Back to regular posting!

I have just moved house and been without internet for what seems like a year (realistically, it's probably only been about two weeks). But I'm finally back on the internet and can catch up on some of my fav blogs and Etsy shops!

I've had a busy few weeks which included; a trip back to my mum's to see my animals and my fav notherners, lots of comedy, fun and friends at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, then returning to London to move house!

We have moved to West London after living in East London for a year, and so far this new house feels so much more like home than the last two! We have a big garden so I'm looking forward to planting some fruit and veg for next year.

Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks:

P.S: how awesome are these pencil socks from topman

Exploring Tower Hamlets (& Hackney)

A couple of months ago I moved houses to a slightly more central borough of London (Tower Hamlets). I already love the area, it's so much different from my last house and has cut my daily commute down by over an hour! There are so many parks near by, including the gigantic Victoria Park, and lots of canals to walk around that lead to Hackney and Stratford, I can't wait

Here's a few of my pictures I took a couple of weeks ago on a sunny day exploring:

1 & 2. Enjoying the sunshine in Victoria Park and pedaloing on their big pond.

3. A really cool pastel abandoned pub in Hackney.

4. An upside down artwork that reflected on the canal.

5. Me and my housemates found a canal boat cafe! We got to sit outside and drink while the boat rocked (and spilled our drinks, oops!)

6. I love this bright graffiti painted on some wooden doors, I found it somewhere on the canal in between Victoria Park and Mile End.

PonyChops meets Cheryl Cobb

I've been meaning to share this picture with you for a while now. I got the most amazing present from one of my fav human beings, Wensdi, for Christmas. Wensdi is an illustrator with a mischievous imagination, you might remember her work from this post.

Recently Wensdi created a character called Cheryl Cobb, a creepy but well meaning little boy who just wants some friends to play with! For my present, Wensdi gave me a framed illustration of me meeting Cheryl and his dead cat friend - Mr Soot. Don't worry, I won't be taking any shoe design advice from Cheryl - I think he took "cat shoes" a little too literally.

This is one of my fav presents I've ever received. Wensdi even drew tiny bears on my shoes (like the first ever set of shoes I painted!).

You can follow Cheryl's adventures on his blog or on his facebook page

A London Catch Up

I've been living in London over two months now. I'm lucky enough to have found a group of fun, crazy and totally lovable people to live with and I'm loving it here. My first term at uni has been both one of the most challenging and one of the most fun times of my life, I feel like I'm already learning and progressing so much.
London has always been one of my favorite places on earth, it still feels really surreal to be living here and I'm so grateful I get to study in this beautiful, energetic city.

I realize I still haven't shared much of my life in London with you, so here are a few photos from the past few weeks of my exploration of London and a few bits of my uni work (if you follow me on instagram you'll probably have seen these already).

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 /

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.

My Dr Martens & Uni interviews - An update!

Earlier in the year I announced my plans to return to University and study shoe design at London College of Fashion. I also applied for a years internship in the Made in England factory at Dr Martens.

I originally didn't get the Dr Martens job, so I accepted my university offer at LCF which I am incredibly excited about! So for the past couple of months I've been pretty sure about where my life is headed, and been excitedly making plans to move to London in September.

Last week I got a phone call that is probably going to stick in my head and torment me for a long time! Dr Martens phoned me and offered me the internship. I think someone must have had to leave and I was their next in line for the job. I was stunned, I'd dreamt about having that job for months! Working for Dr Martens would be such an amazing opportunity.

My automatic reaction was to turn it down (literally 2 seconds after I said no I was like "WTF did I do that for??"). I had an encouraging phone call with the lady from Dr Martens, who assured me that I would be able to apply for a design internship there in my third year at LCF, which would be freakin ideal, and actually my dream job! I feel a little less uneasy about turning down the factory internship now. I still REAALLY hope I get to work with Dr Martens in the future, I'm such a big fan of their brand, and I'd love to get expanding their vegan range ;)

Phew, If you just read through all that you probably deserve some pictures. Here's the shoes I designed & painted for my Dr Martens and uni interviews.

Portfolio In Progress

Remember my post on Tuesday about Dr Martens and LCF? Well, I've been crazily preparing my portfolio for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to get some decent pictures of my portfolio soon, but for now, here's some of the work in progress.

My first attempt at live trace. I draw the Dr Marten on some paper, scanned it then used live trace in Adobe Illustrator

 

Here's a sneak peak of a collaboration I'm doing with one of my fav artists - Laura Manfre

A big fat shoe update

Pictured: Dr Martens Hincky Boot

Well, it feels like it's been a century since I last wrote a personal post. I've had a busy few weeks and because of that the blog has been a little neglected. I'm now getting back into the swing of things and have a few outfit posts/recipes/DIY ideas planned for the next few months!

