This weekend...

...I have mostly been making marmalade, I now class marmalade as a 'professional' thing to make as although I am pleased with the way my jars look and taste now, getting to this point was not easy.
My first batch boiled over and poured into the oven, all over the work surfaces and floor declaring these things forever sticky and the second batch caught on the bottom but still tastes rather nice mainly due to the generous spoonfuls of good ol Jack Daniels!!
Respect to the jam makers and back to the childrenswear designs, Happy Monday x

...and the winner is...

Thank you everyone who took part in my little giveaway and congratulations to Lara Ede over at laraedeillustration.blogspot.com/ whose name was pulled out of my woolly hat!!
I cannot believe it is another Friday already, I am however certainly NOT complaining, am planning on putting up the tree and generally getting in the mood for Christmas so here is wishing all of my followers a very happy weekend, see you on the other side ;)

My first GIVEAWAY.

Happy Monday all! Having been brought so much joy from all the fab giveaways of delightful designtastic pieces I thought it was about jolly time I did one of my own.
I have chosen to giveaway 8 of my Christmas cards, 2 of each design.
In order to take part please just leave a lovely comment and I will be pulling a name out of a magical hat on Friday 10th!! XXX

Lucky ol me!

My luck was in then yesterday when my name got pulled out of the hat for a great giveaway over at the Farnell blog http://farnelldoodles.blogspot.com.
Its going to look brill on my mantlepiece and brings me joy on a slightly overcast design moment so a thank you to you farnell.

Happy Friday.

4 days inside now due to the snow and although going slightly stir crazy I have been motoring with work inspired by the snow, HAVE to go out tomorrow so it better have started to thaw!!
In contrast to the snow I did fancy a bit of the lastest Tigerprint comp so here are my 2 springy mothers day entries, have great weekends everyone x x x

Let it snow.

Well down here the snow doesnt always tend to stick around so I was pretty suprised this morning to see that it has and Brighton is white, exciting.
This is a design I have just sent over to my agent inspired by the snow, although I am all snuggly and warm at the mo it is tempting to get togged up and go and take some photos...maybe later! x

A chocolate stag!

This really IS a blog following my journeys through designland even though I KNOW it is beginning to look like a blog dedicated to my current addiction cake and chocolate but just had to show you the current window of Choccywoccydoodaa in Brighton, they have one very talented gentleman I believe who sculpts and creates these amazing creations from yes...chocolate!!
How long would it take to eat this chocolate stag I wonder...
Happy weekends to everyone with or without SNOW !! :)

Too much cake...?!?

So I invited friends over yesterday afternoon to induldge in a bit of cake and tea and goss, at one point there was about 10 cakes and that was before the AMAZING cupcakes arrived!!
The other cake was my banana and chocolate chip which soon got demolished along with my good friend Hanne's version of a Nigella creation with delicious rum cream which hit the spot I can tell you! I also wanted to show off my fab 'Big love' Emma Bridgewater cake tin, brill!
So on this drab monday I can answer pretty confidently NO you can you never have too much cake!!!

Cute.

Hallo! I am spending this week working on lots of new Christmas designs and whilst doing a bit of research I came across these gorgeous characters over at the Bella Dia blog, a very talented lady http://belladia.typepad.com They made me smile a lot x

Donna Wilson and necessary design purchases!

Oh its such a Monday for me today, slow starting, struggling with getting motivated, however was inspired at the end of last week after having a mini design blow out and simply HAVING to puchase the Habitat peacock cushion first seen over on the PrintPattern blog, swiftly followed by a toadstool candle from Heals, too cute!! To have a look online for some of Donna Wilsons pieces, soooo talented and I just LOVE the ginge cat, bearing a slight resemblance to my own stig. You can check out more of Donna's quirky work at her blog http://donnawilsonsblog.blogspot.com/, if you haven't already that is!! Right now, I am cracking the whip and will be here into the night, its Christmas time!!!!

London baby!!

Hi bloggers well today has been a proper Monday me thinks, grey and grim boo and to top if off I feel a bit like a cold is heading my way so currently got fingers and toes crossed its just a bit of monday blues.
Had a lovely weekend around London with my best friend, luckily was nice and bright as you can see from the photos, St James Park was just beautiful, full of autumn colours and many fat squirrels and Liberty's window display was highly inspirational as was the christmas store inside.
Its all about the toadstools for me :)

Christmas is a comin!!

Another hard days work and I MUST stop now and rest a bit so going to go and have my tea...fish...good for the brain!!
Here is one of my xmas designs ready to go off to the US with my agent, someone has to fall in love with him, he is riding a penny farthing!!
Happy eves to all :)

Something warm for the winter...?!?

So that was Halloween gone and my head is still totally submersed in Textiles and Christmas at the mo so thought I would show you this little gem I found when out researching, amazing what joy can bought for a £1!! The knitted swimsuit...??!! for a boy... is my particular fave, get in touch if you want me to send you copies of the patterns for any of your little ones!! ;)

Happy Halloween!!

Friday night was pumpkin carving night with 2 friends, havent actually done this too much in my time and enjoyed it soooo much, I tried to recreate my fiancee as a pumpkin! ( mine is the middle one) they looked great all together and we spent ages photographing them like celebrities afterwards, at the same time eating more cake, JOY!!! Happy Halloween everyone :) and can I say a big hurrah for Sunday roasts!!

CAKE!!!

Another busy week but its all been ok because I have had my good friend cake to get me through, phew, Happy weekend all!! XXX

Small magazine.

