one little bird

secretly in love

2012-01-26T18:04:00.001+02:00

Very happy to be part of this pretty treasury today...

[ CLICK IMAGE FOR LINKS ]

a bit of inspiration

2012-01-25T19:38:00.002+02:00

A few inspiring pins for a dreary Wednesday afternoon!

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

blog me beautiful

2012-01-24T14:51:00.000+02:00

I've been tweaking away at my blog since the new year started in an effort to try and make it look nicer and more coherent. Not being able to afford a pro to pimp it up and having very little code experience it's a long and slow process and waaaaaay off being what I want it to be. But little by little I hope one day to have the blog of my dreams!
In the meantime, I've added a new list to my sidebar entitled 'The Most Beautiful & Inspiring Blogs'. It gives me something to aspire to! Here's what's on the list so far...

{ CLICK THE IMAGES FOR LINKS }

A CREATIVE MINT

DOOR SIXTEEN

FORTY-SIXTH AT GRACE

HONEYPIE LIVING ETC

KINFOLK JOURNAL

QUIET GIRL

SANIA PELL

WISHWISHWISH

I do hope you enjoyed that little round up and find some inspiration somewhere today. I'd love your suggestions for more beautiful and inspiring blogs!

eva juliet: new work

2012-01-18T23:54:00.000+02:00

I was very excited to see this beautiful new range of prints from the very talented Eva Juliet on Etsy today!

Inspired by the Norwegian Rosemaling style...

Pick a number and add your own text...

I shall certainly be saving my pennies for one!

blogging tip: it's a rollover!

2012-01-18T18:09:00.000+02:00

Following on from my triumphant post 'How to link an image to your email', I thought I'd show you the next cool trick I've learnt. And I promise you, this is very, very cool!
Seeing as Valentine's Day is just around the corner and it's my Mum & Dad's 50th wedding anniversary this year, I thought it apt to demonstrate this effect with a photo from their wedding day, just before they set off on their honeymoon. This is the original version, with no editing whatsover. It's not great quality and needed a lot of work. Roll the mouse over to see what I did...

Ta da! So, how do you make a rollover. Tis but simple my dear friends. (well, actually this took quite a bit of persistence and error-correcting on my part, but in the end, if you do the right thing, it's a sinch!) I referred to this quick tutorial, but I kept slipping up, so I want to tell you where I kept going wrong so that you don't make the same mistake!
You will need to put the images you want to use online. I posted mine on Flickr and made them private so that no one else can see them. Come back to Blogger and create a new post. Then copy and past the first bit of HTML into the HTML view of your post, exactly in the place where your want to place your image.

Let's look at it bit by bit.

1 // IMAGE-DESTINATION-URL
This refers to the URL you want your image to link to if you click on it. I don't need to link it to anything so I have just put my own blog URL here, i.e. http://www.onelittlebirdstudio.blogspot.com

2 // IMAGE-1-LINK
This will be the static image you see before you rollover. Now, this is the mistake I was making. You need to get the URL for your image. Do not copy and paste it from the browser bar. This will not work! You need to go to your photostream (if you are using Flickr) and right click on the image. You will see a list pop up and about halfway down you will see 'copy image URL'. Click that! Then come back to your new post and paste it into the HTML.

3 // IMAGE-2-LINK
This is the image you want to see when you rollover with your mouse. Get the URL in exactly the same way as the previous step. Paste it in.

4 // IMAGE-1-LINK
Exactly the same as step 2, paste in the URL for the static image.

That's it! It should work in exactly the same way as you see above. If you have any problems leave a comment and I'll try and put you straight.

free illustrated recipe

2012-01-15T23:06:00.000+02:00

A while back I showed you this beautiful illustrated recipe from Eva Juliet, free for you to download. Illustrated recipes seem to be quite the thing. Here's another I found the other day on the lovely forty-sixth at grace blog, illustrated by Melinda Josie. And on a side note you really must check out the Herriott Grace shop, if not for the amazing photography of their gorgeous products!

Even if you don't make them, this will look gorgeous on the kitchen wall!

from above

2012-01-15T18:19:00.000+02:00

More playing around with tilt-shifting in Photoshop. Works really well looking down from above...

Photos can be viewed individually here.
Huge range of TTV frames available from Ocodo.

lettuce & yellow bird

2012-01-14T21:37:00.000+02:00

A very pretty treasury today from Kasia...

[ CLICK THE IMAGE FOR LINKS ]

pretty blatant

2012-01-13T16:31:00.000+02:00

Typographic prints that mean what they say from Therese Sennerholt... (sorry Mum, this post contains some potty-mouth language)

I WILL TRY ANYTHING ONCE

SMALL THINGS

SHUT UP

JÄVLA SKIT [now you know how to say son of a bitch in swedish]

On postcards...

...and notebooks too!

faking instagram pt.2

2012-01-12T23:49:00.001+02:00

Following on from my previous post 'Faking Instagram', there was one more effect that I really like in Instagram that I wanted to show you - that sort of blurry-all-around-the-edges-with-the-focus-right-in-the-centre-so-everything-looks-sort-of-miniature. That is not the technical name. I have since found out the technical name for this effect is tilt-shift. I'll show you a before and after so you can see what I mean.

Here is a photo of my sister-in-law Matina in Amsterdam some years ago, straight out the camera:

And here's the tilt-shift version. I applied the Earlybird action first.

