Celestine Summertime

This weekend was very hot. Celestine spent it lazing about in her own personal swimming pool made from one of those blue ice cream tubs. She drank lots of lemonade and read all her mermaid books. When the weather is like this she wishes she could just have a mermaid tail and live in the sea.

random sidenote- it just popped into my head that I dreamt about turtles last night. I dreamt I found them on the beach and took three home to live in my jewelley box.  How cruel of me!

Anyway, so Celestine did lots of swimming this weekend and so did we. I am lucky to have grandparents who have a swimming pool!  Henry and I have been swimming there every day for the past few days.  On Saturday when we went all my cousins were there too which was fun.  And splashy!

Before that on Saturday, Henry and I went to his work summer party. We wore our straw hats and drank champagne. That evening Henry made Lebanese bread and our friend came round for dinner. I had a sun headache. 

This past week I have been trying on wedding dresses!!! I love trying on wedding dresses. It's so fun!  It's funny, because I have had this exact idea of the dress I would like to wear for a long time now. My mum was going to make it for me. But then you try on the perfect dress in a shop and everything changes. It's a very strange (but nice) feeling to find the perfect dress.  I have to say though, wedding dress shopping is a huge distraction- I have found it reeeeeally hard to concentrate on my work this week. - I constantly have tulle and glitter floating in front of my eyes. Still it's got to be done sometime!

We also- after much thinking over the past few months, have decided on the flower colours for the wedding.  We went to the market and I picked out three bunches of flowers I liked. My sister arranged them in vases and voila! It was an excellent way of deciding. I spent months not being able to decide what the best colour combination would be. As soon as I actually went and looked at the flowers in the flesh it was easy.  Now we have a colour scheme.

Also- I love my new gold shes. They are so comfortable I bought four pairs! Now i won't have to buy slip on shoes for the next few years.  I find buying slip on summer shoes a bit of a chore because they never seem to fit me.  When I find a pair that does I have to take advantage of it!

Anyway, I will stop rabbiting on about weddings now. It's just that it is at the forefront of my mind at the moment for some reason. Probably all that wedding dress shopping!

Here's another sketch of Celestine sunning herself by the pool.  In fact I think this is exactly what she is planning to do today...

This Week...

Monday
I designed a necklace for the wedding and my mum cleverly started to make it. We all watched Wuthering Heights. I did an hour long cycle before starting work.

Tuesday
Celestine got a new bicycle which actually works!  It has a miniature chain and everything.  I did an hour long cycle again. Had one of my craft clubs.

Wednesday
We went up to London in the evening to have dinner with my Grandfather and his wife who were over from America. Popped into the Illustration Cupboard beforehand and saw lots of original artworks by famous book illustrators. We had a posh meal in a posh place- lobster pasta for me! Celestine came too.

Thursday
Henry and I started looking at houses online. We want to buy one. I had my other craft club. Am very impressed by the 'mosaic' one of the children has made (below) We had dinner at a family friend's house- ate crab croquettes.

 Friday
Work in progress (below) Henry and I had out first house viewing in the evening. Afterwards we went on a cycle round our town to look at houses in different areas.

Hope your week was good!

Celestine: Flower Princess

I meant to upload this (Celestine picture number 6- must mean I've kept this up for 6 weeks now!) on Friday- midsummer's day but ran out of time.  I was so busy preparing for the ball we were going to. Midsummer's day marked exactly one year until Henry and I get married!

The ball we went to was the Flank Company's Ball in London.  my Grandparents took my whole family to it because my Grandfather used to be a pikeman which is why they are able to get tickets for it.  I have always wanted to go since I was really little I heard there is a carousel there that you can just hop on and off all night for free. Unfortunately the carousel wasn't there when we went but there was a ferris wheel. Henry and I happened to be sitting on the top of the ferris wheel while they were loading people on and off it when the fireworks started going off!

This is all of us at my cousins house just before we left for the ball. We had to hire a coach to get us all there!

I put a lot of effort into my outfit for the ball. My mum made me my dress. It was black with silver stars dotted all over it. I decided I wanted black hair to match my dress too so Henry helped me dye it (just semi permanent) on Friday morning. That was a bit of a mistake!  We both ended up with blue stained all over us and it took a LOT of scrubbing to get it out. In fact I didn't manage to get it all off and still had blue ears for the ball.  Also the colour didn't quite come out as I thought it would. It was a bit greenish/grey with blue tips at the bottom.  I think it looked all right though. But for the stress of it all I am never dying my hair on the day of an event again!

