New Term, New Habits, New Work In Progress...

Hello,

Today my two daughters start a fresh new term at school.  The past week has been a blur of gathering new uniforms, getting things named and ready to start the new academic year with the best possible start.  Whilst doing all this, in my mind I was also mentally preparing myself for being back to work fully this week and all the things I hope to get done before the end of the year...

One of the things that struck me after spending most of the summer focussed on family, is that every so often it's easy to get swept along reacting to what life throws at us and not stepping back and claiming a couple of hours a day to focus on what matters most to us, our dreams and visions for the future...

​What I loved most about this summer is I had seven whole days wifi free...and I loved it!

I was very ready to be off line for a bit.  Part of being able to survive as a freelance artist, illustrator or designer these days hinges on being visible online.  Which means the need to be on social media regularly is constant.  As much as I am a fairly social soul, I  confess, I sometimes find this draining and tiresome.  Surely I am not alone in feeling this?!

I really needed that little break and am so glad I had a chance to put the gadgets down and go and play outdoors.  It's made me comeback feeling refreshed and ready to go with a new focus on creating more and being very strict with time spent on social media in particular...

As part of the new habits I want to form, trimming down time spent preparing things for social media is a priority as it'll boost time needed for creating.

Lately, I have been enjoying using Instagram as a sort of online sketchbook by adding pics of initial line drawings, sketches, close ups of new work in progress and bits of inspiration, often found in our garden and out and about.  This is working well for me so that's where you are most likely to find me...

I also want to keep this blog flowing and fully intend to try and keep weekly updates here which I will feed into my Facebook page.  Here on the blog, I will be able to pull together more of the work I've been sharing on Instagram as it progresses and go into a little more detail about it.  This can then be fed into my Facebook page.  There will also be my regular emails, these tend to be monthly and often have exclusive offers attached to them - to make use of those offers, you can subscribe to my emails here: 
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When it comes to some of what I am working on at the moment, it's that time of year to get my 2017 calendars finished, printed and available.  These are coming together nicely and I'm a couple of weeks away from placing my first order for print.  Below is a first look at the cover for my 2017 wall calendar.  Like previous years, it will be A4 Sized with a full page image of a bright illustration at the top and a full page below with plenty of space for your writing appointments in....

I look forward to sharing more images of the development of this calendar with you all very soon.

I hope you have a lovely week!
Best wishes

​Angie