Colour - Reds

Autumn is here and the garden is popping with every shade of red. They sing against the greens that are still vibrant before the real chill of the season sets in. It creates a beautiful palette.

Oh!.....and we found a fairy door in the magnolia tree at the bottom of the garden. I am told that Maggie the fairy lives there!

Illustration Friday - Together

This weeks Illustration Friday is 'Together', so I found a linocut that I cut a while ago for Hansel and Gretal.

Aqua Love

A collection of four fabric designs. All are small scale patterns in simple geometric shapes. (Somewhat different from my usual hand drawn, illustrative designs.) An indulgence in four basic colours that remind me of the sea this beautiful summer just gone.

Once I see the fabric samples and check the colours, they will be available from my Spoonflower shop.

A Sneaky Peek

A sneaky peek at a book I have been illustrating for Plum Tree Books. I'd love to tell you the story but I can't...yet!

Cucamelons

This year we have grown cucamelons (or my prefered name mouse melons). It's a new vegetable to me. It's basically a tiny little cucumber that looks like a dolls house sized watermelon. I have to say on first taste I was not impressed, although others loved it. It's quite bitter with a lemony cucumber taste.
What to do with them? As I am a fan of pickles I decided to work out how to do just that and I must say I am much more impressed with the little fruit now. Yum!

To make pickled cucamelons is simple:
The liquid is 1/2 water to 1/2 vinegar (1/2 distilled vinegar, 1/2 white wine vinegar). Add salt, peppercorns and dill. Bring to a rolling boil, add the cucamelons, bring back to the boil for a minute or two then stuff into sterilised jars. Voila!

Faces

It's the Summer holidays, no school! So an on going game for my boys is to find faces in unexpected places. This is a selection of the weird and wonderful expressive photos they have taken so far.

Doll Cousins

Just a quickie to say that finally, by popular demand, my dolls are available individually as fat quarters of fabric (specifically Linen Cotton-Canvas) here at Spoonflower. They are very easy to cut out and sew, all you need is a little patience a needle and thread, some pins and something to stuff them with.

These four little guys were inspired by my two boys and two of their cousins. The girls use their dolls as cushions on long car journeys.