Right then.

Message inside: “I love the dearness of you”

Message inside: “Hope your birthday is filled with all of your favorite treats”

These little beauties were delivered on Tuesday and I’m only now getting around to blogging about it. OK, it’s not that late but why do I feel like I’m always playing catch up at the moment?

I’m really pleased with them and one of the designs made it onto the back page of the brochure as well as listed inside!

I’ve got a funny feeling that’s one of Helen Dardik’s card designs right underneath mine on the shelf.

If you’re interested here’s a little bit about the cards…

Madison Park Greetings is happy to announce that many of our new cards are now printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks. Additionally, many of our envelopes are now made using recycled stock. Madison Park Greetings supports sustainability and is mindful of the environment when developing our products. After all, shouldn’t every Park be nice and green?

It makes me doubly happy to be designing for a company who are really aware of the environment.

I got this book for my birthday. I love books. And I love this one. It’s full of amazing handwritten fonts used in all sorts of ways. Brilliant.

I had a great day on my birthday by the way, thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

For those people who know me really well they will understand the drastic haircut (again). I go through the same cycle of growing my hair long then getting it all cut off again. I can’t even remember how it all started – kind of a chicken and egg scenario. I get fed up with my hair being long due to the fact that I don’t have time to dry it and do it how it should be so I either leave it and it goes curly or I tie it back. Then I have a radical change. cut it all off. gone. easier. this time i won’t be growing it in a hurray. I think I’ve finally learned that I suit it better short and it suits me. I feel younger. This is probably a good thing since I turn 25 35 tomorrow. I’ve had a horribly nasty cold all week so I’m seriously hoping and praying that I’ll be better tomorrow.

My Exploring print made it to a lovely treasury by Andromedii

I can’t believe it. I’ve actually made two pairs of trousers this weekend. I can’t believe how productive I have been and how much I have enjoyed it. Of course there were a few hiccups along the way like when the elastic got lost inside the casing of the waistband. My right thumb muscle was a bit sore after that but I made two pairs of trousers.

The model has been in bed for some time so she won’t be able to prance around in these until tomorrow now but I’m sure she’ll be pleased.

Next, I’ll be making a mummy sized pair. I just need to find the right fabric.

It really hasn’t been shorts weather here yet (we live in hope) and most of Lexie’s trousers are either heavy weight winter trousers or too small. So, I decided to make her some new ones with some of the fabric I had left over from my skirt. I got the fabric from Lisa originally (about a year ago now) and I love it. It’s really bold and summery.

I used a pair of Lexie’s old trousers as a template but made the pattern a little bit longer than the ones I was tracing. I kept the waist about the same. I don’t know about you but I have a terrible time trying to find trousers that fit her in the leg and waist. I usually end up buying trousers that are just a bit on the short side to accommodate the waist.

So, I think she likes them. I certainly do.

I forgot that I had so much fabric (it’s been hidden away for so long). I decided to make her another pair using some of this fabric.

The pieces are all cut out and ready to sew and to be honest they really don’t take long to do. Quite a satisfying little project. A perfect little project for me anyway because my sewing machine is always packed away and I have to haul it out of the cupboard every time I want to sew something which is less often than I’d like purely due to the hassle factor. So if something takes longer than a couple of hours to sew I lose interest because I have to pack it all away when I’m finished only to drag it all out again when I need to pick it up again. I long for the day when I have a dedicated studio.

All going in the shop in the next couple of days.

I’m working up some new patterns at the moment. I’ve got no idea what will become of them…maybe a fabric, maybe as part of a print, maybe as part of a card. Whatever they become I’m thinking of pulling some designs together for N&A. I’d love to see just one of my designs made up into a product through this site.

For the past two nights this little one has been dancing her heart out in her first ever show.

We missed the dress rehearsal on Sunday so she was a bit stunned when she got on the stage and the lights went up. She soon got into it after the initial shock.

So we’ve had a busy couple of days and I’m actually really glad that it’s over. I’m glad that the summer holidays are starting on Friday. I’m glad that I won’t have to be rushing around quite so much for the next few weeks. I might actually get some things done around here.

I finally got a circle cutter a couple of weeks ago so lots of badges were made last weekend. It was great fun to do…definitely a quick and satisfying project if you have a creative itch to scratch.