Thank you for all your lovely well wishes to my newly married sis & the concern for my where abouts over the past few months.
First I got the flu & in true Mandy fashion I tried to keep going as normal, I realised I was properly sick when I said to Kate "I'll just lie on the sofa for 2 mins" & 5 hours later I woke up! It seemed to hang around for ages & just when I thought I was better, it turned into gastric flu... joy ! Then on top of that, the day we moved into our beautiful new studio, we received a letter from the council saying a complaint had been made, so until that has been resolved, I'll just show you one sneaky photo, taken when it snowed in APRIL! more will follow soon I promise.
The sun is now shining (most of the time!) our loveliest, bestest friends from Sydney came to stay & cheered me up tremendously & last weekend Russ and I snuck off to the seaside.
We stayed the first night with friends who have just bought a house in Rye, imagine my delight when we saw our room and there was a 'black apple' print on the wall.
For our sins we are such city folk & went pathetically goo-y over the new baby lambs we saw on our country walk, I think this little one was the runt (but I'm no farmer!)
Then on to Whitstable, oooohhhh it's lovely (London by the sea!) actually someparts reminded me alot of Venice beach LA. We stayed in a converted fisherman's hut
such a lovely view to wake up to
and there were the most beach huts I have ever seen, some of which are selling for £30,000......???!
This part on England is rapidly changing as more and more people want to move out of the busy cities, there are some very fabulous shops and cafes (the BEST selection of yummy puddings EVER).
... mixed in with old school establishments !
So enough about me, what about the world of Belle & Boo. I can barely keep up. We have appeared in out first French magazine which was very flattering
& a french film 'Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'aime' that features my Belle & Boo prints, was released & has already won 2 awards at the Berlin International Film festival. I haven't seen it yet, but the set designer sent me these photos of how they were used.
I am sure it will be a case of blink and you'll miss them, but I know they are there & I'm very proud. A similar thing happened to a good friend of mine, actually its not that similar her work appeared in a Bond movie! Remember the scene when Halle Berry comes out of the sea in her orange bikini? well she is wearing earrings designed by my friend, we all cheered in the cinema, when we saw them, we must have seemed very strange indeed !!!
I was lucky enough to be asked to appear in an exhibition in Paris. Claire Redor who makes these exquisite clay birds was trusting enough to send them to a selection of artists to decorate/illustrate as we chose.
Mine are called 'Pigeon Post' and the idea behind them is Belle & Boo are pen friends across the English channel.
They come with a secret, sealed note, but unfortunately & ironically all though I made a lovely comfy nest for them for their journey back to France, they appear to have flown off course :(
meaning sadly they missed the private view. Lets hope they find their way home soon.
We are working on SO, SO, many other exciting things which all will be revealed over the next few months & I promise I wont disappear for such a long time again :)