I was sort of using this ball as a kind of test run for the wedding hair-wise. I chose the style I wanted it for when we got married and got it done that way.  I'm glad I did as I don't think it will work very well for the wedding. It fell flat and looked a bit messy after not very long. 

It took me a whole day to get ready. I think this was down to dying my hair, getting it put up in the hairdressers and applying individual false eyelashes to my eyes. I have always been interested in trying those individual false eyelashes as Henry's mum uses them and they look really good. Also I like the fact you can just leave them on until they fall off.  I was impressed with how they looked- I am going to use them when I get married but they did take me ages to put on!

So things I learnt from this ball for the wedding are:

1- Don't do anything major like dye my hair on the actual day of the wedding.

2- wear the individual false eyelashes but maybe get some one else to put them on for me.

3- Think of a different hairstyle.

ANYWAY apart from all that I was pretty happy with how my outfit came together.  Henry wore a matching bow tie made from the same fabric as my dress.

There were lots of different rooms with different things going on in them at the ball. There was a room where you could go and have your face painted by a make up artist. I had a star and glitter pattern painted round my eye. Then you could have a photo taken in the photobooth there.  We did that too.  It was really fun.  I really enjoyed just being there with all my family and getting to dress up loads and dance.  It was a great night! 

gold boots

This weekend was a very shoe-y weekend!  We went up to Nottingham to visit Henry's Dad and Gran. On Saturday Henry and his Dad went to the cinema to see Man of Steel and I went shopping in the city. It was ridiculously busy. I stood in so mnay queues!  Anyway I bought a couple of pairs of shoes- ones just to wear in summer (I didn't have any summer shoes really except for boots) and a pair to wear with my ball dress on Friday because we are going to a ball!!!  One pair is silver, the other is gold. :)

When Henry came out from his film he also bought  a pair of smart shoes for the ball on Friday.  

And then I made Celestine a pair of little yellow boots. So she also got new shoes! Wouldn't want her to feel left out.

So that's why it was a very shoe-y weekend. And you can see why that's the theme for my Celestine sketch number 5.  I tried a bit of colour in this one. I'm quite liking it! Oh how Celestine wishes she had a real pair of gold boots with black pom poms on the toes. Gold is her favourite colour. Maybe I should try and make her some...

Other things we did this weekend: Ate pizza and chocolate cake, visited Henry's Uncle and Aunt who I have never met before, went on a cycle ride, did lots of sewing (clothes for Celestine's holiday in August) and saw Henry's best friend Chloe- she came over and they played video games.  All in all it was a good weekend.  I hope yours was too!

The Sad Picnic

Sometimes Celestine feels sad. Maybe someone has disappointed her, or maybe she has lost something...  

Either way when she feel like this (which thankfully isn't often) she makes herself feel better by going for a picnic.

On her own. 

In the middle of the night. 

It might seem a little strange but it usually works for her. And that's the important thing.

...

So that is my Celestine sketch number four.

Also, a sidenote: A lot of my pictures are not showing on my blog at the moment. I have exceeded my photobucket bandwidth for the month apparently.  All the photos should reappear in a couple of days though.  I switched to photobucket a few months ago because I ran out of space on blogger (picasa web albums). I now seem to have more space again on blogger when I checked... it's all very confusing!  I don't really understand it.  Anyone else had similar problems? If so I'd be grateful for some advice! 

Tottie: The Story of a Dolls' House

Recently I remembered a book I used to own when I was younger called 'Tottie' by Rumer Godden. There was a particular illustration in it that I really loved. Immediately I went into the attic to try and find it again but to no avail. After some searching I ordered another copy off Amazon for 1 pence (well plus postage)  It arrived the other day and I am so glad I am able to look at the illustrations again! I don't think I appreciated them fully as a child.

To give a very brief synopsis, 'Tottie' is the story of a little wooden dutch doll who lives in a dolls house with her mismatched 'family' of other dolls- Mr Plantaganet, Birdie, Apple and Darner the dog. They all live happily together until a selfish china doll moves in and their existence begins to be threatened.  In fact one of the dolls meets a sad and shocking end. There are some quite dark undertones to the book.

