Back to School bags with Case Luggage

It's only 2 weeks until I move to London now, and 3 weeks until I start my uni course. For an art or design uni course like mine, where I will be carrying lots of material, stationary and a laptop around, a good bag is a very important purchase.

I've been searching the Case Luggage website for some practical and fun bags to take to uni with me, here are some of my favs.

Now of course, before I show you my practical finds, I have to show you my absolutely favorite find. I think it's very apt for this post, as it is London themed:

This childrens London Bus case is by Cuties comes with stickers so you can personalise it yourself. As you can probably tell, I've never really grown out of personalising things, so I think this is perfect.

My actual practical finds look just as awesome and fun! They're by Kipling. I chose the Dallin Wheeled School Bag (right) and the Poona School bag (right). I first noticed these bags for their awesome prints, but it turns out they're really well designed too. The Dallin comes in 3 different prints, has wheels and built in laptop protection. It can also be carried on your back, so it's multi functional and very practical. The Poona is a little smaller and comes in a fun monkey print.

 I also really liked this Umbrella with a matching zip pouch by Knirps and this Converse Backpack.

What are your "back to school" essentials?

Desk of the Day 29/08/2013

This week I've had a realllly fun digital portrait order to work on, and I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of it. I've been working on 5 portraits of some girls with really rad style. It's always so fun when I get to illustrate people with unusual hair, make up and fun hats.

If you'd like your own digital portrait, check out my Etsy Shop or email me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com for illustration enquiries.

I Heart Pyjamas!

Ok, I have a big confession to make. I'm actually a complete slob. Since I started working from home I'm almost always in tracksuit bottoms or my pjs all day. My mail man always apologises for waking me up when he delivers the mail at 11am (nope, you haven't woken me up Mr Mail man, I'm just sporting bed head and pjs as my usual work-from-home fashion statement!). I love being comfy, so I don't think this will be a habit that's changing any time soon.

I'm moving to London in a few weeks, and I'm most likely going to be living in a flat share with complete strangers. So I figured, if I'm not going to change my pj ways, I really need to spruce up my lazy lounging around wardrobe. That way I won't inflict my old placebo t-shirt and paint splattered tracksuit bottoms on my new flat mates.

I managed to find some pretty amazing pjs, I just can't decide which ones to buy! Obviously the poodle slippers are going to be bought. If I can't cuddle my crazy Effy poodle every day I'll need some poodle slippers to cheer me up.

 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 /

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas - Wedding Shoes

I always feel so special when I get to do someones wedding shoes. It's such a large part of someones big day. I get to do such unusual and fun designs for peoples weddings; So far I've done pirate, octopus, fast food and rugby shoes for brides on their special day. I love to imagine how unique their themed weddings are going to look!

This pair of shoes are for a vegas themed wedding. The bride particularly loves tattoo style designs so I tried to include that style in the roses.

You can check out more of my wedding shoes here.

If you'd like your own wedding shoes painting, send me an email at ponychopsshop [at] gmail [dot] com and check out my Etsy Shop

Stasia Burrington Giveaway

Today I want to introduce you all to the art and jewellery of Stasia Burrington. I first discovered Stasia on Etsy a few weeks ago, and she's very kindly offered to do a giveaway for a piece of her jewellery. I recently discovered Stasia's website and portfolio too, where you can check out more of her beautiful illustration and art work.

I love this quote from Stasia, I think it sums up her style so well:

"I create personal, intimate, edgy and cute artwork; I want to inspire discussion, to form connections, and to respond to all this pain and beauty that we live in... to share all these human feelings, and to inspire compassion and humility."

And now for the Giveaway!

The winner of this giveaway gets to pick any piece of jewellery from Stasia's Etsy Shop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Watch 25/08/2013

I've decided to make blogwatch a biweekly feature. This way I get to explore more blogs and read up on my fav blogs some more. If you have a fun feature that you'd like to share, don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can check it out :)

Michelle from Creature Type always wows me with her Artwork, but I'm particularly smitten with these sunbathing vampires. I think they have fabulous hair and swimsuits.

Lauren from Old Red Boots is making me jealous of her wardrobe as usual. I think this pastel cat outfit is too kawaii not to share.

Marielle from Magical Daydream is making me cry with her beautiful crane project. Seriously, go check this out. Marielle shares love and positivity by giving 1000 strangers a crane that she's hand crafted from colourful paper.

Jessa from Caked Vintage is back! And she has some awesome hair and outfits to show us.

Shell from Kitty and Buck shows us a way to both protect our books, and make them look pretty at the same time.

Violet from Blythe Ponytail Parades shares some beautiful pictures of Blythe dolls from the Blythe Indy Meetup. 

Jen from Made in Minch shows us how to spruce up any cake with a DIY mini washi tape bunting.

