Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!

Cold enough to snow outside the studio today!!

It's icy and frosty outside the studio today, but still no dusting of snow.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Wrapping paper and cards bought! I did think about making some this year but there never seems to be any spare time especially with the build up towards the Heimtextil exhibition in January.

So bought gift wrap and homemade labels this year, well at least a bit is handmade!

Happy Halloween!

I had an Halloween party for my daughter at home at the weekend...  Thirteen  4-5 year olds in the house who turned into 13 little monsters jumping on sofas and squashing pizza into the floor (tiled floor thank goodness!) Think we will stick to just Trick or Treating next year.....

A cold and windy day

Woolly hats and scarves on this morning for the first time on the way to school and work. I quite enjoyed walking through all the fallen leaves and promised my daughter that we could leaf print after school....can't wait!!

Wise Little Owl

Last night I went to my first Parent's evening to see how my daughter was getting on at 'Big School'.
I admit I was quite nervous sat outside the office waiting for my daughter's name to be called out.
 I was told that she is such a happy little girl, she loves to learn and is always helping and cuddling others who are upset. Her favourite activity is drawing and making models, that's my girl!!!!
Such a proud mummy!

Owls, Cupcakes, Robots and Fairies.

 Castilla Textil

Kipfold

Here are some designs we created for bedding a while ago for two home textile manufacturers. I especially like the Owls and Robots!

Shows and more shows!

Indigo was the last  show of the year until the big one next January, Heimtextil which I am sure will be here before I know it!
 Thank you to all our customers who came and looked at our designs whilst we were exhibiting at Indigo, we met some lovely people and again made some fab new contacts.

I love putting all the exhibition displays up and seeing all the styles of the different artists we have.

We had some lovely comments from customers about our stand and felt really proud of our small team of designers who continue to support us with fantastic and beautiful artwork!
Here is a pic of the stand and  some of the artwork we had on the backdrops.

Kate Ferguson

Rachel Taylor

Rosie Maddocks

Christine Gore

Linda Cavill

Lisa Martin

Under the Sea

We have been painting lots of sea creatures this week and since I made Miss Rosebud Petal for my daughter she has given me a long list of felt toys she wants me to make! The second item on her list was a jellyfish after seeing this painted one I did this week. Looks like I will be painting by day and  sewing at night!

Hello Miss Rosebud Petal!

This weekend me and my 4 year daughter Grace did lots of sewing and drawing. In my spare time I like to make felt soft toys for family and friends. Early Saturday morning Grace presented me with a picture of Miss Rosebud Petal and said "Mummy can you make Miss Rosebud Petal for me?", so with a bit of felt and colourful thread, and a late night stitching her lovely squiggles here is Miss Rosebud Petal! One happy little girl!!!!

All packed, padded and taped for South Korea!

We have been busy getting the collection ready for its trip to Kate our lovely super efficient Korean agent in  South Korea. We have lots of new brilliant lush designs from our team of designers. The collection is looking it's best so a big thank you to all our  creative team, Linda, Rosie, Mary, Jayne, Rachel, Christine and Pete. Oooh and a big welcome to our new designer Lisa, we can't wait to see what you come up with!!  x

Totally Tropical

I have been experimenting with inks and paint effects in the studio, it is so nice to get back to painting and mark making.
 I love my computer and AVA Software but always struggle with brush types. A bit of free hand painting, scanning and recolouring on the computer and this is one of the designs I came up with. It's quite nice to hear washing of brushes in jars of water instead of the hum of my computer, ooohh and have paint up my arms again!

It's nice to be home!

Sorry I haven't posted on my blog for a while.  It has been quite hectic since June. To start with a very wet week camping in Wales, (us being the only ones on the deserted campsite apart from a family of rabbits which my daughter enjoyed talking to!)
To recover from my camping experience we then flew off to Greece which was so hot I started longing for a little bit of rain...just a little!
A week later I was in hospital for a few days to have a planned operation, hospital food yuk, lots of magazines, chocolates and a bit of bed rest and I am finally back home.

