Craft bonanza!

In January I got an email from the lovely Claire of Crafty Creatives to ask me if they could use one of my illustrations for the art card in their woodland themed box. Of course I said a BIG FAT YES!
Crafty Creatives is a company run by two sisters which launched last year. They offer a once a month mystery craft box in the post. Subscribers will get a selection of crafty goodies to inspire their creativity all lovingly packaged up in a little box. Each box has a theme, for example past themes have been floral, nautical and oriental.
Along with lots of inspiring arty bits the boxes also contain an art card which doubles up as a description of the box contents, so i was chuffed to think one of my illustrations would be in each of the CC subscribers boxes. What i didn't expect was a complimentary box of my very own. Woo hoo! DOUBLE BONUS :)

When it arrived a little tingle of excitement went through me - its a bit like a mini Christmas.
Et voila:

So whats in it well......

- 2 cute fox ceramic fox beads
- 3 toadstool beads
- Skeleton leaves
- An owl pendant
- Owl fabric
- 3 birch hearts
- Wooden leaf buttons
- A pine cone
- Flower soft products (2 pots of sprinkles - a bit like glitter and glue) 
- 5 leaf pendants
- A needle felting kit and instructions
- And of course the art card

If you're someone who loves making stuff and experimenting with new techniques then this is the perfect product for you. Its a also a great way to get your craft fix whilst being able to moderate your spending on materials. Check out www.craftycreatives.com

Its been a while. A post from the heart

Hello 2013.
To state the obvious - i've not posted in a while. And to be honest its taking me a lot of effort to muster the energy and enthusiasm to post now despite wanting to for a while.
Those of you who know me personally and some of you who don't but would have already seen via my Facebook page, will be aware of the reasons why I haven't posted in a long time.
I 'm trying to get to the point but its quite hard to write about something thats so personal in a public domain. Okay lets get this over - i've been away for a while because my mum, who was diagnosed with cancer in August, had an operation in December and following a complication passed away on Boxing day.

So there it is. My world has changed and things won't ever be the same.

Everyday things get a little easier, and they say time is a great healer, but adapting is difficult, so i'm taking things one day at a time. I now feel it is time to try & get back into things but must confess i've felt a little uninspired since it happened, but perhaps thats to be expected.

Because of the events of the past month, my outlook on life has altered. My priorities have changed and a lot of things have been put into perspective. The main thing being that i've come to the stark realisation that spent far too much of my life caught up in the obsession of trying to make a career of being an illustrator. This has meant i've often neglected people close to me because i've put my work first........... no more.
Losing my mum has taught me that although I love drawing and desperately want to carve myself out a niche in the illustration industry I need to stop putting it at the forefront of my life.
So thanks mum for that valuable lesson and i'm sorry that i didn't spend more time with you in life.
But no regrets, I know she would not have wanted that.
I will still work at being an illustrator and continue drawing but from now on i'm not going to let it take over.

On a happier note I have a wedding to organise (my own). We decided as family that going ahead with it is what mum would want so this will be taking up a big part of my time. I'll try to post as often as possible but i'm no longer going to stress about posting regularly, so forgive me if from now on theres only a new post once a week.
Wedding plans here we come, and 'mum I know you'll be there in spirit'.