hese appliqued elephants have been sitting at the bottom of my ever expanding fabric collection, getting creased and shabby as I don't really know what to do with them. I had this idea about 8 years ago to make a series of elephant bags from a fabulous linen swatch book that had all these gorgeous colours, but then got bored as I always do and abandoned them! Well here they are, and I shall press them and hang them up.....and sort all my clobber out!
n amazing surprise awaited me when I got home from work, completely frazzled and stressed about going away to the factory on Saturday. A totally unexpected parcel from a valuable friend! The wonderfully talented Taylor has made me the most delightful sketch book, made from an eclectic mix of textures, papers and ephemera, all combined in her usual idiosynchratic style. Every time I look through the pages I see something lovely that I had n't seen before, like a little tick and heart shaped scribble of red cotton that looks accidental. 
ippee! my brilliant and wonderful Francesca has got into 3 of her choices of Universities including the biggie Kingston, to study fashion! I am so proud of her- bring out the champagne!
ut of the blue, I got a phone call from Toronto, from one of my most favourite of friends who not only is a wonderful Typographer, designer and tapestry artist but who is now a (probably amazing) textile teacher. I met Christine all those years ago on the Kingston Graphic Design Degree course and then we worked together at the BBC amd it seems that fate will put us together again because the reason for the phone call all the way from Toronto is that she has met one of Nicks friends from when he was working over there nearly 20 years ago....now that proves that there really is only 6 degrees of separation between us all!
ave just finished another 2 flowers so that now I have a bouquet! Don't quite know what to do with them, but am thinking about opening an etsy shop to sell some of my handmade goodies...just need to give up the full time work and sell the children.......Spring has definitely arrived though in my garden, I really love blue flowers and you cannot get bluer than the amazing Cerinthe purpurens...it has seeded all over my gravel garden...just lovely and I didn't even need to buy any fabric!!!
apturing the youthful beauty of boys has to be the sign of a seriously talented artist.....Gay du Toit who I posted about a couple of weeks ago has sent me pictures of her latest batch of beauties! Don't you just love them? The faces are what I love the most about these ceramics, they have such content and innocent expressions!
esearching the french words for all the different styles of shoes took as long as doing the illustrations themselves! And I am sure that my french readers will either laugh or groan when they see how badly they are translated!
ill not have the time to do another design for the shoes but could not resist doing some samples as the water colours and probably all the art equipment in the house was strewn over our kitchen table as Francesca decided at long last to do some work! Cannot decide whether to do moroccan slippers lined up in a bazaar or to use the idea of shoes laid out in an illustrated dictionary style.....which could make a great series of prints...?
poonflower latest challenge is the wonderful world of shoes which is so tempting as I have admired and drooled over the Manolo Blahnick shoe paintings and Andy Warhols gorgeous shoe prints for years.....dare I enter again? It does n't hurt to research does it?
t Columbia road market last sunday, despite the grey weather there were hoards of Londoners all looking for a bargain bouquet....but it was the great shops that line this narrow bustling road that caught my eye; retro sweet shops, perfumeries, vintage clothing and all manner of delightful goodies for sale....will have to return as the only shop that was shut was the famous Ryan town....still, I cheered myself up with the purchase of these delightful printed metal badges-no company logo and no safety warnings make these badges a safety nightmare in the hands of a six year old....
ooo slow at the moment....finding it difficult to get going with all the ideas still swimming around in my head! But at least have managed 3 more flowers....
