Candy Girl

Hello dearhearts! If you read the last post then you'll know i've been away for a week. I actually got back last Wednesday evening but i've been verrrrrry busy trying to organize my room (and my life) as well as attempting a massive clear-out of old stuff I no longer need!

Anyway it's taken me since then to think up a new blog post + to conjure up another new member of the Candy Doll Club... sort of

here she is

i know, i know... she's tooth achingly sweet! What did you expect?!

now when I say 'new' what I mean is 'reworked', since this one is technically a re-working of an old Xmas Candy Doll illustration I completed last December.

Back when I drew the lineart (and yes, I did DRAW most of this one on paper first) I couldn't think of a theme or colour palette for her so I ended up coming up with the Candy Cane polka dotted madness that you can see above.

So yesterday evening I was scrolling through some old illustrations and I thought about how much I liked the pose so wouldn't it be fun to turn her into a proper CANDY girl?!

So I did.

For this radical redesign, I was actually inspired by v brilliant French Blogger and style maven extraordinaire Katia aka LazyKat

I've followed (in a non stalkerish sense) most of her online profiles for a few years now (her Instagram is particularly epic - iamlazykat) and i'm always amazed by and insanely jealous of her pastel pretty style and very gorgeous (and highly enviable) wardrobe of clothes and accessories!

She always posts fabulously put together outfits and she's basically a real live human version of a 'Candy Doll'!

As well as being an all round Pastel Babe, Kat also has heaps of candy cute tattoos including a few My Little Pony ones, hence why the latest illustrated member of the Candy Doll Club has her two fave Ponies on her arms + another on her shirt.

And i chose My Little Pony because come on... who doesn't love some classic My Little Pony?!i grew up with stacks of the toys (i've probably got some up in the attic still) and i used to love watching the cartoons on TV.

so BIG thanks for the pastel inspiration Kat! merci beaucoup, tu es magnifique!

* * *

in other slightly less colourful news, i had a WONDERFUL time away visiting family in Coventry, a really lovely week which included a particularly laughter filled visit to Leamington with my two darling nieces Madison and Daisy

i managed to snap this pic of them in a Fancy Dress shop, they always cheer me up no matter what!

and... i can't think of anything else to talk about so that'll have to do for now!

so until next time, whenever that may be, cheerio and thanks for reading!

cupcakes and postcards ★

so i've been busy, busy, busy again today working away on commissions stuff! (which i'll tell you more about in a moment) but first i want to share a recent logo design with you all...

it's for a very groooovy Cupcake Business in Coventry... run by my lovely big sister Simone!

i did various logo, banner and blog designs for her before i popped over to Coventry the other week

she really does make truly scrumptious cakes and treats! 

anyway, while i was there i ran up a design for some business cards! she sent me a few in the post so i can put some in my logbook for college

don't they look fab! i'm very proud of her for doing all this and she's soooo good at baking delicious cakes and sweets that i've always said she should be selling/making them professionally!

you can see more of her cakes on the Facebook Page - Foxy's Fancies

+ be sure to check out the blog too - Foxy's Blog

there's also a Twitter page - @foxysfancies

* * *

something else arrived in the post as well, some brand new promotional postcards for me to hand out at craft fairs and the like

these aren't to sell though obviously, the idea is that if anyone buys anything from my etsy shop, they get a nice sugar skull sticker + one of these with their order, so that's the ONLY way to get hold of one! :)

anyway back to commissions, last week i was asked to design an Irish Pin-up girl tattoo for a lovely local client

it was great to get back to drawing a Pin-up and was especially awesome since she had to be Irish themed!

this is the finished (coloured) design for the tattoo artist to work from. i can't wait to see what it looks like tattooed properly!

* * *

a separate commission has had me drawing all manner or vintage type things recently as well, here are some caps of how the flyer is currently progressing...

shame i STILL can't seem to draw guys! but oh well!

* * *

i can't think of anything else to tell you all, i'm back at college tomorrow morning then i have a business meeting in the afternoon so lots to be getting on with i guess!

