monda loves…

one year on

2012-01-30T15:45:00.001Z

This time last year we had just got married, me and my lovely boy:

Ahhh such nice memories of our day.
Our anniversary celebrations were sadly rained off. We had planned to go out for a meal, but I wasn't feeling too well so went to bed, and the Mr. cleaned the oven and went to B&Q! We did manage to salvage some of the day to celebrate with an afternoon tea in the style of the wedding day. I kept a few pieces of the china I had collected for the wedding which we used and had a lounge based celebration instead:

sentiments

2012-01-27T13:07:00.000Z

You might remember, sometime last year, I was just playing around with my typewriter and some washi tape, and made this card for my boy:

This image received a lot of love via my flickr photstream (and continues to do so) so I promptly bought lots more washi tape in pretty colours with the idea of making more simple sentiment cards for my shop, and then did precisely nothing with it and worked on other things instead.

I felt the need for a bit of making with paper this week (as a bit of a distraction from what I am actually supposed to be working on) so I got out the typewriter and the list of sentiments I wrote months ago, plus some pretty paper and the lovely washi tape, and made a small batch of cards, which can now be found in my shop:

If these go down well, I may offer personalisation of sentiments too, so you can give a card that truly speaks to the person you're giving it to.

Top Drawer

2012-01-19T10:54:00.000Z

The Story behind my first trade fair:
Late last year I was contacted by Charlotte Abrahams (a freelance writer and journalist) and asked if I would like to be part of an event she curates at the Top Drawer Trade Fair, called 'Spotted'. Spotted is intended as an entry point for designer/makers to get a foot in the trade fair door without it costing the earth.
I was initially unsure whether I could take part - aside from the quite scary prospect of putting yourself out there publicly for the first time at such a huge event in a renowned venue such as Earls Court in London, there was also the consideration of whether handmade products would be well received at a trade fair alongside mass produced products. Could I price my items competitively enough to interest people and to still be able to make money for myself? And did I actually have enough money to invest in this initially?
After considering all of the above, I decided to go for it. You've got to be in it to win it, and if I hadn't I would probably always be wondering 'what if...'
Fast forward a few months to January, and with lots of planning, deciding and prototyping, I was exhibiting my soft toys, kits and tea towels at Earls Court:

My soft toys and kits

one of my new tea towels

spotted plus (for last years spotted exhibitors)

This was a really good experience and definitely a big learning for me. It was great to speak to potential retailers and get first hand feedback. One of the big and constant pieces of feedback was that retailers wanted kits - I had just two for the show. I'll definitely be following up on this and introducing a range of kits in the coming months.
I've had a couple of orders which I'll be working on in the coming few weeks, and gave my details to lots of buyers so hopefully I'll see some more orders trickling in over the next few weeks.
It was also great to meet some of the other exhibitors at the show - people in the same boat as me and my new business and people with a little more experience - who had really invaluable advice to pass on to a newbie such as myself.
One thing I have learnt is that trade fairs are exhausting. I think I need a few days to recover.

hello 2012

2012-01-05T12:14:00.002Z

Happy New Year!
It's a bit late in the day I know. I've been meaning to blog about all the nice things that Christmas brought along with it, but I was just swept along by it and didn't stop to blog it all.

2011 was a good year for me - not least because I married my lovely boy and best friend but lots of other positive things happened along the way too. I won't recap everything - it would take way too long. Looking forward, I'm hoping 2012 will be a good one for me. There are certainly a few things in the pipeline to indicate this.

I suspect I'll be rather quiet here for the next few weeks, as I'll be preparing for Top Drawer - my first ever trade show, at Earls Court no less. To say I am panicking about it all would be a massive understatement. I am well and truly flying by the seat of my pants here and everything seems so last minute. Still, you've got to be in it to win it. At the moment I'm mostly working away on some new products, wholesale lists and prices, T's & C's and, well, everything else!

front of my new business card

christmas all wrapped up

2011-12-16T18:05:00.001Z

I'm feeling quite festive as I've been doing a spot of Christmas wrap designing in the last few weeks:

I'm really feeling like winding down for Christmas. Just sitting on the sofa watching Christmas films and eating Satsumas, but I still have quite a lot of work to do before the big day. This time last year I was busy making things for our wedding and it seems no matter what I'm working on, I'm always really busy in the run up to Christmas.

In Giveaway news, the random number generator has spoken and selected comment numbers 4 (Holly Surplice) and 3 (Cupcakes for Clara) as the recipients of grey kitty and lilac kitty:

Ladies, please drop me an email with your address details and I'll get these posted out to you asap.

miaow

2011-12-13T11:36:00.000Z

I really didn't mean to be absent from my blog for such a long time. Things just seem to have been running away from me this last week. There is lots going on and plenty to distract me away from my blog, not least trying to get the house sorted out in time for Christmas and a visit from the in-laws this weekend. I'm trying to tidy, clean and declutter everything, including my studio/office/guest room.
Part if this tidying is working out what to do with my prototype printed softies:

Grey kitty and Lilac kitty are by no means perfect. Grey has a wonky bottom edge and Lilac doesn't have enough stuffing, but aside from that they are both quite lovely. I was going to put them in my shop as 'sample' items but have decided instead to offer them to anyone who reads my blog.
So if you'd like the practically perfect in every way (in a Mary Poppins style) Grey or Lilac just leave me a comment on this post before the end of the day on Thursday 15th Dec telling me which one you'd like. I'll pick recipients at random.
I can only post to the UK this time (sorry world wide folks) and will do my best to get them posted in time for Christmas.

Winter Wedding

2011-12-05T10:16:00.001Z

My bestest friend got married on Friday. It was a lovely day, lovely venue, great food and great people. I wish I had been feeling a little bit better though - I spent the whole day coughing and blowing my nose. Still, I am feeling much better than I was this time last week so I'm thankful for this.
As part of my friends wedding gift I made the happy couple a little personal gift as a reminder of the day, in the colours of the bridesmaids dresses, which were a combination of mustard, teal and grey:

dec the halls

2011-11-29T15:16:00.001Z

I've been making Christmas decorations:

These are a bit of a new take on the scrappy trees I made a few years ago.
As you can see from the top picture, I've stitched strips of fabric, lace and ribbon onto a piece of cream wool blanket, then I've stuffed them and backed with a white linen canvas.
The little cone is similar to some I made a few years ago too. Also utilising the same old wool blanket.

I'll be getting some of these into my shop, when I can get a decent picture of the them. The light is shocking today and even photoshop doesn't seem to be able to work it's magic. Well, it could be photoshop, or it could be me. I'm inclined to think it's me as I'm not quite top notch at the moment.
After suffering a horrible cough, sore throat, wheezing, earache, and a headache, I took myself to the doctors to find that I have tracheitis. Without wanting to sound wimpy, I honestly can't remember a time when I felt as poorly as I do now.
I've still got tonnes to do though, so I'll still be working away here, but do excuse me if I'm absent from here for a little while.

Something that has been cheering me up a little is a new radio station I've found, called Smooth Christmas. It plays lots of Christmas tunes and no adverts - brilliant! It's only live until 27th December, but I rather suspect I might have had enough of it by then anyway!

