Merry Christmas!

Put my photoshop skills to good use ; )
Have a great Christmas and i'll see if anyone is still reading blogs in the New Year!

Peace.

Simple Pleasures

I can't tell you how happy these 3 little darts can make me. This is how long it's taken me to get another 180 (it was July). It looks so simple when you watch the professionals! I plan to make it a little less rare of an occurrence ; )

Albums Of My Year

Most of these were released this year, a few were not, but they were new to me. These are my top 10 and most listened to albums that i came across in 2014.

1. Benji - Sun Kil Moon ( a classic from Kozalek)

2. Colfax - The Delines (ditto)
3. Singles - Future Islands (can't get this one out of my head or off my stereo)
4. Strong Feelings - Doug Paisley
5. After The Disco - Broken Bells
6. Royal Blood - Royal Blood
7. Husky Rescue - Ship Of Light (dropped of the stereo a bit these days, but got a lot of early play)
8. Out Cold - Invasion Of Love
9. Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Sun - Damien Jurado
10. Haw - Hiss Golden Messenger

and a special mention of the Magnolia Electric Co. 10th anniversary reissue with a great demo version disc.

also a nod to my mate Chris Kasch, who continues to turn me on to quality music.

The Winner! Benji by Sun Kil Moon (aka Mark Kozelek)

Bit Of George For You- Rewild The World

This is a couple of years old now, but i watched this George Monbiot TED Talk again the other day and thought I'd share. The reintroduction of wolves and how they even effected the course of a river is fascinating. I do like a good TED Talk.

More Dads!

If you're bored of them, look away now!

Yep, It's Come To This...

Look at this poster by the local fire service (I'm not even going to get into the design aspects, what's going on with the typography ghost?!). Me and Marky saw it the other weekend and couldn't quite believe the message. Maybe just don't drink and cook would have been a better angle (though I couldn't endorse that! cooking's just that bit more civilised with a glass and a good tune). This was more like just keep drinking, but forget about the cooking part... Get a takeaway! Haha I still can't believe this is a public message. No more cooking, nourishing your family, get a take away it's safer! Well, we all like a drink ; )

Look forward to the ambulance services poster in a few years when people start dropping left right and centre!

Sweet Jesus... "get a take away!"

We're doomed!!! Idiocracy!

New Ferment On

Yep, got my ferment on again last weekend, what a lovely way to spend some time. Much slicing and shredding. Two huge cabbages helped create this batch. Recreated my last one that was so good, with the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds and chilli. Then I took it up a notch and made this one which is still just cabbage, onion and carrot... But I made a spicy pepper paste, which got mixed through. I hope it turns out good, tasted great at the time.

I managed to make two jars of this, each on holds 1 litre

I'm definitely into this sauerkraut and kimchi vibe, it's so simple to make, really tasty and very good for you and your gut. The first batch of red cabbage that I made is now coming into its own. It's taken a month, but it's good. You've got to be patient with these krauts, especially as the weather is cooler. I've got a hot pepper sauce fermenting away and I'm leaving that out for a good month before I give it a blitz and refrigerate. The ones I just made should be good by Christmas. Now go make some kraut!

I used a beetroot end as a plug on top, i thought it would add just a little deep red colour,
but it's really going for it!

Bulk version of my last kraut, about 2 litres worth

Blue Peter Book Awards!

The Silly Book of Side Splitting Stuff has been short listed for the Blue Peter Book Awards, as one of 3 books in the Best Book With Facts category! Well done to Andy Seed and all involved at Bloomsbury! I've posted about the books before, they're great fun to do and working with Claire at Bloomsbury is always an absolute pleasure. Let's hope it wins!

(For those of you around the world who don't know what Blue Peter is, it's a long running kids tv show and a big deal to all of us who grew up with it.)

You can watch the big reveal of the shortlist here, it starts around 19 mins in.

Hifest 2014

The first Hastings Illustration Festival takes place this Saturday in the Atrium of Sussex Coast College. It promises to be a good, fun, illustrationy day out! Me and Griff are going to be screening our animation short 'Wish List' and talking a bit about it too. I believe that's at 1pm in a side room somewhere. Anyway it gives me a chance to share it again here! If you're in the area try to come on down. There will be lots of fine wares to pick up before Christmas, lots of prints, cards, books and much more. You could even take part in a collage workshop run by my good mate Martin O'Neill of Cut It Out Studio fame, or pick up one of my studio buddies, Tim Marrs, splendid prints! That's the hard sell done for this year. I look forward to catching up with my fellow illustrators. See you there!?

WISH LIST from GRIFF on Vimeo.

Clay Owl

Got the clay going again, hooray! Started with a little slab cylinder which i paddled out to this body shape. Just wanted lots of bit's and lumps for the thin white slip to run over. Not sure yet what i'm doing with the windows on the base, probably a bit of sgraffito of some kind. I just wanted to make a little plinth for him to stand on.

I feel weird when i make things with no function, even if it doesn't get used for it. I was going to make a lid, so something could go inside the plinth, but then i decided to just keep this one simple, get it done and move on. I want to get this clay thing going again and make good pots, so i'm going to have to blast through some stuff and try and solve the problems along the way. The problem with it now as opposed to back when i was making the pottery before is now i know much more! I know what to be fearful of, all the things that could go wrong, all those little problem areas.
Also, now i want much more, better pots. My standard has sky rocketed, but my skills haven't. It's going to be a struggle, but i'm just going to have to do it. Suffer with me!  ; )

Anyway, it's a start and it was so nice to lose myself in the making process. It was good to be back!