Making more of these girls, now named Otylie.

Eating clouds for breakfast, taste best with blueberries.

My child in Wicker Man mode

Wholeheartedly agree with this phrase appended to Stirling Boys Club.

Went to see this, love, love, love. And yes, life was that brown and grey in seventies Britain!

A little teaser for you and a kick in the posterior for me! Sorry to be cryptic but really something new coming soon. ‘Voyager’ & ‘Voyager Kiosk’ for Lou Lou & Oscar.

If you are in Edinburgh for the Fringe please don’t forget to visit the ‘new’ National Museum of Scotland. Stunning, a post coming soon, get along and say hello to the Narwhal for me.

Print up at last.

Ishi makes a birthday cake.

I am 41. Eat carrot & orange cake.

Get pretty flowers.

Made a crown for a kitty.

Another print up at last.

Blurry people.

Some wonderful fundraising for Japan going on out there. SouSou shirt from Mogu Arts Shop.

Buying (but not for me).

Reading.

Watching.

Jumpsuit finishing.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope that you had a wonderful festive season full of good things. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and I managed to (sort of, badly!) crack an old nut, look above and you will see the results of my return to knitting! Some of you may know that I exiled myself to a life without making for many years due to an earlier failure with wool and needles. It was a painful process but thanks to the patience & encouragement of my mother in law, Deborah, I can now cast on, knit stitches and cast off-the sense of achievement is intoxicating! I am looking forward to whipping up some creature scarves and maybe even some socks when I get a little more accomplished. I confess that I don’t find knitting as gratifying as sewing or embroidery, it takes so long, I think this will be a small adventure. It is high time I got back to some creature creation, I find myself ready to plug in the sewing machine again, it has been a long break.

We were introduced to the little pirate above on Christmas day, he bears a striking resemblance to Ishi don’t you think? Why do most little boys want to be fire fighters and pirates when they grow up, I miss the days when Ishi wanted to be a hairdresser, a ballet dancer or a builder!

Random shot of a corner of Ishi’s bedroom. I managed to hang the bunting made by the super talented Marichelle of Lifelix at long last too.

We had some spectacular snow fall before Christmas, I miss it, come back pretty white stuff. The light was incredible, other worldly, and so nice to laze around under the duvet with a big tube of sweets.

I was amazed by the show the ice put on for us in December. The images above were taken at Granny’s house in Birmingham, the plants look as if they are trapped in resin.

Very sweet that a tiny bit of our sitting room appeared on Decor8 just before Christmas. I am embarrassed by the untidy cables under the table! Thanks Holly.

Ok, so if I ever get any better at knitting I would love this book available over at Etsy!

This will be the last of the ‘look at my new logo’ posts I promise. I wanted to share my new business cards with you, in fact they are my first ever set and I adore them. Haven’t managed to give any out yet being a shy and retiring creature, I am just waiting for someone to ask me what I do so that I can hand them a card. Adam hand drew the logo type and we decided on the drops of colour at the last minute as my other ideas for a motif didn’t really work. The drops reference our new home, it rains a lot up here, the colours were inspired by one of our favourite books, Little One by Anne & Paul Rand. Love that book, there it is below.

Still working on my pieces for Plush You LA, should be ready to share them with you at the weekend. While I work I think about the direction I want LL&O to go in. I would like to design a winter collection of creatures, be a little more focused.

While I am here I want to share these lovely notebooks from Pumpkinsputnik over at Etsy. I also fell in love with these amazing Tea Cup Bracelets I saw over at the always inspiring Melissa Loves.

Available from Stay Gold Mary Rose. I do wonder if they might be in danger of smashing if you wore a few of them together? If I had my bricks and mortar shop I would rush to stock both of the above. I can dream huh?

At last a new look for the LL&O blog, I do hope you like it? Adam worked really hard to get it all spick and span for today and the opening of The Spider & The Fly, more of which later. I hope to be here a little more often and share more of myself with you. Of course life gallops along at such a pace that it is often hard to record, synthesize and think things through. For now I am treating you to the striking image above. Regular readers will recognize the beautiful bone harness designed and created by Diane of Pagan Poetry, arresting indeed. You can read behind the image here.

So today is the day to announce my big news, it really isn’t all that exciting, except for us! We will be leaving the island and moving to Edinburgh, Scotland in 3 weeks time-yikes! I can’t tell you how much I long to be back in the city, it is so beautiful here but we haven’t thrived, I will miss the sea, but hey, Edinburgh has the seaside too. I don’t think we could have picked a more perfect place to finally grow some roots. So, we are bound for Morningside to the south west of the city centre. I am looking forward to taking you on a walking tour of our new area, just look at the view over the rooftops.

Being in Edinburgh will allow LL&O more room to grow, craft fairs galore and less than a hour to Glasgow and the Craft Mafia gang, not forgetting my sister for essential Ishi-sitting (only kidding Ali, kind of!). Did I mention that Morningside has its own craft fair once a month! Plus, oodles of charity shops/thrift stores. I am a little in love with the flat we will be renting, I have only seen it in photos, Mr A has seen it with his own eyes though. Lots of light and ooh parquet flooring, I have every room planned out, this is the fun part. I will be busy packing up and making work for a show in May. The LL&O shop will go into vacation mode for a few weeks while we transition, no internet connection for a little while I expect. Wish us luck kittens, I will be back a little later with a tiny shop update, fingers crossed.

Images above from The Good Machinery & Artquirk over at Etsy.

I am so in love with the time lapse videos that are popping up all over the place at the moment. Check out 20 hours of papercutting in 2 minutes from Famille Summerbelle and my favourite from Love and a Sandwhich. If you have never made a plush creature this video really highlights the amount of work involved. Love it to pieces!

Here they are, The Polar Pack, please say hello to Arctic Fox in Spring, Black Lemming, Snowy Owl, Caribou, Ringed Seal, Musk Ox, Bearded Seal, Red Aurora, Arctic Hare and Ice Blink. They don’t have super powers, just a love for the Arctic and the ability to assume an alternate identity, well, that is pretty super I guess. These little guys are available exclusively at Schmancy from the 1st of March, the online store is here. Each member of the polar pack is one of a kind and will never be repeated. In fact Schmancy is the only place you can grab yourself a Fish Boy of any kind at the moment! You can read more about the gang in an interview I did with lovely Kristen over at Plush You. I would love to hear if you have a favourite, I am willing to bribe you to leave a comment letting me know which of the pack you like the best. So, I am giving away a star pin of your choice from my Etsy shop and some other goodies too, a Lou Lou & Oscar treat bag, it will be lovely I promise! The winner will be chosen at random by the number picking gizmo, you have until the 1st of March if you would like to play along.