How green was my valley?

Very Green! We're just back from a spectacular week in North Wales. Lots of mountains, forests, lakes - such a great getaway and I found some great monster forest inspiration! There's so many photos, it'll be weeks before I search through them, but here's a few for your morning coffee! p.s. extra special mention for the cartoon mushroom in the last photo (red top, white base and spots... I thought they were fictional until we stumbled upon this little fellow and the rest of his family in the forest!).

Postcard from Snowdon

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) is incredible. We took the last photo from our iPhone and it looks just like a postcard ...but we were there, honest!

Book News!

I am SO proud to announce that I will be illustrating my first picture book with the wonderfully talented children's book author Tiffany Strelitz Haber!! 

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am - Tiffany is brilliant, and it's such an incredible book! The working title is "The Onster" and it's a wonderfully funny and touching story about a monster who loses his "M", telling the tale of how, sometimes, when things get lost, even bigger and better things can be found. 

It's going to be published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, and the expected release date is Fall 2012. I'm so proud to have been asked to illustrate and I can't wait to tell you more, so please keep checking back for other news and updates! I can't wait for you to see it! 

p.s. Make sure you check out Tiffany's website and author facebook page! 
p.p.s Extra special thanks to my agent, Teresa Kietlinski at Prospect Agency for making this happen! 

Happy Easter everyone! xx

It's my party....

It was my birthday yesterday, and my mum and dad sent me this amazing card with all these old photos of me on it (in this example, I'm the one on the right). Check out my socks, sandals, my amazing outfit and my personal favourite, the blue "Care Bears" watch. My sister is the rather unhappy looking one on the left. I don't think she took well to my lesson on the importance of picture books and reading and all that....

Cream Tea

Yum.

The aforementioned fiance...

This is him hobbling away after I hit him with a snowball (giggle). You can see how pleased I am with myself.

no, it's not Narnia...

...or iceland even! We found this icy landscape high up in the brecon beacons.

Engaged!

Okay - so now you know why I've been so quiet. After five years together, my partner Jonathan proposed to me whilst we were staying with our 4 best friends in Wales on NYE 2009. At 11:45pm and during a game of homemade "pictionary" he drew a ring, turned to me in front of all our friends and asked me to marry him, and I, in my new years dress, a black lace glove and bright red lipstick, graciously accepted. Hip, hip, hoorah!

Pencil Pocket @ Cargo

I've got a little selection of recent work up at Cargo. Check it out: here.

Congratulations Rebecca & Mark!

Two of our closest friends in the world got married this weekend... Congratulations guys!! The wedding was gorgeous, and they're so clever they managed to do pretty much everything themselves; flowers, invites, cake, fascinators, bridesmaids outfits. It was beautiful. I was so proud to be a part of it. Here's our little handmade wedding card and a few snaps from my camera. Bear with me, there might be just another post or two to come on this. I'm so chuffed for them - it's all I can think about today. Ahhh ;)

Giant inflatable swan

How fun! But I need a swan... then a pool... and then some Louboutins to make this a reality.
[via oh joy. photo styled by emily mcgregor]

Wedding cake birds

One of my best friends is getting married this autumn, and I'd been rooting around for all things wedding to try and help. I have to share this delightful bird cake topper project from peoniesandpolaroids. Gorgeous!

Coffee cake

We made this cake on the weekend. It really isn't going to last long. My excuse is that it keeps my energy levels up, before and after drawing sessions...   ...oh come on, Kirstie...   you're not fooling anyone.

P.S. ...

Aren't edible letters just great...? Happy Weekend!

Baking for Wales

Visiting home this weekend, so I thought I'd take some treats...

Scallop detail

Scallop shapes are cropping up all over the place. I love this scallop detail top from Jaeger (left). So pretty. I want [sigh]. 

Beer Bottle Fame

Vedett, the Belgian beer company, are looking for people to feature on their beer bottles, for distribution around Belgium, and I couldn't help myself. Jonathan is famous! www.vedett.com

More Bank Holiday Adventures

A very enjoyable trip to the V&A Museum of Childhood, London. It's free, and all very well presented so definitely worth a visit. We bought ourselves a charming mechanical penguin (this weeks' 'credit-crunch friendly' under £5 purchase) and ended a great afternoon enjoying a very nice beer in a very nice glass from a bar in Hyde Park with our friends.

Bank Holiday Rambling

Beautiful day. We took a picnic and headed out into the thick of Chislehurst... and guess what - we live right in front of a massive nature reserve. How we've never noticed this before I don't know, but what a great treat! Topped it all off with a fine BBQ too. The perfect bank holiday.

To Bumble and Maesey

The cutest ducklings ever.