As promised: A peek at My Abuelo's Mexican Feast

Just a little over 2 weeks to go until it hits the shops! I'm very excited. Here are some images to whet your appetite (hopefully literally). There are a few extra photos on my website too.

 

Wolf & Mishka

I thought I'd also use this post to share my super talented friend Natalia Pye's new website (which I helped her design) for her new brand 'Wolf & Mishka'. I also designed her logo which I love (if I may say so myself!).

Nat makes lovely ceramic necklaces, hanging pots and plates and she also stocks some super cool T-shirts and other gorgeous items. I was lucky enough to receive one of her ceramic pendants for Xmas which I pretty much haven't taken off since I got it! 

Check out her site over here!

© Wolf & Mishka

© Wolf & Mishka

© Wolf & Mishka

Happy New Year!

Hooray for 2015. Some exciting things ahead for me this year. Some work related, and a big one not so work related.

First... in 3 weeks time (February 1st to be exact) my new book 'My Abuelo's Mexican Feast' will hit the book shops! Yay! I'm super excited and super proud of this book. 

It's a follow up book to My Abuela's Table and once again features many of my Abuela's wonderful recipes. However, My Abuelo's Mexican Feast follows (chronologically) the life of my Abuelo (grandfather) and the food he loved to eat. From when he was young helping out in his father's seafood restaurant to his university years in Mexico City, discovering the wonders of Street Food, to the foods he would devour on the family farm.

I will be posting some photos in the next week, but until then, here is the cover to whet your appetite: 

Second big adventure for this year is I'm expecting a new arrival in April, which means I'll be winding work down in March (and winding up the knitting of little sweaters). So excited! Yay!

Some new work

I thought it was about time I posted some new work onto my blog. Now I have finally updated my website, there are no excuses!

The first part of this year had been a very busy one. First mammoth task was finishing off my second authored/illustrated book for Hardie Grant Books. A kind of second-volume to 'My Abuela's Table', my new book 'My Abuelo's Mexican Feast' focuses more on my Abuelo (grandfather's) life and the food he loved.

I think it may be a bit early to be posting photos from the book, but I hope I can give you a sneaky peak soon. 'My Abuelo's Mexican Feast' will be in stores February 2015. Oh, so long to wait!!

I've also been doing a few new thing for one of my favourite clients, Ashdene. First, being a whole tea range featuring the blue wrens from my 'Plume & Perch' mug collection. The fine bone china range includes tea cups and saucers, a tiered cake stand, cake plates, tea pots and much more!

You can buy the Plume & Perch tea range at Myer, and selected homewares stores, or online here.

Secondly, I also have a new stoneware range out with Ashdene! (They have been keeping me busy). This one is called 'Nectar' and is a kind of Nordic, folk art inspired design featuring humming birds, bees, dragon flies and florals.

Just a few of the pieces from Nectar. You can buy Nectar at Myer, and selected homewares stores or online here.

Last but not least, I did a mini stoneware collection (again with Ashdene) in completely contrasting style to my previous work with them. 'Into the Woods' features rabbits and birds, mushrooms and foliage drawn in pencil and combined with watercolour washes. My favourite way to illustrate!

'Into the Woods' is available to buy in selected homewares stores or online here.

x

The Paper Pinwheel

Did I mention I have my very own website selling beautiful illustrated wedding invitations? This will soon be expanded to other types of invitations, but at the moment I am building the number of designs I have on offer for weddings.

 

When I got married, I was disheartened with all the crapola out there in wedding invitation land (it's a big land, with a great big population!). So I wanted to create something unique, personal, and beautiful.

I offer a full printed invitation service (from just $3.20 per invitation), or if you are on a strict budget I also offer 'printable designs' which means all you pay for is the design (you receive a print ready file) and you can print as many as you like! Read how printable invitations work over here.

If you're like me, and want everything to be 'just so', I also offer bespoke wedding invitations - just like this one:

I loved working on this custom job. I ended up designing everything from the invitations, to hand painting little dessert and cheese labels for the big day. Such fun!

So, if you know of anyone getting married and looking for unique invitations to set their wedding apart, send them to me over here! And keep your eye out for my new designs coming soon!

THE FINAL DAY OF FROCKTOBER!

I made it! I did it! 31 dresses for Frockober. I'm so proud of myself for sticking it out.

It's also Halloween. Happy Halloween. I'm not one to really get into Halloween, but I couldn't resist making Emily's final dress Halloween inspired.

And so completes Frockotber for 2013. Thank you to Pamela McKay for your generous donation yesterday. It's much appreciated, and has taken my total funds raised for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation to $450! I think that's pretty awesome, but I'm still a few hundred short of my goal of $700. 

If you'd like to help me reach my goal, you can donate here! My fund raising page will be active until February next year, so if you are reading this in the future (how very sci-fi), you can still donate! Unless of course you are reading it past Feb 2014!

Ok, so since it's the last post for Frocktober, I thought I would create a little overview:

and if you have stumbled on to this post and have no idea what it's all about, my original post is here!

Thanks to those who donated, and thanks to those who've followed!

x

FrOctober 30th

Wow. I've almost made it. I was struggling around the 'Frocktober the 13th' mark, but I've powered on through - mainly thanks to your donations.

It's not over yet, so here is the second last dress for the challenge...

If you are downloading and enjoying these dresses, please consider donating to the very worth cause of raising funds for Ovarian Cancer Research. Here is some more info if you are a little hesitant of donating!