At the beginning of the year I announced that I had big plans for my future with shoes and shoe design. One of my big goals this year is to learn how to make shoes (or at least begin to learn), It's been an ambition of mine for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE painting shoes, but it would be amazing to be able to design the whole product.

The first few weeks of 2013 were spent scouring the internet for short courses to learn how to make shoes. The ones I found were all based in London, and I couldn't learn nearly enough through one course to build a business on or base a career on. So there has been a little change of plan!

In February I found out about an apprenticeship scheme at Dr Martens! I love the Dr Martens brand, they make such fantastic shoes with a great attention to quality and functional design. Working for Dr Martens would be my dream job! So I went ahead and applied.

A couple of weeks ago I got to visit their English factory and see them making the "made in England" shoes, which was so interesting. England used to have a great trade of shoe making, so it's really refreshing to see a big, worldwide company keeping up the tradition.
Last week I was invited back for an interview and some tests, I should find out this week if I got the job. As I write this my stomach is churning with nerves!! I want this job so much.

Before I applied for the Dr Martens job, I'd also applied for the place on the shoe making course at London College of Fashion. Check out the shoes the students produce, they're freakin amazing. Last week I had an interview there and it went so well, and they accepted my application! I love the course leaders there, they're so enthusiastic about design, knowledgeable and very friendly. The course itself is like a dream come true. I'll get to learn everything I ever wanted to! I can't wait to get stuck in. It's a 2 year course with a view to doing a third year and getting a degree. They have so many competitions available to only LCF students and great contacts in the industry, it really is an amazing course.

Of course if I get the Dr Martens job I'll be taking that and putting uni on hold for a while. I don't think I'd be able to turn down the job of a lifetime!

The last couple of days I've finally been able to breathe again, I spent the last few weeks as an exhausted bag of nerves, constantly working on my portfolio and getting more and more worried about my interviews. It's great to finally get back to spending lots of cuddle time with the dogs & Tofu again (and Ash, of course).

A New Years Post (finally!)

After a few days of catching up on my blog reading list I feel like I'm finally back in the blogging world again! Happy New Year everyone!! I hope 2013 brings lots of inspiration and success to my lovely readers.

My Christmas and New Year have been full of friends, family, food, and most importantly dogs and cats! I've been awful at taking pictures this year, there's not even one of our tree! Next year I WILL be more organised.

2013 appears to be off to a good start. Yesterday I signed in to my severely neglected Deviant Art account, only to find some of my Christmas Matryoshka had been chosen to be a Daily Deviation! I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

I also have a few really fun custom orders I'm working on right now, the new year seems to have brought me lots of inspiration and enthusiasm for my work!

Here are my 2013 goals:

• Sort my health out (last year I was diagnosed with a chronic illness that's limited me a bit more than I would like, this year I'm determined it's not going to get in the way! No more waiting to feel better, I need to just get on with life.)
• Start a range of Christmas cards and do at least 1 Christmas fair
• Work on my own illustration projects
• Give myself weekends off
• Take the dogs on longer walks
• Read my Game of Thrones books
• Go down to London for shoe making classes (eeeeek I'm so excited about this one!!)
• Start a new business (this is all a little hush hush at the moment, I will tell you all about it by the end of the year hopefully, if all goes to plan!)
• Visit my Gran more

I think they're all pretty achievable. The new business is going to be a big and time consuming plan! But I think I have a really original idea, I just need to get my ideas organised into an understandable statement instead of leaving them bouncing about my head or on little memos in my phone.

I'll leave you all with a WIP screen shot. I've been playing about with some more material patterns, I love the little grey cats next to baby blue. This is in no way a finished pattern though!

A craft fair & a catch up

Hi guys! I realise I haven't actually written a proper catch up post in a while. I've spent the last few weeks crazily preparing for my first craft fair and trying to keep up with Christmas orders. I can't wait until my last order is done and I can breathe and relax, and of course cook!!

Don't forget to check out my Vegan Gift Guide over at Midwest Muse.

Tofu has been settling in well, he's now the king of the house and likes to boss the dogs around. Effy is still being very sweet with him and wants desperately to be his friend. He still hisses at her lots!

Last weekend, it was my first craft fair. I had a stall at the Christmas hand made market in Lancaster where there was a great selection of hand crafters, around 40 stalls all together! It was a great but exhausting day.

