Etsy interview...

Those lovely peeps over at the handmade wondermall Etsy, have featured an interview with me on The Storque blog! Hurrah!

You can have a read and see a huge picture of my face HERE!

Below is a peek of the wedding invites I have been designing for our forthcoming nuptials...I'm very excited about screening them next week! (The 'she said yes' thing is a reference to the fact that Mark has been very patient for quite a number of years...!)

Holy Moly!

I was downloading what seemed like a zillion photos from my camera the other day (to make room for me to take a zillion more photos) and came across this picture which I had totally forgotten I had taken.

It's of a t-shirt of Mark's that bears my VERY FIRST SCREEN PRINT from about 5 years ago. I taught myself to make emulsion screens and screen print at home and I remember thinking 'How hard can it be?'. Well, not very hard once you get the hang of it, though I probably shouldn't have chosen to do a two colour print as my first one, but being the impatient sort I am, I must have been keen to get cracking on the project I had in mind for it (which I think was a cushion cover, hence the flat top on the cloud).

Anyway, Mark sometimes still wears this tee! It was really very old when I first printed on it (which is why he let me print on it!) and is now full of holes where it has worn through, but he loves it so I let him be.

I think one day when it's really falling apart and can't possibly be worn ever again I am going to frame it and hang it on the wall as a reminder of the mad-cap, paint everywhere, working in far too small a space, experimental start to what has now become my livelihood!

Yellow Trees and a quick catch up...

My my, well I have been away from the old blog for a little while...this last week or so has been so busy! My Eskimo Kiss tee was featured on The Guardian website last Tuesday which prompted a flurry of kisses being sent far and wide and left me little time for much else...(there aren't many Eskimo Kiss tees left now and I won't be making more...)

I realised I have been neglecting to mention all the kind words and blog posts I have been receiving lately and thought it high time I sent a little love back. Have a look at these blogs and websites, there are some wonderful finds and images there:

We Love Indie: HERE and HERE
Indie Quarter
Poppytalk
Ulixis Craft blog
Claire Caudwell
My Owl Barn
Pepermint
The Baking Bird
and the Amelia's Magazine blog <-- This post is a very funny and lovely take on Valentines!

So that's all for now...I'm working on re-stocking the shop, painting some new things and some new and rather lovely tees for Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip which will launch at the beginning of March. Hurrah!

I shall leave you with these images at the top up there and down below here of the low sunlit trees from yesterday evening...Yellow Trees and an angry grey sky (which proved to be a much quieter beast than it looked!)

...and the winner is:

Drum roll please...the winner of the first ever Bonbi Forest giveaway, chosen by the trusty random number generator is comment number 39, who is buglet23. Congratulations!!! If you are the lucky buglet23 please can you contact me and I will get your winnings on their way to you...

Thanks so much to everyone else who entered, your lovely comments made me smile so much!

I shall leave you with a link to an amazing jeweller's shop that I came across at the end of last year and that I have been meaning to share for ages: Ysé Jewellery. I am lucky enough to have a sweet fella who took note of the daft email I sent him with the subject line WANT!!! and he bought me these beautiful golden deer head earrings for Christmas:

See more Ysé beauty HERE!

Embroiderys...

I have started doing some embroidery which I am finding a very nice pastime of an evening...I am just playing at the moment at embroidering the circular patterns I like to use in my paintings and drawings, I think they are coming out quite well!

The aim is to fill a square of fabric with them and turn it into a cushion cover. You can never have too many cushions...

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't already (See the post dated 1st February). Comments must be received by 6pm tomorrow evening and I will announce the winner on Monday!

New World

The other night Mark and I sat down to watch New World, a 2005 film by Terrence Malick (He of The Thin Red Line fame...). We had had it kicking about the house for a long time and the DVD cover made it look like the kind of film I really wouldn't enjoy all that much (a historical battle film) but I was persuaded to watch it eventually and I sure am glad I did!

There are some battles - as is the case when a film centres on the discovery of the Americas - but essentially it is a fictional drama and romance film based on the real life characters of Pocahontas and captain John Smith played by Colin Farrell and Q'Orianka Filcher (who was amazingly only 15 when they made this...). While there isn't much dialogue, the performances are brilliant and it is full of Malick's absolutely beautiful cinematography and dreamy sequences.

What I loved most about it was the reference to mother nature all the way through...amidst bloody battle scenes there were quiet flickers of grass blowing in the breeze or a beautiful sky, a gentle reminder that while man struggles on this earth there is an all encompassing force much more powerful than we will ever be. It's really very inspiring and I recommend it highly...just have some tissues at the ready though, it's quite a moving one.

Goodbye goodbye...

