Vampires will never hurt you

I think Whitby might be one of my very favorite places in the whole world. It's so beautiful and just has a vibe unlike any place I've ever been, although I admit I don't know how much of that is the Dracula stuff because I love vampires. It's a really old seaside town in Yorkshire, England, and was mostly known for it's fishing. Then Bram Stoker came along and decided that the crumbling Abbey on top of the cliff would be a great setting for a little vampire book he was writing, and ever since the town has been associated with Dracula. And I don't know if it is just the rich history of the place, but somehow it manages to do it with class instead of going the tacky route and it gives it a real atmosphere. It's easy to imagine vampires wandering the cobbled streets among the tourists.

Whitby is also famous for it's jet gemstones, which is black and only adds to the town's goth vibes. My parents used to own a gemstone shop when I was a teenager and I'd work there on weekends, and ever since then I've always been inexplicably drawn to jet. It's really a very boring stone to look at compared to the magnificence of something like opal or even bright shards of amethyst, but there's just something about it that calls me. It washes up on the beach here (although it's kind of hard to find because everyone is out treasure hunting) and the streets are full of little locally owned jewelers selling their hand crafted designs. This was my third time I've ever been to Whitby, and I buy myself a little something each time I come. I have a celtic design necklace, a ring, and this time I decided to go big and treated myself to a pendant that I felt really symbolizes the town.

Before Dracula Whitby was known for it's fishing heritage. You can see St Mary's Church on top of the cliff in the background, and the beach where Dracula's ship washed ashore.






Climbing the 199 steps up to the church and Abbey





I'd never been inside the Abbey before, and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting! It's a hundreds of years old ruin so obviously there's not much, but it's still really impressive to look around. It was founded in 657 AD, until it was raided by Danish invaders in 867 AD and left to ruin for 200 years. It was rebuilt as a Benedictine Abbey in the 1220s, until it was destroyed in 1540 due to the Protestant reforms under Henry VIII. It then sustained further damage due to German shell attacks during WWI.

The gift shop is predominantly Dracula related, and I struggled not to buy a few of those beautiful books! I couldn't resist a few bits though.


Time to look at every single black stone on the beach just in case. I did manage to find a few chunks of jet though!

Sunshine, ragtime, blowing in the breeze

I went to the antiques store yesterday which is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. I always like to take photos while I'm there as I go for the curiosity factor rather than to actually buy stuff. I started taking pictures of things I liked after reading this quote by Snufkin from Comet in Moominland which felt revolutionary: "That's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase."

So - what's the most swankified place in town?

I saw Wicked yesterday, which was actually my second time this month. I always feel like I want to write about it every time I go, but when I'm just seeing my favorite show over and over there's only so much I can say about it? I do really, really love this cast though! They've had a complete cast change recently, and it really is like new life has been breathed into it and it's so exciting! Although Wicked is my comfort show, I haven't really gotten properly excited about it in a while so it makes me so happy to feel so emotionally connected to it again. I think a lot of it has to do with the chemistry of the cast which is incredible. Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero genuinely light up around each other and it makes it all feel so much more believable. I'm really happy that Fiyero is currently being played by a black actor too, Fiyero is finally canonically accurate! 🎉 In the original book Fiyero's an indigenous brown tattooed prince of a backwater tribe that he's trying desperately to support in the modern age, and it's such a huge part of his character and his connection to Elphaba that even though he's my favorite I still think it's such a shame the musical turned him into essentially a frat boy.

