Making notebooks

I found a whole heap of beautiful hand printed paper... more info here... and have been making them into notebooks for everyone's Christmas and birthday presents. This one I made for my friend Chris, who's a carpenter so I put in some graph paper too for sketching and making measurements. If you want one too just ask. I can taylor make.

New commission

On the back of mistakingly leaving my sketch book with prep work for the Secret Garden Party paintings (not pretty pictures!) I got a commission to make an illustration and flyer. Odd I thought but hey work comes your way when you least expect it.

Poached Creative run really great projects giving media experience to kids from deprived backgrounds in Hackney, particularly those out of work and education. Their last project, Hackney Hounds, was a huge success with five 15-18yr olds making a provoking film about the responsibilities of owning a Staff Bull Terrier. The film was premiered to a full house at Rich Mix Cinema, Bethnal Green with talks from local charities.

This was a flyer I designed to catch the eye of passing Hackney youth and give them a chance that could change their future.

Front/back

snaps

Uploading my photos to Flickr. Two more film are on my desk waiting to be processes...I love the excitement of old fashioned developing. (So long as I have the funds)

www.flickr.com/photos/cissy-b

Secret Garden Party

I was asked to make some Aunt Sallies for Tax Deductable Theater Company and their Nocturnium for Lost Children at Secret Garden Party. 'Something Horrendous' was their advice so I painted these. Ceridwen you look great...

Underpanties

i made some, what etsy call, 'underpanties', nice. you can buy them there, here

That's my bum - yes, I train hard at the gym...and I'm silver skinned, yes...

The Big Draw

I was part of The Big Draw, which sent a sketchbook out to travel around the world from hand to hand and pick up sketches on the way... this was my entry, or entries...I little romance and a story about the springtime:-

photos

I'm trying out taking photos with my new plastic toy. this is one.

more photos on flickr

drawstring bags

400 of these for an educational board game for Bromley By Bow Center/ ESOL in 6 days...quite a challenge!

Castagnoli church

A picture of the church in Castagnoli-in-Chianti for the wedding service thingy

Maps

I had to do a map for someone so I did it like this:

It was for their wedding. I also designed their invitations. I won't upload them obviously but this is the picture of the house which I put on the evening invitation:

Festival of hugs

Spent a sunny weekend decorating the Festival of Hugs in Dorset with a dinosaur theme. Rosie Emerson painted the dinosaurs, I cut out the pre-historic foliage and Chris Baxter did the flower arranging. Photos still to be developed...

Stour Space market stall

I had a stall last Saturday at Stour Space, where I sold lavander bags and bath salts and 2 felt hot water bottle covers. I'll be selling them on Etsy as well or if you're interested in buying something just get in touch....
Here are some photos:

Thanks Jenna for the photos!

in case you were wondering...

As a way to get sketching more often I set myself a task to draw somethings that I was wishing for for my birthday which is coming up...

Lavender Bags

A friend who works on a stall on Borough Market selling delicious french delicacies gave me a two huge bags of lavender to make lavender bags and salts with. Possibly they may be able to sell them on the stall there. Elsewhere I'll be selling them at Stour Space designers market on the 27th March, Etsy, through this blog and possibly a shop in Dorset. They go down by the name of Cecily Baillie (that's me). Here the first few I made...

the Marmot and the Pancake 2

These were some alternatives I did for the same poem...

The Marmot and The Pancake

These illustrations are 2 of many that go with a poem I wrote about a marmot and a pancake. It's called The Marmot and The Pancake.

There's still so much more to learn and practice but I would like, one day, to have one of these published.... a dream.

Lilly the Frog

Mark and I wrote a children's story about a frog called Lilly who wants to learn to fly. I did some illustrations but I think I'd like to do them again and make them screen printable.

Bedtime Story Pt.1

These were two pictures I did to illustrate a friend of mine's poem, It's called 'Bedtime Story Pt.1' and he's called Baddrunkpoet though it's not very bad or drunken. It's a beautiful poem and I was inspired to draw/paint these sketches for a possible book he was going to make, though I never showed him because I was shy.

lizard

Here's another little lizard:

Gardens

My mum's a keen gardener. I did a plan of her kitchen garden last summer. I might try paint one every year so that she can see how the garden has developed and where the fruit and veggies have moved from plot to plot year on year.

insects

I spent a summer in Tuscany catching dead insects and drawing them. It was so hot I had to put them in the fridge to keep them from decomposing too quickly. My sister wants me to decorate her wedding stuff with italian-esque things (she's getting married in Tuscany). I'm going to draw lizards, porcupines, olives, vines and Oleander (maybe). I love Oleander - They grow it between the motorway lanes. It's poisonous apparently. I don't know what else to draw. I don't think scorpions, wild bore and hornets would go down too well...

beetroot lovin'

I found this recipe on afeitar's blogspot - beetroot cookies! who'd 'a thought! They're kinda a moderation of her recipe with chunks of choc in and a morello cherry on top. I then covered them in tin foil, sewed them into old cellophane from a bunch of flowers and then sewed them into heart shaped brown paper and posted them off far and wide. Valentine's is all about as much pink, sweetness and unexpected as possible!