New Softies

Five new softies are in the shop now!

fab talent

The beauty of working for yourself is that you can randomly trawl around the internet without fear of your boss looking over your shoulder and catching you out. So, today, in between scoring quotes (1) and meetings (2) for Fusion Design I checked out istockphoto and found the talented Simon Oxley flaunting his beautiful, humorous illustrations. Check him out at his fab website - although I have to warn you, there is some quirky music, so turn your computer volume down if your boss is lurking!

little softie bears

This little fellow is a sneak preview (currently unstuffed and unarmed), of 1 of the 5 bears in my new range of softies.

These bears are much more baby-friendly, cute and cuddly than the Bad bears from last year, so I am hoping they will be more appealing to everyone with a baby in their lives.

I am actually considering sewing them exclusively by hand, simply because getting out the sewing machine lately turns the whole sewing experience into a formal, boring exercise. When I sew by hand it means I can sit in the living room with husband, watch tv and sew. Creating my lovelies becomes a part of the evening, rather than the whole evening, and yes, perhaps the fact that I find myself watching Big Brother every night at the moment my be a factor.

New most favourite

I seem to have a real thing for handwritten typefaces at the moment. Here are some sweet examples I have downloaded from dafont.com

I have been designing a batch of eshots for future marketing of Fusion, and it has been great to design with some creative fun fonts. Work is quiet at the moment, (I guess it's the post Christmas pick up), which makes my current sniffly cold and blocked ear very good timing!

happy new year!

After a long break from blogging, I am back and keen to make more effort with my weekly musings.

December was a really manic month for us, for work and socially. This December we managed to see nearly every friend we have, including some amazing friends from Australia (you know who you are :) We fully expected a nice work wind down, it was, however, busy until the final hour. A good sign, and I really hope things continue this year with the same propulsion that took us along from August.

Sewing stopped last month along with blog. Not helped by my sewing machine breaking and softie production ceasing to a severe halt. I have, however, started creating again and fully intend to get back on that sewing horse. I have five little white bears in production, all very cute and baby soft in white fleece. Soon to be displayed in the shop.

Not sure why I have put a pic of our fridge here, I just like it.

village scene 6

bunny marcie

Little pink Marcie has made her debut in my shop today!

one big softie

Today we took a friend for a walk.
As you can see by the extreme cropping of this photo, dogs really are hard to photograph. This was taken with one hand on the camera, the other reaching inside my pocket for a little doggy treat.
Having a dog on the end of your lead really enhances your walk, you soon forget how far you've walked, or how cold it is out, not to mention what awaits you in the studio when you get back to work.
They are so happy to be out, it just makes you smile.

shop update

New in the shop this week, after an industrious Saturday of sewing - four cheeky, plump little bunny softies.

the last of a bad bunch

These are the last of my Bad Bear range. Eyebrows McPhee, Patches and Louie the Teeth. Available in my Plum Pudding shop now. They are a fierce looking bunch, but really quite small and harmless and creating them was a great exercise in trying to make my illustrated cartoons come to life.

Now that I have finished my Bad Bears, I have decided to go back to creating softies that are cute in the more traditional sense of the word. So that will be next weekends work, little bunnies which are white, fluffy and innocent!

the creative stuff

The nice thing about working from home is that you get some down time. OK, normally I could be doing some marketing, filing or research, but sometimes I feel like doing something a little more creative, and today it's this illo.

Lately I have been thinking that it might be good to produce either some digital prints or paintings of my drawings and sell them in the shop. So that's an idea for the future of Plum Pudding, I just need to get a bit more down time!

village scene 5

The weather has improved so much here lately, its as if summer has begun in Autumn. We have embraced walking in a big way lately, doing 10-15 miles most Sundays. It's not all hard work, we take a picnic (with fat creams cakes), and the rug, and have a bit of a lie down and relax too.

The lack of blogging does not reflect a relaxed state on the sewing side of life. I have been sewing up a storm, and hoping to get my final Bad Bears into the store very soon.

dracula bear

The latest bad bear to join the gang is Dracula!

He is inspired by the book I'm reading at the moment, The Historian, written by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a interesting read about a young girl who, after discovering her fathers' dark secret, travels across Europe to find history's most legendary fiend, Dracula (insert your own scary laugh here).

My version of Count Drac is obviously a cuter, more lovable one, with no scary pointy bits or yukky smells. Soon available in the plum pudding shop.

lunchtime walk

Twichells. (Nottingham speak for lane). Taken on a walk around the village at lunchtime.

be afraid, be very afraid

This weeks work in progress, another Bad Bear. These softies are getting meaner and nastier looking with each new one I sew. Think the next one will have to be a bad girl bear, just to even things up a bit.

my new studio

The advantage of working from home is that you can make yourself comfy in any room of the house. Today it was on the coffee table in the living room. Just like when I was a student working in front of the TV.

Just me, (husband was upstairs doing very important computer stuff), the phone, my huge list of phone numbers, a cup of peppermint tea and a some of fig rolls. yum.

Very relaxing and a infinitely better than working in my previous employment.

(seaside) village scene 4

As an Aussie, this unspoilt part of the English coastline stirs all the emotion of a day at Bondi (well almost). This shot was taken last week on a three day trip to the Devonshire town of Sidmouth. No rain, cream teas, good friends, beautiful.

new badies!

I have just added another 3 Bad Bears to the shop! This one, Rob the Bear-gler, is my favourite. See also Scrappy, who has been in a fight, and Stan (& deliver), the Highwayman. I'm loving the corny names, courtesy of my husband.

featured on Cuteable!

Well, its a little bit late, but just thought I'd mention that my three little bunnies have been featured on one of my fave blogs Cutable!

Thank you Sion for their 15 minutes of fame.

at last

Finally three little Bad Bears have finally made it onto the Plum Pudding shop! I am really happy with the way they have turned out and am looking forward to seeing what response they receive. There will be 10 all together so more to come in a few days time . . .

On another note, I have finally left the security, and monotony, of full-time work (jump up and down and shout whoo hoo!) and am now working with my lovely husband, at home, on our graphic design business! We are called fusion design and if you are interested in having a look here's our website. Emphasis is on marketing/networking at the moment to get more clients.

It's great to look out the studio window and check out the birds helping themselves to the peanuts in the bird feeder, or go for a little walk around the village at lunch time. I will miss the action and shopping of working in the city, but have really had enough of all that for the time being and I'm sure I will appreciate going into town occassionally with a purpose in mind!