and the winner is...

Thank you to all who entered my bag giveaway and left lovely comments!  

I was delighted to send the first of the two screen printed tote bags to caro's cakes, my one hundredth follower, whose blog is well worth checking out for the many delicious looking cakes and recipes gracing its pages!

After giving my favourite yellow hat a thorough shake, and pulling out one of the small bits of folded yellow paper, I can declare that the winner of the second bag is...

Well done Holly!  If you send me a little message with your address details, I'll stick one in the post for you!

taking shape...

Currently designing a piece of wooden bunting for Bristol's forthcoming BUNT exhibition, for Bristol's Big Green Week.  Each wooden triangle, designed by lots of different illustrators, will depict an endangered or threatened species found in the South West.  I have chosen to screen print the Cornish Chough, and am looking forward to giving him a glorious red beak...if I can only get the drawing right!!  I will update you with my progress...(eek).

In other news, it's your last chance to enter my little bag giveaway!  Just post a comment here for your chance to win a hand-screen-printed tote bag.   I will be deeply flattered.

I hope you're all having a glorious sunny day!  I will be getting a taste of the sunshine at the recycling centre (exciting, I know.  It is worrying how much I am looking forward to ousting the huge mound of recycling that has been slowly taking over our kitchen while the car has been out of action.  We cannot move for empty plastic bottles).

STUDIO BAKE DAY

I may have neglected to mention that I've moved into the wonderful little creative hub that is the Drawn in Bristol illustration studio in Stokes Croft (pictures to follow, as soon as I can find room in my bag for my camera!), nestled inside Hamilton House (a big melting-pot inhabited by lots of talented and creative artists, designers, musicians and filmmakers).

One of the lovely ladies on my floor initiated a Bake Day as incentive for her to leave the house and do some work on a Friday.  Well, today the oven gloves were passed over to me, so I thought I'd share a recipe with you (I may have had a helping hand from the Asda mag).

1) Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius (I couldn't find the little circular symbol).

2) Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk for around five minutes, or until the mixture has a thick but light consistency.

3) Mix in the mashed bananas (I used a mixture of slightly spotty, overly-ripe bananas and just-right bananas so that the loaf was flavoursome, but not too over-powering), milk, honey and vanilla extract.

4) Sift in the flour*, cinnamon, ground ginger and baking powder until just combined.

5) Stir in a handful of chocolate chips.

6) Spoon the mixture in a non-stick loaf tin and place in the oven on the middle shelf to bake for one hour, until the loaf is golden brown on top.

7) Put the loaf on a wire rack to cool it down.

8) Enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea.

*The recipe actually specified that the wholemeal flour should be plain, and not self-raising, but I bought the wrong type, and therefore also abandoned the bicarbonate of soda.  It didn't rise terribly well (none of my loaves do), but was perfectly delicious and generous in size!

Also, I was reminded of this today, and thought I would share it with you.

Giveaway!

...Almost!  As a token of my appreciation to all of the current 99 people following my blog (and an apology for being a little bit slack with my updates), I would like to give away two screen printed tote bags featuring the above design (minus the 100 followers bit).  All you have to do is write a nice comment below, and I will randomly pick a number to determine the winner.  The other bag will go to my one hundredth follower.

In other news!  I have been working on lots of exciting things, which, unfortunately, I can't mention yet!  But please keep watching this space and I will update you with some lovely images.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with this feller, to give you a hint as to what my busy hands have been drawing!

my dog tulip

If you're quick, I'd recommend watching My Dog Tulip on the iPlayer; there's something very beautiful about the crudely drawn landscapes, which transition through each British season, and little animated extracts from the main characters notebook, in which his scribbly drawings of his adventures with Tulip come to life.  Light-hearted, short and sweet with some funny (and some rude!) bits.  And beautiful writing from its original author, J. R. Ackerley, too.

printmaking with Trevor Haddrell

I was extremely lucky this month to be given the opportunity of a small masterclass from Bristol's very own Trevor Haddrell (Trevor doesn't have a website, but if you google him, you will get a glimpse of his extraordinary engravings).  Clearly, I am not a natural, but with a bit of work, I am hoping to hone my clumsy vinyl cutting skills  and produce something worth doing something with in the future!

treasure hunting

Hello world! It's been a while, and I do apologise. I drew this colourful fella for a very special lady who gave me the best news I have received all year not so long ago (I'm going to be a bridesmaid!!), so I hope she won't mind if I share him with you. I feel like he should be integrated into an illustration of some sort...watch this space!


Having been in a sullen, sulky mood for most of yesterday, it was a relief to get out of the flat and do some treasure hunting around Bristol's finest second hand book shops and vintage outlets...I'm sure these beauties will come in handy at some point! (You can never have too many flower books, in my opinion.)

Also, I had to by the latest copy of Bone-shaker for this illustration by Rosie Gainsborough...

Little bit in love with her website now, too.


Currently reading: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Currently enjoying: Lizzy Stewart's thoroughly beautiful and entertaining London diary
Currently looking forward to: First Aid Kit at Rise next Wednesday