Miles and miles

of sky...
and sea...
and smiles!

New Cards....

.... are all made but will photograph them and list them in the shop on Monday, was going to do it today but we went to the beach instead :0)

Sea ceramic pendant

One of my little sea pebbles became a pendant - need to practice this wire wrapping malarky but the person it was made for loved it :0)

Cards and sea ceramic

Today's crafting 365 task is printing off more cards, both for etsy and Chalk Hill, and trying to get well stocked up before the wedding orders pick up and Christmas arrives.

In the post this morning arrived an enevelope stuffed full of these gorgeous ceramic pebbles all the way from Scotland via Stephanie's etsy shop (yes I've gone etsy mad lately but it's so wonderful over there!), so there's another project to add to my huge to do list!

New Print

Available to buy here

Last day of Summer

Kamal went back to school today, it's ever so quiet without him and his poor little sister is just moping about the house. Oh well, back to normal for a while.

Nursery canvas - pink butterfly

Another finished piece - collaged papers on handpainted canvas, available here.

Cuteable

Look who found themselves on cuteable! How cool is that!

Crafting 365

The lovely Lupin over at Etsy has started a flickr group called Crafting 365. The idea is to do a little bit of crafting every day and record what you do, a very good way to finish off those projects you have lurking in cupboards (of which I have loads) and feeling like you have achieved something on a daily basis, however small!

This is a philosophy I adopted when my eldest was a baby, instead of getting frustrated at what I hadn't got done I decided to do a little bit every day and slowly things got done and my business grew from there. Since having my daughter and trying to move house and stuff I have slacked lately so this group has come at a good time.

So far I have finished 2 necklaces and a scarf, all now for sale in my other etsy shop Up With the Lark

Fitzwilliam Museum

Friday was spent in the Fitzwilliam musuem. The staff were particularly amused to see me sat on the floor with a sketchbook with my two little artists in residence doing the same. I am not the most patient of sketchers but there is enough asian and greek pottery here to keep me inspired. (And an exhibition of Howard Hodgkin's paintings to oooh and aaah over.)

I've said this before but I really must draw more. Pah. I can hear my old art tutor now - my sketchbooks at college were drearily empty, to my shame I would much rather have the paints out making a mess and if I hadn't discovered collage when I did I suspect that my art career would had died before it had begun! No such worries for my son though, he will make a wonderful illustrator should he choose to do so. He thankfully doesn't seem to have inherited my lazy gene. You can check out his wonderful drawings on his blog.

Up With The Lark

Larissa from Giggleicious and I have been friends since college and the birth of our daughters has created a sudden and unexpected urge to get out the needles and knit, sew and crochet lots of goodies, some of which you can see in our newly opened etsy shop called Up With the Lark! Ok, so it's full of Larissa's things at the mo as I am very good at starting things but not so good at finishing them but go and drool over hers until I catch up. Above is the adorable Bertie from Larissa's monsters range.

2 Years Blogging!

Where did the time go? I only thought I started this a year ago but 2 years have skipped by. I've never been very good at keeping diaries so memories of my past are jumbled up randomly in my head so it is weird to look back in the last two years in chronological order. What has struck me most is the journey I have been on and the progress I have made, a lot of it as a direct result of starting this blog and the amazingly talented people I have met along the way who have inspired and directed me in ways I'm not sure could have happened otherwise. I love being at home with my children but from an artistic point of view this can be very stifling. Up until my two year old was born life had become a bit of a treadmill; I was making a reasonable and necessary living from making wedding stationery but there wasn't room for much else, creatively speaking. I don't remember exactly how I came across blogging but I was on maternity leave and free to explore and rediscover my art again. Blogging seemed a good way of focusing and putting down in words the muddle in my head, and looking back at my first posts it was a muddle! I've still got a way to go but the future is looking good, oh and thank you to everyone out there in blogland, you are all wonderful!

UK Street Team - Etsy

Some of the UK Street team at etsy are planning on going to New York to meet fellow etsians and take part in their trunk show at the end of this year. Of course this is going to cost a bit so we are all donating to the street team shop to help out. My little note or greeting cards are for sale there - go check out the other wonderful items available too!

Vintage Scarf Top

Please excuse the blurry photo but just look what came in the post today, this gorgeous scarf top from the lovely Greygoat at etsy. Made from two coordinating vintage scarves it ties at the back with a huge black bow and is so flattering in all the right places! Thank you so much Grey, it is stunning!!

Front Page Glory!

Woohoo my UK treasury is on the front page of Etsy. Well done guys and gals!!! It won't be there for long so go check it out now!

Printmaking Workshop

Last Thursday Kamal and I helped out at a printmaking workshop for local children which was loads of fun! I haven't done printmaking since college and it wasn't something I really took to but this time we used really simple techniques and water based inks and the results were fantastic. The first group of prints were using a technique called drypoint where the image is drawn or 'scratched' into a sheet of acetate with a sharp point then the ink rubbed into the scratches. The second group shows 'press print' where we used polystyrene (similar to pizza bases) and the design is pushed into the plate and the ink rolled over the top to leave white lines. The kids took to it really easily and I got to have a go too - see my birdy? Think this is something I will be trying at home, apparently if you don't have a press you can use the back of a wooden spoon. Watch this space!

A Rose is a Rose

New little photographic print available on Etsy!

Colchester Zoo

School holidays are here hooray! These are a few pics from a day at Colchester Zoo.

Inch by Inch

Teeny inch square pieces of art for the 100 inchies in 100 day swap.

UK Etsy

Etsy are currently running a poster challenge around their very addictive treasury feature, if chosen they will become real prints that they plan to distribute as publicity posters at events etc. There is a ever increasing number of UK Etsians so we are of course keen to promote UK sellers and here is my contribution. The other entries can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/groups/388218@N25/pool/. Fingers crossed a UK entry gets picked!

Illustration Friday - Discovery

Don't you love it when you move house and pull up the old wallpaper to discover more wallpaper from an earlier time, or old photos and letters in the attic, snippets of other peoples lives, layer upon layer, page upon page of mystery and intrigue...

Update

My online shop is now officially finished, really this time, with lots of cards and trinkets going on there as fast as I can manage - www.chalkhillstudio.co.uk - it will only take UK orders at the mo but if you live overseas and found me via my blog please drop me a line if you like something. It also has its own blog that I will get going over the next week or so, it will have lots of info about DIY weddings and parties and interviews with other artists and designers I have been lucky to meet in the blogosphere! Again it will be predominately UK based but there will be something for everyone.

I am also delighted to have been accepted as a member of Tuggle , a brand new website that was set up by a mother of two Jasmyne Sefton to support other parents who run their own businesses from home - just what we need, go check it out!

Cambridge Open Studios has also started for this year, again I haven't been able to participate this year but I am holding another kids collage workshop on the 21st and 22nd July at the Gallery in Fulbourn High Street, so if you live around Cambridge please pop in and say hi, but be prepared to get messy!

And my little monkeys enjoying a rare day out in the sun, what has happenend to the weather!

Dairy Page

This is my page for Fantazya's Diary Project.