RahRah Repeats

Better late than never

2012-02-14T15:40:00.000Z

Hello there! It's been a while, how are you?!

Seeing as it's Valentine's day I thought I'd better get round to posting the papers I designed for Quick Cards magazine a little bit ago. The magazine was out last month and I also designed the papers for the cover gift (details to follow another time!)

It was a lovely project to work on and you can download the papers here for your crafty card needs - maybe a last minute card for your loved one?

One year wed

2011-10-16T11:00:00.000+01:00

Today is our first wedding anniversary. We shall spend the day eating pies in celebration!

Last week I finally got round to finishing the Blurb book I started many months ago. Nice to relive our most favourite day a year on. Here's a few snaps:

Photography seen within the book by myself & Joe

Nottingham appreciation

2011-06-24T09:44:00.001+01:00

To celebrate my birthday we decided to hire bikes at Sherwood Pines. I don't know what part of me thought this was going to be a good idea. I've not ridden a bike for 15 years - I'm still sitting on cushions 3 days later! It was fun though once I'd built up my confidence and we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up on the off roading trail for a bit - oops! Anyway, it made me think how lucky we are to have such amazing outside space 20 minutes drive away. The forest is so beautiful and reminded us of a mini Yosemite (without the bears). Unfortunately I was concentrating too much on staying upright on the bike so don't have any photos. I do have a photo of my picnic lunch though!

We went for dinner in town in the evening and in my red wine/midsummer's day haze I really started to appreciate the Nottingham architecture. We really do have some wonderful buildings in the city centre - I completely take them for granted usually but when it's quiet and you get a chance to look past the shop windows and look upwards, your home town can really be quite beautiful.

The boy did good

2011-06-23T10:27:00.003+01:00

It was my birthday on Tuesday and David excelled himself by getting me my most favourite present...perhaps ever (although I did get a Lite-Brite for Christmas once which I was quite partial to)

Being a touch Mad Men obsessed, I said a while a go I wanted a pen necklace like Joan wears. Not only did he actually listen to me, he got me one. But it was even better than that - he actually got me a 1959 silver automatic pencil, had a loop and a chain put on it and had it engraved with my brand new initials.

He also got me a Mad Men book. Oh I heart that man.

A spot of bank holiday DIY

2011-05-31T13:10:00.003+01:00

6 months after deciding to make one, we finally got around to making a headboard at the weekend. It was so easy to do and any task that involves a staple gun is right up my street. The fabric is from Ikea and designed by Kristine Mandsberg. We love it!

Olga prefers to keep her back to it. I think all the clashing patterns in our house give her a bit of a headache.

Surtex 2011

2011-05-16T08:22:00.004+01:00

It's been a busy ol' time for me lately. As most of you already know it's Surtex time - one of the busiest times of year for us surface pattern designers (not just before Christmas as most people believe...!) Here's the banner I designed for Inspire by Design's stand.

You can find my work at the Inspire by Design stand (booth 326) and also at the Paper & Cloth Stand (booth 250)

So hip right now...

2011-03-30T19:54:00.003+01:00

My lovely mum has just had a hip replacement (I think she would probably like me to point out that she's not that old, sometimes these things just happen, you know?!) Here's the card I made her to wish her a speedy recovery.

She kindly pointed out that the bow is around the pelvis and not the hip! Ooops!!

Baby week

2011-03-10T11:19:00.000Z

It's mother and baby day round mine today. I don't have a baby and I'm not a mum, I'm merely the host. Two of my close friends have recently had little bundles of joy and as they don't know each other particularly well I'm getting them together. A sort of mother cupid if you will. I'm also secretly hoping to be a bit of a baby cupid as well - I'm hoping for a wedding in about 30 years time! This all coincides nicely with some baby designs I've been working on this week.

Someone's enjoying the sun today...

2011-03-08T14:30:00.001Z

I'm not one to complain about the weather but....

