Back on BIG.

I have rejoined BIG after a couple of years away and I am excited to be helping organise a seminar night for illustrators who have questions about the industry to be held on the 26th February at the King & Queen in Brighton.

I am looking forward to learning more about the children's book world and speakers we already have confirmed are Rachel Fuller, Sophie Joyce, Tony de Saulles, Jo Moore, Sean Sims, Penny Dann and Peter Greenwood, its going to be an interesting eve, more to follow...

Top Drawer 2014.

And so January 2014 will always be memorable, I did Top Drawer for the first time.

After years and I mean years of dreaming of doing such a trade fair I just went and did it, well not quite that straightforward but hey! 

so here goes, my journey in words.

It takes a bit of thinking getting everything ready for a trade show

sleepless nights spent wondering if I have covered everything.

 Order forms, catalogues, insurance, marketing etc but once you have done one the process starts to get a bit easier. 

I think the best way to approach doing a trade show is to have fun.

Its the one time where you can meet lots and lots of people who share the same interest, a nerd fest for card lovers and designers. Where you can get a first hand view on what people really think about your work and other peoples and make contacts.

Our journey began in Brighton on the Saturday morning at the studio, after loading the car, which involved lugging my boards and other stuff down 3 flights of stairs we set off up to London.

London yeah it gets quite busy up there, we finally arrive at Earls Court at 2 and swiftly unload the car, check into the (not too shabby) hotel 2 minutes away then back to my home for the next 3 days to set up.

4 hours later and I am already frazzled but the hard bit is done, see below :)

Heres me looking said frazzled after setting up.

So I was in aisle C, on my left was Jill from Rocket 68 and to my right Jessica Hogarth, I had read press about Jess and Rocket 68 and knew they were hot property so it was great to be inbetween them. 

Opposite Lou Mills, been exhibiting at Top Drawer for 4 years now and a bit further down the talented Petra Boase, who has exhibited roughly 16 years. She told me she remembers being one of the only card stands at the early shows and now there is a whole section dedicated to greeting cards & stationery. 

Further down the very end of the aisle was a bit of a personal fave the V cool Rosie Wonders and awesome Stop the clock.

Around the corner Tamsin Seed with Studio Seed with the most beautiful boutique stationery and opposite Alison Hardcastle with her sunny simple style.

What a fabulous collection of talented ladies all in such a small area!

Where are the boys...??? well 2 of them were a couple of aisles across where 2 fellow Brightonians were sharing a stand, David of Custard with his collaged cheeky designs and Ashley of LinoKing with his gorgeous hand embossed cards.

Go Brighton!!

Opening day, Sunday, as I walked to the entrance of the show at the back of Earls Court I said goodbye to the sunshine (its not raining which is good) and went into the hall along with TONS of other exhibitors, a stomach full of nerves and excitment, a big deep breath and I am in it, no going back.

The first person I met was Jessica Howgarth, shes great and immediately it was all going to be cool.

We all took a bit of time to chat and settle in and then the show began, I was surprised at how busy it became so quickly and as we all stood there anxiously i the conversations began and order forms came out.

I am not going to go into the details of every day but every day began the same and ended well for everyone around and that is all we could have wished for.

Sauntering past I saw badges revealing buyers from London Zoo, Fenwicks, Paperchase, Saatchi Gallery, MTV, what a crew, and that is not to mention a countless number of artistic business men and women from retailers and the creative industry AND the ones who kept their badges under wraps!!

Me and Jess. 

Jess's laid back line work with simple colour palettes and coastal subjects matter was super fresh on the eye.

Skip to Tuesday, the last day and it feels sad now, the Monday had been exhausting I had just about managed dinner at the funky Troubadour Pub ( some cool bands played there and I am sure will again) and then an early night and so Tuesday was the last day, I decided I was going to try and wizz around the show when it got quiet.

First thing I had a better look around the card section, I loved this stand.

The flowers had all been made by Imogen Owen and were stunning, Imogen I wish I had known of you when I got married, I would have commissioned you you are very talented!!

Across from Imogen was Big Jon with some of my favourite cards from the show.

