my first grown up pumpkin!

a day to go...but I carved my first pumpkin of my adult life yesterday!

A little gift for a lovely friend who cooked me tea last night.

Going to get carving again later ready to decorate the house for our weekend family visitors.

Hoorah for the weekend! :D

Matte Stephens

I've been a fan of Matte Stephens work for a little while now, he has a lovely blog

where a lot of his work can be viewed. He's based in Portland, Oregan and has an impressive client list. He's represented by Lilla Rogers.

It really is a joy to see his work, such lovely colours and painted in his really very charming style.

AND....I've treated myself with some birthday money and

bought this print from Matte's Etsy shop:

Oh I just can't wait for it to arrive!

I have just the right wall for it in our living room and its going to finish of the room just perfectly!

Boo!

Halloween is coming round fast now!

I bought some vampire teeth yesterday ready for the weekend!

they were 3p...yes 3pence! Good old Wilkos!

Storytime.... Little Red Riding Hood

I created this little sketch to submit to a company who needed an

illustrator for a range of storybooks.

They seemed to like it but it wasn't what they were looking for.

..though it was great to have the chance to go for something new....

a change from the fashion and greetings world.

I really loved creating this.

Birthday Tea Party!

Its my Nans 80th birthday this weekend....its very hard to know what to buy an 80 year old so I thought instead of a present I'd put on a little afternoon tea party for my Nan and have made her this invitation.

Now to find out what her favourite cake is and put my baking skills to the test.

baby baby

I think cute lions and birds are some of the my most favourite things to draw!

I'm ready for the weekend...

a brummie family weekend coming up for me!

Hooooorah! :D

Jan Pienkowski

Do you remember Meg and Mog!? I'd forgotten about this Little Monsters pop up book too!

Thanks to a recommendation from another blog (I wish I could remember which one!)

I have just listened to Desert Island Discs with the Meg and Mog illustrator Jan Pienkowski, a nice little something to listen to as I work listen here if you fancy it.

He's silhouette work looks so intricate compared to his childrens illustrations, is interesting to see.

Tigerprint competition

I decided to work on a submission for the latest Tigerprint competition this morning.

I really enjoyed working on the little brolly birds.

Its for a handbag size notebook, see here for more details.

Rachel over at rahrahrepeats has entered some great designs

....you can see them here

Yamas! to the weekend!!

This is me...enjoying a glass of wine and forgetting about my mountain of work!

Just what weekends are for I reckon!

Its been a busy weekend...good but busy!

We had lots of guests, it was great! Very nice to see good friends.

We went to a lovely greek restaurant on saturday night and ate a feast of greek tapas!

Busy busy this week.......the start of exciting new projects!

Dreamstate

Always such a privilege to see....

another range is out within which my work is featured.

I produced the repeats, embroidery and add on details for the new Mamas and Papas Dreamstate range, see here for more garments.

I was very excited to see it on sale.

If you fancy a treat for a little one you have or know all can be bought instore or online at Mamas and Papas.

The girls in house do such a wonderful job of designing the garments and yet again the models are just too too cute!

all copyright of the designs belongs to Mamas and Papas

mmm.... slow cooker love!

there's a new love in my house....the slow cooker!

Its great....a little geeky I know!

Never used one before but its great for hearty winter hotpots! so easy and tasty!

Think in America they're called crock pots but I could be wrong.

Little birds!

Also showcased at Yorkshire Sculpture Park was the work of my lovely friend

Abigail Brown, check out her blog and etsy shop. She has a wonderful range of beautiful birds in her shop as well as these lovely butterfly broaches that are new arrivals!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

What a good weekend I had, although the beer festival ran out of beer!!

I went to Yorkshire Sculpture park on Sunday with the folks and had a lovely day.

Nice to have a walk round, they have a great shop there too where they were showing a number of artists work. Including some very nice screenprints by my old uni tutor Kay Van Bellen. Check out her blog here and here's some of her work.....

Beer festival weekend!

Hoorah....time for the weekend! We're off to the Robin Hood Beer Festival at Nottingham Castle tonight. I'll be on the cider though...not a beer fan!

Here's an beer themed birthday card designed by me with a retro feel!

How do you like your eggs in the morning!?

....well preferably not with a hedgehog on the side!

But he is very cute!

He's an African Pygmy Hedgehog....a baby one! Just couldn't resist posting!

baby animals

I am currently on a new baby range that will hopefully be ideal for scrapbooking!

here's some of the characters! Just some snippets!

I love creating new faces!

Off to the fair! minty mushy peas please!

Time for my weekend post again! I had a busy one!

We went to the traditional Goose Fair on friday night, its been happening every year for hundreds of years.

We were wimps and only brave enough to go on the bumper cars, was really fun though!

We got ourselves cup of typical Nottingham minty mushy peas for the walk home.

We headed off Manchester way for the rest of the weekend to join in with my lovely friend Nik's engagement party.

Now for a productive week...hopefully!

have a look at these for maps!

I am a bit of a geek and I do like a map....but I was especially drawn to this one on theBBC news site as it looks like the world has distorted into an obscure pattern. I like it!!

The size of an area is altered depending on the population of the country, resulting to some areas of the world looking unrecognisable. Its all very clever.

See here for more details.....click on any country to get a close up!

12 weeks til Christmas!!

Yes exactly 12 weeks TODAY! where has the summer gone...its autumn rain here today.

I've had a busy week working designs for childrenswear...has been great and all will be revealed once the range is in store next year.

Back to christmas now...with a woodland theme.

Here's some snippets of work in progress...

quite simple but will look more special once the grey turns into silver foil!