You can find a quick tutorial for creating tilt-shift effects here. And some more of my experiments here. So there you go, some lovely fake Instagram effects to play around with! Enjoy!

faking instagram pt.1

2012-01-12T18:08:00.000+02:00

I really like Instagram photos. Trouble is, I don't own an iPhone, and probably never will. So the next best thing is to just fake the damn things. I had a trundle around on the net and found Daniel Box who'd taken the trouble to make some rather convincing (and free) Instagram Photoshop Actions (thank you Daniel). I'll demonstrate the effects on a picture of my little boy, Leo.

Here's the original photo straight out the camera:

And here are the 12 filters in the set:

Rather nice aren't they! The set also includes some of the frames that you see on Instagram pics. But what is missing is the waffle effect frame on the original photo up there. So I made one! You will need Photoshop - just hit this button to download.

sally elford

2012-01-12T16:20:00.000+02:00

I love mutual admiration! I had an email from Twitter the other day to say that Sally was now following me. I always check out any new follower so hopped on over to Sally's profile and then to her website. There I discovered her beautiful mid-century modern inspired screenprints and giclee prints. I immediately wanted to blog about them...

FISH POOL

FEATHERS AND FLORA (MUSTARD)

Imagine my surprise when I went to her 'news' section to see my own prints staring out at me! She'd beaten me to it! I wouldn't have known about that if I'd not followed the links, and I wouldn't have discovered Sally's beautiful work. In the few emails we have now exchanged, I find I really like Sally and feel we have much in common as artists. Social networking can be good sometimes!

MAGPIE'S TREASURE

DANDELION (MUSTARD)

Many of Sally's themes are based around nature, but she does have the odd non-nature inspired piece, such as this personal favourite of mine...

TIME FOR TEA

Be sure to have a look at more of Sally's fine work here.

how to link an image to your email

2012-01-11T11:33:00.000+02:00

If, like me, you are a complete dullard when it comes to anything codey or webby (we're talking HTML, CSS and all that palaver), then this should hopefully appeal. I recently found out how to link this image directly to my email. Meaning that when you click on the picture you go straight to a new email - to me! (go on, click on it, send me an email, go on). It's easy to add a picture as a gadget in your side bar, but how do you link a picture within a post? I now know and this is rather exciting to me. So I thought I would share with you how to do it.

First, create a new page or post and upload your image (I'm using my typewriter image). Now, select the HTML view. You will see lots of lovely code (scary huh!). This is where you need your glasses on. Look for the bit that sits between a pair of double quotation marks and starts with 'http:'. It's underlined in pink here:

[ CLICK TO ENLARGE ]

This is the HTML code for opening your picture in lightbox mode (click on the typewriter image above to see what I mean), which is the standard thing that happens when you click on an image in Blogger. But we want to link to our email instead. So we need to change this link. Select that bit of code (be careful to just select the text and not the quotation marks) and write mailto:youremailaddress, like this:

[ CLICK TO ENLARGE ]

Save and close. Voila! It's done. You can link images to another website by inserting their URL (include all the http bit) instead of an email address. Simple really.

unique art

2012-01-11T10:10:00.001+02:00

I simply wish I had a spare four hundred bucks for one of these amazing beauties from Spencer Studio.

YOUNG BALLERINA DANCING NEAR WATER

WOMAN WITH CHINOISERIE WALLPAPER

DESERT LANDSCAPE

bright and beautiful

2012-01-10T18:46:00.000+02:00

Loving neon pink right now...

[ CLICK IMAGE FOR LINKS ]

cool beauty

2012-01-09T21:28:00.001+02:00

If you're finding winter a little hard and dreaming of summer already, maybe these images will remind you of the sheer beauty all around you at this time of year.

Elle Moss's work is beautiful, ethereal and quirky. Her portraiture shots are amazing too!

Give your eyes a visual treat and check out Elle's shop for prints, canvasses, iPhone skins, iPad skins and more!

new printable calendars: pt2

2012-01-09T17:33:00.000+02:00

I had a lot of lovely comments about my new 'Through the Forest' printable calendar yesterday, so thank you all very much. Five of you will receive their free copies very shortly via email! As I mentioned, it was the first of two calendars, so without further ado, let me show you the second one...

It's called 'Pretty Geometry' and as you can see it's quite different in bold black, white and red! The idea is that you can save the patterns and use them for scrapbooking, craft projects, gift tags or anything else that takes your fancy. Why not save the whole lot and use them for this year's Christmas gift wrapping or use them throughout the year for birthdays and other occasions.

washi tape strips from pugly pixel

Any which way, I'd love to hear what you do with them!
If you like your patterns bold and beautiful please leave me a comment below... the first five to comment with their email address will receive a free pdf.

new printable calendars for 2012

2012-01-09T00:22:00.000+02:00

I'm always a little late off the mark with these things... I know I should have been thinking about this way back in October or something, but life always seems to get in the way and before I know it, the new year has kicked off without a calendar in sight. I've been busy over the past few days and so far I have produced two new 5x7" printable calendars which will find their way into the store very soon...

This first one is called 'Through the Forest' and features beautiful vintage etchings of flowers and fruits. The first five people to comment below with their email address will receive a free pdf of the calendar!

I will be showing you the other, quite different calendar in the next day or two so stay tuned!

a cherry on top

2012-01-05T15:46:00.000+02:00

This is a new work I've recently done called 'Cherry Pie' and it's inspired by beautiful hand-lettered chalk boards. I've entered it into Minted's first Art Print competition. The first prize is $1000 and a trip to San Francisco, but there are plenty of runners-up prizes too. I would hugely appreciate it if you could vote for me. Just click here (you'll need to register with the site). Select one of the numbers from 1-5 next to the image and hey presto you've voted! I'll let you know how I get on!

out with the old, in with the new

2012-01-03T17:52:00.000+02:00

THE OLD HEADER...

