Its Found Art Friday!

Found Art Friday is back, alive and kicking! Run by the lovely Cathy Nichols. Those who have been reading my blog for a while may remember that I used to post a image every Friday inspired by a theme or a word? This is my design inspired by this months theme "Big Love". Cathy took a break from FAF on the run up to the busy Christmas period but its back up and running if anyone would like to get involved. Click here for more info. My Big Love piece will shortly be available as a limited edition signed art print in my shop and I am happy to personalise it for you too if you are buying it for someone special :) There will only be 50 available so once they're gone, they're gone- I'll be writing a quick post over the weekend to let you know it's available along with some personalised Valentine's Day cards I've been working on!

Hope you've all had a good week and I'll be back soon.....

Twinkly Fairies

Hello.

I have some twinkly fairies to show you today, hope they make you smile :)

And I hope you all have a "twinkly" day too!

x

Top Drawer Spring 2010

Hello! I'm back! Just needed a few days to do lots of tidying and sorting after the mania of getting ready for Top Drawer- honestly my house was unrecognizable! And when it gets that messy I can't concentrate on anything else until its tidy again.

I had a great time exhibiting at TD, as some of you already know it is my favourite trade fair and one that I've never done before, so I feel like I have successfully fulfilled a long standing ambition of mine :) I met some lovely, lovely exhibitors, had a real giggle and met some potentially great clients too. And I cannot forget to mention the lovely Twitter ladies who came to visit me at my stand it was so, so great to meet them all:

Karen from Blueberry Park,

Gabriella from Moo Baa Cluck,

Melonie from Melandersondes,

Jane from Snapdragon Jane

Ali from Milly And Pip.

Becky from Dots & Spots

These ladies have fabulous shops online if you fancy treating yourself to a spot of online shopping!

I also had a visit from one of my most favourite artists Janet Bell, I'm embarrassed to say that I was rather star struck and couldn't believe she had come to say hi! I think I nervously rabbited on at her and her husband a bit too much! (Sorry Janet!) You must visit her website as she has the most gorgeous items for sale, Janet's shop sells other artists work as well as her own. Meeting her in person confirmed that she is indeed the lovely lady I thought she was- it was great to meet you Janet!

Fish for Supper by Janet Bell

Smeatons Pier by Janet Bell

I have quite a few orders to complete so will be fairly busy over the next few weeks but I'm hoping to have some new personalised valentines designs in my shop soon, so will keep you posted.

I thought I'd leave you today with a list of some of my favorite artists at this years TD. Enjoy!

1. Stop The Clock Design

2. Poppy Treffry

3. Luvio

4. Snapdragon's Garden

5. Stop The Clock Design

6. Snapdragon's Garden

2. Poppy Treffry

8. Lou Mills

9. Sunlight On closed lids

Celebrating my First Year of Blogging!

Hello all. I'm celebrating my first year of blogging! I remember being so nervous when I first started because putting myself and my work out there on the internet for all to see made me feel rather vulnerable, however I can honestly say that I needn't have felt that way because I've only met wonderful, kind people via my blog- all who have been so supportive and friendly. So I wanted to say a BIG, BIG thank you to all of you who have visited me here and supported me and my art- as ever it is truly appreciated and to celebrate I thought why not have a special Giveaway? Im offering you all a gift of 5 free items to one lucky person who buys something from one of my shops between now and the 24th January.

**Free items includes any of my cards and art prints**

My work is available to buy here and here. To enter all you need to do is leave me a note at checkout when you buy something saying: ONE YEAR for your chance to win!

Good luck everyone!

I also have some exciting news and that is that my Not On The High Street shop is now open! Hooray! I don't have a huge amount on there at the moment but hope to be adding more soon, including personalised Valentines & Mothers Day cards. I also have personalised cards available in this shop that aren't available in my Etsy shop. Hope you like them!

Unfortunately I may not be back blogging again now until next week because I have a trade fair coming up that I'm frantically busy getting ready for. I'm super excited though as this is my favourite trade fair and my first time exhibiting there. I''ll be on stand F40 at Top Drawer from the 17th-19th if anyone is visiting & fancies dropping by and saying hello :) It really is a fantastic show- bursting with talented designers from small businesses all over the UK, I would highly recommend a visit as I always have done in the past.