2011-03-03T08:25:00.003Z

It's cold isn't it? I love winter because I love a winter wardrobe but this time last week it was glorious. I drove around with the window open and didn't wear socks and it reminded me of how wonderful spring is too. As I wait patiently for it to arrive I will continue to draw Santa and his friends - at least they're all wrapped up warm with scarves and hats.

a daily occurrence

2011-02-03T09:48:00.001Z

Move over Olgs, can't quite access the shift key.

Belated blog

2011-01-25T11:15:00.003Z

Hello! Happy new year! Did you have a good one? Blogger tells me my last post was Dec 23rd 2010. That just won't do, I must try harder!

I've been busy since Christmas creating scrapbooking designs for my agents first time at the CHA show. Above is a little peek of some of what I've been up to.

P.S. Remember the book I was going to read at Christmas? Well, it's brilliant, go and buy it and read it, I insist!!

And a very Merry Christmas to you!

2010-12-23T20:14:00.008Z

The tree is decorated.

The crackers are made.

And the table is set for my first Christmas dinner as host.

I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and family, watching Eastenders and eating a lot.

And when I'm not with friends and family, watching Eastenders or eating a lot, I'll be laying on the sofa, resting my head on my new Donna Wilson cushion and reading my new book.

I can't wait!

And Olga? Well, she's just not bothered. Not one bit.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and not too long a wait for a taxi at New Year!

Time for a bit of the wedding.

2010-12-08T15:10:00.000Z

It's been weeks since we wed and I'm beginning to forget it ever happened. Due to sheer busyness since returning from honeymoon we've not even had a chance to see our official photos yet. Tomorrow is the day for that! I've quite liked waiting though as it gives us something to bring back the memories when they start to fade.

What I do have to show you is some photos I took the day before the wedding after we'd set the venue up. The venue was a blank canvas which was perfect for us as we could decorate it as we pleased.

We wanted to make the venue look as autumnal as possible with lots of oranges, greens and different prints. The bunting was a joint effort between myself, my mum and my mother in law (my mum crocheted and dyed approx 164 trims for the bunting - can you believe that??). I really loved the scallop shape we went with, I wanted something different than triangle summery bunting - this was an autumn wedding after all!

Homemade jams, marmalades and chutneys acted as favours and name cards. I designed and printed the labels and tags and used the left over fabric from the decorations for the covers - everyone also received a napkin made from the fabric. The idea was to make a patchwork quilt out of these after the wedding as a memento but people liked them so much a lot of them found their way home with the guests!

I already had a small collection of 1950's-1970's coffee and tea pots so decided to use these as the vases for the table flowers. Ebay and I became close friends again as I built my collection up for the big day.

The wall hangings you can see in the background were another labour of love but I will talk about them another time!

Can't wait to see the photos taken by the people who really know how to take photos!

Party like it's 1949

2010-12-02T10:30:00.000Z

Remember my friend Lucy? She's the one who did an excellent job styling our hair 50's style for my hen do. See here.

Well, the lovely Lucy (or Lucille, if you please) has started a blog of her very own about her fabulous vintage life. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of the past in their lives.

The countdown begins...

2010-12-01T12:21:00.005Z

Christmas is being counted down in our house by our new advent calender. I love it and it's a nice excuse to buy boxes of Miniature Heroes and Roses to fill it with.
(Any chocolates that didn't make the cut got promptly eaten - ooops!)

You can get them here.

I'm back (as a wife!)

2010-11-08T19:57:00.002Z

We got back last week from an amazing honeymoon in California and Nevada after an equally amazing wedding. I will blog about both soon but for now I'll leave you with these photos taken on our drive from Death Valley to Las Vegas.

In 3 days time...

2010-10-13T14:01:00.004+01:00

I will be getting wed.

The day I got a signed photo of George Lamb

2010-09-24T11:58:00.009+01:00

My hen do was fantastic. Ria did an absolutely amazing job of organising it (she did me very very proud) and I had an amazing time. It included:
Origami and lots of paper craft decorations (my fave), burgers, hairspray, quiffs, hair grips, curly fries, mojitos, ice cream, Grease, the world's smallest cinema, red lipstick, rain hats, Cava, petticoats, pencil skirts, neck scarves, black eyeliner, thai food, free bubbly, Jam Cafe, happy tears, lager, music, popcorn, Boosts (I got two), very beautiful L plates, an apron, The Broadway, Tom Collins, sore feet, street pastors, The Orange Tree, cod bites, swollen feet, Rescue Rooms and very very amazing friends. Oh and did I mention I got a signed photograph from George Lamb?

