Monthly Updates
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By Marceline | September 3, 2010
I cannot deny that I have actually been wearing shorts for 90% of the Summer and only haven’t drawn them yet because I knew I’d have to draw some ankles. Also I don’t really wear my shorts outside much unless I’m on the bike. But I bought some new shorts this month so here you go. August was good, especially all the wholesale orders, getting to paddle in the sea and MY BOOTS. Hopefully I will get to draw myself wearing my boots next month – imagine!
Reading, Watching, Playing
The discovery of Tahiti: From the journal of George Robertson, Master of H.M.S. Dolphin
I mostly bought this because it’s so pretty and has lovely woodblock prints inside. I do like old expedition books too though. This is exactly what the title says and sadly doesn’t even cover the journey to and from Tahiti in any detail, concentrating on the daily observations of a senior officer as they arrive at Tahiti. Once the initial threats and scuffles with the natives are over, it becomes fairly repetitive but the language and daily incidents provide plenty of entertainment. I particularly enjoyed his 18th Century style bitchy girlfights with the First Lieutenant, “Old Growl” who does indeed sound like an ass. At the very least, it has given me the words bumbard, calabash and musquetoon, all of which I think would make excellent modern day insults. And a working knowledge of the worth of nails when it comes to barter.
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
As expected, once I got myself interested in Pride and Prejudice, I’ve been zipping my way through the others in my pile. Sense and Sensibility is not entirely dissimilar but is nicely understated and subtly humorous with the sort of romantic misunderstanding type plot that doesn’t quite tip over into farce. Short and sweet, in fact.
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
Since I’ve been reading a lot of books about islands lately (is it LOST withdrawal?), I figured now was a good time to read this. I’ve seen parts of the film so I knew generally what it was about but always better to read the book. However, I found it very dull and disappointing. The whole excitement of shipwreck tales is the ingenuity and exploration offset by loneliness and disasters. The Robinsons are certainly ingenious but arrive equipped with literally everything required to start a new civilisation, from food and animals to farming equipment, windows and a handy build-your-own fancy sailboat. Which makes things a bit less exciting. You also soon come to despise Mr Robinson who is something of a walking encyclopedia and just happens to know exactly what to do with any animal, plant and mineral they discover, not to mention his extensive knowledge of farming, engineering, hunting and medicine. This might not be quite so annoying if he and his many sons didn’t also kill everything in sight, generally so they can find out what it is and then eat it (and this island seemingly has every animal in existence – penguins, ostriches, bears, jackals, sharks, whales, rabbits, monkeys and even an elephant! However, it doesn’t have a single human, though I imagine they would relish the opportunity to shoot some of those too). By the last third of the book even the narrator is saying how repetitive it would be to continue describing their adventures and eventually they wrap things up with a rescue of sorts. At which point I was entirely happy to see the back of the lot of them.
Sherlock
How can I put this? I totally loved everything about this. Like immediate addition to my favourite TV shows ever. I am often one of those people who moans about modernising of classic novels and language but now I see what I am actually moaning about is unnecessary modernising of classic novels for the sake of it, badly. When done properly by people who actually love the originals and are possibly geniuses, then it’s brilliant. Sherlock Holmes is not my favourite Conan Doyle but I have read a lot of the short stories, and there seemed to be just enough nods to the books to make fans happy while basically changing whatever else they liked. The amazing part is that everything works so brilliantly in a modern day setting. As much as I love Doctor Who, Sherlock was basically the TV show I wish Doctor Who was – the same sense of gleeful madness but with less silliness and monsters. Also as an overly-gullible TV dullard, I also liked how it made me feel clever. The moment in the first episode when I realised I was supposed to be thinking Mycroft was Moriarty was a high point in a lifetime of TV watching. I would pretty much like this to be on every weekend, forever.
Covert Affairs
This is basically a fluffy Alias with a perkier, blonder, more naive female lead, less disguises, less ass-kicking, no hilarious Rambaldi nonsense and less awesome characters. Though it does have a hot blind womanising techie with a futuristic braille keyboard. No, really. Last week he even ‘went rogue’ and fought some bad guys on a train. Bad guys with guns, and eyes that can see. I hope they don’t get really bored and have him been faking his blindness for evil means in about S4. Anyway it’s entertaining likeable spy fun with ridiculously overblown musical cues and I like it a lot. Possibly because I miss Alias a lot (even if was totally stupid from S3 onwards).
iPhone app of the month
LoveFilm (Free!)
As often mentioned, a large proportion of my TV and film watching is done via LoveFilm. I very rarely go to the cinema ‘cos it’s so expensive, and instead take mental note of any interesting sounding films and add them to my rental list for when they eventually come out on DVD. The problem of course, comes with my terrible memory and I forget them all. Now I can add them straight to my rental list and also use it as a quick research tool instead of Amazon (since looking up stuff on Amazon is one step too close to buying stuff on Amazon). The only rubbish part is you can’t seem to re-order your list unless you remove a film and re-add it. Hopefully they’ll add more features soon.
