waiting...

for my third good thing...

y'see, yesterday, i woke up to find an email from james at folksy headquarters telling me i was this month's featured seller (along with 3 other fab peeps) then this morning i found a box waiting with jenna's fantastic new book. this would be heaven enough, but extra special for me, cos i designed the cover! yes, little ol' me! i've written about this before, but i cannot truly put into words what it means to hold a book in your hands and think oh my god, i did this! that ledger paper belonged to my grandma! and that little toy tractor was sam's when he was a child! i scrubbed at those pictures with wire wool and doused them in tea! i threw white paint all over those labels! me, i did all that! not only is it great to know i was part of it, but it's so well put together - the edges of the pages are all 'torn', the paper my design is printed on is lightly hammered and totally matt, not shiny and blah...the colours are perfect - it really looks like you could pick up labels, or run your fingers over the stitching and feel the bumps. in all honesty, i don't think i could feel any prouder! it's so nice when you let a project out into the world (well, let's face it, i'm new at all this, so maybe this is how it always is!) and it turns out to be much, much better than your expectations. it's a great feeling.

ok, so this is really exciting...

if you're a regular reading my boring old crap, you might remember that i mentioned a rather exciting commission about a million years ago. (you can refresh your memory here if you like)well, it was for a book cover for a book called 'made from scratch'. an american publishing company got in touch and asked me if i was interested, and of course i said yes! it took about 4 versions in total, and it was great fun to do...the final version went to new york, where the big cheese was thrilled to bits with it, thank goodness! the book isn't out until december, but above is a sneak peak. the picture above was taken by the author, jenna woginrich, and you can read her fantastically interesting blog, cold antler farm, right here. i tell you, the girl's an inspiration...mummy to a million bees, rabbits, dogs, duck, chickens, she makes her own butter, has a full time job as a graphic designer and she's a banjo player to boot!
the little yellow tractor on the front of the book is an old toy of my husbands, a favourite of the boys - i took a picture and roughed it up with sandpaper, then dipped it coffee! oh, the glamour! :) if you're interested in the simple life, the book is available for pre-order on amazon. if you click the bottom picture, it views it larger. cool huh?