Vintage Fair- Leeds Town Hall

So on Sunday morning, I went to the Leeds vintage fair held in the beautiful main hall of Leeds town hall. It was a great fair, a lot bigger than I expected & it was a lovely setting too. I went with the lovely Amy from landofthecuckoo (that's the blog she runs, I don't mean she's in cuckoo land!) & we had a lovely morning mooching around & finding bargains! I took lots of pics of the pretty ceiling in the main hall too. It was a great day out:)

For more information about future events you can visit the leedsvintagefashionfairs website.

Above is one of the pieces I bought on the day, a cute little shabby chic chair to use as a photo prop & as a decoration in my new studio
(It's actually a kid's chair, but I'm going to put a plant pot on it)

Sneak Peek!

Here's a quick sneak peek of a new bag from the the new spring/summer line COMING SOON!

Hope you like it:)

 

Studio Snippets

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend? Happy Valentine's Day too :)

Here's a little sneak peek around my current studio (a lot of people always ask where I work, so here it is) I've completely outgrown it now and I'm planning to build a new one as soon as we can. We have been submitting building plans since October, it's been a long process but fingers crossed I'll get there in the end.

At the moment my home is full of work & stock along with a storage lock up that I hire (I also screen print at a workshop in Leeds too) so I really can't wait to get the extra space, although we think it has to be a lot smaller than originally planned but it's still exciting! Can't wait to start decorating the new one once it has been built... It's going to be very fun & colourful :)

 

So now you have seen my cluttered work space, I just love stuff!

Roobarb

Happy Friday everyone! I'd like to introduce you all to a super cute little shop I've found called Roobarb...

Sarah is the lucky owner of the delightful shop Roobarb situated in Marsden, Huddersfield. With a background in textiles Sarah sells her own product amongst the other lines which she stocks. Roobarb sells mainly furniture, home ware, gifts and a wide range of handmade products. The shop itself opened in Oct 2008 but Sarah has recently opened an online shop where she shares some of her favourite pieces with online customers so make sure you take a look!

 You can find the lovely Roobarb at:

 
Roobarb
1 Peel Street
Marsden
Huddersfield
HD7 6BR
01484 846226
roobarbgifts@hotmail.co.uk
www.roobarbgifts.co.uk

PostCarden!

Hello Hello!
I have confession to make, I only just sent my Christmas present to my family last week, oops!  That's a bit later than I wanted but I think I was instantly forgiven because I sent the greatest card ever.  I found it in a bookshop next to the new innovative products and it's just one of the most, fun, cool and cute cards I've ever seen.

Based in London, independent company Another Studio for Design is the creator of the PostCardens!
They aim to create charming products with an environmental friendly touch.
The PostCardens are postcards with a lovely surprise on the inside.  This is a card you will open, interact with and look at for days finding it different every time.
Presented as a box, once you open it, it will be your job to grow your own little garden inside.  Your postcard will turn into a little piece of landscape that will grow wildly and enjoy for days.

I love the idea of getting a greeting which is a present, I like the fact that you will keep it and interact with it and this time look twice after you've received it.

There are several different themed cards you can get, Christmas, allotment, city, football and botanical and you can post it just like any other postcard.

Check out their website  and get one! maybe even post it to yourself! See you next week, Love Moni!

ALICEPALACE.CO.UK

 

 

Wow! I came across these stunning quirky illustrations yesterday from alicepalace.co.uk 

 I absolutely love the fresh & fun approach! what a talent, she also has a beautiful website that you can check out http://www.alicepalace.co.uk/ which also has a great little shop too!:)

Trends & Design Previews

Following on from Friday's post here are a couple more sneak previews... hope you like them:)

Introducing Surface//Philia

Here's a little feast for the eyes... I'd like to introduce to Helen Stevens the super talent behind Surface//Philia What gorgeous, striking & unique work! There are just too may lovely images to post! so it's well worth checking out the beautiful website

She also has a lovely shop online shop too. I have my eye on a few things for my home :) Hope you all enjoy looking at Helen's work as much as I do.