Advertise on PonyChops in September

I can't believe it's almost September already! Summer seems to be flying by far too quickly for my liking. August has been a fantastic month for PonyChops, and I hope September will be just as successful. I have some tutorial and DIY plans for late September/early October. I'm also going to be documenting my move to London and start of my Shoe Design course at London College of Fashion.


If you'd like to host a giveaway on PonyChops or send me a product to review email me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

If you need any help with your advert design pop me an email and I'll see what I can do to help.

Here are my stats:

25000+ pageviews this month
15000+ Tumblr followers
10000+ followers on other social media

Mermaids and Corgis

Mermaids seem to be a really popular Russian Doll design, and I love finding out the different features people want on their mermaid dolls.

This set are for a lovely lady who's getting married, I always feel so honored when my work gets to be part of someones wedding! She wanted the dolls to resemble her, and to have her little corgi puppy by her side.

I love how these turned out, the addition of the corgi was my fav part of course.

If you'd like your own customised Russian Dolls you can buy some here. Or email me at ponychopsshop [at] gmail [dot] com

Check out my other mermaid Russian Dolls.

What's in my bag? Edinburgh Fringe edition.

I see lots of other bloggers post "what's in my bag?" posts, and I've always wanted to do one, but my bag is almost always full of receipts, pens and random flyers I pick up intending to read that just end up staying in my handbag for a year or more.

Last week I visited Edinburgh for Fringe festival, and it was probably the most organised my handbag has been for a long time!

Here's my essentials for a visit to Edinburgh Fringe:
1. A camera or phone! - Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities on earth, you'll need a camera to take pictures of it's beauty (and of the fun and odd things you'll get to see at Fringe).
2. I always bring my business cards with me, at a creative festival you never know who you'll strike up a conversation with.
3. An umbrella &/ or a rain mac (the mac is from Primark) - when you're in Scotland (or most of the UK in fact), pack for rain. Don't forget your sunglasses for when the rain disapears though!
4. B.B Cream with SPF (this one is from Superdrug) - After a late night, I really can't be bothered putting much foundation on, BB cream is great for a quick perk up for your skin.
5. A notebook - Edinburgh is so inspiring, I need somewhere to doodle new ideas for shoes and illustrations.
6. Chocolate!! - You'll be doing a lot of walking in Edinburgh. I'm not saying chocolate is the best source of energy, but it's my fav one!

For those of you who don't know much about Edinburgh Fringe, it's a comedy and arts festival that takes over Edinburgh for 25 days each summer. This is my second year going to Fringe and it's safe to say that it won't be my last.

This year we saw some fantastic comedians; Stewart Lee, Rich Hall, Paul Foot and David O'Doherty were my absolute favs. We even found a pub, The Auld Hoose, that served vegan cooked breakfast, including vegan haggis, it was amazing. And to top it off they have a metal jukebox so we got to listen to Rammstein and Mudvayne while we ate our breakfast.

Desk of the Day and a giveaway winner!

Well, it's not really today's desk, it's from a few days ago but I love seeing these shoes together so much that I just had to share. I've had a few crazy days of catching up on emails and sending out shoes, so today I'm going to relax, eat hummus with my besties and bake pie. I hope you're all having a delicious, pie filled day too!

And a big congratulations to Tea T who won the Pidpenky giveaway! Tea gets to pick one of Pidpenky's adorable plush bunnies.

Les Folles Marquises Giveaway

Today I have a super rad giveaway, brought to you by Dorothée from Les Folles Marquises. When I first saw Dorothée's adorable jewellery I immediately fell in love. Her little doll necklaces remind me so much of matryoshka, I love their little faces and the intricate patterns on their clothing.

The winner of this giveaway gets to pick any piece of jewellery (apart from a wedding locket) from the Les Folles Marquises shop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ahoy Octopus!

I love it when someone orders a pair of octopus shoes! This is my fifth pair of octopus shoes so far, it's been really fun to think up different ways to do the same theme. For this particular pair, the customer wanted pirate octopi in her fav colours; pink and aqua/turquoise.

I'm so happy with how these turned out, and I'm still totally in love with the new style of high heels I have in stock.

Click here for more Octopus Shoes.

If you'd like your own pair of customised shoes check out my shop or send me an email at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

Etsy Finds: Donut you want me baby?

Ok, probably the cheesiest title for my Etsy finds yet... I've been craving donuts a lot lately, possibly because I've been painting donut shoes (here and here). I really need to get myself a donut pan and try out some of these amazing vegan donut recipes I keep seeing on pinterest. But in the mean time, I'm satisfying my craving with some good old fashioned Etsy window shopping.

1. Sweet 'n' Neat Jewellery / 2. The Sticker Gal / 3. JLR / 4. The Emily Boyd / 5. 21 Century Clothing / 

6. Baby Pie Tattoo / 7. RUDEGIRL / 8. secret agents / 9. Earrings Factory