Our tree!

Let me introduce you to some of the temporary additions to our living room that will be joining us for the festive period:

This is our tree! The husband would have liked a bigger one but as I had to pick it up by myself in a fiat punto, 7' was about the biggest I could manage!  We decided to go understated with silver and gold for the decorations, with a couple of special pieces.

Like this crocheted angel from our favourite Cath Kidston!

We have also decided to start a new christmas tradition and picked out a glass bauble from Liberty.  We plan to do the same thing every year and build up a collection of lovely ornaments that will remind us of the year we bought it.  So this is the bauble from the year we got married!

We got this garland of white metal tree shaped lights from Laura Ashley and they look lovely round the mirror.  For some crazy reason there is no fireplace in our living room which we really miss at times like this so we just have to make do with decorating the mirror!

They cast a cosy glow at night.

Nearly time for the tree...

We will be getting our tree this week so I got the christmas decorations box down and dusted it off to see what we have got in there...

Our whole collection is made up of things from the years I lived with my sister and various other girls and frankly we could do with some more impressive baubles for our first christmas as husband and wife!

Maybe something like these bell hearts from Graham and Green

Or these cute gingerbread house candles from Oliver Bonas

I think we need to go shopping...

Pikapackage

I am delighted to be involved in the December Pikapackage organised by Amy over at Pikaland.

I have sent in my Little Red Riding Hood books you may remember from here.

You can read more about the participants in the Pikapackage zine here. 

Getting into the festive spirit...

I know its still November, and I normally try not to think about christmas until after my birthday at the beginning of December, but this year I am thinking about it already.  Here's some lovely christmassy things from etsy:

Clockwise from top:

Reindeer coasters from Blyth House Creations; mini cards from mga Creations; gingerbread man from Tumus; bauble wreath from Rags to Riches Art; stocking from Primitive White House; santa nisse from Mulletin; tags from The Craft Pantry; dove ornament from Palomas Nest; heart bag from Leilalou

Birthday wishes

Its my birthday in a couple of weeks so various people are demanding present ideas.  I'm always rubbish at thinking of things that I want but have come across a couple of things:

Such as this needle case to match my sewing box from Cath Kidston

Or this book by Jane Brocket of Yarnstorm

Oh my goodness!

I can't believe I haven't posted for so long!  I have been busy with one thing and another, including getting 12 Red Riding Hood books ready for Amy at Pikaland for her Pikapackage project. I hope she gets them in time!

Also my postcards have arrived so I must start sending them out.

Cutie booties

This is the third time I have made this booties pattern - Its proving very popular! I'm loving this pink ribbon.

On a completely different topic - Why is my scanner so temperamental!!  All I want to do is get a drawing into my computer!  Is that too much to ask???

One more tree?

I think the postcard image is finished.  I feel like keeping it simple for a change!  Although I'm wondering if the two trees in the top right would look better as a three...

I finally got out the new sewing machine!

Hooray!

A Friday suprise

So I saw this fantastic new Cath Kidston sewing box in John Lewis on Friday and just had to take a photo on my phone to send to my husband, as I knew he would appreciate the loveliness and would probably respond with the remark that it looked 'right up my street'.

What I didn't expect was to turn around from the oven on Friday night to see him holding said sewing box in one hand and a cute pink pin box in the other that he had been out and bought for me after work as a suprise.  

I then spent the rest of the evening arranging all my ribbons, buttons and reels of thread in the beautiful new box and stroking the strokable flowers on the lid.  It was a Friday night that was right up my street!

Winter games

Still working on my new promotional postcard.  I would like a scarf like that.

But why is drawing so messy?  I've got to tidy this all up now.  And you should see the floor.

Just doodling

Just working on a new promotional illustration for a winter mail out. i think the knitting obsession is sneaking in a bit here!

Round and round...

I had been meaning to learn crochet and finally bought some hooks at the weekend so I decided to have a little practice.  Well, what fun!  It is almost as satisfying as knitting!  I would love to make one of those brilliant granny blankets that use mismatched yarn scraps.  Think I will need a bit more practice first though!

HAI! autumn catalogue

Get your own - Open publication

I was lucky enough to be one of 60 illustrators selected to be included in the latest Hire An Illustrator promotional catalogue.  Click on the image to view full size.

Introducing...

Stripy Mr Cat!  I have finished embroidering the face of my first knitted toy.  I like him.  He feels nice and wooly. 

Also, my sewing machine arrived today hooray!  I already have a couple of projects in mind.  Just need to get my hands on some nice fabric...

How many ways can I write my name?

I am still working on my website revamp and have been playing around with layouts in photoshop.  I always get a bit obsessed with the type - I absolutely love drawing type. I could do it all day long!  With some breaks for knitting of course.

I can barely contain myself!

I am so excited about my new sewing machine! As I said we went to John Lewis on Wednesday night and picked it out. I didn't even take note of the model number in my excitment but it is a Janome one. It gets delivered on Wednesday, hooray!


I need to decide what to sew now - I definately am going to order something from Built By Wendy, maybe this one.


I also happened to notice whilst in John Lewis that they now do VV Rouleaux ribbon and have the latest Amy Butler fabric collection! We didn't have much time as we were going out for dinner so I am looking forward to having a nice long browse through alone!

Birds

I am posting early today as I am going out this afternoon to meet my mum and choose a sewing machine!  I am so excited!  I can't wait to sew some stuff.

I thought I would post some photos of this beautiful print that we bought a few weeks ago as a wedding present from my grandparents.  It is a 1930's Japanese hand printed picture of a bird on snowy plum blossom and we are both in love with it.  We want to get another to go with it but unfortunately the artist is unknown so we will just have to look around and find another similar that we like.  It looks lovely in this big frame with lots of white space around it.