However, as much as I loved the story (I think I read it several times as a child) I want to focus more on the illustrations. I think illustrations in chapter books can often get a bit overlooked. And these ones (by Joanna Jamieson) are just beautiful. They really capture the charm of the dolls and the story.

The illustration I particularly love by the way is the one of Tottie sitting in the hand wearing her cape and muff.

Did you ever read this book? I think it was one of my favourites.

fun in the sun

 From top to bottom:

1- A drawing I just did for myself.
2- Some jewels I found for really cheap and snapped up immediately. I have always loved those iridescent glass beads.
3- A melting crayon picture- an activity for the kids at my craft club.
4- Work in progress...
5- Celestine trying on a clown hat.
6- A walk we went on the other day when it was really sunny.
7- Celestine went rowing in the river.
8- Moneypennies/fairy purses.
9- Barney leaping though the field. He is so funny when he does that. The grass is taller than him so you just see his little face popping up as he bounces through it.
10- Celestine in the garden at sunset.
11- Flowers in the garden.
12- We went swimming in my Grandparent's pool.
13- And I tried out my new underwater camera.
14- Celestine went rowing in the swimming pool. She loves her little boat.

Other things:

-I am loving this sunny weather- long may it last. It has meant we have been able to eat in the garden lots on the picnic rug.  The only downside is that I sooo don't feel like getting back to work afterwards!

-We ate really nice home made calzone's while watching The dead Poet's Society. In fact we had them twice over the last week as Henry made four of them. Yum.

-Today we went to my friend's 21'st birthday party. It was kid party themed with space hoppers, pass the parcel and lots of other garden games plus alcohol. It was certainly a fun theme! We even got given a party bag when we left. AND there was a Cindy birthday cake- you know the ones where there's a Cindy doll stuck in the top with a big skirt made of cake.

Hope you've been having fun and enjoying the sunny weather.

Until next time!

X

Celestine wants a chocolate fix

If there's a chocolate box lying about you can be sure Celestine will sneak into it and fetch out a champagne truffle. They are her favourites. Mind you it will take her about three weeks to finish it!

This is the second of my Celestine sketches as the previous one I posted was actually for last week. 

Goals and Resolutions

Hi everyone! Or anyone!  I'm surfacing from a mountain (or at least a large hill) of work here to write a quick blog post. 

I've had a list of general stuff/projects stuck on my wall for a while now.  They're just things/projects I want to personally achieve. Every now and then I look at then and see how far I've got with each of them.  I realised the other day that whilst I am getting ahead with some of the goals, others are just sitting there doing nothing. I decided that as it was time to do something about this.  

I'm kind of going a bit of a round about way of saying what I'm trying to say but let's start with the New Years resolutions I made back in January.  I decided that as it's almost halfway through the year, it's time to assess how well I am doing.

My first resolution for this year was 'Career.'  I wanted to be able to be a full time illustrator without going crazy working from home on my own. I also wanted to be busy and have lots of work.  I have to say it was a little stop and start for the first few months of this year on the whole workload front- I would have liked to be a bit busier than I was Jan-April ish but it has built up and I think I may even be a bit too busy for the next few months.  I'm not complaining though, swings and roundabouts hey?

I also mentioned that I wanted to be able to work from home without going crazy. Remember this post? Well I'm pleased to say that I feel I am getting better and better at working from home.  It helps that Henry comes home for lunch. It helps that I am much busier now. It helps that I have started two craft clubs at two different schools.  It sounds silly but it helps that I have Celestine and a personal project/book idea too.  I actually relish the fact that I don't have to get up and go to an office. I like that I can just get up and start work in my pyjamas if I want to. (if I'm rushing for a deadline that actually happens)

So I would say that over all my 'Career' goal is going well so far this year.

My second new years resolution was to finish my castle. I think I have also done pretty well with this one. It's no where near finished but I have done SO much to it this year. It''s gone from almost a bare shell to a wallpapered, carpeted, lit partly furnished castle.  Depending on future work load I am not sure whether I will actually FINISH it by Christmas (that was the plan) but it's not impossible. I definitely feel I have done well with it so far this year.  It was about time seeing as I have had it for about seven years now!

So yes I can smugly say that both my resolutions are coming along quite nicely (touch wood)

So then I thought I would add in a couple more for the rest of the year- a couple more from the list on my wall.

