charity event!

my family held a small charity event this weekend for family and friends to raise money for Harefield Hospital's new MRI scanner.

headed by my mum we sold plants, handmade garden tubs & troughs, and cake goodies baked by our own fair hands! and i thought this would be a great opportunity to display some of Mel Smith Designs handmade products as well! notebooks, gift-cards, buttons, jewelry, and magnets featuring designs from my Zinnia collection and the Bold & Beautiful collection were all on display and went down a treat - we raised £265.75!

my products will soon be available on etsy...watch this space!

tulip fever!

my good friend alice recently visited amsterdam for tulip season and it looked absolutely stunning, as the photos show! there were so many beautiful colours and displays I wasn't quite sure which to pick, so i selected just a few of my favourites...

i think i'll definitely be taking a trip next year to see for myself...gorgeous!

thanks for the pics al! :)

pattern at the park

i also took a little trip to the olympic village - free tickets to the BUCS athletics tournament! the park was amazing, still a little way to go to finish everything off but the majority of it was in place...landscaped beautifully and with what looked like giant crayons in the river it was actually rather peaceful...i'm sure that will all change when the real olympics reach us!

and obviously i had a nose around at the architecture...the stadium, the velodrome, and the aquatics centre all looked amazing - plus there's a little snap here of the recently completed shard, taken on the way home...an absolutely stunning building, i was quite in awe...

designing women

i visited the wonderful fashion and textiles museum this weekend with my good friend caroline as they were showcasing some amazing work from the leading ladies of design dating back to the '50's and '60's - my favourite era!

huge lengths of fabric were displayed around the rooms, alongside magazines from the time, and recent book features. works from Lucienne Day, Mary White, and Jacqueline Groag to name but a few.  gorgeous prints in gorgeous colourways...i was in my heaven!

a small display of vintage handkerchiefs and scarves were displayed in the upstairs workshop, accompanied by recently released design book 'the printed square'...a must buy!

a third room was dedicated to all things Sanderson - prints and books, and a video featuring unique access to their studio focusing on their Fifties range.

fabric8 competition!

another day another competition...! this time round it is for an amazing prize - a contract with Robert Kaufman fabrics, $1000 advance on royalties, $250 in Spoonflower credit and (as if that wasn't already enough) a Wacom Cintiq Pen Display...wow-ee!!

and all you had to do was create a 'modern design that evokes the style of pen and ink drawings that are coloured with watercolour...hmm, easy huh?

wrong! 

i found this contest particularly challenging as i am not a natural painter - my work is rather graphic - and so i found digging out my old paints and inks and brushes stashed away since uni, oh so long ago...to play around and see what happened...

a few drawings and doodles with pen and inks, some splashes of paint and dribbles of inks...all mixed together et voile, i had myself an entry!  well, it wasn't quite THAT easy...it was a rather long night! but the main thing is i got there in the end!

'summer bursts' - a vibrant fun floral design...

harrods street party window entry!

i've been having lots of fun working on the latest competition from harrods...create a 'queens jubilee street party' moodboard full of inspiration for a window design.

at first i had 4 moodboards on the go - one that was a fun union jack and touristy theme, one with a quirky and retro style, one that was quite cutesy and cottage-y, and my favourite (the one I decided to  enter!) was a vintage theme...lots of pretty, elegant imagery - florals, candlesticks, tea cup candles, fairy lights and pearls:

you can find my full moodboard at and follow me on pinterest.  this moodboard is clearly quite feminine but i think it captures a softer side to what could be a beautiful jubilee street party - no loud union jacks or red phone box designs!

feel the love at COLOURlovers!

so i have recently discovered my new favourite site - COLOURlovers. it's amazing.  the only problem now is that i'm a tad obsessed and keep getting distracted from my actual work!

i've created numerous palettes today which hopefully i will be able to put to good use one day.  i've also managed to 'discover' 21 colours along the way and they happen to make a rather lovely palette by total chance:

COLOURlovers are currently running a competition with MOO to create a palette which will be used on the next set of business cards for COLOURlovers themselves.

here's a few of my palettes that you can see here:

and the best thing about the site (apart from the colouring in of course!) is that everyone is so friendly, it's delightful!