Handmade Winchester

2011-11-25T23:00:00.001Z

Are you in the Winchester area tomorrow, Saturday 26th November? Then please pop in and say 'hello' to me, as I'll be at Handmade Winchester in the Guild Hall from 10am-5pm, along with over 70 other talented designer makers

It's great for a spot of handmade Christmas shopping. I'm not sure I'll be able to leave without buying anything - it's always such a good fair!

Printed Stockings

2011-11-24T11:56:00.001Z

My fabric samples have arrived so I spent a few hours yesterday making up my stockings:

One of my cut and sew stockings, available here

4 x Stockings Cut and Sew Pattern, available here

mini stockings cut and sew advent calendar, available here

My usually very trustworthy Bernina decided that she didn't want to sew these stockings, and after several needle changes/breakages, much twiddling of tension knobs, changing of thread and a bit of yelling with expletives every time the thread broke (which seemed like every 2 seconds!) I got out my second (back up) machine, which is a Brother, and he handled the stockings with ease, as if to mock the Bernina, who was clearly just having an off day.
I'm ashamed to say, I barely use my Brother because I love my Bernina so much. She's a 1960's cast iron girl. She makes a bit of a racket when she sews but she feels comfortable and more importantly I can freehand stitch on her, which I can't do so well on my Brother. Still, my Brother saved the day, so hurrah for back up machines!

What does it really cost?

2011-11-21T16:23:00.001Z

I was selling at Southhill Park craft fair for 2 days at the weekend. As it was a fair at an arts centre and people had to pay to get in, you were pretty much guaranteed that the people who were visiting were there to buy

my monsters

my printed softies

Whilst I was off looking at everything else a couple of ladies visited my stand and spoke to my husband. They had been looking at my work and then left. After a couple of minutes they returned to tell my husband that they had been discussing the price of my felted wool monsters, which they absolutely loved, but they felt that the price was just a bit too high, and that they felt this was putting people off buying them.
My husband tried to explain what goes in to making one monster, the time, the materials etc and that for the last 3 years my monsters had been sold for £18 each, but due to rising costs, they had just gone up to £20 each. My husband did a great job, but I so wish I had been there to speak to them so I could have talked them through the making process so they could appreciate what it takes to make a single monster.

I buy all my jumpers second hand either from charity shops, ebay, and occasionally boot fairs. You can't buy a lambswool jumper in a charity shop (well not the local ones to me) for less than £5. I have a rule that I'll never pay more than £10 for a jumper, but on average I'd say that one jumper would cost me £7 (this is a round figure). The size of the jumpers largely depends what can be made from each jumper. I buy jumpers more for their pattern and colour than their size, so If I'm lucky I could make 4 monsters from a big men's jumper, and maybe 2 from a small ladies jumper.

Each monster has button eyes and other features (mouth, scars etc) that are hand stitched with cotton threads. They are each stuffed with polyester toy stuffing and then machine sewn with polycotton threads. They also have a tag attached with my name on.

The hidden costs are the ones that are hard for people to understand. Time is a huge hidden cost. To make a monster, starts with a couple of wool jumpers which need to be cut before washing in the machine. They then need to be air dried and ironed before I can begin cutting the pattern. Then there is the time taken to actually make the monster, which on average can be made in an hour.
Other hidden costs (let's call them overheads shall we) is the cost of electricity - for the washing machine, iron, sewing machine, heating and lights.
Then there is the cost of paying for the craft fair, which depends on the size of the event and venue, and of course the cost of petrol to get there and back and parking charges. Let's not forget to add the time spent labelling and pricing the product (and packing and unpacking) and the time spent at the craft fair to sell the monsters that have been made. And then there is profit.
I know I'll never be rich because my profit margin is low, but I make this decision in order to actually sell my products in the first place. There is no point of having a lot of product that you just can't sell.
I have no doubt forgotten some costs here too.

When I've made a product I'll often show it to my husband as ask him what he would pay for it. He hates it when I do this, because even though he knows what goes into making something, his estimated price is always lower than what I think the item is worth.

A couple of people (other makers) told me that they thought my work was really well priced (i.e. probably too cheap), but then they understand what the real cost of making and selling is.

So, no. My items are not priced too highly, very much the opposite in fact.

Sigh.

Despite this, I did have a good couple of days of sales. The majority of my sales were for items of £10 or less. Times are hard for everyone at the moment, so I know it's always good to have items for £10 or so at the sales events I attend.

On a different note, if you haven't already, go and enter my fabric giveaway here. You can get your hands on a yard of any monda designed fabric from my shop completely free!

Fabric Friday Giveaway!

2011-11-18T08:15:00.001Z

It's fabric giveaway time!
If you've arrived here from Owen's Olivia, welcome to Mondaland! and hello to my lovely regular visitors *waves*

So, let's get down to the important stuff. I'm giving away a yard (of quilting weight cotton) of Monda designed fabric, it's as simple as that!
You can choose a yard of any design in my shop - here is just a small selection:

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment on Nancy's blog: Owen's Olivia telling her which of my fabrics from my shop you like the most. You can also read a little bit about me too.

For more chances to win:

1. Follow me on Pinterest.
2. Follow me on Twitter and spread the word about this giveaway via twitter
3. Favourite my Etsy shop
4. Follow Nancy's blog

and most importantly, make sure you leave Nancy a comment for each additional entry.

This giveaway will end 27th November 2011 at 9pm EST (that's 2am on 28th November if you live here in the UK) and is open to everyone - no matter where you live.
The winner will be selected via random.org. by Nancy. The winner will be announced on my blog and twitter, and on Nancy's blog.

N.B. For those who have already entered the giveaway via my blog, don't worry, your comments will be counted by Nancy. This was an admin error on my part. I'll just put that down to my ridiculously busy schedule!

Free Fabric Shipping!

2011-11-17T08:05:00.001Z

It's FREE shipping day in my spoonflower fabric shop today:

My Little hanging birds cut and sew pattern seems to be quite popular at the moment, quite a few have been flying off to new homes in the last week:

Free shipping goes live at 8:00 am on the US East Coast, but will be different for you if you live somewhere else. In the UK, Free shipping starts at 1pm on Thursday and ends at 1pm on Friday.
A reminder, too, that if you create your order before the promotion starts, you may need to refresh your cart page for the free shipping discount to show up.

And if one lot of free goodness isn't enough in a week, come back and visit me tomorrow for more news of free stuff.

stocking up

2011-11-15T09:41:00.001Z

Why, when I am so busy (with my massive making to do list) does my head fill with ideas of new things to design and make?
I'm still busy beavering away making lots more supplies for my upcoming Christmas selling events, but seemed to find a couple of hours yesterday to design a DIY cut and sew advent calendar (latest spoonflower competition) and a couple of stockings:

fits on a yard of fabric

fits on a FQ of fabric

The benefit of being so busy is that I don't have time to procrastinate over a design. With this design, it was just a case of getting it done as quickly as possible. It's very easy to spend hours arranging and rearranging elements in a design but it's nice to change the pace up a little from time to time too.

These will all be available to purchase soon. I just need to see the samples to check they are all good first.

