Wish I could do this right now...!

I discovered this great site the other day and got rather excited about designing an altogether different kind of bird - a nani! Anyone fancy joining me in making a geometric birdie too? It's got to be worth a go! Better than playing rubik's cube (darn that alluringly colourful yet infuriating cube of frustration!!!)

Here's where you can have more fun playing with paper an scissors instead: http://www.nanibird.com/

This extra lovely one is called Mamy and is designed by Natascha S Rosenberg

I'll stick all the pics of the end results on here so just give me a shout if you're game!

I really have too much to do this week, so I'll have to wait till next till I get going on this
*big sigh* :-(

King Fisher crazy

Ok, so I may have gone a little King Fisher crazy of late but I put it down to mild desperation - it's been ages since I've seen one and I'm
getting withdrawals!

To remedy my predicament I made another plush bird brooch - of the king of bird's himself!
Guess he'll have to compensate for seeing the real thing for now. I look almost trance like in this picture (I wasn't actually meant to be in it!)- I think it's all the happiness of literally making a new friend ^^ Embarrassing as this picture is (zero make up, freckles and all) I like the way it captures my little elfin ear and contrasting honk - the latter being so big it didn't even fit in frame!!

This is the colour illustration for the card I think I mentioned in a previous post...

Bird zine has taken wing!

Finally got my batch of Zazar Zine's printed, folded, packaged and up on Etsy! Now alll my bird doodles that may never've seen the light of day have a fun outlet! Having said this the cover illustration is poised to become a full colour greetings card. So he'll be more than just the electric blue of the card cover!

We've got an allotment!!

Woopy dodah! Finally collected the key for our allotment on Friday and with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, Manu and I surveyed what will soon become our home from home (especially when we get a proper shed!) Our excitement was almost uncontainable when we thought we'd found our plot - with veg patches already planted. We knew it was too good to be true when we spotted some very contented looking chickens at the far end. No, ours was predictably wilder than wild with nettles towering above me and rampant to the point of covering most of the plot. This minor (hah!) blight aside we did discover some globe artichokes like thistles - some of them had already gone to seed, but we did cut a few heads off and will have try them for lunch today.

Yesterday, our first proper day on the allotment, we got a bit giddy at the fun of it all! First we got to meet our neighbours (two very lovely couples called Chris and Lou + Ellen and Nathan) and then we later made a very fortuitous discovery - a tayberry bush!!! Goes without saying that we had a good old munch to make sure they were in fact tayberries - cross between a raspberry and a blackberry! Never expected to be eating fruits from the allotment this early on - definitely given us a taste for it!

I'm now trying to persuade Manu to start a blog otherwise I fear I will have to change the name of this blog the the Gardener of Gardnerville! (And yes, that is me running through the wilds!)

FCF Zine...

It was Norwich School of Art's Private View this evening and quite synchronistically, I finished the pseudo-stalker (!!) map I'd been working for the FCF Zine today which includes a sketch of the art school (top right). It was strange being back at the place that brought me to this *fine* city - it felt like a different life time that we were at the school, even though it was only a couple of years back. There seemed to be the very same throng of people packing out the street, except this time it's all been pedestrianised - which is darn great! The lovely weather all made it feel quite Mediterranean - everyone just standing chatting in the street - top evening!

Awww *blushing*

I got a really sweet message the other day from a lovely lass called Coki asking if she could post about my antics and here's what she said about me: - http://milktoothrain.blogspot.com/2008/06/zazar-bazaar.html

Thanks Coki for such a lovely write up! ^^

Exciting discovery...!

This morning I got really carried away with excitement having stumbled across this luscious crafty site: - http://www.allthingsoriginal.com - go there now for your instant crafty curiosity fix!

Otherwise will keep this short as have an allotment key to collect (wey hey) and a Fine City Friends meeting!! Before I dash off I suppose I could confess to breaking the emotional attachment I had to my wee moineaux (sparrow in French!) and finally got around to putting him on etsy - not before one last perch on my shoulder though...!

Tash tastic!

Managed to persuade my sister to don my 'tash and patch combo - I hardly recognise her!

Happy father's day to my owl fan of a Dad who would have received the wee brooch in this pic by now - hope you like it!?