Admin.

 Hello there!

Right, not much to share work wise, but a few pictures of the usual.
Making pocket mirrors & badges:

Tiny little parcel:

 Goody bags from my giveaway yonks ago (again, I'm super disorganised):

It seems to have been one of those weeks where you spend a lot of time doing life admin. Hours have been spent on the phone trying to sort out car insurance or driving around not seeming to get anywhere or failing MOTs or hanging about in horrible shops calculating how much you have spent/can afford to spend/what you are even doing in the first place!

Tomorrow we are off to Cornwall for a week, to a place where my dad has been going since he was four. He learned to swim in the rock pools. It's a tradition. I can't wait to fall asleep to the sound of the waves & wake up to do the cross word & feel all cold & salty from the sea. (when I say 'do the cross word' I mean 'hold the pen whilst reading out the clues & filling in the answers so I feel like I'm the cleaver one).

It won't be too much of a holiday though as I am taking my sewing machine/computer/camera/PVA. I will be spending most of my time making costumes for our up coming festival tour with Videopia (facebook) (blog). I'll explain more next week with some pictures of my Jungle Book/Jurassic Park/Jaws creations...

I hope everyone is feeling less pissed off about the rubbish things than me. Anyone going anywhere nice on their holidays? I'd love to hear of nice things to dream about.

This makes me happy.

Studio Sunday: Not So Studious.

Well this isn't really a studio Sunday post. It was sunny today & we sat outside eating cake really.

Rather than doing any of my own work I did help my Rob out with setting up his Etsy shop. He has left his job to become a full time artist. It's pretty risky business - but we're young & you gotta follow your dreams!

So cheesy.

Well anyway, here is the shop so far. (Soon to have more original paintings & house portraits - if you have a pretty house & want a super discounted house portrait to start his portfolio get in touch ASAP!)

Here is his website.

& here is his blog.

Oh, & here is a post I did a little while ago about his studio in our field.

This week I will be ordering new fabrics, helping revamp the Bedford TK horsebox ready for festivals, & heading to Cornwall. Along with sewing, of course.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Summer Collection 2012

Hooray!

I have finally got all my little summer collection together & in my Etsy shop.

It was all a bit of a last minute thing, but I've really enjoyed focusing on some key pieces & getting them styled etc. Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day & we went off to Budleigh beach to take some pictures. I roped my gorgeous friend Jess in to do some modelling & I am super happy with the results. All the photos were taken on my old 70s Canon SLR. After the shoot I took the film straight into town & got it developed, I was so relieved with the way they came out, I was dreading the film being loaded wrong or something like that. The photos have such a nice quality to them, I didn't need to do any editing to them as the colours were all vibrant & clear.

Here is the whole collection:

The 'Darling Clementine' Sundress.

The 'Blooming Lovely' High Waist Shorts.

The 'Pretty In Pink' Hand Printed Tee.

The 'Ziggy' Pleat Skirt.

& The 'Red Delicious' Classic Dress.

To see all the photos click here :)

I hope you like these summery shapes. If you do - spread the word/love. If you don't, keep it to yourself. Anyway, thanks for looking.

Next stop... Autumn/Winter. But, let's enjoy some summer first!

'Freja' Eco Friendly Fashion by Ester Keate

A while back I was approached via Etsy by a lovely lady called Ester, she's in her final year doing photography at University of Westminster & wanted to borrow my velvet cape for a photo shoot about eco fashion.

Well, I was pretty excited to be involved - so I sent her my cape to borrow for her shoot & it has now appeared in her final magazine. It looks so good. I couldn't be more pleased with the way it has come out, the styling is wicked & Ester's photography is very super indeed.

Take a look here to see the whole magazine, (the cape features on page nine of the Freja mag).

Also, check out her other work on her website.

I've had this song stuck in my head all day. Welcome to the working week chums. I love Elvis.

Studio Sunday: & Summer Sunrise

(shelf in my studio)

For some reason I decided to stay up sewing til 5am last night. Not exactly a wild Saturday night, but I just felt in that mood. I've always enjoyed working in the middle of the night, it's peaceful & I don't get distracted. Also, I always feel that if I'm in the mood for working ridiculous hours I should just go with it, as I probably won't be in the mood to work at all the next day.

I love staying up all night at this time of year as well. Sunrise is magical, & we are nearing to the longest day so it happens at about 4.30, once I get to that point I always think I will just stay up through the next day too but when I started 'resting my eyes' at about 5, the next thing I knew I was waking up at 10.30 in all my clothes under the duvet. Probably for the best, else I would have been Groucho Marks today.

