About Me and Design Rocks!

My photo
Hello and welcome. Here's a bit about me: I've spent my childhood and a lot of my life traveling. Places, colour and pattern are my biggest inspiration. I've surfed & lived in a tent in Cornwall. Sketched my way round Morocco. Designed from an antique textile archive in Manhattan (dream job!). Styled and written for an interiors magazine on the sleepy island of Malta. Now I live in Manchester, UK, where I run Design Rocks greetings cards. Whilst in Manhattan I amassed a large collection of vintage textiles. These were used as inspiration for my first card range, Vintage Rocks! We sell wholesale so if you'd like a brochure visit the website or get in touch. Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Yummy childrens illustrations...





What is it about old childrens books that I love so much - the colours? The fresh illustrative styles - they're quite graphic in nature. I dunno but I find them really inspiring. It takes me back to being a little girl (I'm pretty vintage myself) and curling up on a cold afternoon in front of the fire with a new picture book, mmmm the smell of the pages and the crackle of the fire - bliss!

Thursday, 7 October 2010

Xmas Brucy Bonus...



Hi All, look at me blogging more than twice a year - life must be getting easier.

I'm telling y'all about my spesh 'Brucy Bonus Xmas Bonanza'. I've still got tons of Christmas stock (I ordered WAY too many!) so I'm putting it on special offer for any Xmas early birds.

You can now buy 12 of my luxury, glossy, thick (no it's not a hair advert) Xmas cards for...

ONLY £8!! ...Ta da!

They retail individually for £2.20 each in the shops so it's a HUGE saving of £18.40. I'm trying to clear some stock ready for new designs that will be out soon (well, just as soon as I sit my bottom down to design them!)

Each of the six designs is also available individually for just £1 also from folksy.

Click on the cards to take you to my li'l ol' Folksy shop.....

Sunday, 12 September 2010

Hello long lost bloggers!




Goodness me, a bimonthly post is a bit rubbish isn't it?? Well it's sunday morning, I just made myself a big cup of Jo and a fried egg sarnie and settled down to catch up on the blogging world so I expect any minute now my sleeping babe will awake!

Amazingly I've managed to keep my business afloat and growing, new updates are my new range 'Fur & Feather' came out last month and is selling well. I have a fantastic new agent for the SE who's bringing in tons of new accounts and doing amazingly well. I also have a development with a company in Dubai who are setting up a moonpig type business and want to license my designs. I've also ventured into prints for a new company called 'Beautiful Pea Green Boat' who launch next Saturday, so it's all good.

I'm struggling to have time to create sales myself and I can only do the bare minimum for so long before it all catches up with me. My good old mum has stepped in to help and has taken on my orders and dispatch for me which is a god send and should free up more time for me to get stuck in to some marketing and design (in my sleep!).

Of course I'm a bit frazzled but we're through the toughest baby bit, she's still waking every 2 hrs to feed but 3rd time round I think I've become invincible! I just feel very lucky most of the time that I have a job I love and a gorgeous family, yes it's blinking hard work and I never have a minute to myself but I'm very happy and that's priceless.

Monday, 28 June 2010

Back with baby!


Hi All,

I can't believe I've actually found time to blog (well I should be doing admin but that's boring). Baby No3 - Lois was born on 29th May at home in a pool, she's a very cute pudding and we love her to bits. The home birth was a brilliant experience - I LOVED being at home. It also helped with bonding for my other children , being part of the experience and being there to hold her. Having 2 other girls, the experience for them was positive and powerful too, they were totally unfazed and took it all in their stride. I'd highly recommend it if you have quick and easy labours, not sure how I'd fair for hours and hours on end though, you have to be pretty brave!

Surviving on 4hrs sleep a night, running a business and looking after family, 3 children a dog and a house is not for the feint hearted, it's been blinking tough at times. But seeing as I adore all of the above, it's a labour of love and I guess will get easier.

Looking forward to getting back into the blogosphere and seeing what the world's up to!

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Hip snaps from my hipstamatic...



This is officially my first blog from my iPhone. I've been getting to grips with it for the last month and we've been through a lot together. I spent the first week guilt wracked at such an extravagance. The second week was getting used to the keyboard, imagine a cow trying to type with it's udders and you'd get the picture! Week 3 I really started to comprehend how amazingly useful and indespensible my new friend was and now i'm really having fun.

I'm not going to be a phone bore but some apps are fab, others are totally pointless.
Here are 5 apps I will NEVER need:

1. Gun builder(?!)
2. Spirit level (just incase i need to know whether i'm lying down or standing up).
3. Compass (a must when orienteering my way to asda)
4. Stocks ftse index update. Those of us in the design industry aren't famed for our wealth!
5. Facebook. Call me old fashioned but I've never done social networking sites. I love REAL people in the flesh!

On a better note, I found this great hipstamatic camera app which turns your phone into a camera that takes pics that look like those from the 70's. Any old snap takes on retro value, it's fab! Here are some pics of my adorable mutt and a vid of what it can do.