Christmas here we come

2011-11-07T10:35:00.000Z

My first pre Christmas fair went fairly well:

Sometimes with these things you never know if they're going to be hit or miss, and there are so many factors which can influence a selling event - the weather being a big one.
I'm wondering how the economic climate will influence sales this year. For me personally, I have to think about where every penny goes at the moment, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has started cutting out coupons and using vouchers at the supermarket for free points or 20p off this and that.

My next event is in 2 weeks, which gives me 12 making days so I need to pull my socks up and increase the production rate around these parts. I fear my blogging may be quite sporadic over the coming few weeks although I'll no doubt be popping in here and there to show you what I've been up to.

Oh, and I'm still offering 15% off in my new shop, so please do pop over and have a browse, using the code MONDA15 at the checkout if something takes your fancy.

a christmas cracker

2011-11-03T23:57:00.001Z

I started the day today by varnishing some little wooden badges, and I finished the day by setting up my work at 'A Christmas Cracker' in Wargrave. It's been an insanely busy week so far and it's not over yet, but it's all good. I'm certainly making up for my less than productive week last week.
Pop in and have a gander if you're in the Berkshire area. Details below:

In other exciting news, my lovely husband was offered his dream job today. He had 4 interviews for the position (!) but was told that his CV and design work stood out from the word go and he really impressed all the way through the interview process too. We've been behaving like a couple of kids at Christmas all day long - we're so excited!

MONDALAND is here!

2011-11-01T15:37:00.000Z

I'm happy to announce that my new shop MONDALAND is now open for business!

and by way of celebration, I'm giving a 15% discount on everything in the shop until midnight on Sunday - just use the code MONDA15 at the checkout. I'd love to hear what you think so please do pop over and have a little look.
I will still continue with my old shop too, but I just wanted to separate my felt-y goods from my print-y and illustration-y goods, for the sake of cohesion really.

I've been baking

2011-11-01T10:06:00.000Z

some new softies:

Mrs Cupcake

Mr Cupcake

they are both backed with their own co-ordinating fabric

I'm still working away on my mega long to do list. Why does it keep getting bigger? Eep.

buttons

2011-10-31T12:21:00.003Z

Last week I made some button brooches for a hen party. A little something (non cheesy) to tie us all together. The colour scheme for the wedding is mustard and grey (with a bit of teal here and there), so I raided the yellow and grey button jars and spent a good few hours arranging and rearranging until I found something I liked. Being the self critical perfectionist that I am, I wasn't really loving these whilst I was making them (that could have something to do with the fact that I was feeling crubbish though), but they seemed to go down well with all the hens this weekend:

I do love the colours together.
Happily, I'm feeling so much better this week and ready to get cracking with that never ending to do list. The first thing on the list is getting my little shop stocked and ready to roll.

a tough week

2011-10-27T13:48:00.000+01:00

This week I haven't been feeling very well at all - everything from a runny nose and a wheezy chest to nausea and uncontrollable shivers. I think that some kind of virus combined with a general run down-ness is the (self) diagnosis. It's making me feel quite glum and I have definitely not been my usual self this week. Despite feeling crubbish I have soldiered on with my work (no sick pay here!), but my productivity, like my mood, has been low.
My plan to get my little shop relaunched this week won't happen, but I'll have it stocked and ready to go next week, when hopefully I'll be feeling better.

I did manage to get a new pattern drawn up earlier this week though, so it's not all bad:

I think this bird looks quite mad!

Love is in the air

2011-10-24T09:57:00.003+01:00

Including my own, I've been to four weddings this year, and by the end of the year, it will be five. We went to a lovely wedding on Saturday. The bride and groom were not expecting gifts, but we didn't want to let the day pass without a little something, so I made them a gift:

They sent us a text the following day to say that they LOVED it. Phew!
These will be available from my shop soon. This week I'm having a bit of change around in my little shop - a relaunch if you like. More on that in a day or two...

little hanging birds - cut and sew

2011-10-21T12:19:00.002+01:00

I have 2 new 'little hanging birds' cut and sew patterns available to purchase from my spoonflower shop:

This one is a 20x20cm swatch, it makes 2 little hanging birds and includes instructions. It costs $5 (or about £3 if you're in the UK) plus postage. You can see/buy it here

This one is at fat quarter size, it makes 11 little hanging birds and includes instructions. It costs $11 (or about £7 if you're in the UK) plus postage. You can see/buy it here

Both patterns require basic sewing skills (machine or hand), a small amount of toy stuffing (although you could use cotton wool) a needle and thread and some felt balls (if you'd like them to have hanging legs!).

artists interpretation!

I won!

2011-10-19T13:19:00.003+01:00

I was so chuffed yesterday to find out that one of my designs was selected as the winning entry in the recent Tigerprint competition:

I have been selected as a runner up and had designs shortlisted in the last 3 competitions I have entered so it was lovely to finally have a winner.

Thanks to everyone who left me a comment on my last post re my hanging birdy decorations. I have a huge stack of them here on my desk in a half made state so when I get over the excitement of my win, I must get back to the sewing machine and get them finished.

hanging birds

2011-10-17T10:47:00.001+01:00

Every year I make christmas decorations. My hanging birds are always my best sellers so this year I've stuck with birds but incorporated my printed work. I have designed and printed my birds onto fabric and then stitched them onto a 3mm thick natural cream felt. For hanging them I fancied something a bit different so have gone for punched eyelets:

click to enlarge

I'd love to get some feedback on these. What do you think? Please do leave me a comment and let me know.

friends and bridesmaids

2011-10-14T16:33:00.000+01:00

This week I designed a few cards for a tigerprint competition on the theme of female special relationships. These are my entries:

I don't think I've ever seen a card for brides to give to bridesmaids and vice versa so hopefully these last two will catch their eye.
My ideas for these came from my new found fondness for washi tape and my love of squared paper.

feeling festive yet?

2011-10-12T12:30:00.002+01:00

I am. I sent my card designs off to be printed yesterday:

They are quite different but both use the cross hatch/scratch element. The husband says the first one reminds him of scotland (?) and the second is more party/nights out/mulled wine/50's feel. I do appreciate how helpful it is to have a designer as a husband who can dispense feedback when requested.
Like my last set of cards, I wanted a fairly small quantity so I'm having these printed by the lovely folks at Moo. If you don't know Moo (where have you been?) they have a great website. I use both their mini cards (as labels for my softies and accessories and as promo cards) and for some of my greetings cards and postcards. Their products are high quality and the website is foolproof when it comes to ordering personalised stationery.
They have a (secret) 15% discount on their greetings cards until 20th October - just enter the code CARDSYAY at the checkout. It's OK to tell you though - they said I could pass it on.

Rootin Tootin

2011-10-11T11:37:00.002+01:00

Rootin Tootin is my vegetable themed design which I entered into the current spoonflower contest:

see/buy it here

There's still a couple of days left to vote. If you like this, please do vote for it here

I thought I'd also share a few of the designs I really like from this weeks contest:

see/buy it here

and the cards go to...