Here's a few pics:

Beautiful origami skills by Ria

Designed and made by Christina - how brilliant!

Goodie bags (they had Boosts in them)

The lovely Lucy who did 18 1950's hairstyles in a couple of hours - she is very very talented. Beth did the sign, Ria painted the ladies.

I love to spin in a full skirt - ever the lady with a pint of lager!

George

In the meantime...

2010-09-09T16:26:00.003+01:00

Until I get time to tell you about it, you can read about my amazing hen do here straight from the mind of the fantastic organiser/besty/bridesmaid.

A hen in 50's clothing

2010-09-03T09:19:00.003+01:00

It's my hen do this weekend. I'll mainly be dressed all 50's and that. Very excited.

It's that pop up time again

2010-09-02T18:19:00.002+01:00

I've been busy of late designing and mocking up more pop ups. Pop ups, pop ups, pop ups, I've got pop ups coming out of my ears! Also busy with some other new-to-me work which is exciting but managed to take a couple of snaps of my latest creations this morning to share with you all.

The organised penguin

2010-08-19T09:02:00.003+01:00

I've just come back from a little break in Poland and feel desperately that I should post something...but what? I've yet to download my photos. So here's another little penguin - this one's quite a helpful chap and he's decorating the Christmas tree 4 months before Christmas, I've heard he likes to plan ahead.

Wet dogs

2010-08-09T15:03:00.003+01:00

Me and the bezzer went to visit our friend Casey in Stroud on Saturday. Casey has 3 dogs: Tucker, Ted and Phoebe. Being the true city girl that I am I took my handbag along on our wet and windy walk, good job really as I managed to take some nice shots of the groolies.

Ssssh! Phoebe is my favourite, just look at that face!!

Let's think about penguins

2010-08-06T08:43:00.003+01:00

Oh it's been a busy time lately, have been working hard for a trip my agent is about to go on and have combined this with a touch of wedding planning. My aim is get everything decoration wise made and sorted by September so I have 6 hopefully relatively stress free weeks in the run up to the wedding...although we still need to get David's suit - uh oh!

I can't think about that now, let's think about penguins. How I love to draw penguins, it's probably my most favourite part of my job. They always manage to cheer me up.

A little sample

2010-07-28T11:22:00.004+01:00

It's always nice to receive a sample of how my artwork has been used so I was delighted to receive this the other day from Design Design.

They've done such a great job - I especially love how it's been printed on a lovely recycled stock and comes with a brown envelope, just my sort of thing! I'm very very proud to have my name on the back.
Luckily for me they've sent quite a few and I happen to know of two very important babies due at the end of the year....so they'll be receiving a special card from Aunty* Rachel when they arrive.

* Not technically an aunty to either one but I'm going to to encourage the name!

They've done a really nice job of artworking the inside of the card

Beyond Beyond Chuffed!

2010-07-20T12:53:00.004+01:00

I was very pleased to receive a lovely email from Beyond Beyond telling me they'd featured our invites on their 'Design Envy' section of their blog. You can see the post here.

Beyond Beyond are a bespoke invitation company based in London and they've got some lovely stuff!

Thanks Amma!

And they're out!

2010-07-13T08:39:00.006+01:00

Hurrah! Hurrah! Saturday was an exciting day for me as I sent out our wedding invitations. Everyone should have received them by now so I can finally share my designs with you. At first I was quite nervous about the task of designing the invites. As well as wanting to represent us as a couple, our tastes and the feel of our wedding, I also felt I had the added pressure of how I wanted to represent myself as a designer. But that's just a personal (perfectionist) thing of mine.

I'm so pleased with the finished result. We're having an autumnal wedding with pie and mash, ginger cocktails* and pale ale. I think the invite represents the general theme of the day pretty well. I've loved designing these and so glad they're out now and I can concentrate on other wedding planning tasks - it's just over 3 months to go and we still don't have completed outfits!

