Time to think.

As much as I love my two little people and my husband, I also crave time to myself. No interruptions. No television. And if I’m lucky enough to get lost in something I’ve wanted to do for a while, I even forget to eat. (Being a woman who has no time to exercise, that can only be a good thing).

So today, I have been sat at my Mac since 9:30 am and I have only moved to make 3 cups of coffee. The time is now 2:01 pm. Impressive. My wrist aches, my toes are bent upside down on the floor (that makes no sense but I know what I mean) and my feet and hands feel like they’ve taken a vacation to the Baltic (I stole that phrase from my friend. She knows who she is). Despite these aches and shivers, I am content. All because I have had some time to myself. Simple, really. But time is rarely on my side, which is why I’m making such a big deal out of this.

What have I been doing since 9:30 am this morning, you might ask? Well, let me update you.

A couple of weeks ago, a new friend was talking about her frustration in her search for personal notecards. You know the ones. Those small landscape notecards sporting some kind of little motif or pattern. The ones she liked were too much money for too few cards. Anyway, to cut a long story short, that is what I set my mind to this morning. Creating some notecard designs. And here they are. I think I’m pleased with them. I’ll have a think about it.

Oh, and while I was at it, I created some for another friend, as a little surprise. And she’s kindly allowed me to feature them right here. Thankyou Lady Ruddington.

Right. Time to stretch my legs.

Colour Me Happy

And they do. They make me very happy. Especially those charming candy shades of peppermint green, blushing pink, vanilla cream and powder blue. And what about those woodland shades…mossy green, saddle brown, slate grey and burnt sienna? Lush. They make me feel like bellyflopping off a plunge board into a great big paddling pool of paint.

Last night, I was experimenting with some colour swatches, looking at different ways of putting together some less-than-obvious choices. I’ll be honest. I didn’t come up with anything revolutionary. That would take a little more allegiance than spending an hour at my Mac, with one eye on my screen and one ear on The Brits. However, I put some swatches together and actually I’m quite happy with them and they make a good starting point for extracting some of the swooshy, flowery patterns I have floating about my head.

Together, they don’t look so great. They’re confusing on the eye, so I’m going to give them some space.

In my musing of late…

Since I started my blog (last week), I’ve been conscious that I need to carefully contemplate my next entry. It needs to be something worth writing about, and more importantly, something worth reading about.

As I wrote last week, for me, this blog is a personal, visual history. An online journal of the things I see, which inspire me and push me to try harder.

So here we go. Here is a very small snippet of a few morsels I find inspiring.

Come on. Follow me into my world…..

In my hunt for props for some photos I need taking, I came across these mini airmail envelopes. Whatever happened to airmail letters? Bring them back, I say!

Circus posters are a thing of the past, and unlike airmail envelopes, will probably stay that way. Shame really. I’m curious to see what someone looks like swallowing an electric light.

Moleskine. The legendary notebook. Used by late, great thinkers and current artists alike. Perfect for capturing moments of penned inspiration. I especially love these Google Street View sketches by Lehell Kolehel. Clever person.

With a sly nod to the forthcoming day celebrating all things heart-shaped, I stumbled upon this little gem on one of my favourite websites Three Potato Four. Quite delightful.

Although, personally I would prefer an imprint of the lips on my lips, rather than on a piece of card.

Joy The Baker. There’s a reason she’s called Joy. Yep, you guessed it. Visit her here to satisfy your sweet cravings.

The colours, the font….hand painted twisty lettering. The seaside memories come surging back. Love it.

These personalised signs are crafted by those talented people at Three Potato Four, to hang stylishly wherever you wish to place them.

Oh, go on then. One more before the weekend….

This book first caught my eye on the website **Happiness Is…**. It was given a good review on this site, so I bought myself a copy (a used one, of course….reduce, reuse, recycle and all that) and I, too, am hooked. The only problem is, with two little people under 4 to run around after, one of which seems to survive on irregular amounts of sleep, my eyes don’t stay open long enough to read more than one page at a time. At this rate, I’ll finish it in…..ooh…say….5 years?