Oooh, what a lovely find!

On Saturday, as well as the fete, there was an Antiques Fair being held at the university, and as we were there we decided to have a little look around after packing up the stall....I'm so glad we did; look what I found:

- it was such a beautiful pattern that I fell in love with it straight away; it really caught my eye! Anyway, we decided it was far too lovely to leave behind, and purchased it, even managing to knock something off the price (well, you have to be a little bit cheeky sometimes, don't you! ;D )

When we got home I was so thrilled with our find, and proudly started unpacking it - we hadn't really paid much attention to the make or designer at the fair, but then I took another look and decided to google it to find out a bit more. Turns out it was designed by a very important figure in the ceramics world - Jessie Tait - and that her pieces were now highly sought after! Sadly, I read a bit more and found that she had passed away earlier this year at the age of 81. A fellow 'Midlander', she grew up and lived in Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, designing for most of her life - even after her retirement apparently! She has some fantastic designs - I recognised some of them, though never knew the designer's name. Whilst searching her name I even found our set in an online article taken from this month's 'Vintage Life' magazine! What a coincidence! 

It really was a great little find...now all that's left to do is to find this pretty set somewhere safe to take pride of place in my home! :)

Trying my hand at the Community Fete....

It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the blogging front, but I'm back again to tell you what I've been up to...

 - My good friend Eve told me about this local event as she thought it might be a good way to showcase my crafty wares, so I thought hey, why not give it a shot (it was free after all!)....here's some snaps of what was on sale:

- I created quite a lot of new stationery items - larger notebooks, notecards, postcards and address labels.

It was a scorching day, and with lots of entertainment going on it attracted quite a lot of visitors - there was Brazilian drumming (which was fab), dancing, singing, it was great...but, unfortunately, not many shoppers.  I did have some success though, and was so pleased that my dalmatian print went - it's one of my favourite pieces and was purchased by a lovely little family, so that made my day! :D

I'm still on the look out for new places to try out my work, so if anyone knows of any great crafty events/ venues where you think I may fit in then let me know...it would be muchly appreciated! :)

All set for Surtex 2010!

Much preparation and time has gone into this year's Surtex show -  there's a whole new look for us this year, so it's going to be very exciting!! All the gang will be represented by Inspire By Design Ltd, with lots of lovely new designs to choose from - you'll not want to miss it! :) 

Come along to Booth 264-266 and check it out for yourself...

...but for now, here's a little taster of just one of the new sets I've been working on - making it's debut at the show:

Drip, drop, drip...

...little April showers; or rather....BIG May showers!

 This Bank Holiday's been a complete washout (nothing new there then, I hear you cry!), but, at least it's helped to make it a little easier to sit at my desk for hours on end. Every cloud and all that.... ;)

That sun keeps on shinin'...

...and today it's promising to be the hottest day of the year so far here in ol' Blighty - woo-hoo! :D

Back to the drawing board for me though (or rather, tablet)...so much to do in preparation for Surtex...busy, busy, busy!!

Christmas in the sun?!

Oooh, it's been beautiful weather over here in the UK for well over a week now (BIG YAY!), so it seems a little wrong to be working on Christmas designs! But, needs must, and with Surtex fast approaching, it's a necessity....now I know how the folks down under feel! :) Here's a peek at a new snowman design for my latest festive set......

A little bit patriotic on this sunny, sunny Friday...

Have a great one! :)

Ooh - la- la!

Back on the dog theme, here's a little snippet from my Parisian Poodles wrap...I think she's kinda cute, what do you think?

Ooooooh...I laaaaaaarve a bit of cake! ;-)

Here's a little taster (no pun intended - honest!) of some birthday wraps I've been working on recently.....mmmmm...cake! :)

Make a wish as you blow out those candles...

A comical find....

We had a massive clear out of the shed and garden yesterday...mostly because our shed is collapsing (!), but as we were going through stuff, and gradually throwing it all away, we turned around to find our little cat had made herself a home in one of the discarded boxes (she looked like she'd bedded down for the day!). My husband turned round to me and said...it's like the owl and the pussycat...sailing away in their beautiful pea-green boat..... :)

 - It sounds like a boat wouldn't be such a bad idea at the moment; what with all this ash flying around in the cosmos, and many people stranded at airports far and wide. I really hope it all clears away soon so that everyone can return to wherever it is they're going to safely...

