Rest - Restore - Rejuvenate

La Maison Blanche, The House for Knackered Women

The House for Knackered Woman has been a dream of Julie's for years, I can't think of a time when she hasn't been dreaming about this.  And now all that dreaming has finally paid off!

Carcassonne Castle

Here are some of my works in progress, the final cards have just returned from the printers so I'm looking forward to seeing how they look in print!  Julie wanted a layout similar to my 'London Town' postcard I did for a 'They Draw and Travel' competition, so it's DL in size and shows Carcassonne Castle as well as Limoux town - where the house is located.

Limoux Town

You can find details of 'La Maison Blanche - The house for Knackered Women' via the following links:

Website : www.lamaisonblanchelimoux.com

Twitter : @THFKW1

Facebook : La Maison Blanche, The House for Knackered Women

Best of British

Best of Britain

I entered a competition recently to design a postcard that portrayed the 'Best of Britain' which was set up by the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, UK.  The winning design then goes on to become a stamp design and feature on the front cover of a book of the best designs.  All entries will also be featured in a Jubilee Exhibition at the Corinium Museum from the 30th April till the 5th June.

I did a little collection of four designs as I couldn't pick just one! The first one (above) shows our Queen, she really does Britain proud. The background is the Union Jack in her colours along with tea, scones and bunting which are a few things that I associate with being 'typically British'.

This is my second of the four designs and it shows the traditional London attractions. The red telephone box, post box and bus, a black taxi and a guard from Buckingham Palace.

My third of the four designs shows British food! Well a selection, there is more than I realised or could fit on nicely. Bread, scotch eggs, jam, honey, chutney, strawberries, fish & chips and pie.

My final design brings together the United Kingdom through flowers of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

You can see the winning design and all the other entries on the Best of Britain blog page here  And you can find the Corinium Museum website here for more details on the exhibition.  If you're interested in buying a set of these postcards, keep an eye out in my online shop here.

You can also now purchase the book of the entries at amazon here.

Illustrated Postcards take 2

I've just got back from a little/massive road trip with my boyfriend across Europe.  We camped, we went through 6 countries in total (Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia & Italy), we took a pedalo out on a gorgeous lake, we found that there were a lot of old people everywhere we went (?!), we swam in the sea, we cooked over a little campfire thing, we slept on a blow-up mattress that only just fit in our tent and we had a really great time.

Here are the lucky three postcards that got made while I sat with a cold drink of ice tea by the beach in Croatia while the boyfriend sat with a cold beer and got stuck into his book!

2 part spread of the view of houses and buildings in Croatia.  I actually have done a similar illustration about 4 years ago when I was in Dubrovnik with a friend travelling, I'm pleased to say that I have definitely progressed with my style since then!

On the campsite in Croatia we were literally the only ones in a tent.  Not only that, but our tent was tiny!  Literally only for two people to sleep in, and everyone else had these massive campers/caravans that then had tents coming off them as well....wowsers!  Made us feel quite small in the camping jungle.

Travels in Ireland via postcards

  

8 lucky friends of mine will be receiving/have received these postcards, I know that at least 5 of them have arrived safely at their destination.  A couple were going over seas, so fingers crossed for those ones.

My journey around Ireland started in Dublin, we had a blast - live music, tours, Riverdance, good company, sight seeing, Guinness, the lot!  We then hired a car and travelled up to Belfast, stopping to see the Knowth and Newgrange Temples/Tombs.  Belfast we found somewhat quieter and harder to figure out than Dublin, but a friendly hostel made up for it.  We did a great day trip to the Giants Causeway, and after walking around it for hours drove back along the coast and saw the Rope Bridge and stopped in the cute town of Cuthendall for our dinner before heading back to Belfast.  After Belfast we progressed on back down South and a little West and ended up near Sligo, in Markree Castle for the night - what a great little treat to ourselves, stayed in the haunted room and everything!  We then made it down to Galway, we had high expectations and they were all met :-) three happy campers were we.  We spent a day wandering round the streets of Galway, had afternoon tea and looked in the touristy shops, we found a pub we quickly turned into our local for the 4 nights we were there, Dave the Barman was great, and put up with us playing Hangman as a drinking game!  We did day trips to the Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Ailwee Caves and more afternoon tea in little towns by the coast.  Thoroughly satisfied and in love with Ireland, a great place to visit.

Animate Brief

Animate contacted me to design them a postcard that they could use instead of a compliment slip with their clients. The design was to be contemporary, bright and lively, reflecting the innovation and design on their website.

www.animate.co.uk



It's very different from anything I usually do, but it was interesting having a live brief and feedback. It's finished in Adobe Illustrator, I am refreshing my memory of the program!