Otherwise I kind of went here, there, and everywhere around London as I was looking for specific things to buy. I started at Trafalger Square and was blown away at how empty it was, it's usually heaving with people and you can barely get near the fountains or statues. I figured going to a large, central bookstore would be my best bet for what I wanted, but it turned out not so! So I walked to Picadilly Circus, then on to Covent Garden where I stopped in the art store and Moomin shop. I really wanted a 5 year journal I'd seen in the Moomin shop a few months ago but they didn't have it, and just as I was about to order it from Finland on my phone I remembered there's another Moomin shop in Camden so I hauled myself over there. I really, really recommend this store over the Covent Garden one, it's so much bigger and better spaced out, and every time I've gone it's always almost empty so you're not climbing over people to look at stuff. And they had my journal, I got the last one! I'm inspired to give this a try as I feel like so much has changed in the past 5 years already that I love the idea of keeping track and seeing what I was doing or feeling on that exact day the year before, or the year before that. Afterwards I grabbed some food, before taking a slow mosey over to the theater. I always prefer to walk than take the tube if I can as I like getting to actually see the city instead of just snippets of it.

Where do the clouds disappear When they go rolling by?

We lit the fire and it's burning bright

I've been really struggling with drawing lately, I guess it's just regular art block but it's hard as my illustration is so important to me and it feels like a big part of myself is missing. Also the longer it's gone on, the more it feels like my imagination has dried up with it and I don't even know what to draw anymore! I thought I'd do some kind of drawing challenge this month to finish up my current sketchbook quickly as I've been using the same one for a year (I usually get through a sketchbook every 6 months!) and I'm just ready to be done with it and move on to a new one. But while I was coming up with ideas for the prompts I kept thinking 'I'll draw that in the new sketchbook once this one is finished' which is dumb and made me realize that maybe I just need to be done with this sketchbook right now, finished or not. I like the art that's in it so far, but it feels stupid to fill the rest of it with mediocre drawings I don't care about just for some pride of being able to say I completed it when all I want is a fresh start.

I was planning on buying a new sketchbook when I go to London next week to see Frozen, but it feels like so long to wait when I want to draw right now! I use Leuchtturm1917 sketchbooks which I could get on Amazon, but Leuchtturm have recently changed them so I was hoping that if I picked one out in person then I might be able to find an older model. I'm still going to check for that when I do go to London, but it turns out I could only get one of the newer ones anyway but I decided it was better than nothing, especially as I'd travelled 70 miles just to get to the art shop. It felt like a lot of fun going on such a trek for one little item though, and turned it into an adventure.

I ended up really liking the changes to the sketchbook, go figure. I got some screentones back when I lived in Japan, but I never really used them as I don't draw in a comic book style so I wasn't sure how to incorporate them, and most of my attempts made the tones look barely noticeable so it felt like a waste of time. I was fumbling around for a background for another drawing when I suddenly remembered I had these, and now I figured it out I've been having a lot of fun with them!

We've been having a lot of storms across Europe lately, and today it snowed which always makes me feel like a little kid again and I have to go out and walk in it. It always quickly turns to slush, so it's never a threat and you have to make the most of it while you can. I've been spending a lot of cozy time indoors with my sketchbook and journals and plenty of soup as it's just too miserable to go anywhere.

Also my Hobonichi arrived! I'm so excited for this stupid little book, you have no idea. I'd heard of Hobonichi for a while, I even flicked through one when I lived in Japan and saw a display of them, but to me it just looked like a fairly boring planner and I didn't get it. But I have enjoyed creative journaling for a few years now, so I guess it was inevitable that I'd end up here eventually. I watch Abbey Sy and she spoke of her A6 cover which inspired me to check out the website, and as soon as I saw this Count the Lights design I absolutely fell in love with it. Unfortunately it was sold out, but I managed to find one on a random website in Taiwan. It came as a set with the planner, originally I just wanted the cover but as it was the only way to get it I wasn't going to turn it down. And I'm actually really enjoying the planner so far! I wasn't sure what I'd do with it at first as I already have a planner and a journal for this year, but I decided I'm not going to be too fussy about it and just write whatever in it each day. A quote from a book I'm reading, thoughts on a movie I've watched, blog post ideas, illustration thumbnails, just kind of a brain dump but organized in a way that I'll want to look back on for the memories. And I'm really enjoying it so far.