I have been busy researching all sorts of kidswear this week around Brighton and it was greatly appreciated when I was pointed in the direction of Small magazine and their blog, it has lots of funky interesting kids things, perfect for helping my creative brain.
To have a look click on the link smallmagazine.typepad.com/
I am looking forward to a weekend of new design work, catching up with friends and Frock Me vintage fair, EEK I have a serious vintage addiction!!
Have a lovely weekend all! ;)

I have reached 40!!

Hurrah I have reached 40...followers not quite in age although did celebrate my 35th birthday yesterday and I had to share some of the gorgeous things I was bought, birthdays rule!
After filling up on the nicest vegan cake and then proceeding to sugar buzz around town with a friend the shoes (my self confessed addiction!) were the classic 'gift to myself', they came in this amazing Alice in Wonderland box too, they make me soo happy!!
I am hoping to have time to draw the amazing bouquet of flowers which were delivered to my door from my fiance and use the juicy paperchase crayons too.
I am in love with the smell of the Tokyo milk perfume, the packaging is just gorgeous and there were 5 mini mini cards in the box too which I really want to send but the envelop will be as big as a stamp!
Finally a selection of some of my fave cards, all my friends say it is the hardest thing to buy for me, I think they have all chosen some amazing designs!
A big thank you to all of my 40 followers YOU RULE!! XXX

Christmas Indulgence.

Hallo, I hope all are well, I am still submersed in cracking some childrenswear designs/Christmas designs, it is a busy time of year all of a sudden!
The sun is shining outside and I am determined to get my vitamin E fix today so getting stuck in first thing, here are 2 Christmas bauble designs which have been on my list for a while, they may turn out to be my xmas cards for this year! :)

Chloe Cheese.

Hallo, I really dont know where this week has gone! I have been working on lots of new textiles pieces for my new textile agent and last night took a break to go to a BIG meeting where the really lovely illustrator Chloe Cheese was showing pieces of her work.
Chloe above, began by showing a piece of the wallpaper that her Mom had produced for the dining room of the house she grew up in which was beautiful.
Chloe attended the Royal College of Art during the 70's where Quentin Blake was one of her lecturers, wow!
I loved the loose feel of her work, it was totally inspiring, especially Chloes' food illustrations and books are definately worth looking out for.

Stray cats.

I found these guys practically on my doorstep the other day when popping out for some milk, dont know who put them there but I like them!!
Now I am off to give myself a bit of a break for the rest of the weekend hurrah...hopefully there will be an amazing roast in there somewhere, yum :)

new fabrics.

Hallo bloggers, I am soo lost at the moment in a world of Christmas and also trying to break into the world of textiles that I feel I am barely getting a chance to notice what is going on in the world so was pleased when some more of my fabric designs came through my letter box from Spoonflower, I love my guitars and so now will be working out what to do with them! Hope you are all having a fab weekend!!

A lovely print.

Hallo, I am currently buried in Christmas work but wanted to pop up this post about a print I bought whilst at The End of the Road festival, I love it and am hoping to find a great old wooden frame for it really soon. I bought it at the Jacknife posters stand where they had a fab collection of hand silk screened prints, you can check out more by following www.jacknifeposters.com.
Tonight my fiance is recreating ( fingers crossed!) my chickpea curry experience from the festival...ooh I can smell it from here and it sure is smelling good!!

Fabric.

A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of a free swatch offer that Spoonflower had going for 24 hours and I am absolutely thrilled with the results and will soon be laying out and ordering some of my own fabrics which I then plan to use for cushions and adult and childrens clothing, very exciting!! :)
This fabric was originally designed for a competition held by Clothkits back in July and is named YIPITIPI.

The BEST weekend!!!

I am finding it ever so difficult to focus today as my head is just brimming with brilliant memories of the absolutely fab weekend I have just had at The End of the Road festival. We were open minded and as we were not that familiar with a lot of the bands just drifted around dipping in and out of great folk music, I loved Dylan leBlanc and Ben Ottewell from Gomez myself, combined with delicious food stands, just the best chick pea curry mmm cant get it out of my head!! crepes, ice creams and beautiful surroundings and on Sunday finally spotted 3 of the resident peacocks milling about.
Another fave was wandering through the wood which had a hidden 70's disco, a piano and stage room for anyone who fancied a tinkle, fairy light galore and even a library. There were tons of things for kids to do as well in a really intimate and chilled surrounding aah lovely, I would highly recommend it!!
Right now I really must stop stuffing in leftover sweets and get on with some xmas work!!

Tigerprint Profile.

After winning the Tigerprint Traditional card competition back in January 2010 it was nice to do a mini interview for the Tigerprint blog. Mine can be seen by clicking on winners profiles along with the other winners, great if you like to find out about fellow designers/illustrators!
Follow the link http://tigerprint.typepad.com/competition/entrant-profiles.html

New cushion designs at Envelop.

I have uploaded my new cushion designs to Envelop today in amongst doing lots of work for deadlines. These designs have been bubbling away for a while in amongst other projects and so was glad to jump back on to them when I got back from my break.

Inspired by shapes I had seen around Brighton combined with my own slant, colours and textures.

A day of peace and work.

Last week I had a crazy day getting some pieces ready for a deadline, felt like it was never going to end so today I am going to spend a peaceful day with music getting a head start on some textiles work, characters, love it. Happy Sunday all x

Envelop bag.

Another lovely surprise on my return was that a friend had ordered one of my Envelop bags and it was great to see how vibrant the colours come out I was V impressed and she was super happy too which was the best thing ever!! I have been working on some new cushion/possible bag designs which I will post v soon but for now I am gonna sit on the sofa for the eve I am design pooped!!

Whale to a good home.

I was pleased to hear that my sad whale illustration had sold whilst I was away to Rita Dunn over in Wyoming. I posted it off to her and am glad that he has helped raise $10 towards the Ripple fund.