Sneaky Peak

Ta-daaa!

Just goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it; after my cup of tea this morning I decided to finish the baby card designs that have been hiding in the bottom of a big box waiting to be finished. I first did these a good few years ago when I started the card business and have been very good sellers but I wanted to freshen them up for the new website. So I have made up new cards, taken photographs (although they will need re-doing when the light gets better) and details are up on the site. (I hate that bit as although easy it is a fiddle and time consuming). A good day's work, go and see!

Shattered

Well I don't know where the last week went, don't exactly feel like I've achieved anything either. The week before I was full of enthusiasm and excitement, had lots of new ideas buzzing round in my head but I seem to have lost focus. Last week I started lots of things but couldn't find the energy to finish them. Now I am in that familiar whirlwind of 'which do I tackle first' caught between what I have to do and what I want to do and going nowhere fast. Thought I had a grip on this side of my personality but it has sneaked back up on me. So I am going to have a cup of tea and start on the mundane jobs and get them out of the way. Maybe then I will be able to relax a bit and get back in to the swing of things.

Night Out!

The children were left at their grandparents, and we got to spend an evening out, together, on our own! He'd bought me tickets to see Amy Winehouse for Christmas and the date conveniently fell near valentine's day, how's that for efficient pressie buying! We do get the odd night out occasionally but this time felt different somehow. After getting over the initial 'I've left something behind' feeling we began to remember how we were in our 20's, before Kamal arrived. Walking into the theatre I was 25 again, all the excitement came back, the feeling of freedom, the last 10 years of tiredness just fell away and I happily made it past 10 o'clock when I'm normally thinking about going to bed. With children to look after (which i love!) you do forget there is a world out there sometimes and I think after our little adventure the other night I think we will be making a bit more effort to visit a bit more often!

Illustration Friday - Gravity

A while ago I posted this card design but felt something was missing. Appropriately enough I decided this morning to add a bright orange balloon any little birthday girl would be proud of!

How to make a little girl happy - Step 2

Have babies. NO not me, the cat. Anya loves to create relationships between people and things, anything smaller is a 'baby'. So the left over ball of wool from fuzzball above was 'baby cat' and imagine her delight when it magically transformed overnight into a real baby cat. Now we have 'Mummy cat' and 'Anya cat'.

Best of days

Walking in muddy fields looking for robins and snowdrops, eating apple pie and toffee cake, drinking lemonade and hot tea under the apple trees, coming home cold, wet, but very satisfied.

Faces

Labour of love

This gorgeous ball of fluff is the reason I've been quiet for a few days, knitted for a very special person's birthday back home. I must confess I did intend to have a go myself but a teddy on the fly was a bit much for my poor old brain so I found used this kit instead. Kamal made a pressie too without any interference from me, and I was seriously impressed. I know I'm his mother and by definition biased towards his talents but this really bowled me over, go and have a look!

And I should tell you who's responsible for this sudden renewed interest in kntting, she's an old friend from college and has just started her own business making beautiful crochet hats, artwork and clothes for babies at her site Giggleicious. I haven't crocheted since I was a kid and never really liked it but seeing these gorgeous flowers on her blog I wanted to have a try. Haven't managed it yet as I have only mastered one stitch but did do this little bag for Anya, and then dug out the knitting needles for THE cat.


I daresay the novelty will wear off, after 4 days of solidly knitting the ted I am desperate to get the paints out. It's half term this week and we are having an art day with Kamal and one of his friends so I might get to do something myself too.

Valentine Postcard Swap

I was invited to join pookieville's valentine postard swap and finally got them all posted yesterday. I will post all 10 cards on my whispers blog (and to think I was going to shut it down) and on flickr. To see everyone else's click here

How to make a little girl happy - Step 1

Make it snow. Real, proper, crunch under your feet, snowman making snow. We showed it to her at 7 in the morning when daddy went to work and she refused to come back in for breakfast. She had her coat and boots on over her pyjamas running up the road, screaming in protest as I scooped her up and brought her back in the house. She kicked and screamed louder (goodness knows what the neighbours thought) as I wrestled her wet boots off and then ran to the front door, boots in hand demanding to go back out. Then threw them at me when I said no. So she sat there, bottom lip out in a sulk for a good 10 minutes or so. Like any good mother I left her to it and concentrated on getting Kamal ready for school. I think he was hoping his school would be closed, but his is the only one in the area that managed to open. A very long hour and a half later she finally made it back outside, this time properly fed and dressed and very happy.

Chalk Hill Studio

Well after much faffing and to-ing and fro-ing and 'shall I?' or 'shan't I?' I decided to change the name of my ocellus website. I never really liked Ocellus Art and Design when I chose it at two in the morning six years ago now, but it was the best I could come up with at the time, and I thought the scientific sounding name might make me sound very serious and get me lots of grown up design work. Which to a point it did. But no one could pronounce or spell it properly, nor did it really cover the art side of what I was doing. So this year I finally felt with the way I have progressed and grown in the last year or so it was time for a change.

Not as easy as it sounds though. Most of the decent names have already been thought of and I needed something that was somehow connected to me, so I went back to the butterfly theme I had with ocellus and remembered the little chalk hill blue butterflies we saw in their hundreds over the summer, something I haven't seen since I was a kid. Cambridge has a large area of chalk downs where these tiny little beauties live, plus I originate from the cotswolds which is largely chalk and limestone too. And so became Chalk Hill Studio. I have already set up a blog in its name so all my business news and cardy stuff will go there. This blog will stay as it is with all my personal and arty ramblings and as for Whispers? Not sure. See how much time I have spare. Not a lot has really changed from before, just feels a bit more unified and reflects where I am now. Feels like home.

Anyway I have put some more greeting cards on there, as well as a few valentine ones. The wedding stationery is still work in progress. Go and check it out!