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This story may or may not be a fairy tale, though there are certainly fairies in it. However, unlike any of his Victorian forebears or most of his contemporaries, Machen manages to achieve, only a few years before the comfortably kitsch flower fairies of Cicely Mary Barker, the singular feat of rendering fairies terrifying. With James Hogg’s 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner', Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Thrawn Janet’ and several of M. R. James’s marvellous ghost stories, ‘The White People’ is one of only a handful of literary texts that have genuinely unnerved me.

The post Between terror and kitsch: fairies in fairy tales appeared first on OUPblog.

Unconventional advertising for 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' (To promote this week's opening of the adventure film, Disney rolls out an interactive window display at the 34th street Macy's, as well as purchased ad space on Twitter) (Adweek) (AdAge, reg.... Read the rest of this post

6 days until the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East. I just found out we will be recording audio of the event! Of course it's not the same as being there in person… 'Twilight' moms (studio is tapping mothers to spread the word about the... Read the rest of this post

8 days and counting until the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East.… 'Melrose Place' is coming baaack (to The CW. And from the department of remakes that make me sad: Zac Efron will dance his way through the new "Footloose.")... Read the rest of this post

And sometimes, even doodling can be fun! Am still not 100% but I went on strike (I hate being sick) and drove out to the countryside with the dogs this morning to give them a good run, then got back home and finished up this little doodle that I'd started up late last night. Yes, I'm trying to think up products for Easter for my online stores of course :)

I turned this into a few products including this card at Zazzle:

Oh, and my Rabbit Blue Stamp won a Today's Best Award on Zazzle yay!

Am already wondering what to draw next ... hmmmm ... :D Happy Weekend!

I'm feeling very uninspired today ... I finally have time to draw but have a mild cold and nothing seems to come out right and the scanner seems to be making things worse, ack. Not a great day but I did a few test sketches of rabbits and I decided to fool around with one of them and place it on the background from another of my drawings (Lily-of-the-Valley in case you're curious) and this was the result:

After which I doodled a bunny on an Easter Egg:

Which the scanner screwed up completely as the colours are different and the faded blue strokes on the rabbit are pretty invisible ... but that's okay as I'm not happy with any of my drawings and sketches today anyway. I gave up fiddling with the scanner and decided to post these two, even if I'm not crazy about them. There are good days and bad days and the good days will eventually return, right? Right?

Off to make another hot drink to soothe my aching body and take more vitamins to fight off this cold. I rarely get colds so am also extremely annoyed at being sicky ...

Stuart Vyse is Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, in New London. In his new book, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money, he offers a unique psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of our wildly self-destructive spending habits. In the excerpt below Vyse looks at the psychology of credit limits. Check out the tips he provided us with this morning or his podcast.

The Magic of Credit Limits

It is a wonderful feeling. You apply for your first MasterCard, hoping to be accepted. Finally it arrives in the mail, and you feel like a million bucks. It is shiny and new, and it comes with a letter that tells you your credit limit. In most cases, this happy event occurs when you are quite young: just after graduation from high school or somewhere in your twenties. As a result, the credit limit often seems like an amazingly large figure. (more…)

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Provencal Red Flowers products at Zazzle

I'm Back Online!!! Oh my, am so relieved. I was actually beginning to feel very depressed about being offline for so long, isn't that pathetic? I felt so out of touch with everyone and also realised how much I actually do on the internet ... work, play, pay bills, research : pretty much everything, sigh.

Anyway, here I am and once I have gone through the hundreds of emails in my inbox (ack!) I shall be racing around catching up on everyone's blogs and art with relish yay.

I've been busy and haven't actually had much time for drawing and have been doing lots of text designs due to suggestions and requests from friends and others, but I did do a few doodles and here's a simple one that's inspired by the Provencal motifs I see around me. I'm not crazy about my new scanner, I should have stuck to the old tried and true brands, and this one is driving me nuts as it needs tons of tweaking to get the image as close to the original as possible. Ah well.

Here's one of the text designs I've done, I'll upload the rest later on bit by bit. I'm just so pleased to be back online that am going to rush off and spend the rest of the day getting everything done! See you later :)

Red Hot Mug interpreted as a card and Love card on Zazzle :D

I miss my Daylight Lamp!! I used it to draw by, in the evenings, so I could still see the true colour of my pencils. As it is, I had to stop last night in the middle of this drawing as I no longer knew what reds I was using. and I continued it today in the clear light of day, sitting by the window.

I bought this lovely deep red mug at the markets last week. I haven't done it any justice as far as its real colour is concerned, but this was my attempt nonetheless :) I used watercolour pencils so scanned the above once I'd finished drawing it in case I destroyed it when I "painted" the water on. Below is the final result, which turned out neither as well nor as badly as I'd imagined:

Bonjour!! I'm now in France!! I still can't quite believe it and am loving it here. If anyone would like to know a bit more about what's up in my life, I've blogged over at my Musings blog, so head over there.

Meanwhile, I have been suffering without my coloured pencils and sketchbooks. Who knew I'd depend sos much on having the huge range of colours I had at home? They are now in storage with all the rest of my art supplies and what's left of my material possessions, waiting for me to find a more 'permanent' abode here in France. So I have only managed a doodle and a text design in between the huge chaos of packing, moving and semi-settling in. Not really happy with either but at least I got something small done!!

Tree of Hearts card is up over at Zazzle.

I did this text design:

Love makes me Happy card at Zazzle.

And no prizes for guessing that there's a love/hearts theme going through my mind at the moment. No no no, I'm not in love or attached at the moment, but Valentine's Day is around the corner and my commercially-minded panicked brain is hard at work thinking up designs for products and gifts, sigh. Apologies but I can't quite help it at the moment :)

On the bright side ... I've discovered a great art store close by and have practiced surprising restraint but managed to bag myself a set of watercolour pencils and good paper, so will be back to drawing again soon. Can't wait as my fingers are itching to get sketching again.