I managed to give out about 75 business cards and got lots of interest for custom orders which was fantastic! I loved speaking to people in person about their orders, I ended up meeting some other great crafters too! Unfortunately, all of the Russian Dolls I had spent countless hours painting in preparation for the fair came home. I sold quite a lot of jewellery, so I'm very glad I'd decided to make some last minute rings, earrings and brooches. Next year I think I'll bring just jewellery and Christmas cards, as it wasn't worth all the trouble bringing the Russian Dolls.

Here's some pictures of my stall:

My two besties Wensdimade & Chopstitch shared a stall at the fair too! Here's some pictures of their stall :)

Instagram Catch up

I've been a bit of a homebody lately due to feeling ridiculously achey, so I've mainly been taking instagram pictures of Tofu as usual.

Here are my semi productive instagram pictures:

1&2. I've been working on some Justin Bieber shoes for a lovely Canadian music presenter. I'm hoping she'll get to wear them for interviewing Justin next month!

3. My favorite vintage poodle brooch, this picture was taken about 30 mins before I lost it on the way to my friends house. I'm so sad! I don't think I'll ever find such a perfect brooch again.

4. One of my besties came home from Australia, so a few off us had a surprise party. We all dressed as him in geek glasses, flat caps and funny knitwear.

5. I Love NP sent me some beautiful glitter nail polishes! I've been trying them out all week and I can't wait to show you guys how beautiful they are!

6. A sneak peak of some mermaids I've been working on. I'm planning to do customised mermaids in the shop where I can paint them to look like the customer.

7. Ginge's dog bob giving me kisses, isn't he adorable!!!

8. I got to steal this foxy brooch off Ginge at Chopstitch for an outfit post. She's going to be selling them soon!

9. Wensdi from Wensdimade showing off one of her half finished crocheted bears.

10. I modelled a few of Wensdi's hand knitted scarves, I love this little polar bear dude, he's so warm and snuggly!

Instagram Update

This is mainly a post with about 100 pictures of stupid dogs and cats haha, but that's pretty much been my life lately. I can't complain, a day spent with braindead Effy is always a fun one (and I mean braindead in the nicest of ways, she makes up for her stupidity in love and enthusiasm).

Tofu has settled in nicely, he still refuses to make friends with the dogs though so I've been taking them out for extra plays to make up for the fact that they get hissed at by Tofu lots. The grey cat is my boyfriend's cat Mojo, he's the coolest dude ever.

I've been trying to make more time to draw, for some reason I've been drawing lots of happy shorts lately. I don't know why.

This Friday I got to meet Paul foot! He's one of mine and Ash's favorite comedians. He let us lift him up and pretend he was our child. I hope when I have children they're as funny and silly as Mr. Foot.

Introducing Tofu

I'd like to introduce you all to the newest member of my family, Tofu! He showed up as a stray at my mum's work about two months ago (we think he may have arrived on a mail van so could have come from anywhere in England!). A couple of weeks ago it started getting a bit cold for him to live outside of the mail centre, so for now he's staying with us until we find his old family. Or if we don't find them, he now has a forever home with us.

It's been over 6 years since I've had my own cat and I must say, the house feels more complete with one! It's so lovely to be able to fall asleep listening to the purring of a content furrball. I love having a little buddy sat on my desk while I'm painting or blogging, although he hasn't quite figured out that the keyboard isn't a bed yet!

We think he's not much older than 1 or 2, he's still a playful little fella. He's very talkative, and will give you a little "hello" mew when he walks past you. He's still not sure about the dogs, Effy is a little upset that he hisses at her because she so wants to be his friend.

Update time

This week has been a pretty busy and emotional week.

Other than that, I've had a ton of orders! Which is very exciting. So I've been working none stop. Here are some of my works in progress:

On Friday me and Ash went to see Frisky and Mannish in Lancaster with a couple of our friends. For those of you who don't know who Frisky and mannish are, you need to find them on YouTube. They're a comedic musical duo and they're absolutely hilarious, even my boyfriend who is a comedy snob thinks they're amazing.
I didn't get any pictures but here's a picture of Frisky and Mannish looking fabulous:

Saturday and Sunday were full of tears and goodbyes as I said farewell to one of my best friends who's moving to New Zealand. And on Sunday we drove Ash's little sister down to London for her first year of Uni. Life is gonna seem so strange without seeing those girls on a regular basis!

Here's some Effy love! She's such a baby. She's spent most of the week following me around the house watching me.

I also dyed my hair purple! And realised I'm a bit of a hair dye hoarder. I can't wait for the purple to fade and go all lilacy.

 And here's some cool tops I bought that I forgot to show you:

The cat one is from ebay & the bunny one is from Asda.