A rare, all sunny, 'just us' weekend: Part 2

On Sunday I climbed a (extinct) volcano wearing gladiator sandals!

This sounds much more dramatic than it was (of course) as really, Arthur's Seat is just a big hill in Holyrood Park... BUT its a very picturesque and wild park (despite being right in the city) and a very spectacular looking hill. I've lived right next to it for the last 12 years yet it was my first time climbing to the top - Its very embarrassing to admit to actually, but never mind! My lazy pins managed it at long last and I'm sure they'll do it again for the spectacular views (I'll probably wear more sensible footwear next time though!)

So here are some (a few too many really) pictures from the top, the way back down again and the nice birdy friends we made at Duddingston Loch on the walk back home...

Apologies for the super photo heavy blog post - I got a little carried away with the birds!

A rare, all sunny, 'just us' weekend: Part 1

On Saturday we decided to take the little train to North Berwick to make the most of what was expected to be a cracker of a sunny day and we weren't left disappointed.

We found a spot on the rocks of the old pier and lolled around. I drew. We ate 99s. We made friends with a handsome herring gull who was after Alan's crisps. We watched little yachts in a sailing competition and a fisherman checking his lobster pots. Then when the breeze picked up we wandered back to the harbour for tea. 

The Lobster Shack had sold out of most of it's menu options so we shared a half lobster and chips whilst sitting dangling our legs over the edge of the harbour wall. It was a tasty, surprising, and decadent end to a very special spontaneous Saturday. 

Then the sky changed, it grew a little chilly and it seemed like the perfect time to go home again and tend to my sun burnt knees...

A Commemorative Hen for a Hen!

A bit more than 3 years ago now, when I got married and had a brilliant hen do away in York with my pals, some of my school friends presented me with a lovely knitted hen that my friend Jen's mum had very kindly made for me. Henrietta as she came to be known, had a grand night out on the town and has since become part of everyday life in our flat - she has a great spot perching on the top of the wardrobe watching over us, reminding me every day that I have brilliant friends and of that great weekend we had together.

So, when it was my studio buddy Lizzie's hen do a few weeks ago, I thought it might be fun to make her a hen to mark the occasion too. I wanted to screen print it as Lizzie and I do a lot of printing together, but I knew it would be hard to expose it onto the screen without Lizzie seeing it and giving the game away, so instead I decided to simplify the process and make a stencil. 

I made a simple drawing of a hen and cut it out of newsprint, and then with the help of Alan (my hubs) holding the screen down, I printed 'Betty the Hen' onto calico. It was fun but not the best thing to try on our wobbly table at home!

Next, I ironed Betty on the front and back - the only bit I hate about fabric printing is that you have to 'fix' the ink by ironing for at least 4 minutes on each side. I hate ironing.

Then she was done. But Betty looked a little plain and a little sad to me, and I felt she needed a bit of jazzing up. Some navy embroidered eye lashes perhaps? or a darker pupil embroidered on? or perhaps some lines of mustard and yellow stitching around her feathers? 

I set off to the haberdashery department of our nearest big shop (you know the one that has a J and L in it) and selected some embroidery threads and a hoop. I hadn't done anything like this before. It was going to be an experiment, and of course, I got carried away choosing colours and ended up with quite a few.

I got home and tried a few practice runs on a 'reject Betty' and then started to separate the threads in half and thread needles. I stretched 'good Betty' onto the embroidery hoop and started to try the eye lashes. It looked nice. I liked the popping noise of the needle going through the stretched cotton and very quickly I was hooked! 'Oh this will be great to do on the bus to Inverness to see Al's mum' I thought... hmmm in theory maybe, but not in real life. Sorry to anyone on the megabus that night for those 5 minutes I popped and threaded my way up the A9 (I quickly realised it was better to do at home)

I didn't stop at the eye. I kept going, round the sides of some of the turquoise shapes with coloured thread and then I got to the point where stopping would make her look unfinished, so I had to do the whole thing. But I loved it. When she was finished, I cut round her leaving enough of a gap at the edges for seam allowance, then I pinned her to the back of a cool pillowcase (Lizzie loves the colour mustard so this vintage fabric seemed right) and with my sewing machine, whizzed round her leaving a gap to turn her inside out. The I stuffed her using polyester stuffing and sewed up her bottom and she was ready!

She was fun to make, and the best bit is that I've discovered embroidery and screen printing is an awesome combination (I don't really use the word awesome, so I must be serious) Looking forward to trying some more out and maybe make some more hens to sell if they tickle anyone's fancy. Lizzie liked her Betty too, so that's good.

*OOPS! NOTE: In the early stages of making 'Betty' I forgot why I had the pictures on my iphone (stencil cutting out and printing) and deleted them. Fool. So the pics here only cover the embroidery stage onwards. Next time I make one, I'll be sure to snap the process properly!

A little shout out for BookSprout!

For the last 6 months or so I've been lucky enough to be involved in creating some illustrations for a really great new business based in the US called BookSprout.

Founded by the super lovely Marina and Greg Pappas (who are also my brother Tom's brother and sister in-law), BookSprout is like a bespoke online library service for little ones, where you can subscribe to receive monthly bundles of carefully chosen books picked out specifically for your child's age group or order a subscription as a gift for other parents to receive for their little ones too.

In Marina's own words, here's some more information about what BookSprout is all about from their website...

As a new mom, I knew reading with my son from the very beginning was really important, but I personally found choosing books extremely time-consuming and any outing (to the library, grocery store, or anywhere!) a challenge.  Given the thousands of children’s books to choose from, I know I would have been thrilled to receive a carefully curated bundle of books each month, just in time to support my little one’s next developmental spurt.  

