Merry christmas!

Let me talk you through my tree...

Overall our tree looks pretty similar to last year. Same colours, same angel. However, we do have some new additions.

Such as this nutcracker man. I love these little guys. I think its the crazy face that does it for me.

And continuing with the tradition we started last year to buy a special decoration each year to mark whatever special has happened, we got this pretty bauble to mark the birth of little Bea.

Bea is a lucky girl as she also got this special one from Auntie Jenny to match cousin Tilly's.

I can't wait until all the decorations on our tree remind me of something special.

The little man with the red and yellow car

We went to a christmas craft fair at Burghley House last weekend. Over all it was a bit rubbish but we did get a couple of nice things.

The best was this 1960's Noddy print for the bubba's nursery. We are in need of art in there but we are so picky we still hadn't found anything. I love the colours of this illustration, and the elephants! I wonder what the scene was about...

Two sites I'm loving today

I've just come across these gorgeous prints by Peagreen:

I think this owl (£45) is my favourite.

I'm also loving EVERYTHING on Lapin and Me:

Dear Father Christmas,

Can I have all of the beautiful things please?

Thanks

Love Julia

Baby Bear

I will try not to let this turn into a baby worship blog but how could I resist posting this photo? I hope she forgives us for dressing her up for our own amusement.

Lovely Clusters

I thought I would give you a break from the baby news and mention this nice site lovely clusters which currently includes a couple of my handmade toys. it has lots of lovely other things too.

Whats that? Just one more picture? oh go on then:

Oh baby

Just popping in to share a picture of Bea having her first bath - I will get back to posting properly eventually but getting myself dressed by lunchtime is enough of a challenge at the moment!

How cute is she? This was right before she realised she didn't like having a bath and started screaming.

Baby Bea

Introducing Beatrice Elizabeth Haag who suprised us by arriving 9 days early on 5th Spetember - which turned out to be a good thing as she weighed in at an impressive 9lb 3!

She is absolutely gorgeous but keeping us very busy (and awake for most of the night!)

Quilting

My latest project for the nursery is a decorative quilt for the cot. I have never made a quilt before but am enjoying the process so far. I will have to get a move on though as we only have about 2 and a half weeks to our due date!

I am keeping it quite simple with patchwork squares and some appliques. Hopefully it will be finished soon and I will reveal the whole thing!

Oh yes, oh yes

Here is a clip from an animation project I was involved with recently. I created all the artwork and the film was made by creative agency Dave.

Its basically a training video for the call centre staff of insurance company Churchill.

It was lots of fun to do - especially as I didn't have to animate it myself!

p.s. The soundtrack isn't really music with strange animal sounds - the real sound has been covered up to protect Churchill's top secret training techniques. (I know what the real script was but if I told you I'd have to kill you...)

Seeing stars

And spots!

I have just listed a boy's version of the cot decoration in my etsy shop. This one is stars in the more manly colours of red and blue. Had our bump been a boy I would have liked this colour scheme for our nursery. If they've made a mistake I will have to remove this listing and keep this for myself! I do hope not though as he would have nothing but pink clothes!

Blood, sweat and Lloyd Loom

We bought this 1931 Lloyd Loom armchair in Newmarket a few weeks ago for the nursery. It was badly painted in a light blue and had a few areas of damage to the weave but as it was just the shape we had been looking for we decided to do it up ourselves.

It was a bigger job than we thought it would be! The cleaning up and repairing of the weave wasn't too bad apart from poking out all of the old paint clogs with a palette knife and screwdriver, but when we started painting we realised it wasn't going to be as simple as we first thought. We ended up painting the entire thing with tiny water colour brushes as we found it was the only way to get the paint right into the weave without clogging it up. I don't even want to try and work out the hours of labour it took! When you're eight months pregnant you do not want to be sitting on the floor with big swollen feet at 10 o'clock at night painting a chair with a miniature brush!

Finally we got it painted just before losing the will to live and I have made a new seat pad and matching cushion and got it settled into the corner of the nursery.

We love it and hopefully baby will appreciate all our hard work!

Summery bits

I've just got hold of some screen grabs of a temporary website I did some illustrations for recently.  They were for an online conference for Unilever.

They were having a 'summer' theme so I basically provided them with some summery illustrations which they used to make the website look a bit more appealing!

North Norfolk

We took the bump on her first holiday last week.  Obviously we couldn't fly anywhere this year so we took a trip to the North Norfolk coast with my sister and her family.

