A spot of bank holiday DIY

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

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

Belated blog

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!

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.

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!