Tote-ally great

I've been updating my online shops, so I now have 5 different designs of tote bags available to buy. Check 'em out here: http://nellsmith.bigcartel.com/category/tote-bags. They are organic cotton, hand screen printed by me, and at 10 pounds a pop, would make a lovely pressie for your Secret Santa! For the run up to Christmas, I'll be including some surprise gifts with each online order. I love Chrimbo!

Screenprint Giveaway!

Oh, poor, neglected blog! I think I've had blog fear, after so long using twitter and instagram, the thought of sitting down and typing more than 120 characters feels a little intimidating! The irony is that I actually enjoy writing and looking back on blog posts. So I do solemnly swear to make more of an effort from now on! Well, I have something nice to make up for being silent for so long. A giveaway! Woohoo! At the beginning of the year I invested in a bit of new equipment - a spring-loaded drying rack and some freshly exposed screens, which make my life a lot easier and mean that I can print lovely, high-quality posters.

I have one of each design to give away, for a chance to win just leave a comment saying which one you would like, Koala, Lion, Owl or Tiger! I will announce the winners in a week's time.

The posters are available to buy from my website and Not On the High Street Store.

Potter's Museum of Curiosities

A friend of mine posted this video up yesterday and I loved it so much I had to share it! Watching this led me into a whole world of taxidermied fun. I spent rather too much time looking at squirrels in waistcoats...expect more curiosities soon.

ANIMAL MUSEUM

POTTER'S MUSEUM

Giveaway time!

Hullo and a happy Monday to you all! I'm starting the week with a little giveaway, I've been trying to sort out my studio out a bit and am forcing myself to part with some of my fabric stash, it's out of hand! I find it so hard to part with craft supplies, even if I know I'll never use it. So I thought it would be nice for someone to make use of this fabric and make it easier for me to part with it!
So I have 2 bundles of fat quarters of fabric to give to one lucky person! One is a mixture of my own designs: screenprints and digital prints with hand printed overlays and digital embroidery - quite a lot of work has gone in to each piece and you'll find various animals hiding within - owls, deer, swans and foxes...
The other bundle is a selection of Japanese fabrics which are really beautiful - I got these on my travels but have never known what to do with them. I think I bought them in Kyoto, textile central in Japan. They are probably off-cuts from kimonos.
To enter, either leave a little comment letting me know which bundle you would like, or follow me on Twitter and retweet the giveaway (or both for an extra chance to win!). Don't forget to let me know which bundle you would like to win...
I'll announce the winner at the end of the week. Good luck! xx

Zookeeper for a day!

Hullo there! A couple of weeks ago I trotted down to London town to be a zookeeper for the day at London Zoo! This amazing experience came courtesy of Papa Smith, who got me it as a surprise for my 30th birthday. Total winner.
Highlights included feeding the giraffes and tigers, tickling penguins, feeding meerkats (although the live mealworms and crickets were rather unpleasant) and having lemurs scampering all over me, plucking pieces of fruit from my very hands! Just incredible.





It was such an exciting, brilliant day, alas I didn't get to do any drawing, but did take over 100 photos, so plenty of inspiration there! You can see all the photos of the day on flickr
I've been working on quite a few new designs of late, have a couple of new stockists to do orders for and have applied for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Busy times!