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Coventry Times ★

phew! it's been a busy few days, trying to get everything sorted for going away + finishing off some commissions and stuff

i haven't slept properly since yesterday morning when i woke up... i always seem to stay awake 24hrs when i'm about to catch a boat anywhere... so i'm a little highly strung at the moment, to say the least

anyway, we (myself + my dear mama) finally made it to Coventry late this afternoon, it's been miserable weather lately but there was a colourful welcome waiting for us as we reached our destination

the picture really doesn't do it justice, it was such an incredible rainbow! a double one, and the arcs reached right back into 2 full rainbows, brilliant stuff!

i also have 2 new drawing things to share with you

i got bored in the small hours of this morning while a big thunder/lightning storm raged outside and so i drew some little Kokeshi dolls...

i also wanted to do something with my Matryoshka dolls but i'm not too sure of the result...

i think i prefer them by themselves!

other than that there's also the first in a series of 'possible' xmas card designs

i started the drawings for them all back in August just after i got back from my trip to Ireland, but despite listening to my 'Christmas Music' playlist on repeat all day, i just couldn't really get into the festive spirit so i abandoned them!

i'm attempting to take them up again now but i may end up leaving it, not sure yet!

* * *

oh oh AND when i arrived in Coventry i found an email waiting for me directing me to a nice little feature of my work from 'The Young Creatives'

Meet 20-year-old freelancerJADE BOYLAN.

When she’s not illsustrating/blogging/writing/designing, Jade can be found reading/baking/collecting/watching Formula 1. ‘I kind of suck at proper hobbies,’ she says although we could not disagree more.

Jade spends most of her money buying books. ‘When I’m not buying or reading books, I’ll probably be drawing, watching movies, or writing books of my own! Books, books, books!’

Oh, and one last thing: she just can’t STAND celery...

these are just the images from it, the actual interview bit was v fun to do, you can see the full feature + read it all here - TYC

* * *

right and i think that's it for now, tonight i plan to sit in my hotel room and sleep... lots! 

tomorrow i think i'm off to see my big sister + my nieces and nephew so that should be suuuuper!

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

music and mayhem ★

so i actually left the house yesterday afternoon/evening to head into Douglas to watch the red arrows + meet my cousin and my sister before the gig

here i am with my cousin Mandy, waiting for the display to start.

but more importantly... the red arrows were AMAZING!!!

i managed to snap a few quick shots of them swooping around Douglas bay but as we all know, my camera is a bit shoddy so the pics aren't that great. . .

they were really, really amazing though + we found out that one of the pilots was from Coventry, which was nice (all and i mean ALL of my family comes from/lives in Coventry!)

speaking of family, my sister Nikki turned up next

then it was time for the show, we wandered around the Villa Marina for a bit before the gig and Imelda came on at just gone 9pm

myself + Nikki attempted to take a photo but. . . you guessed it, camera + dark room = godawful picture!!!

Imelda looked amazing though! she had this gorgeous red and black polka dot pencil dress and a skull and roses necklace, very rockabilly, very awesome!!!

kind of like this dress only red with black polka dots and black buttons/belt/collar

the gig was amazing! i'd definitely recommend seeing her live if you ever get the chance, what a voice!!!

to be honest i think i just enjoyed getting out of the house for once! at the gig i bumped into Ciara and Julie from Sweet Ginger, my friend Melanie from the Alpine, my graphics tutor Andy and my web designer friend Richard, so all in all it was a super duper night

DEFINITELY go and see Imelda May perform if she ever does a gig in your city/town/country. . . for sure!

after the show i took a walk along the prom (Douglas Promenade) since it all looked so pretty with the fun-fair all lit up

believe it or not but this is one of the first years in a long time that i've actually bothered to visit Douglas at night during the TT, i'm so boring i always stay at home, but the atmosphere last night was great

so maybe now i know what i've been missing all these years

anyway providing it doesn't rain on Friday, i intend to make i into Douglas for the senior race day firework display at night :)

