#348 Hamwiggles

Ooops! I should have made this post a couple of days ago!

I won’t be at today’s Kraftbomb, as planned – but you should go anyway as it will be great :)

We put our apartment on the market late last week and the real estate agents are moving quickly, so we’re having to coordinate lots of viewings and open homes, and early afternoon on a Sunday is prime property-perusing time. I was looking forward to the craft fair as I haven’t done one in a while, but we didn’t want to put off the activities in case we discourage a buyer.

On top of that, we’re dashing out whenever we can to look at houses we might want to buy so we have something to move into! JSR and I have moved around quite a few times – since we met we’ve lived in two houses, two apartments, and we once stayed in my parents’ spare room for nine months (a lesson in being lied to by apartment developers, ha ha!) – and while the actual moving process is awful it’s always exciting to have a new space to arrange and settle into.

This time we’re hoping for a nice family home and yard on a quiet street, which is going to be a big change from the central city, but I think it’s the right time. I’m looking forward to having more space and fresh air and a dining table and a bath tub and CATS! CATS CATS CATS!

#347 Cosy Barnyard

01) It’s true I had Stickers and Donuts in my last link post, but this is definitely worth a second inclusion: a printable Writing Implement Test Sheet! Includes space for printing and cursive tests; a drawing test; squiggle and line tests; a smiley face test – everything you need to put a new pen, pencil or marker through its paces.

02) This is surely the world’s happiest car, and it’s called the Peapod! I usually could not care less about cars, but I’m loving the green version.

03) The stop-motion videos TADworks have been making recently with their tiny Po figurines are so sweet. I saw the third one in the series and immediately rushed to Etsy to buy the green Po who steals the show :)

04) I love a house with a grass roof! My dream is to have one with a goat to nibble it down. (via Materialicious)

05) The Seed, a wonderful stop-motion papercraft video directed by Johnny Kelly. (via Buzzfeed)

06) Two new blogs I’ve started reading:

• Grain Edit “… focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period”

• Inspiration Resource “A place for graphic designers to gather images and be inspired”

07) Klaus Haapaniemi’s Satumetsa dinnerware is quirky and folkloric. I don’t think I’ve ever had a china pattern catch my eye like this before! (via Apartment Therapy)

08) A lovely plush Fat Fugu fish from Zooguu on Etsy – you know I love anything round. He looks super cuddly. (via Indie Fixx, who linked to another adorable Zooguu plush)

09) Gala Darling’s Sad Trombone List (100 Things To Do When You’re Upset) is going into my bookmarks for the next time I have a bad day. Not everything there would work for me, but there’s so many ideas I’m sure everyone would find something cheering!

10) If you like the two-guys-ramble-on style of podcast, and don’t mind a few rude bits, I would highly recommend The Perfect Ten with Phill and Phil. (One of the guys is Phill Jupitus, who you might know from British panel shows QI & Never Mind The Buzzcocks.) I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work, and I was so pleased to find another good one. (via ohdarling)

P.S. I have a little interview up at Pretty Pretty Pretty – thanks Jo and Amy!

#346 Cake Snake

#345 Sunny Camel

I’m going to wrap up my posts on Tokyo by sharing some of our favourite pieces from the Pixiv Festa exhibition we ran into in the Design Festa galleries in Tokyo! I’m copying and pasting the artist’s names, and linking to their profiles on the Pixiv website, which I hope is sufficient attribution :)

「もふもふカプチーノ」/しぶぞー	「心強い僕の友達」/tomape
「送電線鉄塔越え」ー飛ぶ犬ーより」 /[perro perra]	「カンニバルリンゴ」/まみな

You can see all of the pieces on the Pixiv Festa website. Lots of anime inspiration, and so much precise execution!

#344 Burpy Bear

The kind folks at shirt.woot have printed another one of my designs as a t-shirt. This time it is a narwhal!

It’s available in womens, mens and kids sizes for $15, and shirt.woot ships to most countries. (Not quite all countries, but I think that every place I have ever sent an order to personally is included, so hopefully nobody who wants one will have a problem.)

They will keep selling it until at least March 30th; after that the length of time it remains available depends on popularity. Shirt.woot handles all of the production and delivery for these shirts, so if you have a question about that sort of thing please direct it their way.

I actually feel slightly concerned about this design because it could be taken as a negative sentiment, which is not what I usually want to express, but I drew the narwhal with that indignant expression to be amusing – surly looking animals are often funny, don’t you think? – and the caption followed to make it more ‘t-shirt-y’, and hopefully the innate silliness will come across :)

I’m sorry there are no drawings at the moment. JSR and I have some kind of ache-based illness – his is much worse than mine, but I’m mostly afflicted with wrist and elbow pain (could there be any more inconvenient location?!) and it hurts to hold a pen. Augh! I can carefully pick things up and put them in envelopes, so I’m still filling orders, but I don’t want to do more than that in case I prolong the annoyance.

I have been reconsidering my workflows recently, so I might not return to a regular M-W-F illustration schedule, but I have more thinking to do on this point so I won’t make any announcements yet :)