Our book selection is very finely tuned to meet the constantly changing needs of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.  We also aim to provide insight about language development, guidance for reading with your child, and ideas for book-based play.

For families with the ability to travel to a well-resourced local library, a knowledgeable librarian and library are fabulous resources.  But, for families who don’t have access or time or just appreciate the added convenience of wonderful, just-right books and a bit of insight arriving at their door, we are here!

Happy Reading!
Marina, co-founder

My involvement so far has been in the form of bright and cheery illustrations of children and parents (and animals!) reading for BookSprout's website and promotional material. It has been such an exciting, refreshing project  to work on! I don't have children of my own, but I really believe in the importance of encouraging little ones to love books from an early age and I think BookSprout is such a great way to do this. 

As you can imagine, I've been having a wild time with my inks and have enjoyed every aspect of it! Its still quite early days, but you can see some of the drawings I've been doing on the BookSprout website here and facebook page here. 

I have also recently written a guest post for the BookSprout blog about growing up in Northumberland, my own childhood favourite books, illustrators and how they have influenced my own work/books. If you would like to read it and giggle at some photos of me as a kid with 80s lego hair, then please check it out here

I hope you like the drawings and enjoyed reading about BookSprout. If you have little ones that love to read, follow the BookSprout blog and facebook page - Marina is so inspiring, a fabulous mum and probably the nicest person you'll ever meet in your life! They make for a great read!

Hope you all have a great sunny weekend! x

Ramblings of a bad blogger and bear plush give away!

I think I have had this blog on the go for nearly 3 years now, and I've been pretty inconsistent at keeping it up to date. I'm a little bit embarrassed by it! 

I read a lot of inspiring blogs (you can check out my favourite reads in the column on the right) who's authors write very thoughtful posts, very helpful/detailed reviews, share beautiful photographs of things they have made or things they have done or things that they've eaten, that I've become a little afraid of blogging myself because I find it hard to see how this little blog will become as nice as the ones I like to read!

I'm full of admiration for those who manage to keep their blog up to date, work, and in lots of cases of the bloggers I follow, be a parent too. I really aught to try to learn to be a better juggler of blog life and work load, but I find it a little tricky to maintain my blog regularly when work has been pretty busy around here lately. Anyway, I'm going to try and do a better job of making this a a nicer place to visit and be a bit more regular with my posting...

Starting with a give away in the form of 'sorry for being a bit of a rubbish blogger lately, have Dudley the bear to make up for it!'....

So, If you would like to win Dudley for yourself or know a friend/little someone who would like to give him a home/cuddle please write me a comment below, or pop a like/comment on my instagram or facebook pages, and I'll pull a name out of a hat/mug/pencil case next week*.

hopefully things will be more interesting here soon!

Em

xxx

PS I think Thursday might be a regular giveaway day. so come back next week for another freebie.

* I've decided Tuesday will be the day I announce Dudley's new owner so pop back then to find out if you've snaffled him!

New Studio

After 2 years, in quite a small darkish studio, Lizzie and I have gone up in the world - well up a couple of floors anyway! We've just moved into a new studio, still within the Arts Complex but now have a bit more space, and a south facing window - sunny mornings ahead hopefully!

We've only been in a couple of days but I'm already finding it a much more positive environment to be drawing/making in, which is good because I'm going to be here a lot over the next few months! 

Still got a lot to sort out, and things to get up on the walls, but my desk area has been coming on quite nicely over the last few days... here's a few images of my new drawing home. More to come when we get more settled in!

PS I know I've drawn a lot of these scarfy cat guys over the last few months, but this one is for the The Rock Trust charity postcard auction. Hopefully someone will like his wild rainbow scarf and snap him up to raise money for the charity.

Raising money for the charity LVDC, through Etsy sales...

Hello! I hope you are all having not just a good 'Good Friday' this Easter bank holiday, but a GREAT one!

I'm just writing a quick post to say thank you to those of you who left really nice comments on my post about my new inky work. It took ages, but at last all the new prints I've had professionally printed are available in my Etsy shop and for the next 2 weeks (I've extended this from one week since mentioning it on facebook!), 50% of any sales I make through Etsy will go to a brilliant charity in Tanzania called the Lake Victoria Disability Centre.

Here's a little bit of information about LVDC from their website...

LVDC teaches disabled, in particular young people with hearing impairments, practical skills such as woodwork, dressmaking, metalwork and screenprinting thereby giving them the opportunity to be independent members of their community. Since being founded in 2002 the centre has grown to offer services to the wider community by producing mobility aids such as tricycles for the physically disabled, running a weekly sign language class and during the elections holding seminars to educate people with disabilities about their rights.

LVDC is a charity very close to the heart of my friend Lizzie, her family and many friends I went to Edinburgh College of Art with who have been out there to volunteer at the centre and have got to know Dennis Maina, LVDC's founder. I would love to go out there some day soon to visit. Until such time as I can, I'd like to help raise a little money for them through some of my print sales (and other plans to come) and spread the word of this great charity. Have a look at the LVDC website when you can - I'm sure you'll be as inspired as I am.

If you'd like to buy something from my Etsy shop for a gift or for your wall, and donate to LVDC by doing so, you can get to my shop here.

Happy Easter folks! XXX

PS I have been planning a makeover for this little blog for months now, but never found the time to get round to it... until now! You may notice a few little changes here and there and there will be more to come over the next week or so. Please bare with me while I try and improve it and hopefully you'll all think it looks much better when I'm done. x

 New additions to Etsy include: 'Parp!' in 2 sizes (A3 and A4), Tapir, Giraffe, 'I Whale Always Love You', 

A pair of Koalas, Bunny watering his sunflowers and my Mud Fest music festival illustration.