Warm Wishes!

Merry Christmas to all my fellow bloggers!  Hope you all have a fabulous festive time! See you in 2013...

Here's a couple of snaps of our Christmas tree.  It's a little one, high up on the sideboard out of Jimmy's reach but he is really captivated by it for the first time this year.  I absolutely love these fuzzy pipe cleaner santas, some of them came from my Grandma and Grandad and I remember being really fascinated by them when I was little.  I was really pleased to find a box of them in a charity shop a few years ago so now we have a complete set.  So simple, yet so charming!

Women's Wit Calendar

I just received some copies of this little calendar that I worked on last year, it's small and very cute, designed with a magnetic back so you can stick it on the fridge.  I remember it well as it was the last job I worked on whilst heavily pregnant, I was so big I could hardly reach my desk!

I illustrated the outer box and some little icons to go inside. It's always nice to see the finished result, it's just a shame that the art director credited me as last years illustrator Jean Tuttle! Hey ho, these things happen!

Women are like teabags!

This is my contribution to the annual Christmas coaster promotion run by my US agent AGM.
The theme this year is politics, which is a pretty hot topic over there at the moment.
I really liked this quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt and it was a nice opportunity to feature my handdrawn type which I really enjoy.

Mug Shots

My Personaliteas design has now made it onto a mug! It's available to buy wholesale from Beast in Show, and I'm selling some in my etsy and folksy shops. 
It's adapted slightly from the tea towel, and the design wraps around the mug with a little surprise character in the bottom:

I was excited to receive them the other week and as you can see I wasn't the only one keen to take a peek inside the box.  This is Alf, who is super inquisitive when it comes to boxes!

Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway on here and twitter, sorry for the delay!
I asked Jimmy (my 11 month old studio assistant) to do the honours after his tea tonight and the winner is....... Fred!  My 'Personaliteas' tea towel will be on its way to you soon...

Personaliteas Tea Towel Giveaway!

My Personaliteas Tea Towel is now hot off the press and available to buy. Yay! You can get your mits on one from my etsy and folksy shops and from the fab ToDryFor website.

To celebrate I'm going to give one away, so if you'd like to be enter just leave me a comment below and tell me how you take your tea.  I'm a redbush tea fan myself, no milk or sugar and very weak so I'm pretty cheap to keep!  Coffee fans can also enter!

I've recently joined twitter so you can also enter by retweeting, or why not do both for 2 chances to win...

I'll pick a name out of a mug on July 31st...

Fifty Shades of Grey

Here's a recent illustration that I did for Baltimore magazine, about the latest publishing phenomenon that is 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.                  The art director wanted to show mums out for coffee sneakily reading the bestselling book which has been deemed 'mommy porn' in the USA. 

Let's get organized!

Here are my latest spot illustrations just published in Woman and Home.  This one is about decluttering your wardrobe and funnily enough I've just sent a large bag of old clothes to the charity shop.  I'm a terrible hoarder so it's always good to have a clear out and do some good as well.

This one is about hanging pictures and the tip is to use strips of velcro.  We have a family photo wall in our house too but I can't say I thought about using that..  I guess you wouldn't be left with holes all over the place although it might be a bit tricky to get off!

Illustration Friday - Heights

The Beanstalk was huge.  Luckily Louisa had a head for heights!

Just a quick one for this week's IF topic, my first in ages.  It's my niece's 8th Birthday today... Happy Birthday Louisa!  She's having a 'climbing' party with her sister Daisy and a few friends, so have fun girls and take care on those beanstalks!

To Dry For!

I'm excited to say that I have won this year's ToDryFor tea towel design competition! Yay!
Here's my winning entry: 'Personaliteas'.  I couldn't resist that play on words and had fun designing some fun teacup and mug characters. The design will be screen printed onto tea towels which will be for sale sometime in the Summer on ToDryFor's fab website and hopefully in a shop near you too...What's your favourite tea tipple?  I am a serious redbush tea fan, no milk or sugar and very weak, so one teabag usually lasts me all day, how thrifty is that!!

Spring is in the air!

It's been lovely and sunny here today, Spring is definitely on its way:)  This is my latest spot illustration for Woman & Home about tips for Spring cleaning.  Well, she's ready to tackle those cobwebs with her feather duster in hand so I think I'd better follow her lead as our house is not exactly a dust free zone!

Love Cats!

Happy Valentines Day!  Here's a cute cat couple - Clarence and Clara, bud vases made by Wade in the 1950's. They sit on my mantelpiece and make me smile:) I have a lot of vintage ceramics on my shelves and how that will mix with a boisterous boy in the house only time will tell...!  Have a great day everyone:)

The Early Bird gets the worm!

Here's one of my latest spot illustrations just published in Woman & Home, reminding us all to feed the birds, especially when it's cold.  Hope everyone is keeping warm in this snowy weather!

Paper Crave

I just found out from a fellow blogger that my gocco prints were featured this week on the Paper Crave blog, take a peek here.  It was a nice surprise and thanks Kristen for featuring my work.  I am busy working on some new designs at the moment and hope to get goccoing again very soon....

(Suit)case Histories

Here are those luggage labels I mentioned in my previous post.  I have had these for a long time and they came from my late great uncle Robert along with lots of other ephemera from his travels abroad in the 1950's.  I have one of his old suitcases too which has remnants of labels stuck on it and I find it fascinating to imagine all the destinations he visited back then.  I love the design and typography on these old labels and I think the Norwegian viking is particularly fun!

Destination Weddings

I recently worked on some illustrations for Destination Weddings Magazine in the US and they are just published in the Jan/Feb issue.  I always enjoy working with them, well who doesn't love a wedding!

I love old luggage labels too and it was fun to draw some for this.  I have a small collection of labels which I recently rediscovered in one of my old boxes of 'treasures' so I'll scan them in and post them up here soon...

Illustration Friday - Prepare

This little illustration is just published in Woman & Home and I thought it would be a good fit for this week's IF topic.  It will soon be that time of year to start preparing for the gardening year by sowing seeds... I really enjoy gardening but lately all I seem to be cultivating is weeds! 
I'm hopeful to get the garden back on track this year though so we can all get outside and enjoy it...

Happy New Year!

 

Here's a recent illustration for Woman and Home, apparently you can help flowers open with the aid of a hairdryer.  I can't say I've ever tried it but it's amazing what you learn in this job!

On the subject of flowers one of my cacti is in full bloom, so I thought I'd post a pic to add a dash of sunshine to cheer up this stormy January day!