New Designs

Been working on a new design this afternoon... Hope you like it!

OPEN HOUSE

OPEN HOUSE

I'm organising another Open House Sale in late November and will be donating 10% of proceeds to Pink Ribbon Monaco!

New Stock

Found this lovely letter holder online to hold a new set of cards for one of the boutiques I supply...

Forward thinking...

With the relentless heat it feels strange to have been working on Winter projects but the time has been creeping along faster and faster... And Christmas is creeeping nearer and nearer... My Winter card collection is well underway and I'm looking forward to holding another open house in November!

After a long hot summer....

So it has been a looooong while since I last posted, it has been a hectic and hot Summer here in Monaco...! I won't bore you with a long winded post about all that has been going on, instead I thought you might like to see some pics of a little project I recently completed for one of my youngest clients yet!! A set of birthday invitations for a little lady who will soon be turning 3!!

Bonjour!

Manic May has arrived...!!!! Hope you all have a great day!!!x

Too Much to Do Not Enough Time!

I haven't blogged for a while because I've don't stop from morning til night & we are searching for a another chef!!!!! Life very stressful in our household at the moment and I feel like I'm constantly treading water, hoping calm will reign again soon... & that one day I will finally be able to breathe easy!!

On a more positive note (as if I haven't got enough to do ;-) ) I am planning an Open House sale... plans still in my head at the moment, but when I have more concrete days etc I will let you know as soon as possible....!!

Today is the 5th Anniversary of my civil wedding & tomorrow I share my religious anniversary with Will & Kate!! And apparently according to my sister they have chosen the same wedding song as me...!

New Cards

My scanner is not working properly and I haven't had enough time to take some nice photos, but here is a little snippit from the new collection of cards that I have been working on...

News

I have spent the last 10 days making, making, making and I now have a very large stock of cards... So today I decided to be brave - See resolution no. 14 and I plucked up the courage to go to my local florist and see if they would like to perhaps sell some to cusotmers wanting to send a message with their bunch of flowers... I'm so happy he said yes! So I'm going to put together a little collection together for them and will see how they sell over the next few weeks! As I was feeling brave I then went to a shop on the main shopping street that sells jewellery, bags and other interesting accessories, she said "yes", but was more interested in the smaller formats so I will put toegher a collection of the 'business card' size for them! I'm really happy and excited to have some direction to work towards! Lets just hope people buy them!! Now have to be even braver and try some of the other florists...
Feeling positive tonight and really thankful to the people giving me a chance!

Inspired

Kept this quote close to me this week to keep me going!

Not Neglecting

Dear Blog, I haven't forgotten about you I have just been very industrious this week and very inspired and now have piles and piles of cards to shift! Will update soon with some of the new designs...x

Postcard Swap

I received a lovely e-mail today from Sharon telling me my postcard had arrived. I'm so pleased that it didn't get lost and that it is safely with its new owner! Your e-mail has brightened a very rainy week and I'm so pleased that you liked my design.

Also very excited that I appear on Sharon's blog, take a look :

http://sallymomsprouts.blogspot.com/2011/03/postcard-from-monaco.html#comments

I await eagerly a package from ????!

Boudoir Girl

So here is the result of my collage painting... I was super rusty so I'm happy with the outcome and looking forward to seeing what comes next...

Sweet Light

http://thesweetlight.com/

I LOVE the style of Gabrielle Kai !

Finding My Feet

I have moved on from cards and attempting something bigger!! A collage painting, fingers crossed it will turn out how I would like, and if it doesn't at least I tried!!

LIVE WHAT YOU LOVE

Misi

http://www.misi.co.uk/handmade/mmeink.html

I've updated my misi store have a quick look if you have some time...

Thursday

Apart from early this morning this is the first day in a while I didn't have to rush to be somewhere, or have to be at the restaurant... This morning we turned up for music class only to find out the class was still closed for half term - How long are school holidays?? So we headed to the park to kill some time before heading to babygroup where I had arranged to meet a friend.

She had seen some of my cards and had asked me to bring them with me so she could have a good look. Soooo excited as she bought some - MY FIRST SALE!! After that we headed to the FNAC and I picked up little man some new books... Then home to the deluge... mess everywhere! So spent a manic half hour tidying round and trying to get lunch ready at the same time. Leandro went down for his nap super easily today so I managed to get straight on with my never ending to do list... sent menus to clients, printed menus for the chefs, sent a couple of e-mails, started all the end of month papers and as I had received the address of my swap partner for the Postcard swap I sorted out my package too.

This afternoon was pretty chilled... a trip to the toy store to pick up a birthday present for a party we are going to this Saturday and a couple of treats for the little man. A quick stop by the supermarket and little man is bathed and now tucking into pizza...

Tonight I want to try and sort out a facebook page and update my misi shop!

Resolution 6 Update

I've done the nutritional test, the body mass test, the structural tests and tomorrow I finally have my first training session with the Be Fit Team.... I have a feeling I will be aching on Thursday!

