This and That ❤

hello dearhearts, I know... once again it's been FOREVER since I last made time to post a blog on here!

I'm all out of excuses. It's been a mixture of laziness, apathy and a general malaise that i've been trying to shift for the past few weeks.

things are looking up though, i'm on my holidays in Ireland at the moment; I caught the ferry to Dublin first thing this morning and after stopping off in Cahir, Co Tipperary South for lunch I finally made it to Cork this afternoon. If you're a long-time follower then you'll know how Ireland always cheers me up, if you don't believe me/remember, just check out the Ireland tag HERE.

this year I'm staying in Cork, Carlow and Dublin so i'm looking forward to visiting some of my favourite places and spaces + discovering a few new ones along the way.

so what on earth HAVE I been up to for the last month?! Well, not much really...

Well I say not much, actually i've been up to quite a bit, but none of it is particularly exciting, hence why I've been such a neglectful blogger (again).

I suppose if I had to narrow it down to some of the things i've been up to, this is what I would pick...

1. Brand New Website

Yes, I have a NEW website. I'd been meaning to get a new site sorted for ages (years in fact), as much as I loved my old site, I wasn't able to alter or edit much of it without the assistance of my trusty web designer. This meant that most of the info listed on the site was no longer accurate, my age was listed as 21 (i'm 24 now) and it said that I was still studying (I graduated in 2013).

 I needed a change so after a lot of consideration and online fiddling I spent some time setting up a new site myself. This time around it's quite a bit less cluttered and more streamlined with clear navigation and nice simple galleries showcasing my artwork, it even has a gallery for my painted work. And of course most importantly, the 'about' page is now 100% up to date.

if you're so inclined, you can check out the new website HERE

2. Brand New Painting

That's right, I finished another brand new painted lady for the ongoing (and neverending) Candy Doll Club project! This time it was a painting of the 'Buzz Buzz' illustration I created in September 2014 (read more about it HERE)

 

I often work sort of higgledy-piggledy when I paint a new picture, meaning that I'm often painting and adding finelined detail at the same time. It's not ideal but it helps me to keep track of the outline + work out what needs fixing/tweaking before it all gets finished. 

As always, the most challenging part of each painting is the hair! I usually end up blending 5 or 6 colours together to create the colourful 'ombre' hair. It takes AGES but it's always worth it in the end when it's all finelined and seamlessly blended.

My favourite part of any painting is adding in the outline. Almost all of my artwork has the same bold black lineart and it's without a doubt the BEST part of a new painting. As far as i'm concerned, putting the linework down makes the painting pop and come to life. 

Without the lineart my paintings would just be jumbled and meaningless, but a steady hand and a mug full of permanent markers turns blended colours and splotchy shapes into a neat, ordered design. Drawing the honeycomb pattern on this piece was time consuming but totally worth it. 

Anyway, she was painted in acrylic, posca and spray paint on a 24x24" wooden board and is all finished now, living on my desk with some of the other paintings I have lying about at the moment.

if you're local (in the Isle of Man) and think you might like to see some of my work in person (or dare I say... buy it!) I currently have four paintings in the Isle Gallery in Tynwald Mills. 

 I had some more numbers to talk about but I think i'll save them for another post! 

Hopefully i'll actually put together another blog while i'm here in Ireland, I usually post about some of the AMAZING shops and villages I get to visit, so fingers crossed this holiday is just as fruitful for my blogging habit, or lack thereof.

anyway i'll shut up now, thanks for stopping by, come and visit again soon!

And if YOU know of any brilliant places in Cork/Carlow/Dublin that I should visit while i'm here, leave a comment below or tell me on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram 

bye for now... 

Post Birthday Blog!

Well... it certainly has been a while since I last posted anything on here! Lets see, it's been just under seven months since I last published a blog. Yikes!

Never mind, i'm here now anyway, that's what counts. In fact you may or may not have noticed that the blog has a brand new look. That's right, here it is resplendent in all of its eye achingly colourful glory. Yay!

So what's THIS post all about I hear you cry? Simple really, on Saturday I celebrated my 23^rd Birthday and I thought what better time to re-commence my blogging habit than on my birthday. Or a few days after it as is actually the case.

Anyway, I thought i'd share a few snaps of Birthday related bits n' bobs with you all. I don't really have anything else to talk about at the moment. so it's going to be a mostly picture laden post. And there will definitely be a significant number of exclamation marks used throughout. Enjoy.