Have a good weekend everyone.

100 today...hip-hip-hooray! :)

Here's a toast to my 100th post.....

Told you it was all about the tea party.....

I was rather late in turning over my calendar this month and only realised this morning that it was still on March...look what I found when I did:

image taken from the Mrs Moggs 2010 calendar - copyright Steve Bicknell & Paul Cocken

...being a lover of cats I couldn't resist this calendar when I saw it at the Chatsworth House garden centre...let me introduce you to Mrs Moggs - isn't she fab?! She LOVES a little tea party! :) There's a whole 12 months of fab poses, published by Maverick.

Have a great weekend everyone...it looks set to be a glorious one here in the UK (hip-hip-hooray!!)

Four legged friends...

Here's a couple of cat and dog designs that co-ordinate with some existing designs shown in an earlier post...I love creating new characters - always fun to do! :)

I wonder if the Mad Hatter would like to join this tea party?!

With the recent release of Alice In Wonderland at our cinemas, the theme of tea parties and teapots seems to be gaining popularity...with that in mind, I've developed a new set of designs for Mother's Day. 

Here's a sneak peek at a couple of card designs I completed today:

Happy Easter!

Yay - Easter is here! Always a favourite with me; there's nothing like a good excuse to eat chocolate! ;D 

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend....

A culinary success! :D

It was my husband's (still trying to get used to saying that!)  birthday yesterday, and as he has to work all week this week (muchos early starts!) we celebrated early in Manchester at the weekend - we had a lovely time. Last night though, I decided to prepare a special birthday tea for him, and I can happily say it went down a treat! :) I asked him if there was anything he particularly fancied, and he said that he'd love something vietnamese (!)...so, I hopped online and found a lovely recipe on the Good Food Channel's website - Vietnamese Tamarind Beef with Peanuts...for details click here.

I was quite nervous about how it would turn out as I'd never really tried Vietnamese food, let alone prepared it, so I was so relieved when the outcome was good, and my hubby was a very happy chappy indeed! :D

For dessert I made a tiramisu...we spent our honeymoon in Sardinia, so I thought it would bring back happy memories as it was one of our favourite desserts over there. This particular recipe was taken from a great series on the Good Food Channel called 'Rhodes Across Italy' which we watched a couple of months ago; it was fab! Get the recipe here.

So all in all, it was a great success! I'm so pleased he liked it...especially as I'd never attempted any of it before. Can't wait to try out some more recipes from the site! :)

Spring has sprung!

YAY - the sun has been shining and the first tulips have arrived in our garden! :D We've spotted quite a few ladybirds too...could this be a sign of a great Summer?? Ooh, I do hope so - this time of year makes me sooooo happy! :)

Happy Spring weekend everyone; don't forget - the clocks go forward one hour on Sunday morning...bring on the long Summer evenings!

Happy Birthday Gran!

It was my Gran's birthday over the weekend, and when it comes to cards she always likes to receive a handmade edition from me, as opposed to a bought one.....this time I had a bit of a play around with a photograph to create a pretty floral illustration for her.....

I printed the design onto tracing paper to give it a lovely soft feel, layered it up with card, and then added a pretty spring green ribbon to finish. She loved it! :)

More products in the U.S.

My agent returned from another trip to the U.S. yesterday, and brought with him some catalogues from various customers...what a lovely surprise it was to see my very own collection of wedding bags in Shalom International Corp's 2010 range! Here are a couple of snapshots taken on my phone (apologies for the poor quality - oops!) 

As you can just about see, they have named the range 'Something Blue'...to see a couple of the designs in their original guise, click here. I think they've done a lovely job! :)

If you're in the U.S., then keep your eye out for them in stores....

Once upon a time....

...I used to paint; and I mean A LOT. I was asked to dig out a few of my old painted florals the other day for a client, and it made me quite sad to see them all...I'd forgotten how much painted work I actually had, and it made me realise how much I miss it - time to dig out those paint brushes methinks....hopefully soon.

Here's a little taster of how I used to work.....

Have a great weekend everyone - so glad Spring seems to have finally sprung; the sun has finally arrived - happy, happy, happy! :D