This time tomorrow............

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today because Phil and I are going on an adventure- yes that's right, we are going on holiday! woooo hoooo! Can't wait to get to that beach and just relax in the sun for a week- then I'll be back refreshed and raring to go!

I know I normally do my Giveaway on the first of every month but I promise do it as soon as I get back on June 8th :)

Have a great week everyone- I will miss you all!

P.S  My little shops will stay open whilst I'm away but anything bought from now will be shipped when I get back :)

Sticker Packs?

Hello! Todays been a bit manic and I wasn't able to do half the stuff I wanted to, but I did manage to start working on some sticker ranges that I thought would be a fun addition to the shop! Let me know what you think- good idea :) or bad idea? :( 

The Low Anthem

Hello. I had a far bit of freelance work to do today but after I finish this post I'll be starting card number 39!!! I am so pleased as I really want to get past card number 40 by the end of the week. Just got to keep the motivation going! I don't know about you but whenever I'm struggling to get stuck into my work I just stick on some of my favourite music and the motivation comes flooding back. Recently Phil came home from work and played me some tracks from an amazing band he had just discovered- The Low Anthem. Have you heard of them? If you like folk music you will love this! It's not often I listen to an album and like every song. Click here if you want to listen to some of their tracks. I bought their older album "What the Crow Brings" and I haven't stopped listening to it for the last two weeks. Their new album is out June 9th which I will definitely be buying! :D

I also had some lovely news today- Winniel & The Laughing House featured my shop on her blog today. Thank you so much Winniel! Click here to see Winniel's lovely jewelry shop or here to visit her blog.

Have a lovely morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are :)

Stillness Speaks

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are.

Taken for the book Stillness Speaks

Written by Eckhart Tolle

Hope everyone had lovely weekends. Will be back tomorrow :)

Remember this little bunny?

Hello. I finally managed to find the time to finish this little card. I wanted it to have the look and feel of a vintage card- a touch of nostalgia to it, which was why I chose this lovely cream, textured board to print it on. It's the kind of board that you just have to touch! As I have mentioned before using environmentally friendly materials is extremely important to me and this board is FSC certified and the tan coloured envelope it comes with is recycled :)

It's now available in my shop if you would like to take a look. I designed it to be a custom card so you can have any name or age on it- makes it extra special that way :) I hope you like it. 

Feeling rather excited now that it's now officially the start of the Bank Holiday weekend!!! Three whole days to relax! Hope everyone has lovely weekends. I may be back Monday but if not I'll definitely be back Tuesday.

Ta-ta for now

Feeling Better

Hello all. Thank you so, so much for all your lovely "get well" wishes and comments :) Thankfully I now have a matching pair of eyes after taking antihistamines for a couple of days! My skin isn't too blotchy anymore either- so fingers crossed in a day or two I'll be my normal self again :D

As you know I was feeling a bit sorry for myself but a couple of things have really cheered me up- one being this lovely award which I received from Golden Bird Knits. Thank so much!

 

And the second is that Florence is currently being featured on Indie Spotting! It is a real confidence boost to see one of my products in amongst so many wonderful items made by such talented people (there may of been a bit of jumping up and down ;) ).   

Hope everyone is having a good week and I'll be back soon with some new work to show you!

Little Fox Print

Morning all! This little print is over in my shop if you are interested in taking a look :)

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself today as I woke up with a swollen, itchy eye and face :( :( :( It must be an allergic reaction to something but I haven't used anything new on my face. I'm off to the doctors later on today which is something I really don't enjoy doing- all those germs floating about the place. But enough of the misery- on a brighter note I finished card number 37 yesterday! If I can reach 40 this week I'll be really pleased.

Have a good day everyone!

The Little Fox & His Best Friend

Hello! How is everyone today?

A while ago I asked my friend Cat what she wanted for her Birthday and she said she would like an art print with one of my foxes on. I thought I would go one better and paint her a picture so here it is- a mixed media painting. Thankfully Cat was delighted when she saw it- phew! :D This one took a while and I think it's my favourite painting to date so I'm thrilled she liked it too.

Thinking about adding it to the shop as a print- what do you think?

Before I go, hands up who wants to make a living selling their art? My hand is up and if yours is too, I wanted to let you know that the lovely Marisa over at Creative Thursday is going to be teaching an e-course all about how to achieve a successful business online. Marisa has grown her business from selling just one greeting card during a holiday season into one that now sells thousands of pieces of art all over the world and she's done it in just 2 1/2 years! If you are interested and want to read more click here.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :)

Stillness Speaks

"The human condition: lost in thought"

"The stream of thinking has enormous momentum that can easily drag you along with it. Every thought pretends that it matters so much. It wants to draw your attention in completely.

Here is a new practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously."

"Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond 

a mind-made sense of self that is conditioned by the past.

In you, as each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness or the unconditioned consciousness. Finding that dimension in you frees you from the suffering you inflict on yourself when the mind-made "little me" is all you know and runs your life. Love, joy, creative expansion, and lasting inner peace cannot come into your life except through that dimension of unconditioned consciousness.

If you can recognize, even occasionally, the thoughts that go through your mind as simply thoughts, if you can witness your own emotional reactive patterns as they happen, then that dimension of unconditioned consciousness is already emerging in you." 

Taken from the book Stillness Speaks by Eckart Tolle

Because quite a few of you enjoyed reading Eckart Tolle's quote last week, I thought it would be nice to share another one with you :)

Today I was hoping to show you the painting I've been working on for my friends Birthday present, but I suddenly thought I'm not seeing her until tomorrow and if she looks at my blog she'll see it and it'll ruin the surprise! So I promise to show you tomorrow instead! Hope to see you all then :)

Julie Arkell

Yesterday whilst on the internet, I stumbled across this lady by accident, but she has been one of my favourite artists for years! I adore everything about her work- the quirkiness, colours and materials. I would love to go to one of her workshops so I must look into that. Unfortunately I couldn't find a website to show you but you can buy her book here which I have and cherish and I also found a wonderful blog called Lovely Textiles that has a great post on Julie. You can also click here to see some more of her work.

