Hello and I hope you are enjoying July and a smidge of sunshine & warmth!

I've been working on an order - I'm currently doing a Stars name canvas in a vibrant red with a light cream contrast - and it's looking good so far. Here's an example of a previous Stars...

I've also been working on some more "grown up" designs that could be used as they are or with names/dates on to commemorate a special date such as a wedding - thus far I seem to be going in the flower direction but that may change...

The sunflower isn't quite finished but the pics give and idea of how it will look

This is a design I did as a gift for a friend's wedding...the buttonholes were all hot pink gerberas! I made a matching Wedding Day card from a print of the canvas onto vellum, which was then stitched onto a textured, square, cream card.

There is a fabulous article on Etsy about one of the team's own wedding - some cracking ideas for handmade, bespoke bit and pieces...see here. All the colours and ideas are totally inspirational - makes you want to rush off and make something! :-)

x

Promotion!

Blimey, this promotion lark is quite hard work - obviously not in a manual, calloused hands kind of way, just in a staring at the screen and now slightly dazed way!
So...I've created a fan page on my Facebook account, set up a shop with Coriandr and added all my news designs to my Etsy store...phew! And I've already got one interested party thanks to the FB fan page. Good work!
Ooo and I'm on the home page of Coriandr with my new listings - very exciting!
Cuppa time, me thinks...
x

Yay! I've finally got my new shelves...I've been wanting some new Ikea Expedit shelving for the study since me moved in and I've finally got them! Thank you to Paul for my birthday present!!

The rest of the room needs a final sort out (and it will ALWAYS be used as a dumping ground for bags and coats) but it's looking way tidier and much more stable than the rickety shelving I had before.

The bottom baskets have my current completed stock paintings and the top shelf had my ready-to-go canvases...all prep'd and ready to paint.

It's also handy for displaying the odd painting or two...
x

So...its been a while! The website is about done...www.ditsybird.com...and is looking dandy, Johnny has done a cracking job.

I've been working hard recently on new designs and on building up a stock of my current "friends"...here's what our table looked liked on Monday when I was mid-mission!

One of the monkeys was an order for Heather who has been a fantastic supporter of my work - the others are for stock.

Again, one of the little Japanese doll painting is part of an order for my friend Jo, and the others are for stock.

Sadly she has no eyes on this WIP picture but she looks v cute with them! =>

here she is with her sisters...and eyes!

what do you think? I'm actually really pleased with the way she's turned out and I'm loving the colour combinations. She is meant to be one of a set of 4 Japanese/Kokeshi doll style paintings and when they are all together the colours work even better.

Here's a sneaky peek at the others, though they're not quite finished

I was reading a "quit your day job" story on Etsy the other day (love that site - so inspiring - check out my little bit of Etsy at http://www.ditsybird.etsy.com/) and I realised that I love seeing pics of where other people work - their studios, creative space and also, their creative process. So I thought I'd share a little of my space and process.

This is the wall behind my desk in the study - it contains new ideas, work-in-progress and those ones i just can't seem to get quite right. So, they sit there on my wall and eventually a colour scheme will click or the light bulb will go on and then they'll get finished.

The robot is from a drawing done by George (my 6 year old son) - loved the smile and the detail on it - I just need to work out how to finish it off. I was thinking cogs..?

TTFN

Sx