Dead People's Music is launched! April 2009

My novel is finished, it's been printed and now it's going to be sold! I am super-excited about having a novel out since I have been harbouring novelist fantasies for over a decade now. Find out more about it here. and please support NZ literature and buy a copy!

Origami cards April 2009

I love the origami paper you can buy at Japanese supplies stores - the colours are so intense and the designs deceptively simple. It's everyone's favourite collage material, and I thought I would join the fun by making some cards, quickly despatched to friends so that I can pretend to be well-mannered.

The humans are dead April 2009

Otto decided that we needed an art exhibition in our back yard after he went to a one-day sculpture installation at a beach. These are our tin can cha-cha robots, and you can see more of our combined efforts on flickr

Shopping bag April 2009

I got sick of advertising Pams and Countdown whenever I went shopping, so I made my own sturdy denim unbranded version. I think it looks french tennis -- it's the handle that does it.

Bird girl April 2009

I am expecting baby number three and I thought I would paint her a picture or two now since I probably won't have time after she is born. Besides, she'll be taking over my study/studio -- I will have to relocate to a nook in the sitting room. I haven't decided whether the girl is the bird, or whether the stripy birds will hatch out of the blue eggs.

Book design April 2009

I have been doing more covers -- one for Owen Marshall, one for Mandy Hager, and the one above, for Sophie Gray. I am not the kind of person who can fix on one solution: I have to try out at least twenty different options before I find the right one. It's kind of like how I get dressed in the morning too.

Manchester, so much to answer for April 2009

Why is linen called Manchester? I used Japanese cotton for Gus's new set. It reminds me of the afore-mentioned origami, and I got it really cheap -- only five dollars a metre. Had it fallen off a truck? I am meant to be sewing a matching set for the top bunk, but I tell ya, I don't have the patience for those long seams. It's why ultimately I remain a craft dilletante.