...AND THE NEW ONE!

Happy New Year everyone!

I do hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have started on the right foot for 2012. I know for me this is always a time for refreshing and renewing, so have started dusting off the old nest. You'll notice up at the top there a new logo and header. I'm using a beautiful font called Verner for the main title. My little bird has been released from his old circle and is perched up on one of the 't's. I've widened the whole blog to give it some more breathing space and my link buttons at the side have been changed, using Verner's sister font Verna! Oh, and a rather nice new background using a tileable pattern from Tack-O-Rama, a wonderful site for retro clip art. I'm going to slowly be making more changes over the coming weeks...
I'll also be introducing this year more tutorials, freebies, useful tips and links so pleased stay tuned!

I'll be back very soon for more on this...

EDIT: Please note that the font used throughout this blog is Rockwell.

2012... here we come

2012-01-02T21:55:00.001+02:00

Glitter texture Pugly Pixel

advent calendar day 25

2011-12-25T11:11:00.000+02:00

IT'S CHRISTMAS

If you've followed my calendar all the way up to here, I hope you've enjoyed it! A very merry Christmas to you all and my 2012 bring you much happiness and joy! Click the caption to find your last festive treat!

advent calendar day 24

2011-12-24T12:11:00.000+02:00

TWENTY FOUR

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 23

2011-12-23T10:33:00.001+02:00

TWENTY THREE

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 22

2011-12-22T13:17:00.000+02:00

TWENTY TWO

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 21

2011-12-21T23:55:00.002+02:00

TWENTY ONE

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 20

2011-12-21T23:44:00.000+02:00

TWENTY

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

computer on the blink

2011-12-21T15:22:00.001+02:00

If you simply haven't been able to sleep for the past two nights due to the absence of day 20 and day 21 of my advent calendar then I sincerely apologise. I realise this must be a huge upset for some of you, but computer is sick, what can I say. Simply knackered. So until computer is all better and returned home I cannot update my calendar. I do hope to resume normal service later today.

advent calendar day 19

2011-12-19T10:51:00.000+02:00

NINETEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day18

2011-12-18T10:45:00.000+02:00

EIGHTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 17

2011-12-17T13:50:00.000+02:00

SEVENTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here! WARNING: If you are at all offended by bad language I suggest you skip today!

advent calendar day 16

2011-12-16T10:37:00.000+02:00

SIXTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 15

2011-12-15T11:43:00.000+02:00

FIFTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 14

2011-12-14T10:49:00.000+02:00

FOURTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 13

2011-12-13T11:22:00.001+02:00

THIRTEEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 12

2011-12-12T11:10:00.001+02:00

TWELVE

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 11

2011-12-11T10:56:00.001+02:00

ELEVEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 10

2011-12-10T11:14:00.001+02:00

TEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 9

2011-12-09T11:22:00.001+02:00

NINE

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 8

2011-12-08T11:06:00.001+02:00

EIGHT

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

vintage french ephemera feast

2011-12-08T00:47:00.000+02:00

I'm a sucker for vintage ephemera... especially if it's French! I have found the most incredibly stream on Flickr belonging to Agence Eureka. A vast collection of quality labels, vintage children's books, ephemera and so on. These labels first caught my eye, but then I started to pour over the collections (and I shall be for weeks it seems) and turned up some real gems like these book covers.

Aren't they beautiful! Some of the images are creative commons so do take some time out to pay a visit.

advent calendar day 7

2011-12-07T12:15:00.001+02:00

SEVEN

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 6

2011-12-06T12:17:00.001+02:00

SIX

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 5

2011-12-05T11:14:00.001+02:00

FIVE

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

advent calendar day 4

2011-12-04T13:24:00.001+02:00

FOUR

Click the caption and find a festive treat each day until Christmas! If you missed a day click here!

shortbread buttons

2011-11-30T00:08:00.001+02:00

And while we're on the subject of recipes... such a beautiful blog this. And amazing shortbread buttons, with a full tutorial and this beautiful illustration, courtesy of the super-talented Eva Juliet. Yours free to download!

store your recipes here

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000+02:00

This seriously has to be the most beautiful recipe box I've seen! Each box is unique and is made by local craftsmen from locally salvaged hardwoods. The lids are then screen printed with two different designs, a gorgeous 'floral' option (my choice) or a simpler 'type' option. From the Rifle Paper Co.

sweet stars

2011-11-27T18:07:00.001+02:00

Ooo... how nice! I've just started making Leo cinnamon french toast in the mornings, which he devours. But what could be nicer than star-shaped french toast as seen in Sweet Paul's latest magazine! Cookie cutters at the ready!!

kareem rizk

2011-11-26T15:42:00.001+02:00

A few years ago I came across the work of Melbourne-based artist Kareem Rizk. I used to have one of these lovely bird images sitting on my desktop for simply ages, I loved it so much.

Bird No.1

Bird No.2

Bird No.3

Bird No.4

Bird No.5

Bird No.6

Today something accidentally made me find him again and I'm so happy I did. Amongst his many achievements he's collaborated with another favourite artist of mine, Eduardo Recife. Why not pop on over to Kareem's website to have a closer look at his amazing work!

it's a black friday, cyber monday offer

2011-11-25T10:41:00.000+02:00

For the whole of the weekend up to midnight PST (Pacific Standard Time) I will be offering all customers to my shop this exclusive free 8x10 festive 'JOY' print with their order. I have created the print especially for this weekend only... it will never be repeated or for sale!