Some little info cards for our guest with directions, gift list details etc

The RSV...Pie card (David's idea - well done David!) means our guests can choose what lovely Pieminister pie they'd like to eat. We first had these pies at End of the Road Festival in 2008 and said at the time 'if we ever get married, this is what we'll have for the meal'

* Specific recipe to be finalised

Lovely Chris and Richard at ibrow media printed the invites for me and they've done a great job!

pop ups, pop ups

2010-07-12T08:33:00.000+01:00

I've been a busy bee over the past couple of weeks designing and making (lots of cuttin' n stickin') some new pop up designs. Here's a little sneak peek of some

Cuttin' n stickin'

2010-07-01T15:46:00.002+01:00

Oh I do love to cut and stick! My mum is making some cupcakes for a friends party and asked me to do some sort of label to show the different flavours. I don't do things by half when I'm asked something like that so have designed and made these nifty little signs. Hope she likes them....

Glastonbury memories

2010-06-25T11:20:00.003+01:00

I'm not going to Glastonbury this year. Instead I'm sat working, listening to Jo Whiley on Radio 1 doing an excellent job at reporting from Worthy Farm. I love going to Glastonbury, it's hard work when you're there but worth it to be part of such a special weekend.

I'm not a negative person but I'm hoping that if I focus on the negatives (the crowds, people walking too slowly, the toilets, the back ache, not getting woken up with a cup of tea by my bed in a real mug) it will take away the nagging feeling I've got that I'm missing out and it's the worst thing that could happen!!

This photo was taken just before Arcade Fire came on in 2007 - it couldn't have been a more perfect setting for one of my most memorable gigs. It was a very special evening being surrounded by my best friends and watching such an exciting and atmospheric band that we all loved. (I even got my face on the big screen!)

Apologies for photo quality - I just raided my facebook albums!

Birthday BBQ

2010-06-24T13:30:00.003+01:00

We had a small BBQ in our small garden on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I left my friend Chris in charge of my camera and have only just got round to downloading the photos.
A very lovely time was had even though it was particularly freezing on Saturday and we were inside most of the time!

It's my birthday!

2010-06-21T08:57:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday to me! I'm the big two seven today - OFFICIALLY late twenties. Oh dear. Oh well. Today I'm going to my mum and dad's while my mum makes a start on my wedding dress and I can try it on as required. Then off out for pie with David later. Can't think of a better way to spend my buffday! I wonder if Olga will bring me cake and presents like these little cats.

Happy Fathers Day!

2010-06-20T08:58:00.000+01:00

Happy fathers day to all the dads. Especially to my dad - he's a good one! A very good one indeed.

Latest obsession, artist's impression.

2010-06-15T11:16:00.002+01:00

I want one of these. I can't stop thinking about it. I get like this sometimes (all the time). Here is how I imagine it looking on our new lovely landing.

Knit in miniature

2010-06-11T13:34:00.000+01:00

Have you checked out The Miniature Knit Shop lately?
See my post about it here
Ruth has been busy designing and knitting away lots of new gorgeous outfits and accessories. There'll be a couple of new babies in my life by the end of the year and I know just what I'll be buying for them! (I love the owl hat and booties)

Did you know that some of the costumes on CBBC's Big Babies came from The Miniature Knit Shop? Just one of Ruth's claim to fames! If you've not seen Big Babies, you must - it's brilliant! There's a couple on the BBC i player now but hurry - they might expire soon!

Drum roll please....

2010-06-11T11:25:00.010+01:00

It's a big day in the Harper/Mahon household: We have finally chosen a wallpaper for our landing! The order has been processed and it's on it's way - there's no going back now.
This might not seem like a massive deal to you but for us it is. It's been nearly a year since we moved in to our lovely home and we were ordering samples a couple of months before that.
We've gone from one 'definite' to another 'definite', to 'let's not have wall paper, let's just paint it' to 'no, let's have wallpaper' and surprise surprise we're back right where we started with our first original choice (but in a different colour way) of Finches by Sanderson. Here it is....

