New cards on Etsy

It's been a bit quiet recently on the blogging front......I've had quite a lot of freelance work, plus I've been feeling a little under the weather and have now developed an ear infection :-( Hence I haven't been up to much other than moping around and feeling sorry for myself.

However, I have finally managed to list my new cards onto Etsy!


I had the cards printed for the markets I was doing in the lead-up to Christmas and have been meaning to put them in my Etsy shop for a while. I sold two straight away to a lady in Philadelphia which was pretty exciting, she wants to frame them and put them on her desk at work . This made me feel a bit better :-)

There are six different designs, all of them are taken from original watercolor illustrations by me!

I'm keen to do more of them - or maybe even to put them onto additional products - so I'd love to know what you think of them and any favourite designs?.....

Delilah Devine

I thought I'd profile a friend of mine who is a very talented illustrator, designer and most recently creator of her own product range under the title 'Delilah Devine'

I met Linda a few years ago when we worked together, before she ran away to Italy with a rather nice Italian man (ahhh - isn't this everyone's dream!) She is now back in Australia, married (to the Italian man) and has set up her own business hand-making gorgeous brooches and framed children's pictures. On top of this she is also a new mum - phew!

She crafts these delightful wares using found vintage wallpapers, so each one is a little bit different to the other - and exceptionally cute!

I bought the Kookaburra brooch - I loved him because he was green :-)

Delilah Devine has a website, etsy store and a blog

Linda you are an inspiration - love your work x

Super-cute packaging!

I love good packaging, and I think it speaks volumes about the product, brand and company if they have made an effort and put thought into the packaging of their products.

So I was delighted when my sister came to visit from England and bought out some biscuit packaging for me (not a traditional gift I know - but one she knew I'd love!!)

How super-cute is the packaging for these organic vanilla biscuits from Artisan Biscuits! These 'The Owl & The Pussycat' biscuits are aimed at children, with the biscuits cut into charming animal characters. Each box tells a classic children's poem or story, alongside gorgeous wood-block style illustrations. Click here to see more examples from the lovely childrens range.

Unfortunately the box came to me empty - so I didn't get to experience the biscuits :-(

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat, they took some honey, and plenty of money, wrapped in a five pound note.
Taken from 'The Owl and the Pussycat' by Edward Lear.

Me Old China at Moose!

I'm delighted to be a new stockist for the wonderful Australian on-line retailer Moose: Art for Living and was very excited to see they have featured my Me Old China designs on the front of their website :-)

Moose stocks some fantastic Australian designers and the on-line store covers a wide range of jewellery as well as textiles, paper and interior products. It's lovely to be in the good company of fab creatives such as Betty Jo Designs, Angus & Celeste, Sophie Milne and Flatland OK.

Thanks Moose for inviting me along to be part of such a lovely creative on-line store :-)

Bangalow treasures

We had a rainy day or two whilst visiting Byron Bay, so we decided to hire a car and head out to the surrounding towns for some exploring. I'm so glad we did because one of my favourite places we visited was a small town called Bangalow.

It's a small historic town with lovely coffee shops, restaurants and gift shops. The main street retains a village feel with wide verandahs and it has a sophisticated feel rather than being too touristy.

However, the main appeal for me was the Retro Shop and Heath's Old Wares and Collectables barn!

These are some pictures from The Retro Shop (no website unfortunatly) It's a great little shop with some proper retro goodies all in great condition. It was a good job we were flying back home and had weight restrictions with our luggage - the kithcen units were fabulous!

Heath's Old Wares and Collectables was more of a mixture of anything old and found - books, ceramics, old tins, lamps, glassware etc and a great place for a good rummage on a rainly day! They have a blog here:

I bought this old Ladies Journal dated July 1949 which was originally one shilling!

I thought I'd share some of the illustrations from the magazine as they are typical of the imagery from this particular era. I love the fact most of the imagery is hand-drawn; there are no photographic images and certainly no CAD artwork, with even the advertisments featuring hand-drawn illustrations and type.

Most of the illustrations are in black and white - with only a very few, such as this Birds Custard advert, being in full colour! It's great to look through to see how much has changed with advertising, design layout and of course with the input these days of computers and digital photography.

Back home, holiday over....

Well I'm back home after a fabulous time away....why do holidays always go so quickly?!.....

First stop was Sydney and no matter how many times I visit she always stuns me with her beautiful harbour. There is always so much life and activity with boats and ferries constantly on the move, and even at night there is much to gaze at with the ferries and city lights reflecting in the waters.

Next it was onto the beautiful Blue Mountains. This was the first time I've visited the Blue Mountain region and it was well worth the visit! The scenery and walks are rather stunning, and there are some cute towns in the area (in particular Leura) with lots of yummy cakes - which is a must after all the walking :-)

Then it was time to chill out in Byron Bay. What can I say..... just a great laid back place with gorgous beaches, fantastic food and a totally relaxing place to finish the holiday. A highlight has to be kayaking with the local dolphins who were playing in the bay and skipping over the waves so close to us. Just amazing.