To bag your free high-quality giclee print, first would you kindly follow my blog and like me on Facebook. This is a mere 2-click movement. Then hop on over to Etsy and purchase one or more prints and leave me this message in the 'note to seller' box when you checkout: (you can copy and paste this bit ;)

I saw your lovely JOY print on your blog/Facebook page and had to have one. Please include it with my purchase!

Three prints and over will qualify you for a second free JOY print, plus a 10% discount on the total sale. If you buy three prints and over, please also add the coupon code OLB10 when you checkout. I look forward to seeing you in the store!

a big thank you

2011-11-24T14:37:00.001+02:00

Today is a special day for all our friends over the pond... a day to give thanks and think about others. So I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very special day and to say thank you for all your support over the last couple of years. It means a great deal to me, it really does! (And a special thank you to this lovely lady, who has been particularly good to me over the past months!)

So after you've stuffed yourself silly with turkey, tomorrow marks the start of the frantic shopping period for Christmas. Why not pop over to my little shop to see if there is anything there you think would make the perfect gift.

I will be giving away an exclusive print on all orders over the weekend - a little snippet of which you can see here - so please check back tomorrow for the big reveal and more details!

work in progress

2011-11-23T16:38:00.001+02:00

Way back when... when I started this blog, I promised to share with you a little of my working progress, which I realise to my shame I have never done! So I shall hopefully remedy that a bit by sharing with you a little something that I am currently working on.

I have always loved vintage wallpaper, infact I have a bit of a 'thing' for it. I take a lot of inspiration colourwise from glorious 70s wallpaper, and my recent Home Sweet Home print was based entirely upon this beautiful print. I discovered it had come from this amazing shop, Retro Villa, in Copenhagen. The story behind the shop is great and you must read about it and its wonderful owner, Mette Helena Rasmussen! There I found several more amazing floral prints and they have inspired a whole host of ideas in my head. Following on from my Ampersand print, I am now exploring how to form letters from the elements that make up the wallpaper pattern... this is what I'm doing!

Image: Retro Villa

[Step 1] I find a print I like. I really like the shapes and different sizes of this particular pattern... I know it will work well for what I have in mind!

[Step 2] I then start re-drawing each separate element of the pattern in Illustrator.

[Step 3] I lay out the elements to see what I have and give them a hierarchy in my layers palette. The very smallest flowers I arrange into groups. Then I set about re-colouring the artwork until I find a colourway I like. Sometimes this will just work by accident, other times I will turn to images I've saved on my computer or Pinterest for a bit of inspiration.

[Step 4] I choose a font... for this kind of detailed work, simple bold fonts are best. My favourite is Franklin Gothic Heavy.

[Step 5] I outline the font and make guides.

[Step 6] Then comes the fun bit! I start filling the guides in with the flower shapes. I add a few of the large flowers first to each letter... I'll show you an 'S' as an example.

[Step 7] Then I add some of the second layer flowers...

[Step 8] I continue adding the second and third layer of flowers and finish filling in the gaps with the small filler flower groups. Voila!

I'm going to continue working on the entire alphabet... and then I shall have a good old tweak of each letter! Let's see what I do with it!

desktop friday

2011-11-18T16:25:00.001+02:00

It's a little chilly here in Athens today, so I'm thinking thick warm woolly Welsh blankets and hot cocoa in front of a log fire. Wish I had at least one of those things, but a cup of tea will have to do in front of a warm monitor screen wrapped in Welsh blankety goodness. Oh, and two colourways this week so just pop over to my Flickr stream and choose the one you want.

leafy ampersand

2011-11-16T23:25:00.001+02:00

My eyes are red and sore because of this little thing I've been working on today... but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

a joyful thing

2011-11-14T20:09:00.001+02:00

There are some truly wonderful and talented folks out there in Blogland! One such folk is Tif Fussell (aka Dottie Angel) who I must mention today as she is having her Joyful Shop Update over on Etsy. This means throughout the day today, 14 November, she will be posting lots of new beautiful handcrafted lovelies including good old favourites like apron wraps and wall hangings alongside new wares like 'lappity lap blankets' and 'perfectly peachy pinnies'... So grab your purses and give one of her wonderful items a forever home!

sunday morning

2011-11-13T10:33:00.001+02:00

Grmphh... haven't slept for two nights! Nothing to do with the little one... he's been sleeping, well, like a baby. But it's getting wintry here and very windy and the sweet lady upstairs (and she is sweet really) torments us constantly by leaving something out on the balcony that makes a noise when the weather's bad... a really irritating 'chinese water torture' type noise. For two years it was her chairs - metal legs without any rubber feet - that made a rhythmic tapping noise that just could not be blocked out with earplugs and pillow over your head. It took us a year to establish just what the noise was and then when we discovered it she didn't believe us, so just kept leaving the chairs out. In the end we had to go and buy rubber feet and put them on all her chairs. Bliss... the noise stopped. And then suddenly a new noise - a metallic clanking noise. I swear she does it on purpose! Anyway, that's my little moan over... here's a nice cheery quilt mosaic from one of my lovely contacts on Flickr. Thank you Melissa!

what happened when...

2011-11-11T17:00:00.001+02:00

It seems so long ago that I can hardly believe it's only 5 months since our (second) wedding. The first three months of the year were taken up with preparations and completing paperwork. We had to do a low-budget affair, so it was down to me to design our wedding invite (in Greek and English of course), make all the wedding favours and arrange the flowers. Not that I didn't love every minute of it, and with a little help from my friends, here's a taster of what I did...