So, here is what I've been working on:

Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine. My newest addition to my Summer 2012 collection.

The 'Clementine' Sundress

A sneak of a special apple dress for a blogger in USA (more to be revealed in July)

This week I have a bunch of parcels to send out including a few dresses/sweatshirts & my giveaway goody bags - I know I am way behind with posting things, big appologise I somehow just didn't manage to get to the post office last week. (Rubbish excuse).

Hopefully be doing a little summer shoot, if the weather lets me.

& also ordering in some fabrics for my AW collection! You can still vote for your fav organic cotton here.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Summer 2012

Too late for my little summer collection? Well, the summer seems to have come & gone here in England. It lasted about a week. Never mind, there's hope yet!

I am actually working on an A/W12 collection at the mo & getting that styled, made & out in late August - so this is all a little confusing. I will be releasing about four special limited edition summer items over the month of June. So, here is the first two pieces:

The 'Pretty In Pink' Tip Dye Handprinted Tee

&

The 'Blooming Lovely' High Waisted Shorts

 

The inspiration:

(image source)

The making:

More summery things coming next week. Although, I'm not feeling too inspired as it hasn't stopped raining in at least a week here - what does the sun look like again?

Oh & thanks to my lovely model Ljiljana, my cousin & oldest friend. I will be using her for her body again next time she's down from London.

Studio Sunday: Pumpkins / Onions / Lanterns?

This week has been pretty busy. It was my birthday on Thursday, & it was horribly rainy & windy all day. Rob had a day off so it was pretty nice lighting the fire early & watching Mermaids (little Christina Ricci is the cutest thing!)

Anyway, the whole gang came home on Saturday & we went shopping in Totnes - I got a few vintage goodies for my birthday that I'll share next week. But we mainly came away with fabric for dress commissions from my sisters.

This is a gorgeous soft cotton fabric from the fabric shop Stones. It is meant to be Chinese lanterns, but we thought it looked like onions or pumpkins, & I sort of like that better. So, I spent today making it up for her.

I want to keep this for myself! Luckily we are the same size so I get to 'borrow' it :)

God Save The Queen.

Well. What a long weekend! But more busy & tiring than many others. I'm a bit of a royalist. I mean, not properly, but I think that our royal family is pretty great & Charles is a dude.

Last week I had to make about 300 metres of bunting for a job for my father's company. Loadsa school kids had drawn flags & we got them printed up on canvas & I had to cut it up & sew it into bunting. It was tiring & highly repetitive. & whatever the ink was they used to print it was making me feel pretty spacey. Not so nice at 1am with all the windows open & moths coming in. Anyway, I got it done & sent on time - which was good!

I also made this papier mache crown for a photo booth type job.

On Sunday we made a ton of cakes & cucumber sarnies. Whilst poor ol' Queenie had to watch a bunch of boring ferries go down the Thames we chilled out with neighbours & ate & drank in the garden. Very lovely.

Muma & lotsa food & drink:

 Piles of plates:

Yaz & scones, the shed, the tipi:

Phew! Today we were up in Somerset helping kids decorate cupcakes in the pouring rain. I'm so sleepy & a bath & stew & bed early are just what the doctor ordered.

Happy jubilant Jubilee folks.

Pinch. Punch.

First of the month. Really? Already? Yeah, get over it. Oh shit. Okay.

Well, yes it is June! Oh la la.

I'd like to say a big old thank you to all my lovely new followers (& the old & loyal ones) but this month I had a lil ad over on Skunkboy & was doing an exclusive giveaway for those who came here via her. I was meant to be giving away one little I Know goody bag, but, to be honest, I sort of thought I'd get about 5 comments (I was actually dreading the embarrassment of not getting any comments on it). So, instead I am giving away three.
In the end I had 57 comments which blew me away - I boringly used a random number generator to pick the comment for the winners.

Winners are Peneloping, Trisha, & Erika.

Please gimmie a message with your address & I'll send you your goodies.

 I've also decided to start a little list of things I'd like to achieve every month when it comes to I Know.
This is my first list, so I'm trying to make it realistic.

- Organise studio (& keep it tidy!!)

- Reorganise my Etsy shop.

- Write press releases & contact people. (At least somebody!)

- Make a plan for the summer.

- Upload my summer shapes.

- Start to plan A/W.

I'm sure there are a ton more things but this is already probs too many for me to actually do.

Hmm anyway happy June :)

PS: I'll be buying new fabric next week so would greatly appreciate some feedback pleeease. Click here to vote for your fav fabrics.