Wedding Bells

Our friends are getting married this weekend - Congratulations Chloe & Andy!! There's a nice little story behind how they met too... Chloe is one of my friends, and Andy is one of Jonathans'.... so about 3 years ago, after accidentally writing their names together on the invite list, Jonathan and I shamelessly went about trying to set them up at my moroccan-themed birthday dinner (belly dancers included)! It worked - we ended up chaperoning their first date a week later and they've been together ever since... they've even beaten us down the aisle! ;-) Aww. It's very nice to see them graduate from our highly successsful school of matchmaking! Here's a little peek at our card:

Animals

Frustrated

A little colour test for a project I'm working on. I'm so sorry the blog has been so quiet lately - it will be woken up from it's hibernation very soon, with some exciting new bits! Promise!

Nancy

Nancy makes jewellery.... and it's her birthday on Sunday ;-)

Ahead

Quick one for illustration friday :) Have a lovely weekend all!

Birthdays

It's a big birthday for my little sis this weekend. She's turning 21 and we're off to Wales to celebrate with her - hurrah! It's been a while since I've seen her (or my other brother and sister for that matter), so I'm very excitable today! Happy Birthday little sis!


Ooh, and if you're ever in Wales, don't forget to pick up some welsh cakes! (click here for some background). They're our best kept secret - I can't seem to find them anywhere in London!

(welshcakes by zingyyellow via flickr)

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....

Expired

The sandwich was most definitely off...

Subterranean...

Brave

Beaver's Birthday

Ok, so I know it's a teeny tiny bit of a stretch, but from Beaver's 'perspective', the cake looked very tasty...


(Happy birthday Mark!)

R is for....

...Ralph!

Elisha in the garden

Elisha was teaching cat how to propagate the plants...

the monkey that didn't make it in...

(from Thomas' pirates illustration). The bottom version made it, but it'd be a shame to waste the other little guy...

Red Riding

Confined

Boy told monster not to leave the box...

Monsters

Getting back into the work groove with some hairy, scary monsters...

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!

A cowboy and a pirate

Thought you might enjoy seeing these two 10 x 12 portraits commissioned for my best friends nephews... I'd like you to meet cowboy jojo and his rather adventurous bro, pirate thomas... :)

Merry Christm"aargh"s!

Happy holidays everyone! No, I've not been kidnapped, I didn't trip over the fairy lights, or fall through a hole in the snow... I'm still here! Hurrah! Hope you have a super Christmas break. Thanks so much for sticking with me. I'm looking forward to sharing lots of new work here in the new year.... :)

Music

My other half only does the hoovering if he can listen to music too....

Boys and cars

Who knew that drawing a Scalextric track would be so time consuming...!

Unbalanced

TV goes 3D

TV goes 3D next week on Channel 4. Sainsbury's is handing out those free card glasses - so I picked up a pair for Beaver and mouse, and they seem to be enjoying themselves...

Blur

Bear and beaver got some really blurry pictures from their new camera....

R is for a raccoon caught in the rain...