Hello 2020! A little look back at 2019 (PART I)
A very happy (and belated) New Year to all of you!
There’s nothing like a new year, let alone a brand new decade, to bring out the sentimentality in people. It’s been both interesting and a little depressing watching through everyone’s round up’s of 2019 via Instagram (I get it, you guys got to have a lot of holidays whilst we never made it out of the UK!) but I thought it would still be nice to share what a wonderful year it was - minus holidays - both work and in personal life, to maybe help myself not have so much FOMO.
Who am I kidding, I’ll still be wildly jealous, but it’s been wonderful looking through photos of all the work we’ve put in this year; renovations to our 1940’s house, birthdays, amazing commissions and wonderful events I was privileged to take part in.
JANUARY
I started the year with working on fresh designs for Valentine’s Day
I also started the 30 day Dedicate Yoga program by Yoga with Adrienne to get myself in a better exercise regime
I was finally prescribed with some glasses for working in to help with all those teeny tiny illustrations!
Amazing meet ups with the other leaders of the Nottingham Etsy Team
Worked on designs for my friends party invitations for her son…
FEBRUARY
We started work again on renovating our 1940’s home - starting with taking up the carpet on the stairs and landing and revealing these beautiful floorboards.
My new Valentine’s collection launched and I had the pleasure of posting them out!
In my bid to make 2019 my year for making my home and business more eco friendly, I started making small swaps around the house when things broke/wore out.
We had plenty of cold but beautiful walks in and around Nottinghamshire.
And then we had our old gas fire taken out…
Ophelia had her first trip to London to visit her Auntie.
Then I had the pleasure of talking about my illustrated business and how I started out illustrating at the Select Vegan networking event.
I mean, look at the spread they put on…
MARCH
I started designing invitations for Ophelia’s 2nd Birthday.
After my unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, I finally released my Eat Kind meal planners into the world - my first 100% recycled and eco friendly product (including packaging).
We had snow!
I started my creative business coaching journey with Amy from Women Who Create
Then we had the loveliest little weekend away to Stamford visiting stately homes, beautiful tea rooms, and then this church near Rutland.
More renovations carried on, finishing off our fireplace with these gorgeous star tiles for the hearth.
And just like that, our Ophelia turned two.
APRIL
The next step in making my business more eco-friendly, was offering my customers on Etsy and in my web shop the option to have their cards shipped with or without cellophane sleeves. It’s been an absolute game changer.
Using the designs from my friends party invites, I created my first range of sophisticated children’s age cards, which have been received so well.
I also designed some new Easter cards featuring this Victorian style Easter bunny
We sanded and painted our staircase!
And then went on to paint our living room this awesome pink colour called Pink Alabaster by Valspar
MAY
We started May trying to make another eco swap with locally delivered fruit and vegetables from Kerry’s Fresh
More house updates, making our little balcony/patio out the back into an outdoor living room ready for summer!
I had the pleasure on working on this beautiful branding for Out of the Woods Hypnotherapy
Worked out in the sun and rain for the Sutton Bonington Summer Festival.
More lovely Etsy Team meet up’s at Debbie Bryan’s
And finally, celebrated 5 years of marital bliss in the best way we know - with the best vegetarian burgers in Nottingham at Annie’s Burger Shack
JUNE
We started June with the loveliest impromptu trip to Matlock
Then I saw my latest surface design for Godâ Skjorter come to life in these beautiful Hawaiian style shirts.
It was my birthday! And my mum made the tastiest banana cake.
I had the second product from my Eat Kind collection release, these beautiful screen printed tea towels.
I finished the month starting work on a new print
Check out my next post for July-December of my 2019 journey!