Houses and Kiddiwinks!

Hi, Hello and How do!

No your eyes do not deceive you, this is an actual real life blog post from me. I am typing words and uploading pictures. It's all very amazing.

Bet you thought I'd done a runner, didn't you...huh? Never to return to my little corner of the internet again!

I'm very much still here, and having shuffled around a few things, the blog/social media are the casualties which fluttered dramatically to the bottom of the proverbial priority pile. I'm still drawing when time allows or a new house portrait commission comes up. And as time is the one thing which eludes me these days I have been much more reserved about promoting my work/services, hence why the Twitter and Blog have become slightly defunct. I slyly re-opened my Etsy shop with minimal fuss, so y'know if you HAPPEN to come across it while browsing the interwebs and fancy buying something, asking me to draw a house for you I'd happily get on with that knowing that I'd have an easy pace as I wouldn't be backed up with requests. I LOVE drawing houses for people, but it would be selfish of me to spend every weekend drawing and not playing and laughing with my scrummy son and husband. I wouldn't want to miss out on that so I'm actually very proud that that hasn't happened.

Anyways, so. Another reason I haven't just popped up to say hello, is because as the absence grew, so did the amount of things I have to blog about. I haven't just been twiddling my thumbs and resting on my laurels you know. But hey, who says it needs to all be in one post?!

Also I already spend waaaaaaaay way way way too much time on my computer. My full time job is designing using Adobe Illustrator and pinging emails across continents to Hong Kong and China. I don't need an excuse to be on this little black number any longer than I already am. And chances are, after a full day of work and looking after Toby I'm ready to crash, and crash I do!

So, as I said, I won't be covering eight months in one post. But some of the things I have to share are updates on me dipping my toes back into Fayres and Markets, a Kitchen design project, new stockists, a pretty nifty Toybox I painted for Toby's First Birthday, Toby himself (of course!), and seeing as this IS an Illustration Blog some new House Drawings. And possibly some more things that haven't popped up in my mind as I'm typing. I guess these mostly have a more personal focus, but they are also mostly design related. And what I haven't done in Illustration in the last eight months the husband and I have definitely made up for it in spades with various house and family projects.

First up, here are some of the House Illustrations. You may have to excuse the quality of some of the photos, documenting them was not a massive priority at the time...











This is a lovely little Cottage which had some really beautiful details.



(Image coming soon)

I did this commission for someone I know to give his partner as a Housewarming present. And he very kindly bought it over for me to see after he had had it framed so I could get a photo and see one of my House Illustrations framed! I never get to see them like that, as they are out of my hands and with their new owners by that stage. So it was great for me to see the final 'product'.

You might notice that I have started offering digital colour portraits on Etsy. I have yet to do any of those, but the listing has been popping up on my notifications a lot and I've even spied it on Pinterest a few times, so hopefully I'll get the opportunity to play with colour soon.

By way of a general update, and on a more personal note we are bouncing along nicely here and Toby turned One a few months ago. It's completely true what people say when you have a baby 'Enjoy every second, they grow up so quick! etc etc. It's something that is replied with by a lot of eye rolling, but it is so very vey true! The last year has gone by quickly and the First Year is probably the one which contains within it, the most change for a brand new person! How you can go from being a teeny tiny helpless bundle to a much bigger, independence seeking, super quick toddler amazing me every day! And I'm sure I'll always say this as my little boy gets older, but I absolutely love the age he is at now. On the cusp of walking, crawling like 'greased lightening' (as my Nan keeps telling me!) and generally wanting to investigate EVERYTHING, talking, dishing out kisses and cuddles, waving a favourite book around frantically so you will read it - it's surely a brilliant age to be.



My little (big!) boy! :D

So, it was nice to see you again! I've been getting a freakishly large amount of hits on my blog of late (we're talking thousands in one day, over many days) and I'm inclined to think Mr Google is giving me inaccurate stats but nevertheless, I'd love to know if this is actually happening. So leave me a comment, and tell me how you found me! I'll take a deathly wall of silence as confirmation that my stats are incorrect. But still, you never know!

Speak to you soon (much sooner than another eight months).

Much Love xx

The best thing I ever made!

Oh hello!

My oh my, it's been a while. And how things have changed!