Our church was right in the middle of a big park. Infact it was one of two churches in the park, so there was no choice but to add a map to the back of the invite.

I printed and folded 200 paper boats for Leonidas... it was his christening too... and we filled them with cashew nuts!

George has a small olive grove in Crete, so we filled 200 little bottles with his olive oil round which we tied a label to match the invite with green ribbons.

I also made little matchbook seed packs filled with sunflower seeds!

Here's me arranging flowers... I was a florist way back in the 90s and it was lovely to work with flowers again!

The bouquet...

... and even a few blooms left to go next to the bed.

desktop friday

2011-11-11T15:31:00.001+02:00

It's Friday... which means a little something for your desktop to download. This week it's keys for some reason. Just follow this link to my Flickr page and download the size you need.

2012 calendar

2011-11-11T00:10:00.001+02:00

I've been busy working on a new calendar today. I had an idea to do a Spice Rack print, which originally had 10 jars, but then quickly occurred to me I could add two more and make a calendar. What do you think? I'd love your thoughts before I make this available for sale :)

budget art display

2011-11-09T16:06:00.000+02:00

There are hundreds of great art prints out there all looking for a home. Not only can collecting them be a costly business, but framing can certainly put an extra strain on our pockets. Here are some nifty and stylish ideas for hanging art on a shoestring.

on clipboards

brightly taped or with a simple bulldog clip

from wooden clothes hangers

or trouser hangers

or buy them cheap from a thrift store and give them a lick of paint!

hello world

2011-11-06T10:21:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been some time. I have to apologise for my long blog absence, which has been mainly due to a 500 Internal Server Error message which cropped up in my browser window about 2 months ago. This disabled all my Google access including the ability to log into my blog, so I've just left it gathering dust. We tried just about everything to get rid of it and nearly gave up until I posted a screengrab of the pesky error message on Facebook a couple of days ago in a last ditch attempt to see if anyone had the answer. And luckily, one of my lovely friends knew the trick! So here I am, back up and running. It's been a tumultuous few months here in Greece as I'm sure many of you have heard on the news and we are seriously considering jumping ship back to the UK. George is busy job-hunting and I have largely been lacking in motivation and inspiration due to the whole situation. But the last couple of weeks has seen a small reawakening in my creativity and I've been busy producing some new work which I shall share with you over the next few days. But first of all, here is a small gift for you all... a little something for your desktop. And I shall endeavor to create a new one each week on a Friday to which I will assign the title 'Desktop Friday Giveaway' (if you require a different size just leave me a comment). So in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back again very soon!

new work

2011-07-29T18:38:00.002+03:00

No inspiration for ages... and then one day before my holiday a new work takes shape. Been wanting to do ABC posters for some time now! I hope you like it! Will be availalble in the shop very soon :)

one hundred sales

2011-06-28T13:54:00.003+03:00

If you are the 100th customer to my shop you will receive a free 8x10 (or 8x8 square format) print of your choice! We're nearly there so keep checking back...

Be a winner!!

2011-06-27T23:55:00.001+03:00

99 people like my fan page... become the 100th and win a free print of your choice!
http://www.facebook.com/onelittlebirdstudio

fresh

2011-06-13T11:03:00.002+03:00

What a beautiful treasury this is!! I love the fresh colours... so zingy :) I have been very lucky to have been featured in some really beautiful treasuries so far this June. I feel bad that I haven't had the time recently to do any myself. Feel so out of touch here... hope to be back very soon :)

2nd time around!

2011-06-07T10:30:00.005+03:00

It's hard being away from the blog for so long and expect people to stay interested, but now I hope life can start getting back to normal. Not that I haven't enjoyed every minute preparing for my wedding and the day itself was wonderful! I will be uploading more pictures very soon...

nearly there...

2011-05-10T13:23:00.003+03:00

My blog is being sadly neglected lately while we prepare for the big day! Even a low-key wedding is pretty hard work especially with a very lively 10-month old in tow :) Anyway, invites done... now let's find something to wear!

proud to be british

2011-04-30T17:48:00.005+03:00

hugo burnand

I'm no fervant royalist, but neither am I anti-royal. Just your average Brit who has grown up with the Royal Family. I waved my flag at the Queen as she rode past in her car during her Silver Jubilee. I saw Charles & Di get married. I saw William grow up. And I watched Diana's funeral cortege pass by me as I stood with the crowds in Regent's Park in 1997. I guess when you live abroad it makes you just that little more patriotic and I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's wedding. Kate looked stunning in that dress! Everyone looked good! Well nearly everyone...

press association

evolution of a wedding invite

2011-04-19T15:52:00.008+03:00

Weddings are quite the thing at the moment! Ours is only about 6 weeks away and I hear there's something going on in Westminster next week. My sister-in-law Matina and her boyfriend George got married last Friday. From what I heard, as I wasn't there, it was a charming and simple little affair, a civil wedding with no fuss, and a dinner afterwards. I was very sad to have missed it, but as weddings are often held in the evening here in Greece and with no one but me to look after Leo, I had to let my husband represent us. We had triumphed however in finding a baby-sitter for the next evening when an after-wedding party for friends would be held and I looked forward to my first evening out in 4 months and a chance to put on some slap and wear my gladrags. I have to explain it was the first time that Leo had been baby-sat (the reasons for this are long and boring), but as he never wakes up once he's gone to bed, we thought nothing could go wrong as we danced the night away. The plan was simple, the baby-sitter would turn up before Leo's bedtime. I would then put Leo to bed as always and after we had made sure he was sound asleep, we would sneak out and he would be none the wiser...