Firstly I am aware that there is not much drawing on my blog.  Which seems silly because I originally started this blog to showcase my work.  Right now though I am unable to show any of the work I am doing as it hasn't been published yet. Blog aside, I have been very inspired of late by the 'Catharine Susan' book I discovered the other week in a second hand book shop.  In case you don't know it's a book about a little peg doll and the adventures she gets up to. They are very charming illustrations.  Similarly one of my friends has also inspired me lately with drawings of a little penguin character she has created doing different things. It made me think that I should be drawing more of Celestine's adventures rather than just photographing her. Also it would be good practice.  So I have decided that every week I shall do a Celestine drawing.  Starting with this one: (p.s I know that I have got the wind direction wrong with her hair flying out/knees sticking out/direction of broom but I still really like this picture anyway.

Celestine Flies!

So let's see how long I can keep this one up!

Secondly I want to start writing more.  I have always had to have some sort of personal project on the go aside from any other work I am doing.  For a long time it was Victoria Stitch and I would write about her and make a world for her and draw her and think about her a lot. And I still do but recently her world has got bigger.  And I have had a new idea for an epic book (haha!) still including Victoria Stitch but also other characters too.  I have a nice book that I have stuck crystals on sitting by my bed ready to be written in. But it has mainly stayed empty. I don't know where to start! And then Henry said something recently which struck me. If you sit down and write every day then you'll be ready for when inspiration strikes. but if you sit around waiting for inspiration then you won't be practiced/ready when it does come.  Something like that anyway.  And I realised that I was doing exactly that. Waiting for the inspiration to strike so that I could begin writing my book perfectly.  But that's not the way to do it!  Henry writes a page or so of journal every night when he gets into bed and I decided that I am going to do the same. Except I am not going to write a journal but a bit of my book every night.  And it doesn't have to be perfect, or even follow a linear story (for now). I just want to get a feel for the world and characters I want to create. I want to just write for the sake of writing. To feel my way around the world I want to create. To write whatever pops into my head about what the characters might be doing/thinking feeling that night.

So that is goal number two! Because writing is a goal you need to exercise.

(Just realised I said this was going to be a quick blog post... ha. ha ha!)

Phew! I think that's about it for goals and resolutions. And now I am going to ramble on about what I have been doing lately too.  Mostly just because I like to look back on my blog as a record of things I have done. I don't expect it's that interesting for other people to read. But anyhoo...

Last weekend Henry and I went up to Derby to visit his mother. She has just got a new car so we had fun driving in it with the top down. I had never been in an open top car before.  I loved it. We went to town and I didn't buy anything. We had lunch at a pub on Sunday and shared a melted Camembert. yumyum. Also burger and chips.

On Friday I went up to London to see my friend's play that she had designed the set for.  I was a bit nervous about it as I thought the play was going to be a really horrible violent play and I don't like those but I actually really enjoyed it. And of course the set design was fantastic! Then we went for drinks at a pub nearby afterwards with her family and some of her other friends and it was just really nice.

On Sunday evening Henry and I drove into London to the same friend's house to her birthday meal with a load of our other friends. That was also really fun. It's always good to see those people! We laughed a lot and ate lots of crisps and lasagne and chocolate gateaux outside with candles. It was nice to see her uni house for the first time too. I also love driving around with Henry to places in our own car!  (yup that's me dressed as if I'm in the arctic.  I was cold. Shame Erin's not in this picture but she was taking it.)

I finally got around to telling my bridesmaids who they are- well almost all of them. The ones who I haven't told yet are unlikely to read my blog though. I made paper dolls of each bridesmaid and gave them to them because I wanted to do something a bit creative. 

I've been having trouble with one of my after school craft clubs lately because the particular kids I have are SO naughty!  It's a bit out of control right now to be honest. I think I am going to have to tell the naughty ones to leave as they are ruining it for the others. It's a shame.

My grandmother took me to this amazing fabric shop that I didn't know existed before! It specialises in patch working and so sells loads and loads of pieces of fabric with tiny patterns on them. perfect for me! And pretty local too.

Henry and I ate lunch outside for the first time today on a picnic blanket on the grass. Then we took Barney on a walk. It was such a nice day.

And now Barney is barking at me for his dinner so I'm going to stop rambling about my life and go and feed him. Especially as I still have lots of work to tonight.

Hope you've had a lovely bank holiday weekend. See you soon!

X