all in the family

Another big thank-you this week to Yermit (who makes hilarious bearded dolls!) for including my "electricity" print in her awesome Etsy Treasury: All in the Family.

What makes it even more exciting for me is that I'm in very very good company in this collection, alongside some of my all time favourites like:
Sophie Blackall,
zukzuk,
and Julia Pott!
Plus I got to discover some new favourites too.

rock and soul

The town where we live is always in the depths of discussion and planning suggestions of how to make it more appealing... To make the beachfront more attractive to visitors... To help our town become as interesting to tourists as the rest of the towns on this pretty coastline.

While there are 20 year plans for development and restructure, I believe (while it certainly needs alot of help) it really wouldn't take much to get it started; just a little soul.

Last weekend we took a day trip to visit a little town only 40 mins from here. We've been here before, and I LOVED the mosaic wall in the centre of town. But this time we went down along the waterfront, and were amazed by the beautiful breakwall.



Each rock is "graffitied", but in the most loving, pre-planned, community minded way imaginable.





It's a little tourist town, and on each rock is a record of people's visits, from near and very far, and even some which we're told are freshened up and added to each year when the original artist revisits the town. One rock (a local lady pointed out to us) has a new grandchild's name and picture of a toy added each time a new one is born.





Surprisingly, we only saw one painted rock that had been needlessly tagged over the top of. The rest are left as they are. We vowed to return one day when we have a family, armed with paint and brushes.

This clever couple had constructed an entire flowerpot:


The white side of this one invited all other Swiss tourists to sign their name:


This one took advantage of the shapes of the rocks:


And my personal favourite, for no other reason than I love a good pun:

drawgasmic show and book

The team from the Drawgasmic show sent some photos through of the show and the book. It looked like an amazing event (too bad I couldn't pop over to St Louis, Missouri to take a closer look).

My work and the book are still for sale for a little while longer.

Lots more photos of the show on my portfolio site...
...Where Mr You and I have been making some small improvements this week.

where the buffalo roam

Big thank-you to Sacred Suds, for including my mini print in her unique, lovely and earthy Etsy treasury today.

inner workings of a Big W catalogue model

buyers remorse

Mr You and I are in deep regret this morning, clearing jumping in to buy our house a few months too early. This SHOE is for sale not far from us!!!! Okay, so it's a tad out of our budget, but that's only because it's in a great spot and on a stack of land.

Couldn't you just see it? Mr You in a checked shirt and overalls, me wearing an apron and my hair in a bun, hanging the washing out on the shoe lace! :D

So peeps, if any of you are interested...

my creative space: california commission

For my creative space this week I get to share what I've been working on for the past few weeks (now that the recipients have got their pic, and I won't be spoiling any surprise).

This is a commission for a really lovely couple from California, who wanted to mark their relationship. They are getting married in just a few weeks (eee!), and I think this was a gift to themselves to celebrate.

Let me tell you, when doing these commissions I really rely on pictures and stories they send, but I also rely hugely on Google. I jump onto Google Maps and research trees and landscapes and what the beaches look like in the area where the couple are from, and I research animals and general images of the area in the Google image search. Then I piece it all together into something that hopefully speaks to them on a personal note.

The challenge with this one was combining their interests (they asked me to combine knitting and spearfishing).
It took me a while to work it out, but hopefully they're happy with my interpretation.

Have a great wedding Jen and Patrick! And of course a very happy marriage together...

Visit Kootoyoo for more creative spaces.