Tonight was the last performance of our show. It's been a crazy and fantastic couple of months, but my mind's already turning to new design ideas. I've missed it. I've just finished a new cat illustration, and have it up on a few products. Tomorrow is Monday, and the beginning of a new life episode which includes finding a new place to live, new work and hopefully lots of renewed inspiration. I'm also looking into ways to transport this blog to a new home - I'm unable to post links anymore, and as I said last time, I'm worried this could be a sign of things to come. Anyone else having Posterous problems? Have a great week, everyone.

Hello, people! I just popped in to say hello. Things have been so busy in my other world (the performing arts one) that I've gone into design maintenance mode. I'll be back in full force in late April, when the show's on. I'm hoping that this blog will still be here - Twitter has recently 'acquired' Posterous. I like Posterous and don't want to move to another platform, but acquisitions usually mean change, and not always in a good way. In the meantime, as you can see, I've managed to keep on doodling!

Or should I say the last days of summer.. .a little nighttime chill is already in the air and the leaves are beginning to turn. Maybe that's why I've designed something so insanely bright - I'm hanging onto summer for as long as I can! This past weekend we escaped to the beach, and had a wonderfully lazy time lying around and eating, with the occasional venture into a very choppy sea. Now I'm back in the city, getting ready for a very busy next two months. Less art, more theatre work, but hopefully I can still keep drawing along the way.

Are you all geared up for Valentine's Day? Here's a confession - I'm not really that into it. I love designing for it and of course extremely happy if anyone wants to buy something lovey-dovey from my shop. Hee hee. Here in New Zealand it's not as big a celebration as it is elsewhere, but we're slowly catching up. Restaurants are booked out weeks in advance, we're bombarded with hours of chocolate and jewellery ads, and one poor single rose in a bit of red cellophane suddenly costs $20. Do I sound like a Valentine's Day grinch? I'm not really a romantic stick-in-the-mud, honest. I love things like little cats surrounded by hearts. I'm all for a bit of pink and soppy songs are one of my favourite things. It's just....well, you know how it is. If you're celebrating (our) tomorrow, have a lovely time!

Lots of new products at Zazzle. Loads. New Rickshaw laptop sleeves, bags and folio planner things. Pet bowls. Water bottles. And more. I've worn myself out going design-crazy and am now taking a little break to make some plans as to how I should go forward into this new year. It's going to be a juggling act for the next few months - we go into rehearsal for a new theatre project in March, I don't want to neglect my design work, and I also want a life! Can it be done with only a teeny tiny amount of stress? We shall see. Balance has never been my strongest point, but that's what I'm aiming for in 2012.

Patterns. Love them, love creating them. When I think back to my childhood, I spent a lot of time making patterns out of anything I could find - buttons, Lego, the colours of books on my shelves. I battled the dreariness of doing the dishes by mentally transforming the patterns on the dinner plates into designs for some imaginary frock. Recently I've been thinking that all I'm doing now is going back to the things I loved when I was a child. Seems simple, but it's taken me all this time to realise it. So what have I done now? Opened up a new Zazzle shop, that's what! Now my experiments in vector-based pattern-making have a new home at Pattern Happy. Hurray.

New thing learned yesterday - how to create a seamless gingham pattern in Illustrator, via this easy peasy tutorial. Pink gingham always reminds me of my doomed attempts at sewing way back at intermediate school (in New Zealand, that's when you're between 11 and 13 years old, just before the trials and tribulations of secondary school). We had to make gingham aprons, and mine was pink. It also had a droopy hem, a haphazardly embroidered pocket and giant crooked stitches holding the whole thing together. I loved that fabric, and am now very happy that I can re-create it digitally without having to sew a stitch.

Happy New Year! It's been pouring down here for what seems like weeks, which is why the bunny is looking the way he does. It's very quiet. Everyone seems to have gone on holiday. I'm pottering round at home, tidying up my office/studio and painting a few walls here and there. No resolutions, but I'm in the middle of writing some goals. 2011 was a rollercoaster ride in many ways, but workwise it feels as if I've made some important inroads. Not the beginning of a journey anymore, but a little bit further on. Thank you to everyone who has visited and taken the time to look at my stuff - I appreciate it. May 2012 be filled with fun, love and abundance for all of us!

Christmas Eve - and there's a pink sunset, which may mean a rare beautiful Christmas Day tomorrow! The last few weeks have been a bit crazy and have thrown me for a loop, hence the lack of posting and even less work done behind the scenes. Never mind. It's time for a rest, a regroup, a new start, but right now I'm not thinking much about all of that. I'm listening to nostalgic Christmas songs on the radio, wrapping a few last little things and having a nice glass of pale pink bubbly (to match the special sunset). A very merry holiday season to you, wherever you may be in the world - see you in 2012!

I had this great plan of buying all my Christmas cards from Zazzle this year - and then realised that the shipping charges would cost about a million dollars to this farflung corner of the world. Never mind. I enjoy making cards by hand. Every year I pull out my Print Gocco from the hallway cupboard and have a terrible time remembering how to use it. I waste lamp bulbs, put ink on the wrong side of the screen and generally make a huge mess. This time, I played with painting a background in acrylic and printing on top. I wasted one screen, four bulbs and half a tube of ink, and swore quite a lot, but I got there in the end. Now I just have to remember to post them in time...