Resolution update
- Ordering my cards in bulk is a big step in lots of my resolutions
- I have something being made right now that was on my big secret list
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- For some reason I’m feeling pleased that I have nothing new to add here. In fact I removed quite a lot of stuff from my RSS.
Things to look forward to in September
- Using my new prescription goggles to go swimming on my own for the first time in my entire life. I am too blind to find my way around without my glasses. Freedom! (Actually, I have just done this – it was amazing).
- Some new products arriving and hopefully being awesome
- my rainboots arriving? Please?
- New season of Fringe – hurray!
- The days near the end when I realise it’s only a month til I go to Japan – eeeek!
New Product Round-up
- Sew Cute Rainboots!
- Improved Jammie Dodger, Happy Orange and Ice Cream Bears cards
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 16
Items sold on Etsy: 20
Items sold on Folksy: 16
Items sold on Dawanda: 10
Bit quieter this month, but then I was on holiday for a week.
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End of the month update: July
By Marceline | August 1, 2010
July’s been a strange one. I had a fun trip to Manchester at the beginning and a fun jaunt to Edinburgh yesterday with Claire at the end. The weather has swung madly from torrential rain to beautiful sunshine, so while I’ve been out lots on my bike, I’ve also spent a lot of time trudging around in the rain posting orders and stuff. Hence my most usual outfit above, of cool thin clothes and a raincoat.
Reading, Watching, Playing
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
I got a job lot of Jane Austen books from a charity shop ages ago and have had real trouble getting into them. Having seen the film of Pride and Prejudice recently, I gave it a shot and it was a breeze to read. Hopefully I can get into some of the others now.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming
Starting to be a bit annoying reading these in a random order as they keep mentioning past plot points. Still, it was a quick, fun read.
Not much else to write about. Whoever picks my DVDs at LoveFilm must really want me to finish watching The Sopranos – I’ve pretty much been sent nothing else for the past 3 months. Nearly finished though!
iPhone app of the month
Radio Times (£2.99)
As I often mention, I don’t really watch much TV as it happens, relying more on iPlayer, DVDs and other nefarious means to watch the stuff I want to see. Means I don’t waste time watching ads or get sucked into programmes out of laziness. So why would I spend £3 on a TV listing app? Well, I had my eye infection and holiday arm rest time earlier in the month and this was great for getting me off my computer in the evenings by scheduling some TV time when something good was on. It’s got lots of good features – what’s on now, recommended watching and an easy swipe-swipe-swipe action to zip forward to future listings.
Resolution update
- Well, I have been making a zine about making zines for my Zine Workshop!
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Tumblr – I’ve been posting cute Japanese products on OMG Kawaii and dabbling with other ideas too.
- Goodreads – got back into this recently, a virtual library where you can list your books and review them. Handy for seeing how many books you read a year and for keeping note of stuff you want to read in future.
Things to look forward to in August
- Zine workshop
- receiving some cards from a new printer – should be a better size and better quality
- going up north to visit my parents
New Product Round-up
- Spooky-Wooky Badge Set
- Kawaii Animals Badge Set
- Button Flowers Thank You Cards
- Sun and Rain Letter Set
- Geisha Letter Set
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 24
Items sold on Etsy: 13
Items sold on Folksy: 26
Items sold on Dawanda: 27
Much busier this month – the DaWanda world cup promotion really bumped up my sales there too.
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End of the month update: June
By Marceline | July 6, 2010
Lucky for all of us, I didn’t have my eye infection then. Anyway, it’s all better now. Apart from that, June was good. Lots of sunny days, lots of wholesale orders, new bike, fun mail, visit from my mum. Can’t complain. I don’t really seem to have done much though, as you can see. Well, breaks are good.
Reading, Watching, Playing
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
I’ve been slowly realising that I only know a lot of classic stories from abridged childrens’ books or via films etc. so I’ve been looking out for nice old original editions. I understand why older books need to be modernised a little for younger readers but personally I’m a big fan of archaic language and long-winded plots. Anyway, I found this is a lovely edition in a charity shop which looks more like a bible than a story book and I’m glad to have finally read Robinson Crusoe properly and to discover it fits in perfectly with some of my other favourite adventure stories – Treasure Island, The Lost World etc.
Fantastic Mr Fox
This has been hanging about in my Lovefilm rental list since it was on at the cinema and if I’d know how much I would enjoy it, I’d have bumped it up a lot. While hardly faithful to the book, it’s a delightful romp with so much visual detail. It’s almost too whimsical really but there were enough cute and funny moments that it just got away with it.