I'm a meticulous writer, and I reckon I've got about ten minutes before my little man wakes from his sleepy slumber with some smiles to tell me he's ready to get up. But I'll do my best to piece together something coherant, and most importantly, something which does justice to the topic!

It's been a good eight months since I last blogged, which is when I was winding things on the work front down. Then I had my beautiful baby boy and have spent the last five months completely wrapped up in cuddles, snuggles and feeding. I'm still a bit confused about where that time has gone!

He was born in the beginning of March (as you may have seen from my very brief Twitter update) and is an utterly heavenly little Babe. My heart is fit to burst everytime I look at him.

So without further ado...please meet Toby :)

Isn't he delicious?! He's such a happy little person, and has smiles for everyone (although I'm sure he saves the best ones for me, hehe!) And of course, he's not a 'thing' at all, as my title says...but I couldn't say he's the best person I've ever made, because I've not made one of those before!

So...I'm starting work again next week (as some of you know, I work from my home Studio) and will sometime in the not too distant future get my Etsy shop up and running again and slotting in DottyNoggin bits into my life here and there. (It's actually quite surprising how productive you become in your free time when you have a baby! Although so far, this has not stretched further than tackling a teetering pile of dirty plates and ploughing through an endless mound of washing during Toby's naptimes )

Anyways, I'm so pleased to see my blog has still been getting lots of hits, and thank you for sticking around. I hope the wait was worth it.

Hoping the last eight months have been brilliant for you all!

Kirsty x

Hello 2012!

Hello, and Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, a Brilliant New Year's Eve and are getting 2012 off to a excellent start...

I don't generally make any New Year's Resolutions, as I spend most of the year trying to become better at things (the key word there being 'try'!). But it's always lovely to turn the page when January rolls around with a fresh start and a chance to be more organised and productive in general. This year this culminated in me extreme list making, buying a giant pinboard for my studio and planning on painting an equally giant patch of wall next to it with chalkboard paint. There are a few other adjustments I'd like to make to my studio, but it's a race against time until baby arrives in February. So if I do anything amazing with it between now and then, I'll show you :)

So...Christmas! Seems like forever and an age ago now, but it was quite chaotic here over the month of December with various Christmas Stalls, a really busy period with my work, a poorly husband (who made a miraculous recovery just in time to cook for ten people on Christmas Day!) and heaps of antenatal classes!

I did two new Illustrations in December as Christmas Gifts - one was commissioned and the other was a drawing I did as a present to send someone special myself :)



(Apologies for the sub-standard photography!) This is the commissioned Illustration, which is of a Colonial Style Hotel in Europe (The Aija, Turkey) where the lady who commissioned the piece got married. She gave it to her husband as a Christmas Gift (how sweet!!) It was a bit of a larger Illustration than I am used to so I was quite worried about the level of detail I would be able to achieve but I think it turned out nice.







And this is the one I made as a gift...shamefully on Christmas Eve (as some of you may recall me tweeting about at the time!) It didn't take quite a long as usual and I had a nice little workstation set up in the dining room so I could listen to Christmas Movies while I worked - couldn't miss out on ALL the fun could I now?!

I would have liked to have offered more commissions over Christmas but I was realistic about how many I could get done bearing in mind all of the preparation for stalls, my own gift buying and other things in life which keep me busy. And I decided not to list any more for the time being because I'm inching (literally) ever closer to my due date! (Six weeks to go).

Which leads me on to say that I have NO idea how much free time I will have once I become a Mama, and naturally I'm thinking about where my Dotty Noggin escapades will stand. I'm fortunate enough to have been given six months off work with baby, so I'd like to honour that by taking time off from everything (apart from the wee nipper of course!) There's a little something which tells me I'm still going to probably want to make and draw during my maternity leave, but it will only be for fun. I can imagine this being quite a nice way of keeping hold of myself a little bit during a time which a lot of new Mums have told me is very easy to lose yourself a little bit. However I don't plan on blogging during that time, and it's quite probable my Etsy shop will have to be put on hold for a while. So I guess I'm saying I hope you'll bear with me and come back to me in the Summer :)

I'm sure I'll get a chance to blog at least once before the big day, but if I don't I would imagine I can take a moment to make an announcement and maybe slip in a photo! ;) Exciting!

