Happy 2026 everyone!!!!
I hope you had a lovely holiday season, and had a chance to relax with your loved ones.
How are we all feeling about this new year? Are you excited and raring to go, or more feeling like you are stuck in the depths of winter and need to hibernate until it's over 😂. I'm totally a mix of these two things.
I'm usually pretty big into new years ‘re-starts’ like setting goals and such, but my December was pretty much a write off, so I feel like I haven't had a chance to do much of that this year. I did start a new bullet journal though! We'll see how long that lasts 😂.
So (unless you're new here) you know that my newsletters are a recap of my previous month, and this is one is no different, except it's going to be a little light, because I caught the plague in December.
Well, I had flu, but flu // plague… it's basically the same this year because it was sooo horrendous. I was in bed for a full week and still have a cough now, 4 weeks later 🙃. So I didn't get up to much in December.
But in between being ill, I did get to do some really fun tattoos, so let's take a look at those….
Ps. My books will open next month on 4-6th February for Spring bookings, don't forget to add it to your calendar, and sign up for my newsletter for a reminder!
Tattoo Time
Side note: my Instagram engagement has been suuuper low lately, so if you have time to click through and like / comment / share some posts, I’d appreciate it so much 🙂!!! I've been playing around with some different videos so you might find it more interesting than usual!
Jana
I tattooed Jana around 9 years ago!!!! And she decided to make the trip from Vancouver and have me add to her peonies, and also add some new flowers to a piece on her back (by another artist). She wanted to go with the bolder style I tattooed in back when I first tattooed her, and I think it looks so great with her existing work 🥰.
Tif
This was my first time tattooing Tif, and she travelled from Montreal for this piece. I actually made a short ‘story time’ video about her tattoo on my IG if you want to check it out, and see more angles of how this piece flows around two existing tattoos she has. I love this so much.
Christina
Some of you might remember Christina's cooking-inspired patchwork sleeve we did back in March. She had a little space left over on the inside of her arm and just ‘casually’ popped down from Ottawa to get this pile of chicken bones and an olive branch added 🥰. She was super brave, we were filling some spicy spots here.
I also made a 'story time of her tattoo too! Check it out!
Annnd I got to take more healed photos of her other sleeve, happy days…..
Meghan
This was my first time tattooing Meghan and she grabbed two tattoos in the same session. We did this glorious thigh piece which is super pretty, and includes Aster and Morning Glory flowers for her twin girls!
Plus we did this more simple, but not less important, ‘mother’ tattoo in her Mum's handwriting.
All the generations of motherhood being celebrated on this day 🥰!
Natalie
GD how fucking cool is this skull piece I got to tattoo for Natalie!!!! What a great day. We included succulents and cacti (including flowering prickly pear - my favourite). And she sat like incredibly well, I still can't get over how quickly we got this one finished. Team work 🥰.
Whitney
I got to tattoo Whitney for the second time last month. The first piece I did for her was 18months ago, and in between she had a baby boy! So we this piece has tonnes of very special meaning for her and I was so happy she chose me to do it. Check out more photos on my IG to see how it fits into the space she had!
And here's a view of here healed tattoo, but this one also wraps, so check out more photos in this post.
Ps. I only did the upperarm piece and the orchids on her bicep 🙂.
Crystal
This was the second session on Crystal epic back piece!!!! I'm so excited about how this one is progressing. We focused on adding the solid black to cover some existing tattoos in this session. More details in just a few weeks!!!!
Tahliesa
I tattoo Tahliesa's lower arm around 5 years ago (I'm guessing), and she's decided she wants to make it into a bigger piece 🥰. This is just the first session of this project, and we have a plan to combine everything. Can't wait to continue with it. This first section is so flowy and beautiful.
Check out more angles in this post.
Simran
I CANNOT explain how excited I am about Simran's leg project. It's going to be so epic. We're continuing it in March and I can't wait. I made a video about it that is going to be posted on my IG soon so keep an eye out!!!
