Princess Books

Hello everybody! Hope you're having a good start to this Christmas month. I thought I would explain a bit more what I have been busy with lately.  I have been working on the illustrations (3d sets) for a princess picture book and various activity books with the publisher Parragon Books. Earlier this week I travelled down to Bath where Parragon are based to help direct the photography for the sets as there is a professional photographer taking the photos for these books rather than myself. 

Here are just a few of my own little snapshots I took during my time in Bath- kind of behind the scenes photographs...

It was very interesting for me to see how the photographer worked and how he used all his equipment. There was a lot of equipment! The aim was to get very clean bright images and it was very exciting to see it all come to life like that.  I was hoping I would learn a few things about photography but to be honest I didn't at all- I am one of those people who doesn't really learn from just watching. I have to do the thing.

Also as (I hope!) you can see everything is very sparkly. I have SO loved being able to just chuck as much glitter and as many gems as possible onto the sets. I love love it! It was like the perfect project for me.

I was in Bath for three days (two nights) working solidly during the day so I didn't get to see a huge amount of the city. From what I did see though looks so nice! I want to go back there and visit again some time so I can look around more. There was a Christmas market and a carousel (!!! my fave! though there wasn't time to go on it. Also it looked like it went really fast- extra points for it!) and all the buildings were sort of beige coloured and very picturesque.

It was a very interesting few days and the people at Parragon were all so nice and friendly.  I am now really excited to see the book when it comes out some time next year. Before that though I still have some more sets and characters to make for the activity books. So I had better get back to that...

X

The Sad Picnic

Crown Jewels

I just want to show you this miniature jewel cabinet that I created the other day for my castle.  I'm very pleased with it! 

I had been searching for the perfect jewel cabinet to display all my miniature crowns for a while but with not much luck. I couldn't find anything the right shape or size for what I wanted. I wanted one which was longer horizontally than vertically and that seemed hard to find! In the end I bought this one on ebay which was labelled as being a display case for a shop and decided to customize it myself.  

As you can see it's not exactly the most regal looking thing. Also you can't really tell from the picture but the depth of it was bigger than I wanted too.  Silly me didn't think about the depth when I bought it I just looked at the height and width!  When I put it in my castle it stuck out quite far from the wall which i didn't want. ALSO the crowns were too tall to fit on the shelves!

Well! I decided that I would take it apart and re make it exactly how I wanted it. Henry warned me not to. He said there was no way I could change the depth of the cabinet without ruining it and he said to leave it.  But I am a perfectionist. So I got out my little hand saw and began to saw it almost in half length ways. Then I cut the 'glass' in half too, shifted it down a bit so the crowns could fit in, painted all the wood gold and stuck it all back together with superglue.  And it worked!!! I was so proud! I was secretly quite worried that it wouldn't.

Then I decided to fancy it all up with some gold decoration. I bought these little bits and pieces a while ago. I was originally going to use them to make an ornate little mirror but then decided that the jewel cabinet was a more worthy cause.  

So there you go! A fancy little jewel cabinet for my castle. It's going to sit in pride of place!

Castle progress!

I haven't updated in a while and that's because I've been in the midst of wood shavings, paint and superglue for the past two weeks.  I've been sawing and cutting and measuring- all in the aid of getting on further with my castle.  This year WILL be the year I finish it!  I never put myself down as a 'woodwork' kind of person before but I've actually been enjoying myself quite a lot!

To you it may not look too much different than before but this is now the current state of my castle:

I have wallpapered all of the outsides with stone patterned paper and painted the edges and tops grey (it took me three coats of grey paint to find the perfect shade!).  I have ALSO- and this is the part I am most proud of- made a flight of twisty stairs for it!  (I don't like dollhouses without stairs.) 

To make the stairs I bought a length of wood doweling and chopped it up into three inch pieces. Then I stuck them all together with superglue and voila!

Then came the hard part- how to cut a hole in the floor.  I watched a you tube video and realised it was possible to do with a craft knife.  When I say possible I mean possible if you're happy to sit there for three hours doing it.... Still it was worth it and created quite a neat, precise effect.

I am so proud of myself for doing it!  Since then I have also cut another hole in the floor above (to the top/attic room) and made a little ladder to go up to it. 

I am now very almost (apart from a last coat of ceiling paint) ready to start putting in the carpets and wallpaper and lighting.  I can't wait!

Celestine's snow day

Someone's been having a lot of fun sledging down the slopey roof of the green house this weekend....

Meanwhile Henry and I have also been sledging down Pegsdon hills. I have to say it was a little too scary for my liking.  Maybe because the bits of hills we went on were very very steep and full of bumps and tussocks and rabbit holes and snowdrifts up to our knees.  Henry had to go down most of the hills on his own (I did go down a select few though!)  It was so bumpy that he kept bouncing up into the air on the sledge which was very funny to watch!

