a new direction?

i've had a lot of friends weddings the past few months and yesterday was the last one on the list. and what a stunner it was! i was 'chiefo' bridesmaid for ex-house mate emily and hubby to be rob. not only that but i was enlisted to create their wedding stationery, organise the all important palette and (due to a love for floristry) to do the wedding bouquets. such a great celebration of our friendship to be involved so heavily.

emily already had her eye on one of my 'rose' designs so we worked together to sort the palette and then this became the basis for the rest of the stationery (save the dates, invites and menus). the wedding was held outside on the grass leading up to a beautifully painted pagoda which was featured in the invites and the rose theme ran throughout.

all that was left to do on Thursday was the flowers. now i hadn't done much since my last friends wedding (last april...eek!) so i bought some flowers the previous week to have a practice with. and loved it! it was no different on Thursday, apart from the fact these flowers were absolutely stunning. a beautiful selection of corals, creams, and greens , including peonies, roses, stock, rosemary, and eucalyptus. (there were a couple more but i can't remember their names!)

ta-dah!

it was so relaxing to do, i really miss it and i really hope one day it can become an actual part of my job. popping round to the florists house (she did the main displays) beforehand and seeing her works pace with all the flowers out was just lovely and i'm very envious! the smells were amazing and it's just such a gorgeous job.  if only i can leave my admin job and replace with floristry...oh wait, i could do that. might get job searching this week...

me and imogen (emily's sister) the 'maids' with our flowers :)

Top Drawer Spring 2014...the review!

what can i say? Top Drawer and Home London were AMAZING! they did not fail to impress - so many talented people on display launching their new ranges, some previous exhibitors and some newbies...like myself! it was my first trade show and i LOVED it! can't wait to do the next one!

lots of interest across the three days, every day was a bit different - Sunday was the smaller boutique-y shops looking for exciting new stock, Monday i had chats about commission work and some press came and took some pics, and Tuesday was a bit of a mix too - a few shops, as well as other trade shows and pop up shops offering chances to showcase my products.

one of the nicest things to hear was when someone said they had spotted my products in the pre-show mag or on the website and they had tracked me down. it took a few goes to get used to talking to people but then you realise they just want a bit of a chat and it's easy peasey, haha.

i got to meet lots of people from the ABSPD course - Suzy Washington, Wendy Flynn (finally!), Trina Esquivelzeta, Jess Wilde, Kathryn Pledger, Kathy Schicker, Poppy Westwell, Jess Williams, Esther Cox...i hope i haven't forgotten anyone...sorry if i have!

take down was fun. i say that sarcastically. all hell broke loose. 5 o'clock and everyone has 5 hours to take everything down and get the hell out of the building! our slot for packing up wasn't until 7 and we couldn't be bothered to wait so we decided (foolish or not) to walk everything to the car parked 10 minutes away. 3 trips between 3 of us (thank you to Alice who only came to visit but ended up helping with take down!). i think i speak for all of us when i say Wednesday morning lie in could not come soon enough!

but that wasn't all the work done, oh no. straight on to following up all the contacts made at the show and now we wait replies. some goods news to share very soon but i'll keep you waiting for that ;) 

i did manage to have a quick look round Top Drawer and Home and met fellow ABSPD-ers Zoe Atwell and Hannah Nunn, but unfortunately missed Cara Holland (Patternbooth) and Anna Dent. here are a few of my favourite stands and the lovely designers themselves.  feast your eyes on this little lot...

Sian Elin - pretty eye catching wouldn't you say? nothing needs to be said...

I Drew This - cutey character cards were my favourites

Blooming Briony - i went to school with her! small world :)

Jessica Hogarth Designs - new summery card ranges

Stitch and Story - was opposite this stand so could stare at the loveliness all day long...