Doctor Who
Just a little mention to say how much I’ve enjoyed the latest season. I love the new Doctor, the stories are so much less overblown and it’s just been FUN all season long. Well done all round.
iPhone app of the month
Converter (59p)
You may not have noticed but I spent rather a lot of time recently updating my shop descriptions. Or more exactly, standardising them. I may do a post about the reasoning behind this but I particularly wanted to get my dimensions updated into metric and imperial instead of a mishmash of both. I was doing it with Google first but then I downloaded this app and it was 10x faster. Such a simple interface and it does currency, weight, volume, speed, area, time and data too. Marvellous. If you want it, it’s quite far down the search page for converter so look for Architechies who made it.
Resolution update
- I don’t think I did anything. It’s Summer!
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Everyday Cute (new favourite website – I love this so much)
- It Is Nancy’s New Blog (really sweet what I wore drawings)
- Oh Joy Eats (a refreshing change from recipe-heavy food blogs)
- Craftsville (UK crafty news, views and picks)
Things to look forward to in July
- Manchester, except I’ve already been now :)
- Having a holiday of sorts from freelance work
- Having a stall at Made in the Shade in Edinburgh
New Product Round-up
- Bee & Tulip Mug
- Busy Bee Organising Pad
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 17
Items sold on Etsy: 10
Items sold on Folksy: 12
Items sold on Dawanda: 12
Bit slow again, but I was busy enough with wholesale orders and Super Cute Kawaii so that was fine by me.
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End of the month update: May
By Marceline | June 1, 2010
Well, May was a bit odd. Half heatwave and half freezing. Thanks for that. The above looks like I am moaning about the weather – I actually like it being warmer but it was so sudden I wasn’t quite ready for it.
Reading, Watching, Playing
Hello, Please! by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda
This is the cutest little book, all about “very helpful super kawaii characters from Japan”. And how. It’s 90% photographs of cute characters used for packaging, manuals, signage, service mascots and more. I recognised a lot of them from my own Japan trips and really think the rest of the world would be improved by having kawaii mascots for the police, customs etc. and using illustrations of freaked out appliances to warn you of the dangers. The text is good too, explaining the history of cute mascots and their usage, plus some insight into those bewilderingly helpful characters who spend their lives encouraging you to eat them. Definitely worth picking up!
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
Really liked this one too. Well, who knew.
LOST/Fringe/24
Okay, USA, what is the deal with having all your tv shows finish at the same time? Fringe season finale, 24 series finale and the end of LOST forever oh noes all in one week was almost more than my heart could cope with. By the time the double bill 24 finale came around I was almost emotionally battered enough to feel sad 24 was ending. Until they just did a cop-out ending that felt more like a season finale, oh LOOK OVER HERE there’s a film coming out, bah. Anyway, for the record; Fringe finale – pretty much perfect, as the whole season has been; LOST – emotionally satisfying enough to take your mind off all the niggling loose ends. S6 needs a rewatch for sures; 24 enjoyably rubbish, which was impressive since about 50% of the season was just rubbish. So, what the heck do I watch now?
iPhone app of the month
Shopify (Free!)
Actually, this is not the greatest app ever invented but I love it just for the little happy dance my iPhone now does every time I get a new order. I’m sure it will become more awesome and fully-featured in future but it’s still pretty handy for checking on my open orders and product inventory.
Resolution update
- JAPAN IS BOOKED. We’re going at the end of October for 10 days, taking in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo (volcanoes permitting). Can not wait.
- I’m off to Pulse this weekend and can check that off. Really looking forward to it.
- I’m also getting along with one of my Big 5 projects. Hoping to have it done before Japan.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Zero 2 Illo – lots of good tips if you’re starting out in illustration, or just read the great interview with working illustrators.
- Inklore – lovely work but particularly notable for the Printmaking 101 series which looks set to be interesting whether you’re all new, or have a degree in it like me.
Things to look forward to in June
- Pulse, as above, and visiting London in general
- getting my BIKE! My mum found me an awesome IKEA folding bike so I can cycle into town :)
- Mafia road trip to Dundee to see the Handmade Nation documentary. If you live in/near Glasgow, you can come with us.
New Product Round-up
- Tiny Thank You Cards
- Kawaii Volcano Card
- 10 Days in Tokyo PDF Zine
- Vintage Buttons Coaster
- Ice Cream Bears birthday card
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 30
Items sold on Etsy: 24
Items sold on Folksy: 11
Items sold on Dawanda: 11
Much better, yay.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: April
By Marceline | May 2, 2010
April was a bit meh – neither good nor bad. Apart from the whole volcano fiasco, it didn’t seem like much happened at all. I did go to Yo Sushi! twice with Claire, ate stovies with a visiting Stu and it was mostly warm and sunny so I suppose we can push it into good.
Sad fact of the above drawing – I have literally piles of amazing and awesome hairslides I’ve bought or been gifted but the only ones that will stay in my hair are the plain boring ones. It’s really not fair!
