2012 in review

Wow what a year! I think this year must have been my most momentous year so far! I just can't believe how many wonderful things have happened.

JANUARY

I saw my first piece of published work in a book shop.  I finished off work for 'I am a Witch's Cat' and prepared for my upcoming exhibition.  I made a new blog header.  I drew Victoria Stitch as a baby.  We watched Ladyhawke and ate vegetable pie. 

FEBRUARY

I had my MA exhibition at Foyles in London. I made a ballerina for Sian.  We ate chinese food in Chinatown with my grandmother and uncles. We made pancakes for pancake day.  I made Henry a tiny illustrated book for Valentines day.  It snowed.

MARCH

Henry and I both had our birthdays.  I made him a Zelda cake and we had friends round for dinner. We also went to Dubai! I discovered the 'rainbow' drink (avocado, mango and strawberry-yum). We went cycling in Safa park, swimming in the sea, visited the aquarium, watched the dancing fountains from a french restaurant, ate shark, went to Wild Wadi water park, did lots of reading and marvelled at the jewellery in the gold souk.

APRIL

I went back to Dubai with my family and cousin who was getting married. We talked a lot about weddings.  I got a book deal!!!  I finished a gothic-themed commission. I did some sample 2d illustration work to show to publishers.

MAY

We went to France for a few days for a friends wedding which was spectacular. We ate lot of cheese and cherries. I began re working on 'I am a Witch's cat' book.  I got a new camera! We went to a barn dance for my uncle's 50th.

JUNE

I did lots of re-photographing for my 'I am a Witch's cat' book. I began to get back into sewing. There were lots of Jubilee celebrations. I went to the V&A in London and did drawing with Sian. I dyed the tips of my my hair blue and got the nickname 'ice queen' for a week. 

JULY

Henry and I went to Yorkshire with his Dad and Gran. We visited holiday places from his childhood, went to a run down miniature village, Visited Whitby, ate fish and chips and visited a sea life centre. I began to get the first inkling of an idea for a new novel.

AUGUST

I made two sparkly dancing girl illustrations. I met up with some friends and we looked at all our old childhood toys. I did lots of swimming with Rebecca.  I begged Henry to agree to go on holiday to Turkey (haha!) 

SEPTEMBER

Henry and I went to Turkey with his mother! We ate out a lot, had a Turkish bath, visited Icmeler, swam in the sea a lot, went on a boat trip, lay on sunbeds and ate ice cream. Celestine was created. Also I went to Miniatura in Birmingham and discovered the wonderful work of Ursula Sturmer: Miniature Jeweller.

OCTOBER

Henry and I held our long planned for Pumpkin dinner party.  I created my pumpkin house picture and made lots of tiny Halloween outfits for Celestine.  Henry bought me a fancy witch's hat.  I went on lots of walks. We visited Oxford for the day and I discovered a beautiful fairytale book illustrated by Su Blackwell.

NOVEMBER

I got an agent! We celebrated thanksgiving. Celestine did some baking.  I created a new blog header. We went to see the fireworks. Henry and I passed the three-years-of-being-together mark. We visited Henry's family in Nottingham and Derby where I found some tiny buttons and loads of exciting fabrics. I did an assembly!

DECEMBER

Henry and I got engaged! I went to Dubai for Christmas and saw all my family together which was lovely. We had a wonderful pre Christmas dinner/party at Dave's house with my closest friends. We also had two more 'Christmas's- one with Henry's mum and one with his Dad and Gran. I made sparkling fairies with the children at the Christmas fair. I created my Victoria Stitch sleigh picture and sent out some Victoria Stitch christmas cards. All with lots of glitter.

So yes, 2012 has been a wonderful year for me!  I hope yours has too!

My resolution/goal for 2013 is to really try and earn enough money to be a full time illustrator without needing another income.  This should hopefully be possible now I have an agent but we will have to see! I feel like this year has been slightly relaxed in the illustration area but it was probably a relaxation that was needed after five and a half years of studying!  I mean I have been doing illustration work and of course I have my book deals to work on etc but I haven't been working quite as intensely as I was before. I think this was down to being a bit in limbo after finishing my MA, getting used to working from home and the fact that I haven't had quite enough work to fill my time. Now that I have an agent I have seen that this has already begun to change and my schedule is already pretty busy for the next few months.  So here's to a busy 2013!

Do you have any New Years resolutions?

