happy birthday derek

It was our good friend Derek's birthday on Sunday so Ben & I made him a mixtape as part of his present. 

It's a fun one! We added lots of songs by bands we all saw recently at End of the Road as well as a few that remind us of good times at ATP. 

I hope he enjoys it. You can listen to it here if you like. I'm sure Derek won't mind...

Postcard club

I recently joined in over at the Postcard Club. Here's my first swap with Ed Cheverton.

He sent me a collage play card, and I sent him a paper collage illustration of my favourite houseplant.

If anyone else wants to do a swap with me then do let me know - I really love sending and receiving nice things in the post!

secret seed swap

As I mentioned in a previous post, Lyndsey let me sign up as a late entry to the What You Sow secret seed swap last month. I haven't done a swap for a while so I was really pleased to be taking part, especially as I have a new garden to get growing in.

I really enjoyed preparing my package to send out. I picked out radish, rocket and aubergine seeds (some of my favourite vegetables) and added in some Limnanthes seeds too, as it's nice to have some flowers in the garden.

I illustrated each of my packets with paper collage pictures of the plants, and typed out some labels for the back.




I hadn't heard of Limnanthes before, but it is nicknamed the 'poached egg' plant because of the appearance of the flowers, which won me over immediately.



I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Nice and colourful!

And I received an equally colourful package in return from my fellow secret seed swapper. Just look how cute they are! Thank you Gabriella.



Beautiful packets, and a great selection of edibles, a lot of them themed around Puglia in Italy.
I've since found out that Gabriella has a great blog called Mangia Bene - filled with 'edible stories from a British Italian kitchen', hence the Italy connection.

Cicoria are bitter greens used in Puglia's national dish, and Gabriella described the Cima di Rapa as Puglia's equivalent to purple sprouting. She also included Carosello Mello Lungo which is an Italian cucumber, and some nasturtiums which are pretty and edible too - perfect!

I had a day off work yesterday so I decided to sow a few of the seeds (some nasturtiums and some of the cucumber seeds). Nice to do some gardening on such a lovely warm day.





And here they all are, sitting in our mini greenhouse alongside the runner beans (which are beginning to sprout!)

Thanks once again to Lyndsey for organising such a great swap. I'm looking forward to taking part again next year.

sloe sundays

At the end of September we spent an afternoon up on the downs foraging for berries. We came back with a small tub full of blackberries for a Sunday evening apple crumble and an even bigger haul of sloes which I put in the freezer and forgot about for a while.



A few weeks later Ben and I made a batch of sloe gin (more about that another time) which used up about two thirds of the berries we had. I thought it would be a waste to throw the rest away so I put them back in the freezer with the vague idea that I'd make another batch of gin when I'd picked up another bottle.

However, this weekend I went around to Hannah's house for a delicious lunch party and was inspired by the sloe syrup that she had made and served with ice cream for pudding. It was delicious! As was her elderflower gin which I was very lucky to sample.

I decided to follow Hannah's lead and make some syrup to use up the rest of the sloes. It's super easy to make and I've written out the recipe below in case any of you want to try.


Ingredients

Equal parts sloes, sugar and water.
I used:

600g sloe berries
600g granulated sugar
600ml water
+
Juice of half a lemon

Instructions

Put the sugar, sloes and water into a large saucepan and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring often.
The mixture will turn a lovely deep purple colour.

I added the lemon juice to the mixture halfway through simmering.

Next strain the mixture through a colander to remove the bulk of the sloe berries, then strain through fine muslin to remove any smaller bits. I ended up with about 600ml of syrup after straining.

Pour the mixture into sterilised bottles or containers, and seal. Once opened keep the syrup in the fridge.

I decided to freeze half of my mixture to keep for later.



Uses

The syrup is delicious as an accompaniment for ice cream. I suspect it would also make a nice pancake topping and could be used to make some great gin cocktails too.

Apparently it is also rich in vitamin C and has been recommended to treat colds.

Medicinal and tasty too. Enjoy!

What You Sow

Recently I was asked by the very lovely Lyndsey to help design a banner for her new venture What You Sow - an online shop which sells lovely gardening things for the creative gardener. Although if you are not 100% green-fingered (like me) then there are also a whole host of nice treats to be found (and some great stocking fillers for christmas!)