All too easy in theory of course. Do babies have a 6th sense? We drove to the centre of town, picked up George's cousin, found somewhere to park, got to the entrance of the venue and the phone rang. Leo had woken up and having discovered he was in the company of a stranger with his parents nowhere in sight decided to have hysterics. So I had to jump in a cab, go straight home and take care of the poor little soul. It took him 2 hours to calm down with an extra bottle of milk! At least I looked nice...

Anyway, that's by the by. Matina had asked me to design her wedding invite. Being an architect, she wanted something simple, strong and graphic, but lighthearted. Her idea was to have a very stylised illustration of her and George on the front and some very simple text on the back. The illustration was inspired by matroyshka and kokeshi dolls but Matina was adamant on no headscarves (which would've been a shame as Matina has best hair in the world - that's official from me) and George was to have a cute little tin tin hairstyle.

I always have quite a strong idea in my head of how something should look when I start designing. However, that rarely transposes onto the screen.

TAKE ONE

My first attempt was completely disastrous. The bodies were good, but Matina's face looked fat, her hair was too literal and George had a paintbrush on his head. Of course this was rejected immediately.

TAKE TWO

Matina definately wanted less facial features and simpler hair. I decided to remove both faces. This resulted in a rather dull, bland and souless couple with boring hair. Off to the drawing board again...

TAKE THREE

Matina was definately starting to take shape. She liked the OTT hairdo, but there was still a problem with George's hair and he didn't like the hearts. Matina did! So I kept hers and we brainstormed about what George would like to 'wear'. They wanted something silly. We tried a superman logo - that didn't work - then we tried the medallion, which just made him look Masonic...

TAKE FOUR

Finally we decided on a nice retro tie for George and we got the hair right! Everyone was happy and all the guests loved the invite! I'm just sad that we didn't manage to letterpress it which was in the plans, but I'm very pleased with it none the less... cute eh!

happy easter

2011-04-18T16:27:00.008+03:00

Just to let you know...

if anyone's still reading...

that I'm still here...

waiting for my PayPal account problems to sort themselves out!

Shop still closed.

Still raining.

Still cold.

Just looking forward to the long weekend away in beautiful Nafpaktos! Wonderful massive bunches of flowers in the market this week for just 2 euros!

Happy Easter everyone!

the original thrifting queen

2011-04-08T15:10:00.004+03:00

Thriftiness seems to be quite in vogue these days! Nothing more fashionable than rummaging around a garage sale or a car boot sale or a charity shop and bagging a good find. But I've just been reminded of the original thrifter... young Miss Emily!
I don't want Leo to watch much TV, especially while he's so young. And I just don't think that they made them like they used to. When I was small I remember watching Fingerbobs, Trumpton, Camberwick Green, The Clangers and The Magic Roundabout to name but a few. But my favourite of all was that saggy old cloth cat Bagpuss. And it's his owner Emily who I have already mentioned.

I've found quite a lot of episodes of Bagpuss plus other old favourites on You Tube and I let Leo watch something every now and then. I was particularly delighted to find a Bagpuss episode called 'The Owl of Athens' which we sat and watched together... Leo loved it! Here is Part 1 for you too... (wait til the end to watch Part 2)

your generous contribution

2011-04-04T16:35:00.005+03:00

Well done everyone who bought my print Japanese Girl! You have helped me raise £275 (that's around $440) for Japan. I have donated that money to Global Giving UK who have so far raised over £18,000,000 which will initially go to provide emergency disaster and long-term relief for victims of the tsunami and 9.0 earthquake which struck Japan on March 11.
I can't thank you all enough for your help and support over the past couple of weeks.

lovely clusters

2011-04-04T11:01:00.005+03:00

It's finally a beautiful spring morning here in Athens! It seems Greece and the UK have had a weather swap for the past week and while we've been wallowing in cold and gloom the UK have been enjoying some lovely spring sunshine. Anyway, I hope that's what we all have today!

To get you even more in the spring mood, if you've never heard of Lovely Clusters you really should give your eyes a treat. It's a special place to browse and shop beautiful handmade and vintage items from creative artists and designers from around the world. Each item links to the sellers shop site where you can purchase and find more information. It's run by lovely Rachel Follett from Hawaii who has a seriously good eye for things. Just look at these wonderful mood boards from the Lovely Clusters blog:

The latest Lovely Clusters catalogue is out now, so hop on over and check it out!

mibo

2011-04-01T18:54:00.009+03:00

I'm loving these clever and sweet products from british design team Mibo!

cut-out & stick paper animals

a cute lion tea towel(I'm lion obsessed... don't forget my son is called Leo!) which you can make into an even cuter plush toy

clever tile tatoos

the talented miss viviane schwarz

2011-04-01T10:49:00.008+03:00

My lovely and talented friend Sofia told me about her lovely and talented friend Viviane the other day. Viviane is a children's book artist and author and I instantly fell in love with her delightful illustrations, but especially her beautiful books.

There Are Cats In This Book and There Are No Cats In This Book are two of my favourites, full of humour and wonderfully clever use of layout and format. Here is a little video of her reading her book with cats in:

Psst... if you hang on til the very end you can also see her read her book with no cats in too!

