So far

Goodness, how is it nearly the end of January already?! I think I maybe said the same thing this time last year... Anyway it's been a pretty busy month and in all an alright start to the year. I went to London to take part in the Liberty Best of British Open Call which was quite a surreal but overall a positive experience. I also went for a look around Top Drawer to catch up with a few lovely folk I met when I did Harrogate Home & Gift last July. I also discovered Seeya, and fell in love with their wonderfully innovative and charming greetings cards. The following weekend I exhibited at Scotland's Trade Fair, above is a picture of my stand there. I had a good few days and met loads of independent retailers and secured a few more stockists. I'm now about to embark on a review of my existing ranges, and I'm going to be making lots of new work in the next few weeks so watch this space for brand new things! Oh, and Valentine's cards should be appearing in my etsy shop this week, finally...

Bits & Pieces

Pastel colours on my new Spring cards / new things up on my wall / a little Badger

Happy New Year!

Hurrah, it's the New Year! Here's a sneak peek of a brand new thing ^

I have always found it difficult to really understand why people dislike January so much. I love the fresh start a new year brings, and it's always a month in which I'm filled with inspiration and optimism. I love making plans and thinking about what lies ahead.  To counter-balance this however, I'm not a great believer in New Year's resolutions, and to be honest I get a bit tired of people saying every January how amazing the year ahead will be. Instead of making grand plans to do things I know I'll never do, I enjoy the start of the year for its new-ness and sense of anticipation it affords, and prefer to think about smaller things I can continue to do well. Whatever lies ahead, good, bad or just mediocre, I'm still looking forward to it all. I like to think of myself as a realistic optimist.

In 2012, I feel like I got onto the right tracks with everything, finally, and I'd like 2013 to be all about continuing along these tracks. I think I need to just do more of what I have been doing, and naturally I will improve and develop everything along the way. I've got a load of new ideas in my head, and I am going to try my hardest to draw more. And by draw more I mean actually going out somewhere to draw, just for drawing's sake. Whenever I come to creating new designs I find it really difficult to get to that stage where everything starts to flow naturally, and actually look good. I've become far too lazy with actually going out and drawing from real things and I think if I tried to do it more it'd really help my ideas (and good drawings) to flow more easily. So I guess that's a resolution isn't it.. but a realistic one, at least.

Anyway, I have a busy January ahead with a little trip to London next weekend, and then my next trade show starting on the 20th. More on both of those later...

Twenty-twelve

Well, 2012 is allllllmost over! It's been rather eventful and has gone by unbelievably fast. This year has been an important one, for me and many of my friends too. It's always funny thinking that if someone told you all of the things that will happen at the start of each year, you probably wouldn't believe them. It's interesting to compare expectations and reflections. Things never work out quite how you imagine, but that's not always a bad thing. On that note, I'm looking forward to a New Year full of even more surprises and being able to build upon everything I learned in 2012.

I shall leave you with a bunch of pictures...

Me, lots of times, in Nice

Cote d'Azur

 paintin' a bird

 garden photo-shoot

paintin' socks

stamping bags

my first Trade Show

a dinner with my pals

one of maybe ten days when the sun came out

MOVING DAY!

new desk

Louis the Pumpkin

my pals at Halloween

after Thanksgiving dinner

Christmassy flat!

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Decembrrrrrrrr

Well well, the last few weeks have been rather busy, with Christmas markets and Christmas orders and brand new designs for Spring and planning for the year ahead. I am keeping all my new designs secret for now. You can however follow me on instagram for some fuzzy pictures of my desk and other silly things..

In other news, I'm fully in the festive spirit and have already watched The Muppet Christmas Carol and Home Alone 1 & 2.. But I'm sure I'll probably watch them again at least twice each before Christmas! And my flatmate and I put up our (tiny) Christmas tree and made our little flat all pretty. Oh and it's also my Birthday in a mere 19 days! I'm making the most of the last few weeks of my early twenties by staying in the house most of the time with sweets and mulled cider...

We also have the most hideous / amazing tree topper (it used to be a witch.... can you tell?!).

The Market + new stockists

Here's a couple of pictures from The Market last Saturday! It's nice to be doing markets again. And you can see some pictures from the opening night of the lovely winter exhibition at The Marshmallow Lady right here (and you can see me in some of the pictures too... I'm the one dressed in pale blue and eating marshmallows...)

I've also got some lovely new stockists! I'm very pleased to say Plaisir in Biggar are now stocking my cards. Co-owner Clare runs the amazing Indie Retail Academy; it was great to get some lovely feedback from her -  which made me realise I'm definitely on the right tracks! My Christmas cards are also available in another two places in Edinburgh - Dovecot Studios are stocking the full range (I worked there when it first opened back in 2008... so it's nice to be selling work there now!). And also both branches of Paper Tiger, on Lothian  Road and on Stafford Street, stock a few of my Christmas designs (I currently work in the Stafford Street branch part-time, so you might be lucky enough to buy one from me there!). That's all for today... I'm going to be getting on with my Valentine's designs and preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow! YEAH!

Stufffffffffff

Some photos from the last week or so: Princes Street Gardens (one of my favourite places to sit) / fluff dog / sausage dog / lettering / my table at Little Birds Market