I'm back from the Children‘s Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. I spent some time in line while waiting for editors to look at my portfolio (mostly I got positive reactions). I drooled over the tons of awesome French and Spanish books *sigh* and discovered a new illustrator, whose style I absolutely adore: Magali Le Huche. Couldn't find a website of hers, so there's just google and her books of course. I just ordered four of them at amazon.fr.

I just found out that Ritzenhoff is producing two of my designs for their new cup collection! Can't wait to hold them in my hand. I especially like the wooden bottom plate.

There's rainday after sunday. Hope this week is going to be better than this grey, rainy monday.

Yeah, it‘s sunday! Have a lovely day!

At closed fun fairs one always has this lovely melancholic feeling. We went to the Viennese Prater to get exactly that. Although abandoned, except for the cold winter wind, it felt as if the laughter, the jingles and the babble of voices still hung somewhere in the air.

Some pictures of Vienna. Last saturday we went to the Naschmarkt, normally a farmer's market but at weekends also a big flea market. I always wonder how teddy bears and stuffed animals happened to get to this market. Who owned them once? Were they loved and cuddled and had to dry tears? I always feel sorry for them when they lay abandoned in the cold.

We're back from a few days in Vienna. It took 9 hours to ride back by train and many different landscapes flew by. Snowy ones, picturesque ones, ones with mountains far away, others with glittering rivers, but somehow I liked these urban landscapes best in their ambivalent, beautiful ugliness.

Remember the cat silhouette on my light box? The shadow has grown up and has now been printed on my new IO sed card. Yesterday she was in my mailbox!! Coffee Cat (well, better Cocoa Cat, the children are obviously too young for caffeine) is on the front and rain vs. sun is on the back. *cough* I didn't set the type though, that was preset by the IO…mmh…

My dear grandpa turned 90 last week and he's in very good company. Another big man turns 90 today: the awesome illustrator and cartoonist Ronald Searle!!! Here you can watch a seldom interview with him about his life and work.