Rebekka is an artist and illustrator from Nashville, Tennessee. She writes a beautiful blog and does the most amazing commission work, including stunning house portraits.

Rebekka is just so talented and we feel so very privileged to have been able to work with her.

As a little treat for this our first post back here is a little interview we have done with Rebekka …

What were your favourite books when you where little?

My two favorite books when I was very tiny were “Oh Captain Kitty” by Godfrey Lynn and “The Fire Cat” Esther Averill. Haha…do you sense a theme developing here? I also loved (and still love) all of the Elsa Beskow books…The Sun Egg, Around the Year, Children of the Forest…my grandmother was Swedish, and I felt such a connection to her through Elsa’s stories.

Do you have some favourite contemporary illustrators for children?

Oh my, yes. Jen Corace’s work is so breathtakingly beautiful, in such a  quiet, special way. And Pamela Dalton’s papercuts (especially the ones she did for “Brother Sun, Sister Moon“) are just mesmerizing. And I love Carson Ellis…gosh, who doesn’t?

Would you like to author/illustrate a book? What  would it be about?

It’s only my lifelong dream! Right now I’m working with Artisan Books on a really exciting book  project (I can’t give details yet), but it’s not a children’s book. I would absolutely love to author and illustrate a children’s book of some sort. There are lots of ideas bumbling around inside my head right now and I’m hoping to put together a proposal for one of them sometime this year!

We absolutely cannot wait to see a book illustrated by Rebekka!

As you can see, we have a brand new header design – by the awesome Rebekka Seale. More on that later.

We can’t wait to get blogging again and to hear from you all again. Did you know we are also on Facebook? We post lots of fun stuff there, so please Like us, do!

Created as books for children that were to be low cost and high quality so as to make literature accessible to children of poorer parts of the US. Random House US have a great website devoted to Little Golden Books where you can find some great printables and activities as well as more history of the series.

SO you all know how much Katie and I LOVE Golden Books! We have written about our love on the blog numerous times – you can find the collection of our Golden Book posts here.

Now the wonderful Jackie from My Little Bookcase has issued a challenge to the blog world. She wants ideas on how to up cycle Golden Books that have seen better days and she invited us to take part.

We have been collecting very old and bedraggled Golden Books for a while now so we have a fair collection…

This is just a little pile!

Most of them have pages like this….

Scribble!

Or look like this….

Very grotty!

So we have been having fun using them as bunting. The first lot of bunting I made was for Ned’s 3rd birthday in his favourite colour – yellow.

Then I started to make some that we sold and also used as display at Magnolia Square...

I think I have a soft spot for the  Christmas bunting because it just looks so Christmasy!! There’s nothing better than displaying your love of books around the house – they are my favourite accessory.

We have also been using our collection to make gift tags for our online store orders. This has been really fun, because even in the tattiest book you can find the most divine illustrations to use on a parcel…

Such a beautiful new print in the Petit Collage range by Lorena Siminovich. He is called Story Bear and he is a print on Maple veneer. Petit Collage will ship Internationally.

Lorena also illustrates the ‘In My‘ series of board books.

We are thrilled to be ‘popping up’ with Magnolia Square in a new location – The Centre in Ivanhoe, which looks amazing.

The theme of the event is COLOUR and so we have chosen lots of beautiful, colourful books to take along.

All our favourite people will be attending, we have been saving up for weeks so we can splurge! Pop over to the Magnolia Square website for a full list of all the gorgeous retailers.

You can also join Magnolia Square on Facebook for all the latest.

We hope to see lots of you there, for what promises to be a spectacular shopping experience.

The print is also available on a tote bag…

Wouldn’t that be the perfect library bag?

The Little Fox creates dreamy and whimsical artworks many of which are book related. Including this gorgeous painting of The Owl and The Pussycat...

Drool over The Little Fox Etsy store here and read The Little Fox blog here.

Lou and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night – has anyone else seen it?

It felt like the end of an era in so many senses. Lou and I have seen almost all the films together along with another dear friend. As the years have gone by and lives have got busier, I think the release of each new film has got more and more exciting for us! Coming out of the cinema last night felt like the conclusion to a long tradition.

I loved the film – powerful, touching, it hit just the right note of the drama and tragedy of the action, without labouring it. And it felt like you could sense the off-screen comeraderie of the three stars, and a definite sadness on their part that it has all come to an end. (Anyone else think those last scenes were not necessary??)

Otto fell off the couch and hit his head (above his left eye) on the coffee table a few months ago. Bit hard to see but I reckon his (temporary) scar is a bit Potter-esque, don’t you?

And yes, he is a poser. He thinks by squinting his eyes he is smiling. 95% of our photos of him are with his eyes closed.

Someone’s Been Sitting In My Chair

Library Day

SMALL WONDERLAND from KEITARO SUGIHARA on Vimeo.

And Keitaro’s website here.