How to Outsmart Tea Pirates!

If you've been following my blog for a while then you'll know that over the past three years I have made some amazing blog friends and one of the most talented (and nicest) people that I've had the privilege to get to know is Megan from Studio MME.
Over the last three years Megan has worked incredibly hard on her work and her blog to get to the stage where she is now - writing a book. And I couldn't be more thrilled for her. Read on for more details from Megan herself. 
Rhianne x
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


When I was little, I was too cool for real friends and not cool enough for imaginary ones.
 If books had counted as friends though, I would have been the most popular girl at school.  I’m embarrassed to say that I used to spend weekends organizing my bookcase.
Yep, I was that nerdy.

My favorite books included: Sabriel by Garth Nix, The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey, Imogene’s Antlers by David Small, and The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

All those years of book friending and bookcase organizing must have rubbed off on me because I’ve just written my very own book!

 

How to Outsmart Tea Pirates (and other useful sailing tips) 
contains a collection of my quirky pen and ink illustrations and my quirkier short stories.  It’s the book I wish had been on my bookshelf when I was little, but better late than never!

My fellow English majors always thought I was the weird one to write about such things as wallpaper that eats end tables, pirates with sugar tongs for hands, and the Barracollossus (the fish that eats bad boys and girls – tricycles and all).  But I love stuff like that and I know you do too!  I believe that this book can rekindle your wonder and spark your imagination.  It will have you laughing every story and wondering what would happen if the tales were real.  Would you set sail with the tea pirates and subject prisoners to high tea with pinkies up before they walk the plank?  Or would you sit in on the Court of the Gulls and help settle food disputes?  If you’re young at heart or if you’d like to add another special book to your shelf, I know you’ll enjoy my very first book!

 If you’d like to see a sneak peek chapter or hear an audio recording of a story,
you can find them HERE!

I’m having a very special pre-order until June 20th.  I love when an author signs a book so I’m signing every pre-order copy.  Plus, to make the book even more special, I’m including one extra, handwritten sailing tip!  (Just in case you’re at sea with the book.)

I’d love to know what your favorite childhood books were!

Megan

Gadchick Issue 2!

Today is a very exciting day! 

Today is the day that not only can I call myself a blogger, designer, cad monkey and photographer... but I can also call myself a Freelance Writer!! Um, WOW!

I've written a short post for Gadchick before, but recently Diana contacted me about writing a Gadchick Ebook for Android Photographers, testing and reviewing a variety of Android apps, and Gadchick Issue 2 contains an excerpt of that Ebook, the Ebook that I wrote, haha!!

Issue 2 of Gadchick is all about photography and contains other brilliant articles by the amazing people you see above including Meg, Chelsea, Diana and Aline, who I just love. So if you love photography, whether its digital, analogue or with your mobile then
 check it out, you won't be disappointed!!

I'd like to quickly thank Diana, Aline and Scott from Gadchick for thinking of me to do this and believing in me, I never imagined when I started blogging that this would ever be something that I would do (um, I wrote an ebook...) or that I would be part of such a great team.
I am tickled (hello kitty) pink!!


p.s. Dear android photographers, the ebook isn't available quite yet, but it will be soon and of course I'll let you know when it is. There are some pretty amazing apps available on Android at the moment and the book also contains tips from me, so it will be worth the wait, I promise.

Happy Birthday Mum!!!

 
The main reason for our two weekends with my family is that it's my Mum's 50th birthday today.
Isn't that exciting!
Happy 50th birthday Mum!
I love you and I can't wait to see you in a couple of days and spend another weekend celebrating with you. I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you for not just being the best Mum that Mikela and I could have asked for but one of our best friends too x
p.s. how amazing are the photos of my Mum when she was little?! I love them!

Oh my...

 {All images taken by Andrew Millar and used with his permission, 
to see the individual photos on Flickr, click on an image}
Sometimes I stumble upon photos on Flickr that truly take my breath away... and these photos by Andrew Millar taken with the newer Impossible Project films and a SX-70 have done just that.
The colours, tones, light and subject matter in these are just stunning and I always have a weakness for photos of horses and silhouettes. But it's the top right photo that's my favourite and it alone makes me want to try even harder to populate my photos and to capture the lovely little moments of interaction between people. 
To see more of Andrew's photos, check out his Flickr photostream (I highly recommend it) or his Facebook page - you won't be disappointed.