Adventure Box

Yay! Look what just arrived...
The hardcover pre-orders and webshop stock of my debut children's book: Sam & the Adventure.
Waiting for deliveries of: soft covers, colouring books and picture magnets.  Available from 1st September via Alison Day Designs


Story synopsis:
...When Sam comes down to breakfast one morning, he finds that everything has changed.
Not only are his parents acting very strangely, but there is a large envelope waiting for him on the dining room table. This is followed by the arrival of a mysterious, empty blue train and heralds the start of the biggest adventure of his young life...



Sam & the Adventure is an 88-page, full colour children’s storybook, for girls and boys of all ages and the young-at-heart.

by Alison Day

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Heavenly Hocks

Hollyhocks (Alcea) by Alison Day

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Ringed Delight

The best calamari by Alison Day

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Tourist Wall

Tourist Wall by Alison Day

The tourist wall—a place to walk along, sit, or ponder the seascape, pose, photograph or be photographed.

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Pool Daisies

Pool Daisies by Alison Day

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Rose Pink

Rose Pink by Alison Day

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Cool Coffee

Already twenty-four hours on the sunny island of Crete in Greece. After a good sleep, it's time to sip cool frappés whilst guarding our cookies from the relentless attack of pigeons.
Yesterday was a very long day, a 3am start in Amsterdam followed by a 6.20 am, three-and-a-half hour flight from Schipol to Heraklion. Arriving at our hotel, a refreshing swim in the mosaic hotel pool and friendly greetings from the hotel staff rejuvenated our spirits.
Dinner by the sea of: tzatziki, saganaki, calamari and a Greek Salad with a finale of the local firewater - raki, accompanied by luscious watermelon.

Photos by Alison Day

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Fractured Songbird

Fractured Songbird by Alison Day

My most recent piece—still far from completion, but incorporating 2 different processes I enjoy working with—mosaics and papiermaché.

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Second Step

This is not the end of the adventure...

Sam & the Adventure - the magical story of a young boy who goes in search of an adventure, will be available from Sept 2015 onwards via: ALISON DAY DESIGNS 

The storybook will be available in softcover and hardcover versions, along with the colouring book and picture magnets. 

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Storyteller

Every child loves a bedtime story...
Storybook behind the mural, available September 2015 from Alison Day Designs

by Alison Day

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Jump Aboard

Have you already grabbed a signed copy yet of Sam & the Adventure?
If not, you can HERE

Sam & the Adventure is magical 88-page story book for children, filled with 43 full colour illustrations.
The perfect read alone or bedtime story book for boys and girls.

Take a look inside... the Internal illustrations are based on artworks—created using: papiermaché, re-cycled rubbish, bric-a-brac and paint. They took a year to make!

Learn more about the campaign of Sam & the Adventure HERE

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Sam and the Adventure

Please support my Kickstarter campaign—Help me turn the story behind the mural into: Sam & the Adventure—the book! :

Hello everyone,

Some of you may be aware that for the last I year or so, I’ve been busily—writing, illustrating and designing a children’s story book entitled: Sam & the Adventure.

Sam & the Adventure is based on a mural that I painted many years ago for my then 2-year old son, Sam. This 88-page book, filled with 43 full colour illustrations is the story about a small boy, who sets off in a blue, ten carriage train, in search of an adventure and the story ends with a light-hearted twist.

***

The Plan:
I have finally reached the point where my next step is publication. In order to be able to do this—printing costs and publishing in general being an expensive business—I have set up a Kickstarter campaign. This is where you come in...

How you can support me:
If you visit my Kickstarter campaign you will find a video outlining the whole project and a selection of rewards to pledge for. As you can see there is something to suit every budget.

By choosing one of the rewards, you’ll not only help me towards my goal, but for or a modest pledge you already have secured your very own, signed copy of Sam & the Adventure.

Please Share the campaign:

Another way to help me reach my goal is to share the Kickstarter campaign with family, friends and anyone else you think might be interested.

Also, if you don’t have children, or know of any you can delight with a copy of Sam & the Adventure, maybe there’s a school who’d be pleased to receive a copy or one of the packs!

Please share the Kickstarter campaign—via social media, email, word of mouth—every little action will help me get closer to my goal, being completely funded and ultimately enable me to publish the story.

The hashtag I will be using is: #SamandtheAdventure

Many thanks, Alison Day

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Blooming Interlude

As lovely as having a garden can be, they involve a great deal of work to keep them looking effortlessly beautiful.

Yesterday, sporting pink gardening gloves, I freed a small patch of its carpet of weeds. A weed which initially looked pretty, with shiny green, watercress-shaped leaves and tiny, fluorescent yellow flowers, but ended up with the whole garden in its grip.

After that, the next step was rejuvenation, as I removed the dead plants and filled the space with several, rather funky, red-tipped grasses called: Red Baron (Imperata cylindrca). Buster, my tom cat, helped—digging, peering into plant-ready holes and pouncing on earthworms, as they wriggled out of clods of earth.

But that wasn't the end of it, because once you start, something else will need attention. The vegetable plants and herbs that had been dominating the house for so long, were clamoring to be let out to play: courgettes and gerkins, aubergines and tomatoes, basil, coriander, cumin etc—they all received their wish—sunny spots in pots.

Today, with my coffee, I relax and admire the results of my labour, resigned to the accompanying aches and pains, from all that bending and crouching—right to my very fingertips. Although my efforts are but a scratch on the tip of an iceberg—the weeds have been warned!

Hmmm, what's that noise? I'm sure I can hear the sound of tiny, revving engines...

Photos by Alison Day

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Fountain of Shame

The Fountain of Shame by Alison Day

The Fontana Pretoria, or 'Fountain of Shame', as it is commonly known, can be found on the Piazza Pretoria in Palermo, Sicily.

The fountain was designed by Francesco Camilliani, a Tuscan sculptor of the Renaissance period. Originally commissioned for a private villa in Florence, it was eventually moved to Palermo. In its day, it was considered a risqué affair, due to its opulence. The balustraded staircases, nude statues of gods and goddesses striking a pose, animal heads, monsters and nymphs spouting water, led the Palermitans to name it: Fontana della Vergogna, or 'Fountain of Shame.

by Alison Day

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Weekend Wonder

Work in progress, by by Alison Day

After my recent visit to Sicily and an inspirational visit to an artist's studio-shop in the little town of Monreale, I decided to have a go at a mosaic technique I saw being used there.

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Marble Marvellous

A peep into an annex of the Cattedrale Monreale, in Sicily, opened out into a curvaceous romp of Baroque figures, pillars and motifs—what a feast!

Photos by Alison Day

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Gotta Go

Sign on the door to the ladies in a restaurant in Monreale, Sicily.

—When you've gotta go...

by Alison Day

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