I'm home

 

Hi all, I'm home.....After 6 days of house & pet sitting, dog walking, exploring, mountain climbing, wine drinking (!) very rural living and relaxing in Ireland. It was fabulous. I look forward to catching up on art and blogging very soon. I hope your all enjoying these long bank holiday weekends and the sunny weather! Speak soon :-)

*PS: Meet Bonnie, she is the most well behaved boarder collie in the world! She was a darling and so much fun to look after.

Snap snap snap - Camera Illustrations

 

I finally got round to illustrating 2 more of my cameras inherited from my Grandad. I've been up since half 6 today as my brain was swirling with ideas and I was also worried about Arthur cat as he didn't come home last night. We don't have a cat flap on the house so he was locked out all night (there is a cat flap on my studio in the garden so he could go in there if he wanted, but still he much prefers to be insidethe house where its warmer). So this morning he came in at 7am all dirty and miserable, in a terrible mood and wouldn't look at me!!  I felt so bad! He's currently sleeping on my bed and doing his best to ignore me...Anyway the sun is shining (YAY) and I have finished two camera illustrations (YAY)...I really want to complete 5 of them so I can create a 'Grandad's Camera'  Greetings card set.  Have a good day all, I will pop them up in my Etsy shop as A4 prints today too..

UPDATE*** These prints are now up in my Etsy shop! To buy/view go here and here!

Posy and Penguin

I woke up today with this is my head. It's quite similar to a sketch a did a year or so ago in my sketchbook. Its so funny that its cropped up again. This is going to go in my etsy shop as a print I think, I really like it :-)

Cheery pattern designs by Laura Redford

My good friend and fab designer Laura has entered some designs for the Design project at the Beta fashion awards. I think her designs are fun, bright and cheery and well worth a vote. So head over to BetaFashion for a peek!

Laura's submitted designs can be found here & here.

And here is a link to her blog & her website!

Blue Terracotta

I recently came across the Etsy shop Blue terracotta, I marked it as a favorite..Well you would wouldn't you, just look at those items!Then Laura who owns Blue Teracotta happened to buy a print from me and I got to know her a little better. She has a beautiful blog which you can visit here,  and she mentioned my work recently too! I am very lucky, thank you laura!

Update** Laura made the most beautiful easter themed treasury yesterday that you can view here!

Illustration Friday 'Journey'

Hi all, my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday for the word 'Journey'

The idea came from a conversation I had with a friend yesterday about careers, we were talking about how we had thought that if we went did well at school, went to college, then to university that we would be on our way to a well paid and fulfilling careers by now. And I guess we both are, sort of at that point except we are now trying to decide if we should do further training, an MA maybe, to get where we want to be. That then throws up the questions like: How can we afford that? Do we still want what we wanted back when we chose our university courses? Will we get a job at the end of it all anyway?

So basically life isn't as simple as A, B & then comes C..Sometimes there's a whole lot of stuff in between the start point and your goal. A bit serious maybe but that's what inspired this illo!!

I hope your all well and enjoying your weekends, I have people over for dinner later, and I'm looking forward to tackling a new recipe, cheerio for now  :-)

Help Japan

I received two little ceramic birds in the post yesterday. These were made by  Makiko Hastings, a Japanese ceramicist who currently lives in North Yorkshire Uk. Makiko has set up a fund raising project titled '1000 birds' She is aiming to make 1000 ceramic birds to raise money for Japan for their recovery from the devastating Earthquake/Tsunami on 11th March 2011.

To view more about Makikos project (and if you would like to buy some birds)go here.

'Bottled' for Illustration Friday

The word of the week is 'Bottled'....

If I was to make perfume I would like it to come in a bottle like this. My favorite perfume is Karma by Lush. Anyone else like it?

Photoshop experiment

Inspiration = Tie dye and Spring

Blog-hopping for Lila

Hi all, today I want to talk to you about something a little different. Today I want to talk to you about a  sweet  young girl called Lila who has cerebral palsy. Lilas parents Maria and Matt are trying to raise awareness of cerebral palsy and also to raise money for stem cell therapy treatment for Lila.

This issue was brought to my attention by Sarah of Red line design in the creative Coconut Island (a community of artists of which I am part of). Sarah is friends of Lila and her family and thought an artist blog hop could help to raise awareness for their campaign.

To read more of Lilas story please go to the 'Mommy you know what' blog here.

(You can also donate to Lila's treatment fund through the link on the Mommy you know what blog).

To see the original post at What is design? Sarahs blog click here.

Photography by Maria B.

Tomorrow Denice of Inkstitch will be continuing the blog-hop!

Thank you, have a great day :-)

My garden and a Taurus Craft centre visit

I left some of the party decorations up for a day longer..I love the bright colours...I'm also completely in love with my garden at the moment...Flowers appearing here and there and lots being planted..It was such a cold winter its great to have some sunshine and life appearing again.

Yesterday we went to the Forest of Dean and visited the Taurus Crafts center, it was a beautiful place with many artists/crafts people working there. It is also a Camphill Village trust, here is some info from the 'about me' page of the Taurus crafts website.

Taurus Crafts, based on a thriving art and craft visitor centre at Lydney, Gloucestershire, creates new and exciting opportunities for people with learning and physical disabilities and mental health problems through work, work experience and vocational training, including gaining recognised qualifications. It develops individuals’ confidence and promotes greater self-reliance and integration into the wider community.
The school where I work is also a Camphill Community so it was really interesting for me to visit a Camphill where adults are working and creating.
There were so many beautiful things there to buy and great activities to try out it is definitely worth a visit. Not to mention the great organic food in the cafe..mmmm!
And I got my sweetie broach there! Its made of glass and was in the stained glasss workshop/shop! There were so many things there I could of bought, fused glass necklaces,earrings, beautiful vases and coasters...Next time!

Links:
Taurus Crafts
Camphill Communities

Holidays!

Hi all, how are you? I hope the sun is shining for you today.. we have had a sunny weekend in Bristol but today is looking very gray again (I am hoping the sun will fight through the clouds though..Come on sunshine)!

I am a happy bunny today as it is the start of my easter hols from the school. It was my Boyfriends birthday on the weekend so up to now it has been jam packed and busy with a party and people visiting..I still have to take down the bunting and balloons from the garden but I really don't want too! Looking at them makes me happy!

I have a few bits that I wanted to fill you in on the first is that I have joined the 'Creative Coconuts' an online artist community run by Marisa of Creative Thursday. I am really excited about this, it is the perfect follow on from taking the 'Life in the Fishbowl' ecourse run by Marisa that I completed recently. So I will be mentioning more about that soon.



Also if you haven't heard any of Marisa's podcasts you really should, they are so inspiring, (and just really helpful)!

Check them out here

Oh and before i forget, my 'Duet' print that I did for IF is now up in my Etsy shop. Perfect for Spring!

Bye for now **** :-)

Goodness me I've done it again...(Illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday)..

The word of the week is 'Duet'..I thought of this straight away..I love seeing the images in my mind come to life on paper :-) I also did all of this out in my new garden studio. The peacefulness actually did me so much good.

Watercolor, gouache, pencil, felt tips and black pen....My new favorite combination!

I hope you are all well out there..Have a lovely evening/morning.

Cheerio!