Goodbye, Goodbye Visitor. Wrapped up all pretty in some hand printed fabric and tied with a suede wrap and off to a new home...

A birdy giveaway...

Well, I thought it was high time there was a Bonbi Forest giveaway and here it is!

It's got a sweet birdy theme and the winner will receive an 'A Little Bird Told Me So' Necklace and a pair of my new hand printed love cards...

To enter, visit my shop and then come back here and tell me your favourite item by leaving a comment...easy peasy! Comments must be in by 6pm GMT on Sunday 7th February and will use a random number generator to pick the winner who I will announce on Monday the 8th...

Have fun looking and good luck!

**COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED!** I will announce the winner tomorrow, Monday 8th February...

For lovers at anytime and a big Wolf Moon...

Well, I have finally got the shop updated a little with some of the new Love themed stuff I have been working on, new I Love You Letter Lockets with colourful blooms (and a smaller version too for the more discreet among you) and some cute as pie cards!

There is a whole new selection of the lockets which can be seen and shopped HERE. The little ones are so sweet and dainty, they look like little doll purses.

I have also been putting those lovebirds drawings I mentioned a couple of weeks ago into some good use and have hand printed a batch of cards for you. My first cards! They were so fun to do and I'm really pleased with how they came out...They are silk-screened with water based inks onto recycled card and come with a pretty pale duck egg blue recycled paper envelope. Get yours HERE.

You may have noticed that last night saw the first full moon of the year. I love the Native American names for the moon and this one is known as the Wolf Moon. Apparently it was the biggest full moon we will see in 2010 due to its orbit, it's a bit sciencey that but goodness it was so bright! I took this picture at about midnight last night out of our window and looking down towards the sea. My, it was beautiful.

Canvassing...

It was a very lovely surprise last week to discover that some kind soul had nominated me for the Poppytalk blog's virtual design awards, The Poppies! The purpose of the award is to bring attention to all of the great handmade wares and artists out there, which is a very good thing indeed.

I have been nominated in the categories of Affordable Art Artist and Favorite Handmade Textiles and would love, love, LOVE your vote if you haven't voted already...You can vote for me (BONBI FOREST) in Affordable Art, HERE! and Handmade Textiles, HERE! You can vote once in each category per IP address until tomorrow...Thank you so much!!!!

In other news, this year I have decided that I will be working along the lines of a theme a month, creating new drawings, artwork, jewels and prints along my chosen theme for the month and updating the shop with all of the goodies. I only decided to start doing this a couple of weeks ago so the amount of work I have for the January theme is a little thin, but as a start I have been working along the theme of Love, what with Valentines day impending and so forth...

The little lovebirds drawings I have made - and the forthcoming cards I have been wittering about - were done with this in mind, and I have been painting with ye olde Gouache again (more on that at a later date). I will also be adding some more of the lovely I Love You Letter Envelope Lockets to go in the store too, of which there is a sneak peek of them blooming some pretty blooms and awaiting the transformation into necklaces below...

The shop update WILL be happening this week (I promise!) and I will also be holding a little giveaway to coincide with it. Stay tuned peeps, stay tuned.

I already have a theme decided for February, but if you have any ideas of themes I could incorporate throughout the year I'd love to hear your thoughts?!

...

Happy Monday!

I heard today is meant to be blue Monday? The bleakest day of the year. I hope you have all managed to avoid the blues, they ain't too good. It was a beautiful sunny day here which was enough to lift my spirits...Hurrah! Anyway, I just wanted to give a little heads-up about a couple of things today which are as follows:

Sometimes people like to ask me questions about stuff, so I opened a Formspring account where you can ask me things about Bonbi Forest and me and other creative stuff. If you want to ask a question of me, fire away here and I'll do my best to answer them for you --> www.formspring.me/bonbiforest

Also: A few people have been wondering if I will ever have the lovely Autumn bracelets in a silvery shade...well, I do! I have made a batch and will be putting them on the website tomorrow...here's a peep:

...and for a little bit of eye candy frivolity, look at these beads that arrived today! I love beads...I will be making jewel-like things with them soon, but for now they are just so pretty as they are :)

One for the lovers...

Here is another in what is becoming a little Lovebirds collection:

It's an older drawing idea of mine that I never really found a worthy use for...these two little bird beans sat in a tree under a brolly. I love them so much and think they have finally found their purpose as lovers on a print and a card. Just in time for Valentines yeah?

In my last post I mentioned that I would have the hand printed cards of these latest two drawings in the shop by the end of this weekend...well, I've had to put it back a couple of days but they will definitely be in this week. I'm really looking forward to making them!

All You Need Is Love...