2011-10-10T17:24:00.005+01:00

I didn't forget, honest! In greetings card giveaway news, the random number generator has decided that the recipient of my new cards is commenter number 9, Hoola Talullah:

Talullah, please drop me an email with you address and I'll get these in the post to you asap.
Thanks to everyone who entered and gave me feedback on your favourite designs. It seems it was a pretty even split between acorns and birds. I'll post a few pics of my new Christmas designs in the next couple of days - I'm really quite excited about them!

all things christmassy

2011-10-10T17:24:00.004+01:00

I've been working on some Christmas card designs today. I can't remember how many times in the last few days I have either heard or seen references to Christmas, but let me tell you, it is numerous. I like the feeling - it makes me feel a little bit excited.
Pinterest is starting to get a bit of a frosty festive feeling too, and my Christmas decorations on flickr seem to be getting plenty of views too at the moment. Here are some of my faves:

baubles made from old books, found on pinterest

Pantone Christmas Baubles, via pinterest


hand drawn card by Linzie Hunter

and some of my Christmassy designs:

snow birds, by me

scatter trees, by me

Teddy and Rover

2011-10-07T13:36:00.002+01:00

Introducing Teddy and Rover:

Teddy and Rover are both backed with a co-ordinating monda designed fabric and are printed onto a sturdy but soft linen/cotton fabric:

Teddy also comes in pink and blue, and Rover comes in dark brown, grey and yellow. Pop over to flickr if you want to have a peek.
More sewing is happening here today but I hope to get a few of these in the shop over the weekend.
Busy, Busy, Busy...

sew, sew, sew

2011-10-06T12:31:00.000+01:00

I've gone into full on Christmas making mode now:

My Owls and Pussy Cats

I'm trying not to panic about the massive to do list. There is still a few weeks before my first events so I'm sure I'll get it all done (gulp!).
Also there's still time to bag yourself a set of 3 of my new cards - just leave me a comment in the post below - the lucky recipient will be picked over the weekend.

new cards

2011-10-03T16:04:00.002+01:00

My new greetings cards arrived on Saturday:

I'm really happy with how they have translated into print. This set of 3 cards is up for grabs - all you need to do is leave me a comment on this blog post telling me which of the three designs you like best (click on the picture for a close up view or go here to see the original artwork). The draw will be open until midnight on Friday this week. Easy peasy stuff. What are you waiting for?

Summer floral

2011-09-29T11:48:00.000+01:00

I entered a few of my photos into the Tigerprint summer floral competition recently. The top one was selected in the top 27 (from 600 entries) which is nice. Here are my entries:

An internet search and a handy husband introduced me to photoshop filters, which I've used on these photos to give them a bit of a vintage feel. I really do need to learn more about photoshop - if someone could just give me a few more hours in the day that is.

Origin 2011

2011-09-27T18:43:00.001+01:00

On Sunday, me and my boy went into London to visit Origin at the old Spitalfields market:

Visiting Origin gives me a little boost of inspiration and fuel for my creative fire. I always come out thinking 'I could do that'. Who knows, maybe next year?

I took a few pictures of the things that caught my eye, although was really quite surprised to note that some of the designer/makers had signs saying 'no photography'. Surely it's the perfect opportunity for a bit of free promotion. It seems really odd - like saying 'look at me, but don't look at me'.
Anyway, I digress, here is what caught my eye:

Sadhu - hand-woven pashmina shawls and scarves

Anthony Theakston Ceramics

Catherine Tough - Knitted socks

Abigail Brown - soft sculpture birds

Danielle Gori-Montanelli - wool felt jewellery

Esther Coombs - Illustrated upcycled ceramics

Sarah Morpeth - Handcut paper

Catherine Carr - Crocheted glass

UOLDBAG - upcycled suitcases

Muir and Osborne - Knitted Dogs

Anna Wales - Metal and felt Jewellery

Sign in Old Spitalfields Market

Big Ben!

SALE!

2011-09-26T16:01:00.002+01:00

I'm having a SALE in my etsy shop at the moment to make room for new stock:

My Flying Birdy and Flowers stitched paper collage cards have now been reduced by 50%. 2 cards in a pack (one of each design) now for just £2 (or $3) and if that wasn't enough of a treat, FREE UK shipping for a limited time too. What are you waiting for, go and grab some before they all go.

new cards

2011-09-26T15:04:00.000+01:00

With Christmas fair prep well under way, I've just ordered a small print run of some greetings cards I designed this weekend:

I've deliberately gone for generic non themed cards as they can be used for multiple occasions.

I'm toying with the idea of doing just a handful of Christmas designs too in a similar style. What do you think? Shall we do a little interactive project? Leave me a comment with your suggestion for a Christmas card design/icon/theme and I'll base one of my designs on a suggestion made by my blog readers.

The root of things

2011-09-22T12:25:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was one of those days that I seemed to lose my ability to draw. This is massively inconvenient when I have a big list of things to do, many of them involving said drawing skills. Perhaps it was the subject matter that caused the creative block. I pressed on regardless (because I inherited a family gene of stubbornness) and finally came up with a root vegetable themed pattern:

It seems my way of tackling something difficult is to make it more enjoyable and fun, hence my smiley faced vegetables. I even like the little slugs in this pattern and I'm not normally a fan of slugs - especially the real ones that last week munched their way through my winter pansies. Little buggers.

bears

2011-09-20T15:31:00.002+01:00

I'm preparing for my Christmas fairs and starting to get things made. This year, as well as my felted wool softies and accessories I'm planning to have some printy things for sale too. I'm thinking tea towels, printed softies, cushions and purses.
I've been working on some bears (for softies):

new baby gifts (?)

The designs are all ready to be printed and I don't mind admitting, I'm feeling quite excited about these.

Autumn Forest 2

2011-09-19T17:28:00.001+01:00

I've been having another play with my Autumn Forest design. This one is really busy - lots of leaves, twigs and sticks - all the stuff that comes off the trees at this time of year:

I've entered this one into the Autumn themed contest on spoonflower (limited palette of 3 colours plus white). If you like it, your vote would be gratefully appreciated.

Garden Bird

2011-09-16T09:03:00.001+01:00

My Garden Bird design came 7th (out of 342 designs) in last weeks bird themed, limited palette, spoonflower contest:

Here it is printed:

I'm really quite chuffed! The design is now available for sale here

Halloween Fabric

2011-09-15T14:30:00.000+01:00

When I was designing this fabric collection - called 'Ghost Face' I didn't have Halloween in mind - well not in the conscious part of my mind anyway:

I'm really pleased with this little collection - it has printed up really well. With Halloween looming up I I'm inclined to design a few more co-ordinates too, maybe some skull and pumpkin motifs.

