untold blisses

I think we can all agree that some Kickstarter projects have gone too far.  I got caught up in the excitement of it all after funding the Veronica Mars Movie and the American Psycho musical – at one stage, I was trawling through all the projects daily finding something else to fund.  Art, music, books, tech – I was desperate to throw money at something.  But my interest started to wane a little when Melissa Joan Hart decided to make a terrible public mistake, and now people have moved on to potato salad?  Let’s all calm down shall we.

However, there are still the odd gems to be found.  I keep coming across things that have closed already, but Husband seems to have a good eye.  One of the things he helped fund was a beautiful book by British artist, JM Cooper, featuring illustrations that document her month spent in Manhattan.  The book is really great – go buy it now on her website!  Such gorgeous and unusual drawings

You might be asking why I have chosen to blog about this by using a picture of our friendly local squirrel, Tufty – pictured here having a drink in our garden.  As far as I know, he hasn’t been to Manhattan or funded a Kickstarter project.  He mainly just harasses us into giving him nuts.

Well, in addition to getting his name in the Thank You section of the book, Husband pledged enough to get an illustrated commission of anything he wanted.  We talked about it for hours – we could get a a lovely picture of ourselves, a favourite landmark, something from a holiday.  The choice was just too great.  And don’t ask how, but we eventually decided on this:

A squirrel in a top hat.  Look at him, in all his dapper glory!  Husband was a little worried that Jessica might have thought he was a crazy person for requesting it, but she replied that she would like nothing more than to draw a squirrel in a top hat, and she did an amazing job.

Look at his little whiskers!  And the acorn!  Too freaking adorable.

The picture is eventually going to have pride of place in the living room because it’s just too good not to look at every day.

So providing you can get passed the dregs, there are still some really great projects on Kickstarter.  I might just go and have another look now.