Packing, organising & sorting....

Piles of magazines to sort through!

              My beloved reference folders - full of magazine tears and inspiration

Magazine tears sorted into floral reference..... 

 traditional and damask reference.....

children's reference...... 

and house inspiration & ideas.  

         The Jolly cat wants to make sure she'll be packed up and taken to the new house!

Life has been pretty hectic here for the past few weeks, with packing up the house and sorting our belongings ready for the big house move (soooo many china teacups, coffee pots and plates to pack!).  I've also had some last minute freelance design work, so I've been busily creating some bedlinen designs amongst the house chaos and between frequent cups of tea.

I'm trying to be quite organised and sort out my piles of magazines before we move.  I love collecting magazines for ideas and inspiration and I have piles of them in my studio - some of which date back to 2004!  With the up-coming house move it's been a really good excuse to sit down at night and go through the older ones, tearing out pages for my reference folders.

My reference folders are my designer bibles, they are full of inspiration material which I turn to for almost all of my design projects and freelance work.  I have about 14 folders divided into categories such as traditional floral, contemporary floral, stripes and geometrics, tableware, children's and miscellaneous reference - and I'm constantly adding new material to them.  I can't flick through a mag without going on a tearing frenzy - pulling out anything that catches my eye and that I think will be useful reference material, so it's been great having a stash of old mags to rip into! 

I'm quite partial to a particular folder for my reference collection, with these ones being from Muji.  The folders are full of clear plastic sleeves, perfect for slipping in torn out magazine images.  Ahhh, it makes me happy just thinking about them. 

My poor little studio is now being taken over by empty boxes ready to be filled with our precious belongings.  I came in the other night to find the Jolly cat snuggled in the bottom of one of the precariously stacked pile of boxes - I guess she doesn't want to be forgotten! 

Home Beautiful

 

I was really thrilled to see two of my melamine plates featured in the latest Home Beautiful magazine! 

High Tea & Tea Party were included in the 'We Love' section as favourite finds by stylist Sami Simper.  The theme for the favourite finds was 'graceful and delicately-hued designs with a handcrafted feel' so I was really pleased my vintage melamine plates were included.

 
Also in this latest November issue of Home Beautiful was fellow textile designer and illustrator Natalie Ryan. Natalie has a lovely blog featuring her own illustrations and textile designs - and her blog was mentioned in the 'love at first site' column. Natalie used to design for Linen House where she created some beautiful children's bed linen ranges, and like myself she loves to create hand-painted illustrations.  You can check out Natalie's blog here!

Me Old China in Inside Out!

Inside Out magazine - May-June 2011

 Illustrated 'Vintage Tableware' side plate

'Polly Put the Kettle On' cut-out wall plate

I was really excited to get the latest copy of Inside Out magazine over the weekend - and see two of my plates featured!

One of my Me Old China 'Polly Put the Kettle On' cut-out wall plates was featured, along with one of my Lucy King Design illustrated 'Vintage Tableware' plates, both used as props in an article about cutlery.  It's great to see your own work featured in such an inspiring and design orientated magazine, so I'm sending a big thank you to Inside Out for including my designs in the lovely styled shots!

Peppermint magazine!

Well today I was very excited to receive the forth issue of Peppermint magazine - which features one of my Me Old China ceramic plate necklaces in their eco christmas wish list!

Peppermint magazine describes itself as being Australia's only eco fashion magazine and prides itself on featuring and promoting environmentally friendly, sustainable and ethical fashion design. It is a fairly new magazine (issue 4 has just hit the stores) but has already won several awards including best sustainability in publishing.

I was very flattered to be included in the eco christmas wish list amongst many other talented and environmentally aware products - and to be featured in the magazine in general. It is a great concept to be supporting ethical fashion and is well worth checking out. You can find Peppermint magazine here.