You can now buy this fabric here, in fat quarters or full yards, and on various fabrics too (oh the beauty of spoonflower!). My swatches are on quilting weight cotton but I think they would work really well on Jersey Cotton too. I'm imagining little long john style pyjamas, in the style of Mini Boden.

the last of summer

2011-09-14T10:43:00.001+01:00

This last weekend I had a go at capturing the remains of summer in a few photographs:

No matter how much we all try to deny it, summer is ending and Autumn is fast approaching. Some might argue that we've actually been having Autumn for a good few months now. The trees outside my studio/office window are thinning and starting to drop leaves and the ones that remain are changing colour from green to yellow and red.

printed softies

2011-09-12T17:55:00.004+01:00

Firstly, thanks to those who commented on my last post about whether owls were a bit overdone. It seems that they are still popular and have longevity. I'm glad about this because today I've been happily sewing up some new softies:

These are a bit different for me as I'm normally a big lover of felted wool when it comes to my softies but I just had to have a go at a printed version too. These are printed onto a linen cotton canvas (from spoonflower) which is just lovely. I've backed these two in a cross hatch design - in pinky red and grey, which has also printed really nicely:

I usually stuff my softies with wool stuffing but these ones seem to be better with polyester, so now I'm on the look out for a polyester stuffing that doesn't go lumpy when you stuff it into things. Any ideas where I can find such a thing?

Autumn Forest

2011-09-09T13:05:00.004+01:00

I can definitely feel Autumn in the air this week. Slippers have been needed (instead of the usual bare feet) and it's felt a bit chilly in the evenings. I think it's time to put the winter duvet on the bed. And if ever proof was needed, whilst writing these words an email popped into my inbox inviting me to view Habitat's new Autumn collection.
I've been working on an Autumn Forest collection, which is timely for the change in weather I think:

Click on images for more detail

The colours of autumn are many and varied. I based the colours of the above designs on shades and tints from this picture, which I found on pinterest:

The little owls make me smile. I know they are popular (hence why I included them in this collection) but are they just a bit over done now? What say you blog readers?

I'm getting ready

2011-09-08T11:19:00.000+01:00

I'm really loving what I've heard from Michael Kiwanuka, especially this, called 'I'm getting ready':

and also this, which just has a really cool funky 70's vibe going on. I'm especially loving the Jazz flute at the beginning:

and finally...

2011-09-07T10:46:00.001+01:00

They are starting to ripen:

They make a nice palette too don't they.
I might have mentioned here (or maybe on twitter) that I've grown a massive (some might say 'silly') amount of tomatoes this year. I love them. I mean really love them. If there was nothing more to eat in the world but tomatoes I would be quite happy.
I've been growing 3 varieties this year, the big red's are 'harbinger', the little yellow cherry's are 'sungold' (well at least I think they are - I grew these from the seeds of last years crop), and I have some black cherry's which are still ripening on the vines.
I was getting a little bit troubled as I have lots and lots of tomatoes but they were all green, but slowly, slowly, I am starting to get some colours coming through. I blame the poor summer. I don't think there has been enough sun to ripen them sooner. All will not be lost however - it looks like there will be plenty of green tomato chutney making going on this year, especially if September ends up being anything like August weather wise.

a little bit ditsy

2011-09-06T17:05:00.000+01:00

When I choose fabric to buy (for all those projects I never get around to!) I tend to go for ditsy florals. My portfolio was lacking in florals generally so I've been working on a few this week. The last pic shows a close up of this pattern:

I think the rings look like I've spilt my cheerios on the fabric. They also look a little like mini doughnuts. Anyone would think I'm hungry!

Bird Garden

2011-09-02T20:14:00.002+01:00

Phew, it's been a busy and challenging week (hence my lack of posts). It's definitely true that every ying has a yang.
I've been working on a bird themed collection this week:

and I'm quite liking the black - which surprises me actually as I think black can look quite harsh sometimes, but the overall effect in the top designs is a green-y/blue-y one despite the black background.

My Vintage Kitchen Collection

2011-08-30T22:46:00.000+01:00

My new bright and groovy fabric collection 'My Vintage Kitchen' is now available for sale here

Flo

2011-08-25T18:27:00.002+01:00

My new fabric, called 'Flo', has arrived:

I'm really happy with how these have printed. If you like to buy some, you can get it here

lovely pear

2011-08-24T12:57:00.001+01:00

You've got to love a pear with leaves!

Do you freecycle? I used it a while back to pass on an exercise bike that we only used as a clothes horse, but I've also picked up a few things which people want to give away. I collected lots of little plant pots earlier in the year which were perfect for my seedlings, and this week I collected 2 bags of pears from a lady who had 2 trees in her garden and more pears than she could cope with.
My friend is getting married later in the year and has requested some homemade chutney from me (to go with her bread and cheese buffet). I've never made pear chutney before but I've found a recipe here which I'll give a go. I also thought I'd give this pear jam a go too.
Blog readers, do you have any other good pear recipes that you could point me in the direction of?

little cupcakes and bizarre dreams

2011-08-23T11:27:00.002+01:00

I really enjoyed drawing Mr & Mrs Cupcake for the plushie pattern I blogged about yesterday, so I've also created a cupcake pattern to go with it, featuring Mr & Mrs Cupcake and a few of their friends:

I seem to be dreaming a fair bit about design and illustration at the moment.
Last night I had a dream that I was in a charity shop/jumble sale and that I found what looked like an old betamax tape box with 'Mog the Forgetful Cat' on it. I knew it was useless as I don't own a betamax recorder, however I opened the box to find a chunky little book. The book was full of original Judith Kerr illustrations and concept work for the Mog books. I was over the moon with my find, and happy to pay £1.50 for it. What a shame this was just a dream - I would love something like this.
Bizarrely in the same dream, I also found a 1970's Action Man outfit, which hadn't been taken out of the original packaging. The reason that I wanted to buy it, (even though I don't own an Action Man!) was that it was a 'terrorist' outfit. This is bizarre - I can think of no good reason to own such a thing - other than that designers in the 70's would have thought that it was perfectly acceptable, so in my head it would be a cool and ironic piece of design history to own.
I dread to think what a dream analyst might make of all this. It's a good thing I don't know one to ask.

Mr & Mrs Cupcake

2011-08-22T15:17:00.001+01:00

Mr & Mrs Cupcake - Plushie Pattern:

This is my entry in this weeks spoonflower contest. This is designed at fat quarter size - basic sewing skills are needed (machine or hand) along with scissors, a needle and thread, a small amount of toy stuffing and some pins.

It doesn't surprise me at all that I settled on cakes when it came to a plushie pattern, as I've been somewhat of a wonder woman in the kitchen of late - I've definitely got my kitchen making mojo on. Jam, Cakes, Soups and Pies have all been made in the last week. I'm also picking up a bag of pears from a kind freecycler later today, so a batch of pear chutney is also on the cards for this week.

Trumpet and Squeak 2

2011-08-18T16:44:00.001+01:00

A few of my co-ordinates for Trumpet and Squeak:

Trumpet and Squeak Circus - see it here

Mr Strong Mouse - see it here

Circus Star - see it here

Juggling Balls - see it here

Circus Bunting - see it here

If you hop over to spoonflower today they are having a free swatch day. They'll send you a free 8X8 inch swatch on any fabric you'd like. Go now, and have a look around - it's free fabric people!

Ghost Face 2

2011-08-16T12:58:00.000+01:00

I've been working on a few co-ordinates for 'ghost face'. As often is the case, I end up liking the co-ordinates more that the initial design - the noughts and crosses in particular, which I can envisage being used in many future sewing projects:

I'm favouring the blues, although the girly girl in me likes the pinks too.

barcode dogs

2011-08-15T13:34:00.003+01:00

This weekend my nephew's came to stay with us. Amongst other things that 4 and 6 year old boys like to do, we made some barcode dogs:

Rory (4) drew 'Bernut' with some food. I like that he has 5 legs!