My first day back in front of my desk, lots of ideas... tropical birds and new styles ....more painterly techniques...thinking I might need to get my dusty paintbrushes out and start making a mess!
It's good to be back!

Sand Sea and Cupcakes!

I have just come back from a windy weekend in Whitby and as always I couldn't resist stopping at Robin Hoods bay. Lots of walking on beaches, wandering down narrow streets and of course stopping in nearly every tea shop we went past for tea and cake... well it was Jubilee weekend so I did have an excuse!

Happy Jubilee!

 Have fun whatever you do!

WTC Memorial Site

I really wanted to go back to see how WTC site looked now, I visited in September 2002 to pay my respects and it was so moving being there and seeing the devastation. I  never imagined that anything could be built on the site but the two memorial pools look amazing.
 Each pool is situated in the footprints of the two towers. Huge waterfalls encircle the pools on all sides.  The water disappears into black square infinity pits in the bottom of the pool.You cannot see the bottom from the edge of the pool. The pool edges are copper engraved with all the victims names. The sheer size of the pools were amazing, I felt so small at the edge of the pool, looking at the tiny people across give me a sense of the scale the towers had been. 
The most touching thing for me was the The Survivor Tree called  a Callery Pear which was found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center plaza, it was nursed back to health in a nursery, and  re-planted at the memorial plaza.  It was found alive  while the wreckage was being removed in 2002.  You can see the charred tree trunk at the bottom right up to about eye level. Above that,  all the new spouts have grown smooth. I hope this little but strong tree lives forever!

NYC

What a mixture of events on our trip to New York!
First we were delayed on the plane due to another plane pinching our parking bay (our Irish pilot wasn't happy!)
We had continuous torrential rain for 3 days which started leaking very heavily into the Jacob K. Javits Centre ruining quite a few design stands...and artwork!
Forgot the umbrella, (did manage to buy a cheap one off a street vendor which prefers to stay inside out) whilst in Times Square  my heel dropped off my shoe, had to hobble six blocks to Macy's for a new pair...I know any excuse.

Apart from that we had a good trip, met some lovely people, made some great contacts and ate nice food...and a few muffins chucked in too. I came across these graphics on the walls depicting NYC. The ink pen line work with blocks of filled in colour was so striking.

Ready?

All packed and ready to go, cases are at full weight so may need new arms when I get back and maybe feet too!
We have a spare day in New York this trip so hopefully will have lots of pics to show when we return. We are usually at the show all day so only see New York by night. Cheerio everyone and thank you for following us! x

Surtex

Not long before we pack up for Surtex, the printer is at full steam, designs are being cut and put into piles, new designs are coming into the studio like Harry Potter's flying letters.  If you are in in NYC next week please come over we would love to see you!

Its all about Wallpaper!

Vintage Fairies by Fine Decor

Mimi and Oscar by Coloroll

Building Site by Coloroll

Woodland Friends by Coloroll

Pretty Birds by Fine Decor

Rush Hour by Fine Decor

We did these collections of designs for wallpaper a while ago for Fine Decor and Coloroll. I think the Pretty birds is my favourite, ( I have an obsession with birds...however I don't go as far as bird spotting yet, just surface pattern!)

New York New York!

Not long before we head back to New York for Surtex Stationary show again. A big thank you to all our wonderful creative designers who are busy getting designs finished for the show.

Printsource

Just a couple of pics of the stand and one of Pete at Printsource, thank you everyone who visited our stand and hope to see you in a couple of weeks at Surtex stationary show in New York.

It's Raining cats and dogs today!

It's very wet and murky outside the studio today! Sorry things have been quiet on here but we have been super busy since Easter when we exhibited at Printsource New York. Having a few problems with my camera, but hopefully tomorrow I should be able to post some photos of the stand at Printsource and also  new work which has been sent in by our wonderful team of designers!