Reading, Watching, Playing
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
Been working my way through the Unread pile of books (most of which were too unremarkable to comment on here). This though, I thoroughly enjoyed, much to my surprise. I’ve never seen the film of Moonraker but this book seemed a lot more exciting than your average Bond film. Maybe I have only seen the mediocre ones. Mind you, I always like the book better than the film. Would like to read more of these now, but there aren’t any on Bookmooch, bah.
Slow Boats Home by Gavin Young
As in the sequel to last month’s book. Although not a literal sequel as I had imagined from the title – he actually flew home, wrote the first book and then flew back to China in order to get another set of boats home again. This time, he obviously goes the other direction, through the South Seas and past South America. His big aim was to sail past Cape Horn at the tip of South America but unbelievably manages to time his arrival just as the Falklands war breaks out and the area is blocked to ships. He does make it there though. I think I liked this book much better – there were loads of little islands all with their own histories and people and there’s also a shipwreck, though it’s not very perilous or exciting. Anyway, I really recommend both of these – they’re both cheap as chips on Amazon too.
Kamikaze Girls
I like it when Lovefilm sends me something I’d forgotten I added that turns out to be really great. Kamikaze Girls is a Japanese film about an unlikely friendship between a frilly dress wearing Lolita girl who wants to live in the Rococo era and a rebel girl in a motorcycle girl gang. It’s all very cartoonish in the best manga style and the plot makes little sense but for all that it’s tremendous fun. Plus the scene where they go shopping in Daikanyama in Tokyo will make you want to get on a plane right now.
The Prisoner
Good God, what were they thinking? I’m talking about the remake of course. The original 1960s Prisoner is my favourite TV show ever and despite my love, I was totally open to the idea of a remake, in a different location. However, I think they failed slightly by making that location basically AMERICA and changing all the charmingly odd and creepy aspects of The Village into a kind of bland future dystopia. Oh and also for making it really boring. Well done! Was there really any way a desert wasn’t going to look boring, especially when compared to Portmeirion? I’m quite willing to admit many of the original stories are often baffling and fairly insane but they could easily have found 5 good ones to update without having to change 95% of it. I shall probably torture my way through a couple more episodes but so far I’m very disappointed. The main high point for me was that after 50 minutes of thinking ‘WHAT? Have you really replaced Rover the ominous white balloon with some Alsatian dogs?’ a proper mega-sized Rover appeared. However, that was soon punctured (hah) by it being coupled with an embarrassing mangling of the famous ‘I am not a number, I am a free man’ beach running scene. Aaarrrgh. Still, I’m going to Portmeirion for the first time in July, thanks to Katy – hurray!
Tamagotchi Corner Shop 3
The third instalment of my most favourite stupid game ever. You really need to buy my Oddments zine which has a diary I kept of playing the first two. In a nutshell, you run a bunch of ever more insane ‘shops’ where you earn both money and the goodwill of your Tamagotchi customers. There is way too much hilarity to go into here (I am keeping notes for future publication) but suffice to say I’ve been making ice cream, looking after babies, making terrible cards to order and teaching armless Tamagotchis to play the piano. Good times.
iPhone app of the month
Free Wifi Tokyo (Free!)
Go on, take a guess. I may not be going to Japan until October but it’s as well to be prepared, right? This great app has maps of all the free wifi spots in Tokyo so I’ll be able to grab some free internets in order to post on Twitter saying LOOK AT ME, I’M IN JAPAN. Obviously, it all runs offline so it’s perfect for travellers wanting to avoid huge data roaming charges. Even better, the maps are excellent and organised by area and station so it’s going to be as much use for that as for wifi. Is it October yet?
Resolution update
- Japan trip is pretty much organised! Just need to actually book it.
- I’m booked in to visit Pulse next month to check out the whole trade fair thing
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Vending Spree – One of my favourite TMN writers is reviewing everything in his work vending machine. Amazing
- Your Old Crap Website – making fun of 90s web design
Things to look forward to in May
- Craft fair in the Botanic Gardens at Dunoon. If it’s a nice day I will be very very happy, regardless of whether I sell anything.
- Um… I have a couple of fun things in the post?
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 13
Items sold on Etsy: 16
Items sold on Folksy: 12
Items sold on Dawanda: 4
Very very slow. Really perked up the last few days though so hopefully May should be better.
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End of the month update: March
By Marceline | April 1, 2010
I’m not entirely convinced March is really over – it went by far too fast. We finally had some nice weather, I got my hair cut, my button shoes arrived (after the drawing above) and it was my birthday – yay! And then it snowed again, in the rubbish way.
