So bloody productive!

I dunno about you guys but my weekend was very Northern Irish and therefore very brilliant! My best friend came to visit and won over my housemates with her ability to tell you what's wrong with your eyes just by looking at your glasses. Then I met up with my neighbours from back home and had a touristy day out in central London which was fun but also frigging exhausting because it was the first time in a while that I had to walk for longer than 3 minutes to get anywhere -my uni and my job are ridiculously close by to my flat you see- and I'm now a bit concerned about my extreme lack of fitness.

Needless do say I doubt this weekend will live up to last weekend, especially with uni work piling up...

ANYWAY! I was super productive last night and made a bunch of cards! Just need to buy some envelopes and find a better place to take pictures (these ones are the very few decent ones) then I'll put them up for sale, here they are:

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It aint all bad...

Let me be really honest about why I haven't posted much lately. Basically, it's because I've been moping around a lot due to the fact that I'm going through my first break up and rather unsurprisingly, break ups are shit! I don't want to go into a lot of detail as I feel like that it would be a little crass but I have been very up and down lately hence the lack of blogging/drawing.
It's not all been terrible; I've never studied so much  in my life... not that I think that I consciously chose spending time with my then boyfriend over studying. It's more that now that I have more time to myself  I think to myself  "well I might as well go do some work."
My friends and family have of course been the best, even just by listening to me whine down the phone and  just generally being cool people, just a couple of days ago a friend and I managed to piss ourselves with laughter at how terribly we handled each others break ups, it was quite therapeutic. And there is of course my Aunt, who's house I went to for some serious moping because moping around a flat you've just moved into with people I didn't know too well did not appeal to me. I'm sure having a crying mess of girl around the flat wouldn't have been particularly comfortable for them either! (That said, when it comes up they are very sweet) I seriously do not know what I would do without my Aunt so close by!
I've got a lot of reading done too, since I got back I've read two "Twilight" books (try not to judge me), "The Perks of being a Wall Flower" and the "Hunger Games". Now I'm reading "Sputnik Sweetheart" by Haruki Murakami to try make up for the fact that I read two twilight books.

I was supposed to open my Etsy shop on the 24th of September but because a mixture of feeling funny, not having space in my room for a desk and being back in full time education, it's still closed for them moment. Now that I have one major and very difficult essay out of the way, hopefully I can get it opened soon!

A few days ago however, I did do some drawing at the library -  here's some new ideas I've had for Christmas:

I'm pretty happy with the bear Christmas card at the top and the giraffe one at the bottom, but I'm not so sure about the middle one though. I like the idea of doing a card meant for someone who was born on Christmas Day but I just think I need to make the bear in the card itself needs to be a bit more obvious about it.

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Hello again...

After sitting around and watching 25 million episodes of SNL, I decided to return to reality!
So here I am, back in London. I'm all moved into my tiny room (which isn't as tiny as I thought it would be). I've just been getting back into the swing of things, going to class and hanging out with my new housemates. I'm living with 3 boys! Gross! but I think it'll be a nice change to always living with girls... if slightly more disgusting.
I ended up doing a last minute craft fair! I texted Vicky to let her know I'd be coming down to visit her at her  stall at FUSS market and she told me I might as well bring some cards down, so I did! Luckily I made some over the summer. It went well for a last minute sort of thing, made an extra bit of cash which was handy as i hadn't got my student loan by that point. I love FUSS market, it' always has a lovely atmosphere and  it was also nice to catch up with Vicky AND to make it even better they allowed dogs in, good lord they were cute.

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God Damn You SNL. What have you done to me?

via; http://billmumblr.tumblr.com/

I was talking to my friend Eliza on Skype last night and i've was telling her that I hadn't really been blogging a whole lot because I don't really know what to say. I haven't really been doing much all my friends are either working or travelling, god damn them! and I've lost my camera charger which is the most annoying thing in the world because it's now out of battery. So with a mixture of talking to Eliza and looking at tips from other blogs who say you should blog about stuff that's you know... you I realised that I had something to talk about...

I am absolutely obsessed with Saturday Night Live right now. To the point that I think I have a problem.

It all started when I got a months free subscription of Netflix and randomly decided to watch it when I was hung over one day and I've pretty much been obsessed ever since. Which is a bit weird because i've never been a particularly big fan of sketch shows. I think one of the main reasons is because whilst I watch it I like to pretend that I live in New York City living a sexy life. And I guess because it's funny too... I'm a sucker for Stefon, any political impersonations*-especially when Jason Sudeikis does Joe Biden- and obviously the digital shorts/weekend update/ anytime anyone dresses up as an animal. OH and TRIANGLE SALLY!

