Hello! I'm back from my little break and feeling rested and ready to go having had some fun times with my family & friends...
I hope you all had a lovely Easter too :)
This is set to be a fairly long post by my standards as I've got a few things to share with you...
Firstly, as regular readers of this blog will know, I hit the big 40 over the Easter break. I made sure I gathered my good friends and family around me for support as I kissed goodbye to my thirties. They certainly looked after me, check out my flowers above...they're a massive Interflora arrangement that were delivered to me from my husband and kids...I tell you, the last time I got a big arrangement of flowers like these I had to give birth first!!...so they really did make me feel special...
....I also wanted to show you these lovely little bunnies made by my friend (and regular customer) Marna from Little A Designs. I adore these beautiful bunnies - they're so well made and although this pic doesn't show it, each of these have my daughter's names hand-stitched on them . These bunnies made the Easter eggs extra special this year, my girls love them as it gave them something they can hang in their rooms to remind them of their lovely day hunting for eggs in the garden with their cousins...
...Another bit of news is, a couple of days ago Sky Atlantic aired a documentary which gave a 'blink and you'll miss it' opportunity to see one of the portraits I did a while ago in it's rightful home.
A few weeks ago, I was approached by the documentary film makers Landmark Films to sign a copyright waiver so that they could air a close up of my portrait to help them set the scene about a couple they were featuring in their documentary called 'The Guest Wing', which is about stately homes that open their doors to fee paying members of the public to host their weddings or events.
The bride in the first episode of The Guest Wing (which aired for the first time last Thursday) was Mandy in my portrait above - the Avon and Somerset Police Dog Handler. Back in January last year I did a blog post about the portrait that Mandy's friend had commissioned me to do for her. Here's that post: http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/recent-framed-portrait-commissions.html
It was lovely to catch a fleeting glimpse of my work on a Sky Atlantic documentary...but it was even more interesting for me to watch this documentary as the stately home featured was the same one I got married in, Maunsel House in Somerset...so that brought some lovely memories back to me only a couple of days after our wedding anniversary!
Here's the link to more info on 'The Guest Wing' - it's worth a watch as it's a fascinating peep into a world you wouldn't normally get to see.
...I also had another lovely nostalgia trip over the Easter break...I went on a little birthday shopping spree in Exeter, which is where I studied for my degree in Graphic Design, Illustration 20 years ago. I hadn't been to Exeter city centre for quite a few years so it was lovely to see that some of my old haunts are still there and thriving. I was particularly delighted to find The Real McCoy is still there and every inch as good as I remembered it. The Real McCoy is a vintage clothing shop in McCoy's Arcade on Fore Street...it is an absolute treasure trove - a proper grown ups dressing up box of delights. I've still got an authentic 1950's vintage cropped coat with a wool collar (very Doris Day!) that I bought in there back in 1992 (gosh, that makes it vintage even if it was new back then -yikes!!)...I still wear it every now and then, usually around Christmas time as its a deep cherry red colour.
Here's their website: http://www.therealmccoy.co.uk/homepage.htm
As you see from my grinning pic above, that wasn't the only thing I was delighted to find in Exeter. In Waterstones, near it's entrance onto Cathedral Close, which is also near the wall I used to sit on to sketch people as part of my degree course, were some of my Life is Sweet greetings cards. My good friend Vikki quickly snapped the pic above on her mobile (much to the bemusement of the Waterstones staff)...well it had to be done!...
...Speaking of the Life is Sweet range, you'll now find my note cards and gift wrap designs are available to buy direct from my website, as well as some of the new greetings card designs...
...Check out the ribbons on my gift wrapped parcels - aren't they gorgeous?...I got those from a fab new business that I've been working with recently to create some branding - Pretty Fabrics & Trims, they have a shiny new blog, go see: http://prettyfabricsandtrims.blogspot.co.uk/
As I was creating some things for their website, blog etc, I fell in love with their ribbons and knew I needed to get some for the photos above...that's saved me a lots of time and effort and they look perfect - exactly what I had in mind, so I'm very pleased with my purchases. Sarah & Penny over at Pretty Fabric & Trims are very friendly too, I can totally recommend them :)
Well, I think that's quite enough for one blog post...oh, just one more thing though....you may notice on my website that my logos and branding order book is still closed. I'm aiming to re-open it as soon as I can in May. I've got plenty of orders to catch up on and some important admin to sort out. My paperwork really needs some attention as it always seems to be bottom of my to do list...but if I don't get it in order, it'll soon become a screaming priority! Once I've got that under control, I'll reopen for orders again and pick it up from where it was (which was fully booked until mid July if I remember rightly).
I hope you all have a great week
Best Wishes
Angie :)
