I'm still alive!

I did some rearranging in the study/sunroom, and swapped

out the plant from the bathroom to the little side table.
Morty doesn't appear too pleased about it.

Omg, I can't believe that in my last post I couldn't believe it was mid April. And now its MID JUNE. Holy cow!

Good news is that Delaks is growing quite rapidly. I've been up to my eyeballs in work, which can be a little stressful at times, but I'm certainly not complaining! I've just finished up on some beautiful wedding invites - a trifold, bi-lingual invite with pocket and 2 extra cards. All of the folders were hand cut and folded, as was the information in each panel. They ended up so beautiful and stylish in cream with a gold shimmer.

Creams and golds with accents of lucky red and purple,
difficult to photograph but divine in real life!

I have a big website which I am about to finish which has been eating up all my time (day and night) since... well, since mid April. That hasn't allowed much time for doing things around the house, but there have been a few small home improvements squeezed in here and there which I will update you on soon, as well as some exciting events in the neighbourhood that I'm dying to tell you about. As soon as the big website project is done, I am going to take some time out and do some projects I've had on my mind:

• Revamping the back deck - this is in progress, but we have big plans for out there
• Painting a wall with some wide blue stripes, you'll have to wait to see where!
• Creating some bulldog art (hopefully it turns out as I'm envisioning)
• Adding to my etsy store - I have some great ideas for new products and some improvements to my current items
• Finally purchasing some chairs for the empty space in the lounge room
• Possibly creating a library a la this one in Real Living magazine (see the black and white shelves in the middle of the last picture?) instead of the Expedit, it has served me well but I am slowly trying to de-Ikea our house
• Also from Real Living magazine, adding some decorative molding to my walls similar to Michelle from Rubie Green
• Redesigning my own website
• Blog about all of the above and more! :)

To tide you over until then, here are some gratuitous Morty photos:

Seriously, could this dog be any cuter?

Why yes, yes he can!

READING: M-A-Belle - Michelle is so inspiring, she's my age and she has a fabulous international company selling gorgeous eco friendly designer fabric. And she lives in Manhattan.

LOVING: Guy singlehandedly starts dance party totally cracked me up today (via The Small Joys)

INSPIRING: It seems the youngsters over at This Young House had the same stripy wall ambitions as I do!

COMING UP: I still owe you a freebie don't I? It's coming, I promise!!

Catch Up

Gee whiz, time is absolutely flying at the moment - can you believe its mid April already? I swear it was Christmas just last week...

I've got quite a few exciting things to catch you all up on! Firstly, my little Etsy store has been coming along nicely with a few sales already :) Thanks so much to everyone who has purchased from my store, it makes my day each time I get an 'order' email! And a HUGE thanks to Al Ain Notebook and Baby Daniel and Us for featuring my bookplates on their blogs, you guys are gems! :) I am hoping to get some new printable items and paintings up there soon.

Speaking of paintings, I also received some pics of some of my commissioned paintings hanging all the way over in Ireland, its such a thrill to see my work on someone elses wall... in a whole other country no less!

My paintings - in Ireland! via Sixblackdots

I've also been working on some wedding invitations and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out:

And a detail of the invites is at the top of the page

I think the hit of yellow (a piece of the brides favourite painting, Klimt's The Kiss) on the envelope liner is a winner.

I also had a huge clear out over the past couple of weeks and sold everything on ebay. Can you believe I had over $400 worth of stuff just hanging about? Neither can I! With my windfall I shouted myself to the blue ceramic kettle I've been dreaming of (pics in situ soon), a (faux) Chloe bag in my fave shade Martha blue for a total steal, and a sensational trench coat as its getting rather chilly these days. And I still have some moola left over! :)



READING: The Brick House - sensational style... and it totally cracks me up!

INSPIRING: I am determined to earn enough money as a freelance designer to go to New York for my birthday this year, so this Ork print is now right above my computer as a constant reminder what I'm working towards. I know, its a crazy business goal to have, but it works!

LOVING: Layer Tennis: finally a sport I can get into ;)

COMING UP: I have a FREEBIE to download coming up over the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Yellow there!

Fresh from the oven - a brand new Delaks design!

I have done a new design for Delaks, a beautiful butter yellow invite which I am a quite in love with. I really want to get some yellow happening in my home decor, but Lak hates it so I am making do with yellow in my designs. What do you all think?

Ive slowly been getting together the Delaks wesbite, and its (finally) up, but theres still quite a bit of tweaking to do and of course uploading the full set of designs. Over the next week or so I will be really spending some quality time on it, so watch that space! Apparently there is also a spelling mistake on the website somewhere - my mum told me she saw one but couldnt remember where, so Ill have to read through it all again to find the culprit. First one to let me know where it is gets a surprise prize!

Im also adding another thing to my list of resolutions for the year - I am determined to dress better. Dont get me wrong, Im not completely devoid of style or fashion sensibility, but I want to be even more fabulous and well dressed this year. The theory is to dress for the position you want to be in, and I want to be more than a cute jeans-type girl, I want to be a serious, fabulous, sucessful woman. So my new fashion inspirations are the uber-chic ladies of Cashmere Mafia (my new favourite show). I am especially fond of Lucy Lui's outfits on the show - professional, but edgy and colourful. I like it!