January 2012

Something for someone special.

412three owlsOwl sketches by Saskia van Kampen.

I needed to get a present for my friend Michelle. She is a person who has inspired me to look after my creative side and to get my butt in gear to persue my love of making things. In the last few years we have become good friends, going to craft shows together, supporting each other, eating good food together and

My end users give me two paws up.

At our Kraft Karavan in Peterborough this year a woman named Susan bought a couple of my 100% organic catnip toys... She recently sent me this email:

"I bought the cat toys for my brother's cats, but my cat (a brat!) found them - on top of a 5 ft shelf - ripped them out of the plastic packages and is still batting them around!" 

When I am in the basement sewing up a new batch of these little pockets of cat joy my cat LuLu will get up off her lazy, fuzzy butt in the bedroom and join me. It's that enticing. How she smells it from that far away I will never understand.

411The Brat

Duen "The Brat"

Happy 2012!

Here's to a terrific year.

I have been busily prepping for the winter semester. I like to include inspirational slides for my students. It helps to spark their enthusiasm, It shows what is current in their field and also shows the immense amount of possibilities and opportunities available to them.

I have been searching for excellent examples of graphic symbols and icons for my drawing translations class and stumbled upon Josh Brill. I was so excited by his work that I thought I would share a few inspirational slides with you as well. Let's see if this helps to increase your enthusiasm in this first week of 2012. These will at least bring a smile to your face.

406Josh Brill 1

The simplicity is so lovely. Having taught simplification for many years I