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!

Yipeeee!

Hello all. I know I've been a little bit absent lately from my blog but there's been a good reason- I promise! We are going away for a bit so I had to get everything sorted workwise, which meant a lot of late nights and early starts- coupled with the fact that I've been ill since Friday didn't help at all!

So I'm super excited about going away for a bit, I'm going to be soooooooooooooo lazy, sleep lots and just have a jolly good rest! 

Fitting in with the theme of going away I thought I'd show you one of my card designs from my Mr. & Mrs. Rabbit range- hope you like it as it's one of my favourites! :)

Have a super week everyone!

Bye Bye for now.

x 

Drum Roll Please.................

Hello! Hope everyone's having a good week so far. 

It's time to announce this months Giveaway winner! Chosen by the Random generator...................

Which is Dee from An Artists Ramblings By Faux Painter! Congrats Dee! You can pick any print you would like from my shop :)

Thank you so much to everyone who entered and left such lovely comments and great feedback- it is really, really appreciated. 

Giveaway Day!

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? Phil and I went to Spitalfields Market in London on Sunday and it was so inspiring- there were so many very talented crafters there. We also ate at Leon a really funky restaurant and my mouth was watering at everything on the menu which is very unusual for me! (I'm a little fussy!)

Before I get onto the Giveaway I wanted to let you know that the very talented Marisa from Creative Thursday has announced  that she will be teaching a new e-course. So if you would like to be the first to know more you can click here to sign up.

Also I wanted to share a little photo with you, which was left on my feedback page, at my Etsy shop by Alex who bought one of my paintings for his son. What a joy it was to read such wonderful feedback and also to see where my painting has landed thousands of miles away from where it was created! It truly made my day so thank you for sharing this Alex! :)

So it's Giveaway time! This month I think I'm going to let whoever wins pick a signed print from my shop. As many of you know I'll soon be opening another online shop so to enter you can either just say hi or it would be great if you could let me know what you would like to see more of in my new shop so I can come up with some new, fresh designs/things to add to it! I'll announce the winner on Tuesday 1oth. Good luck everyone!

Lastly I thought I would leave you with some "cuteness"!  I designed these little characters to go on a gift wrap or gift bag. 

Bye Bye for now :)

Creative Thursday

Today I thought I would share a little story with you.

Once upon a time there was a girl called Emma who was looking for inspiration. It was one ordinary Wednesday afternoon when she decided to boot up the Google images home page and type "cute rabbit" into the search box. What she didn't know was that, that very small action would pretty much change her life forever. What did she find you may ask, well she found this:

A painting entitled "Yes" by Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday. Emma decided to take a look at Marisa's blog and from that moment on found a new world of possibilities that she never even knew existed. She was not only incredibly drawn to Marisas's wonderful art but she also found herself hooked on Marisa's blog and her podcasts.

Emma found Marisa's story incredibly inspiring and the timing couldn't have been more perfect because she felt very lost in her career. At that time she was working full time at a design company and had done so for many years, but deep down she had also known for many years that what she really wanted to do was work for herself selling her art. She never really thought though that, that would ever be achievable. "I mean honestly" she would think to herself "who would buy my art?" "My work doesn't exactly resemble a Monet or Matisse! I just like drawing "cute" stuff!" But as Emma delved into Marisa's world she realised that not only Marisa but many, many artists all with different styles, were making a living selling their art on the internet via sites such as Etsy, Dawanda, Folksy & Art Fire to name just a few. "How could I have not of known about this?" "Perhaps I could do this!" Emma knew that maybe, just maybe her dream could be achievable! From that day on she saved and saved and saved all the money she could and then finally handed her notice in. This was such an exciting time for Emma but also a very scary one as the great unknown lay before her. Fortunately she had Marisa's podcasts to listen to and blog posts to read which gave her enough inspiration and courage to see it through. Not surprising then that Marisa became a very special lady to Emma as she had now taken her first step on the path she always knew she was meant to be on.

The End

If anyone reading this has also met Marisa (online) you will know that she is a very kind soul who always finds the time to answer an email and offer encouragement even though she is pretty much always an extremely busy bee. Not only did she reply to my emails and I did (although enthusiastically) go on a bit! She even (WOW) dedicated a podcast to me and another fellow artist! And I can't begin to tell you what that meant to me. Naturally her joy of offering encouragement and support to us "newbie" entrepreneurs has now led her to teach e-courses and of course I signed up for the first one immediately!