I'm also planning to start taking lots of photos and doing some drawings of what's around me though there's so much that's charming that I'm on overkill at the moment and in quite a bit of a daze still. Thank you to everyone who has messsaged me wishing me all the best and wondering when I'd be back here. I'm amazed that anyone noticed me missing at all so truly appreciate your wishes. Huge hugs and cheers from France!

In this card designed by mr.mannun, business ties are flying in the wind as this beast rips down a small patch of Christmas trees all while holding a flock of fudgesicle shaped birds. This is great! One of my favorite finds on Flickr. My top pick in the genre of groucy card design.

You can browse the rest of mr.mannun’s design / illustration work on Flickr. He also has a few poster samples on Gig posters.com

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I just haven't had the time to do very much else but pack, get everything ready for the move and recover from exhaustion. Am suffering from lack of sleep! But I did manage to do a bit of text design and produced a Valentine's then Happy 16th birthday design.

Valentine Hearts card at Zazzle

Sweet Sixteen Card at Zazzle

My colored pencils are packed away and in storage till I need them to be shipped over to France, which means that it may be six months before I see them again. I have a basic minimum of twelve with me so will do with that till I can get my hands on more. Meanwhile I guess I'll do more digital text designs.

I can't believe it but tonight is my last night here In Australia! Looks like I may be offline for a while and only have access to limited internet connection which means that I will not be able to visit your blogs and check out all the wonderful art till I get a connection of my own. I can see myself suffering from all kinds of withdrawal, eek. But I shall be back as soon as I can and hope everything goes well with everyone out there. Cheers.

The matching Pink Leaf Sticker for the card received two Awards for Best Sticker of the Day (6th January) and Top Ten Sticker Views at Zazzle :D

I just haven't had the time to do very much else but pack, get everything ready for the move and recover from exhaustion. Am suffering from lack of sleep! But I did manage to do a bit of text design and produced a Valentine's then Happy 16th birthday design.

Valentine Hearts card at Zazzle

Sweet Sixteen Card at Zazzle

My colored pencils are packed away and in storage till I need them to be shipped over to France, which means that it may be six months before I see them again. I have a basic minimum of twelve with me so will do with that till I can get my hands on more. Meanwhile I guess I'll do more digital text designs.

I can't believe it but tonight is my last night here In Australia! Looks like I may be offline for a while and only have access to limited internet connection which means that I will not be able to visit your blogs and check out all the wonderful art till I get a connection of my own. I can see myself suffering from all kinds of withdrawal, eek. But I shall be back as soon as I can and hope everything goes well with everyone out there. Cheers.

The matching Pink Leaf Sticker for the card received two Awards for Best Sticker of the Day (6th January) and Top Ten Sticker Views at Zazzle :D

Lily of the Valley card at Zazzle

My first drawing for 2008! The Lily of the Valley is such a sweet flower and it's particularly special here as I'm dedicating this to my god-daughter, Lily-Rose as the first half of a belated birthday present :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and that this coming year will be fruitful for us all! Happy 2008!

E is for Eggplant card at Zazzle

I decided to get a bit looser today and just have fun with my colored pencils. I picked two eggplants from the garden this morning and took a photograph (if you want to see the photo, it's here) and had a lovely afternoon drawing them.

It's been such a pleasant day, and so relaxing. I've picked tons of beans and tomatoes and zucchini from a garden that doesn't seem to mind my having ignored it so disgracefully the past few weeks, and had cups of tea, enjoyed a drawing, cooked a roast chicken for lunch, relaxed ... what a wonderful Christmas Day! Hope everyone has had the opportunity to count their blessings too.

E is for Eggplant card at Zazzle

I decided to get a bit looser today and just have fun with my colored pencils. I picked two eggplants from the garden this morning and took a photograph (if you want to see the photo, it's here) and had a lovely afternoon drawing them.

It's been such a pleasant day, and so relaxing. I've picked tons of beans and tomatoes and zucchini from a garden that doesn't seem to mind my having ignored it so disgracefully the past few weeks, and had cups of tea, enjoyed a drawing, cooked a roast chicken for lunch, relaxed ... what a wonderful Christmas Day! Hope everyone has had the opportunity to count their blessings too.

I can't believe I'm actually managing to fit another drawing into a busy day. Have cleared some things up, moved furniture around and emptied shelves and desktops to have some things ready for pick-up by friends on Saturday, and I've even cleaned up. And then sat down and did this quick sketch :D It's now time for bed ... am exhausted!

EDM Challenge 149: Draw a Broom

I finally get to do a challenge! I'm still busy but am taking a break (procrastinating? Of course not!) before I tackle the issue of going through my wardrobes and sorting out what clutter/clothes to take and what not to ...

Needed a bit of therapy and though this was a quick and a bit of a wonky sketch, it has done me good. I may actually consider drawing something else as well ... I'm an expert where "later" is concerned, it's a shame no one hires professional procrastinators, I'd make millions:D

Fantastic at 50 Card at Zazzle

My Fabulous at 40 products were so well received that I decided to do one for the 50s ... something I'll be needing myself soon enough! So I spent what little free time I had, in between the multiple phone calls and bookings and confirmations that occupied my day yesterday (am so sick of 'Hold' music!), drawing the above design.

Today I shall pick the pencil up again and set it to paper though I have as yet no idea of what to draw. First I have a huge load of clearing up to do, sigh.

And I'll eventually draw something for the 60s. I've been toying with a few ideas: Sexy at 60, Seductive at 60, Serene at 60, Stupendous at 60 .... ack, am at sea. Which would you prefer? Any contributions would be very much appreciated ...