Moved

 Boxes and boxes and boxes!

 Flat pack shelving to be assembled.

 Vats and vats of white paint.

 The kids and their cousins desperate to help, started to paint my new studio. (It was a much better space for them to spatter paint everywhere than letting them loose in the house.) And much fun was had by all!

Edward must have snuck in to the studio to have his say!

YAY!!!! We have moved across the river!

Much unpacking has been achieved, but now the big project starts, dragging this funny 1950's home out of it's 80's decor into the 21st Century and taming the amazing garden into a productive and beautiful space, but I am so excited it doesn't seem a problem. Not much illustration will be done this week as we are trying to get both boys bedrooms painted before they return to school after half term.

Across the River Dart

The River Dart from the Old Bridge

A beautiful chilly Autumn day in Totnes and this will be my last post for a few days. 

We are moving at last. Across the river, a significant barrier to us Totnesians! The little house is looking like a warehouse, piled high with boxes, and I'm wondering where we are going to put everything in the bigger house. (we have so many books!) Norman, the removal man with his lorry, is booked and we are waiting for a chain of solicitors to all talk to each other on Friday. 

I'm nervous, excited and exhausted already, and the hard work is only just starting. The bigger house is a huge decoration project, but it should be fun filling it with our personality! So I'll see you across the river next week.

Illustration Friday - Scattered

A fabric of scattered spring flowers. One design from my collection called Kitty Jay that I have just completed for my Spoonflower fabric shop. The fabric is inspired by Dartmoor and the sad legend of Kitty Jay, a poor servant girl who died and was buried at a lonely crossroads on the wild moor. To this day there are always fresh flowers like these foxgloves, bluebells, and snowdrops, laid on her grave and no one knows who puts them there.

The haunting melancholic atmosphere of the story and the beauty of Dartmoor is all portrayed in a beautiful song called Kitty Jay by the amazingly talented Seth Lakeman. 

I have tried to convey some of the atmosphere of the interwined legend of poor Kitty Jay and the wild beauty of the moor, with my scattered flowers.

Illustration Friday - Contraption

On pondering what I could draw to illustrate this weeks Illustration Friday I saw the contraption my youngest was building with his bricks!

A Ditsy Result

Just a quick post, but I had to tell you that I came third in this weeks Ditsy Print contest for Spoonflower.

This weeks contest had a lot of entries and there were some beautiful designs so it feels even more amazing that mine was placed so high.

I'm so pleased and thank you to all the people that voted for my design. I now need to produce some different colourways in this pattern, a brilliant and logical suggestion from Su Schaefer, a fellow Spoonflower designer from Australia.

Retro Kitchen Fabric

'A Winter Casserole'

I've created a vintage style fabric with kitchens in mind called 'A Winter Casserole'. There are two colourways, this vibrant burnt orange or a gentler on the eye, grey version. I have also created a complimentary smaller design called 'Carrot and Onion Soup' for both colours which is multi-directional, a table cloth perhaps?

The main motif is a block print created a while ago and I've been itching to tweek it into a fabric for ages. The push came from Spoonflower (the amazing company that print my fabrics using environmentally friendly inks and fabrics), who are running a contest this week with root vegetables as the theme. Once I have checked the samples the design will be available for sale on my Spoonflower shop.

This burnt orange is my new favourite colour and I fancy kitchen blinds in the big bold 'Winter Casserole' fabric, it has a large 12 inch repeat. I think it would suit the Linen Cotton Canvas that prints with a beautiful crisp vibrancy from Spoonflower.

'In the Kitchen' Fabric Collection

Ditsy Print

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A ditsy doodle I drew a while ago but this weeks Spoonflower contest is for a ditsy print and I couldn't resist entering with this design. The voting this week is apparently very close so I will be intrigued how this does. If it's in the top half I will be pleased as there are a large number of entries for this one.

You can check it out and see the repeat here.