Also...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

p.s: 2010 review here and 2011 review here.

An offer I couldn't refuse...

Henry and I are ENGAGED!!!

I wanted to write about this a bit earlier than now but everything got so busy in the run up to Christmas that I didn't have time! Still I am writing it now, mainly so that I don't forget the details.  Feel free to skip this post as it may get rather long!

So last Friday- which was the 21st of December- midwinters day, I was working away in my room as normal trying to get a sketch done for a publisher by midday. Henry kept coming in asking when I was going to have lunch and I kept saying 'I just have to get this done, I just need to send it off before I eat lunch.'  So Henry went and ate his lunch and I finished my sketch and sent it off and then went downstairs to eat lunch myself.

As I was eating my brother came in and asked me to come and look at this music video he was working on. So when I finished eating I went upstairs to take a look. I was sitting in front of the computer with headphones on watching the video when the phone rang.  My brother ran downstairs to get it. Then he ran back up again and said 'I think it's for you Harriet.' I went downstairs to get it and the phone was sitting in the middle of the floor on top of a wrapped present and a card which said 'Harriet open this now!'

I opened the card which contained two ten pound notes and said something along the lines of 'don't bother looking for me but open this present now, you're against the clock, from Henry'

I opened the present and it was a little wooden chest that Henry had painted with black and white stripes and had a picture of us together on the top in a heart shape.  It was locked so I couldn't open it but attached to the side was a bit of paper with a web address on it.

I typed the web address into the computer and a youtube video came up. It was a video that Henry had compiled of pictures with comments from all our time together.  It was lovely to watch although I'll admit it did make me tear up a little bit- probably because the first half of it was set to 'the power of love.'  The second half if you're interested was to the snowman theme song which is my favourite song!

Towards the end of the video, among all the other pictures, there was a photo of a key inside a nintendo game case.  I had to go upstairs and find the case the key was in and then open the stripy box with it.  I actually had to force the box open with a knife in the end as the paint had jammed it all together!

When I got the box open I saw that inside there was an origami paper rose made from a map which Henry had printed out.  The map was of the place where Henry and I really like to go walking.  In the middle of the map/rose was one ruby heart earring.  There was also a note which said 'Be ready at the end of the drive at 2.20pm with your coat and wellies and Celestine.  Also there is a little present in my sock drawer for you- go and find it.'  In the rush to get ready and put on some make up and Celestine etc I actually forgot to go and get the present out of the sock drawer. (which I found out later was Henry's MP3 player with some music on it for me to listen to and some novelty reindeer earphones) 

When I got outside I saw that Henry's car (the car he had borrowed from his Gran for the week) had gone from the drive. I naturally thought 'oh he must be coming to pick me up to go somewhere at 2.20,' so imagine my surprise when a taxi pulled up outside the house!

After a discussion with the taxi driver about whether the taxi was for me or not (it was) and where we were going (I had no idea and nor did he so he had to ring the taxi office and ask) we were on our way.  I found out that we were going to Pegsdon hill- the place on the map.  Whilst we were driving along I studied the map more closely and noticed that Henry had drawn a picture of a bench and a cross on the map.  I recognized that the bench was the one that we like to sit on sometimes when we walk there.  As we drove along I chatted with the taxi driver who seemed very bemused by the situation.

When we arrived at Pegsdon hill I got out and paid the taxi driver with the money from the card (good job I remembered that!) and then began to walk up the hill, past all the sheep towards the bench. I could sort of see Henry up there though he was only a tiny speck.  I walked the direct way so the hills were very steep and as I was fast I was a little puffed out by the time I got there!

(Henry thoughtfully thought to bring a camera! He took photo's of me as I got closer and closer. In some of them I am just a tiny speck.)

When I got to the bench I saw that Henry had put a white napkin on it and there were two cups of hot ginger tea from a flask. (my favourite tea) In the middle of the napkin was Celestine's Christmas tree which Henry must have whisked from my room without me noticing. Underneath the miniature tree were five tiny miniature presents. Seriously my heart skipped a beat! You know I love anything miniature! Also on the bench was a candle in a lantern, some star fairylights and a big silver box.

Henry (who had also changed into some smarter clothes from the ones he had been wearing earlier) told me to open the bigger silver box first.  Inside there were m&ms, magic stars and lots of different hand picked chocolate truffles from the chocolate shop.  Henry knows that I adore chocolate truffles- they're my favourite.