Reading, Watching, Playing
Treasures of Sky Mall by Gemma Correll
Anyone who’s ever spent time happily ridiculing catalogues like Sky Mall and Innovations will love this – some of the funniest/stupidest products as drawn in Gemma’s own style. Of course she goes mostly for the pet related items which makes things even funnier with her trademark cats and dogs looking slightly bemused by the madness. Get your own copy off Etsy.
Slow Boats to China by Gavin Young
I just can’t visit the Oxfam bookshop without coming away with a bunch of old travel books. This one, written by a one time war correspondent for The Observer is the tale of Young’s attempt to travel from Greece to China only by boat. This took place in 1979 when he discovers he is almost too late, passenger shipping having been almost completely killed off by air travel. Indeed, if it wasn’t for his Observer connections and general public school English gentleman background, he wouldn’t even have got half way. Lucky for him, the entire old boy network of the ex-British Empire mostly find him ships, from a board bunk in a tiny local trader to the owner’s cabin in a huge container carrier. For the most part, it’s pretty exciting (and often dangerous) stuff and I often had to stop so I could go read up more about various areas he passed through. Overall, it gets a bit depressing, knowing this sort of thing is completely out of bounds to your average traveller. I’m about to pick up the sequel, Slow Boats Home.
Mountaineering Holiday by JS Smythe
My other Oxfam purchase – this one from 1939, just days before WW2 broke out. It describes a, well, mountaineering holiday in the French/Italian Alps and is yet another addition to my collection of books that would never be published these days – involving mostly rambling monologues by over-privileged English Gentlemen. At least Gavin Young was a journalist. Anyway, Mr Smythe climbs various mountains and describes them pleasantly with breaks to pontificate on the horrors of motor cars, war, tourists, foreigners, people who climb too slowly, people who walk too fast and women in breeches. I especially enjoyed the parts where he describes other less experienced climbers they encounter and basically says, well, they’re going to die if the weather changes. Nice. Might look him up and see if someone eventually pushed him into a crevasse. Oh! it does also contain an anecdote about a man caught smuggling drugs through customs under his top hat. You don’t get that kind of thing these days.
Wonders of the Solar System
My Twitter friends have been debating the general hotness of Prof. Brian Cox without bothering to mention that he’s presenting a TV show about the Solar System! Priorities, people! I love the solar system, having been one of those kids who wants to be an astronaut. I have a telescope and everything. Anyway, having quickly caught up on iPlayer, this is awesome. He gets to travel all over the world to weird and wonderful places that help explain some of the amazing details of our solar system. I admit I’ve been out of touch with current developments so I’ve been utterly delighted to see the all the discoveries made recently. I’m now firmly subscribed to the Solar System Exploration blog. Hurray. Saturn is still my favourite btw – it’s totally got the best moons.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
My sister lent me this and I played it for two days before tossing it aside in a rage. While the concept (discover the truth about incidents in the village by solving puzzles) is all well and good, in reality it’s like being stuck in Hyrule Town for an eternity trying to find that one person who will give you the whatever so you can move on to the next stage. Having to look for the cat all over town nearly broke me and then I had to go and look for something else. Aargh. Even worse, I am rubbish at riddles and so a third of the puzzles just made me feel stupid, which isn’t particularly enjoyable. I also hated how the first ‘tip’ was just the original question reworded, if that. I’ll stick to Picross, thanks.
iPhone app of the month
IMDB (Free!)
I think the iPhone is especially amazing when I’ve turned off the laptop and gone to bed and then come across something in a book that I have to look up NOW. Normally, I would plan to do it the next day and then immediately forget, or be awake for ages, thinking about it. Now I can just fire up the iPhone and check. This app for the Internet Movie Database is perfect for those moments when you finish a great book and discover they made a film of it too. You can do all the usual IMDB searches and even check if it’s available to buy on Amazon or, more usually in my case, if it’s too obscure/ancient to have had a DVD release yet – boo.
Resolution update
- Lots and lots of new designs now available on Spoonflower.
- My Spring Cleaning Clear Out is going excellently, except now instead of a big mess I have piles of bags of stuff to BookMooch, eBay, give to charity etc. If anyone wants to give me a lift to a charity shop I would be most grateful. The only one we have locally is pretty much right next door and I’m not sure I want my ex-belongings quite that close by.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Chickengirl Design – cute illustration by Jannie Ho, and she’s off to Japan soon too!
Things to look forward to in April
- Catching up with Stu and Catherine, both visiting this month.
- Maybe finally getting Japan trip booked
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 10
Items sold on Etsy: 6
Items sold on Folksy: 17
Items sold on Dawanda: 11
Much quieter month in general, though sales on Folksy were up again. The crazy world of sales.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: February
By Marceline | March 1, 2010
Despite being quite better now, I haven’t quite recovered myself completely. My sleep patterns are all wrong so I seem to have spent February stumbling around half-asleep still wearing my pyjamas. Oh well. I hope to be more awake in March.
