Nearly Santa time!

Wow! Wish I had more time to add to this, but this time of year I'm more NUTS than an elf...so many orders. Always right to the last minute. Just had my birthday, which was fab and fun. All my lovely friends being gorgeous and such a laugh. Feeling Christmassy now, especially as we have snow too. Not been sledging yet, but if the snow holds....mini snowmen seem to keep popping up in the garden and a Grimble has appeared in the kitchen looking for blue food.   

Moose Towers overdrive

As usual, a sooper late post! Things very manic here at Moose Towers, Moose & the mooselets (you know who you are...you're fabulous!) all busy stitching away to make those Christmas dreams come true. No, we haven't taken Santa's place, we're just very busy trying to create lots of doodles for our lovely customers. The installation at The Byre Theatre creeping closer and closer...frantically making competition winners to go up in the theatre foyer and gallery. 

Lots been going on in the last month or so. Amazing, when you create new blog posts you get a real concept of how quickly time passes.....anyway....

Been away in Newcastle with (re)design, doing modelling workshops with the kids in The Great North Museum, part of the Design Event 09 festival. Over 2 weekends...great fun! Next to the amazing Lizzie Lee, who creates the most amazing lampshades from recycled lace (must send her some!) and the really fun sock creatures/aliens. 

I've uploaded some pics of current doodles that have left the Moose laboratory. I will do a separate update to credit all the lovely peeps that have shown an interest recently and do the usual links and stuff. 

Oh...and how could I forget...some doodles were on the Paul O'Grady show tonight. My 30 seconds of fame..haha!! Tried to link to the show, but couldn't..so just the thanks page! 

Back to it!!

Had the most amazing 3 weeks in Chicago, staying with good friends and seeing the sights, chilling and taking it all in. Back to life with a big BUMP!....like we never left. Lots of new projects....exciting times!

At last!

At last I'm back on the blog....been so busy, just haven't had the time. Anyway, finished the doodle giveaway for the lovely Lauren in the US. Been making top hats, telephones, more doodles, and generally enjoying the APPALLING summer weather we have been having. It has felt as though the monsoons have hit at times!

Giveaway winner!

Long time, no post. The winner for the "doodle" giveaway is Lauren Wenchel from Maryland, USA. Thanks to the lovely Katherine at kathblack.blogspot.com. Will be winging it's way to her soon! 

ooh I'm blushing!

Fab to be doing a doodle giveaway with the fabulous Katherine at kathblack.blogspot.com, (follow this link). Her and outblush.com are current fans, whoopee!

Holidays are here

The summer holidays have arrived! Fabulous....and fabulous weather too. Headed straight to the beach with the munchkins the day they broke up. So hot, the dog dug a hole in the sand he could sit in to stay cool!  Virtually unheard of in this part of the world. It was great to sit in the sun with my book and just chill. The next 7 weeks will now be a huge juggling act. Work busy and loads to get on with and coming up later in the year. Spent Sunday in Edinburgh city centre at the Grassmarket. Lovely sunny day (after the initial soaking when I got there - typical!!), music playing, people dancing, drinking, browsing the stalls and generally having a great time. Good to see so many tourists milling about enjoying this great town. 

Ouch!

Ran the Edinburgh Race for Life 10K yesterday. I hadn't really trained for it, so did power walk a chunk. Good fun, misty, foggy, yuk day, which is perfect for getting hot and sweaty, as it keeps you cooler. Legs lickle bit sore today though....that'll teach me! Back to Hat's for a shower and lunch - she also ran, and breezed through, as she HAD trained! Cutting and sewing a load of bunting for a July event, and also working on orders and getting ready for the Grassmarket this Sunday. 

summer?!

It's so fabulous to get decent weather -  we can never depend on it in this part of the world. Sports day at school was a scorcher-amazing. Tonight, whilst I had a free hour - boys at school play and scout sausage/sizzle/walk, finished "Charlie", doodle for a local client. Sky ominous again, beautiful day, but that weird "haaar", that seems to sit on us at night and clear at midday the next day.

Midsummer Night

Crazy bonkers day. G's 8th birthday party, a house full of kids and bowling. I could have done without the 6am "can I open my presents now?" alarm call...knackered! 2 new members of the family, Minstrel the dwarf lop bunny (very cute) - G's birthday present. Wonder how long the cleaning and caring will last?? S then found a toad in the garden..."Newton", who is in huge bucket in the garden and being given the biggest selection of bugs they can find! All happy. Went to an outdoor Midsummer Night's dream production at the Dundee Botanical Gardens. Freezing and windy! Good night, but would have been nicer if I could have felt my feet and fingers! Flaming June.....!

