Dartmouth Holiday- Part 2 - cakes & insparation

On the last few days of our Dartmouth trip, my obsession with cakes became more apparent...

Firstly I introduced Mike to fine French patisserie called Saveurs in Dartmouth. I had managed to go nearly a whole week without cake - for what reason I have no idea - so now was the time to indulge!

This was just the most fab little deli/cafe/patisserie I have ever seen. When you enter you are bombarded with an array of colourful, intricate and delicate sweets. Perfectly formed and colourful, glossy-glazed fruit flans, ice cream-coloured macaroons and thin baked crispy nut topped biscuits to name but a few. Fine chocolates, salamis and exotic cheese were also in array. This was the place for me!

We found a table nestled at the back of the cafe and I decided on French Onion Soup & mike had a baguette. The soup was delicious and mike loved his sarnie - which has much to be said for as he is a pub grab man! As we were so full we picked our desserts to go!

I had the Lemon & Raspberry 'boobie' cake; soft lemon mousse on a Breton biscuit filled with rasperry sauce. I insisted on getting back to the tent and eating mine with a fork and spoon (as the deli lady told me) so I could eat it the way it should be eaten - savoured. Mike on the other hand, ate his in a few messy mouthfuls in lay-by! Hummmm. The sweets were delicious and you just must go there for the experience if you are thereabouts.

My holiday was also accompanied by a lovely cake filled book by author Jenny Colgan. An easy to read, mouth watering novel including recipes and some inspiring concoctions kept my appetite for cakes satisfied. I'm just finishing reading it now. I've only got a few chapters left and my head is full of new ideas for cakey images.


Since my time away I have seen loads of colourful postcards covered with cakes, tea, and beach scenes etc by talented artist & illustrator Martin Wiscombe. I'm sure you have seen his popular designs on ceramics, prints and textiles, but now his work can even be found on rollerblinds & deckchairs! I may just have to treat myself again, this time minus the calories. 


So I returned home from our break away happily inspired, hopefully ready to crack on with some more illustrations - inbetween my other jobs - after there is no rest for the wicked!! hehe

P.s. you can see this print below and others in my Etsy shop.

Oh and if you haven't seen it already i'm doing a PRINT GIVEAWAY on my Facebook page, so don't miss out!!

Dartmouth Holiday- Part 1 - What we did and where we went...

As you may or may not know, I've just returned from camping in Devon. Wet at times, blue sky at others, but fun none the less. Here is what we got up to...

Blue skyes on the way back from Brixham (on the boat)

Grey skyes on the WAY to Brixham

We camped near the lovely town of Dartmouth. Colourful buildings, arty stuff and lots of boats. 

Browsing the shop and galleries I came across a few fabulous finds; beautiful paintings by Emma Williams at the Dart Gallery & Emma Dunbar, Vanessa Cooper & Vanessa Bowman at White Art Space Gallery in Totnes. I just love their bright & colourful styles! Check them via the links.

Totnes had some of the most AMAZING shops. Gazebo (pictured above) featured a colourful collection of beautifully designed & detailed bits I just loved. Selling goods from the likes of nkuku, Wu & Wu & Pip Studio, how could it go wrong??

half way up Totnes' colourful high street

Another fab shop in Totnes was Penelopetom. Some beautiful cushions made by Devon creative   Rubydoohome caught my eye, as did the bold designs on some notebooks by Roger la Borde. Sadly I did not part with any cash as there was too much I liked!!?  Ironic I know....

Me and Mike on the steam train

We enjoyed a good few boat trips, fish and chips and the steam train ride from Kingwear to Paignton

The model village I wish was real...

Here are a few photos I took from Paignton. If you like the sound of Blackpool then it may be for you. I on the other hand busied myself with capturing the 'essence' of the place...

and so the sun, cloud, wind and rain continued as did my time away....

So please stick with me whilst I take a break - as this is still my holiday.

More pictures and stuff of insparation in part 2 of my holiday blog to be posted soon

xxxx

Long time, no write...

As you may know, it has been an AGE since I did my last blogpost - 9 months in fact! Sadly I have been unable to muster the time and energy to blog as well as illustrate and continue with everyday life. Oh Poo!

Things have been very busy over the past months with all its ups and downs...

Firstly my mum was taken very ill around September time last year. She spent nearly 3 months in  hospitals, being intensively cared for following a long term deteriorative illness. She arrived home in mid December, and spent her last 2 restful weeks with family. Sadly she passed away a few days before Christmas. The only consolation was that she was no longer suffering.  Thankfully I managed to pull off my first ever Xmas family roast ( with a bit of help), and the rest of us survived to tell the tale.

As a little therapy and a kind of 'thank you' and 'sorry I never did get round to doing all those creative thing you wanted me to do for you' , I decided to create a cover for mums memorial booklet. It encapsulates all the things I remembered mum as and by, the one thing that photos alone cannot do...

Well enough of the sad stuff. I can now remember mum through all the memories we have of her, not through the bad. See this article for more about mum.

And so things got better....

In February of this year my bosses retired from the photography shop I work for - Clemens Photography - and 2 of my colleagues took it over, and I was chosen to take over the portraiture studio! I have been learning so much over the past few months and I've thoroughly enjoyed working with all the many different people. My favourite part of the job is editing the images - I'm always surprised by peoples facial expressions, and the personality that shines through in their portraits. I just love it!

One of my portraits taken whilst in college

There is still a lot of work to be done though, but bit by bit its getting there. Getting the viewing room filled with my favourite pictures and getting our own shop/studio website online is the next thing to do. When I have some of my photos online I will let you know!