Reading, Watching, Playing
How to Enter the World of Textile Design by Lizzy House
An e-book by ace fabric designer Lizzy House. It’s full of excellent information about the ins and outs of designing a fabric collection and getting yourself a contract. I’m not sure I could handle the pace of a proper textile designer but loads of good pointers for my Spoonflower dabblings. You can buy a copy here.
Answers on a Postcard zines by Girl Industries
With my patchy track record of zine making, I am well impressed with Katy’s plan for putting out a zine a month this year! Having interviewed a bunch of crafty folks (including me!) about all kinds of things, she’s pulling the answers out into a series of themed zines. It’s all very interesting, except when I discovered I’m the ONLY PERSON who likes working in silence. I can well believe it though, considering how much noise everyone surrounding me makes. I’ve got copies in my shop, if you’d like a read yourself (you should!)
Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft
Yes, I only just read this. I don’t really buy new books and this was the first time I’ve seen a paperback copy in a charity shop. Obviously John Peel was a major instigator in my love for music – we used to listen to his shows religiously and send off for records he played. He also once said I had “a lovely name” on air. Aww. Anyway, the whole book is hilarious, written exactly as he spoke and full of all kinds of amusing anecdotes. Sadly John only managed half the book before he died but his wife Sheila finishes it off in a similarly amusing and affecting way. Lovely stuff.
Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning / Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen
Two Young Adult (horrible name) writers who consistently write better novels than than 99.9% of adult books aimed at actual adult females. While covering the general YA teen themes of well, boys, they’re both smart, funny and dark enough to not be fluff while still being fun. UK Sarra’s latest is a love letter to Paris and holiday romances and the joys of exploring without guidebooks. US Sarah’s is a darker tale of insomnia, new babies and first impressions. When I say I’m inspired by teenage girl’s magazines it’s ones written by people like these guys (the long defunct Just Seventeen, Sassy and Elle Girl, sigh)
Ponyo
At last! I hate you Disney. While Ponyo has been out so long in Japan it’s on the TV schedules, the UK finally gets a cinema release. And they wonder why piracy is such a big issue these days. No option to see the original subtitled version but the dubbing was mostly fine (certainly nowhere in the league of Valley Girl Princess Mononoke). As with all the Ghibli movies, I was pretty much sucked in the whole time – there’s not a huge amount of plot but it’s all so cute with some glorious scenes like Ponyo running over the waves made by giant fish. I suppose it’s a cross between Totoro and How’s Moving Castle which is alright by me. Looking forward to the DVD.
Picross
Ahhh, how I missed you! Now replaying for the third time. Hope someone buys me 3D Picross for my birthday.
iPhone app of the month
Hipstamatic
As blogged here. Also the eBay app (thanks Alice for the tip) which helped me snag some new Rocket Dog shoes for £10!
Resolution update
- Two zines completed! That’s one resolution done anyway.
- I have a whole bunch of new patterns almost ready for swatch ordering on Spoonflower.
- Also, a resolution I forgot to post but have started on is clearing out my room. I have so much stuff. So I’ve given away a ton of books on Bookmooch this month.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Formspring! (I’m having lots of fun answering questions (ask me more!) and it’s so interesting to read other folks’ answers. Favourite people include Design*Sponge, Gemma Correll, Twinkie Chan, Lizzy House and Miso Funky.
- Recipe Look (illustrated recipes!)
- Loyal Army Daily (daily cartoons from the kawaii designer)
Things to look forward to in February
- My birthday! As mentioned above, I am kind of drowning in Stuff just now so if you are stuck for gift ideas, I suggest Spoonflower gift certificates so I can buy fabric, and of course my Amazon wish list. Or something I can eat.
- Getting my hair cut for the first time in two years. Yeah, that will be interesting.
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 45
Items sold on Etsy: 19
Items sold on Folksy: 12
Items sold on Dawanda: 17
And sales are up again, helped by Valentine’s Day.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: January
By Marceline | February 1, 2010
Ooh, it’s a whole new year. I’m going to continue doing these monthly updates but I have made lots of changes! First up, I am doing a drawing of either my most usual outfit of the month, or something awesome I wore. That was generally my problem doing What I Wore Today, that I pretty much wear the same things every week until the weather changes, unless I have something out of the ordinary to attend. Also, because I have barely bought any new clothes in the last 3 years.
I’ll also be updating on what I’m reading, watching, playing, faffing with and working on, how I’m getting on with my resolutions and what’s coming up next month. Plus a DIAGRAM of some sort. At worst, I will improve my Illustrator/Photoshop skills in creating stupid stuff, which is always useful when working with Monsieur Le Bun. Let’s go!
(BTW, I would love for other people to start doing this too, using whatever categories you like. Go on!)
