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Time Flies When You're Working Hard!

3/6/2016

Oh my goddess, I can't believe it's been four months since I last posted on here!! However, I have been busy squirreling away at a new website....
www.southwoldtouristinformation.co.uk.

The local office where I had been working was closing (end of April 2016) and myself and the other members of staff were all being made redundant. Personally I thought this action was a real shame... there is still a huge requirement for all of this information which has been amassed over the years and that maybe I could just do it myself.

I Love Southwold

Naturally the first thing I did was to look up some tasty domain names and couldn't believe no one else had registered them... I figured it was a good sign and that I was meant to do it, so registered a small selection (including both www.ilovesouthwold.co.uk and www.southwoldtourism.co.uk), which currently all point to the main site. What started as a simple idea has grown into quite a selection of information. Of course there are already a number of websites for Southwold (you only have to Google the town), but the difference with my new site is that it doesn't just display those businesses and attractions who pay to be displayed... it has the same principle with the old office in that the information should be freely available even if just a basic entry. Of course advertising still helps pay for my costs.

There is still a lot of work to do with the site but it is live and working, and doing exactly what I intended.
Recognise the logo? It's based on the window sticker which I had previously designed as stock for sale.

New Online - Southwold Tourist Information

Of course me being a fan of all things 'social networking' I set up accounts with Facebook, Instagram and Google+.

Next came the business cards... again based on the same logo design...

Southwold Tourist Information Business card

... and right now I'm busy managing the information, keeping it all up to date and letting people know it's here. See you in Southwold :D xxx

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October = InkTober

2/10/2015

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Gahh!! It's been far too long since I've posted anything but I'd been super busy working during the summer, then since my contract finished in September I have been knuckling down doing work for several clients. Anyway I'm now getting into more of a working routine having set sessions for client work, time for decorating (I'm finally converting the spare room into a studio/office - long story so I'm not even gonna go there!!), and creative time for me.... and you know what?? it's really working for me.
So I'm getting back on track with my monthly desktop calendar (sorry there wasn't one for August or September - my bad) annnd seeing as October = InkTober I figured I'd combine the two.
What's InkTober? it's a month long art project (daily or weekly etc) of ink drawings and sharing them via your social media of choice... dead easy! This year it's being sponsored by my absolute favourite brand of pens and paint 'Kuretake', so of course I had to join and am sharing my drawings on Instagram.

October 2015

The October 2015 Desktop Calendar has been exported as a .png and will fill a 1920 x 1080 screen (do I need to still tell you all this??). Just click on the image, or the link in the text, to open the image. Right-click your mouse and choose to 'save as' to save the image on your computer. Then all you need to do is find the image in your 'Downloads' folder and again right-click over the image and just select 'set as Desktop background'. Happy Inking!!

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Pick A Colour, Any Colour!!

7/1/2015

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My 'Happy' Colour

I'm always drawn to bright and fabulous colours and have a slight addiction to all things Pantone. As part of creating various images and patterns etc which I share on Instagram I have often picked a relevant 'Colour of the Day' and created a Pantone colour swatch - which up to now included just RGB and HTML colour recipes.

I have now edited these images to also include a CMYK recipe and are all available on Pinterest on my board 'Pantone Colour Recipes' and also via my Facebook page.

I've included a few recipes below. Just click on an image to view the gallery. My favourite colour is Pantone 319 C... and it never fails to make me happy. Leave a comment here or on any of my social networks with your favourite Pantone colour and I'll upload new swatches.

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Pattern-A-Day August

8/9/2013

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I've been fairly quiet here the last couple of months as I have been busy with work and just the day-to-day nitty gritty of life with my daughter, Eap our demonic moggy and several piggies.

Back in July I finally helped my sister Lisa set up her blog ericka eckles (she is a much better blogger than me), I also managed to set up the Weird Zebra shopping page, and also set up a new online portfolio showcasing the design work I have produced for the company I work for. Goodness that actually sounds much busier than I thought, so not too bad after all!!

Each letter uses a different font beginning with that letter.

Anyway once again I have completed the monthly 'Pattern-A-Day' challenge over on Instagram, which was started by the wonderfully inspiring Anika Starmer. She has been doing this for a year which is an amazing achievement and I take my hat off to her. I have constantly struggled to keep up and given in a few times but finally figured "better late than never" right?

I just wanted to share some of my favourite patterns which I created for this month... I have immersed myself in wonderful bright colours again (colour is so therapeutic don't you think?). I've even incorporated hashtags in some of the designs.

Scrabble Board complete with scrabble tile hashtags!!

How do you take yours?

Sticky Notes

Woven Lines

All of my digital patterns have been created using Serif DrawPlus X5. See the complete set of my patterns for August on Instagram #patternaday #patternadayaug #patternadayaugust #letsmakepatterns #digitalpatternaday.

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Pattern-A-Day May

25/5/2013

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Days 1 - 16 of Pattern-A-Day May

Gah!! It's been so long since I blogged anything but hey better late than never right?
The month of May has so far been absolutely dismal weather-wise so I have fully drenched myself in glorious colours for the Pattern-A-Day May Project #patternadaymay over on Instagram http://instagram.com/weirdzebra/ .

I've based this month on digital patterns (using of course Serif DrawPlus) and although I am actually missing using my sketch books I am really loving the variety of patterns and the ease and speed which I can create and replicate them. I've had some lovely comments as well which is so encouraging.

Days 17 - 25 of Pattern-A-Day May

I am seriously needing to get to grips with Spoonflower as some of these patterns would make for some great quirky fabrics, wallpapers or gift wraps.

I've also had some really great ideas for other goodies but I can't tell you yet because it's all a surprise... definitely watch this 'multi-coloured' space!!

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