"I not gonna lie to you, it's a crackin' journal to keep your life tidy" – Nessa Jenkins // If you're a Gavin & Stacey fan like me, this is for you! This is a 36-page lined journal with some of our favorite Nessa-isms scattered throughout. It's a paperback and sized at 5" x 8." You can preview all of the pages and buy it at  Blurb.com . I painted the cover with gouache and added some finishing touches in Photoshop. I'm thinking of making a Smithy version next... "Gav-la!" Update: I just found out that a new show with Pam and Mick is airing this spring! Can't wait to see the Shipmans again, down Essex and on Barry Island. Pre-photoshop with gouache layer only. 

If you follow my other site, Colouring Tudor History , you will see now that I am on a total "drink coaster" kick! My favorite printer, Printswell , has recently started this service and it is absolutely wonderful. Their color printing has always been the very best for my stationery products as they use an Indigo inkjet printer. This process ensures the rich, vibrant colors of a traditional offset printer at a digital printing price. This means that small business owners like me can play around with small print runs as opposed to enormous orders (we're talking thousands!) that offset printing requires. The reason offset printing has such high minimums is in part because to actually run the machine, which could not even fit in your average kitchen, requires lots of energy (people and electric). Anyway, more on that another time. Today I want to share my latest set - the Jane Austen collection ! I drew these first in pencil and then added the color in Photoshop. The back

It was a Thursday morning that felt more like a Tuesday in the first week back from a pleasantly long winter break. The house was still dark when my husband left for his "new year, new me" routine of 6am spin class. Unable to get back to sleep, I poured myself a jumbo cup of coffee in my new Star Wars mug (won during a rousing game of Yankee Swap at my parents' house in Connecticut) and sat down at my desk to open some emails. I'm a print designer by trade so it was high time to respond to my wonderful clients after 2 weeks off. Only a couple people had sent messages and, as I scrolled through I saw that nothing was urgent. Side note: I work best under pressure so when I have a long deadline, you can pretty much catch me finally working on something about 1 day before it's due. I work quickly, which my clients and I both like about my process. Caffeine kicking in, I felt a sudden inspiration to paint. I had 40 minutes before the boys would be awake so I filled u