Insta-new year

Oh my goodness where did all of december go?

So mid november I started a new job working as a christmas temp. I have loved being part of a larger team in a workplace full of lots of creative and interesting people. The nature of the job and training has meant I have not had very much time for myself or my artwork, I am hoping in the new year I can dial it back a little and split my time a little more evenly. 

This post is a little update on what I have been doing and what I hope to be working on in the new year! 

Circus anyone? Ok so anyone who has been following my work in the past will know I am a little obsessed with the circus and I have been wanting to have a go for such a long time! In November I took up aerial hoop and silks classes in bristol which has been ridiculous fun, albeit slightly painful as far as bruises and calloused hands go, but your body does start to get used to it ;) hoping to fit in as much practise as I can in the new year. 

I have been working on some CD cover artwork and text for my dads new EP. Hoping to make a whole blog post for this when it is finally finished and printed up but until then here is a little preview of the unedited artwork.

I got very crafty over christmas and decided to make as many people's presents as I could. Turns out making soap is fairly easy once you have all the materials, my kitchen smelt very clean for a while whilst I was doing this. I have also been making notecards and packaging them up in a slightly more rustic way than in cello bags which I usually use. At some point these may turn up on etsy, we will see when I have the time!

I went to London for the day for my boyfriends birthday and finally managed to get to the Liberty shop, here are a couple of pictures before they told me off (sad face). The christmas window displays were beautiful and their stationary section was a little like heaven for a pattern obsessive like me.

Christmas day itself I managed to gain a pretty hefty stack of art books, my aim for the new year is to try out some new drawing activities from these books and hopefully do a few reviews mixed with those drawings on the blog. I also got some POSCA markers which I am excited to use having never tried them out before, such epic colours!

Here is a nice little picture just outside my new job! I have been kept on for now (yay!) so will still be working but now I am more settled in I can hopefully plan some new projects ;)

What is everyone else planning in the new year? Let me know!

Giftware Inspiration

This past week I had some time off of work and have been all around the country, visiting some uni friends in Plymouth, family in Cornwall and then up to Birmingham today for the Autumn Fair trade show! This post is just a few photos of some of the lovely things I stumbled upon!

I went with my family to Port Isaac, a seaside town in Cornwall where they film the programme "Doc Martin" (if you like random trivia). There were loads of gorgeous little gift shops including a pottery gallery in this amazing building:

Where you could look down over from the top level into the space below. They had some amazing hand painted pottery.

There were also loads of beautiful gifts and decorations:

And today I went to Birmingham for my first ever trade show (as a visitor rather than exhibiting) to see what it was all about and get inspired by other peoples work.

The NEC in Birmingham is a huuge place, there were 5 halls filled with all sorts of commercial goods, mainly types of giftware, greetings and homeware. I stumbled upon some fun things, and we also watched a popcorn making demonstration and found a dinosaur! 

All in all a very fun day with too many amazing things to see and take in at once, some beautiful displays with varying levels of sparkliness and lights, suck uk was quite extreme:

T-rex!

Dancing sandyclaws!!!

Oh and a little inspiration for any fellow graduates who are freaking out about life right now, if this is too cringy just imagine Dory from Finding Nemo "just keep swimming" ;)

Handmade Arcade Take 2

So despite having a very important deadline on Tuesday I have been sneakily working away at making things to sell online and at craft fairs! I wanted to go to Handmade Arcade again because firstly - its always nice to chat with Nathan and Hayley and the other crafty people, and secondly, I figured this time it would be warmer and more people would be around than before christmas when it was freeezing!

I got a lift with some of the second years Ben, Miles and Bevin, who decided to get their faces painted in exchange for artwork :)

They had a lot of prints, cards and tshirts for sale and made this awesome collaborative drawing over the course of the day!

There were lots of beautiful crafty things for sale and we had some amazing vegan cakes (thanks Hayley)

My stall was in front of the Good Golly Miss Molly shop, I am in love with this place, they sell a huge range of handmade jewellery and accessories and hand printed cards and notebooks! If only I was rich...

Crown and Glory hair bows were teasing me through the window all day! 

Here is me all set up and some of the things I had offer, had an awesome day chilling out and chatting to crafty people, and managed to make a little bit of money too :) . If you are in the Exeter area I recommend heading down to Mccoys arcade and Fore Street, there are so many unique shops to explore.