Also some sheep started following us... I think they might have been hungry.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend snow or no snow!

Celestine's Halloween Costumes

From right to left we have: Green and Purple witch outfit. (I love that colour combination) Pumpkin outfit (my personal favourite) and lastly Red and Black witch outfit. 

Which one do you like best?

click to enlarge

Celestine says her favourite is a mixture of the two witch outfits.  She likes the colour of the green and black one but the tutu style of the red and black one. She's picky. 

A quilt for Celestine

Celestine likes reading Peter Rabbit

Celestine was tired of sleeping in a sock so I made her this nice patchwork quilt to sleep under instead.  I thought it would be nice to make it sort of seasonal so there are lots of reds, oranges and yellows in it.  Celestine likes it so much that she is demanding we make another Christmassy themed one for December. I said: 'I expect you'll want another one for spring and then another one for summer too!?' and she said: 'Yes please. I like to have a selection.'  

Not demanding at all!

patches all laid out in order.

Celestine likes to help out.

the finished article!

goodnight Celestine. (really she's just posing here. As soon as this photo was taken she jumped right out!)

stars, stripes, leaves and flowers.

What do you think? Happy Monday everyone!

This Weekend

The older I get the more I seem to appreciate nature.  I wonder why that is.  When I was younger I didn't seem to be so fussed about it and I used to hate being dragged out on walks by my parents but now I choose to go out on walks (or at least the dog chooses) and I love them! I find the beauty of nature really inspiring.

This weekend Henry and I went to one of our favourite places to walk and I took some snaps. I am getting much better at remembering to take my camera with me everywhere I go now.  I find it's a really good way to train yourself to constantly have your creative 'eye' out.

Henry and Barney

 The clouds were really beautiful on this day. They were all puffy and fluffy like white candyfloss. 

Oh and Celestine came on the walk too of course. Only managed to take one decent photo of her though as she kept running away down rabbit holes to explore.  Like Alice in Wonderland.  Here's a picture of her poking a little pool with a stick.  It was such a small little pool made from the roots of a tree. It had acorn cups and dead leaves at the bottom of it.

How was your weekend?

Celestine's autumn walk

Celestine tries on a new style of autumn hat 'does it suit me?'   :   looking at a small snail hidden in the curl of a leaf

natures autumn rainbow

Celestine enjoyed walking through the crispy orange leaves and kicking them into the air.

red red red

The other day Celestine put on her shiny yellow coat and took herself out on a walk. It was a particularly nice walk because the sun was out and shining through the red leaves and across the wheat fields.  Celestine enjoyed it very much.  She walked through the forest and along by the river and had tea with one of her tiny friends who lives in a secret hollow tree. They ate cinnamon buns and drank cinnamon tea.

Green for Celestine

Happy first day of October everyone! Now I can finally start talking about Halloween related things without feeling that it's too early.  I'm looking forward to a month of pumpkins, dark nights and spooky stories.  In fact I am planning to show case a few of my favourite Halloween related picture books here on my blog in the run up to Halloween.

Anyway that aside, I thought I'd show you a new item of clothing I made for Celestine the other day.  (I know I know I think I have a can't-stop-making-miniature-things disorder) A green cardigan!  I actually made a pink one for her first and then realised that pink wasn't quite her colour but that's a post for another day. 

As you can see it is the perfect cardigan for climbing trees in! Celestine is well camouflaged. 

*I know the buttons are actually quite large on her but I think it gives the cardigan a sort of charm.  I did have some smaller buttons but not in green.*

some green buttons from my miniature button collection. If I see tiny buttons I HAVE to buy them.

A couple of photos from a walk I went on the other day. Meant to post them before but I forgot. They fit well here though!

Today has been full of thinking up story ideas, swimming, taking the dog to the vet and eating cheese and ham toasties.  Celestine went bed shopping.

What have you been up to? xox

Celestine takes a walk

Yesterday Henry, Barney and I went walking in one of our favourite places.  Celestine came too. It was a beautiful day.

Here's Celestine standing on top of the hill. She wore her new shiny yellow coat.

View of the valley.  There's a stream at the bottom.

Henry and I raced wooden boats down the stream.  We wrote our initials in the bottom of them. Henry's boat won.

I love shallow, pebbly streams like this. They inspire me. This one comes from a spring just a bit further up.

Celestine at the bottom of the hills in the valley, just before we walked our way up to the top.

Pattern for Celestine's yellow coat. Very simple.

Yellow coat in all its glory.

 Hopefully we will go back there soon!

What did you do this weekend?

My drawing on the front of the Egmont catalogue!