Finlay (6) drew sausage dogs going for a walk

Me (35) drew a happy barking dog

I'd actually seen this idea in a great book which my nephew's had borrowed from the library a few weeks ago (it could have been this one). We raided the recycle bin to find everything with a bar code on it - packaging, receipts, magazines etc. We glued the barcodes to a sheet of paper and photocopied them, then cut them out, stuck them onto card and drew our dogs - topping them off with googly eyes.
This is a really quick and fun thing to do. It kept the boys entertained for a while anyway!

Gulp

2011-08-11T11:49:00.001+01:00

This is Brilliant. The world's largest stop motion animation:

Now look how it was made - such a huge amount of work on such a massive scale. I love stuff like this. Could you imagine if this was your day job? Amazing.

Ghost Face

2011-08-10T13:16:00.000+01:00

A few weeks back I bought some canvas pumps for my nephews (for the bargain price of £1 a pair) and decorated them with Sharpies. I forgot to take a picture of them (!) but had doodled the design into my sketch book and thought that it would make a funky kids fabric. I've called it 'Ghost Face' and it will soon be available for sale (more news on that later):

Today I received the fabric swatches I had been waiting for (eek!) so that should keep me busy with my scissors and camera for the rest of the afternoon.

Roll up! Roll up!

2011-08-09T13:10:00.000+01:00

For the Trumpet and Squeak Circus (click on any of the images for more detail):

Mice and Elephants really are quite good friends you know.

shark tales

2011-08-05T13:07:00.000+01:00

a few designs for the latest spoonflower comp - a shark theme:

you need to zoom in to see the sharks hiding in this one!

I found this one quite challenging as I wanted to create a useable fabric that I might want to buy myself - although I couldn't imagine buying a fabric with sharks on it if I'm honest. The top 3 designs were all a bit too busy for my liking. I like the fourth but thought people might have a problem finding the sharks in the design, so settled with the last design which I think feels quite serene - sharks and fish swimming in amongst a coral forest - in subtle colours.

My Vintage Kitchen

2011-08-03T13:40:00.000+01:00

Flower Power (orange multi)

Flower Power (brown)

My Vintage Garden (white multi)

Flower Power (orange)

My Vintage Coffee Pot (2)

My Vintage Kitchen is now available to purchase here. There are 3 different designs in this range - My Vintage Coffee Pot, My Vintage Garden and Flower Power. Each design is available in multiple colour ways.

you need this book

2011-07-29T10:30:00.000+01:00

Sometimes you come across something that just knocks you off your feet with awesomeness. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm quite hard to please. We're not talking diva proportions here but I won't say that I love something unless I really love it, and to use the word awesome (when your not American - no offence intended) is something else entirely as far as I'm concerned. This word is reserved for something so good, so exciting, so appealing and so special that makes you joyous at the mere thought of it.
The most awesome thing is a book, and a book you need. It's called Alphabet by Paul Thurlby:

If you read my blog you'll know that I love all things print. I love this book to the proportions that I wish it was my own creation. This is essentially an ABC book with illustrations only - no words (no bad thing). These are really great illustrations full of texture, character and appeal, kind of print-y, kind of painting-y and each one a feast for the eyes.
Oh, and the smell of the book is also really appealing. It's not a scratch and sniff thing, more a combination of the right kind of paper and ink. It smells so good.

Some more of Paul Thurlby's work:

There's a really nice hand written blurb in the back of the book about how the book came about.
To quote a little of it, Paul says 'the inspiration for my work comes from mid century design and illustration. My style has been described as being retro-modern. I use old books, postcards, and pieces of paper for the backgrounds. Often, for example, I will buy an old book from a charity shop just to use it's back cover'.

Go now, buy this book, and look at Paul's website or flickr to see more.

The owl and the pussy cat

2011-07-28T10:08:00.000+01:00

Here they are - the owl and the pussy cat:

They have a destiny, these two, along with a few friends I have also designed. More about that at a later date though.

cake pops

2011-07-27T13:00:00.001+01:00

I recently did some designs for a friend who has just started a cake pop business called 'my honeybunch'. Cake pops are still a relatively new thing here in the UK but they are set to become the new cupcake:

I have of course sampled a (chocolate) cake pop and can highly recommend them. The closest thing I can describe them to is a soft and squishy brownie (on a stick) with a chocolate coating. My mouth watering as I type this!

Below are a few pics of the real thing, which can be ordered directly from my honeybunch for weddings/birthdays/party's/gifts.
You can also take a look at the new stuff coming from the my honeybunch kitchen here. I heard a rumour of cake push pops!

swatches

2011-07-22T23:19:00.000+01:00

I spent a bit of time yesterday cutting and photographing my fabric swatches - something I should have done weeks ago:

I'm really pleased with how they have turned out. You can see more of my swatches on flickr and purchase them here

Stevie was being really helpful and assisted with the fabric cutting. Here she is collecting up my off cuts for me:

look at the naughty swiping paw!

and here she is keeping the fabric steady for me:

how can you not love that?

my vintage coffee pot

2011-07-21T09:43:00.003+01:00

My vintage coffee pot is a design I created for a recent spoonflower contest - the theme being coffee and the palette restricted to 3 colours (plus white). I've gone for a groovy 60's feel design featuring coffee pots, mugs and sugar bowls.
I really enjoyed creating these and the co-ordinating 'flower power' floral design. They are quite bright - have your sunglasses ready!:

final 5

2011-07-20T10:43:00.000+01:00

All the gift wrap designs I've been working on have now been submitted in the Tigerprint Male Pattern Competition. Designing patterns to appeal to the male market (or women buying for men) is a lot harder than you'd think - it's probably why there is a lack of good wrapping paper choices out there for men. I really wanted to steer clear of the stereotypical icons - so went for bold graphic geometrics for this comp. These are my final 5:

If I had a choice of these 5 in a shop, I think I'd go for bottom left. How about you blog readers, which would you choose for the men folk in your life?

binary

2011-07-19T12:06:00.000+01:00

I'm still working on wrapping paper designs for men. It was only when I looked at these after I'd designed them that I thought they looked like binary. I'm definitely feeling some influence from the museum of 51 which I visited at the weekend:

blue and green

2011-07-18T11:02:00.000+01:00

I needed some boyish colour palettes so delved into my pins for a bit of palette inspiration:

This second palette is from one of my own photos:

This little green jumpy thing is living on my outdoor tomato plants, along with a few of her friends - they seem to like it there as I've seen them on there pretty much every day for the last few weeks. I'm reliably informed by my dad that she is a speckled bush cricket.

It's been a busy weekend here, lots of garden/house stuff going on, as well as a trip into London to see the Museum of 51 on the Southbank - revisiting the Festival of Britain in 1951, a drool at everything I'd like to buy in the festival shop, and Basement Jaxx Vs. Metropole Orkest at the Barbican - which was just great - all the energy of Basement Jaxx alongside some beautiful orchestral sounds and a choir:

Basement Jaxx Vs Metropole Orkest by Atlantic Jaxx Recordings

feeling lucky

2011-07-13T13:46:00.001+01:00

This week I'm feeling lucky, for I have been the recipient of two lovely gifts from complete strangers.