Finally here's some photos (montage stylee) of my Christmas!




Take Care all and speak to you soon x

SALE time!

Hello!

Hope you all had an excellent Christmas :) I've spent the last few days in an over indulged daze, as I'm sure may be the case for a lot of you also! I'm now busy trying to offload as many chocolates as I can to friends, family and basically anyone who comes within ten meters of my house. Oh, and also avoid the mad Post-Christmas Sales in the highstreet! I have to say I have been indulging in a spot of online retail therapy (the best kind) which has been fun as I'm becoming far too pregnant to be traipsing around the City Centre for very long these days.






In the spirit of all the crazy sales happening I'm having my very own in the DottyNoggin Etsy Shop! It's a generous one - 25% off EVERYTHING. Yes...I did just use Caps. I pretty much NEVER (there I go again) have Sales. In fact the last one I had was in Easter, and it wasn't even this good. The fact is that my prices are already as low as low can be (without me making a loss) so you really will be getting a genuine bargain.

So, all you need to do, is pick what you want and then use the code 'BOXINGDAY' at the checkout. Shipping on most items is free (apart from ceramics) so you don't even have to worry about that.

Hope you see something you'd like to treat yourself with. I'm now off to construct my own picture wall with all of the lovely prints I've collected over the last year and now have framed - lovely!! Next post, I'll share with you the commission I did for a lovely lady as a Christmas Gift to her husband and a Christmas Gift I made for my sister. Can't wait to show you!

Until then!

Kirsty x

Snowy Skies, blankets and large mugs of tea!

I have to admit to you, I'm bundled up on the sofa with a very comfy blanket, a lovely big mug of (decaf) tea while Marty is sprawled out snoozing on the other sofa. And I'm feeling very happy that I'm not trundling around the shops today laden with bags of stuff, on the last Saturday before Christmas Eve. It looks very cold outside and the sky seems full of snow. So inside is the perfect place for me to be, especially when I am feeling so very heavy!

I hope you've all enjoyed your Christmas Shopping! Have had lots of lovely orders for cards at gifts in my Etsy Shop which has been lovely. I hope they earn lots of smiley faces when they get opened and unwrapped :)

Here are some pics from the various events the 'Baked' ladies and I were at over the Christmas Period.

We had great fun at these events and lots of chatter with people. A massive thank you to anyone who spoke to us and bought our wares!

I'm still taking last minute orders in my shop, but please read the banner for last postal dates in time for Christmas. Unfortunately Royal Mail are already telling me that First Class Post won't cut it for arrival in time for Christmas, even though the last date for this on their website is the 20th December. So I am offering Special Delivery (which has been advised) at an extra cost. You can get more details about this in my shop notifications :)

There will be a whole load of new items listed on the 26th and 27th December, with a special announcement to boot which I will blog about on the day/s. So keep your peepers peeled!

Oh, and a quick baby update...as I said, I am very heavy at the moment. People tend to look at me agahst when I tell them I have two more months to go!




And I'll leave the last photo for Marty, who has just today been helping himself to baubles and quickly chomping them before anyone catches on.



Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!! Hope it's full of wonderful family, friends and FOOD! :) Take care and have an amazing time,

Kirsty x

It's that time of Year again...(ho ho ho)

Please forgive me if you are someone who doesn't like to see or hear of anything of Christmas until a few weeks before the big day. In our house, we get the decorations out as soon as is acceptable! My style of Christmas decorating is to throw everything I possibly can at the tree and my theory is 'too much is never enough'. Honestly, if you colour co-ordinate your tree and think tinsel is tacky, your eyes would most definitely burn in their sockets if you laid eyes upon my 'masterpiece'. Either that, or you'd just be mildy offended ;)

So with Christmas around the corner and everyone getting in the mood, I've been busy making, framing, printing and drawing things that I am sure will make lovely festive gifts and stocking fillers. These are all my wares for the craft and Christmas Markets which will take up a good part of the next month or so.

New Screenprint Embroideries

Some of my handpainted ceramics from my very first collection!

