I love the trees in the woods

Our friends came to stay for the weekend and we took little Otis for a walk in the woods.

Piggy came too

and he found holes to hide in

and trees to climb.

Mia and Jack played on the rope swing.

Otis watched.

Mia found leaf skeletons

which made us all seek out more tiny treasures.

Otis said 'I love the woods'.

and then

'I love the trees'...

and then

'I love the trees in the woods'.

I couldn't agree more.

I'm going to New York!

Today I bought plane tickets to New York! I'm ever so excited. I've had the ICFF on my mental mood board for years and I have finally booked a stand thanks to somebody I met on my blog! Let me tell you the story...

Jill Hodgeson who was living in Virginia U.S was wondering what her old friend Sean, who she used to go to art college with in Bradford, UK in the seventies, was up to. She Googled him (as you would) and found him right here on my blog. He is my friendly electrician you see who did the wiring at Radiance. Jill being the artist and creative that she is starting reading my blog and took some of Beths e-courses that I had talked about and we found ourselves friends in the same lovely online network.

Last summer Jill and her husband David visited Hebden Bridge and we met for the first time in my studio. They were SO nice. They told me they they had always fancied living in New York for a year and had decided to do it! They had found a small flat in Manhattan and that I would be welcome to come and stay.

Oh yes please! How much nicer is a big scary 'on your own' adventure like doing an international trade show when there is somebody lovely there to greet you and make you feel at home.

I've booked my stand at the show and bought my plane tickets this morning. Now for the learning curve of doing business internationally - exporting, shipping costs etc etc. Then there's is playtime to plan too. So many people and places I would like to see. I've started my New York Pinterest board. I'd like to do some yoga with Elena Brower who wrote that lovely Art of Attention book I blogged about too. She has a yoga centre in New York. 

I just love that blogging can lead to extraordinary connections and opportunities....which in turn lead to new stories and adventures to blog about :) 

Shapes from the forest floor

I haven't had a day in the studio drawing and playing in AGES so today I spent the whole day doing just that.

I printed some of my photos from yesterdays walk in the woods and picked out shapes ready to be scanned and turned into patterns.

The next bits not ready to share yet....

Wonderful woods

I just had a lovely walk, up Horsehold and through the beech woods looking ideas for a woodland inspired wallpaper.

I'm loving the texture of the forest floor.

There's so much beauty when you look up close.

Sparkly dew

and tiny lichens reaching for the sky.

Tree roots hugging beech nuts

and great shapes everywhere.

There had been so much rain that the stepping stones over the waterfall had been covered up so I disappointingly had to turn back but in doing that I noticed a new path that followed the waterfall down to the canal, one that I had never noticed in the 14 years I've been doing this walk! 

The rest of the walk became an adventure.

 It was gnarly and treacherous but every bit as magical as it looks from the other side of the canal. THANKYOU to whoever painted the yellow way markers on the trees as it would have been hard to keep to the path.

I wonder who lives in here (the yellow way marker person perhaps?)

Eventually the path brought me out at the slippery cobbled path down to the canal.

That was a great walk. Lungs full of air, camera full of pictures and a head full of ideas! Perfect.

Pattern Observer

I'm really honoured to have an interview on the Pattern Observer blog today. This wonderful site run by designer Michelle Fifis is a wealth of help and support for pattern designers. I took her Ultimate Guide to Repeats e-course last year when I needed in depth help into getting my wallpaper designs into repeat....that Paper Meadow was a tricky one you know. 

You can read how the course helped me here.

Home London 2014

We're back from HOME London. It was good.

I was pleased with my new stand. 

Nesting cupboards really are the way to go. 

Everything fitted in Suzis little car. It was brilliant.

It was a good show for me. I came away with ten new southern stockists for my lamps and lots of interior designers waiting for their own Hannah Nunn wallpaper sample books to show their clients. There were lots of good conversations about the wallpaper business. I learned loads about how it all works.

It was also lovely, as it always is at a show to put some faces to names you only know online and I met a few of my fellow Surface Pattern course students, some of whom were showing their work for the very first time. Zoe Attwells stand looked gorgeous.

It was great to meet Cara Holland of Pattern Booth and see her new geometric wallpapers which she had printed at Anstey at pretty much the same time as me.

I've admired Sian Elins wallpapers online for a while. It was nice to see them in the flesh. 

She has such fresh colours and designs and the photography on her website is absolutely lovely.

Lush Designs were there in style. I realised how far they have come since I first started buying their stuff for the shop 8 years ago. Their range has expanded hugely. I enjoyed standing in for Maria while she nipped to the loo. I was poised and ready to be her and sell some stuff...but she really only was a minute so I didn't get the chance!

Nice to see her Wild Pigs wallpaper for the first time. 

I bought some lamp bases for Radiance too. I'm excited about them.

Mini Moderns were there looking amazing. Wallpaper heroes!

These cats caught my eye on Yokes stand. They are called Ronnie & Frank. So cute.

And it was nice to get to know Miriam from Mintprint with her bold lampshades, prints and cushions. She was a sweetie.

Alongside Home and  the long established Top Drawer was a new show called Craft which I managed a quick look round. Harriet Caslins lampshades were so beautiful. 

If only I knew her when I wrote Illuminate because she would have been in it!

...as would Alison Graham. They were gorgeous.

But I did spot someone I wrote about. Graypants (or 'the boys in grey trousers' as Maria from Lush called them). These boys live in Seattle but they have a European distributor now.

AND I got to see the Early Bird pendants by Amy Adams of Perch! ceramics in Brooklyn which featured in Illuminate too.

Well that's it for my photos but I wish I could share all the beauty that my eyes saw because there was SO MUCH. I did some nice shopping for Radiance too so we can look forward to some of the prettiness coming our way soon.