* * *

gosh bit of a boring post today guys! sorry. . .

i don't have anything else to tell you about since i've spent most of the past 2 days editing files for a tattoo design commission + a web design commission

busy busy busy!

i have 3 more artists lined up for the next few 'Creative Café' posts though, so i'll try to work on them next

until then, that's all folks . . . ◕‿◕ ★

Crazy Coventry ♥

so i didn't post this yesterday because i wanted to do the Blog Birthday post


incidentally, if you missed yesterday's post, check it out because i'm holding a little giveaway to celebrate the 2nd Birthday of my blog


you can get your hands on some cute kawaii goodies, check out the prizes + how to enter here - ♥ Blog Birthday Giveaway ♥


anyway, yesterday i got to hang out with some of my family in Coventry City Centre, namely my mum, my godmother, her daughter, her grandson and my two darling little nieces


here's a shot of the girls waiting by the fountain in the centre of town, Daisy on the left and Madison on the right

we had a fab time pottering about in the shops, one of our first stops was Paperchase (aka heaven) where the girls bought some pens + notebooks and i got some goodies for the giveaway

after that we spotted this awesome cupcake themed kitchenware display in Debenhams

just LOOK at that teapot!!! so cute!

myself + he girls collectively decided that i just HAD to have the darling little cupcake money box for my room...

after that we found some REAL cupcakes in this super sweet little bakery!

they had these gorgeous big cupcake birthday cakes + all other sorts of fabulous occasion cakes

and these adorable sparkly cupcakes!!!

they were super girly and super awesome, perfection in cupcake form...

the girls spotted this enormous shoe in the window of a shoe shop, cue window shopping poses...

so after a spot of lunch we decided to take a break outside, it was chilly but we didn't care!!!

here's my Godmother Marie, her daughter Tina and Tina's little son Dylan



this roundabout was set up in town, weirdly enough there's always been a roundabout set up here for as long as i can remember, in fact myself + my nephew Josh used to go on it when we were kids!

so naturally... little Dylan had to go on it!

what a little cutie!!!

after that we all parted ways for a bit and i was left with the girls, i decided to take them through town to see one of my fave shops, a little fairtrade + crystal store which they both loved, in fact we all left with new crystals

the shop also sells paintings by a talented local artist named John (unfortunately i don't know anything else about him but his work sure is cute)

we nipped over to the older part of town where i took the opportunity to snap a quick shot of Coventry's famous 'Lady Godiva'

then i treated the girls to a cookie from 'Ben's Cookies'

Ben's Cookies is my fave cookie cafe ever!!! there's a big Ben's Cookies cafe in Leamington which i always take the girls to and luckily they've got a small stall in Coventry as well

they're more like cakes than cookies! massive, piping hot and oozing melted chocolate... delicious!

then i thought a quick detour to Primark was in order, there was a cute girly window display full of these little tote bags, so sweet!

the girls didn't want to go to Primark but i insisted! i bought a lovely little blue dress and this gorgeous bracelet

 

and to my astonishment, the girls both bought identical bracelets!!!

bracelet triplets!!!

we spotted this Betty Boop themed window display as well! Boop-oop-a-doop



 one of our last stops was another of my fave sops in the city, 'Miss Rush' sells all manner of kawaii bits and bobs

the girls each managed to snap up a pair of gloves... just like mine

and for some inexplicable reason, they decided to by some vampire fangs as well

 

scary little kids...

after that it was time to go home, so of course we needed a family shot in the lift on the way back to the car park

superstar family!!!

* * *

and that's pretty much it!

today i stayed in again to work on a tattoo design commission but i woke up feeling SOOOO ill!

i have a killer sore throat, luckily i managed to get a doctor's appointment at my sister's doctor's surgery this afternoon so i have some tablets now! hurray!

tomorrow is the day i've been looking forward to, a day in Birmingham City Centre!!! YESSSSS

ok that's all for now

until next time,

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX