Quick n Nasty Advent Calendar

With about half an hour to spare this morning I realised that if I was going to do an activity advent calendar for December it was going to have to be now or never. So I grabbed a couple of packets of origami paper and folded very rough and ready envelopes with an evening activity written on the inside of each one and sealed with an old yellowing sticker on which I wrote the date. They now all sit on the dining room table in an old box of Big-P’s. This is a box that has been sitting around for years because I thought P had some sentimental / family attachment to it. While I was photographing it I asked him to remind me why the box was so special and he said “my brother used to keep his receipts in it” . Ok, so a very special, old family box holds our madly rushed advent calendar.

Next year I am going to attempt to make something as beautiful as Rosa’s. Just perfect.

Marshmallow and friends

Ahhh finished just in time.

The three bunnies are packed in an express post box and are on their way to Adelaide for Morphe. I am quite pleased with these little critters, though the little pinky faced girl looks sort of puffy in these photos – I guess she needed a little more stuffing, but in real life she looks far less marshmallowy. She doesn’t look much better in this following ‘lifestyle’ shot! Poor little Marshmallow.

Whistle while we panic

I have a couple of deadlines which I am dancing dangerously with at the moment. The first and fast upcoming one is the Morphe exhibition in Adelaide. The exhibition opens on December 6th, but the toys need to be there by November 30th in time for set up (hanging / bump in etc). So I calculate that if I get my toys into express packages by next Tuesday afternoon they should still be safely in Adelaide on the Wednesday. Why? Why do I need to calculate that I can get my toys into packages on Tuesday? Because I still have three out of three toys to make! Ah! How did this happen? Well, (apart from always being a dreadful procrastinator) I have had a couple of trial and error attempts which have come out as big errors and now I am retreating back to an old and safe formula and hopefully I can get something that I feel proud of ready in time. Hopefully.

Secondly, I am working on the illustrations for a kid’s activity book which is immensely satisfying and perhaps the most fun I have illustrating in a long time, but the deadline of December 23rd looms upon the horizon. Today the lovely designer sent me a list of the art work status – what was finished, what was still in the works. I went through the list and made a quick calculation of how much time the unfinished work will take me. I worked out that if I am very quick and don’t spend a lot of time pondering facial expressions, textures or colour harmonies it will take me 58 hours. I then went through my calendar and calculated the hours that Mum has promised to look after Amelia for the next 6 weeks. You wouldn’t believe it but it came out at exactly 58 hours. Unfortunately, some hours later I realised there was a slight flaw in my calculations – the first was that I had left no time for rough sketches (important to send off for client approval) and I had also for some reason presumed that Mum started looking after Amelia at 9 in the morning. In fact, I leave home to take her to Mum’s at 9 and don’t really start work until I get back around 9.45 or 10ish.

So suddenly I feel busier than I already felt. And here I am blogging. And now I am going to do an illustration of me panicking – and then I am going to do some work.

End of year ideas

Firstly, I think this is simple and fun: Family photo booth photos – one a year. Does anyone know where there is a photo booth that takes old black and white strips in Melbourne? I would love to do one of these every December and marvel at the changes as Amelia gets older (and weep as we do).

The other great idea, which I have been thinking about since Stephanie posted about it on her blog last week, is an advent calendar of fun activities. Stephanie is making a gorgeous sock advent calendar – and inside each sock she is going to place an idea for a simple activity for the whole family to do together each night. I love this idea, and while I don’t have the time now to make little stockings, I think we can manage 24 ideas in envelopes. I was looking through the latest copy of Notebook magazine (it has been highly recommended by a couple of friends and I agree that it’s worth a peek) and came across this idea for an advent calendar:

which could be another fun way to hold all the activities rather than envelopes. But for now, I just need to come up with 24 activities that will keep a 3 year old entertained for a short time every evening in December (presentation may be a little incidental this year). So far, I have gleaned these ideas from Stephanie’s entry and the wonderful associated comments (and adapted and added some for our family and our hemisphere):

1. Paint everyone’s toenails
2. Have hot chocolate with all the fixings (we might do milkshakes if it’s too hot)
3. Star gazing
4. Give everyone crazy hairstyles
5. Backyard cricket
6. Go out for sushi
7. Have an indoor picnic
8. Write letters to Father Christmas
9. Use puppets to tell bedtime story
10. Have breakfast for dinner (I am thinking pancakes)
11. Make decorations for the tree
12. Have a camp out around the christmas tree
13. Pack a picnic dinner and have it at a park (or Botanical Gardens)
14. Fancy dress for dinner time
15. Wrap a toy and take it to a charity christmas tree
16. Make handmade gift tags for relatives
17. Fish and Chips for dinner down at the beach
18. Fold origami for the christmas tree
19. Dance like crazy to music
20. Watch a christmas movie with popcorn
21. Go out for gelati
22. Take Nanny and Pappous to see the Christmas lights
23. Have a bubble bath
24. Special christmas Eve treat TBA

Great ideas for people in Melbourne (perhaps with older kids – or no kids!) – even more ideas for those who feel like living it up in December.

Other ideas for “fun family activities”

Christmas themed games and activities (warning: pop up ads)

Have you got any suggestions?

Christmas Cards

I have had a few emails recently about whether or not there will be Loobylu Christmas cards for sale this year. Unfortunately I haven’t had enough time to get it organised but there are two wonderful alternatives which still have some of my illustrations involved and BOTH support the wonderful Oxfam Australia.

Firstly, Oxfam Unwrapped is a great opportunity to send your friend a card letting them know that you have bought a donation on their behalf for something specific that will go to someone who needs it most – maybe a goat, some chickens, clean water or an emergency kit.

I have donated a card design (a design that you may recognise from the year before last) for Unwrapped to use as one of the cards you can choose from.

Secondly, Jeremy over at my web host, Segment Publishing, has organised to sell the Segpub christmas postcards and donate 50% of the proceeds to Oxfam Australia. The cards look fabulous – there are four in each pack and each is designed by a different artist – there’s me;

and my perennial fave Nathan Jurevicius, plus Matthew Hoy and Jon Hicks.