Dreaming of spring...

Lately it has gotten infinitesimally warmer in the British Isles (read: it isn't snowing) and the daylight hours are getting longer. If it isn't my imagination, I would even dare to say that a couple of days have been somewhat sunny, of late. All this gets me thinking about the oncoming of spring, one of my favourite times of the year. Winter is so bleak and depressing this side of Christmas, so I am greatly looking forward to seeing the first daffodils, snowdrops, tulips and crocuses coming up.

With all the promise of the outdoors my studio suddenly seemed small and stuffy, and London just too crowded. So I teamed up with fellow illustrator Jo Cheung to head out on a day trip to visit June (you guessed, another illustration buddy) in her home town of Kingston-upon-Thames for some quality together time. We had a really wonderful day, strolling around town and taking lots of pictures on the bank of the Thames. And June was even kind enough to take us to the beautiful little chocolate shop where she works so we could pinch all the free samples and have the most amazing hot chocolates ever known to mankind.

We rounded off the day in style with a meal out. We went to a beautiful little Thai restaurant in the nearby village of Cheam, which is owned and run by June's parents. I have only ever eaten Thai food in a resaturant once before so it was lovely to sample some really authentic Thai cuisine. Thanks guys for a fantastic day out!

In other news, you'll notice that I've changed the layout and look of this blog quite a bit. I have been working on the new banner on-and-off for the last week or so, and it took quite a bit of twiddling in the final stages to get it like it is currently. I'm satisfied with it for now, though it's probably only a matter of time before I get bored and change it again! At any rate, this will be 'the new look' of my online territories, so I'll be giving my website, flickr, etsy and twitter all a makeover soon (not to mention an update).

And in case you were wondering where the drawings have been in the last few posts, I would like to reassure you that yes, I am still doing lots of drawings (and even some painting last week, woo!) The pictures will be on here as soon as they have been scanned and cleaned, I'm aiming for late this week/early next week to have them up on here. Look forward to seeing you again then!

Emma x