I love this wallpaper, they also do versions in duck egg and green but seeing as we already have these colours in the house we're apparently not allowed to repeat them (says David)

Here's a selection of runners up that were definitely definites at some point. Definitely.

1. Glow Petrol by Prestigious 2. Rowan by Villa Nova 3. City by Albany
4. Primavera by Sanderson 5. Squirrel & Dove by Sanderson 6. Grace by Harlequin

Thanks Wallpaper Direct, you've been great. Hopefully we'll meet again in a few years when I've got an excuse to get my hands on this little beaut!

What-a-Hoot by Harlequin

Olga's latest photoshoot

2010-06-02T14:32:00.004+01:00

Yes, I know, I'm obsessed with taking photos of my cat. I couldn't resist though when I found Olgs sunbathing in our bedroom. She was such a little star (tart) last night at my Jamie at Home party (see posts about it here and here) and made lots of new friends so I thought she deserved a little glamorous photoshoot!

Mr Hanks

2010-05-28T18:08:00.003+01:00

I'm a massive fan of Hello Lucky and today whilst browsing their gorgeous blog I came across this AMAZING card.

I blummin' love Tom Hanks (I've even toyed with the idea of having a 'Big' themed hen do, you know, dress up in massive suits and buy a trampoline, that sort of thing!)

The card is by Blue Barnhouse, I LOVE!

Image from Hello Lucky

Oh Olga!

2010-05-26T16:40:00.002+01:00

Little Olga is not the most energetic cat on the block so we were pretty proud parents when she managed to pull this stunt off. She did need a helping down though and slept for 2 days after - she won't be getting the gold ribbon at sports day after all.

Always Means Fun

2010-05-25T18:41:00.003+01:00

Not very good at all. But I had a fun time with friends last night wearing the same shoes and bowling til midnight(!) I've paid for it today with sheer exhaustion - it's very tiring not getting and strikes or spares you know!

Poor little neglected blog

2010-05-19T12:19:00.005+01:00

Phew! Since the busy burst pre Surtex, I've given myself a bit of quiet time on the work front (this is usual while the show is going on and not just me being lazy!) I've used this time wisely to do some much needed wedding planning. I'm getting very excited about the big day especially when I'm designing all sorts of incredibly-important-to-me-but-probably-will-go-unnoticed-by-anyone-except-my-wonderfully-creative-friends bits and bobs. I'd love to share what I've been working on but you'll have to wait until late October for all that. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise to any wedding guests reading this! Instead, here are a couple of florals I did just before the show.

Booth 324-326

2010-05-05T10:04:00.003+01:00

There'll be lots of exciting stuff to see at the Inspire by Design stand at Surtex....here's a little sneaky peek of what to look out for....

It's that time of year again...

2010-05-04T10:16:00.002+01:00

Surtex is upon us! I've been a very busy bee of late creating lots of lovely new work for my agent to take (and hopefully sell!) with him. My work can been seen at the Inspire by Design stand (booth no. 324, 326). along with these wonderful people. Here's a little look at what you can expect from me this year...

Weekend baking

2010-04-26T12:11:00.003+01:00

I've just had a lovely homely weekend doing a bit of gardening (hacking away at anything that got in my way!) and baking. I over ordered on bananas in last weeks online shop and so had a nice excuse to use a few up by baking banana and cinnamon muffins from The Hummingbird Bakery cook book. They were rather nice, if I do say so myself!

Christmas...but not too christmassy

2010-04-22T16:25:00.003+01:00

It would be such a shame to post some incredibly Christmassy designs when we're having such wonderful weather...so I won't! These new ones are a nice compromise I think...pretend the blue background is the spring sky or something!

For those of you who loved Sweet Valley High!

2010-04-16T09:20:00.000+01:00

My friend Jem tweeted me yesterday with a link to a brilliant blog The Dairi Burger If you ever read SVH books when you were younger and now realise just how hilarious they actually were, you will love it.

I'm worried I won't be getting much work done as I trawl through the archives and read it all!