For starters, feast your eyes on this terrifically tasty treat of a Birthday cake! (i can verify that it is indeed delicious)

i was also surprised with a lovely bunch of flowers from my Aunt and Uncle. i hardly ever get flowers so these really were a lovely gift + Gerbera daisies are my absolute favourite flowers.

i got ever so many cards this year, by the end of the day on my Birthday i was beginning to run out of room for them all!

I was very VERY excited to find a little parcel of Birthday cards from my fellow Librarians waiting for me on my Birthday. I was even more excited when i opened the parcel to find presents as well! Even more so when i realised just how brilliant the presents were.

It's no secret at the Library that i'm a bit of a Sherlock fangirl (understatement!) so imagine my delight when i opened up the parcel and find this BRILLIANT Benedict Cumberbatch colouring book 

If i'm not busy fangirling over Benedict and his glorious cheekbones, i'm bound to be rambling on about my other fangirl crush Tom Hiddleston. I'm not sure if i could ever choose between Benny and Hiddles and decide which one is my absolute favourite, so these pencils really are the best thing ever because now i don't HAVE to choose! It's printed on the pencils so it MUST be official.

And as if all of that wasn't fabulous enough, there was even some of my favourite sweeties in the bag! what a lucky duck i am. Yum!

After spending the day at home (in my pyjamas) I made my way into Douglas to meet my friends for Birthday drinks.

My super duper pal Lorna gave me this luuurrrrvely Mary Poppins necklace (which i immediately put on and wore ALL evening). Mary Poppins is one of my favourite characters (i think i secretly want to be her) so i couldn't NOT love the necklace. + it's a locket, so Lorna says i have to put pictures of Benny and Hiddles in it. Obviously!

My flatmate Matt got me a Ghostbusters mug (and a Lady Raincorn wristband) which i was v chuffed with. Ghostbusters is my favourite movie, i can't believe i didn't already have a mug. Well, now i do!

For my actual Birthday outing, i celebrated the same way i did last year, by heading out on the Promenade with my friends to enjoy the atmosphere of the Funfair and the TT beer tent + music stage. Luckily it was a sunny day and a balmy evening so it was all good. As has become Birthday tradition, i slathered on some red lipstick and got vaguely dressed up, i debuted my latest purchase, a lovely vintage circle skirt. 

Here's the obligatory Birthday selfie...

All in all it was a good Birthday. i got to celebrate it with my family and friends which is exactly who i'd want to share a day/evening with. So i'm another year older now, definitely not any wiser and undoubtedly still a big kid at heart (the highlight of the evening for me was getting a big bag of pink Candy Floss on my way home from the beer tent!)

So here's the being 23, completely immature and as ever, utterly oblivious to what the future might bring! Fingers crossed it's a good year...


And on that typically peculiar note i'll say goodbye, i can't think of anything else to write so this will have to do for now!

farewell folks xX

Sunny Sewing Times ★

it's been a lovely sunny day here in the Isle of Man, perfect weather for the first week of the TT (see 'where i live' page for more info about that, or just google it . . . )

well. . . it WAS a lovely day here up until about 10 minutes ago when the sky went all grey and rain cloudy!

i've not been feeling too well lately so i haven't left the house in a few days, but i went for a little walk around the garden this afternoon to try and clear my head a bit + just to absorb some of that gorgeous sunshine earlier on!

i snapped a few photos of the garden as well, everything was just so green and luscious! i couldn't resist . . .

it was lovely!!!

* * *

before my walk around the garden this afternoon, i spent the morning messing about on the sewing machine attempting some more stuff

i managed to make this cute little gingham heart

it's stuffed with dried lavender so it smells absolutely divine! the button and bow looks red here but they're a dusky pink colour (my camera killing the quality once again!!!)

i've hung it up in my room and now the whole place smells all lavendery! so pretty

i also made some more bunting

i used this funky abstract floral fabric + some new purple bias binding and i think it turned out ok

it's certainly a lot neater than the last string of bunting i made!

i've a couple of more sheets of fabric to slice up so i might make some more sometime this week

* * *

i've been moping around the house a bit over the past few days since it's my Birthday tomorrow. . .

yup the dreaded day has arrived at last! the day i'm officially no longer a 'teenager'! tomorrow is my 20th Birthday . . .