Firstly, I won a upgrade to my carbonmade portfolio, courtesy of pattern observer.
Pattern observer is a fairly new to me blog. Go and have a look - it's a really nice blog for pattern-o-philes (I'm not sure that this is an actual word - you might not find it in the Oxford English dictionary). Up until now, I had a basic (and free) carbonmade account but I'd used up my limit of images so this has come at a great time - I'll be adding more to my portfolio in the coming weeks.

On the subject of patterns, I've been working away quietly on some new patterns this week. These are ideas for wrapping paper for men:

My second stroke of luck this week was a visit from the Fairy Hobmother.
I was reading Ali's blog last week - she had been visited by the Fairy Hobmother - a fairy that grants kitchen related wishes. So, I made a wish, somewhat optimistically for a new Fridge Freezer, thinking nothing would come of it.
My wish didn't come true because frankly it was a very pie in the sky kind of wish, however the Fairy Hobmother saw my wish, paid me a little visit and gifted me an amazon voucher.

So ask yourself, are you feeling lucky? Close your eyes, make a wish and type it into the comment box on this post. The Fairy Hobmother (a nice man called David from Appliances Online) might be just be listening and maybe, just maybe, he'll pay you a visit too.

I wondered if this little run of luck would stretch to a Euromillions win so bought myself 3 tickets yesterday. Clearly this was wishful thinking as I didn't win anything at all, although someone in the UK had the only winning ticket in the jackpot - a cool (and frankly scary... but I wouldn't say no) 161 million pounds.

mollie makes feature

2011-07-11T11:31:00.002+01:00

I'm pretty sure most people of a handmade/craft persuasion have seen/read a copy of the fairly new (3 issues old) Mollie Makes magazine. As craft magazines go, it's really a very nice one - and although this might not be important to some, it's printed on nice paper and it smells nice (like a new book), so imagine how chuffed I was to be featured in issue 3, along with my softies:

You see my name - quite massive there at the top of the article - well they actually got that bit wrong (as they've used my maiden name), but aside from that, it's lovely to see my name and my creations in print.

Monsters and Owls

2011-07-06T18:44:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I've just updated my little shop with some new Monsters and Owls. You can find them here

Hedwig

Philip

overwhelming sadness

2011-07-06T13:09:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, things happen that make you feel so overwhelmed with sadness. For me, this is one of those times.
We look after our neighbours cats when he goes on holiday. He looks after ours when we go away. It's a nice arrangement which means neither of us have to put our cats in a cattery - which I feel would just be too much for my cats - given their previous traumas (between the two they've had a broken leg, pelvis and kindney failure).
On Saturday just gone, whilst we were looking after our neighbours cats, one of them, Tim, the most beautiful tabby, got run over on the road outside our house and sadly he didn't survive the accident.
Tim crossed the road on a daily basis. My heart was always in my mouth when he did, but he seemed to watch the traffic and knew when to go. This day, he was just unlucky.

I'm feeling all kinds on things:
Thankful that we found him almost immediately after it had happened and we don't think he suffered too much.
Angry that someone can be so despicable to hit a cat with their car and then drive away.
Sad for my neighbour - who is in his eighties and lives by himself (his wife died of cancer some years ago, and he tells us all the time how much he misses her). His cats are his family. He didn't get to say goodbye.
Grief for the loss of beautiful Tim. I feel I have a huge empathy with cats - which I'm sure you cannot understand if you're not a cat owner. I love my cats so much - they make me smile and give me a little lift every single day. I also think they are great stress relievers, are so affectionate and love you unconditionally.

After speaking to our nighbours son, who lives quite far away, he decided the best thing we could do was to bury Tim in our neighbours garden, which we did. We treated him like he was our own cat.
We have both shed many many tears this last few days, and now I just have a feeling of overwhelming sadness inside me.

limited colour palette woes

2011-07-04T11:28:00.001+01:00

I've been working with this limited colour palette for an upcoming spoonflower comp for a butterfly motif fabric:

The brief is to use all or just some of the colours in the palette and white. No black, no tints or transparancies. I usually quite relish a challenge, especially if I think it will help me improve my design skills, but I have to admit that I've really struggled with this palette, and have felt like giving up on it several times.
I wanted to use all the colours if possible - to find a way for them to work well together. I've tried so many variations and have still not yet arrived at a solution I'm happy with, although this is the closest I've got:

I feel a bit defeated by this - which is hard for a stubborn person like me. I just think the design looks better with less colours:

Any thoughts, blog readers?

Runner up!

2011-07-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

My contemporary mother's day card design made it as a runner up in the Tigerprint competition. I'm really chuffed.

my card

co-ordinating gift wrap

It was a shame not to win - especially as the Tigerprint folks felt it was a close call for the winning design, however they did send me a goody bag with some M&S cards and gift wrap in as my runner up prize (nice!). You can see the winning entry here - along with the other runners up.

boom bang-a-bang!

2011-06-28T17:26:00.000+01:00

A firework themed fabric design for the upcoming spoonflower fabric comp, which uses traced elements from photos of fireworks and sparklers (sourced from pinterest - which incidentally I'm absolutely loving)

I've entered the top design in the comp which I guess speaks more of fireworks in the night sky - but personally I'm favouring the last 2 colour ways, probably because they have a bit more of a vintage feel to them.

to be, or not to be (fabric)?

2011-06-27T13:04:00.001+01:00

I've been playing around with patterns based on the elements from the card I designed last week (see my previous post).
I'm really quite liking the dark background and the blue. I'm thinking fabric, for a change :o)

Click on the images to enlarge

for my lovely mum

2011-06-24T10:06:00.000+01:00

This is my entry for the recent Tigerprint competition to design a mother's day card for 2012:

The brief was to design a card that would use a new look and style to push and refresh the mothers day range in the contemporary section. I've gone for a traditional bunch of flowers theme with (I hope) a contemporary style and non traditional colour palette.

monda loves... Jimbobart

2011-06-23T12:29:00.001+01:00

a bit of internet hopping today lead me to finding the most excellent etsy shop this morning, where you can buy great hand drawn ceramic plates and illustrations, like these:

You can see more Jimbobart (by James Ward) in his etsy shop here

On the subject of plates - I'm now selling some of the cake stands (and other bits and bobs) we made for our wedding - we (sadly) really don't need over 30 cake stands. They can be found on eBay here

new today

2011-06-22T22:31:00.001+01:00

Today I took the scissors to my new fabrics (along with a spotty blue from my stash) and made a small cushion:

and my hairdresser took the scissors to my hair and made a very short do:

my fabrics

2011-06-21T12:52:00.005+01:00

I've been eagerly awaiting the delivery of the fabric swatches and FQ's which I ordered recently, and today they arrived. Here are a few of the fabrics in my flippers and kippers range:

I really like the way these ones came out. I've got lots of other samples of other fabrics too, so this afternoon I'm going to cut them up and make something (anything!) from them. Exciting stuff.