Hearing about this blog reminded me of a quick project I did at uni where I redesigned a SVH book jacket...very embarrassing now but here's my take on Elizabeth and Jessica.

Jessica is the one with the hoop earrings because she was so much cooler! Hahahah!

A new arrival

2010-04-15T09:09:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lack on posts lately. Here's some more new baby designs from a couple of weeks ago.

I'm finding it hard to post while the weather is being quite cheerful (excluding today) as I'm mainly working on new Christmas designs and no one wants to see snow and Santa at this time of the year! I've also been spending a little bit of time wedding planning and designing our invites, which I'd love to share with you but will wait until they've been sent out - I fear I am becoming a bride that talks too much and the last thing I want to be is a bore!

A bit of wedding planning

2010-04-07T09:35:00.003+01:00

As we're soon approaching the 6 month countdown to our wedding I've been spending a bit of time planning, designing and making. Here's a little sneak peak of the fabrics we're* using in the decorations...

* By 'we' I of course mean 'my mum'

baby baby

2010-03-29T16:29:00.002+01:00

Some little baby animals I've been working on

A change in the weather

2010-03-22T08:47:00.005Z

Finally we've startedto see a little bit of sunshine and the heating doesn't have to be on quite as much (if at all) Hurrah! Spring is here! Here's a couple of positively spring like designs I did last week. Feels good to have a break from Santa and the snowflakes that come with him!

knitting for babies

2010-03-11T17:28:00.003Z

I feel like I've been so busy the past couple of weeks but with no new work to post! Am looking forward to spending some time creating next week. In the meantime I want to share the wonderful work of my lovely friend Ruth from The Miniature Knit Shop Ruth designs and knits the most fantastic little outfits for babies - they always make me smile and I always look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Ruth's going to be exhibiting at SOCK at Loughborough Town Hall on March 27th and 28th. If you're in the area, make sure you go and say hello!

And check out the strawberry outfit - it's my favourite!

A weekend up north

2010-03-01T15:45:00.006Z

I've just come back from a lovely weekend visiting my friend Amy in the glorious Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. Amy is one third of the very lovely, very crafty Tozie & Teal. They have a terrific work space/shop smack bang in Hebden Bridge in the Bridge Mill on St George's Square. I loved it!
I thought I'd share some of the crafty wares they make and sell seeing as I was completely smitten with it all...

Do go and visit if you ever find yourself in the area, it's worth climbing the stairs for!

Page 248

2010-02-26T10:55:00.006Z

I'm very excited and extremely honoured to share page 248 of the fantastic Print & Pattern book with you. I became a proud owner of a copy yesterday when I chased the delivery man down the street after being far too slow at answering the door (either that or he was being very impatient!)

It's so fantastic to be featured in such a beautiful book - and what a beautiful book it is! It's jam packed full of gorgeous designs from very talented people indeed. Including my lovely friend Beth who appears on page 52.

I think I'm possibly more excited about the contents page than anything else!

Spring Fair 7-11 Feb

2010-02-05T09:37:00.001Z

Spring Fair starts at the on Sunday. I'll be exhibiting through my agent on the Inspire by Design stand (Hall 3 Stand G39). Come and have a look at us!

Brrrr! Get your mittens on!

2010-02-04T17:21:00.002Z

It's turned ever so cold again, just when we thought things were warming up. Fingers crossed for no snow for the Spring Fair this year - it seems to have become a bit of a tradition the past couple of years!

Spring fair is on it's way!

2010-02-01T16:34:00.002Z

This week I'm working on my display boards for the Spring Fair. Here's a little sneak peek at what you can expect to see....

Mock ups, mock ups, mock ups

2010-01-29T08:57:00.003Z

This was the scene on my dining table last week when I was a mocking up machine! I had to make 16 of 'em from some of my pop up designs. My hand still hurts!

A well over due post.

2010-01-26T15:13:00.002Z

Whoops, I seem to have neglected my little blog the past couple of weeks. I think this is due to a combination of reasons: January blues and not feeling it appropriate to be posting Christmas designs, busy times with the New York International Gift Fair and Spring Fair fast approaching and of course upcoming wedding excitement! Here's a little snippet of what I've been working on and what you can expect to see from me at the shows.

