A day for day lilies

Managed to steal a sunny moment in between the April-like showers to capture these.....

....And a few baby poppies dotted around the garden too today:

 - Oh I do love it when everything's in bloom! :D

Finito!

Not to give toooo much away still, but here are the finished designs I let you have a peek at on Friday....

....now on to another two!

Juggling

I tend to have a habit of juggling designs quite a bit...especially when I'm working on a set - rather than completing each design separately I like to work on them all together (I find it saves a little time and is a bit easier to make them all co-ordinate!)....here's a little look at my current 'works in progress'....

- they're all a little shy as they're not quite complete yet! ;)

Happy Friday everyone.......fingers crossed for Minty later - could it be his year???

Late blooms....

Well, I'm not sure what's happened to the poppies this year, but after the glorious display last summer, numbers have definitely dwindled this time round.....would it be the dry Spring that's to blame? I really don't know...click here to see how fab they were last June (sigh).  It seems to be the year of the day-lily...we have plenty of those about to sprout; will post some piccies once they arrive.

Christmas in the summer sun...?!??

Hmmmmm...it's a toughy, but being a designer of all things festive it tends to happen quite a lot, and boy is it a struggle sometimes! (especially when Wimbledon's on too!!) 

Though I guess this is how it feels to be Australian?!? The mini-heatwave seems to have subsided today, so it's onwards and upwards from here...take a little look at some recent work - the starting point for a new set.....

A Birthday break

It was my birthday last week and my lovely hubby decided to whisk me away for a relaxing mini-break by the sea....it was gorgeous; the sun even decided to come out despite forecasts of rain, rain, rain - someone was obviously smiling on us! :D

- we stayed in Pembrokeshire, and visited the pretty harbour town of Tenby whilst we were there....I LOVE all the pastel coloured houses along the front :)

- we were very much pampered at the B&B  -  a tasty breakfast every morning, a spacious room complete with bathrobes and slippers, and these cheery blooms were left in our room just for me; tulips - my favourite! :)

Now, with a much-needed battery recharge, it's back to the drawing board for me...so off I go :)

Which one is yours.....?

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Keeping it bright and cheery!

Following the success of my illustrator efforts at Surtex, I've decided to do a few more things....starting with some simple geos:

A brighter outlook

I've been revamping a few designs recently....mostly making them look more bright and cheery; here's a little look at a recoloured owl design:

Some more lovely lines!

After browsing the net for Camille yesterday, I also came across another great find - Johanna Basford. She is an illustrator from Scotland; specialising in beautiful doodly linework - you can find her site here. 

Here are some of my favourites that I picked out from her website - love it!! :)

Ooooooh - would love to get my hands on some of these ceramics - beautiful!!...

She's even customised a Smart car - WOW! :O

Isn't it great when you make new discoveries... :)

Camille Rousseau

Hope you all had a lovely weekend - whilst tucking into some tasty Italian fayre yesterday I came across some beautiful wall art by the very talented Camille Rousseau....check out her site here. She creates gorgeous line art pieces....

And here's a little clip of the restaurant that I found whilst googling her on the net - fabulous!

Lost in a weird and wonderful world of air

Hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend....it was a nice, relaxing one for us - the highlight of which being a visit to an amazing creation by the Architects of Air . I found out about it a few weeks ago whilst surfing the blog world, and I'm so glad I did - it was truly breathtaking, and made you feel all light and floaty inside....take a look:

and this is how it looked on the outside:

If you happen to be in the Nottingham area this week then I thoroughly recommend a visit - Luminity III will be residing at the city's Lakeside Centre until June 5th....

go check it out!! :)

All poinsettia'd out!

After a very successful Surtex this year it looks set to be a promising time ahead with everyone in a buying mood again - hoorah!! This is a welcome relief for us all after a couple of relatively quiet years over there... 

This past week I've been busy working on follow-up designs from the show....many of which involve poinsettias!! Just one more wrap to go and I can move onto something new....here's a little look at what I've been up to:

A lovely blog and a lovely Folksy shop to boot!

If you're looking for anything knitted or hand-sewn for your little ones then I thoroughly recommend that you check out the fabulous blog of Missy RS....

Many Things In Missy World features all of her lovely makes and likes, while her Folksy shop Missy & Mum has a selection of items for sale, all beautifully handcrafted and finished by Missy herself, as well as her super-talented mum...go on - see for yourself  by clicking on the links here and here; I'm sure you won't be disappointed! :)

- Some cute little booties; my faves! Available to buy now from Missy & Mum :)

Surtex 2011

Ahhhh - phew - we're back - and just when I'd finally started blogging again! This post should have appeared yesterday, but sadly not due to some technical difficulties at Blogger HQ!! I'm pleased to hear that it all seems to be sorted now though, so here goes....

As mentioned in my  latest post I've been busy preparing for this year's Surtex show for the past few weeks, and now the time has finally arrived with the first day of the show being tomorrow. If you happen to be around then come along to the Inspire By Design Ltd booth - 326 - we have lots of lovely designs on show this year; all available for license....we even have banners (part of which featured above), bunting and wall decals on display - we've really prettied it up this time round....let's hope we catch your eye!!


As well as myself, you can also see the fabulous work of fellow bloggers Little Red, Rah Rah, Lucy B, Fatty Moe & Helen Hallows....so come along and have a browse! :)

Busy, busy bumble-bee!

Oh dear, oh dear - where have I been you ask?? Well, for those fellow designers out there I'm sure you can imagine - with Surtex looming it's been a busy ol' time!! Here's a summary of my designing month in snapshots to give you a little idea of what I've been up to....

-traditional Christmas.....

 - fun Christmas....

- and a little bit of everyday...all squeeeeeeeezed into the last 30 days or so.

Phew! Fingers crossed for a great show this year!! :)