Last day at work

Today is my last here at work with tomorrow marking only 2 weeks left until our official due day.

I'm sure in a few weeks time I won't even be thinking of this place and will be so in love with our brand new first born that I'll wonder what I was thinking of, but I do love to work and to create and would like to think that I'll be back (mentally as well as physically) in the creative working world - as well as back to making my jewellery of course!

I said a lot in this previous post so I just wanted to show some of the work I've done in the last year that I'm most proud of, starting off with some internal work.

These characters are part of a family used to illustrate our off-the-shelf 360 degree appraisal software called Carbon360.

I designed all of the branding related to this product including the logo, software interface, website, flash animations, brochures, all related printed items, exhibition panels - everything basically! The concept of these little guys started from someone else who worked here before me, but since then I've had to re-create them as well create this entire new team...


We also thought it would be cool to have some personal ones that we could use on our business cards and office mugs (can you tell which one is me?).



This is the new design concept I've done for our own internal site (you'll notice we've gone all web 2.0) which is unfortunately only finally going to get built during my absence so I won't be here to keep a tight grip on it!


And here are some other design concepts that I did for a few pitches over the year...

Are you the next great British designer?

"BBC Two and Philippe Starck are teaming up for a brand new TV series to find the next great British designer.

Internationally renowned designer Starck will be heading up a specially created School of Design in Paris.

Ten aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century will be given the unique opportunity to learn and work alongside Starck and his team over a period of several months."

Check out the site: www.bbc.co.uk/schoolofdesign

Before & After #2

Here's the second edition of Before & After.
This crib has served as first bed to both Ben's dad, as well as himself and his brother and is now going to be used for a third generation of Hostler.


Ben is actually a bit of a hobbyist carpenter. He's done a furniture making course and made the coffee table in our sitting room and has made LOTS of boxes (he seems to have a thing for them) so it was no suprise that he was able to pull this one off. He's very clever. It took him an awful lot of time and patience though, stripping off the old paint and mending a few rotten bits but it's finished, looks great and is ready to go!

Chocolate typeset

You know when you see those vintage typeset letter blocks and wooden printing racks in junk shops they look so stylish you just want to eat them - well now you can!

I saw this on Mighty Goods.
They're chocolate typeset letters from Food+Flower+Style.

"Individual letters can be ordered by e-mail to make your own personal message for $2.50 a letter."

I'm not sure how well they'd travel across the world to me though unfortunately.

15 years ago today

15 years ago today, a relationship shy 17 year old girl and a long haired 20 year old rocker got it together.

11 years later they got married.


4 years later she still loves him. x

My latest work

I've just finished my biggest commission to date!
An extremely generous husband asked me to make three of my resin window bangles for his lucky wife for her birthday.

It was a very tight deadline of only 2 weeks (don't forget I have a day job) and it wasn't the easiest of journeys as I'm suffering from pregnancy related numbness and pins and needles in half of my left hand at the moment but I did it and am really pleased with the results.
I even managed to come up with a new working technique too which is a double bonus!


This guy really was the best client I could have asked for and his feedback is still leaving me with a grin...

"I thought I should say that the photos don't really do your work justice! Really beautiful and much admired last night."

I made sure I packaged them up extra specially too, with tissue paper and ribbon and everything! I think I might make that my new standard packaging actually.

dutch door press - Etsy shop

My latest Etsy purchase is a collection of gorgeous cards from dutch door press - design & letterpress studio.


I'm one of those organised people (ok, some may say anal) that likes to have at least a few spare cards in the house, ready for those panic moments when you need one at short notice.

I've also read this is a great idea for when you have a baby as the last thing you'll have time for is popping out for a birthday card! There are quite a lot of events coming up over the summer too (birthday's, babies, wedding) so it'll be a luxury having some stylish cards to send out rather than relying on hideous panic buys from the corner shop where the only offerings they usually have involve puppies in soft focus. (Although don't get me wrong, there are times when that is EXACTLY what you need!)

You won't believe...

...what I've just found!

Remember the post where I couldn't decide whether or not to spend all that money on the Breil Snake necklace/bracelet that I'd been eyeing up for years - basically £60/£70 worth of jewellery.

Well, (is my smugness apparent yet?) I've just been in to town to pick up a few bits and bobs and happened to pop in to a new clothes/gifts shop and found this dirt cheap replica! For a tenner! £10! 10 quid! That's ten English Pounds.


So I bought it.

Sebold's originals - Etsy shop

How cool are these.
If I had the money, I'd give a home to Hyssop just for his name alone :)

"...'one-piece' hand felted toy figures.They are solid Merino wool, no stitches and no seams. Made to order they are numbered chronologically and given their own collector tag."

Hyssop



Mr.Mc Karr



Yellow Bunny


Check out the Sebold's originals shop on Etsy.

Annual Gallagher gathering 08

My dad's side of the family is MASSIVE. And then some.
He's the youngest of 7 children who each have loads of children themselves. In fact there are 33 of us, of which myself and my brothers are the youngest. So I have 30 cousins on my dads side alone.
Because of the age differences between us all we even stretch across different generations, which means some my cousins children are now having children themselves so there are now 4 generation of us - all stemming from my Grandma and Grampy. Pretty crazy huh?


As you can imagine, there aren't many occasions where that many people actually get to meet up apart from weddings and funerals, so last year was the first annual Gallagher gathering cricket match.
I bet there aren't that many families that contain enough people to create two cricket teams and still have people left over to watch.
I didn't make it to last years gathering but I did make it to this years which was held at the weekend. It really is cool being part of such a massive family, even if you don't know everyone's name or even recognise some of them! I'm definitely up for next year's match and I might even play this time :)

Before & After #1

Here's the first before and after in our final house blitz!

Sitting room fireplace

British Silver Week

British Silver Week is 10-16 June and will apparently include events held around the UK. Unfortunately the website isn't the most inspiring or helpful but here are some of the listed silversmiths and luckily they are VERY inspiring:

Abigail Brown



Catriona Stevenson



Clive Burr



Li-Sheng Cheng



Miranda Meilleur
(who I wrote about here and who still stands out as one of the best)



Suzie Horan

Polli jewellery

I love these earings...


I came across them on Doe but they're by Australian company Polli who make home and fashion accessories.

This mobile is also pretty cool...

The handmade capital of the internet

A great line by Polka Dots And Paisley.

"Etsy...the Handmade capital of the internet"

Taken from here (squidoo) by way of here (Seth Godin interview).