Needless to say I now feel like I MUST GO TO NEW YORK! My friend Hannah visited a few months ago with her boyfriend but said that she wants to go with girls so she can go shopping so I may have to make her come with me. I really, really want to go in the winter time, I wanna bundle myself up and walk around Manhattan. That's the weird thing, when I imagine visiting I'm never really doing anything in particular, just walking around in the cold with a (faux) fur coat on, maybe eating a hot dog.

So that's pretty much what i've been doing, watching SNL whilst making some cards. I managed to put a couple of listings up (which you can see here and here)... and pretending to live a sexy life in New York.

Not the most exciting thing in the world but a broke student can only do so much with her summer!

Mach lav

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*sorry about the terrible video, it's all I could find.

COOKIES

I haven't blogged for a while so I'm hoping a few pictures of cookies will make up for it.

My cousin Lucy came  over to visit and we did some baking! We just made chocolate chop cookies, which is pretty conservative for me as I usually like to try and stuff them with oreos and other chocolaty treats but the times I've done that they have gone a bit wrong so I thought we should play it safe! We ended up making a giant cookie, which would have been much better if we had sweets to put  on top of it but alas, we didn't... still pretty good though!

I haven't been doing a whole lot, just walking tattie and the neighbours dogs and having a go at paper embroidery (which I'll post about soon).  Me and lucy also had a go at making chocolate mousse which went well! and Lucy had the genius idea of crumbling up crunchies and chocolate as a surprise at the bottom! Also i've some how managed to loose BOTH of  my camera chargers so there's gonna be a lot of istagram photo's for a while.

Here's more Cookies...

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Bear in Pants

Bear in Pants says Thanks!

Bear in (green) Pants says Thanks!

Bear in (blue) Pants says Thanks!

I got those thank you cards done. You may call me Mr. Productive.

I was just thinking, I've been selling cards to the states lately and for them pants are actually TROUSERS!

Maybe I'll have to make some American Bear in Pants cards...

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For Sale!

This Is Birthday Bear

Exams were harder in my day...

Gentle Ray Jack

Smartie Pants

YEAH! I opened my shop about 3 weeks earlier than predicted! I got more birthday money than I thought I would get so I thought I might as well spend it on some card supplies! I hope you like my listings! These are just a few of what I put up and I want to come up with some new ideas too. Also I completely forgot about thank you cards but i'll put them up soon.

Check out some more listings HERE!

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Who knew hand ball was a sport?

Even though I was never going to be in London during the Olympics, I've been grumbling along with everybody else at the thought of it. So much so that I forgot that I actually quite enjoy watching it!

The opening ceremony was awesome. It had Mr Bean, James Bond and Voldemort in it and oh yeah, by the way... we invented the World Wide Web!

 I'm quite girly with what I like to watch, such as gymnastics and diving but we've been watching the swimming and rowing down here in Cornwall where team GB (and NI!) have been doing pretty well!

Speaking of NI, after wondering how many Northern Irish Competitors there are in team GB and we only have three! (I think) but alas we are a small country aren't we. So in that case I will  be patriotically watching the men's hockey when Iain Lewers will be representing us (yeooo!) and I was cheering on the Chambers' brothers in the rowing yesterday. 

In other news I completely went against my plans to be good with my money courtesy of East Magnolia Vintage! God damn them! 

But at least I have this pretty dress...

from East Magnolia Vintage

and blouse!

from East Magnolia Vintage

Definitely check out their shop, they've got a really great collection!

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Bumming around

Haven't posted for a while... Probably because I've been doing pretty much nothing of any blogging type interest, just been bumming around the house, hanging out with friends and family, turning 22 and returning to London very briefly on the way to Cornwall to see Richards family. 

I've been quite lazy when it comes to the card making front; only making a Thank You card for my Granny and an Anniversary Card for Richards parents who have been together for 25 years! This might be a bit depressing but they're one of the very few couples I've met who've been together so long and are genuinely happy (not that I know a lot of couples that have been married for 25 years!) and give me hope for the future, so yay! for Richard's (and Vicky's!) mum and dad! Anyway here's a picture of the card I made. It's supposed to be of Prairie Voles, they apparently mate for life and I thought it would be a nice idea for a card. The picture isn't the best quality but ah well!

I think it needs a bit of work but I do quite like it, I think I'll start selling something similar soon!

In the mean time I've ordered a hundred cards and a hundred envelopes to Northern Ireland for when I get back so if I'm not posting about all the cards I've been making this time next week, you may all slap me.