Reading, Watching, Playing
A TV Guide to Life by Jeff Alexander
AKA M.Giant who writes the 24 recaps for Television Without Pity. Recaps which are often so funny I sometimes think I only watch 24 so I can read the recaps after. If 24 makes you snort with laughter far more often than an action/drama show with large helpings of torture and explosions is intended to then you should give them a read. Anyway, this book is a lighthearted look at what we can learn from TV shows, which is to say basically taking the piss out of all TV writers ever for their cliched plots, lame sets and enormous institutions run by 5 speaking parts. All good fun and worth your cash.
The Roads To Sata by Alan Booth
You may remember I read his other book a while back and Claire bought me this one for Christmas. Hurray! Thanks Claire! This was the earlier book where he walked the entire length of Japan. Of course, that makes it extremely interesting as you get to see the differences between the 3 main islands. On the downside, I now pretty much want to visit everywhere in Japan. As with the other book, it’s full of hilarious anecdotes of his adventures and the people he meets in the inns and bars and restaurants. Totally recommended.
Alias
I enjoyed S1 of Alias so much I decided to buy S2 since it’s all so cheap these days. And then I saw I could buy S3-5 in some crazy cheap Amazon deal so I did that too. Excellent choice me, as they all arrived just in time for my weeks of illness so at least I was entertained. I have to say, in retrospect, that S3-5 were a bit ropey for the most part, but that was less obvious when ill. It’s a timely reminder how terrible LOST could have been without the end date, and what might happen to Fringe if they aren’t careful. But still, Alias is definitely in my top ten TV shows ever.
24
Most of my LoveFilm DVDs this month have been 24 S7 which was remarkably less ridiculous than previous seasons, though clearly still hilarious. Actually it was totally ridiculous. I will never forget the scene where the head of FBI reasons it’s not possible Jack Bauer would have managed to get hold of a gun in the last 15 minutes which is correct, though Jack Bauer has actually now acquired a knife, a car, a laptop and a fancy phone and killed a man using a front-end loader and a portakabin. S8 here I come.
Cooking Mama 3
I need to write a big old review about this for diskant but suffice to say, it’s just like the first 2 games only better, mostly. A lot of tedious tasks are now easier, and a lot of the more boring ones are now insanely complicated. Um, thanks. As well as the normal cooking with Mama games, there’s now a bizarre minigame where you have to go fetch ingredients from the supermarket. I need to play it some more before I can adequately describe the madness. Most worrying though, is how many recipes involve catching food falling from the sky (and not BONES), and also making sure you choose the correct food stuff and not a BONE. Why Mama has such a large collection of bones in her kitchen is probably something we’re best not knowing.
iPhone app of the month
Bookworm
As in the Flash game where you have to finds words in a wordsearch stylee before the library burns down while a creepy worm watches your every move. I used to play this a fair bit back in ye olde times so it was fun to play it again and realise quite how many brain cells I have lost since then. It’s much better as an app though as you can save your game and stuff. I could have had a more interesting choice if I hadn’t written that Top 10 iPhone apps post the other day. Duh.
Resolution update
I could be forgiven for doing terribly at my resolutions so far but actually I am doing awesome. My only failure was booking to visit to the trade show at the SECC and then not being well enough to attend. Booo.
- I started a thread on Tripadvisor for ideas for Japan
- I have just about finished one of my zines I started months ago
- I’ve been working on pattern ideas (including the button print for shoes)
- My Folksy, Etsy and DaWanda shops are now almost exactly similar in product range
- I posted a guide to iPhone apps
- I did some gocco printing, even if it wasn’t entirely new. A start at least!
- As you will see below, I have been thinking A LOT about project #1 in my Big 5 projects. After many false starts, I think I have figured out the production so now I just need to decide exactly what I’m doing and do the design. It is going to take months though so don’t expect to hear anything soon.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Ruby Star Rising (awesome illustrations by Melody Miller)
- Mori Girl and Lessons in Cute (pretty pretty Japanese fashion blogs)
- It Will Stop Raining (lovely daily food photos)
Things to look forward to in February
- LOST S6 (Far. Too. Excited)
- My SHOES arriving
- Ponyo, the new Ghibli film, finally gets a UK release (I hate you Disney)
- New Errors album (already pre-ordered)
- Glasgow Film Festival (where I am booked to see the Mogwai live film and 1234 which features a cameo by my mates Sunnyvale!)
- my sister coming to visit
- getting JAPAN TRIP booked
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 36
Items sold on Etsy: 14
Items sold on Folksy: 27
Items sold on Dawanda: 8
Busier than December! Madness! But Awesome!
Diagram of the month
This is a cross section of MY BRAIN during the nights of the last few weeks where I have been unable to sleep until 3am. One day, I hope to feel sleepy again instead of just tired.
Topics: Monthly Updates | No Comments »
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End of the month update: December
By Marceline | January 11, 2010
I’m so late with this but I had a cold for most of December, then went up to my dad’s for Christmas where I recovered just enough to catch another, worse, cold. Waah. I don’t think the 5 hour train journey home from Inverness in an unheated train FULL OF SNOW helped either.
