A while ago I started drawing some birdies. Lots of birdies. Just to experiment with my drawing style really, but I’m happy with the direction they’re going in.

That surfer, very brave.

This is the boy’s “this is a BIT windy on this cliff” face.

Whitby
I’ve been going to Whitby since I was tiny, and this is the first time I’ve passed The Magpie Cafe and not seen a massive queue outside, so we finally gave it a try!

Newcastle
Tower of Roast & The Baltic.

York
On the way home we spent a night in York. We stopped at the Guy Fawkes Inn & was upgraded to a swanky 4-poster room with a view of the Cathedral out the window.

We ate tiny but delicious food at The Blue Bicycle , then had cocktails at Dusk and the amazing Evil Eye Lounge. It looks like a tiny drinks shop at the front, but once you go through to the back it’s 3 floors high with beds you can sit on. We had a jug of apple strudel, which was seriously the best thing I think I’ve ever drunk. We also went to Trembling Madness, a huge drinks shop with a medieval style bar above it. The food looked awesome but they weren’t very veggie-friendly :(

I finally had developed & picked up a roll of film I took at least a year ago. They were taken with a fully-manual Zenit camera, so I’m frankly amazed with myself that they’re actually exposed & in focus! (Despite the film actually snapping inside the camera).

Here are some photos I took from the Brighton Festival back in May. Générik Vapeur (a street performing group from France) took a line of white cars through the streets of Brighton before ending up on The Level where they painted them different colours and hung them on a giant washing line. I missed this bit, I was off eating delicious Thai food at Sabai instead, but it was still hung up when we passed on the way home later than night, and for a few days afterwards.

Earlier in the year while I was doing a screen printing course, I took the opportunity to screen print some tiny designs onto fabric to make badges. They’re of lots my favourite wee crafty and writing implements, with a birdy thrown in for good measure. They’re now on my Etsy shop.

♥ Competition! ♥ If you’d like to win a badge of your choice, just leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner at random at the end of September (please leave an email address so I can get in touch with you should you win!)

If you’re on Tumblr there’s another chance to win be re-blogging this post.

Last Saturday was my birthday. On Friday my boyfriend surprised me with a trip round Brighton Pavilion (I’d never been before – it’s delightfully hideous. Dragons EVERYWHERE) and a cream tea in their café. & in the evening he took me to my fave place to eat in Brighton – Terre á Terre.

On the day I had a little tea party with some of my favourite people. We made quintessential party food like triangle cut sandwiches, chocolate nests and cheese and pineapple on sticks (there would have been cocktail sausages there too – but I failed to find the ones Quorn do while I was shopping – boo!) . Oh, and I bought a MASSIVE red velvet cupcake from Angel Food Bakery. Which was delicious, but treacherous when it came to cutting it up – it was so top heavy that it kept toppling over.

We took the cake stand to the pub afterwards, drunk people love chocolate. I don’t think a weekend out should be without one now.

Presents!

Lots of chocolates from various people, and books (always welcomed), a ticket to West Hill Kino Club’s riot grrrl night, and couple of other bits ‘n’ bobs.

I was desperate for one of these when I was about 11, dream come true! There wasn’t any film inside, but these drawings instead..

…which I actually think are better.

Typewriter necklace ♥

I love Rob Ryan.

This is the favourite thing I got – once I mention in passing that I loved this spread from the story “Eric” in Shaun Tan’s illustrated book Tales from Outer Suburbia. The boy then found a big version of it and had it professionally printed and framed for me – he’s such a sweetheart!

This Saturday I’ll be doing a new arts and crafts fair called Bits and Bobbins (I love their name!). This time round it’ll be at St. Martins Church on Lewis Road in Brighton, and one in Lewis next month too. It looks like they’ll also be putting something on in London in May too, so you should give them a wave if you fancy having a table.

If you’d like to watch my progress, I’m posting them all on tumblr (a joint blog with my boyfriend Jack, who is also doing it) or you can see them all on flickr

(I love my lens mug. It was a surprise gift from the boy ♥)