Illustrated Packing List: Egypt Essentials

Hello My Loves,

How have you all been?! I'm so excited to share this post with you after three days of putting it together. For the longest time I've wanted to do a "what's in my bag" illustrated entry on TWD. I think your essential day-to-day items say so much about you as a person. Furthermore, the things you deem essential on your travels reveal a lot about your character too. Since I'm leaving for Egypt on Friday, I thought it would be really cool to illustrate my travel essentials for this North African adventure. Fun prints, good tunes, great read, and color...= me!!

Magenta Merino Wool Shawl by Virginia Johnson

Floppy Sun Hat by Joe Fresh

Anytime Tortoiseshell Sunglasses by Karen Walker

Statement Necklace by Dannijo

Printed Pants by Cut25

Bunny Ear iPhone Case by Rabito

Egypt Travel Guide by DK Eyewitness Travel

Orange Stingray Leather Sandals by Miu Miu

I didn't illustrate my sketchbook or camera but they most definitely are on the essential list. I have every intention of putting them to good use too!! Alright loves, see you all in April!!

Much love,

Meag xx

The Fabulous Life of the Fascinating Francis Fodder

Hello Darlings,

I'm so thrilled to finally be presenting you with this commissioned post. The illustrated shoe designs I created above have been several weeks in the making all thanks to the clever ingenuity of author William Campbell. Campbell contacted me back in January with an incredibly creative prospect. He was looking for a unique way to promote his trilogy book series, The Fascinating Life of the Fabulous Francis Fodder, and proposed I design three original shoes to embody the lead females in his story. I responded with a resounding yes and jumped right onboard.

The compelling story of The Fascinating Life of the Fabulous Francis Fodder is about a man who endures a life-altering college heartbreak, only to grow-up and become a professional gigolo (yes you read that correctly). When Fodder runs into his former love on a whim his life is turned irreversibly upside down. I would be lying if I said that reading the brief book description left me a tad bit skeptical, but once I broke into the first installment I was hooked. Something about the unwavering connection with his first love really resonated with me, especially reading it from the male perspective.

The shoes you see above, in sequential order, represent the three main female characters from the series: Glamour Dietrich, a stunningly successful, dead-ringer for January Jones, director/screen-writer, and first-love to Fodder; Ruby Tuesday, a sultry hotelier and confidant to Miss Dietrich; and lastly Crystal Canker, a frosty media-mogul and soon to be First Lady. All three women are so brilliantly interlaced into the truly fascinating life of the fabulous Francis, you can't help but want to read more. After all, who out there isn't at least a bit curious to glimpse into the life of a gigolo?!

I would like to be clear that there is some fairly graphic content in the book so I do not recommend this to anyone below the age of 18. What I'm ultimately endorsing here is a very human love story, albeit, one dipped in high-gloss glamour and hidden behind velvet curtains.

Now to get your hands on the first two installments of the series, you can purchase the book over at:

Amazon Book 1 and Book 2

Barnes & Noble Book 1 and Book 2

The third book will be available on March 30th and I for one cannot wait to see how the whole story unfolds!!

If you would like even more insight into the series or are curious to check-out other books written by Campbell, be sure to click the following links:

Campbell's Blog

Campbell's Facebook

Campbell's Twitter

Now before I sign-off on this post I would like to give a massive thank-you to Campbell for this wonderful opportunity. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you and I'm wishing you all the luck in the world with The Fabulous Life of the Fascinating Francis Fodder series.

Much love,

Meag xx

Cairo Time

Hello My Loves!!

It feels so incredibly good to be back on my blog. The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy and perhaps the most insane thing of all is that I've booked a trip to Egypt for the end of the month yay!! I will be cruising down the Nile in what feels like no time. I've been so anxious to announce this on my blog because traveling has always been such a huge component of my life and one of the major reasons I started TWD. Furthermore, Egypt is probably one of the more controversial places to be traveling to right now in light of the recent (ongoing) Arab Spring.

From the moment I contemplated making this journey I received mixed reactions. In the end it was a personal choice and one I feel very much at peace with. Frankly, I think now more than ever, Egypt will be one of the most fascinating countries to visit. Furthermore, I have dreamed of making this trip ever since I was a little girl starring in mesmerization at the mummies in Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. For this post I've painted the scarab associated with the major god Khepri. Known as being the embodiment of the sun, I can't help but be drawn to him.

I'm so excited to be able to share this journey with you all in the very near future but for now there is more work to be done. Stay tuned for some more exciting posts.

Much love,

Meag xx