Have a great week everyone! Em x

Our holiday! (part two)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hello! How are you all? I do hope you all had a wonderful holiday break :) I've had such a lovely time visiting friends and family, taking walks, watching films and eating way too many naughty treats! Although it was hard I banished myself from my studio so I could have a proper rest and boy did I need it! But my poor blog has been neglected in the process :( I didn't even have time to wish you all Seasons Greetings so I apologise, suddenly it was Christmas eve and I hadn't even wrapped up any presents!

Thank you so, so much for all your lovely congratulations messages from the previous post- I enjoyed reading them immensely. Phil and I picked up my engagement ring from the jewellers on Christmas eve. (very romantic) and now I can't stop looking at it! lol!

And I still have photos to show you from our holiday don't I! So here they are as promised starting at the Eden Project- anyone been? I love it there- so inspiring!

The Eden project

Phil looking at a rather huge pant!

WoW!

A rather curious Robin!

The next day we went to explore St.Ives and of course Barbara Hepworth's garden:

The wonderfully tactile sculptures of Barbara Hepworth

Phil proposed on the steps that you can see at the back of the photo on the right!

Me with my wooly hat!

It was such a lovely break but it already feels such a long time ago.

I'll be back blogging again soon with a surprise to celebrate my first year of blogging! Bye bye for now :)

Our holiday

Hello all

Apologies for not blogging at the end of last week, I've been freelancing in a design studio and so lost a lot of hours!

I thought I'd show you some holiday snaps today and I also mentioned in the last post that I had some exciting news to tell you................... well....................I'm engaged!!! Phil very romantically proposed in Barbara Hepworth's garden in St.Ives whilst we were away and I of course said yes! Woooo hooooooo! We've not set a date yet but I've chosen a ring! I took lots and lots of photos whilst I was in Hepworth's garden so I could remember the moment well and I'll show you them in the next post- I think if I load them all onto todays post it may end up crashing someone's computer! lol!

So we started our adventure in Brighton where we went to see the comedian Michael McIntyre who was hilarious- I was nearly crying at one point- no lie! The next day we headed for Dartmouth, a very pretty little town surrounded by beautiful bays. Whilst in Dartmouth I managed to see some paintings of one of my favourite artists- Elaine Pamphilon. I've never seen any of her work in the flesh before so it made my day :)

I couldn't resist uploading some of her work for you to see:

Dartmouth

Dartmouth

Exploring around Dartmouth

A beautiful bay in Dartmouth

We stayed in Dartmouth for a couple of nights and then headed to one of my favourite places in Cornwall, the stunning little town of Padstow. We ate cupcakes, had Rick Steins famous fish and chips and visited lots of the lovely art galleries around the town.

I think I'll stop there today but I hope you liked the photos and I'll be back soon with "Our Holiday" part two!

Ta ta for now :)

We're back!

Hello everyone! We're officially back from our holiday and we had a fantastic time. I have some exciting news and lots of photos but I'll have to share that with you in my next post because I've run out of time today. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you left me on my previous post.

I hope everyone's having a good week? I've missed you all.

I wanted to mention a few lovely people today, something I've been meaning to do for a while but again it was finding the time :(

Firstly I wanted to say a BIG thank you to pur-ple for deciding to create a wonderful blog where artists and publishers can go to connect with one another. Louise very kindly added me to her blog list :D The Purple Greetings Cards shop sell some amazing cards inc. this new one by Rob Ryan.

It's always such an exciting experience to see your art with the person you made it for, so I was thrilled when Stephanie from MadMummy wrote to me to let me know that her daughter loved the commissioned painting I created for her. She left Infant School in the summer, to start Juniors in September and Stephanie asked me to create a picture to remind her daughter of her time there. The school emblem is a rabbit, and all the classes are named after woodland creatures, so we had a robin, badger, fox and bunny! It was the most perfect project for me so I loved every second of it! Thanks Stephanie for sharing this picture with me :)

And the last thing I wanted to share with you is a project I've been involved with called the Talisman Project. Part of the project involved sending two people from the group a small handmade gift symbolizing a quality or thing you wish you had more of in your life. One of my swap partners was Laura from Arguing The Mobius and I decided to send her "Time". Here's what I sent:

I decided to create some notelets because (as will come as no surprise if you read my blog regularly- in fact I already mentioned it in this post) I wish I had more time! Recently I decided to make a commitment to always find the time to stay in touch with my friends no matter how busy I am and the notelets signified to me finding different ways I could do this. Laura loved her gift and wrote a wonderful blog post about the project and her gifts here. thanks for organising such a wonderful project Laura! :)

Bye, bye for now- I'm hoping to be back blogging again at the end of the week to share my exciting news with you all!