I drew my CV

2011-06-17T17:55:00.001+01:00

This is by far (for me anyway) the most pleasing version of my CV I have ever created:

adventures in gardening

2011-06-15T22:45:00.001+01:00

I've been having a go at gardening now for the last few years. I'm by no means an expert but I'm learning little by little as I go along and I enjoying the fruits of my labours when the garden looks good and the plants are fruiting.
Last year I started growing veggies, some from seed and some from plants. This year, I've grown everything from seed, and it's all coming along quite nicely. I love going into the greenhouse and seeing how much everything has sprung up - the tomatoes grow so quickly, and at the last count I had 92 plants.

The garden is looking very green at the moment - so I've added a bit of colour until everything starts to flower:

new fabrics

2011-06-14T11:26:00.002+01:00

I have some new fabrics for sale in my spoonflower fabric shop:

I've ordered some of each and am really looking forward to seeing them in the fabric-y flesh (so to speak). I just need to decide what to make with them now.

birdy

2011-06-13T13:25:00.000+01:00

A little bit of what I'm working on at the moment:

picture book of knowledge

2011-06-10T16:54:00.002+01:00

I do like a good picture book - especially an old one. This is one of my latest purchases and is from the 70's - called a picture book of knowledge. These were the kind of books I remember looking at in the library and at school when I was a child:

This one was illustrated by Alain Grée and his brother Gérard Grée.

just peachy

2011-06-08T17:02:00.000+01:00

I'm having a bit of a sorting out kind of week this week. My blogging will likely be quite sporadic. I'm feeling the need for decluttering, cleaning and tidying. It's just the everyday mess that our eyes don't normally see. Where once there was something - now there is nothing and it feels good to have some more bits of space (and less dust!) here and there.

It seems I am subconsciously liking peachy tones quite a lot at the moment. This little selection is from my recent pinning activity:

This little pattern came as a result of another pattern I was working on - a christmassy one, which is actually nothing remotely like this floral:

I like it when things like this happen. It's kind of like when you are shopping for something specific and you can't find it, but when you don't want something specific your eyes are opened to other things.

pop up shop

2011-06-03T11:32:00.001+01:00

a snapshot of my desk today!

Come and see me tomorrow. I'm going to be at the pop up shop in the Nicholsons Centre in Maidenhead (in the former Waterstones shop) from 10am-4pm.
More info on all the sellers and the happy cakes cafe (yes there will be cake!) can be found here

7th and 14th

2011-06-02T21:28:00.001+01:00

I'm really chuffed that my monster mash fabric design made it into the top ten (7th) of the imaginary animals spoonflower competition:

I was also chuffed that last week my ice ice baby fabric got to 14th position in the ice cream design competition:

I've also been beavering away on some Christmas designs this week, as well as something pretty tasty. Here's just a snippit for now:

go where you wanna go

2011-06-01T14:58:00.000+01:00

Today, I'm very much liking this, by The Bees:

get up and go

2011-05-30T16:27:00.002+01:00

when I found this picture on pinterest it had palette written all over it:

and of course, it was destined to be used in a pattern:

These last couple of days, it seems my get up and go has got up and gone.
The effort required to do anything seems just too much. It's a weird feeling of being drained of energy or enthusiasm for everything. I'm hoping this is just a blah few days and it will quickly pass because I'd really like to start feeling like my good old self again very soon.

Henley Arts Trail in pictures

2011-05-29T18:16:00.001+01:00

Here are just a few pictures of what is on offer at venue 12 (Woodclyffe Hall in Wargrave) of the Henley Arts Trail. There are over 20 artists participating at this venue along the arts trail. The quality of the work is really high and there are many disciplines covered, so something for everyone.
Click on the individual pictures for a more detailed view:

The above pics are just a small sample of what is on offer. I didn't manage to get decent pictures of everything sadly.

Lastly, a couple of pictures of my softies and accessories:

Tomorrow is the last day of the event (venue 12 is open from 11am-6pm).

lavender village

2011-05-27T11:32:00.000+01:00

I've been doing a bit of sewing this week - a few new bits and bobs for my upcoming fairs.
Yesterday, I made a little village of lavender bag houses:

I bought some lavender a few weeks back and it's been smelling lovely in my work room ever since. I sewed up some little bags (they almost looked like teabags) full of lavender which I then inserted into the houses along with some stuffing. The materials I have used are a combination of new are recycled fabrics - some old pillowcases, one of my husbands old shirts (I have many of these in my stash waiting to be cut up) and an old duvet cover along with some of my vintage and recycled buttons from my stash.
Today I'm packing up my wares for the Henley Arts Trail. Come along and say hello if you're in the area. I'll be at venue 12 in Wargrave (see link above for details).

Henley Arts Trail

2011-05-26T21:07:00.001+01:00

This coming weekend I will be showing and selling my softies and accessories, along with other talented artists and makers at venue 12 of the Henley Arts Trail, Woodclyffe Hall in Wargrave. If you are in the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire/Berkshire area this bank holiday weekend, it's definitely worth coming along to see some of the talent on show.

There are 23 venues in all, packed full of original art work to buy. The link to the website above gives full details and addresses of each venue.

The Seychelles

2011-05-24T13:25:00.000+01:00

Looked something like this:

beach art we made from found objects

This last week (and a bit), me and the Mr have been away on our (slightly delayed) honeymoon, or maxi-moon as we've been calling it - as we had a mini-moon in February just after we got married.
It was a very relaxing week where we did very little but lounge around in the sun, swim in the sea, eat nice food and drink nice drinks. It seems we managed to get back just before the Icelandic ash cloud put a halt to flights (again). Phew.

Tammis Keefe

2011-05-23T09:04:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd blog a bit of what is inspiring me today. I really love these Mid Century Tammis Keefe tribute (repro) prints by Michael Miller fabrics:

They'd be great printed on a textured bark cloth wouldn't they.
There is a really good Tammis Keefe write up and lots more pictures on the True up blog from the launch at the Fall Quilt Market in October last year. Go and have a look.

a little birdy

2011-05-20T09:56:00.001+01:00

This little birdy was a recent commission:

I do love sewing with paper. It's a lot less forgiving than fabric so you really don't have much of an opportunity to dither because the paper will rip or get an hole in it. I don't get on my sewing machine enough at the minute - I think I need to remedy that.

(p)inspiration

2011-05-19T08:53:00.001+01:00

I'm absolutely loving Pinterest for the wealth of inspiring web eye candy that I can pin to my virtual boards. I'd read lots of praise about it but steered clear of it for a while as I didn't want to get into something that might just become one of those fads I got bored of quickly (a bit like facebook). How wrong I was and how on earth did I manage before I found this?
I often pin pictures which I think will make good palettes, like these:

I have used this palette to create a couple of alternative colour ways for my monster mash design:

monster mash

2011-05-18T08:39:00.001+01:00

This was a really fun to do.

As you probably know, I do like my monsters:

mostly...

2011-05-17T08:20:00.001+01:00

Inspired by the paper cut design I did a few weeks ago, I've been working on a couple of greetings card designs with a similar feel:

I think the sentiment is 'mostly' sweet. 'Mostly' is a bit of a disclaimer, for all the times when the person in question isn't being quite lovely. Of course, I wouldn't know about that though.