Land of the cuckoo!

One of my very good friends has started a fab new blog called landofthecuckoo. Amy is a pretty cool lady so expect to find lots of quirky & fun finds on her blog too!

It's only been up & running a few days & it's jam packed with lots of lovely photography & inspiration. I've also recently convinced Amy to join the lovely land of twitter, you can follow her @Landofthecuckoo

Here a few snapshots taken from her blog! Amy is a super talented designer & illustrator too, more on that to come!:)

Get following!

Pretty Colours & Textures

I just love vibrant colours & textures, so I took a few more floral snapshots for inspiration.

Hope you like them!

Website Updated!

I've been neglecting my website updates lately, it's hard finding time to fit in all the extra little jobs when you run a business. But I managed to fit in lots of little jobs at the weekend.

Here are some pics I've posted in the online portfolio. From past briefs, recent products & bits from existing collections. You can check out the latest updates here

Hope you like them!:)

Books!

I thought I'd share with you all some fab books that I recently purchased. I was briefed to do a Folk inspired collection & I wanted to make sure my motifs were in line with the traditional shapes so I decided to buy 'Pattern Motifs' by Batsford. It has lots of great sections such as Art Deco, Medieval, Folk etc

The book was a great help so I then I ordered two other books in it's series. They are well worth the pennies!

 

Tweetie Birds!

You probably all know me on twitter by now:) & I that I love to tweet! I seriously have found out so much useful information via twitter ( & I don't mean gossip!) I follow so many great talented designers who share tips, blog posts & inspiration daily. I've also received some really great clients all because of it!

I just lover twitter! my twitter name is @rachtdesign if you would like to follow me.

I thought I'd share this twitter inspired piece that I designed:)

Published Work!

I was having a sort of over the weekend in my studio & realized that I have been published in all four of these lovely design books:) You can find nearly twenty of my surface designs decorating the pages of these fab design books.

It's a really lovely thing when you see your own designs in such inspirational books, I feel really honored to be a part of them!

Fashion Prints

I design for a variety of products from stationery, ceramics through to magazine covers!

I love designing for lots of things as I feel it keeps things fresh,  I thought I'd share on the blog a textural piece I designed for a fashion collection. Hope you like it:)

*All images are subject to copyright.

Button Mad!

I just love buttons, do you!? I try & collect lots of different buttons to use on my products. I have  four huge glass jars full of yummy buttons.

Here are some snapshots from my latest collection:)

Yummy Cakes & Tea!

Following on from the last feature on the fab 'Spoonfull of Sugar Company' I thought I'd post some of the snapshots I took of the cakes Beth made for me. I had a three tier cake stand with thirteen personalized cupcakes on spelling out 'Home Sweet Home' they looked & tasted beautiful.

Unfortunately I didn't get time to take any pictures of my tea party when it was all fully set up, but I managed to grab a few quick snapshots of the cakes in the box.

                           

Spoonful Of Sugar Company!

I want to introduce you all to a fab business called 'Spoonfull of Sugar Company' it's a yummy cupcake shop/ personalized cake catering service ran by two super talented ladies Beth & Hannah.

They recently opened a fab new shop/cupcake kitchen (based in Manchester, UK)  I have posted some of the pics below!

I first met Beth at a friends wedding & was WOWED by the cakes she had made, She is a lovely creative girl who has the most amazing & popular business. I asked Beth to cater for a tea party I held recently & she really went above & beyond for me to make sure everything was perfect! so I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU! She not only made the fab cakes but she also loaned me some extra yummy vintage china & an extra fab cake stand.

My tea party went down a treat! the mix of 'old & new' worked really well too. My home is a bit quirky & eclectic so I had the theme running through my tea party as noting quite matched but it worked together in a mixed kind of way, I had bits from Beth mixed with lots of other bits too (More to come on that at a later date)

Here are some pics of Beth & Hannah's amazing work! if you are interested in visiting their amazing shop, ordering some yummy cakes or just want further information on their catering service, please feel free to contact them at: cakes@spoonfullofsugarcompany.co.uk or you can join their Facebook group here!

They can cater for weddings, baby showers, kid parties etc!

Their website is currently under construction but you can find them at: http://www.spoonfullofsugarcompany.co.uk/

*I'll post some the yummy cake pics that I had made on the blog in the next couple of days too!

 Just some examples of their amazing work!

* Childrens' cake decorating party

Images are courtesy of 'Spoonful of Sugar Company'
& are subject to copyright.

Yummy House Bits!

I just love buying goodies for the home, I'm a real homely person & I get more excited about buying treats to decorate my home than buying clothes!

I recently picked up the new marksandspencer home catalogue for Autumn/Winter 2010 & fell in love with lots of the new stuff. It's jam packed with goodies so it's well worth checking out!

* All images are taken from the new www.marksandspencer.com catalogue