Giveaway Winner!!

Wow!!  What a wonderful response to my giveaway. Thank you all so much to everyone who has taken part, liked and shared and left very lovely comments. I am truly blown away and humbled by some of the feedback I've had recently, I am sincerely grateful for every kind word!

As promised it's time to pick a lucky winner. I entered all your names into a spreadsheet (there were nearly 200 names to type out).  I then copied those names into a handy random name selector tool and then hit the button and here is the name it came up with... 

Congratulations Sharon Speakman! you have won one of each of my Living The Dream cards.  Please send me a personal message with your address details so that I can get your prize off to you very soon!

Thanks once again to all who took part.

Best wishes

Angie x

GIVEAWAY TIME - 3,000 likes on Facebook!!!

Happy Friday - I'm very pleased to announce that it's Giveaway time here on my blog!

My facebook page has reached 3,000 likes today!!!

As a massive THANK YOU for all the 

likes, follows, comments, shares, tweets, retweets, pins, repins and linked ins...

and most of all the support and kindness you've shown me over the past couple of years with my little business, I'm offering up a giveaway prize of 

one of each of my 20 designs for this summer's new range of cards 'Living The Dream'.... 

...here they all are, all 20 of them.  All printed on FSC card with vegetable based inks, blank inside and have a slightly embossed finish to pick out some of the details in each illustration...

...to enter the giveaway is simple.  Anyone who follows this blog and comments on this post below or likes and shares my giveaway post on Facebook or retweets my giveaway post on twitter automatically enters the prize draw...

...The giveaway will close at 9pm on Monday evening (29th April)..

...All the names will be entered on a spreadsheet and a random selector tool will choose the lucky winner.

GOOD LUCK & have a great weekend! 

Best Wishes

Angie x

Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 2 - Having Something Made By Hand Just For You.

Hello, Cooey!   

Today I thought you may like to see my face for a change.  That's me above, loitering by some shed doors dressed to the nines for a product photoshoot by the very wonderful Kate & Alex Photography ...oh we did have some fun that day :)  On this occasion the product was for me, but not created by me - more about that in a moment...

As we've arrived at Wednesday, to help overcome any mid-week blues I'd like to share another of my 'Reasons to Be Cheerful' with you.   Those of you who have been regularly following this blog may remember I started this little series a few weeks ago and you can read about that here: http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-1-beginning.html

Today's reason to be cheerful is 'Having something made by hand just for you'  

I adore handmade things. I love that each piece has a story to tell and each part of the process took thought, time, effort, love and sacrifice to create.  Whenever I can, I try to pretty my world with a little handmade something here and there.  If I had the resources I would adorn my whole house and wardrobe with handmade items.  Alas, I have a shandy and not a champagne budget so content myself with a mild addiction to handmade brooches, little hanging decorations and the odd cushion cover! 

Imagine my utter joy and elation when last year for my 40th birthday my sister-in-law Louise presented me with the most amazing gift I've ever had (with the exception of my children of course!)...  

Please feast your eyes on my gorgeous dress coat which has been completely created from scratch just for me by the very talented hands of Louise (my sister-in-law) from Crafty Coo.  I would have done a link to a website there, but that's all in the pipeline as she's not quite ready to fly with her little business just yet with my youngest niece still too little for nursery...but do watch this space, because I'm working on that ;)

As you can see, my beautiful coat makes me feel ever so happy.  That is the power of having something made just for you.  I totally recommend getting something handmade, it's good for the soul!

Have a lovely day :)

Two Birthdays & A Wedding Anniversary...

Hello, 

It feels like ages since my last blog post.  The past couple of weeks have been hectic for me personally because as well as it being Easter and the school holidays, there have also been two birthdays and a wedding anniversary in our house.  First it was my birthday, followed by our eldest daughter's birthday and our wedding anniversary.  This meant lots of time catching up with good friends and family but not much time spare for working...

   

All this precious time spent in the company of friends and family lately couldn't have come a better time for me as the past few weeks have been a series of niggles and misfortunes - almost to the point where it has become comical.  I won't dwell on the negative stuff, that's not my style and let's face it, it's just part of life - sometimes you simply get a big dollop of inconvenience pie heaped on your plate to deal with!  

However, when all is said and done, it's being with friends and family that matters most and I'm certainly counting my blessings that I've just had the chance to spend some lovely time with mine!...

... I really hope you all got to spend some great times with your loved ones over the Easter holidays too.

I also hope you like the cards featured in this post, they are part of my new 'Love and Best Wishes' range.  A collection of joyful greetings cards to help celebrate life's special occasions.  This range will soon be listed on my website.

Have a great weekend!
Best wishes

Angie :)