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Getting My Art Print On

Hope everyone had a joyous weekend! I had a great night out with some friends on Saturday night  reminiscing about school, playing with rabbits and generally shouting a lot - friendly shouting (I think) but shouting all the same. - I then spent the whole of Sunday recovering by eating the cow cupcake my mum got me (love you mum!) and watching Saturday Night Live on Netflix for hours and hours on end. I am now mesmerised by the size of Andy Sambergs mouth.

Today we've been repainting my childhood bedroom; we live in a pretty big house and as more of the Gregory children move out it seems a bit pointless for my parents to keep living there. So one by one we've been repainting the bedrooms to more neutral colours for when they put it up for sale. I shall miss my purple walls but as they turn to cream I've realised that surely I can still put a few prints up to spruce it up a bit, yes? Yes.

There's a bit of a sea life theme going here but here are my Etsy art print finds:



Fish Print from Chasing the Crayon

Happy Racoon Couple Print from Moon Glow Art

Pigment Jars Print from Kico Art Studio

Whale Print from Swanborough Prints

Sea Turtle Print from Eastwitching

Great Gig In The Sky Art Print from VICTYM

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Pond Life

Yesterday I took Tatty to the pond down the road and it bought back many memories; from my brothers/neighbours falling in, to storming off there as a stroppy teenager. Others include walking up there covered in duvets with two of my good friends the morning after my 18th birthday party, my brothers falling in (again) when they tried walking on the pond when it froze over (luckily it's not very deep) and trying to use the discarded boat that's been there ever since I can remember with my friend and my sister.

Memories from this trip will be of me being terrified that Tattie would kill the ducks, (I forgot there were ducks there) it's a good thing she doesn't like to swim...

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The Murray Worries

This may be the best photo I ever take of my dog.

Yes Yes, my buns look like they were decorated by an 8 year old but that was the first time I've used an icing bag and I just thought it would be tasty and easy to put some sweeties on top. I also learnt the hard way that you do not put bio carbonate soda in bun mixture, a whole batch was wasted when I mistook  it for baking powder, you can see them pictured above Tattie. Said pictures were taken before I realised they were disgusting and yes I know they're burnt ANYWAY. The new batch was very tasty and was a nice snack for watching the Wimbledon finals on Sunday and I know he lost but I'm proud of Andy Murray, he tried his best but unfortunately that Swiss is a legend or something but whatever. His speech nearly had me in tears, god love him!

Tomorrow I master Illustrator YEAH!

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P.S There is absolutely no order to these photos...

Another day in the country...

Look at the wee cow towards the right! I think she might be my favourite cow in the world! My brother and sister told me about the "ugliest cow you'll ever see" a couple of days ago and I had to go see it/take some pictures! I don't even think it's that bad... it just looks like someone swung a bat to the side of her face and it just stayed that way (but I hope to god that didn't actually happen).

You're beautiful deformed cow! Just the way you are!

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... But I am a dog person

THAT'S RIGHT! This post is pretty much just me boring you all with pictures of my dog (and some cows). I just missed my wee pup so much. Tattie managed not to start any fights with passing dogs but she did manage make two children cry. Before you judge my dog; they were scared of dogs already! and she was just curious about them. Luckily their screaming scared Tattie off anyway and the kids calmed down immediately once I shouted over to the parents that I  got her on the lead, so you know, it wasn't all drama. (Which trust me, it can be with this crazy dog.)

So going back to the Northern Irish countryside after living in London is always a big change. For the most part it's a nice one. It's much quieter, there's a lot more green and space generally. I always eat better at home because there are no shops within walking distance here, no buses either and I can't drive so I'm not constantly tempted by chocolate on a daily basis. I also get to catch up with my friends which is always fun! That said, towards the end of August I will most likely go a bit crazy because my favourite thing about London is the freedom I have there. I can go where I want, whenever I want. Here in Northern Ireland I can go to the pond down the road whenever I want... but that's pretty much it. So you can see how some madness might occur!

For the meantime I shall enjoy the peace and quiet! I couldn't get all my cards over here from London so my shop will be closed till September, so I'm going to take my time to come up with some new ideas and improve some old ones and maybe learn how to use illustrator along the way...

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I'm not a cat person but...

I've been going up and down to Kent a lot because of this whole moving fandango, my aunt and uncle have always been so helpful in letting me keep all my stuff there for the summer, I don't know what I'd do without them!  

When my cousins haven't been around when my aunt and uncle are working, their cats Jasper and Lola have been an adorable substitute. Whilst I'm a dog person for life these Kittys are pretty hard not to love, so on one of my visits down I thought they'd be a nice subject for me to play around with my new camera! Here's what I got...

As we can see I'm no pro but it was fun and I love the last one of Jasper yawing!
Not long till I'll be back home getting adorable pictures of my wee pup (she's actually a beast) Tattie!

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