I was reminded by my other half the other day that most people just do a jog around a park to raise funds... or grow some facial hair (NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH THOSE VERY WORTHY FUND RAISING EFFORTS!!!)... but I had to make it really difficult for myself spending an hour, on average, for 31 days illustrating dresses! That's around 31 hours work... Blimey!

Crazy? Or dedicated?

x

Frocktober 29th

Well, it is still the 29th in some parts of the world! I'm doing a wheel throwing class at the moment (pottery...not some odd sport), and I was so excited to get to class I ran out the door without posting my Frocktober post!

So here it is for yesterday.

A big thanks to Carmen Germain (aka, my sister) for your generous donation. You can always count on family to help you out with a fund raiser.

If you'd also like to help me raise funds for Ovarian Cancer research (you don't need to be a member of my family to do so!!), head over here. I really hope you've all been enjoying Emily's dresses over the past month. Only two to go!

x

FrOctober 28th

A busy day today, and busting to get out of the studio, so I'm going to make this short and sweet!

Donate here! Thanks a bundle.

xo

FrOctober 26th & 27th 

My final double whammy-weekend! Only 4 more dresses to go! I've raised $325 so far - which is exciting, but there is room for more (there is always room for more when it comes to raising money for cancer research!).

Thank you so much to my dear friend Sarah Adair for your generous donation. It was nice to get over the $300 mark with your help! Can I make it to $400 before the end of the challenge? Help me out over here!

So it's another double-dress weekend. Yesterday was the final day of Semi-Permanent Melbourne. T'was a fantastic day full of inspiration. I think, deep down, I secretly wish I could be a typographer as the talks that were most inspiring to me were from Seb Lester, and Jessica Hische. Oh my god, amazing. It's insane how talented these people are. I wish I could be one-quarter - nay - one-tenth as talented as these guys. Check out their work.

Until then... I keep trucking along with my own work which seems so sub-standard after spending two days listening to amazing creatives... ho hum.

FrOctober 25th

Today was spent at Semi-Permanent, an inspiring design conference I like to try to get to every few years (if funds allow!). Stand out talk today was from Julian Frost, the illustrator and creator of the 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign for Metro trains. So great! I'm looking forward to tomorrow as there are a few illustrators speaking - not a bad way to spend a Saturday even if it is work related.

Today's dress is super cute. Another Etsy find. I wanted to buy it, but it's unfortunately the wrong size for me. Maybe you might like it? It's over here.

Don't forget, I am doing this for a very good cause...to raise money for Ovarian Cancer Research via Froctober. If you would like to make a donation you can head over here. Also, feel free to share these posts via Twitter or Facebook, or anyway really! Every dollar counts. Thanks!

xo

FrOctober 24th

A funny dress today. A cross between an old gas station attendants uniform, a nurses dress, and an American diner stye uniform!

I'm off to Semi-Permanent tomorrow (yay!) so I will be posting late in the day for the 25th.

A big thanks to David Gill (aka, my husband) for his generous donation yesterday. He's topping the leader board, so I think someone needs to knock him off his perch. You can do so by donating here!

x

FrOctober 23rd

One week to go! Yay! That's a whole week you have left to donate to my fundraising page. Actually, you can donate after then too!

I usually source my inspiration for my dresses from Etsy... a treasure trove of vintage dresses! But I jumped onto Instagram for this one. My favourite dress of the last few days (#frocktober). I hope the lovely lady who's dress this was doesn't mind! It is possibly my favourite from the journey so far.

A big thank you to Kathryn Kelly for your lovely donation yesterday. It's much appreciated. 

I have raised $175 so far for Ovarian Cancer Research via Froctober! I wonder if I can make it to $300 by the end of the month. If you would like to make a donation you can head over here. Thanks!

xo

FrOctober 22nd

Another dreary cold day in Melbourne. I wish I could somehow send this weather up to NSW where all those terrible fires are happening.

On a brighter note, and thinking of warmer times, here is an Indian inspired dress for the day. I can almost smell tumeric... 

To be worn with a pair of sandals from previous posts!

Please remember I am doing this for a very good cause...to raise money for Ovarian Cancer Research via Froctober. If you would like to make a donation (a very big thank you to Jennifer Lewis for your generous donation yesterday) you can head over here. Thanks!

xo

FrOctober 21st

Feeling slightly unproductive today, and almost went home before drawing another dress for Emily! Whoops!

A reminder: Emily is free to download, but to increase your karma-rating and help raise funds for Ovarian Cancer, head over to my Frocktober fundraising page to donate to this worthy cause.

Here it is:

FrOctober 19th & 20th

Another double whammy weekend! It's been so nice and warm this weekend - if only this weather didn't greet me with hay fever. 

I hope you've had a good weekend - free of sneezing.

FrOctober 18th

I can't believe it's the 18th already! 13 dresses to go... oh dear!

FrOctober 17th

This dress is too cute. It's another one from Etsy. I'm not sure what I would do without the inspiration of Etsy for this little project!

x

FrOctober 16th

Another cute vintage Etsy find today. 

I hope you are enjoying these daily dresses for Emily. It's sure been a challenge to do these illustrations each and every day. But I think I'm getting a little faster at it each time.

A reminder: Emily is free to download, but to increase your karma-rating and help raise funds for Ovarian Cancer, head over to my Frocktober fundraising page to donate to this worthy cause.

xo

FrOctober 15th

Feeling a little at one with nature today. Loving riding my bike to and from my studio these days. Emily is also feeling a little hippy/nature loving with this hemp dress.

A reminder: Emily is free to download, but to increase your karma-rating and help raise funds for Ovarian Cancer, head over to my Frocktober fundraising page to donate to this worthy cause.

xo