Then Celestine/I had to open the tiny presents underneath the miniature tree. Inside the first one there was a tiny silver star necklace. Inside the second there was a tiny gold chain. And inside the third one where was a miniature pair of scissors that actually open and close. These were all presents for Celestine of course. She's done pretty well out of this proposal I must say!  And then inside the fourth tiny present there was the other ruby earring. I love the fact that Celestine received miniature jewellery at the same time I relieved real life jewellery!

Then I got to the fifth, gold box which Henry had said to open last.  I opened it and inside was... nothing! Ha ha very funny Henry! But then he gave me a letter which he had written back in March sometime saying how he was planning for us to both be on Pegsdon hill at this time (well it was actually supposed to be Christmas day originally but then plans had to change as I found out I was going away for Christmas) and then a lot of other nice stuff. It was nice to know that he had been planning this for so long! Then he actually got down on one knee (after putting a plastic bag under it as it was muddy) and proposed to me with a ruby heart ring.  The ruby ring and earrings were actually ones I had seen and loved whilst we were out in Dubai in March. I always wanted to have a ruby heart engagement ring ever since I was little! I like the idea of a ruby heart.

Anyway the whole day was actually perfect. I can't actually think of a more perfect day in my life so far. There I was just having a normal day like any other and then I was suddenly swept along on this what seemed like magical treasure hunt!

We walked back down the hill together after a while as it was getting quite cold and Henry explained to me how he had snuck off to buy the ring and earrings one day in Dubai when we were in the mall. I remember the time because it was the day we went to the aquarium. We met my mum afterwards who had been shopping but Henry said he had a stomach ache and needed the toilet so we waited for him.  We were waiting ages and thought that he must have quite a stomach upset!  Little did we know he had snuck off to the gold souk to get the ring and earrings!

In the evening (of our engagemet) we went out for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant that Henry had discovered and booked.  It was really good. We both love Lebanese food a lot! We plan to go back there again.

So yes that's the story! Well done if you've read this far! I just wanted to get it down on paper really so that I can remember the details and then thought I may as well share it on my blog as I think it makes quite a good story what with the treasure hunt and everything.

I am very happy :)

Have a GLITTERING Christmas from Victoria Stich

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The Night Before Christmas

My favourite version of The Night Before Christmas is illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa.  I just absolutely love her artwork- especially the way she draws reindeer with spindly delicate legs. I also really like the colours she uses and the softness of the illustrations. To me these pictures are just beautiful.  Unfortunately I was unable to scan any of the double page spreads as I don't have an A3 scanner but I think you can still see the beauty and detail of the illustrations from the single pages I have copied. 

What do you think of them? Are these illustrations your cup of tea? Or do you have your own favourite version of 'The Night Before Christmas'? I'd be interested to know- I always love to discover new books!

More Christmas...

Last week Celestine decorated her tree.  I made all the little baubles by covering bead in pva glue and them coating them in glitter. Then I glued a bit of wire onto each bead so that they could be attached to the tree.  It worked well and the fairy lights set the whole thing off nicely. The star at the top is a bit of an anticlimax but I ran out of time to make anything else.  Ideally I would have made a miniature angel to go on the top. Maybe next year!

We also made a gingerbread house last week which was fun. Well, we decorated it at least. My friend Nicola came round with a kit where all the bits were already cut out and baked so we only had to assemble it. I am a fan of making things from scratch but I've made a gingerbread house from scratch before and it took literally hours! If you're juts doing it as a fun evening activity with a friend then I think getting the ready-to-assemble kits are the way to go!

This weekend Henry and I went up to Nottingham and Derby to see his parents. We had a mini Christmas celebration with his mum and also with his dad and grandmother.  So that was two big Christmas dinners in two days with presents and crackers and everything. It was extremely festive!  I got a beautiful sparkly charm bracelet from his mum and some chocolate truffles and spotted ladybird fleece suit from his dad and gran among other things.  We listened to Christmas music and ate mince pies and watched Christmas things on the television. It felt like actual Christmas day! It was nice especially because Henry and I are going to be apart on the 25th.

I brought up some of my sparkly fairies for Henry's mum's tree as you can see below.  I like the way the light shines through the wings. 

Now I'm back home and I have a week of work ahead of me!  I am hoping to fit in at least a few festive things though...

What Christmassy things have you been doing this weekend?

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