2011 Plans!

2 days left of the month, year, decade!

It's that time now to remember all the good things about this year, to forget all the bad moments and to be glad to have the chance of a  "new start". So before we put on our flashy outfits and get ready to celebrate, we shouldn't forget our new years resolutions.  We've got to make sure we write them down and I have a great suggestion on where to do it on. 

This 2011 diary is a brilliant discovery!  

"Hello 2011" is the beautiful work of  IAmSilouhettes.  Created by Angelyn Pah from Kuala Lumpur it is a magical diary covered by amazing illustrations and pretty colours so that every week and day of the next year will look exciting and fun.

It's not too late to order it from the website or their Etsy shop. I've already ordered mine!

Happy New year everyone! Love Moni!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Hello Thursday Friends!

We're getting closer to Christmas and as exciting as it sounds I find it a bit sad because I love the build up to it, but oh well, it's a great ending to a fab season.  So before we're all finished with the cheerful, loving, sing-song spirit, one more exciting decoration.

I came across this beautiful Christmas tree wall decoration on Etsy, created by Ellen Giggenbach from New Zealand.  It is a wall sticker, but unlike most of them it has a fabric-like texture. Easily removable, it won't leave a mark and a great option for small flats with no space for a 3D tree.

I love the 1950´s and 60's inspired shaped and the feel of the texture.  Do check out Ellen's Etsy shop and consider it if you don't have a tree yet!

Have a wonderful Christmas! love Moni!

Graham & Brown

I had a great start to the day yesterday with the postman dropping off these lovely three canvas samples. I wasn't expecting them at all so when I opened the package it was really nice to see my designs actually printed. This design was commissioned early in the year by from the lovely team at Graham & Brown UK. I really enjoyed working on this one & it was such a lovely brief to do!

I'm going to hang them in my newly decorated dining room they actually fit with my colour scheme perfectly!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Monday everyone:) it's nearly Christmas time!

Today is one of the last few blogposts of 2010,  I hope you all have a great Christmas break & a happy New Year too! We will be back this week & next with a few inspirational posts to keep you going over the festive period.

Michi Girl

Hello, Hola, Bonjour!

Everyday we check the weather forecast in search of good news of warmer days to come or then again some awful ones that will assist us as conversation topic many times.
Today I would like to introduce the ultimate weather girl.  This is Michi Girl! She is a stylish and funny Australian lady brought to life by the beautiful illustrations of Kat Macleod, who has been bringing us interesting, exciting and stylish forecasts in the world of fashion since 2003.  Her daily newsletter arrives in your inbox every morning and gives you a special tip on something really worth looking at.
I love the funny and playful way Michi writes about her features, plus it is not a long newsletter, so you can just have a look and discover something really good.

Why don't you take a look at the latest forecast?
Check the website and subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.
Have a good Thursday! Love Moni!

IPhone Case

My sample arrived on Friday from Society6, it was really nice to see one of my designs on a phone case as I'd actually been on the hunt recently for one! It's really great quality too, so it will protect my phone as I'm super clumsy & always dropping it.

If you are interested in viewing the rest of the collection simply click here view the print you like & click on buy to view the range of options available. I also have a range of phone & phone & laptop skins on the website too! (worldwide shipping is available)

Charity Skydive!!!!!!!

I've gone a bit mad, I've gone and booked myself a skydive! I'll be doing this early in 2011, I'm such a wimp but I love a good challenge!

I'm hoping to raise some money for charity too for a very worth cause! If would like to show your support & you can donate in any way I'd really appreciate it. I've set up a page on just giving, simply click here

Every penny counts! no donation is too small x


I promise to post all pictures & videos on here too!:)

Christmas time!

I've started to finally feel really Christmasy:) It's not long to go now till the Christmas break!

Here are a few snapshots of my snow dog Alfie enjoying winter. He looks very cute!

Colour & Florals

Happy Friday!

Here are a few pretty pics of some of the plants & flowers dotted around in Marrakech. Hope they cheer up your Friday:)

 

The Exquisite Book

Hello hello!

One of my favourite gifts to receive as a present is nice book.  Not for reading (and I do love reading) but arty books.  My sister recommended this one and I think it's a great idea and a very good present if you'd like to give something nice to someone who appreciates art.

The Exquisite Book is a project published last September by Chronicle Books. 

Based on a game called The Exquisite Corpse, the book is a modified version where one hundred contributing fine artists, designers, comic artists and illustrators are the players.

