Yorkshire Post feature

The Yorkshire Post has been really good to me over the years and featured lots of my work and Radiance products too. Today my wallpaper is featured in the magazine. 

Customers have been requesting samples as a result already. 

Good work Yorkshire Post. Thankyou so much x

A visit from Japan

Many good things came out of writing Illuminate and one of them was meeting Ai Kawauchi. It was my editor who introduced me to her work. She had seen her exhibiting her at Origin London and thought I might be interested in writing about her. She was right.

Ai makes incredible jewellery and lighting out of silk organza which she painstakingly ties around beans and hardens in a special solution to sculpt these shapes. She lives in Karatsu in the south of Japan and when we visited the country last year we met up and had a wonderful day exploring the bamboo forests of Kyoto.

Last week Ai was visiting London and she came up to Hebden Bridge for a day and a night to see us.

We had a gorgeous walk with the sunrise 

and we soaked up all the Autumn colours.

We talked as best we could (her English is good...my Japanese not so good) about life and work and making it as an artist. Ai has just had her first solo exhibition in Japan. I'm sure it will be the first of many.

Come back soon Ai. The cats of Hebden Bridge are missing you xxx

Wallpaper Giveaway

(Paper meadow wallpaper in teal with a Kirsty Elson house)

It's time. You have all been so supportive on my wallpaper journey AND I'm celebrating a fab Design Sponge feature SO I'd love to giveaway two rolls of wallpaper to one of you.  All you need to do is visit my wallpaper webpage and then comment below (or on the facebook thread if you prefer) letting me know which you'd like and where you'd like to put it. Time for some interior design visualisation! 

It would be super if you'd share it with your friends too.

I'm going to Syke until next Tuesday so I'll pick a winner at random upon my return.

The giveaway includes all the Paper Meadow and Beech Leaves designs but not 'In The Tall Grass' because I haven't got that one yet!

Remember to leave your email address if you comment here on the blog so I can get in touch if you're the winner.

Good luck. x

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Everyone! The giveaway is closed now and we have a winner. Two rolls of charcoal meadow are going to Naomi Moy in Epsom. Thankyou soooo much for all of your entries. I loved reading every one!

Dizzy

(Ffions learning Dutch and has been reading the beautiful Flow magazine to learn new words)

This year has certainly had it's share of excitement with spreading my wings in my beautiful new studio and birthing my first wallpaper collection. It has also seen sadness and pain as back in the summer I broke up with Robert. I hadn't mentioned it here on the blog before as it's so personal but I've always been open about my life and it's circumstances and readers of my blog will have heard me talk about him a million times. As long as I've been 'not mentioning it' it feels like my blog isn't my own somehow and I miss it.

Last week I came down with labyrinthitis, a dizzy virus which has the room spinning and makes you reach for the bucket. Ohhhh how horrible. I was forced to

stop

be really still

be really quiet

get my lovely friends to look after me

and sit under a blanket and do pretty much nothing.

..and d'you know what this is exactly what I needed to do. It was just what I was crying out for after a painful emotional summer and a really exciting wallpaper journey. But, with a bursting inbox and a gallery order list as long as my arm with everyone wanting everything NOW I was just ploughing on ignoring the signs of a body and mind craving a rest.

This is day 5 and I've just got out of pyjamas for the first time and me and Ffion are going for a haircut. It feels nice to have my boots on again. It feels nice to have sat around with the cats and the kids, with a visit from my Mum and from friends bringing me tea, reading magazines, dreaming, reflecting and enjoying being calm. 

Matt and Suzi and my Dad have done so well at keeping orders ticking along. I am so grateful to them for knowing what to do. I have two quiet days in the studio and then I'm off on my annual trip to the Timber House on Skye where I shall continue to chill whilst watching seals in the loch and counting sheep walking past the window. 

Then I'll be back. Right as rain. Rested and ready.