Viviane is a keen knitter like all the best people are. If you'd like to knit her cats, well she's even thought of that as well!

new look and some other stuff

2011-03-31T18:17:00.011+03:00

My grandmother was renowned for constantly moving her furniture around. Every time we visited she had entirely rearranged the room including a half-ton ornate walnut sideboard. She did this until the day she died and I'm sure I have inherited the rearranging gene from her. I've been gradually tweaking my blog daily for about 3 weeks now until finally settling for the current layout. Courier bad-font and all (I really like it!). So this is how we are for now... until the re-arranging bug bites again. I hope you like it!

Today marks the final day of selling my Japanese Girl print to raise funds for Japan. I have decided that there had to be a cut off point somewhere and the last day of the month seemed fitting. I am in the process of totting up the donation amount now and will let you know in a few days what you have helped me raise!

The shop is temporarily closed again due to problems with PayPal! I hope it is not too long before I get this resolved, but I am planning to re-open with some nice new products and new print sizes too... so keep checking in!

The images you're seeing are for my other 'project-of-the-moment' which is planning my upcoming wedding to George/christening of Leo in June. It's going to be completely DIY and low budget and I'm collecting some rather gorgeous ideas on Pinterest.

In the meantime, hope you have a great weekend whatever you have planned and look forward to seeing you again in April!

today's colour is...

2011-03-29T17:03:00.006+03:00

Ah, spring is here at last. And to celebrate new beginnings and a new positive frame of mind I am going to try and make a concerted effort to pay more attention to my much neglected blog. So, let's kick start things with a new regular (you notice I say regular, not weekly as you know how lax I am with these things by now) post... today's colour is...

lilac & chartreuse

Enjoy!

Click on the relevant image below for credits on the above shots.

thank you

2011-03-21T23:55:00.006+02:00

Nan Lawson

I've not felt in the mood much for blogging these days. Besides, the little shop is keeping me tremendously busy. But I do have many reasons to say a BIG thank you to you all...

First and foremost, my Japanese Girl print is selling like hot cakes, which is great as 100% profits go directly to Global Giving to help the victims of the disaster in Japan. We've managed to raise over $200 in just 3 days so keep those orders coming in :D

The creative community has gone a bit bonkers doing any little thing they can to help and so many of my fellow Etsians have donated proceeds from their sales. I'm very grateful to have had my print featured in many treasuries over the weekend and today I was very proud to have had one of my treasuries make the front page.

I'd also like to say a special thank you to Victoria of sfgirlbybay and Rachel at Lovely Clusters for putting out the word too <3

helping japan

2011-03-17T12:42:00.013+02:00

Japan was hit by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on March 11. The magnitude-9.0 quake spawned a deadly tsunami that slammed into the nation's east coast, leaving a huge swath of devastation in its wake. Thousands of people are dead and many more are still missing or injured. (source: Yahoo News)

Japan has played a huge part in my life and the one place I hope to visit before I die! I am shocked and appauled by the worsening situation in this beautiful country. I have created this digital collage entitled Japanese Girl especially to raise money for the people of Japan. 100% of the profits I make on this print will be donated to Global Giving.
---------------------------------------------------
Although I would prefer you to buy this as a high-quality giclee print so that much needed donations can be made, a downloadable poster version is available to help spread the word :)

brits take home the gold!

2011-03-04T19:06:00.007+02:00

I hope I am not too late to offer my congratulations to two of my nicest and most talented blog friends. Emma Lamb and Tif Fussell (aka Dottie Angel) both recently nabbed gold awards in the Rik Rak Handmade Olympics. Emma's pretty little crocheted forever flower garlands, which are now available in choose-your-own colours, stormed to first place in the Fave Inspiring Goodie category.

And Her Royal Dottieness, whose very own book is coming out this summer, triumphed in the 'Fave Thrifty Site' event.

Both well-deserved girls for your truly unique and inspiring styles.

feeling better

2011-03-01T23:43:00.005+02:00

A big thank you to all of you who commented on my last post and to lovely Emma Lamb! The offending Etsy shop is now virtually empty of all it's stock bar one old camera, so they've received their rap on the knuckles from Etsy. I felt much better today and just got down to cleaning the house and playing lots with my lovely boy...

Despite my shop being closed, I still have to say a big thank you to everyone who treasured me in February... an astounding 56 of you!

I have posted all the treasuries on my new Facebook Page with links to everything.
So, with a new positive swing in my step and a long weekend away to look forward to I hope to be seeing you all again in March!

Etsy store closed!

2011-02-28T23:05:00.006+02:00

My Etsy store's been doing pretty good lately... I've been getting loads of attention from various bloggers and websites and been featured in over 50 treasuries in February alone - I even made the front page the other day! And sales were just beginning to pick up again after the new year slump!

It was all going too well. In three days I've received three messages from very peeved customers from the United States asking where their prints are. Apparently there are big delays into the US from Europe and the UK, with some people waiting as long as 2 months for their items. I know this, because I am not the only seller suffering from delayed postage syndrome. But what can I do? I have asked very nicely that they hold on for another week or so. But then what? I have to offer a refund or replace the item. As I have to outsource printing, it works out quite expensive for me. And then today, my printer has informed me that his postage rates are woefully out of date and they have gone through the roof! I have no choice but to raise my prices too!

To cap it all off, there is some little so and so out there on Etsy called Ceeologyy who is selling other people's work as their own. I am one of his victims. My good friend Emma Lamb was kind enough to let me know about it after spotting one of my prints on there. Laura Amiss is another victim. If you are an illustrator please check out their shop to make sure they are not passing your work off as their own too. I wrote a message in the 'report this shop' at the side of the shop, only to receive a message from Etsy telling me off for not reporting the copyright infringement in the correct manner! I had no idea that there was a whole copyright infringement and intellectual property page! And it's all in legalese, which I don't understand!!!

