Cakes and Lakes

I've been lucky enough to have recently enjoyed a wonderful week in the Lake District.

I was away with a friend, holidaying in a rental cottage in Keswick, where we indulged in some lovely walks, good food, plenty of shop mooching and fabulous tea and cake sessions.

As you may know, I'm a little partial to some tea and cake.
Here are some of the photos I took.

Till next time...

Butterflies at the Wedding

Thankfully, not too many of the nervous kind!

As promised here are a few photos from the recent wedding. Emma and Leigh made a lovely Bride and Groom, and everyone enjoyed sharing and celebrating their special day. The setting was quite magical, the wedding venue overlooked a quiet lake and we were lucky enough to have sunshine on a chilly February day.

The wedding breakfast room was set out beautifully and my stationary looked the part. I know Emma was very pleased with it, which pleased me immensely.

We did, however, have a small laugh together when we saw the alternative way that the place name butterflies had been placed on the glasses. We didn't worry, they still worked well and impressed the guests.

The food was scrumptious, the wine and bubbly flowed, we all enjoyed the speeches and toasted the happy couple.

It certainly was, a lovely day to remember.

Spring Blossom

Now, I'm no gardener and my recognition of different flowers is very few, but that does not take away the pleasure of pretty gardens, wonderful woods and trees with beautiful spring blossom.
I mentioned, in the last post, the lovely blossom of a couple of trees at the front of my house. I decided it was too lovely not to share a photo with you.

By the way, its some sort of crab-apple tree!

The Doodle Room is Done!

At last, the Doodle Room is done, finished, complete! Hooray!
And I'm very pleased with it. Let me show you round....

Here's the 'before' pics.

It wasn't bad, a bit cluttered but functional. My biggest problem with it, was I didn't enjoy being there. I didn't find it a nice place to be inspired or creative. So, it had to change...

Into this...

A bright new space, with a lot less clutter and plenty of areas to pin inspiration to get the creative juices flowing. I'm so happy with my new Doodle Room.

The details:

1. The shelves got a make over too. They were painted to blend in with the white walls.

2. My pens and brushes in their artist made pots are given pride of place on the desk. An old cork pin board was covered in some graphic patterned material to give it a more updated look. The picture is out of a magazine of a couple circa 1950's/60's laughing whilst on a seaside holiday, you can't help but smile when you look at it.

3. Another pin board. Homemade using corrugated board and material to cover it. It measures nearly a metre and a half in length and takes up the room on the wall opposite the desk.

4. A few of my favourite old cameras, which I had collected from car boots and flea markets. These have been stuck in the loft for quite a few years.

5. A new chair and desk from Ikea, with a homemade cushion. I managed to find some orange/red material to match the light shade and mixed this with some of the material that I used on the pin board above the desk.

6. Another flea market find. Its an old cutlery tray which is perfect for pens and pencils etc, and a copy of the Hello Sunshine print to add a splash of colour.

7. New knobs for an up-cycled cabinet. This cabinet was one I had downstairs and was originally dark wood until I painted it with the same paint as the shelving.

8. I now have lots of room for new (or old) postcards and inspiration.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my Doodle Room, I'm looking forward to spending time there, being creative and sharing some new designs and doodles with you.

Birthday Girl

This week, my partner’s Granddaughter, Grace, celebrates her very first birthday. She is a little ray of sunshine.

For her birthday card I wanted to design something original but also personal to Grace. I had seen some embellished photographs and wanted to do something along those lines.

With this in mind, my starting point was to find a suitable photograph. This one is of Grace playing on a musical piano mat.

From here, I cropped out some of the background and turned it into a black and white image.

 Adding more black space to the left of the image gave me plenty of room to add some white text for her age and the lyrics to Happy Birthday, which includes her name.

With an extra border, the image has a bit more impact and a frame to sit in.

 To add some finishing touches, I couldn’t resist a little doodling using a white gel pen and pink chalk pastel pen.

 Happy Birthday, Grace.