But I wanted to finish off the year and complete the set so here is a half-hearted update. I will probably continue these in 2010 too but with some different sections. iPhone app of the month definitely needs adding!
Books I enjoyed
The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan
Uhh, yeah, still on this.
Burn Collector #14 by Al Burian
Al Burian is my favourite zinester, hands down. If you haven’t read his previous Burn Collector books then get on that now. If you’ve ever been unemployed, played in a band, traveled around sleeping on people’s floors or lived in a ridiculous rented house or worked with mentalists, then you’ll love it. If you haven’t done any of those things then Al Burian will make living in a hellhole and working in a copy shop with imbeciles sound the the most awesome thing ever. This little mini book zine is mostly about the amazing world of public transport, yet another aspect of life I can empathise with. SRSLY AWESOME. Get it from Microcosm, home of cool independent publications (the other books should be on Amazon etc.).
Amazonia by James Marcus
Got this from Microcosm too as a) it was in the sale, b) I love Amazon and c) I love reading about inteweb startups. It’s not mind-blowing, but a nice look into the early days of Amazon and how it went from crazy geeks to corporate globalisation.
A Year in Japan by Kate T Williamson
Such a beautiful book. Kate Williamson is an illustrator who drew scenes from her year long stay in Kyoto. If you’ve been to Japan, it will make you very nostalgic but either way it’s a fascinating and lovely look into the patterns and traditions and quirks of Japan.
Good things I watched
Nothing again! Started on S7 of 24 and have been working my way through the entirety of Alias, but otherwise, bah.
Projects completed
I did a bunch of web stuff but I haven’t updated my portfolio site yet, duh,
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Facebook Cull – Brilliant new blog by my good friend JGRAM who is culling 1 person from his FB friends every day and explaining why. I’m really enjoying this, as long as he doesn’t cull me.
Exciting things I purchased
- Not very much, due to being sick for most of December. Mostly iPhone apps and Alias box sets and two very warm fleecy jacket things. And a few Christmas presents, though not nearly as many as I intended.
Musical Rediscoveries
Nothing to report here either.
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 52
Items sold on Etsy: 4
Items sold on Folksy: 20
Items sold on Dawanda: 11
December was fun because I pretty much got at least one order every day, even Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Very pleased with Folksy this year but I am so close to being done with Etsy. Also, Folksy and DaWanda sent me presents in the post, and Shopify gave me another 5000 amazing new features. Not impressed, Etsy.
Topics: Monthly Updates | No Comments »
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End of the month update: November
By Marceline | December 2, 2009
Busy busy month! I feel like I barely stopped at all and I haven’t done my monthly accounts yet or anything. Mostly due to Christmas shopping on my shops and SCK, which has swallowed up entire days with packing and shipping, plus the beginning of my epic craft fair season. Halp! But at least I got a pirate bunny!
Books I enjoyed
Lords of Chaos/A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
I was going to take a break after these but I already got a hold of the next two! I’ll regret it though as there’s still two books yet to be published and I’ll forget everything that happened. Here’s hoping they don’t get dragged out for another ten years (a la George RR Martin)
Silverthorn/A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E Feist
These were terrible and I really have no idea why I kept going, except maybe in the hope that they’d get better. Which they did in like, the last 3 chapters of the final book. Really, they could have just condensed book 2 into a couple of chapters and tacked that on the beginning of book 3. Waste of time!
Good things I watched
Nothing particularly good – LoveFilm, get your act together and stop sending me stuff from the bottom of my list! Srsly, the vouchers have been better than the films this month – free pizza!
Projects completed
- Kit designs for Miso Funky
- New brooches
And, again, several million things yet to be made public by the client. Wait and see!
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Sashiko Started It (another Tokyo travel blog find – the best thing about doing my zine!)
- Girl-e Glasgow (Glasgow shopping blog)
- Destructoid (an actually good gaming news site – joy!)
Exciting things I purchased
- an iPhone! (though no-one has actually made me pay for anything yet)
- rather a lot of iPhone apps
- Loads of kawaii for the SCK shop from various places in London
- New slippers rom Muji (so comfy!)
- a plushy gall bladder from I Heart Guts for Claire to replace her real one :)
- cakeify.com (after someone got here searching for that!)
- surprises for Christmas gifts!
- and the adorable Pirate Bunny above, though technically I traded for him with Claire of Cute Plush. I wuv him.
Musical Rediscoveries
I haven’t really been listening to anything new this month – too busy for distractions!
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 21
Items sold on Etsy: 16
Items sold on Folksy: 23
Items sold on Dawanda: 15
Started off a bit slow but it’s getting busy now!
Topics: Monthly Updates | No Comments »
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