so technically i must now become a 'grown up' . . . shock horror!!!!

what can i say! i never got my letter from Hogwarts, sadly Peter Pan never flew in to whisk me away to Wonderland, the Doctor never showed up in the tardis to take me travelling through space, i never found my way to Narnia and i never fell down the rabbit hole to Wonderland!

still. . . 20 or not, i'd give it at least another couple of years before i truly grow up!!!

after all, what's the point in being a grown up if you can't be childish sometimes?!

until tomorrow . . . that's all folks! ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Ps - the 'May' Giveaway closes tomorrow night at midnight so hurry up and get your entries in now if you haven't already!!! - Giveaway

Terrific Tuesday ★

so i vanished for a few days again didn't I . . .

I'm really sorry I've just been pretty busy with sewing stuff + i got a new logo commission the other day that I've been working on + yesterday my big sister and her boyfriend came round to show us their holiday snaps from their 9 week 'around the world adventure' (of which i am insanely jealous!)

but that's no excuse for me to abandon you all i know so . . . "I'm sorry"

moving on

today is a Tuesday hence today's blog title . . . just in case you were wondering!

maybe i should theme all the days of the week?!

we could have 'Marvellous Monday', 'Terrific Tuesday', 'Wonderful Wednesday', 'Tremendous Thursday', 'Fabulous Friday', 'Splendid Saturday' and 'Super Sunday'

ok maybe not! (maybe i should shut up and write this post huh!)

anyway I've been hiding in my room for a few days sewing and THIS is what I've been making

here we have a little toadstool charm, a sprinkles covered ice cream charm + a bright little Bauhaus coloured Owl charm (you can take the girl out of the library but she'll always be an Art History nerd I'm afraid!!!)

these are part of the little handmade felt charm series i seem to be working on aaaaaall the time!

 here they all are hanging on my mirror (just ignore the psychedelic mess of stuff on my walls in the reflection)

so what else?! well this afternoon i popped into Ramsey for a 'sort of but not quite' business meeting (it's for the hush hush thing that i can't tell you about yet) 

anyway the 'meeting' was great, i think i'm meeting the super duper girly behind it all again tomorrow for another meeting type thing in the Alpine where we will probably end up eating cakes and talking about buttons such is our shared love for all things haberdashery related . . .

speaking of haberdashery, look at the gorrrrgeous ribbons i got today in Ramsey

aren't they divine! i just loved the colours, couldn't resist

i also got a little pack of felt sheets since you know . . . you can never have too much felt!

this is to add to the ever growing stack of felt i have on my desk

ah . . . felt glorious felt!

oh while i was in Ramsey i bumped into my old friend Jeni from College as well, she's studying for a BA in design at University in Liverpool, check out her arty blog here - Jeni Grose

* * *

in other news . . .

i just HAD to share this with you!

look at the view outside my bedroom window at the moment

so looking past my garland of handmade origami cranes, my Manx Fairy charm + my bamboo wind chime and can you see that gorgeous cherry blossom tree!!!

most of the cherry blossom i've seen out around the island is beginning to flutter to the ground now leaving swirls of pink confetti-like petals on the pavements and roads but our tree is just coming into its blossom

isn't it pretty! every morning i open my curtains and it makes me smile to see those pretty pink petals brightening up the garden

* * *

right so nothing else to report on . . . i think!

tonight i need to draw stuff for this new commission + whip up a new polka dot pinup girl illustration for aforementioned super secret business type thing

so I'll bid you adieu my dears, until next time

that's all folks ◕‿◕ ★ xX 

Lusciously Lovely Lipsticks ♥

so today it's been another gloriously sunny day here in the Isle of Man

i've had a killer headache all day so decided to get some fresh air and wander up to the postbox to check the mail

my postbox is a good five minute walk up a hill so it gave me chance to sample the lovely Spring day even if i was ill (and still wearing my pj's)

good job i checked the post because . . .

my new lipsticks had arrived!!!

i was sent two absolutely gorgeous shades of red lipstick from 'Rockalily' (if you recall, i designed the lipstick logo below for Rockalily recently)

now Rockalily is run by the fabulous and totally gorgeous ReeRee Rockette who i've been a fan of for a while now, her blog is brilliant and she always dresses wonderfully, very 50's rockabilly + she has some seriously awesome ink (i may be scared of needles but i'm still a fan of tattoos)

she is utterly fabulous in every way since not only does she run her own cosmetics brand and blog about her awesome rockabilly themed life, she also runs a quirky networking group for other women running their own businesses

anyway, since i network with her via twitter (@ReeReeRockette) i've become aware of the cosmetics brand 'Rockalily' she's been launching

well it finally launched yesterday morning so i knew i just HAD to get my hands on some of those lipsticks!

so far she's launched 4 fabulous shades of Rockalily lipstick, each is specifically designed to suit particular skin tones and most excitingly of all, 2 of them are designed especially to suit pale skin

there's . . .