St David's Day

The Welsh population of Monaco descended on the restaurant for lunch today, accompanied by SAS Le Prince Albert II de Monaco....!

Felt a bit wierd serving cheese on toast & lamb stew to the Prince but he said he really enjoyed it! Needless to say lunch turned into early evening and they were still there at 19h00 tonight.

Events like this are hard work but really satisfying once we've done it and have imprinted the restaurant with some ever lasting memories...

Sleep Deprivation

Before I write this post just a little pre note to say sorry for any spelling mistakes or sentences that make no sense, I had very little sleep last night...

SLEEP : When did it become such a luxury? When did I start to crave it, daydream about it... cry for it...?

When little man was born they said "don't worry by 3 months it'll be better"... when he was 3 months they said "don't worry by 6 months it will be better"... when he was 6 months... " don't worry once he starts walking he'll use his energy and he'll sleep"... a year passed and then I think they didn't know what to say anymore. I think I got my first propper nights sleep around 18 months. 18 MONTHS!! Add the sleepless nights of pregnancy and that is almost 2 years of broken sleep... Add on top of that late nights from working in the restaurant and that all adds up to a VERY tired little me.

The very reason I made my resolutions was because I felt like for the last 2 years I have been living in some kind of bubble, unable to function due to the overwhelming fog that clouded my brain. I have been so frustrated by having so many ideas and good ambitions and not being able to do anything because of the crippling tiredness.

Last night went as follows... Little man finally fell asleep at 22h15 I went to bed at 23h15... took a little time to get to sleep. My husband woke me up around I guess 1 am when he got home from work.... Little man woke up crying at 2h15... no question of going back to sleep so brought him in my bed, when I realised a nappy change was needed... finally got back to sleep around 3h15, when at 3h20 my husband decided to go to bed and wakes me up again... Got back to sleep around 4h00, woke up every 30 mins because I was being kicked and then little man finally woke up at 6h45... where does he get his energy????

It's only Monday so I won't burst into tears like I want to. I will be strong and positive and take deep breaths and try and accomplish the things I wanted to today... and hope that tonight will be better.

Live in the Moment

I saw this image on a blog this morning and thought is was a great image/reminder for me to start the day with... I'm a born worrier and I spend far too much time worrying about : later, tomorrow, next week etc... (see resolution no. 8)

So for now I'm learning how to live more in the 'here & now'!

Resolution 6

Do you remember Resolution 6?

- Do more excersise that doesn't envolve running around after a toddler or running up and down a restaurant...

Well this afternoon I have an appointment with Be Fit Monaco - http://www.befitmonaco.com/

I must be mad :-s

Babies

Everyone except for me seems obsessed with when I'm planning my second child... so I'm not really in a baby mood at the moment, but by special request I put together a few baby cards...

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside...

We have had a pretty rubbish Winter by Riviera standards... rain , rain and more rain. But to compensate the weather Gods sent us some beautiful sunny days recently which reminded me of Summers spent on Brighton beach...

A Minute to Think

Making these cards made me feel relaxed and it makes me feel relaxed looking at them too...

Love Cards

As I had collected a lot of material to inspire me in making the postcard for the swap I had leftovers to make these cards...

My Stitched Postcard

I don't sew... I never learnt but, a simple stitch I can manage. So this is what I came up with for my postcard swap...

The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap

Very bizarrely one night whilst checking out some of the blogs I follow I came across this. The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap... I couldn't not join! The theme this year was LOVE - on March 1st I'll know who my swap partner is.

The Postcards

I finally got a bit braver and went a bit bigger - Postcards!

The Tags

The best way for me to get moving is to have some little projects to get my mind into gear. So I took part in a creative swap with a friend and then as a thank you to a friend of a friend for making me an amazing present for my goddaughter I made them tags for their handmade projects...

The Notelets Part 1

I love stationary and I really like the vintage inspired style and as I have soooooo little spare time I went for creating something on a small format and this is what I made...

Notelets... lots of notelets.! I made them in bundles of 5 and it was the kickstart I needed.

Start Small

If you want to create something BIG I've learnt in life you have to start small and you... well.... you just have to start.

So I was determined to get over my creative block and just started to create without worrying what the end result would be...

My Resolutions for 2011

My 2011 started with ALOT of positivity and resolution making :

1. Drink more HOT tea...

2. Carry out more acts of random kindness

3. When things get a bit much KEEP CALM

4. Listen to more music

5. Stop and smell the roses more

6. Do more excersise, that doesn't envolve running after a toddler

7. Use my creativity

8. Let go of things that are out of my control

9. Read more books

10. Learn some new skills

11. Be more silly

12. Know that a difference of opinion is OK

13. Potty train my son

14. Be braver

15. Be silly more

16. Donate to the NSPCC Full Stop Campaign

17. Be me....

One of the resolutions I most want to keep is no. 7...!

Here's hoping I do well with all of them.