Peace Dudes! A few Chrissie cards from down under.

Oh I've been quite again. Hard at work,- looking for a quote that means something like - blessed are those that give.

Or it's better to give than to receive.

Or the giver is always better off than the getter. 

Something like that.

Well why a quote on being blessed?

Well this year I've been blessed with not only a lot of well wishing comments, but also with a few beautiful gifts from fellow bloggers.

The first was a small Nuttish masterpiece that arrived one sunny afternoon from the beautiful Ces. A nut it was. And though, when I say the word 'nut' I might hear some twitters in the back row (people even smile when I say 'Nutcracker' for some reason. And even when I say Nussknacker)..... Everyday  I stare at that work with envy. I have it hanging above my work space to remind me to try harder.

And then, blessing on blessing,  the wonderfully talented Janne from Norway sent me a wonderous sketch book that wreaks of beauty and the essence of hand made. I'll post a picture of it in the New Year. At the moment I am staring at it's vestal beauty, shaking at the knees as I contemplate scarring it with my clumsy drawings.

And ... even as we speak I believe a small parcel is whipping it's way from Argentina - from the Marvelous Don Roberto esq. And boy I am looking forward to that one.... :) The joy is in the anticipation I always say but I think the joy will also be after the anticipation.

And lastly but not leastly recently I have connived and cunningly won my way through a riddling contest to take first place over at the amazingly insightful Pásztohy Lili at the World According to Lili. Yippee!!!!!

So I'd like to thankyou all for your kindness. I really am blessed.

Not like these little rick-shaw boys.

These are some of the Christmas Cards (and details of such) I've come up with this week. One I did for my wife's work. Another for a good friend whose skull I do intend to return. (Not Yorik). Stupidly I've spent so much time  making them that I ran out of time to send them.

And of course Chrissie wouldn't be complete without John Lennon to remind us our how our lives are slipping past so quickly. I got a bit carried away with those - sorry about that - my tongue was stuck in my cheek for a while. Those images are mainly at the bottom. (If you are wondering what happened to Yoko... well, Michael Jackson made a guest apparence that day. He was a little stiff but I made the best of him.)

Oh nearly I forgot to mention Illustration Friday's topic "Mail." For that at first I was tempted to do Meg Ryan's orgasm scene in "You've got Mail."

Then I realised that was actually in "When Harry Met Sally." How dissappointed was I? (Just kidding)

Anyhow, I'll have whatever she's having, thankyou.
I'm sorry I haven't been to many blogs. I'm snowed under at the moment.

A very very very Merry Christmas to yourselves and your families.

So this is Christmas

And what have you done?

Another year over

And a new one just begun.

And so this is Christmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young

                                 John Lennon.

Okay I needed a little play with those last ones :) Sorry about that. I was a hippy once myself. Then my mum caught me and made me take her wig off. It was hot anyway and made my scalp itch.

Phenomenon

Oh dear, just got back, the surf was rotten, the sand is stuck in my right ear, I am brown as brown toad and have lost so much weight that my head reminds me of Iggy Pop (on a bad hair day).

Anyway, thank you for all those great comments on that last one. You are very patient to read my ramblings.

Checking out  everyone's blogs now and I see I have missed some zingers  whilst I have been away.

You know, the thing that gets me about blogging is how I see all the artists improving so much. It's like : "hey, there is an audience, some one is looking, so I better pull something out of the hat."

And so hats off to you.

You know who you are. I bet you can feel it in your bones.

Gee I'm getting a  warm fuzzy feeling in my left ankle. 

Better quit  while I'm a head. (What image does that last sentence make in your mind?)

Oh, this is my image for Illustration Friday "Phenomenon".

Originally I had a bunch of kids playing with a Ouijie Board summoning up Uncle Arthur wrapped in a sheet and looking like a primal Ectoplasm. The file I was working with was about 2.5 Gig - and takes about fifteen minutes plus to save. So, of course, being a boy, I only saved it once in the course of the morning.

Ugh. No need to tell you what happened.

Thanks so much for looking.

See you at your blogs.

:)

PS: yes the image has something to do with Phenomenon. I had to make, let' see, one two three four five ... ten new kids for it. 

Should have been eleven eh? :)