What I loved about the course was Marisa's teaching methods, she didn't just relay information to us which we then scribbled down, it was a much more personal experience and a much more supportive environment to anything I had ever expected. I was blown away by how much she truly wants you to succeed and how dedicated she is in helping you anyway that she can. 

Even though Marisa lives thousands of miles away from me and I've never met her in person, her genuine and caring spirit always seems to shine through in whatever she decides to do. I hope that if anyone reading this has a goal or a dream then you, like I, stumble upon your very own "Marisa" to guide you to it.

You can find Marisa and Creative Thursday here:

http://www.creativethursday.com/

http://creativethursday.typepad.com/

http://twitter.com/creativethurs

And you can find Marisa's Etsy shop here:

www.creativethursday.etsy.com

Flowers & Butterflies

Hello all. Thank you for all your lovely comments on the previous post, they always make me smile :)

Today I thought I'd share this illustration with you, I love designing intricate patterns like these although they do take an awfully long time to complete! This is a gift wrap design, complete with a gift tag.

I have some good news on my Not On The High Street shop, I've  been beavering away on it over the weekend and this week and I've managed to upload quite a few products so I'm now waiting for the shop to be activated. You guys will be the first to know when it's open!

A Lovely Weekend

Hello everyone! Hope a good week has been had by all? It's been an up and down week for me if I'm honest. I did go and see Up yesterday which was the most wonderful film- I would recommend watching it if you haven't done so already. Little warning though- have some tissues on standby! Unfortunately my day didn't continue to go well as we were woken up at 3.30 this morning by the police to say that someone had smashed my rear windscreen! They had also done the same to another car. How gutted am I? VERY! So as expected I've been a little sulky today and if that wasn't enough- you'll laugh at this- I just arranged delivery of an order and managed to address it to myself instead of the client! I'm blaming lack of sleep for that one- I had to laugh though!

Anyway, let's move on as I haven't shown you any photos of my weekend in Bath! Actually I didn't manage to take that many pictures of Bath itself, (distracted by too many lovely shops!), but here's a couple.

Then on Sunday we went volunteer dog walking! A first for me but it was such good fun. I really wanted to walk a Daschund or a Husky, but didn't think there would be either at the rescue centre, so I was delighted when they told us we would be walking a Husky called Kashka and wow, what a beautiful dog! I REALLY had to control myself as my heart went out to her, I would have adopted her there and then as she had such a lovely temperament but alas I knew the bunnies wouldn't have approved! Here's some photos of her and us:)

Isn't she just gorgeous?

Lastly I thought I would leave you with a smiley design- here's a piece I designed for International Greetings. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fabulous Friday!

I've got that Friday feelin', roll on the weekend! We are going to be visiting friends in Bath, so I'm really looking forward to it as it's such a beautiful city to visit- I must try and remember to take my camera............

Today I thought I would share one of my new baby cards with you because one of my close friends, whom I've known for nearly 20 years (I seriously can't believe it's been that long, or that I am actually that old) has had her second baby boy!! Congratulations Sarah & Ryan, I can't wait to meet him! xx :)

I also wanted to say "hello" to my new followers- thank you so much for visiting me here at my blog :) If any of you are on Twitter do drop by and say hello! You can find me here. Talking of Twitter, I just found Chesney Hawkes! Now that's a blast from the past! I love his song "The One & Only"- who's with me? Anyone? OK so it's a bit cheesy but I LOVE it's feel good factor :D

I hope everyone has a great weekend, keep shining my little gems :)

One winner & some exciting news!

Hello all! Once again things have had to be quiet on the blog front this week. In amongst making & posting orders, paper work, ordering supplies & sourcing supplies I've had an exciting new project to work on! One which I want to get up and running really soon- shall I tell you now? Oh alright then! Well a while ago I was approached by Not On The High Street & asked if I wanted to sell my products on their site. I was so, so excited by this and extremely flattered so obviously my answer was "yes"! And so I've been trying to set up my shop this week along with all my other "to-dos". I'm still no where near to having the shop ready but I'll let you know as soon as it's open! 

So onto my Giveaway- I let Phil do the honors this week and pick the winner, so hear comes the drum roll.............................Celine from Soaperstar you're this months winner! Congratualtions! :D Thank you so much to everyone who entered and also Twittered about the Giveaway, as always I wish I could give you all a present as your support means such a lot. 

Bye, bye for now & have a super weekend everyone :)

Moo. Woof. Meow.

Hello all. Yes it's Giveaway day!

This month I'm giving away a set of three of my animal art prints, all of which will be signed. These little chaps make me smile and the colours remind me of summer- I hope they brighten your day too.