We're adding to this piece I did 3.5 years ago…
In Other News
In November I…
- Stacy gave me a jigsaw advent calendar 🥹🥹🥹 which was waaaay better than the advent romance book I got from indigo 🙃.
- I made it to the distillery Christmas market and the Evergreen Brickworks Winter market, where I found a new flower book "Old wive's lore for gardeners' from a vintage vendor. I love how half the market was vintage! I'll definitely be going back next Christmas (and brining my skates next time - the rink was soooo cute).
- I treated myself to the whole set of Faber-Castell Polycromo pencils, becasue I was sick at Christmas 😂😂😂
- Between Christmas and New Years I did managed to make it up to Montreal to visit some family who happened to be visiting. I was so lovely to see them, I find it really hard having Christmas in Canada when all my family are in the UK, but this helped a lot 🖤.
Malone…
- Looked after Mama so well when I was sick 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹. Little angel.
- Was very spoilt at Christmas, her favourite toy was this little battery powered mouse from her Nan (my Mum) sent all the way from England.
- Is a YouTube star now!!!! My friend Andrew stayed with her while we were in Montreal and was in his vlog!
I've been reading...
- While I was REALLY ill with the flu and feverish all I could do was listen to an audiobook, so I consumed Swordheart // T.Kingfisher. I reeeally enjoyed it, but whether some of what I thought was the book was actually a fever dream I really can’t say 😂.
- Next in my feverish sate I listened to Great Big Beautiful Life // Emily Henry, which wasn’t my favourite of hers unfortunately.
- I also read The Rose Field // Phillip Pullman when I was a bit more with it. His Dark Materials is my favourite series of books of all time, I have enjoyed the new trilogy, but I do have some mixed feelings about it that I haven’t really processed yet.
I've been watching...
- Heated Rivalry. Yes I'm just as obsessed as everyone else. This is going to get me through this winter 😂.
- I’ve started to watch some of the Critic's Choice best picture nominations, but tbh I’m not sure I’m enough of a cinephile for awards movies, most of them I don’t like 😂, but I watched:
- Hamnet - Very beautiful, every scene is like a baroque painting, but emotionally devastating and I hope that child actor is in therapy.
- Sentimental Value - I didn’t like this. It was like…. absentee father uses his daughter's pain as his creative outlet, and is forgiven for being a dick. It was also very meta, a movie about a director making a movie. And veeery slow. But people love it so 🤷🏻.
- One Battle After Another - I can see this winning a lot of awards. Chase Infiniti was amazing, and Benicio Del Toro made this movie. It took me a long time to get into it, and the soundtrack had me on edge the entire movie (I know that was the point, but like, I didn't enjoy watching this movie, ya know). I also couldn't stop thinking about how Dicaprio only dates women the same age as the actor playing his daughter in this. It bothers me.
I've being drinking (matcha update):
- Chatime // Blueberry Matcha Bubble Tea ( with coconut milk) - delicious, my new go-to
- Matcha Haus // The Hazelnut Creme Brullee One - I actually went to their soft opening before this, but the drink they made me didn't have any matcha in it (like, they forgot to add the matcha 🙃) so thought I'd give them a second try. This was ok, but the flavour was a little too ‘brulee’ for me. I would try something else though.
- Le Depeneur // Montreal Mile End // Standard Matcha Latte- I love this little cafe and try to go whenever I'm in Montreal, but not tried their matcha before. But it was actually perfect. Nice and strong.
I'm Looking Forward too…
- Taking ‘The Canadian’ (the train) across Canada to Vanocuver next month!!! I've always wanted to do it, and had a Via rail discount from when I became a citizen, so decided to finally go for it. I'm taking it by myself, and I'm hoping to paint and draw my journey 🙂.
- Meeting Ava (my friend's brand new tiny baby) once I get to Vancouver!
- Labrinth's new album realese on the 30th!!!!!! I'm really really hoping for a tour 🤞.
That’s all the news I have for now! You can always reply to this email if you want to chat. Thank you so much for reading 🙂…
Ps. Don't forget my books will next open on 4-6th February for Spring bookings!!!