My 6 month old niece had her first picnic at the seaside and the inevitable first taste of sand.

We were pretty lucky with the weather but spent our last beach visit sitting under a beach hut at Wells Next The Sea during a hail storm!

Despite the odd shower a good British holiday had by all.  Except that I lost at Scattergories which I'm normally quite good at.  I blame the baby brain.

Sweet hearts

I made this heart decoration for the end of the cot as we have got the matching Cath Kidston bumper and will be using these prints around the room.  It looks really sweet so I thought I would make another to sell in my Etsy shop incase anyone else wants one!  It doesn't have to be used as a cot decoration but does make a really lovely addition and gives the cot a bit more character.

Hearts decoration available here

Baby blanket

I mentioned this blanket a while ago when I was working on it and here is the finished article.  I am very pleased with the outcome, and quite proud of my biggest crochet project yet!

Its a simple crocheted blanket with scalloped edge and lovely dusky pink velvet ribbon trim.

I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton which has a lovely soft texture and seems to wash really well - important when its for a new born baby!

These pictures also give a sneaky peek of the crib.  It is a very old family crib that my niece has only recently moved out of so I will show it properly another time.

A tree called twig

I've just received the latest issue of the fantastic kids magazine Anorak for which I illustrated a story over two double page spreads.  If you've never seen Anorak its worth a look as along with Okido its one of the best looking magazines aimed at children that I know of.

I was therefore of course thrilled to be asked to illustrate this short story and had so much fun doing it.

Its basically about the adventures of a tree called Twig and features Robin Hood and Isaac Newton!

You can pick up Anorak in Borders.

Pink peonies

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers.  I made my wedding bouquet with pink peonies.

As its June I had to take advantage of the very short peony season and buy a bunch and they have made me very happy this week.

I can't decide if I like them best when they are new and form their tight buds....

Or when they have opened and look like fluffy pink pom poms.  I think they are fabulous either way!

How clean is your house?

Phew!  Its been a busy few weeks here with work for a website followed by a children's magazine followed by an animation leaving this trail of destruction through our flat.

Not content with covering every inch of the studio floor with bits of paper I created a little circle of mess around the dining table too.  We are both now sick of having to shake off the little cut out eyes etc that keep sticking to our feet so I am finally tidying up.

I will show you the results of all this chaos soon.

Go green

Last week I did some illustrations for a corporate responsibility poster for Turner Broadcasting, that is currently up in their lobby at Turner House, Great Marlborough Street.

Its a really long poster!

Its made up of several sections starting with these robots...

Then this little bird.  The post its are real post its stuck on.

Next there is this elephant which you may notice was inspired by the soft toy I have for sale in my Etsy shop...

And lastly a little monkey!

Little Red down under

If anyone happens to be in Melbourne, Australia this week may I recommend that you visit the we heart books stand at the Magnolia Square market to pick up one of my Little Red Riding Hood books!

They only have a small number so don't delay!

A mile stone...

It may not seem like much, but the fact that I can even look at these photos is an indicator of how much better I feel now I have stopped throwing up.

I took them a couple of days before I ended up in hospital with hyperemesis and I was already feeling quite rough.  We were having our nephew and nieces round for tea before going to the panto so I forced myself to bake these cupcakes even though to me they looked absolutely revolting!

For some reason they often came to mind while I was being sick so for months I have avoided looking at these pictures.  Today, I think they actually look quite nice!  I must be nearly back to my normal self at last.

Doodle

Just thought I would share this random doodle with you today!

Baby post in disguise

I think I'm probably going to be boring you with quite a lot of baby posts from now on so I'm thinly disguising this one as a craft post.

I'm crocheting this baby blanket (although I have temporarily run out of yarn) which I started before we knew what flavour its going to be.  Luckily it will have a ribbon threaded through the border where I can add a girly touch.  I have to say its very soothing repeating the same crochet stitch over and over again on something this big.

And while we are on the subject of the blanket here is the project bag I'm keeping it in.  I got it from Loop and it comes with a choice of bird print.  I may have to go back for more as its very handy to keep projects separate.  (my knitting bag is bursting at the seams with halve finished projects, pattern books and balls of yarn so things tend to get a bit tangled!).

Its a....GIRL!

Vest from Cath Kidston

20 Weeks

Woops!  Haven't posted for a while.  Just been a bit busy lately.

Had our 20 weeks scan yesterday so here is the latest pic of our baby.  Unfortunately it was shy so we still don't know the sex but will on Saturday so watch this space!