It was really sweet of Lynsdey to think of me for this piece and I had a lot of fun working on it - drawing plants and vegetables is a particular favourite of mine. The site is so full of lovely objects and ideas so I'd recommend you all have a look!

You should also check out the What You Sow blog as there lots of amazing crafty tutorials and inspirational ideas (as well as selling nice things, Lyndsey also makes a whole load of amazing items). I also did a little interview about my illustration work.

Now I need to work on my balcony garden...

print giveaway

No more printmaking course for me - four weeks went by very quickly. Luckily I have a small selection of prints to show for myself and I've now become a member at the studio so can keep myself busy making more.

I thought I'd celebrate by holding a mini print giveaway! If you would like to enter please leave a comment on this post letting me know which of the above four prints you would like and I'll pick a winner out of a hat at the weekend.

Good luck!

a post about post

This is long overdue, but I just wanted to say a big thank you to Thereza for the lovely package she sent me as part of her giveaway (there are better photos on her blog).

Magnets & booklets & illustrations galore. It's all so lovely, and a physical reminder of why I love to follow her blog.

Thanks once again Thereza!

two's a pair

My contribution to a giant game of memory that is being held at the V&A this Friday. Come along for some fun and games! I hope to make a fleeting visit.

If I had a zoo...

It's mixtape time again.

This month I went with the theme of animals and for the cover I allowed myself the length of each song to cut and paste the animals out of paper. I wonder if you can guess what all of them are? OR better still, the song?

Note: Animals may not be anatomically correct.

bifidus digestivum

Something has made my stomach grumpy.
I wish it would cheer up.

many many dishes

At the weekend we warmed our flat with a winter food party. There were loads of amazing dishes made by some very talented friends. The highlights included:

• The biggest sushi platter you've ever seen.
• Cookie monster cakes (amazing!)
• The sweetest cake I've ever tasted (decorated in suitable Manicolo style).
• Cupcakes, pasties, quiche, salad and vol-au-vents.
• A LOT of cheese.

There were also some unexpected housewarming presents (thank you!), some impressive dance moves, and the creation of a (now rather busy) height wall. So pop round if you want to have yourself measured...or if you want some leftover cheese or cake.

We still have a lot of eating to do...

let's collaborate

Today Natacha, Vicky, Yumi and I installed our house of books in the Amnesty Bookshop, Brighton.
If all goes smoothly (no subsidence/falling masonry) it will be on display for the next 3 weeks.


BOOK HOUSE - Collaborative Project

"Our objective in building this house was to create a space in which to set scenes inspired by our favourite books and stories."

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
(Natacha Goransky)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
(Debbie Hill)

Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi
(Vicky Ilott)

The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck
(Yumi Okuda)

let's make christmas treats

Last night we visited the open studios at New England House and picked up some treats in the Sukie sale. Then we all gathered at Yumi's for a christmas making session.

We were planning to make crackers but failed due to lack of joke inspiration. Instead I made some gift tags (thanks to lucy for the reminder) and cut some robins out of paper.

I also found my mini wooden christmas tree yesterday so put it up in our living room! (Hopefully it'll distract us from the damp patches).

breakfast with tiffany

It's national bike week at the moment.
Today I got a free breakfast and a bike pump - good times!
Have a peek here for other bicycle events happening in Brighton this week.

hmm...

Marmite is not my mate.

screen printing

Today I started a screen printing course.
I didn't print a pizza, but I did eat one for lunch.


Did you know the margherita pizza was invented in 1889? Now you do.
See, my blog can be educational too!
x

southern comfort

This week I'm experimenting with watercolour.

a kite kite

Today I've been thinking about kites.
So here is a kite shaped kite:

art junky

On sunday a few of us from our MA course took part in the 3rd Art Junky indoor market at the Phoenix Gallery, Brighton. The day was a great success and we had a lot of fun. There were even more stalls than last year with some beautiful work (some of which I couldn't resist buying), and lots of tea and cake.

I sold quite a lot of bits (incuding some pigeons!) and am planning to add some of my leftover stock to my etsy shop over the coming weeks.

Here are some pictures from the day (courtesy of yumi):




And some links to my fellow stallholders' websites:

yumi



audrey



naomi



fiona



If any of you folks know of any other similar events coming up in the uk/local area then do let me know and I'll make sure to post up some pictures of my purchases soon!
x

CMYK snail

how bright he is!