I have a new print in the shop! With the impending Valentines day in mind I thought that it was about time I made a few love fueled items for the store...This print will be available as a hand screened card by the end of the weekend too, along with another little design I have been conjuring.

I will also have the Love Letter envelope necklaces back in stock very soon as well...stay tuned!

You can purchase the 'All You Need Is Love' print HERE!!

A few new things...

Hello! I hope everyone had a good weekend?

I have added a few new things to the shop today with more on the way over the next week. First up are a couple of cute as you like Fly High Bracelets. They feature a sweet soaring swallow on a dainty chain with a sparkling Swarovski bead in either amethyst or light peach...I like the subtlety of these two. They can be bought in the Jewels section of my shop.

I have also made a print of my Triangle Dog monoprint. Is he dreaming of geometry? Who knows, but I enjoyed drawing him!

Purchase a Triangle Dog of your own HERE.

Just a quick post today, but I am also going to be holding a little Bonbi Forest giveaway soon..What do you think? I've never done one before and have been thinking about it for a while. Sometimes it's good to give a little, you know? I shall keep you posted...

Oh Snow!

So, as many of you are aware the UK is pretty snowbound...even down here in Cornwall, which is rare indeed.

When it's like this we can't put the horses out in the fields as the snow balls up in their shoes and creates mini icy stilts which isn't good for them at all. Because of this the last couple of days has seen us juggling stables so they all get a change of scenery during the day...bless them!

While we haven't been suffering with the worst of the snow down here on our little peninsula, we have been stricken with icy roads and frozen snow slush. With this in mind I just wanted to let you know that I will endeavor to get orders out as quickly as possible whilst we wait for the big thaw, but aside from my trips to the post office being a little more perilous than usual, please be aware that the Royal Mail are experiencing disruptions to their services in some areas as well (Please see their website HERE for more info) so your orders may arrive a little later than usual...

In the meantime, here are some shots of the late evening and early morning snow and sky we've had...for all it's coldness and disruption, the wintertime weather is very, very beautiful:

There's a few more images of this ilk over on my Flickr page too: Bonbi Forest Photostream.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all!! 2010, my goodness.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was lovely, a proper chill out, even the dinner making went well. I had an extraordinary sense of calm for the entire proceedings seeing as I was cooking for my mum and future mother-in-law (down to the fizz perhaps?), but everything cooked and browned wonderfully and it was all on time. A combination of massive fluke and beginners luck I think!?!

(Mark's Mama's pooch, Kizzie, Letting off some steam...)

On boxing day we took a walk on the beach which is when I took the pics. The sky was so dramatic with the low sun and impending rain clouds...beautiful.

(Mark and my Papa and dramatic sky!)

New years eve was spent with friends and New Years Day hanging out at the local. Good times, but I'm always sad when the festivities are over.

2009 was quite a varied year and I wanted to do a years round up (much like THIS ONE over at Miso Funky) but alas, because I'm not the world's best diarist, instead I just have a list of significant things that made my year what it was:

• Moving into a new home. It was new years resolution number one and was completed by January 5th. I wasn't nearly so efficient for the rest of the year!

• 2009 was the end of an era pet wise. My family lost our beloved old animals Jay Jay pooch and Penny barn cat. They were so dear and are much missed.

• Qualifying Pia for my first national dressage championship. We came 2nd at the regional champs with a score of 72.97%. Unfortunately I was so nervous at the Nationals I froze and didn't ride well at all. We came about half way though, so it wasn't too embarrassing!

• In other horsey news, Lauder and I scored our first 70% (70% is kind of the Dressage score holy grail) and then managed it again a few weeks later. It's been a great year for us both and we also competed in our first Prix St Georges tests. They are so hard but I'm so pleased to have managed to be competitive at that level. It's very satisfying.

• Getting in the Grazia magazine fashion top 10! A wonderful bit of press that lead to me being a mental bracelet making machine for 2 weeks. Seriously, I was dreaming of chain and jump rings and feather charms for weeks afterwards...

•Mark and I deciding that after nearly 11 years together it was high time we got married. It is now less than 5 months to go til the big day...eek!

• Closing the BF Indie Emporium. A sad decision for me, but happily it's worked out. I'm painting and drawing and making again, hurrah!

• Seeing Marks brother who lives in Australia again for the first time in 3 1/2 years. That was lovely!

• ...and my little brother becoming the Australian F3 champion!!

Anyways...I am easing back into work and in traditional style I have a Bonbi Forest sale on! A little thank you to everyone who bought Bonbi stuff and supported my ventures in 2009. You can get 20% off your order until January 10th using the code HAPPYNEWYEAR at checkout...hurrah!

I think that's enough for now, sorry it's such a long one. One of my new years resolutions is to blog more little and often...lets see how THAT goes!

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!