An excited polar bear!

2010-01-11T11:12:00.003Z

It feels incredibly natural to be continuing with Christmas work with all this snow we're having. This little polar bear can come and live in our back garden if he wants! I wouldn't mind one bit...but I'd have to ask Olga first.

new work

2010-01-07T14:38:00.002Z

Here's a very proud reindeer indeed - proud of his finely decorated antlers.

The snowy climes and being full of cold is making me feel like it's ok to be designing for Christmas immediately after Christmas. Having said that it's Ukrainian Christmas today and being part Ukrainian myself we had a traditional slap up meal and several shots of vodka at my parents last night. I did take some photos with the intention to share but left my camera there - whoops!

A date for my diary

2010-01-06T13:50:00.004Z

I always forget to buy a diary before the new year so when I finally got round to getting one the other day I was incredibly excited to write my first important engagement in it - not that I'm likely to forget it!

January 4th - Back to work!

2010-01-04T12:08:00.003Z

Happy new year! I hope everyone had a lovely relaxing Christmas and are raring to go for the new year. I had a very exciting white Christmas complete with a marriage proposal (!) so am very much looking forward to becoming David's wife this year!

I'm also quite excited about planning our wedding...the date is set already! I'm sure I'll be sharing some of the planning on here in the next few months.

Hurrah! Hooray! Huzzah! It's Christmas Eve!!

2009-12-24T09:00:00.000Z

Don't forget to leave a mince pie and glass of sherry out for Santa....he's on his way!!

Have a wonderful Christmas everybody!!

See you in 2010!

We're almost there!!

2009-12-23T09:53:00.000Z

Getting excited now! Is it time to start exchanging gifts with people like these little polar bears?

These little children are incredibly excited!

2009-12-22T09:15:00.000Z

It's Christmas party day!

2009-12-21T09:00:00.000Z

Am off out today with fellow designers Beth, Lauren, Sally & Emma (plus others) today for a Christmas lunch, this year I'm not going to mix white wine and white russians. Just because they're similar in name does not make it ok!!

20th December

2009-12-20T09:52:00.000Z

Olga's 'MySpace' pose!

2009-12-19T10:33:00.000Z

When I was downloading photos off my camera yesterday I came across this little beauty I took of Olga. I love it, it's like she's posing for a profile picture on MySpace or Facebook. She's such a teenager!!

Is it snowing where you are?

2009-12-19T09:00:00.000Z

Some photos of our Christmas tree!

2009-12-18T11:05:00.004Z

I'm incredibly proud of our Christmas tree. We've got a big one seeing as we've upgraded from a one bed flat to a lovely house this year. The denim and check hearts you can see in the photos have been lovingly made by my mum, I love them! She's a very talented crafty lady (and bakes great cakes too!)

Very much looking forward to a glass of bucks fizz by the tree on Christmas morning!

One week to go!!!

2009-12-18T09:00:00.000Z

17th December

2009-12-17T09:00:00.000Z

16th December

2009-12-16T09:00:00.000Z

15th December

2009-12-15T09:00:00.000Z

14th December

2009-12-14T09:00:00.000Z

13th December

2009-12-13T09:00:00.000Z

Officially time to feel Christmassy at our house today, we're having friends round for a pre-Christmas Christmas dinner, hooray!

Happy Birthday Mum!

2009-12-12T09:00:00.000Z

Santa says Happy Birthday too!

It's Friday! And there's only 14 more bed times!

2009-12-11T09:00:00.000Z

We're getting our tree today!

2009-12-10T09:00:00.000Z

This little robin says it's...

2009-12-09T09:00:00.000Z

We're getting closer...

2009-12-08T09:00:00.002Z

Happy Monday! Only 18 sleeps!

2009-12-07T09:00:00.001Z

6th December

2009-12-06T09:00:00.001Z

This little penguin is delighted there's only 20 sleeps to go!