I love his new floral range below and his Dusty Carr range had me laughing out loud!

© big jon designs.

Finally I made it into MADE section of the show, here there was stunning home ware and I was pleased when I came across the Anorak stand, I remember chatting with Laurie back in 2008 one time when I visited the show, its quite something to see how much her brand AND stand have grown, inspirational stuff.

And so that brings me to the end of my post for now, its been quite a pip and now 16 weeks until the next one I Drew This will be at PG Live again and this time with a bigger stand so lots of new designs to come, better get cracking!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

© fern edward photography

© Gemma International

© I Drew This

Happy New Year!! I Drew This has got off with a flying start that for sure with my first show at Top Drawer in just 3 days time. For many years I went along to the show and drooled over peoples gorgeous work and now I am going to be there myself, its the stuff that dreams are made of.

Its made better by knowing a few of the other exhibitors so will be a jolly nice chance to catch up and talk about design.

After PG last year I decided to expand the Mischief range and above you can see some of the new characters for the first time, I am just so excited to be giving them their first outing and below that is a sample design that arrived on my desk just after Christmas from my collaboration with Gemma International,  they have really done my designs justice and they all have gorgeous spot UV and the colours look great!!

Finally is a photo of what life is like at the moment in our small house with I Drew This taking over!!

Got to keep squirrelling so we can get a bigger house haha.

I look forward to posting again soon ( I promise!) about my Top Drawer experience and new and exciting things.

Lately I have been posting lots over on the I Drew This Facebook page so please do pop over there to read press releases and the like too https://www.facebook.com/ilonadrewthis

Oh yes and I am on instagram under ilonadrewthis, come follow me in photos!!

Hallo and a Merry Christmas!!

Sitting here in the studio with gales blowing outside I find myself asking 2 questions 1. Does anyone still read my blog??!!! and 2.How is Olive turning 3 tomorrow????!!! 

I have been finding it hard to find time anywhere at the moment with Top Drawer in 3 weeks time but I Drew This is certainly looking forward to Olives party tomorrow along with a week of christmas fun. and relaxing.

Preparations for the show all seem to be good at the moment and I just can't wait to see what the show might bring,  we will be taking 18 new mischief characters along, all of whom are already my special babies.

Above I thought I would post one of my favourite and most popular Christmas designs from this year and take this opportunity to wish everyone in this twisty turny wonderful freelance life a very Merry Christmas and prosperous 2014.

Lots of love I Drew This x x x

Foraging at Laughton woods.

For my birthday this year I asked if I could go on a foraging course and we did on Saturday. I can now identify edible mushrooms and fungi hurrah! for the first half everything I thought looked delicious and edible it turned out wasn't.

 It was lovely to be out in the woods with all the fairies and badgers and deer, we saw a beautiful fawn and young stag, it was really magical.

We collected a decent portion of winter chanterells, brown birch belite and some mushrooms commonly known as hedgehogs and with them all I cooked up a mushroom and garlic soup from the covent garden cook book which was indeed marvellously tasty.

I will definitely be back out in the woods as it is now my mission to find the elusive porcinis but will have to wait until next autumn now for those, next stop berries!!

IGLOO and WATERSTONES!

 What a summer it has been for I Drew This, when I think back to when I first went freelance back at the beginning of 2009 I had no idea what to expect from being freelance and to be honest have found it scary a lot of the time but now I am 5 years down the line I find it incredible the amount I have learnt about what you can do within the industries and how much more there is to learn and I am LOVING it, I wanted to go on a personal journey and here I am I Drew This is going from strength to strength and doing PG Live opened up a lot of doors to new and exciting projects.

It was my birthday on Saturday and we took a day trip up to London to deliver some cards to Igloo, a gorgeous childrens shop on the King's Road and then we popped into the Waterstone's flagship store in Piccadilly who also have I Drew This cards on the shelves.

It is a lovely area and they have a wonderful selection of beautiful and inspiring paper products, worth a trip!

 The fantastic Igloo store below.

wedding pics part 2.

