Happy Christmas!!

Aww Christmas...I do love it so! This year (as every year!) Mark and I are heading to my folks house for the big day to spend it with them and Mark's mama. The only thing missing will be my little brother who is currently soaking up some sun in New Zealand, lucky thing!

It's my first attempt at being the Christmas day chef this year (I thought it's about time my Mum got to do the kicking back and relaxing this year!!), and while I am pretty relaxed about it I will be cooking on my parent's ancient Aga which is a temperamental old beast. I've just got to treat her nice and she'll hold her heat...dinner could be done waaay faster than expected or we could be eating it in the middle of the night!

(New decorations awaiting Christmas tree decorating last week...I love the swan so much with his glittery beak!)

Either way, I am so looking forward to it and once dinner is done I will be relaxing on the sofa in front of the fire with a big glass of wine and will probably be playing geeky board games, doodling and reading silly jokes well into the night....

Anyways, I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderfully merry Christmas, I hope you get to enjoy yourselves and spend it with people you love...HAPPY CHRISTMAS! xxx

Forever print...

Goodness what a busy time it has been...Christmas is always manic around here and this year has been no exception!

Last weekend, along with a bunch of our lovely friends, Mark and I headed to the 10 Year anniversary of All Tomorrow's parties (which is the bestest music festival there is peeps, it has been my fave for a number of years). A friend of ours, the very lovely and generous Mr Ashley Hampson took some super photos of us all and the weekend's frolics (a peek below) which can be seen on his Flickr stream HERE! It was a fun weekend indeed and when you have a moment check out the rest of his pictures, they are really very good.

Anyways, just in time for the last UK Christmas post I have added a print version of my Forever painting to the shop. The original is painted in gouache on wood and I think the reproductions came out wonderfully if I do say so. You can see and shop 'Forever' HERE!

So the last blast before a long awaited rest is a craft fair I'm taking part in this weekend. If you are around in Cornwall at all tomorrow and Sunday (19th & 20th) come along to the Zedshed in Penryn's Jubilee Wharf for some festive crafts and eats...It's always a lovely fair with a great atmosphere, I'm looking forward to it.

Last Christmas post dates!

This last weekend was one full of rest in the midst of the big Christmas rush which seems to creep up and take me by surprise every year...Mark's brother is over visiting us from Australia where he now lives with his lady wife, and since he doesn't get the traditional Christmas dinner over there with it being too hot and all, we had an early celebration with him on Saturday which was so good and put us all right in a festive frame of mind :)

Talking of things Australian, my little brother became the Australian Formula 3 champion over the weekend too!! It's a hell of an achievement as it is his first full season back in a car since he broke his back and neck in a crash in a German F3 race in 2006. We are all so proud of him. Well done Joey!!! If you are a racing fan of any kind you can see pictures and proudness HERE!!

Anyways, this was meant to be just a quick post to give you a heads up about the last post dates here at Bonbi Forest. Orders must be in by 12 noon on the relevant date for your country to make sure you get your goodies in time for Christmas...of course I will keep shipping worldwide right up until Christmas but they might not arrive until after the big day (you can still bag yourself some new year treats then using the free shipping code WINTER09 even if you do miss your last shipping date!)

They are as follows:

I think that's it for now...I hope to have some more things of interest to show you soooon!

Etsy Treasury-tastic

Well lookie here...Bonbi items have been spied in TWO Etsy treasuries this week: Click the images to see them bigger..

Thanks to Sleepunderstars and JellieBabies09 for picking my items out of all the millions and billions on Etsy to feature in the picks :)

Seen by the light of the Moon...

Yay and hurrah, for I have made a brand new batch of Seen by the Light of the Moon Deer Necklaces and they are available in the shop now!

Those of you who have been following Bonbi Forest for a while now will know that these little sweeties aren't a new design, but they have been so popular in the past and I got my hands on some lovely juicy coloured vintage Lucite beads that I knew I had to make some more...

Every so often late at night on the way back from town from a party or some other gathering of friends or trip to the cinema, Mark and I have spotted deer on the verges of the rural roads we have to travel along, or jumping into a hedge or running across a field. Of course driving back like that it is most often a fleeting glimpse in the head lights of the car that we catch and not a sight by moonlight, but a touch of romance never did anyone any harm right?

These sweet necklaces are inspired by those moments with their leaping deer, little hand carved moon and touch of sparkle. Just a pretty little reminder of the vast natural world out there...