To enter all you have to do is leave me a comment here on my blog and if you are on Twitter I'd love it if you would spread the word about this giveaway :) If you do, let me know and I'll enter you twice! I'll be announcing the winner Thursday 8th. Good luck everyone!

Bye Bye for now...........

Things To Share

Hello everyone :)

Once again I have been swept away with life! I had really good intentions to blog on Monday.........& then Tuesday.......and then finally managed to today! I have lots of things to share with you- some of which are very overdue- so here goes! 

Firstly I wanted to say a big thank you to Laura from Garrendenny Lane Living Interiors, who gave me this great award. 

I highly recommend taking a look at Laura's website and blog if you like looking at all things lovely! :)

I also wanted to say a big thank you to Alicia from The Red Deer who included my "One Bunny and An Ice Cream Sundae" print in her blog recently. Alicia's blog is gorgeous- full of pretty things to feast your eyes on!

Another thing I wanted to share with you is that I went to see one of my favourite bands at the weekend- the very talented The Low Anthem. These guys are amazing- so much so that Phil and I have been to see them twice in only a few months. If you click here you can listen to some of their music if you'd like to.

Lastly I've been given some very exciting samples of some of my recently published work. I really loved creating this design so was super pleased to see it being used across notebooks, exercise books and folders. Hope you like it too!

We went to a wedding!

Hello all! We went to a wedding up north last weekend and it was such a lovely day (if not a little nerve racking as Phil had to do a speech!). It was at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park an amazing venue so I thought I would share some photos with you today- sorry there aren't very many! If you're ever taking a trip up to the area I highly recommend a visit.

Phil's speech went really well, everyone laughed at the right places- phew! We ate way, way to much and then danced the night away! A fab time was had by all :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! See you all next week.

Good News & Bad News

Hello all. Sorry I've neglected my blog this week- I've just been swept away by lots & lots of jobs. Luckily I have one of my loveliest friends coming over tomorrow and next week to help me with my never ending to-do-list :) 

I had some great news this week- my little business has been picking up some speed and I now have another 8 card orders to make! I'm absolutely thrilled! :D

On a rather sad note though, you may have noticed that recently I've started to watermark my designs here at my blog. This is because recently I found out that one of my past colleagues had sent out her CV to a design agency with samples of my work attached. I am absolutely gutted about this, I've worked so hard on my designs and they have come from the heart so to think that someone downloaded them off my blog and then passed it off as their own is heartbreaking. Because of this I feel I have no option but to start watermarking my designs in the hope that it will prevent this from happening again. It really saddens me to have to do this as I love that my blog is like my online portfolio and visual diary. Anyway I really don't like dwelling on depressing happenings so it's time to move on- but I view everyone that visits me here as my friend so I felt that it was important for me to share with you all why I have started to do it.

Right, time for me to catch up on my own blog reading now as I've not been able to visit anyone all week. Have a good evening and I'm hoping to be back blogging again tomorrow.

Em x

Top Drawer Finds

On Monday I went to Top Drawer Autumn- a trade fair bursting full of small creative businesses. It's great to visit for inspiration and trend spotting and I'm hoping to exhibit there next year. I saw lots of wonderful products so I thought I'd share some of my favourites with you today. Have a great weekend everyone! Soon I will be on a train heading to Wembley Stadium to see Cold Play! I can't tell you how excited I am :D

1. Nkuku

2. Lucky Bird

3. The Black Rabbit

4. Laura Walker 

5. Katy & June Company 

6. Buttongirl designs 

7. Alice Palace

At The Zoo

It's been all work, work, work this week, which is why I've been unable to get to my blog or visit any of you at yours :( Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my previous post.

I've managed to squeeze in some blogging fun today to share with you a great day out Phil & I had last weekend. We had Phil's niece staying with us so we thought we would go to Whipsnade Zoo. Normally I'm not a fan of zoos as I don't feel comfortable with seeing wild animals enclosed. Whipsnade however is an exception as the zoo focuses heavily on conservation and education and VERY importantly the animals are given lots of space and seem very content. I hope you enjoy my photos, I'm quite proud of them!

a very curious Ostridge!

a sleepy Hippo

on guard!

"This is fun!"

"Think I need to cool off now!"

an amazing view over The Chilterns

one peculiar looking chap

nap time

I ♥ Giraffes!

what a handsome fella!

Cheerio for now. I'm hoping to be back tomorrow to share my Top Drawer finds with you!