Katie Turner in Bologna

And here are a few more travel-related illustrations. These are part of a journal that illustrator Katie Turner kept when she was in Bologna. I love her limited colour palette and how that red and blue just pop. You can view more pages on her blog here. (via designworklife)

French Milk

I added French Milk to my last Amazon order to tip it over the free shipping mark. I got it yesterday and finished reading it this morning. It's a graphic novel/journal about a trip Lucy Knisley took to Paris with her mother in 2007. She lived there for a month and half and this book beautifully (and amusingly) chronicles all the details of her trip such as weird things about the apartment that she noticed to the all the amazing food she ate.

I knew I was going to like it as soon as she mentioned David Sedaris on the second page.

My Cardboard Life

If you haven't read My Cardboard Life before, you should do yourself a favour and go check it out right now. This webcomic (updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) has the perfect blend of cute, nerd, pun and random humour. And really clever use of ordinary materials. This one is my favourite.

Missed Connections

These Missed Connections illustrations by Sophie Blackall are genius! Saw these on Greedy Girl the other day and I still can't get over what an awesome idea this is. Check out more of Sophie's beautiful work on her website, visit her etsy, or read her blog. For more Missed Connections check out Sophie's Missed Connections blog or read the original recipe posts here.

Christine Berrie

I really love the way Christine Berrie's illustrations elevate the mundane.

Some sketches

So, being on Mayne Island for the weekend with no internet, no television and it raining half the time (I sound like I'm griping but I'm really not, I swear. Just stating the facts) I was amazingly productive in the sketching department. Funny how that works, huh?

(Sorry for the crappy quality. The sketchbook I used was too big to fit in the scanner so I had to take photos of each page)

Mireille: What's that?

Me: The Holy Grail.

Mireille: ...of patterns?

This one was inspired by a short story by Neil Gaiman from Smoke & Mirrors. Really awesome book (I think it's my favourite of his that I've read thus far).

This is a picture of my very tall sister

dwarfing all the little Asians at T&T Supermarket.

(Their baskets have extendible handles so you can

put them on the ground and wheel them around).

My baby

Mireille making a face and little crabs on the beach

Sick. Ick.

The random ailments that befell me this week/me whining.

Flowers and stuff

Doodles I did during break at work this week.

Granville Island + Indian Food = Good Good Day

Went on a little excursion to Vancouver with Anna. Picked up some film for my camera, did a little café sketching in my new sketchbook and ate some good good food.

Pretty sure I wish this was my car.

Good good Indian food

This dude was eating yogurt.

Burrard Street Bridge

And this one keeps uploading upsidedown and I can't figure out 

how to fix it so for now you will have to stand on your head to view it.

(It's the Vancouver Public Library).

Perfect end to a perfect day.

The Elusive Bird

I spy a red bird

Peeking out between branches

It's about damn time

Ok, a bit of back story. Ever since I was young, I've always wanted to see a cardinal. We don't have them in Vancouver and I have always thought that they were so beautiful with their bright red plumage. Well, I've lived in Milwaukee for a couple of years now and only recently found out that they are practically like vermin here! My friends were shocked when they discovered that I had never seen a cardinal and became as obsessed with helping me find one as I was with seeing one. 

Yesterday morning, I finally saw my first cardinal!