They are available in green, blue, pink, tangerine, lavender and grape at the moment and you can buy them HERE!

New print...

Just a quick heads up and a peek...

I have finally gotten around to making my 'Goodbye Visitor' painting into a print! I am so pleased with the way they have come out, the archival paper and inks have really retained the richness and vibrancy of the colours which I am very happy about.

Goodbye Visitor print is available for £8.50 HERE!

Also, these little moon leaping deer will be in the shop very soon...here they all are lined up for their photo shoot earlier today:

Feet of Courage

A little Nancy Elizabeth music to help you through the day...



“Feet Of Courage” from Nancy Elizabeth's new album Wrought Iron

Dartmoor and new things

Wasn't the weather wild at the weekend? Pretty crazy and stormy. Mark and I were in Devon to see some family and took a walk up on Dartmoor...The wind was so strong and the clouds were flying by so fast in the sky the atmosphere changed by the minute. One minute dark and threatening the next sunny and clear.

So this is just a quick post to highlight a couple of new things really. The first being a fresh new batch of hand printed business cards. The first ones went down so well I printed loads of new colours, and love this pic of them all together all rainbow-like...there are more pics over at my Flickr stream HERE.

The other is a new necklace I have in the shop: Come Fly. It has a swooping bird with a couple of very pretty Czech glass beads and is very pretty indeed. I hope you like it :)

See and shop Come Fly HERE!

I will have the new berry coloured Owl pattern scarf in the shop soon too! I haven't yet got used to the darkening evenings and the limited time for taking photographs. I shall keep you posted...

Bright Star

Last night Mark and I took a trip to town to go to the cinema. I love going to the cinema, of course for the film but also for a fix of sweet popcorn, a favorite treat! I'm so greedy I'll eat an entire large bucket to myself, ha ha!

Anyways, the film we went to see was Jane Campions newest, 'Bright Star'. It is the story of the relationship between Fanny Brawne and poet John Keats which tragically ended with Keats' death at the age of 25.

It is a lovely film with beautiful cinematography and soundtrack and superb attention to detail. When Mark first suggested we go to see it I asked him if he was sure, since it appeared to be a period drama which he isn't a big fan of. But actually it is a story of love that just happens to have happened nearly 200 years ago. The sets aren't over blown and it is filmed as if it is the present day, making it seem more real.

Fanny isn't the most likeable character to start with, a little abrupt, but she softens as the love between her and Keats grows and by the end you really feel her sadness the difficult sorrow she went through. It is very sad.

There is a production 'scrapbook' website of the process of making the film which can be seen HERE! It has some of the wonderful props on it such as this 1800's Valentines below, just gorgeous:

Little animals...

I love, love, looove animals! Left over from my shop's days as a handmade Emporium I have these wonderful little glass badges made by Happy Owl Glass in the USA.

They are so sweet, each with a different animal and the colours and glassy sheen make them really gem like. They are now in the shop anyway and will make the cutest little gifts and stocking fillers...Have a look at all of them in the accessories section HERE!

Here's my favorites: a cute Okapi, wily Fox and little Ladybird...

I also have a new Owl Pattern scarf colour coming to the shop this week! It's a lovely berry-like colour and a bit more subtle than the current colours in the shop...I think you are going to like it :) Here's a peek:

Moomin Love

As a child I was never introduced to The Moomins and only really heard about them when I went to art school. I still didn't read any Moomin books then but around that time, my most Moomin obsessed friend brought home a copy of 'The Book of Moomin, Mymble and Little My' which really grabbed my heart.

It's not so much the story but the wonderful illustrations that really got me hooked on this book. I hadn't seen or thought about it for ages but found a copy in a shop on our recent trip to Brighton and got it for myself...

I love the cut out pages, making canny use of the illustrations on pages preceding and following the one you are on and the way Tove Jansson used flat and limited colours to create the quite simplistic drawings and lovely patterns...The pears in the tree in the bottom picture below (the one of Moomin mama with the berries) are so perfect, and the red, white and blue flowers around the writing in the third picture down, oh!

There is so much to look at (hence the abundance of images here! Click the pics to see them bigger), I love it so much.


If you would like a copy for yourself, I think it is available on Amazon. Or if you are in Brighton I gt it from the comic shop on Sydney Street (I think...) in the North Laines...

Brand new business cards...

