Author Illustrations

Recently I was invited by Sky Arts Tv to sell my work at their Dublin leg of their hunt for national portrait artist of the year. The event itself ended up being quieter than I expected, I blogged about it over here, but there was one upside to the invitation; it spurred me to do lots of new drawings and paintings. Previously I only had a small selection of authors on offer, about 10 or so, during the past few weeks I have beefed that up to nearly 25, and having caught the bug for painting I'm adding more to that all the time.

I also printed the images up as 5x7" greeting cards, and am selling these at our bookstall at the Milk Market and also online in my Etsy shop. After chatting to fellow artist Tanya Bond I realised I needed to stop being so lazy and actually list all of the items online. I pulled the proverbial thumb out and photographed all the cards and paintings, and got busy posting them online. The last thing I need to do is shooting all of my new canvas bags. That will take at least a few days work, but it will be worth it in the end. It's at times like these that I wish I had an assistant or magical helper elf.

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Handmade by Book Lovers

I am a sucker for some lovely book themed crafts, and am happily guilty of making some myself. I collect links to them like a magpie waiting for the day that I can hit it rich so I can fill my house with them. Here are some of the latest shiney lovlies that I've discovered. I originally saw this darling purse on Becky Bedbug's Blog, but here is the link to where you can buy it on etsy from psBesitos for €60.

This lino print immediately appealed to the printer in me, the lines are so beautiful. It was another Pinterest find, frustratingly not leading to any correct links,after some Google Images searching, I eventually found the link to Tortilla Press's etsy shop where you can get this gem for a mere $25( I am very tempted).

I also found these gorgeous bookends through Pinterest, they are also on sale on etsy from Design Atelier Article for €39.

I really like these unusual cowls from Storiarts, with the text from famous novels printed on them, this one has a piece from Jane Eyre, I kinda like the idea of being kept warm by a story, this one is $42.

Miniatures make me pretty giddy, I made a doll's house as part of my final year project, I now realise I did it quite inexpertly, but I had a lot of fun doing it. These amazing tiny books are so beautiful, and can be bought from Lilliputs Treasures for $18.

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Hello and Welcome

Welcome to our first blog post!

It will mostly be me, Ruth, writing these updates, but now and then John might pop in and say hello too. We've have a second hand book stall at the Milk Market, and for a while now I've been toying with the idea of starting this blog. I've been blogging for about 5 years already with Nice Day Designs, and I've found that lately I've been blogging about books, reviews, and illustration quite a bit, so it seemed to make sense to separate out the two.

I'm an avid reader, I have been since my mother first brought me into the library at the age of 3. Reading has always been a way for me to relax, escape, learn, and fall in love with new worlds. I'm one of those people that slows down when I near the end of a book because I don't want it to end. 

On this blog I hope to talk about this life long love of the written word, and maybe you'll enjoy my ramblings too.

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