 Our official photos are in and so I couldn't resist posting another lot. Myself, my dad, olive and my bridesmaid went to St Anne's Well Gardens before the ceremony for some pictures, its a park that has become very special to me since having Olive. There is also a great shot of our wedding cakes which a good friend of ours made, we were so lucky there was a lemon drizzle, honey, white chocolate and raspberry and carrot mmm they were incredible!! Love olive having a cheeky peek!!

Our friends reunited their band too for some tracks which was great to hear and we finished up with a DJ for some serious dancing, one AMAZING day!! x

All Photos © adam shaw photography

Wedding day magicalness!!!

I am now a new and spangly MRS, we did it, the whole summer was a heady mix of making, celebrating, laughing, planning and I could wait no longer to post some photos of our big day, it was so great, went in a flash of the most awesome kind!

So for those that don't know, my husband (nice feeling) and I first went out when I was 15 and he was 16 and then in our twenties we drifted apart and I began my career as a designer while he did all the partying for both of us in Australia until eventually we met up again after 7 years out of touch and the rest as they say is history, we made Olive and now have FINALLY tied the knot!!

My flowers were filled with fresh herbs so smelt fabulous, my dress was made by Maureen and was a pattern from a 60's dress of my late Mom's tweaked a little bit and featured original 70's lace under the bust line. 

Maureen made metres and metres of bunting, I stapled and spray painted all the leaves which created our trees, the theme was 'outside inside' I negotiated a good price on the branches with blossom on from our local health food shops window display and the set up was one of the most intense 5 hours of my life!!

 wow didn't realise there was so much to tell!

Think I will need to do another post with some more pics just to indulge myself haha!

and of course am now back in the working game so do be sure to get in touch if you need any work doing and in the meantime I will be working away on some new Mischief characters x x x

I feel so lucky to have been involved with the fairy tale fair, now been going for a year I have been at 4.

This summer I was the first stand in the door and it was lovely to meet and greet regular visitors along with new.

I got some supportive feedback and even got to do half of my wedding place names at the same time, this wedding is creeping up very quickly now!! 2 and a half weeks to go!!!!!!!!!

Bad news and good news :)

Hallo, only 4 weeks until I get married HURRAH!! been thoroughly enjoying the build up, have been stressed a bit too but having just been to 2 weddings in 2 days certainly put us in the mood.

A big congratulations to my friends Amelia & Rob and Ellen & Paul who tied the knot last week.

 In amongst the weddings I learnt that the bad news was I didn't make it into the semi finals of the Lilla Rogers global talent search with my entry above, my journal cover was based on the park that I go to most with Olive, St Annes Well Gardens, but the good news was that 2 lovely people who I have met through my blog have!! Congratulations again to Lizzie Mackay and Dawn Machell. Fingers crossed for the next brief cant wait to see their designs.

So on with a heady mix of work and wedding for me for the next few weeks followed by a honeymoon, yes a holiday, JOY and sparkly happiness coming our way!

One Happy head dress...

Last week I was given the challenge of creating a red indian style head dress for my friend Amelias hen party. I love them anyway so jumped at the challenge and off I went glue gun in hand I stuck, stitched and even found the label I had found with Amelias name on from last year, the perfect finishing touch.

Couldnt resist popping it on Olive too :)

had such a great night singing, dancing and laughing, looking forward to the wedding this week...in fact we have 2 weddings to go to, its going to be a fun week ahead filled with love awwwww!!

Blast from the past.

Out and about yesterday doing some research for a new project and there in WH Smiths were some Kevin and Linda designs I did for CB back in the day, good to see them still going strong!!

Wedding update.

Since the show life has certainly been busy with work but now I have to turn my attention to our wedding or else it will be here before we know it, I cannot believe how quickly the year has gone so far so 2 months is going to fly!

Today I went to see the fantastic Barbara at Miss Moles flower emporium and was delighted to see my designs donning her fabulous card rack and we then went on to discuss SOME of the pretty bits of the day, what I thought would be straight forward (the bouquet) I soon learnt isn't let alone what do the boys wear?!?? So my dress, bridesmaids are now well under way, Matts suit is very dapper, now just have some final touches to get under way along with the honeymoon destination I cannot WAIT for that!!!