Divided into ten groups of ten artists, each with 2 weeks to complete their work. The first one was given a few words of inspiration to create their work, the next artist was shown only the page that came before them and had the job to continue the story and make inspiration for the next artist in line.  Apart from each others inspiration, only a horizon line that went from the left side of the page to the right hand side connected the pieces in the book. 

It is a very interesting book, amazing to look at and fun to try and understand and make out the continuation of the stories and the randomly connected twists and turns that happen within styles, techniques and visual narrative.

Not too late to add to your wish lists! Click Here to look at it's website! or Here to watch a video about it.

Hope you have great Thursday! love, Moni!

Recent Buys

I just love the fact that you can now buy Paperchase online! It's one of my favourite stores. I was recently browsing for Christmas gifts & picked myself up a few items too. I just love their pantry peepers & cloudnine collections they are super cute!

Here are few pics of some of the bits I bought:)

UK Handmade Feature!

This is just a little blog post to say a huge thank you to the lovely people at UK Handmade for featuring us in their beautiful magazine. You can find us on pages 106, 107 & 108!

 

Design Stars!

I'm super excited to announce that I've been booked on the judging panel for the 2011 Design Stars challenge organised by the wonderful Design Initiative. I'll also be running lots of workshops along with holding a print masterclass weekend.

Design Stars is funded by Liverpool City Council & the Arts Council & has a number of great sponsors. It really is a great opportunity to develop & nourish young talent.

Here's some further information:

Developing the design stars of tomorrow...

Design Stars is a project by Design Initiative for young people aged 11 to 16 years old.

Open to all secondary schools in Liverpool, the competition seeks to nurture and encourage young local design talent in its early stages, and is free to enter.

Following on from last year’s success we are delighted to be back with three top designers to bring you three NEW exciting competition categories to enter:

• Product Design: in association with ReThinkthings
• Surface Pattern Design: in association with Rachael Taylor Designs
• Video Games Design: in association with International Hobo

All three design teams will be offering their support and guidance throughout the competition, from setting the briefs, delivering workshops in schools to judging the entries and running winners’ master-classes.

I feel very honoured to be running the Surface Pattern Category & I'm really looking forward to getting started in the new year.

 

For more information or to download the brief click here

100% Handmade

It's Friday!:)

Nearly time for the weekend & Christmas shopping! (if you haven't started already)

I received an email from the lovely people at leedsvintagefashionfairs.com with the poster attached for this weekends 100% Handmade event & Christmas fair. If you can manage to get about in this snowy weather then the fair seems like a great place to buy some fab Christmas goodies.

Snow Angel

Hello everyone, happy Thursday!

I spent 5 hours in my car yesterday trying to get home from work on what normally would've been a 20 minute journey.  All of this chaos was caused by beautiful, white, fluffy, traffic jamming, slippy, cold snow.  During this 5 hour journey I started thinking about the irony of it all and then came across this short.

The Sony Vaio Online Script began with an initial scene written by John Malcovich. People then took the task to develop the story and 3 winners were chosen.

Snow Angel was one of them, created by Dare London.  It's a still, intriguing and a little creepy story about a girl with an identity crisis in the middle of an unlikely family and a bundle of Doppelgangers. See what she does to make herself unique and be like.no.other.  With beautiful graphics this is a charming little short.

I hope you like it, love Moni!

Click to watch

Christmas Time!

As it's officially the start of December I feel I can't mention the wonderful word Christmas!!!! yippeee not long to go now!

Being in the festive mood I thought I'd share a new Christmas design with you that I've designed for the Marks & Spencer personalised website (available to buy online now)

FREE CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY!

After the success of my first giveaway as promised I'm now doing a second... I thought it would help with the Christmas shopping!

So, what do you need to do to enter?
Just simply 'like' our Facebook page & start following us on Facebook. We will be promoting this on twitter too & directing people to our page. Feel free to promote & RT this on twitter too! My twitter name is @rachtdesign

Competition starts NOW and is open to anyone with a facebook account, END TIME 7pm GMT Wednesday the 8th of December! Simply click here for the direct link to our page!

This is what you will win! An Etched Floral large tea towel set RRP £21.00 (this includes an orange, black & pink tea towel)

Textures

I'm a bit obsessed with texture! I love anything old, textured & run down. I find probably the most mundane things really interesting & inspirational. Here are a few recent images that I snapped up :)