Christmas Tiptoes In...

Before I go any further, I had better warn you that this post includes some rather gratuitous pictures of Father Christmas and Reindeer.  It also includes several mentions of the 'C' word and if you shudder at the mere thought of it in November then do feel free to depart and come back again next time! (I won't be offended - honest now!) ;D


Being in the art business though, I seriously have to keep up with what everyone else is doing (or get left hopelessly behind) and so, I'm going to give you a quick peek into the festive part of my gallery!


Some of you may already know that my little Christmas Card Emporium is now open - I haven't liked to shout too loudly about it up 'til now because a lot of people are (quite rightly) allergic to All Things Christmas until at least December the 1st but now Bonfire Night has passed, I thought I'd just let you know what's in store...

Christmas Cards are available both individually and in packs of eight...each one is created by hand, titled and signed by myself.  The individual cards are presented in a cello envelope, and the sets are finished with a festive red raffia bow and tag.  10% of all my card sales go towards the Down's Syndrome Association which I am so pleased to support; my nephew Oliver who is now 5, was born with DS and it is a pleasure to be able to give something back to such a wonderfully supportive organisation. 

You can find out more about the DSA here.

My Christmas card shop features the return of some popular designs...

...and also my newest one; Christmas Kiss...

There's also free P&P for customers within the UK but I do ship worldwide too!


I'm really pleased to have my cards and prints in several lovely shops already this year, including the gorgeous Andrea Willis Designs in Scarborough, and The Rowan Tree in Devon.

(Andrea's gorgeous shop)


And on the subject of Christmas, my original paintings and fine art prints would make a wonderful gift ~ sign up for my newsletter to receive an exclusive discount!  

You are welcome to visit my online gallery by clicking here, and you can sign up to receive my newsletter by clicking here.


Thank you so much for visiting me today, and if you've got this far then thanks again for putting up with so much Christmassy~ness! 
Next time, light permitting (it's been dank and awful and photographs nigh on impossible to take) i'll be sharing not one, but TWO Ta~Dahhh moments of the hooky kind with you!


I do hope you'll drop by to take a look!


Sending love
Julia x x x

Enjoying Autumn

Hello!


We've been enjoying a weirdly warm November here, although I'm not complaining, there is something rather nice about wearing just a t-shirt and cardigan when you're meant to be swaddled up in scarves and winter coats!


This last weekend, we took our annual chestnut gathering jaunt to Clumber Park.  It's a little tradition that we began a couple of years ago and makes for a nice day out with a tasty picnic, flask of hot tea and forest walks.  After a damp start, the day turned out to be fine and sunny, just the right kind of day for romping about in fallen leaves, gathering up those shiny brown nuts and dealing with cheeky squirrels.

Someone seemed to be having fun, dancing in the leaves...

...and it's amazing what you find when you're searching for chestnuts!

This little fella came right up by our feet, and helped himself to some of our haul!

We had a lovely walk through the forest; I love being near trees, I find them very peaceful, they have a lovely calming energy...

...and the colour of the leaves this time of year is breath taking!

I think nature is good for the soul; watching the seasons unfold, seeing wild animals and birds in their natural habitat is a lovely antidote to the often busy and full lives we lead.

Talking of busy...and I'm going off on a right old tangent here!  Remember a couple of posts ago I told you I was finally making a start on getting rid of four years worth of accumulated junk?  And you might remember I showed you this corner of my bedroom (*shudders at the sight of it again):

I confess to being pretty alarmed at the thought of tackling that lot, I can tell you.  But as I sat and looked at it (as it looked back at me, all momentous and impossible) I had a thought: take it all to bits, and then do it one bit at a time.

I gave myself half an hour.  Three bags of really good baby toys, unused cushions and throws for the charity shop, and one big bulging bin liner for the rubbish later and it now looks like this:

I cannot express how light and happy this made me feel.  In fact, I did a little jiggy dance and squealed a bit.

I've also got a few nice toys that I'm going to have a bash at selling on ebay too - you can't see those though, I've made a fresh pile of stuff to the right of this photo (lol).

It really does help (when clearing out and clearing up) to repeat the mantra 'I love my home' instead of 'damn I hate chores'.  It kind of has a calming effect, and creates an urge to actually make your home nicer (or it does for me!).  I'm not after a perfect showroom style house, that would never be us in a million years as we like our trinkets, colour and lived in feel a bit too much to go minimal!  But I'm certainly feeling happier at how things are coming along, and much relieved that so much unused stuff will be hopefully finding new homes, with owners who actually want it!

One last thing before I go...

(a recent watercolour sketch from my sketch book)

I realise it might have been some time since I wrote about anything arty or woolly.  I want to reassure you that there will be some hooky posts on the horizon, and some arty ones too.  I'm in the middle of working on some ideas (painting wise) which will hopefully see a new range of artwork available for children and families.  I'll be sharing more of this with you soon, but for now let me just say it's an idea that has been percolating for many months and I'm looking forward to starting it!

On the hooky front, my lovely scarf just needs those pesky ends sewing in and I'm kind of contemplating another blanket...a stripy sort of blanket, which would be good to have going alongside the little squares one I've got on the go already.  What do you think?  Let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you!

Sending love,

Julia x x x

Being Creative Gallery ~October

Hello


I hope the 1st of November finds you well ~ the theme for the gallery for the month of October is Fire...I have a feeling this may have been a tricky one, but all the same I will look forward to seeing what you have created, or hearing about your ideas.

'Fire' for me conjours up many images and ideas; the colours of fire are so inspiring and are so in tune with our current season: burning ambers, golds, oranges and reds...but the heart of a flame can also be blue and green and white.  
Fire can also mean passion - a passion of the soul, a fire in the heart...I wonder if any of you chose to take the theme in that direction, and create a piece of work based around that?


The Being Creative Project has so far being an eye opening journey for me, and even on the months where I don't actually create anything I find myself still thinking about ways I could tackle the theme, and I'm being inspired in new and different ways.  I see this as positive growth ~ as artists it is easy to become comfortable within the boundaries we create for ourselves, to work with what feels OK and familiar.  It sometimes feels a little scary to push beyond that, to consider something new, to have to think about something we may not ordinarily do so.  I am pleased that from this project I have been able to work with clay, have rediscovered embroidery and also considered getting into linocut print work again.  I wonder what avenues it may have opened up for you?


If you have a piece of work you would like to post in the Gallery this month, then you are welcome to add your link using the widget at the bottom of this post.  The link must lead back to a picture of your work, either on your blog or on your Flickr or photo hosting account (I do ask that you please don't link back to any online market place, such as Etsy or Folksy, thank you).


The Flickr Group is also open to post your images on a daily basis, while this gallery will be open from 1 - 30th November.  You can easily access any of the gallery pages from the link in the right hand side bar.


Don't forget, you can still sign up to receive the Being Creative Newsletter, which I send out once a month.  You will receive a free mini Being Creative e-book with this, along with links to some blog entries that you may find inspiring, and which may help you get started on your creative journey.  Although there are only two more themes this year, you are still welcome to sign up and join if you haven't already by clicking the tab at the top of the page.


The theme for November is: VINTAGE - I hope you'll have fun with this one and I look forward to once again seeing all your creations!


Thanks for taking part,
Julia x x x