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Today was the closing party for MONSTERVILLE! This morning I tried to figure out which outfit would best suit my Monster cake shop, and decided this one would do nicely, it looks like a whole tub-full of sweets piled up on top of my head. (I got it at the Vintage Fair in Birmingham's Custard Factory from Julia Gandy at hOle button jewellery.) Dylan Owen on Twitter said it looked like my brains are exploding out of my head, which pretty much sums up Monsterville; it was a mind-blowing project to work on.



So I trotted back to the Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford, northeast London, for one last fearsome hurrah.



There were three of us illustrators who worked with the Discover team to make it happen: Neal Layton, Ed Vere and me. Neal's wife just had a baby, so he couldn't come, but Ed and I had another wild Monster Draw-off. It was SO much fun!



We drew loads of 3-minute monsters, including 'Cutest Monster in Pyjamas' and 'Silliest Monster in a Car'. I didn't get photos of many of them, but here's Ed's 'Monsters in Love' and my 'Most Disgusting Monster'.




Ed gets very competitive. Here we are, sabotaging each other's paper.



It was a great party! Here are some lovely outfits from the day, including a fab-looking member of staff (Discover, can you remind me of her name?) and our excellent DJ, Laura Holden.



I couldn't get a non-blurry photo of the 1950's themed disco, but you get the general idea...



Ed and I had a wander through our creation with Director Sally Goldsworthy, quite sad to see it all come down, but thrilled we could be a part of it.



Considering the monster village had to be rebuilt almost every day, with the kids going nuts in it, it's amazing how well it held together. But when we looked closely, we could see a bit of wear and tear. Here's the window display in the Lolliplops cafe; apparently someone has chewed off the eyeballs on top of the cake.



And Ed's most excellent miniature cinema. He might get to keep that.



The party was part of a week's festivities for The Big Write, so there was lots more fun stuff going on today, including a Giraffes Can't Dance presentation by illustrator Guy Parker-Rees.



Chris Haughton also had an event (you might remember I went to his textiles launch not long ago). Both Ed and I are fans of his work, an

Today I was back in Stratford, north London, doing some more work with the Discover story centre team to design the upcoming Monsterville, a village people will be able to visit, populated entirely by monsters! The Grand Opening's on Sat, 28 May, and you can read all about it and see sketches in some of my older posts here. It was fabulous seeing the brilliant Neal Layton and Ed Vere again, and meeting for the first time our soundtrack composer, Sam Hooper. Discover's general manager Paul Callaghan led the meeting, and wow, that dude knows everything about printing, vinyl, fake grass, lighting, you name it. So impressed.


Neal Layton, Sarah McIntyre, Sam Hooper, Ed Vere with Monsterville props


Drawing for the bandstand by Neal Layton


Ed Vere examines the Monsterville mock-up set





Yummy treats for my Lolliplops soda fountain cafe


Neal's museum curator


Agent Tamlyn Francis showing some of Neal's drawings


Neal's museum colour sketch


Ed's designs for the entrance


Discover director Sally Goldsworthy and Sam Hooper




Paul shows off some potential fur we could use




Ed's tunnel of doom


Ed and Discover's Eleanor Butler


Someone had already drawn on these monster cards; the scientist head made me laugh.


Can't go wrong with eyeballs!

This year's been an incredible one at The Fleece Station studio, and times have never been as exciting as now, when our fab studio mate, Ms Deadlyknitshade, has her first book coming out!
If you're new to my blog, Lauren O'Farrell is the world's most incredible pirate knitter; she and her huge band of yarnstormers create amazing knitted graffiti installations all around the city. The latest was for Valentine's Day, when, by stealth, they decorated the Eros statue on Piccadilly Circus (see the photos here!) Now you may think it's easy hanging a string of knitted hearts from the figure's bow, but Lauren managed to find the longest telescopic pole imaginable to do it, and a huge crowd gathered and cheered wildly when they managed to loop the yarn over the statue.



Here's the giant squid she knit out of recycled Sainsbury's carrier bags for London's Natural History Museum. Its name is Plarchy, and it's draped cosily over Darwin's lap. (Here's my blog post about the Stitch-a-Squid session at the museum.)