Here is a close up:

I learn from my mistakes

I am having a break from cushion covers to make a start on the vintage Vogue baby dress I mentioned.  It was coming along very well until I realised I had done forty rows wrong. Aaarghhh!  So now I have unravelled them and am ready to reknit that bit later on.  Oh well, it has taught me to read instructions more thoroughly from now on!

I would also like to mention that the yarn I am using is soooo lovely.  It is unbelievably soft and a gorgeous colour that this photo doesn't quite do justice.  It is RYC cashcotton 4 ply and I think I will be buying some more as it is so nice.  Except that as I am knitting bits of fluff fly around and get up my nose.  But that is the only negative thing I have to say about it.

Hooray!

I have finished my first cushion cover! And I am quite pleased with it.  Its not perfect (as with all my knitting so far!) but it looks pretty good in our living room.  Now all I have to do is make two more....

It is a day of finishing things as I have also finally finished my Little Red Riding Hood book.  I just need to make a few more copies then they will be available in the shop on my website.

The end is in sight!

Well on the first of three cushion covers anyway.  I have finally finished the knitting stage of cover number one and have wet blocked my pieces ready to stitch together when they are dry.  How exciting!

I'm going to knit a bit of the vintage Vogue baby dress as a reward before I start the next one!

Paper massacre

The handmade books are still a work in progress so a little behind schedule!  I must be a bad workman because I blame my tools.  Since we got our shiny new mac a couple of months ago the printer and scanner have been very temperamental.  The computer is brilliant to work on but getting anything into or out of it has been a problem.  So I spent Friday trying to scan things in for my new website design, then all of to day trying to print things out!  At last everything seems to be working so now I can actually get some stuff done. (Without dragging the old mac out from the back of the cupboard!)

I'm back

Well, I've actually been back from an extremely wet and windy Devon for nearly a week but have been busy catching up and thinking up some new projects.  I have decided it is time for a website redesign so have been looking through all the illustrator websites I have bookmarked for inspiration.  It reminded me how much i like the work of Christopher Silas Neal.  His colours are lovely.

I'm afraid I still haven't finished the cushion cover I took with me to Devon.  We spent far too much time making up ridiculous lies in Absolute Balderdash and getting sand blasted on the beach.  I am now on the back though so should be finished soon...

We're off to the seaside!

Yes we are going to the seaside for a few days! We are going to Devon with some family, including my pregnant sister so I have had to get on and finish the things I have been knitting for her:

This wrap cardigan was quite demanding as I had never made anything that was more than one piece before!  It has a few imperfections but hopefully they add to the charm!  

 

And another pair of booties.  This was my very first knitting project so trying to work out the picot edge was quite tricky!

So I now only have two projects on the go - the mystery stripy thing and the cushion covers.  Hopefully I will make some headway on holiday and get one of the cushion covers finished!

I would also like to add that I have found yet another blog to read obsessively.  Most of the craft blogs I read are American so its great to find a British one.  Yarnstorm

See you in a few days!

Long time no blog

How terrible of me, I haven't posted in over a week!  One of the reasons for this is that we had my young sister to stay for a couple of days last week.  We took a family trip to the zoo where we met this lovely zebra.  My favourite animal at the zoo is always the Marmoset Monkey but I do love the stripiness of a zebra.  I feel a zebra related illustration coming on...

In knitting news I have started on the cushion covers.  I have made up the simple cable pattern myself and am pleased with the results so far.  I think they will look very nice.  Unfortunately I'm only part way through one and have three to make altogether.  Lets hope I finish them this side of christmas.

The flowers in the photo are my wedding bouquet which has dried out nicely and seems to match this piece of knitting perfectly! 

More knitting!

I have got this lovely soft sage green yarn burning a hole in my knitting bag:

I have ear-marked it for yet another baby project.  I have borrowed a fantastic old knitting book from my Mother in law and I am going to knit this little dress and shoes as a christmas present for my sister's bump.

But first I must finish the mystery stripy project and knit some cushion covers for the living room. I may have to start working on two projects at once...

Can you see what it is yet?

This is what I am knitting at the moment.  It is my first time knitting stripes and I am finding it very satisfying!  I won't say what it is going to be but it will be featuring in my shop when it is finished.  I am kind of making it up as I go along this time.  I have adapted a pattern I found but made quite a few changes so we will see how that goes!

What's your style?

So today I am formatting lots of images which is VERY boring so to have a break from it I did this quiz, found through How About Orange.  Turns out my style is International Chic.  I'm only partially convinced.

I do like some of the stuff they picked out for me though.

In other news, I have nearly finished my biggest knitting project yet, a little wrap cardigan for the new niece.  I will post photos just as soon as its finished!

Home sweet home

Hello,  its monday again after another busy weekend.

The husband and I did a bit of shopping for home things which is one of our favourite pass-times.

We have decided our living room needs an accent colour to go with all the cream and mushroomy brown and decided on a dusky pink.  We got this lovely soft spotty throw by Ditton Hill :

but unfortunately it is too pale to go with our other colours so it has to go back to the shop. Boo!  Its a shame because i really love it but the husband is right - it looks a bit insipid against so much cream.  The hunt will continue.

We also paid a visit to Laura Ashley one of our most favourite shops, as we hadn't been in for a while and needed a fix of lovely things!  We got a sample of beautiful wallpaper which we would love to cover a whole wall in but as we rent we are not able to.  Instead we have framed it to go on our bedroom wall above our new bed which will be delivered in 17 days!