through the centre of the earth and felt an earthquake... We saw birds and a couple of bears and a fat panda, so that was fun!




After that, we crossed the road to the V & A Museum, where we looked at the fashion collection, spent money in the shop, lunched in the courtyard, and moseyed around the Blood on Paper exhibition.



Next, we headed across to the Science Museum. I had forgotten how much fun that place is... especially the launchpad - oh to be ten years old again...!
There was an exhibition on called Plasticity, celebrating 100 years of making plastics, which was rather fantastic!






(We also may have possibly taken a ride on the sponge bob squarepants simulator ride... but probably shouldnt admit to that part...!)

and after all that, we had a nice sit down on the grass watching the people and pigeons come and go... before heading to the pub for a much needed drink.

The End.
hopefully museum day number two will follow shortly...

x.

pay it forward

pay it forward

So yes, i feel like ive been chasing this exchange around for a while, always a little too late to join in the fun, but luckily for me, i managed to catch Lucy's just in time! I recieved my gift today (picture below) which was super lovely so thanks lucy :o) and now, its my turn to say:


I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this pay it forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, which is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.


So yes, comments pleeeaase!


Lucy's handmade gift consisted of a wonderful little pin board, and a lovely little doll. plus there were some sweets thrown in there for good measure! excellent stuff :o)



x.

London Zine Symposium

london zine symposium




Yesterday was the 4th annual London Zine Symposium, held at the old rag factory just off brick lane and Lucy and i decided to head on down there with a bundle of Lazy Soosan's and a positive mental attitude to see how we would fare.

It was absolutely packedto the max with both people and zines. my goodness, i have never seen so many zines! we left our Soosans on the 'individual zine' table, and went and had a look around.. or two.. or three...!



And of course it would have been impossible to not buy anything...


whoops...! but yes. the garden sketchbook is particularly lovely... as is "your face", which you can, and should read about here.

as we were in the area, in the midst of our travels to find a suitable establishment for a spot of lunch, we had a cheeky look round the sunday upmarket and happened across the bobby dazzler stall and i picked up this little beaut:


her tag reads:

"behind this angry little frown is the happyiest, most chirpyest little lassy you could ever have the fortune to meet."
i love her. to bits!

aaand finally, as the weather was pretty darn wonderful this saturday, my boyfriend and i found ourselves searching for a suitable outdoors activity. our conclusion wasnt quite the most conventional, nor the most successful, but never the less it was fun.
We each bought ourselves a model to build, and took our places in the back garden!
I bought this wooden fish... which was rather fiddly (the gills took forever!) but definitely lots of fun to make. Paul built a plane.



and that is that.
back soon :o)
x.

Bb

we're b-b-b-ack!




Lazy soosan is b-a-c-k!!
and issue B looks just wonderful. This time we decided to save ourselves a few hundred hours of manual labour by getting them printed proffessionally this time. We even got a fresh batch of A whipped up too, so both issues are now 100% available! click here for more info. Plus, now that we have our brand new etsy shop it is even easier to pick up a copy!

so yes. hurryhurryhurry while stocks last!

x.

have you heard the news today?

What a funny ol' easter we're having! snow and everything..! I have managed to take some much needed time off from work, and relaxed myself silly, it's been just perfect.

The two images above are from a little project i came up with today. when i am struggling to get the creative juices flowing, from now on, i will reach for my brand-new, never-ending source of inspiration: the local newspaper... of course...! so yes, here are 2 digital illustrations of headlines that made it into this weeks ruislip & northwood gazette.

i hope that everyone is having a lovely easter sunday with infinite amounts of chocolate just waiting to be consumed!

x.

selling soosan...

Since the lanch of The Alphabet Series, I havent had much of a chance to sit still. Lucy and i have been so overwhelmed by the amount of interest that has generated out of... well, out of nowhere really! We certainly did not expect to have orders coming from all over the world, and are extremely excited for the future of our little project! Yesteday we popped into town to give some copies of the zine to 3 of our favourite shops for them to hand out to their customers.


Lazy Soosan's Alphabet Series is now officially available from bookartbookshop (Pitfield Street), magma (Clerkenwell Road), and prick your finger (Globe Road, Bethnal Green) which is all rather exciting. For more details on how to find these shops, head over to the Lazy Soosan blog.

So of course a day spent dashing between these delicious shops is naturally bound to result in multiple purchases, and without further ado, here be the new additions to my bookshelf:


the independent london store guide contains details on hundreds of beautiful, clever, individual, innovative, independent shops throughout London, selling everything you could possibly imagine. ideas illustrated is YCN's new magazine showcasing emerging talent in illustration and image making. very int-er-esting indeed.


Finally, i bought this pretty little fabric broach by hannah waldron. lovely stuff.

And thats about all for now i think...
..ta-ta!
x.

mobile swap

so my mobile for the mobile swap (thanks elsie marley!) was completed just in the nick of time, and is now winging its way off to the wonderful peasandneedles. She said in the application form that her favourtie colours were blue yellow and green but i so wanted to give her something to match her banging red desk, so thats exactly what i did. i decided to combine her love of birds and buttons, so that i could hopefully give her something that she likes! we will have to wait until tomorrow though until it arrives on her doorstep...

fingers crossed...!




x.

love birds

goodness me. i have been in a constant rush for about three weeks now, and still, it does not stop! Soosan has been rather demanding time-wise, and now i need to concentrate my attention on the wonderful mobile swap organised by elsie marley. but in the mean time, heres two little birds the i had forgotten all about!

x.

Lazy Soosan

hoorah hoorah. Lazy Soosan is officially here!
To explain: Lazy Soosan is the name that lucy and i have chosen to produce collaborative work under and The Alphabet Series is the first product of this marvellous partnership.

The Alphabet Series is a 26-page self published art zine dedicated to, yup, you guessed it: the alphabet! For more detailed information please see the Lazy Soosan blog.





Last night we held an official launch party to celebrate and commemorate our first ever issue: A.
There were party rings, sausage rolls and all the other ingredients that make for an excellent party and much fun was had by all. We even had name badges for the occasion. and alphabet cupcakes!






So yes, if you would like to get yourself a copy of The Alphabet Series, then please head on over to Lazy Soosan HQ

enjoy!

x.

so finally, the packaging for my ipod pouches are complete. its taken a while longer than expected due to a lovely little project ive got going on with the wonderful peas and needles that has taken over all my spare time the past few weeks. but it has been most definitely worth it and we will be posting details of it on sunday both here and over here. how very exciting indeed! so come back soon and all will be revealed!

x.

v-day

Happy happy valentines day!