And here's Lauren in our studio with her very first copy of the book... TA DAH!!! Isn't it lovely? It's in German, by the way!



Have a look at Lauren's amazing blog, Whodunnkit, to see photos of her amazing yarnstorming projects. And don't miss the Knit the City to find out about past and upcoming events! And if you love knitting or want to learn, sign up for the mailing list from the Stitch London website. The German book, Knit the City: Maschenhaft Seltsames, launches in Berlin on Sat, 5 March (details here). She heard this evening from Boing Boing that they're going to feature her work on their blog very soon.


Look, Ellen and I even got a mention in the dedication! Lauren thanked us for sharing our sparkling wit and deep wisdom with her... our Schaumtee und schlechten Gesang... No, actually, when we looked that up, it means bubble tea and bad singing, which is much more fitting.



Speaking of Fleece Station books abroad, I got a lovely e-mail from Stuart's cousin, Andrew, in Auckland, New Zealand. He wrote:

Just thought I would let you know that Luke sent our daughter Hannah 2 of your books for Christmas (Morris the Mankiest Monster, and You Can’t Eat a Princess) She really enjoys both of them and we do too. She is in Starship Children’s Hospital at the moment and they have a play specialist that comes round with toys and books for the kids. She asked whether Hannah needed any books and told us that they had just got a new book in and whether she might like that one- it was You Can’t Eat a Princess. We felt very smart to not only tell her that Hannah already has that book but also that we know the illustrator. Just thought I’d let you know that it looks like your book will be entertaining many different children throughout a hospital on the other side of the world (if that’s not too bizarre a concept!).

And our former studio mate upstairs, animator

Awhile ago I did a couple events at the amazing Discover centre in Stratford, northeast London, (blogged here and here) and the director, Sally Goldsworthy, invited me back to meet up with two titans in children's books, Neal Layton and Ed Vere. While just meeting them was exciting enough, it got better and better when I found out our project was to build a MONSTER VILLAGE!

So we're going to draw a bunch of stuff and come up with ideas, then their team of techicians (led by Paul Callaghan, whose training's in theatre sets and lighting) will turn it into 3-D reality! I think this is possibly the best job I've ever had, even better than building stuff with Lego. Here are the two very fine gentlemen with whom I'm working:

Ed Vere and Neal Layton

Ed Vere got excited about the idea of visitors going down the stairs, into a mysterious jungle sort of trail, like explorers. And Neal and I loved the idea that, after beating their way through these mysterious tree trunks, fronds and swamp life, that visitors would emerge to discover a lost village of monsters, like coming up the Inca Trail. We thought that, while the streets of the town could be shadowy, with creatures peering out, the shops could be cosily lit; when you go inside, the shops could have lovely displays, but still very monster-ish. A sort of Diagon Alley (but for monsters, not wizards). So we got the giggles thinking of all kinds of shops the monsters might run, and I took on designing an ice cream parlour/sweet shop, with fascinatingly horrible things in the jars, a bit like the kitchen scene in Morris the Mankiest Monster but a bit more sofa fountain-ish.


Morris the Mankiest Monster

I'm also designing a beauty parlour, where the monsters go to get magnificently ugly. We were talking amazing wigs, claw extensions, moustaches, this is going to be so fun. So far, I've just made some rough sketches of the ice cream parlour. Things may change entirely, but I've named it Lolliplops, thanks to a great suggestion by the writer Graham Marks on Twitter (GeeMarks). Right now I'm keeping it simple, while I find out if Paul and the guys can build it, then we'll go in and add details and more monsters.

Here's the exterior. I think the space may need to extend a bit further back than I've drawn it (unless they build it like a Tardis).


And the interior. I think I'm basing it a bit on this place that used to be in my home town called Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, that was my idea of sugar heaven as a kid. I thought it had gone entirely out of business, but bizarrely, a couple years ago, Stuart and I stumbled across one in Thailand, and I instantly regressed to the age of five.





Since we started working on this, I've heard from my friend Morvan and my agent Jodie that another amazing monster shop has opened in Hoxton! It's called The Minis