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