enjoying nature

I try and get out as much as possible with my little boy. He is a bundle of energy at 16 months and sometimes I struggle to keep up with him. We live in the city so its hard to find green spaces nearby where we can just go and spend time within nature but I try my hardset to make sure each day has some nature time.

There is a small park near were we live and even though we tend to go there the most, J never seems to tire from playing in the leaves and bird spotting.

We have two winners!

Congratultaions to HeidiG and Makedoandmendonline! I put the names into a basket with the intention of letting J pick the winners but I think he's still a bit young for that since he just threw them around. The first two that landed at my feet were the winners. How's that for randomly picked?! Heidi gets the bird set and Make do and mend online get the flowers.

We had our first meeting of the Sunday Art Group! There was my two sisters and baby J. It was the first time I had seen my sisters for a week so we had lots to talk about including dissecting Saturday's X factor. I made us a vegan feast of rice, bean stew and we had popcorn for dessert. It was fun to just sit and chat but not much art was created. I managed to get a few scribbles in of a new bunny I'm trying to design. I want something simple but that has arms and legs. I still have some work to do on the design then I'll try a prototype.

I also managed to get a calligraphy book from the library so I can experiement with a new pen I got last week. These were just quickly done at breakfast time.

little bits of nature

Picked up on the walk to drop my son at nursery. I love how you can find small bits of beauty in the hustle and bustle of city life.

My first giveaway!

I am having my first giveaway! I've been experimenting with watercolours and ink and this is what I've come up with. A set of original prints. Set 1. is In Bloom with 2 paintings and Set 2. is Hello Birds with 4 paintings.

I hope you like them. All you need to do is comment on my blog or twitter (@noisettebaby) and tell me which set you prefer! The more you tweet,blog etc the more entries you get just let me know where you have mentioned it. Entires close Sunday noon (GMT). Open internationally. Good Luck.

Art for arts sakes

Some photos from the weekend visiting my Mum.. My sister and I decided to start up an art group. It will be on Sundays and I will make some nice vegan nibbles and we can sit and draw or paint. I really want to improve my drawing skills so this will force me to practice. I'm trying to decide if it needs to be structured with different themes or if we should just go with the flow. Maybe I'll invite other people to join online if anyone's interested.

I've also been stitching some large Christmas linen hearts. Each heart has a different message stitched in red floss onto linen and backed with red and white gingham. They will be available in the noisette handmade shop soon. They will be £5 each and brighten up the home with the little pop of bright red.

Shop + news

I'm coming up with a range of prints featuring the letters of the alphabet. I hope to have them in the shop over the next few weeks. It's very busy around here at noisette HQ. Noisette Marketing is just about ready to launch and I'll be offering marketing and design services to small creative businesses. My backround is in design and business management and I feel I have a lot to offer this sector of the community.

Also you can currently save 20% at Noisette Baby if you use this code at checkout. Happy Shopping!

In other news i won the giveaway organised by makedoandmendonline. I'm so excited its the first giveaway I've won and I'm going to be the proud owner of a gorgeous totebag.

I'm planning my own giveaway around here in the next few days so please check back soon.

My little pumpkin

We're away at my mum's house for halloween weekend. Joseph went Trick or Treating with my mum, my sister and me! We only went to two houses, two of my mum's friends. Joseph was happy to get a couple of sweets although he did get an orange at one house.

Store bought costume bought last halloween in the sale for £1.50 reduced from £8! I'm hoping to find one for next year in the sales again if not I might try and make one myself.