I've got quite a few things to do today- one is to do a painting for my friend Cat for her Birthday (which I hope to show you tomorrow) and the other is to start card number 34! 

Have a good day everyone :)

Busy Bee

Hello! Thank you so much to everyone who has voted for me so far- I'm actually quite excited now as I think I'm currently third in my section! :D The winner is announced at the end of the month so if you would like to vote for me you still can- please click here. 

So last week I had a bit of a panic about how much work I still have to do for my first ever trade fair in July. I need to design at least 50 cards and in 10 months I've only managed to design 20 cards! How is that possible you ask? Well my freelance work has had to take priority because of the deadlines and the fact that it's paid work. That and my Etsy shop and agency work has been pushing the trade fair work to the bottom of the pile. So I decided to take last week off (from the freelance work that is) and I've been told that this week should be freelance free also, so I'm going to get my head down and design, design, design! Hope I'm not boring you all with this but I wanted to explain why I haven't shown you any new work recently and why I probably won't be able to this week either. I am just going to be so relieved when I feel like I'm on top of the situation and that won't be until I reach card number 40! However I promise to share lots of lovely things with you this week- wonderful discoveries that I come across when researching for my next design. Today I found these beautiful cake stands by a company called Let Them Eat Cake and I desperately want one- I adore the vintage mix and match look. Hope you like them too :)

Bye, bye for now.

May Giveaway Winner

Hello. It's Friday! Woooo hooooo!

I will announce the Giveaway winners in just a tick. First I just wanted to say that if you enjoy visiting my little Blog you can vote for me! Just click the image below if you would like to :)

Ok so this months winners were picked by little George- he likes to lick paper (hee hee) so the first two bits of paper he decided to lick were................Janine and Emilie! Congratulations! Emilie I have already sent you an email to let you know but Janine I don't have your email address so if you can send me an email with your details I can get your little print out to you asap!

Thank you to everyone who entered and I'll leave you with some pictures of Georgie- apparently picking Giveaway winners was too much excitement for one little bunny because as you can see here he had to have a little snooze immediately afterwards to recover! Check out those little paws.....................ahhh be still my heart :)

 

Joy!

Hi there! This morning I was catching up on some of my favourite blogs and I came across (my now all time favourite) You Tube video- you have to watch it- it made me smile all day :D Is it just me or can you also sense a much deeper message in this video? Enjoy!

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=na7ehoL9jMt

Stillness Speaks

"When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with the voice in head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self. This is the ego, a mind-made "me." That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That's why fearing and wanting are it's predominant emotions and motivating forces.

When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice -the thinker- but the one who is aware of it.

Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom."

Taken from the book Stillness Speaks by Eckart Tolle

I don't think I've mentioned before that a take a Yoga class once a week? It's great for me because I get to stretch out my whole body- which helps counteract the stiffness I get from sitting at my computer for hours on end! Plus of course Yoga's about quietening the mind and I definitely need help with that! We finish off every class with 20 minutes of relaxation and meditation and my teacher always reads us a passage from a book. I thought it would be a nice idea to write a blog post today about an author my Yoga teacher introduced me to. I am a huge fan of Eckart Tolle and I chose the passage above because it's something that I try to practice everyday- becoming aware that I don't need to pay attention to all that mind chatter- most of which I've become to realise is repetitive, pointless and stressful. And I have to say I am a lot less stressed as a result! If this passage resonates with you at all and you want to read more I would also recommend reading A New Earth- one of my most treasured books. And who knows if enough people enjoy this post perhaps I'll blog a passage every week?

Hope everyone is having a peaceful, relaxing day also :) 

Happy Hedgehogs!

Hi there!

I'm in-between projects at the moment so I thought I would show you a piece I designed for the agency I work for. I've called it Happy Hedgehogs and I'm a happy hedgehog today because this morning I visited a friend I haven't seen for a while, who recently had to have an operation. She looked very well, relaxed and happy- which made me very happy.

I hope everyone had a great weekend? Yesterday myself, Phil and our neighbours went to the Aldbury May Day fair. Aldbury is an extremely pretty village that is about a 5 min. drive from our house. It has it's very own, very old set of stocks and a duck crossing! (not kidding). We had lunch there and looked at the stalls and Hattie (our neighbours Daughter) went on a bouncy castle for the first time- which we thought was very brave of her seeing as she's not even two yet! I also won two raffle prizes! Hurrah!

A BIG Thank You!

Just wanted to say a BIG, BIG thank you to everyone who has entered my Giveaway so far :D Your comments are really appreciated and have been very helpful. Hope you are all having a lovely Bank Holiday Monday- hey that rhymes! Happy May Day! Oh and I forgot to say that I will announce the Giveaway winner this coming Friday. 

1st of May Giveaway Day!

Wow, that's come around soooo quickly I nearly forgot! But before I show you what this months Giveaway is I wanted to say a big thank you to Rima from Willy-Nilly Waterlily, I won her Giveaway and look at all the amazing goodies I received! Joy! :D Rima makes the cutest amigurumi animals I have ever seen!

This months Giveaway will be two of my "One Bunny and an Ice Cream Sundae" prints :) Both will be signed and dated. This month though I have a little favour to ask of you if you would like to enter. I'd love to get some feedback on the items in my shop so all you need to do to enter is leave a comment below saying what your favourite item/items are in my shop. Click here to go straight to my shop. Thank you so much for your help I really appreciate it and good luck! :D