Happy New Year!
Happy January!..

After the festivities have ended and the decorations have been put away,
it's time to get our little houses in order and look forward with hope, to spring.
Just like this family of long tailed tits and their friend, Jenny Wren.
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This month I am taking a look back at the past year in designs, to look forward with hope and inspiration for a new year with fresh opportunities to be creative.

There were a few things I wanted to focus on in 2022.
​Those were - getting my designs available in a few more places, creating a couple of new collections and exploring different ways I can get my designs into the world.  I also wanted to work more with others, because emerging from the pandemic years, I appreciate how important collaboration is for me, to get me away from the isolation of my desk and be with other creatives more often...

The first collection which ticked a big goal off my list, was a sunny, colourful gardening humour collection to start a profile on Thortful...

The big collection for 2022 I had been wanting to create for a while, was a full set of the signs of the Zodiac, but a collection to complement the birth flowers range from 2021.
My vision was a sweetly coloured, floral collection which is informative about each Zodiac sign...

With the birth flower collection, I have gently been adding more flowers to it throughout the year.  I have also had the pleasure of creating many personalised family birth flower arrangements - it never ceases to amaze me how different each of these bunches end up, all equally beautiful.  As my collection of flowers grows, it's a goal for 2023 to add more options to the personalised family birth flowers, in terms of choice of flowers and jugs to hold the flowers.  I have loved creating these for customers, so this is a product that I want to, pardon the pun - grow to bloom!..

In the spring I had a wonderful surprise.  It's the sort of thing you dream about when you first start out with a creative business...

I was having an evening off, catching up on my favourite show on Netflix - 'Better Call Saul'.  It's a firm favourite in our house, having followed the series from the start and 'Breaking Bad' which is where the character Saul Goodman originated from, to create this spin off series.  It's fair to say I have been heavily invested in the storyline of these two shows for nearly as long as I have been running my little creative business.  The two things have co-existed in my life for years, in very separate ways.

Imagine my surprise when sitting watching Episode 2 of the final series, when the character Betsy Kettleman walks on screen in a dress with my 'Hibernating Fox' pattern on it!
It was a pattern I licensed to Unique Vintage for that dress as part of their winter 2020 collection.  I thought nothing more of it as the collection came, did well, sold out and then went again once the season ended (as is the way with women's fashion).
It had not occurred to me that it could show up in such a way.  It absolutely blew me away and made my day, to have my designs meet my favourite Netflix series in such a way felt pure magic! ...

This summer was all about the Queen's Jubilee.  

Creating a collection for the Jubilee helped achieve another goal for the year - to work collaboratively with other creatives.  In this case it's a local gift shop in the town.  

I came up with some designs that helped provide the shop with truly unique and local products.  The success of this project has opened up many more possibilities of products I can offer through my Etsy shop and locally in the bricks and mortar shop.  From this Jubilee project, I have plans lined up for more similar, collaborative projects this coming year and I can't wait to get designing on these!... 

2022 was the year I signed up as a Fy! artist.

Landing a licensing partnership with a Wall Art company has been on my wish list for a while.  My product range has been slowly but surely leaning towards creating collections that work as sets of wall art to sit alongside each other.  This was certainly a goal achieved this past year and I look forward to creating some new sets of wall art in the new year...

Here's to 2023!
I'm hoping to fill it with more designs, at least another new collection and
more exploring new products and collaborations.  

With the way of the world currently,
I am simply grateful to still be here, making my art
and finding inspiration in nature to do so.  

There are no big New Year resolutions for me, I don't believe in them.  
My attitude is, if you want to make a change or start something new, just do it. 
Even if it's one small thing.  Do it where you are now,
with what you have - one step in front of the other and keep going.  
That's how I started this creative business over ten years ago 
and that is how I hope to keep it going for many more years.

Thank you so much for your continued support and custom,
that has enabled me to make these steps to keep going over the years.
I hope you enjoy sharing my creative journey with me and that
​my illustrations and designs bring colour, warmth and joy to your days!

Wishing you a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year!
​Best wishes

Happy December!

This month's wallpaper has all the festive feels...
'After a long, frosty drive home with a Christmas tree on board, the warmest welcome comes from a very good boy with a happy, waggy tail.'
​
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​​then here's a link to where to join my mailing list:

JOIN MY MAILING LIST HERE

November saw the welcome return of a long held tradition in our town.
The Bridgwater Carnival was back in full procession after 2 Covid years of restrictions.

 This year was even more special because many of the local Carnival clubs had teamed up to create a very special cart, showcased to the world at the Queens Platinum Jubilee Pageant.  

When I was asked by The Crafty Collective Gift Shop to help them create some gifts to help mark this historical occasion for our town, I fully embraced the opportunity.  

The Carnival Clubs that had created the 'Jubilation' cart and the walking procession had done our town proud and deserved the chance to have a lovely choice of celebratory souvenirs to mark the occasion and remember an amazing day....
​

​I got to work and created an image of the Jubilation Cart along with some icons of the people in costume, royal symbols to represent our late Queen, and symbols of our town -which includes 'The Spirit of Carnival' statue holding a sparkling squib overhead from the era of Guy Fawkes - where the story of our town's Carnival began...
​

The idea was to create something that summed up the atmosphere of that day - afternoon tea, partying and a right Royal celebration.

The team at The Crafty Collective  were able to take my imagery and apply them to mugs, coasters and banners & I supplied some wall art prints. This Carnival season was all about 'Jubilation' and I'm told plenty of mugs were used to help stay warm on Carnival night, which is what it was all about!...

Best of all was getting to see the Jubilation Cart up close myself, to give them all the warmest welcome home after parading down the Mall in the summer.

The end of the November also saw 'Colour Friday' the alternative to 'Black Friday' - where we encourage support of small businesses that bring colour, variety and independence to our High Streets. By supporting small and local businesses you help invest in people and communities that enhance our towns and cities.

A project like this 'Jubilation' one is a great example of this - small businesses working collaboratively to offer something special, unique and relevant to their communities...
​

With few days left for Christmas shopping, please remember that when you shop with small businesses you are investing in so much more than just the item you purchase!

The 'Jubilation' mugs and coasters are still available to order online from The Crafty Collective Bridgwater using the link below - if you are local to Bridgwater, as these items can be ordered online and collected in store:

https://thecraftycollective.square.site/product/jubilation-mug/409?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=52 

  
Before I sign off, I do need to make you aware of my last posting dates for Christmas.
My Etsy shop will remain open over the festive period, but will be on holiday shipping timescales (2-3 weeks) as I will be taking a break from Friday 16th until 4th January.  Business will return to usual timings on the 4th Jan and all orders placed between the 16th Dec and 4th Jan will be shipped from the 4th Jan.

Please also be aware that there are continued Royal Mail strikes planned throughout December.  My shops rely on Royal Mail for delivery and are already experiencing some delays in getting items delivered.  

​UPDATE 5/12/22 :As of 5th Dec, Royal Mail announced that they are bringing their last post dates for Christmas forward by a few days, please see the revised image above as many deadlines have passed or are about to pass.

​Please be patient, orders are getting through - there are extraordinary volumes of post at this time of year, being handled by humans all the way along the chain. What's needed  is patience and kindness - the true spirit of Christmas!

All that's left to say is I wish you all
a very lovely, happy, healthy, peaceful
Christmas and Holidays!
Best Wishes