I have been working on these for a little while and this week I made the screens and printed them...my brand new hand printed business cards!

This first batch have either a foresty green or bright blue image on the front with pink information on the back...I am so pleased with the handmade feel of them and love how the screened ink 'sits' on the surface of the card.

I have made 4 designs so far and all orders from now on will come with a couple of these little artworks for you to keep or share :)

Feather Thread Bracelet...

I have had a good selection of vintage chain around the studio for a while, using it to create pretty things as and when the inspiration came to me and now I have just about used it up and I'm down to my last strand! It's one I've been saving as I like it so much and it is a vintage gold plated fifties style textured link chain that is really pretty, with a definite dash of old time glamour.

I have been making a lot of bracelets lately with a celestial and feathery theme and yesterday I finally made up my mind about how to incorporate this into another of these lovelies, and came up with the Feather Thread Bracelet (All sold out now!). It has a large cluster of feathers, a little swooping swallow and three vintage look Swarovskis along with two newer chains and (what has now become an oft requested addition to my bracelets) a thread of bright red cord...

Of course, not having much of this chain left means Feather Thread is a very limited edition little number...I hope you like it!

See and Shop it HERE!

Bauble III

Well, I wasn't wrong...the last couple of weeks have been SO busy, I feel like I have been going here, there and everywhere! It was lovely to catch up with old friends on a brief trip up to Brighton and although I wasn't amazingly successful at the dressage competition (a 3rd and two 4ths...a little off form) it was great fun and I have learned a lot from the two days of training last week too, which is always a good thing :)

Anyway, things are just about back to normal and I will be adding some new goodies to the shop this week too. In the meantime here is a lovely start to all of the Christmas hoo ha:

The Shop Floor Project are a long time stockist of my Bonbi Forest wares and this week they announced their annual Bauble exhibition of alternative artists decorations.


I love the theatrical feel to the collection with leaping horses and acrobatic ladies, colourful birds (those of the fabulous Zosienka whose work I used to stock in the Emporium), a game based on age old phrases and unusual miniature antique furniture...


Visit The Shop Floor Project HERE! and you can see and perhaps shop the limited edition jewellery I created for them HERE! (Just scroll along a little to my cabinet...)

It's all about the feathers and leaves...

This week and next are turning out to be quite the busiest weeks of the year so far (they probably aren't, but it seems that way...), not just with work but with people to see, places to be, horses to compete and other things.

This weekend is Mark's birthday and I have a dressage competition up in Devon, and then at the beginning of next week we are taking a flying visit to Brighton to visit our friend Natasha who's birthday it is as well, and then I will be back for more horse training...that will add up to quite a bit of tooing and froing!

In the meantime I have added some more jewellery to the shop! Two lovely new bracelets and a feathery necklace...

The first bracelet is the Autumn Bracelet, a piece of Autumn beauty for your wrist (above) and the second is a limited edition Feather Nest Bracelet (below. Edit - All sold out now, thanks!). It is made with vintage chains and has pretty feathers and a little bird with beautiful pacific opal Swarovski crystals...I'm so pleased with these two :)

I have also added yet another feathery creation to the jewels section of the shop in the form of this Feather and Feather Necklace. It has a large detailed brass feather with a smaller silver plated one and a couple of sparkling Swarovski crystals (I love my Swarovski's, gorgeous colours and so much twinkling!)...All these pieces are available in the jewels section of the Bonbi Forest shop. I hope you like them!

So what with all the goings on this weekend and next week, I just wanted to give a heads up that because of this (and what with the Royal Mail's planned postal strikes on Thursday and Friday) any orders placed today and tomorrow will ship on Saturday morning and any orders from Friday onwards will ship next Thursday...phew!

Things I want - Donna Wilson's fabulous knits!!

This cooler weather has got me thinking about big cozy knits and warm blankets to cuddle up under on the sofa as the nights draw in and I was reminded of the work of Donna Wilson, whose work I cam across a little while back. I immediately fell in love with the colours she uses and the offbeat lines in her drawings, and I also adore the kind of clunkiness that the knit fabric gives her designs.

Top of my list of desire is the Rainy day blanket, oh and the Up the Garden Path blanket and perhaps a set of her glasses too for supping sweet warming concoctions of rum and ginger or bourbon based beverages...


...and her creatures. My goodness, so amazing. That cat's face cracks me up!

Visit Donna's site HERE there is a ton more lovely craziness to inspire :)