Hello everyone! Good to see the sun and blue skies back again, what a glorious weekend we've just had! ...and with the clocks changing over the weekend, it feels great to see the back of winter, I love this time of year when the daffodils come out and colour starts popping into our lives again!
Firstly, I'm sorry it's been a while since my last blog post. Time is flying by at this end and I'm experiencing very busy times. It's so busy in fact that some of you may have noticed the sign below cropping up on my sites...
...I've had to take the difficult decision to close my order book early before Easter, as it is absolutely booked solid until the beginning of July and I really need time to get the orders I have in done. The past few weeks I'd been spending lots of time answering email enquiries and taking briefs for jobs in the early summer months when I really needed to be working on the designs booked in for this month. Basically, something had to give as I only have limited hours in the week to work on things due to having a 3 year old daughter at home with me most of the week.
I must admit, I've been completely blown away by the level of enquiries I've had in the past 3 months...and to be honest and I was totally unprepared for it ...but I am so very appreciative to all those who have had to wait and those who are waiting for designs from me - your patience and understanding amazes me, I am so grateful to you all and am genuinely humbled!
Since closing the order book, its made things much easier to get on track with all the orders. I also needed the time to review things and make sure I'm prepared for how to handle things in the future in a way that restores some balance to my life!...
...but, as you can see from the title of this post, it's not just design orders that are keeping me busy at the moment. I have two very important birthday celebrations to prepare for. In the Easter holidays, my eldest daughter will be 6 years old, so there are pretty girly party plans to be put in place. Also in the Easter Hols, I'll be celebrating my *cough, cough, splutter* 40th birthday! YIKES!where did those years go?!!...
I'm totally in denial about my age as I still feel about 14 in my mind!...anyhow, having a creative mind helps me get over the age issue - simply put a crayon in my hand and I'm in a happy place!
A few weeks ago, I created this little image as a new illustration print to sell on my online shops...
...the thing about this house print is that creating it turned out to be a bit of therapy for me as its helped me comes to terms with my pending 40'ness...it's basically a warm and fuzzy recollection of my childhood in the '70s ...and I really enjoyed creating it. It sort of reminds me of BBC's Playschool and some flowery cushions we used to have on the sofa back then. This print is one of those 'put your own photo's in the windows' ones as I've cut apertures out of the windows and it's now listed in my Folksy shop, Etsy Shop and on my website.
The order book may be shut for a few weeks, but my shops are still very much open:
Before I sign off, I'd like to leave you with this jolly tune to put a spring in your step now the days are getting longer. This tune has been playing in my head ever since I saw it on one of those late night repeats of Top of the Pops from the 1970s (again its all part of my turning 40 therapy - please bear with me,
normal service will be resumed shortly!!).
I found this clip of that TOTP episode on You Tube. It's a song by the Detroit Spinners called 'Rubberband Man' and it features the dance group Ruby Flipper.... it basically sums up everything that makes me smile about that era of my life and takes me back to being a 4 year old dancing around the living room to TOTP (in my heart I'm still very much there!)...I just love the carefree dancing in stripy jumpers and knickers combos and the explosion of colours - it's guaranteed to raise a smile, so click the link and enjoy! :-)
Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine too!
Have a great week
Angie :-)