Rocket 68 - retro style caught my eye walking passed. unfortunately Jill was a little camera shy :p

i would also just like to say a few thank you's -
Liz Smith (Elle Jane Designs) for helping me throughout this project;
Jess Hogarth for giving me so much advice it's ridiculous;
Jen Whitham for her advice too and also for introducing me to Jess in the first place when i was doing my first Spitalfields market;
Deb Velasquez for all her printing tips;
Sam Nesbitt for the photo shoot;
Quincy Lampshades for making the designs into the fabulous shades they now are;
all the ABSPDers for their support and encouragement;
and of course, friends and family.
i'm sure there are others but my brain still isn't back up to full speed so i apologise.

gosh, that turned into a bit of an awards ceremony speech didn't it?! sorry about that!! i just wanted to say thanks dudes, it means a lot :)

august - round up

it's that time of the, erm, month again... it's MONTHLY REVIEW time ;)

so what has been achieved in the month of augustus? well...

* the first weekend was a no-go as i had to attend the beautiful wedding of Mark and Lucy. i know, i know...such a chore.  ;) 

* my kickstarter project was more than successful, going far beyond it's target. a total of 39 backers and £509 pledged. i would like to thank EVERYBODY who donated towards this - it means so much that you have supported me and i can't wait to send you your notebooks! some quite interesting statistics - of the 39 backers 10 were close friends, 10 were design buddies from uni or the courses i have taken part in, and 20 were complete strangers! the average pledge was £13.05 with the biggest being a whopping £61...crikey!!

* i have submitted to the new Print & Pattern Geometrics book. fingers crossed my designs are accepted - it would be great to be published in one of Bowie's book again!

* i had my first product photo shoot. i can't give away the shots just yet but here are some close up shots as a bit of a sneak peak...

* i hit the magic 200 likes on facebook!

* the last product i have budgeted for the show are some tea towels. i have finalised my designs and sent them to the printer. should take about 4-6 weeks so early october i hope. then i can get selling for xmas! yes, i said it. C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. 

* and on that note i have started researching places to sell my items, both online and offline. might even do a couple more markets this winter...


* i signed up to Monica Lee's Smart Creative Style e-course which starts 6 days after my return. i will be learning more about suitable branding and marketing techniques for my launch.

not the most satisfying month in terms of getting things done but there was a lot to prepare and i wanted to fit in a weekend at home with the 'rents.

so with that i bid you farewell for 3 weeks. 3 whole weeks on holiday. can. not. wait!!! very excited to a certain miss ruth canty who has now been travelling for, oooh, 10 months it must be, and join in her adventures. 

bonjour monpazier!

i have just returned from a lovely weeks break to the south of france. i visited a beautifully quaint little town called monpazier. the trip was a celebration of my friends upcoming wedding and we stayed in a lovely converted barn. the town was gorgeous as was the weather (at leas 35 degrees each day). the area itself is very green, lots of fields and vineyards but not so many flowers. i snapped what i could though but i think most of them are weeds!

the town was absolutely beautiful - a lovely, quaint little village. we had just missed the medieval festival that weekend but they still had some decorations up. i got a bit carried away taking snaps of the buildings and alleyways - there were lots of cute doors, shutters and they had a bit of a thing for net curtains as well (but of course this is juts more pattern for me so i didn't mind!)

and we were lucky enough to be there for market day - so many colours and gorgeous foods, flowers, bags, soaps... i bought an amazing air plant (no need for soil), and a gorgeous turquoise ceramic dish. no idea where i'm going to put it but it was too good to leave behind!

#dailydraw . . . week 1

as you may have read yesterday one of my recent challenges to myself is to do a doodle-a-day, or - depending how creative i'm feeling - a full drawing a day. here's how #dailydraw week 1 turned out... 

i didn't intentionally start out with a theme in mind but i have been wanting to draw from my Amsterdam photos for aaaages and this was the perfect opportunity to start.

day 1: amsterdam architecture

day 2: windmill

day 3: lilies from keunkenhof

day 4: bicycle (i gave up half way through as you can see!)

day 5: detail from a shop

nothing for day 6, tsk tsk...

day 7: window detail