A Very Happy May To You!

Time for this month's FREE desktop wallpaper for my email subscribers.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have spotted that I have started work on expanding my nature guides collection.  The most recent work has been looking at pollinating flowers and bees.  Taking some of the elements needed for that work, I have used them to make this month's desktop wallpaper, featuring colourful hellebores, foxgloves, honeysuckle and bluebells, along with common blue butterflies and honeybees all set against a clear blue sky.  Let's hope we all get lots of those this month!

If you would like to get the FREE desktop wallpaper, then here's a link to where to join my mailing list:

JOIN MY MAILING LIST HERE

Now that Mother's Day and Easter are behind us, I think it's long overdue and high time for a bit of a Spring Sale over at my Etsy shop.  

This month you will find 25% off everything for orders over £3.50 until 25th May.

Hopefully this will help make it a good time to stock up on prints to freshen up walls when having a spring clean and sort.  It's also a good time to get organised with my new wall  planners for the coming academic year and 2020.  Last week I got my first delivery of them and now they are all listed, so this 25% off offer is a good chance to get them at an introductory rate....

I haven't had a big Etsy shop sale this year, it's not something I do very often,
 so it has to be said that NOW is the month to grab an offer on my designs...

As May progresses I will be working on lots of new design development, which I hope to share regularly over on my Instagram account.  The plan is to continue sharing the progress and development of the latest nature guides.  I am looking forward to working on these this month, as my garden springs to life for spring and summer, it's making me feel very inspired to work on this project -  it's perfect for this time of year.

Have a wonderful May!
Best wishes

 'How you started'

For me it all began when my children were babies, I knew that was my window of opportunity to go for it.  I had planned and saved to be able to spend the first couple of years at home with my children.  Back in 2010, I set up a blog and began taking part in weekly illustration challenges.  On the back of that I set up a Folksy shop and ordered my first collection of greetings cards to sell from my Folksy shop.  It all grew from there. 
A few years ago, the story of how I started my little business was used as a case study in a book by Emma Jones from Enterprise Nation ' Start A Business for £99'. It was from those very small steps and a small investment at the beginning that things grew. 

​Obviously, the £99 headline on this very helpful book, is just to get the first things started (initial set up costs). You will need cash to live on and to invest and grow the business. It takes a few years of consistent, dedicated, hard work before things start tipping into feeling like a viable job with growth potential. Often that means building multiple income streams to help make the business stable and sustainable.  This all takes time. Which is why, if you are starting out and don't have savings in place, you may need to work a second job to give you the cash you need to keep going in those early years. 
Everything has to start somewhere, often it just needs a few small actions to get things moving and then bit-by-bit, day-by-day it grows if you keep at it. If you love what you do, it makes it all worth everything!

'Full or Part-time'

'I swapped 9 to 5 for 24/7'
I think most self employed people will resonate with this statement!
This is more than my job, I think about it all the time. I've always had ideas for images, designs and can't remember not ever thinking about drawings, art, things to make and create.  I daydream in full technicolour and felt most 'myself' at art college - it was a very natural habitat for me!  After Uni I lost a bit of that, trying to make my way in the world, but found a little bit of that creative environment working in advertising and spent a good decade working with lots of bright and imaginative people.  However, it was never quite right for me. Looking back, it felt like a piece of me was missing and not true to myself.  It was always my aim to get back to that full creative life I had at uni. To be able to do that working around my children was my dream. Now I feel very lucky to be able to work the hours my children are in school doing creative work.  Sometimes I work at the weekend or in the evening, but only because I want to... and it's not really work, it's portfolio building which I LOVE doing!

'You' 
​
This is me, lovely to meet you! 
I am a mother of two girls and designer of stuff who loves drawing most of all. I'm also a Generation X, music lover, novice gardener and cake fanatic. I love escaping to the coast to sit by the sea with a good book, or explore a city or town on foot... but don't get as much chance to do that as I used to, bringing up girls and running a creative business, so now I relish those opportunities even more!

'Workspace'

This is my corner empire!
A comfy space to bring drawings to life with colour and to carefully pack orders. It's very cosy on dark winter days and light and bright on sunny days.

.I hope you enjoyed a brief round up from my Instagram #MarchMeetTheMaker.

I'll sign off today with an image of my Easter card selection, available from my Etsy shop.

Have a wonder April and Easter!
Best wishes