I'm continuously making as I sell, with hopefully a few of these being made available on Etsy so be sure you are following on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates on what's being added to the shop and more general news. I should be blogging more too, so you'll see more of me :)

Wishing you a very nice week indeed!

x

Bumper Blog Post!

Well I never, it's November already!

Hope you all had a very excellent October...it's been a while since I posted, but things have not been at all quiet at DottyNoggin HQ...

This will be a bit of a bumper blog post, so I'll start from the top!

My Etsy shop has had somewhat of a relaunch - I've added a wider range of prints and such over the last four weeks or so. You will have seen them before when showed you first, but here they are - now all available to buy...

'Wong Tai Sin Temple' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Joyce is not Here' (black & white) © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Counter' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Wet Market' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Centre Street' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Sai Ying Pun' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Joyce is not Here' (Colour) © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Centre Street' (Colour) © Kirsty Ramsbottom

'Librairie des Jardins' © Kirsty Ramsbottom

My Zine is also finally available too!

'A Street Zine - Guernsey Road' Limited Edition of 50 © Kirsty Ramsbottom

Also you might have noticed six little Christmas Cards designs which are available now, so if you are a shopper of a more organised nature you can pick them up now! They are available individually or in sets of three, six, nice and so on...

Finally the most important Etsy thing I have to tell you about is my custom listing. As you may or may not know I've not been able to list many of these (only one in fact!) because I've had a lot of commissions outside of Etsy and therefore no time to squish any more in! But as Christmas is drawing close I've decided to list another. Many if you have contacted me about these as gifts, so I hope I can help you give someone a very lovely Christmas gift. It's very likely I'll only be able to do one or two of these, because my time is very very limited at the moment. So if you feel like you might be interested I wouldn't hang about, as the last one sold within a few hours. You can find the listing here!

And speaking of Christmas! Preparations are well and truly underway for a handful of Festive Fayres I'm very thrilled to be taking part in along with some of my 'Baked' ladies. I always find Christmas Markets so exciting - there is such a friendly warm atmosphere. And if there are mince pies and carol singers that's even better!

The events which we are confirmed to be at are:

Norwich Lanes Christmas Fayre
Upper St Giles Street
17th November 5-9m

The evening includes lots of Christmas stalls, Choirs, Street Theatre, Mulled Wine and Mince Pies! It's also the starting point for a Christmas Tree Trail, which will be great fun for all the kids. Suffice to say I'd be going to this even if I wasn't participating!


Assembly House Traditional Christmas Fair
Assembly House Norwich - Noverre Suite
10th & 11th December 10am - 4pm

Billed as the perfect place for present ideas and sensational stocking fillers! From decorations to, flowers, Christmas Cakes, Mince Pies to lots of handmade wares.


Thorpe St Andrew Christmas Event
Yarmouth Road (between The Buck and Richmond Court
27th November 4 -8pm

There's a whole lot of Christmas happening here, and I've been told by people who attended last year that it's definitely not one to miss. Everything kicks of at 4pm and the evening includes Carols, a visit from Father Christmas, Light switch on, a Nativity Play (Eeeeeh!), fireworks AND real reindeer! Radio Norwich will be there, and so will we; wrapped up in lots of knitwear, woolly hats and extra pairs of gloves!

So I very much hope to see some of you there!

Also in the news...I've been working on some new pieces, namely a spot of crockery! This is something quite different I'm trying and so far has been very well received by visitors who have spotted little bits and pieces which are currently being dried out in the house. Here's a sneaky peek which you may have already spotted on Twitter or my Facebook Page...

Untitled © Kirsty Ramsbottom

I also did a spot of writing this week, as I was very priviledged to be asked to be the 'Young Creative Council's Weekly Score interview-ee. You can see it here, if you are interested in hearing a bit about me in a more concise fashion rather than the nattery chit chat I do on my blog!


We've shifted my studio into a bigger room in our house so that when the baby arrives and I return to work I'll be able to have us both in one room, as my old studio was far too small. So my old studio is in the process of being nurserified (!?) as you can see above. We picked some Quentin Blake Alphabet Wallpaper which as you can tell, I am MORE than happy about!

That's it really! But here you go, you can have a photo too.



Excuse my silly face!

Hope to see some of you locals around very soon! Say hi if you see me and bump around!

Speak soon! x