May saw me exhibiting at Lostwithiel Festival. My first proper stall went well and I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen Barrett from Bistro One, who came all the way from Plymouth to introduce himself and chat about the possibility of an exhibition later in the year. I have lots of ideas in the pipeline, and look forward to getting them down on paper and discussing things further... watch this space.

Love Under the Cherry Blossom

Just a few days ago saw the opening of my own Etsy shop. So far so good, and i can only hope to get all the exciting ideas out of my head and get making...

Pocket mirrors

Floral Heart prints  - in all the colours of the rainbow

So here is where i stop chatting and get doing. In the meantime keep up to date with stuff on Facebook and Twitter

Thanks for listening. Oh I do so love to chat! xxxxx

Capturing the changing seasons

Bonjour!
I hate to say it but the seasons are changing again; darker evenings and it getting colder too. I'm feeling less motivated to do work in the evenings, so instead I have been taking lots of pics to capture the joy of flowers before they fade away until next year.

I do love a bit of gardening, but sadly I have no real size garden to speak of- its a 1m x 2m patch, and lots of plant pots dotted outside my front door. So instead I tend to refer to gardening as potting. I have had some beautiful flowers this year.  These were my favorites...

My  late blooming Nigella (love in a mist)

Nigella (love in a mist) seed pod

The first beautiful flower -Nigella (love in a mist)
image courtesy http://flowerinfo.org/nigella-flowers

I used flower identifier to find out what they were (do not do this as I've just been told by my sister-in-law who was the gardener in Bournemouth gardens that the flower I originally thought was a cornflower was actually Nigella.The first one to appear was a beautiful blue colour, then months later these pink ones appeared. They tend to start out with light petals and get darker and more intense in colour as time progresses. Aren't they unusual!

More common Cornflower
(Can you see why I was mistaken?)

I have had many beautiful flowers from a £1 country flower seed mix. If you are a gardening virgin and want to get started (next year now) then keep an eye out for these packs in bargain stores. They are FAB and so easy to grow too! You could sow a wild flower meadow...Bliss

I've got loads of seed pods collected in wooden dishes, saved and drying out for planting next year... I'm looking forward to seeing the results...

Cornflower & Sweet-pea seed pods

Although the bright colours are disappearing from our gardens, there are still some beautiful forms to be found in the remaining seed pods & 'skeletons'. 

seeds...

a skeletonised seed pod

I also LOVE Forget-me-nots. Here is a picture of one of my lovey cats Bumble-bee, pottering through the swathes of Forget-me-nots that were in the flat upstairs' garden. It was so beautiful! Sadly they wont be here next year as it had now been turfed.

Here I will leave you with a collage of photographs I have taken in my 'not garden' and my parents garden. So many beautiful flowers, colours... Oh and insects too! 

I hope these colourful pictures keep you feeling warm for a little longer, or until the leaves start turning gold. xxx

Inspired by the Illustrated Life

Hello there readers!
Hope you are all well and not too wet and soggy after the miserable weather we are having!

After all the madness of the past months (my 1st craft stall, working 4 jobs and squeezing in my 'colouring' whenever I can) I decided it was time of a few days off. What do you do when you have time off? Retail therapy of course! So I hopped on the train to Plymouth only to remember how stressful clothes shopping is, returning instead with a few bars of chocolate and a fabulous book called An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory. Full of images from the private sketchbooks of creatives, this colourful and varied compilation inspired me, and put a smile back on my face.

The artists that really appealed within were Mattias Adolfsson (his neat and considered sketchbook compositions and quirky characters are beautiful), Danny Gregory, Noah Z. Jones, Tommy Kane & Elwood Smith.  Elwood's sketchbooks contain a collection of characters quickly drawn on various bits of paper and later stuck. This made me realize its not necessary to carry round a sketchbook - I find it hard to remember my phone and keys when I go out!

At this stage I have to admit I haven't really kept 'proper' a sketchbook for the past 2 or 3 years! Terrible I know, but I tend to do work spontaneously, here and there on bits of paper, or from one sketch book to the next. Shamefully, I  haven't kept a regular sketchbook (just for the sake of it) since university! I like to get on and create whatever final image I have in my head, but this takes longer than anticipated (due to my lack of experimentation & planning) so I think it's a good idea to start up a sketchbook again.

An insight into the way I work... messy sketchy pages and paper

 Quick  Space Mice sketch ( for my nephew Josh)

Final image

I
I've bought a hardback sketchbook, using one end for recording my RANDOM THOUGHTS ( I have many throughout the day, as you will see), and the other PROJECTS. The first mark in an empty book is always the hardest, but once I decide to not worry about the outcome so much, my 'random thoughts' are captured, and safely stored away for when I need them. Here is a crazy thought I can share with you that came to me whilst cleaning. Note the post-it note scrawled quickly whilst at my cleaning job - just enough information for me hang on to the idea until I get home.

post-it...

...to sketchbook...

Well that,s all for this post. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I will be back soon with more sketchbook goodness. Floral project to start me thinks!

PS. In the meantime if you want to see more of my illustrations you can visit my facebook page or my website. Oh and I'm on twitter to!

Whats next...

So here I am, blogging at last. I love to talk and have lots to say so this could be interesting; an insight into the busy mind of a creative, full of ideas, things to do and lots of ramblings.

So whats next? Well after my first craft stall at Trewether Farm Charity Fete (check out my facebook page to catch up on this if you are new to me & my work), I have compiled myself a huge list of things to do in order to get closer to my goals. I love lists.

Over the next few months I will be focusing on my sketchbook (see next blog),  broadening my market; designs for boys, Yummy Mummies & Ladies that Lunch, working on a book project about PONDLIFE, with all of this contributing to my next exhibition in march. Now I've cracked the blog (hopefully) things should be easier. Lots to do so best get cracking.