the weekend in pictures

we went to the big smoke for the weekend and had a wonderful time! highlights below....

there was some horse-riding...

some bus riding...

some sightseeing...

and some big ben spotting.

all in all a fun time was had by all...and i haven't even mentioned the ice-skating, the boat trip, the huge amounts of tea and cake consumed and the museums visited! now it's back to the real world and lots of sketchbooks to make and orders to fill. ah well, it was a nice break while it lasted, hope your weekend was just as exciting and fun filled! :)

i've just...

signed up for this amazing holiday ornament swap over at the cake and pie blog. what a brilliant idea...just one snag, does anyone know how to hand-craft some more hours in the day?

psssst...if you fancy doing it too, you'll have to hurry, the deadline is tomorrow (9th), midnight eastern standard time, which is apparently new york time. (i think we in the uk are five hours ahead, but don't quote me.)

hello, my friends, hello

ola! i am back from the most wonderful relaxing time staying with friends in portugal, i haven't done a stroke of work and didn't feel guilty at all! i did check my emails everyday though, which was perhaps a bit of a mistake...but i just couldn't help it...the laptop was just there, connected to the internet. it seemed rude not to.

however, i've been home for 4 hours and reality has well and truly hit me. the notonthhighstreet.com christmas catalogue was sent out with 'home and gardens' magazine this month and a piece of mine is in it, so the orders have started to come in, i've had nine this week. so, i'd better get on with it i suppose!

oh, thanks to those of you who emailed/convo-d/left me a message to let me know i was on the front page of etsy today, what a lovely homecoming. sadly, i missed it. typical!

nice to be back folks. hope you've all been well and busy, i've missed you.

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree...

how lovely are your branches...and so on. just to prove i have been working away in the background, i thought i'd post this christmasy piece. it's a possible christmas card design, to be printed with vegetable or soya inks onto recycled card. if all goes well, they'll be some up for sale in the etsy shop nearer the festive season. if somebody had told me at the beginning of this blogging malarkey that i'd have blogged twice about christmas in october, i wouldn't have believed them. i'm a 'start buying stuff on the 23rd december' kind of girl :)

'world renowned contributer'

yep, that's what i've been described as (along with others, of course) in 'quilting arts gifts'. it's a magazine brought out by, yes, you've guessed it, quilting arts magazine. i was asked to do a project a million years ago, so there i was making 'winter' inspired journal covers in may! hehe, it seems such a long time ago. when i googled myself earlier, i discovered that they'd used a pic of my blue tree journal on the website, and i thought you would enjoy seeing it in august! :) see the full page right here!