2009-12-05T09:00:00.001Z

4th December

2009-12-04T09:00:00.001Z

3rd December

2009-12-03T09:00:00.002Z

I can see a theme occurring....

2009-12-02T09:00:00.003Z

My very own advent calender! Check back every day til the big one, enjoy!

First day of Advent...

2009-12-01T15:21:00.003Z

Finally, I feel in tune with the rest of the world!

It's nearly December...hooray!

2009-11-30T15:53:00.002Z

Yes! December 1st tomorrow, it's nearly here! This little penguin is far more organised than me and has his Christmas shopping done already - he only had to buy one present though...I wonder who it's for?!

A colour change

2009-11-27T10:34:00.003Z

Here's the latest version of the print I've been working on. I've also been working on some prints for my sister and brother in law in the same colour way for their brand spanking new kitchen but can't post them yet - it's a Christmas present!

something for us two

2009-11-25T16:09:00.004Z

Today I've finally managed to start some brand new work and for a change it's some personal work. Our living room wall is in desperate need of some prints so have been playing around with some ideas. It's so hard to know what sot of work I want to do for 'us' when I spend so much time drawing Santa!

My new wallpaper obsession

2009-11-19T10:34:00.003Z

I really hate decorating but really like things to look nice so when one room is done I can't wait to do another. I've now got my eye on this wallpaper.

I think it would look wonderful at the top of the stairs!

Wallpaper: Ecochic by Brewers

Olga's Den

2009-11-18T10:40:00.005Z

Olga found herself a comfy little spot today..
Please Note: It wasn't me who hung the washing out in such a haphazard manner!

The mac is back!

2009-11-18T10:31:00.002Z

I've been reunited with my mac...it's had the full works, new hard drive, logic board and top case! I'm now fully set up with time machine so should never have a little mishap again (touch wood and all that)

Sod's law has worked in my favour and have sold a few of the designs I've lost so will be spending a few days re-doing those so there'll be no new work from me to post in the meantime...

I'll leave you in Olga's capable hands for the next post...

A terrible thing has happened...

2009-11-07T10:57:00.003Z

My hard drive has passed away and taken a weeks worth of work with it and very many photos. I could cry and stamp my feet about it but I like to think I'm a positive person and am focusing on what I can do about it and (trying!) not to feel sorry for myself! My agent is just about to go on a trip to the states and luckily I'd got all my new designs printed out ready for that so at least I have physical copies of them...it'll be a case of recreating them from my printouts but it could have been a lot worse.

It's all my photos I'll miss...I luckily still have loads on my camera (including my sister's wedding, thankfully!) and other important ones I have passed on to friends so can get copies of them back.

Although I back up regularly I only back my work up as that seems like the most important as that's what my computer is for so I feel stupid for not backing my photos up. It's quite worrying really how much of your life is stored away on a little machine! Let's go back to the old days of 35mm and sending your film off to truprint!!

Luckily I had a two year warranty with my macbook (thank you John Lewis!) so can get a new hard drive without forking out for it but there may not be any posts for a while! Looks like I'll be getting my pencil's out while my mac is in hospital...not a bad thing!

Good ol' Santa...

2009-11-03T14:35:00.004Z

Never forgets the penguins!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T15:27:00.003Z

Have a good weekend everyone, whether it be spooky based or not!

My fancy dress past...

2009-10-29T16:03:00.002Z

With Halloween on Saturday I thought I'd share with you some of my previous fancy dress outfits. When I have time I love to use my design skills and go as objects...here's a selection - all made by me!

The coke can was for a 'C' themed party, the jiffy bag for a 'J' themed party and the Game Boy (this was David's outfit but courtesy of me) was for a 'everything but now' themed party (I went as a flapper - BORING!!)

Alas, I'm going to be boring again on Saturday and will be stuffing some old tights and becoming a spider...I simply haven't the time!

Christmas Houses

2009-10-28T10:28:00.003Z

I love to work on a Christmas house themed design, I'm working on one today but here's one from a few months ago...

This is a section from a little Christmas village on a hill design. It's making me look forward to Christmas even more...making the house Christmassy is the BEST bit!