These are the ever so whimsical rainbow cupcakes we produced sometime in May, 2010. Besides being pretty, they tasted goooood!

The one and quirky Oliver Jeffers

Because I like his face.

Registering new discoveries: The quirky Oliver Jeffers

It's on my ever growing book wish list: Oliver Jeffers books. He wrote things like 'The incredible book eating boy' (where the above illustration was taken from), 'Lost and Found', 'How to catch a star', ' The way back home'.

And he's funny, and has a huge, theatrical moustache. If you type up ' Oliver Jeffers ' ('course, that's his name) in YouTube, you'll find some footage of him in his studio, published by Penguin Young Readers. Cool stuff. It's lovely to hear him talk, too, because he comes from Northern Ireland. Go meet him.

Neil Gaiman's New Year Benediction

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books, and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art. Write, or draw, or build, or sing, or live, as only you can.

May your coming year be a wonderful thing, in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously. I hope you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it; that you will be loved, and you will be liked; and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now, I hope that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.