Juney June

Another month seems to have skipped by....work busy, and diverse. Seems to be a constant whirl of school, boys, tennis, sewing, dog-walking and all the usual stuff! Fab times away with old friends, this is the year for weddings and 40th birthdays. A new tattoo, stock for shows coming up in the summer &  a 40th pressie for one of my oldest friends. 

Chilling

After the madness of Open Studios & the in-laws staying, relaxing for a wee while. Not too long, as I have other shows to get ready for & orders to finish. Good sunny romp on the rocks on the beach at St Andrews (after we got lashed with rain first of course!)

Open Studios 2009

WOW! What a great weekend. The weather was rubbish either side of it, but the Sat, Sun & Mon were fab and we had 100's of people through the doors seeing my work. I had managed the Alice in Wonderland theme (minus the caterpillar-was beaten by him, well, lack of time really), which hung in the middle of the studio (the characters had to be rehung a few times after over enthusiastic kids got hold of them!). A real buzz about the place and so fab that people can come by and see my work and know what goes on behind my crazy windows! Also have been added as a favourite "what's new" on peoplelovepresents.com. Follow this to see http://peoplelovepresents.com/whats-new.html?catlimitstart=40. Very exciting. Happy Spring!

OOOH, long time no see..

great  weekend, we have had a great 2 weeks off from school. lots of playing, fun and just chilling. been hard trying to do the usual manage the kids, be a nice parent, work, do stuff, and keep sanity...!

Hanna's Gallery in Spring

Work starting to pick up again. Think this is going to be an exciting year. Took stuff up to Hannas Gallery in Dundee at the weekend for a new Spring exhibition. Could have done without the murderous hangover, but I struggled on! The opening is this Saturday (28th) Must update the website, with all this news. I have so many things in the pipeline, if they all come off I'm going to be frantic! Think I might have been over ambitious about my plans for Open Studios, but that's me!! 

The weather's BALTIC again after the days of warm Spring sun. 

PPPETER PPPOTTERS GGGALLERY

Fab day...out of the fishbowl...delivered work to the Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington. Beautiful space,  Arabella doing the grandest of jobs, fantastic space.... She currently has work by Maki Hamada, stunning, colourful, complex...... 

Tum-Tum

Tum-tum finished for S. Poor boy he's been waiting for this since August. He's so patient! He's so chuffed with him and he goes everywhere with him - apart from school! Just plodding on getting stock together for upcoming exhibitions and shows. Time never on my side. Crappy weather again today. When will Spring arrive? Have a whole pile of seeds that need planting. I keep promising the boys that we'll do it, maybe this weekend.  

Planning.....

Things seem to be suddenly taking off, like everyone is coming to after Christmas and January. My head full of ideas, things to do, places to go, things to sort out, prepare and manage. All very exciting, never enough hours in the day! Alice and her Wonderland going to be a theme for the openstudios in May. I'm going to change the whole studio around and do something totally different. I've gone from having 2 months to aaargh 2 months???!!! A new rockabilly Russian doll!!

Inspirations

Been up to lots, lots coming up. Everything seems to move so quickly when you think of the year ahead and what you have to organise and plan. Open Studios in May - 2 months away, but when I think of what I want to do for it, no time at all......!! The sun starting to peek it's head out more and some lovely warm (well, compared with what we have been getting!) days and great walks with the hairy beast. Running going OK, gradually building it up again. Boys full of spring naughtiness...went to see Bolt 3-D with them and the Donna Wilson exhibition at The Lighthouse, which they loved, though I think a visit to Forbidden Planet and raking through loads of cartoon related figures/comics etc proved more interesting!

Edinburgh & snow

Not logged in for a while, and everything changed so much in that time! Last week crazy super sledging snow. Went with the boys (half term last week) & snuck over a farmer's fence to a BIG hill, that was a blinding slope to sledge down. 2 sledges, 3 of us, lots of fighting over who goes next & lots of mess when we all went down together - especially to stop ourselves before the barbed wire/electric fence at the bottom! Didn't stay long, as G wasn't in waterproof/snow gear, so he was totally freezing and wet, also the dog was waiting (shivering) on the other side of the fence. 

My comic relief noses turned up for the boys. No doubt they will be trashed by the day, but want to get them in the mood....I'm very tempted to dye my hair pink for the event, as a fundraiser...

This time last week, knee deep in snow, now really mild and lose a layer type of weather. Strange! 

Spent yesterday in Edinburgh at the Stills Gallery, work networking/mentoring thing. Very inspiring and motivating. Lots of potential work stuff to attack. Very exciting! Great city, I always feel so inspired when I go there. I'm always amazed how somewhere so close is so cosmopolitan, when we live 40 mins away TOTALLY in the sticks!