Rockette Red: creamy and luxurious matte lipstick. classic bright red perfect for paler skin tones. also a blue based lipstick (better for making your teeth look whiter)

Roulette Red: a deeper shade of classic red. also perfect for paler skin tones, with a more sultry look. also blue based.

Hot Rod Red: an orange based red more suitable for darker skin tones, classic bright red.

Pompadour Pink: a gorgeous semi-gloss lipstick in bright fuchsia. also blue based, 'the perfect pink'

as you can see, they're ALL gorgeous! but i plumped for 'Rockette Red' and 'Roulette Red' since i am after all quite a pale person (in case you hadn't noticed) and because they looked so super duper sublime!

+ i found it hard not to automatically love a make-up brand that has this as it's tag line . . .

"Rockalily Lipsticks - Because life is too short not to wear lipstick"

now i've been wearing red lipstick for years but it hasn't been easy since 9 times out of 10, a lipstick that i try/buy just ends up looking pink when i wear it since the blue or orange tones in it are all wrong for my skin tone (despite what the cosmetics shop assistants say . . .)

i have several tubes still stacked up on my dressing table (+ 2 more secreted away in my handbag) so the search for 'the perfect red lipstick' is a search i've been on for quite a while now! 

even top brands like Chanel, Dior, MAC and Tom Ford have failed to serve up an appropriate 'red' for me, more's the pity really because i've lost and given away dozens of lipsticks over the years simply because they failed to do their job . . . until i got hold of a Rockalily lipstick that is!!! 

after moping about watching movies i thought i'd cheer myself up by testing out the lippy so this afternoon i tried on 'Roulette Red' the slightly darker, 'sultrier' shade out of the two and as soon as i'd swiped it on i was just beaming because, as you may have noticed, it's actually RED!!!

did i mention that i LOVE it . . . because i totally do! (i was in the sun here by the way hence the ridiculously pale skin, i'm not usually that pale!)

i haven't tried the 'Rockette Red' yet but i'm pretty sure we can guarantee the fact that it will actually be red when i wear it!

seriously, to all my lovely 50's, vintage and rockabilly loving readers out there, if you've ever struggled to find a great shade of red lipstick, get yourself one of these!!!

not only is the colour fab but they're so creamy to apply and i've been wearing a coat of 'Roulette Red' for over an hour and a half now and my lips still feel all moisturized (the Rockalily lipsticks are enriched with Vitamin E so they won't dry out like most other lipsticks)

also, the pigment is so rich that you don't even need lipliner with them, this one still hasn't feathered and normally any other of my red lipsticks would have feathered and dried out all over the place by now

i fully LOVE my new lipsticks!!!

oh my golly gosh i can't go on enough about how fabulous they are!

if you're a regular red lippy wearer, i'd recommend you buy yourself a tube (or two. . . or twenty!)

but they're only available as a limited run at the moment, more are on the way but if you want yours now then act fast!

i ordered mine yesterday morning and they arrived today, perfection in postage form (as far as i'm concerned it is anyway! living on an Island i normally have to wait days/weeks for things to arrive!)

get yours here - Rockalily

and massive thanks to the fabulous ReeRee for launching this brilliant Cosmetics brand in the first place (and for being so awesome) i can't wait to see what she launches next!

head over to the official Rockalily site for more info or follow @RockalilyLondon

all images (apart from the ones of me and my messy room!) are the legal Copyright of Rockalily and ReeRee Rockette

pictures via - Rockalily and Rockalily Fan Page

* * *

nothing else to report today, i'm heading out tomorrow to search for a Birthday present for my mum

might just have to try out the other Rockalily lipsticks as well!

that's all folks . . .

★ ◕‿◕ xX