About Helen:

Helen Stevens graduated in 2002 with a first in BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design, and has been heavily involved in many areas of design since, including print design for British label Red Or Dead and lecturing in design at degree level. Helen is the founder and organiser of the creative events organisation Designers Marketplace and also operates as a freelance design journalist for the online graduate support network Arts Thread.

Although working across many areas within the design industry, Helen has always continued to work as a freelance visual artist, textile and surface designer. Her design business has just had an overhaul and after five years of designing and producing women's leather accessories, her brand 'Surface//Philia' is now concentrating on abstract prints, patterns and illustrations for surfaces within interiors and home wares.

Helen has big plans for this coming year and has just recently completed a bar mural commission and launched three new ceramic collections consisting of hand applied illustration onto white bone china, all for sale on her website. Over the next few months we’ll be seeing the launch of bespoke wallpaper ranges and co-coordinating interiors products such as cushions. For the past year Helen has also been working on exciting collaborations with product and furniture designer Jamie Josef Fry. Their work together combines Helens knowledge and experimentation within pattern and surface design and Jamie’s irrefutable technical skill and contemporary execution, watch this space!

Visit: www.surfacephilia.co.uk

You can search for SurfacePhilia and follow on Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot and Tumblr. 

 

 

Fashion Illustration

I just love FASHION, CLOTHES & anything to do with SHOPPING:) so I love it when I receive design briefs & commissions for this sort of thing. I'm most know for my surface pattern designs but I do love to illustrate & use typography too. Hope you like the design it's now available to buy online at marksandspencerpersonalised.com

Trend Sneak Peek!

Here's a quick sneak peek... tiny snippet! of some of the trend collections that I've been designing, hope you like it! I will post more on the blog when I can:)

ITV1- May The Best House Win

Happy Friday everyone!

Just a little post to say a huge THANK YOU for all the support & lovely feedback I received after appearing on ITV1's maythebesthousewin much appreciated x

I still can't believe I actually went through with it, it was very fun & exciting but so scary too! It's really hard & nerve wracking to let people you don't know into your home & let them judge it! All good fun though, I rambled on a bit & was giggling a lot! it's awful watching yourself on TV! Luckily they were a nice bunch of people & we had a few lovely sunny days when we filmed it too. You may remember me mentioning on the blog a while back that I was preparing my home for filming & a photo shoot, well that was it! the secret is out!:) I also in the same week had a lifestyle & designer interview to for northernhomesmagazine (formerly concept for living) so I'd never cleaned so much in my life!

If you missed the blog post about my home you can find it here you can also view the magazine feature here

If you missed the show & you want to watch it (& probably have a giggle at me) you can watch online here

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! hope you have all had a great week.

Just a quick post today as I thought I'd share a couple of designs that I did for Chinese New Year briefed in by the talented team at Tigeprint which are now on sale on the Marks & Spencer personalised website

Samantha Hahn

Hello Everyone!
I've been enjoying the early sunrises lately. This morning was particularly beautiful with random brushes of pink all through the horizon, it made me think of watercolours.  I've always thought of watercolour as a bit old fashioned until I got to searching and found something which is not at all old and very fashionable indeed.

Meet Samantha Hahn! An amazingly talented artist based in Brooklyn NY.  Her work includes Watercolour, Digital and Surface Pattern Design.

I love Samantha's work, she captures fashion in a very stylized and chic way, with soft but bright colours that make up beautiful pieces.
Check out her website or follow her lovely Blog.
Pretty right? have a nice weekend! Love Moni.

Print & Pattern & teNeues

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope it's been a good week so far!

Just a little post today about the lovely mention my stationery received on the fabulous, inspirational printandpattern blog last week, thank you P&P! much appreciated :) The reader discount offer is still available online at teNeues.com or you can visit teNeues UK (worldwide shipping available) simply enter RTAY20 at the checkout.