tania howells

Christmas tomatoes

Not sure why lovely ripe tomatoes on a baking hot day came to mind today when I sat down to do a doodle on my last free afternoon before xmas holiday, but there you go.  Perhaps in places like Australia, tomatoes are getting very nice around now?  I made it a bit Christmassy with the message!I am enjoying a cup of tea (ofcourse) and some remarkable baked things from a friend!  My mind is being blown with every bite- nanaimo bars, sugar snowflakes, lacey oatmeal pistachio cookies and butter tarts!  This lady is a magician in the kitchen!!  Thank-you to her!

I wish all of you a calm, warm holiday with lots of peace and harmony!  I am wishing for no fights, yummy food, warm quiet days and family all around.  I don't know if it is getting older but I am regularly so so very grateful to live in a peaceful country where I don't have to fear for my life, as so many in this world do.  I will pray for those people this year and hope for some comfort for them.  Sometimes I stop and notice how lucky we are to be able to wander down the street, grab a coffee, chat with friends at the school yard and live without fear here.  Thank-you Canada!

Finch is exited for school to be over.  We want to go up to an intersection we discovered where the freight trains go by right at street level with a new to us, railroad crossing that goes DING DING DING.  What a thrill!  It looks almost like this drawing he is doing.  Maybe we will try on Monday morning.  You just never know if one will come, so wish us luck!

Happy Holidays!

bits and bobs

I found a speedball screen printing kit in someone's free stuff pile (!!) last summer and today was the day, I wanted to make a messy polka dot screen.  It's pretty old so I don't know if the emulsion would be good still, maybe it would be, but the screen filler seems fine.  It would be fun to have a dress with this print on!  Maybe neon pink on wheat or gray coloured linen...

I really want to go to City of Craft this weekend!  I am not sure if I will though, as it would mean bringing Finch and that sometimes goes well...hmmm...I'll have a think about it anyway.  It's always SO inspiring!

I uploaded my final Shapes book drawings this morning! Yippee!! I have one week before Christmas holidays, to myself.  I do have a few things to do, vacuum maybe, but I also want to chill out a bit!  It has been non stop since school started and, phew, I just need to take a breath.

Check it out, last week Finch was home ALL week with a cold, but by friday we were going nuts so I took him downtown to the Christmas windows at the Bay.

It was nice to go.  I grew up here and had never ever visited them.  Finch was impressed, but not as impressed as he was by the surprise toy train set up at the bloor/yonge subway station in a little display window by the southbound platform.  He LOVED that.  We were nearby, so we visited daddy at work too.
Here's a pattern I made by playing around with a cool painting Finch did of CP and CN freight trains.

newspaper

Rectangle started out as a gruff, wisened older and possibly a bit snobby, actor type, in my original shapes book idea.  All the characters have sinced morphed, quite appealingly, into school children!  I brought back a bit of the grumpy older man version of rectangle here for the small title page image.  I picture him clearing his throat loudly and ruffling the newspaper indignantly.  I was trying to get the angle right, so I drew a whole bunch.  I think I went with the one on the far right.  We'll see if he makes it into the book!  My final deadline is Friday and I am quite exited to be close to the finish line!  I think I first came up with this idea over 5 years ago, so it is a thrill to have it come to fruition!

a little card for you

I did up a quick litle Christmas card to send out this year.  It is rather too late really, but you know what they say! Better late then never!

Of course my favorite themes are all represented - tea, birds, gingham, colours and patterns!

 

If you click on this here little image it will take you to a full size layout for you!  A gift, if you would like to send these out as your Christmas cards.  It is a bit wonky, I think some of the gingham gets a tiny bit cropped, but you should be able to print it out as is on your home printer, on card stock if you have it.  Enjoy!