SARAH DAVIS ILLUSTRATION

I can post this, because the kids never never read my blog so the secret should stay safe... These little animal necklaces just arrived in the mail in time for Christmas. They're about 1 1/2 inches tall, with a lot of personality, and they're really beautifully made. If you've never come across Etsy before, you should go and have a look. It's a sort of online shopping site where people from all over the world set up stores selling handmade goods. There are some mind-blowingly beautiful things on the site, and handmade presents are not only more interesting, but also a nice antidote to Christmas consumer madness. Of course, you can find some truly spectacularly excerable things on the site as well, and for those of you who want to marvel at the trainwreck that is the CUSTOM FEATHER PHEASANT GLADIATOR GALORE CAGED BOOT SANDAL PUMPS HEEL SHOES or wonder at the mind that conceptualised the catnip fetus toy, all misguided etsy postings are collected for you in one handy site. (Warning: Regretsy.com is often not even remotely suitable for sensitive types, and very often wildly inappropriate. But funny... oh, so funny.)

May I introduce you to Marmaduke, jam-making duck extraordinaire? These are some of the roughs and character studies for one of the (many!) books I'm working on at the moment. It's written by Juliette McIver, and I think it's one of the craziest, funniest rhyming texts I've read. It'll be published by Scholastic next year. I'll post more bits and pieces as I get further along with it.

I haven't kept a diary properly since I was an angst-ridden teenager - unfortunately I burned all my heartrending hormonal meditations when I was about 24, after I read them back and nearly died of internal cringe. I wish I could read them again -  they'd probably be good for a laugh. The only other time I've kept one was during the years our two youngest were born, and it's really nice to be able to look back. Ah, life was good then... and it still is! Anyway, I was Christmas shopping today, and I was hijacked by this Moleskine diary. It totally got its hooks in me and wouldn't let go. One little shiny notebook for every month...I fell for its pretentious gimmickry, and I'm irrevocably in love with it. Notebook fetishists will understand. Is it 2010 yet? I NEED to start writing in these....

Do you like Neil Gaiman? Do you like books? Do you like getting stuff for free? Then you'll love The Day The Saucers came, a free online book written by Neil Gaiman, and illustrated by Jouni Koponen.

Fa la la la laaaa, la la laaa laaaaaah!!!

Fearless is one of the books recommended as a Christmas pressie by both the Australian Womans' Weekly and New Idea. That does good things to my Festive Spirit (hence the earlier burst of song. Sorry about that...)