Sadly, I've had to temporarily close my Etsy shop... in a nutshell I'm not having a good day. I really hope to get my postage issues resolved soon and in the meantime, let everyone you know know about Ceeologyy!

front page joy!

2011-02-25T19:53:00.002+02:00

I'm doing a little dance of joy right now! I finally made the front page of Etsy due to being in included in this beautiful treasury! Thank you call me mimi :)

spring fever

2011-02-23T19:22:00.005+02:00

There are so many reasons to feel good today. Not least, I woke up to find a very nice message from Miss Emma telling me she had posted a feature about my work on her very wonderful blog! Emma, incase you didn't know, is a crocheting genius and granny chic goddess. You can just catch a chance to vote for her beautiful forever flower garland in the Rik Rak Studio Handmade Olympics if you get your skates on...

and you simply must check out her beautiful little shop to really put a spring in your step.

Talking of which, I'm really feeling that spring is just around the corner. So to celebrate the fact I've collated some fresh and vibrant spring-like items in my latest treasury featuring you very talented folk over on Etsy.

Poppytalk Look Book

2011-02-21T18:49:00.005+02:00

Wow... what a gorgeous cover was my first thought! The latest lookbook from Poppytalk Handmade is for the current Affordable Art & Home exhibition. Featuring beautiful ceramic vases from one of my favourite Etsy stores, Dahlhaus, this e-book really stands out. So much to enjoy inside as well... why don't you take a peek... (click below)!

Open publication - Free publishing - More vintage

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!!

2011-02-20T10:04:00.006+02:00

My little shop has been nominated for The Lovelies! It would mean the world to me to get one of these. Voting ends soon! Please, please vote for me!

Simply hit the Facebook 'like' button! Thank you <3

just in!!

2011-02-19T00:57:00.004+02:00

New in the shop today!
typewriter
pheasant

All readers of my blog get 10% off... just add code 'OLB10' in the box at checkout!

shop of the day

2011-02-16T14:12:00.004+02:00

I'm very excited to announce that One Little Bird is 'shop of the day' on Papernstitch today! Don't forget Papernstitch customers get a special 15% in my shop so head on over and grab that code!

xoxii interview

2011-02-15T10:16:00.005+02:00

Last weekend I was asked to do a little interview with a lovely new Dutch design and lifestyle blog, xoxii. There's no actual pronunciation of that - you kind of have to just string all the letters together quickly. It's run by the delightful Suzanne Marije (pronounced a bit like Maria) who did an amazing job with my feature. The blog is choc-full of lovely little things, from beauty tips to cute downloadable wallpapers. Give yourself a few moments to pop over and take a look!

the arthur

2011-02-15T10:06:00.001+02:00

Great British vintage tit-bits from the arthur... our common wealth.

monday talent (a bit earlier than usual)

2011-02-14T00:29:00.004+02:00

Well, depending where you are, Monday has already begun! I'm half an hour in, and seeing as I missed a spot last week (quel suprise), I thought I'd make an extra special effort this week and be early.

This week's spot belongs to Canadian design duo Coe & Waito, that's Alissa & Carly respectively. Their partnership began whilst studying Industrial Design at Ontario College of Art & Design. Here are a selection of their beautiful porcelain pieces, which they refer to as 'quiet objects'... ssshhhh

Sadly they no longer focus on making their porcelain pieces as they are concentrating mainly on their design consultancy. But they are still taking orders until 1 April! Check details via their 'purchasing' section!

a load of old poppytalk

2011-02-13T00:39:00.002+02:00

I very happy to let you know that as from Monday 14 February, I will be exhibiting on Poppytalk Handmade . Look out for the link to my shop (follow my updates on Twitter too). There will be special discounts for all Poppytalk customers!

front page!

2011-02-08T13:48:00.002+02:00

Yay, 'Duaflex' made it to the front page of papernstitch today!

papernstitch shop now open!

2011-02-07T23:53:00.005+02:00

I'm very proud to now be part of the papernstitch community. You can visit my new shop here. I'm running a special Valentines Day 10% discount so come on over for a bit of last minute love!

Brittni very kindly featured me on the papernstitch blog today too... you're spoiling me Brittni!

and the winner is...

2011-02-05T13:07:00.001+02:00

Some people are downright lazy. Take my son for instance. He lounges around the house all day not doing anything particularly productive except for being cute. Times are hard I tell him, we all have to pull our weight. But I'm only 7 months old he says. No excuses, Leo my boy, no excuses...

So I've put the youngster to work! His job for today is to pull a winner of my first giveaway out of the proverbial hat. To assist him in this task I have placed each entrant's name into one of his favourite finger puppets (to prevent direct entry into mouth and therefore soggyfying the entrants name rendering unreadable). Leo will then select a finger-puppet containing the winning name.

And the winner is...

Congratulations! Your print is on it's way to you!

thermos flasks

2011-02-04T11:32:00.005+02:00

I'm having a nostalgic moment on this cold and grey day in Athens (yes, it happens). Flasks full of hot tea, sandwiches and checked blankets in the car by the seaside with my nan (yes she had a caravan too)... beautiful thermos flasks!

teal street

cathode blue

bluebell

I feel a thermos flask inspired print coming on :)

paper'n'stitch

2011-02-02T23:30:00.001+02:00

Great news! As of Monday 7 Feb you'll see me exhibiting on paper'n'stitch! Just getting the shop ready and I'll post a URL on Monday!!

calendar desktop wallpaper

2011-02-02T19:31:00.005+02:00

Well, yet another project goes out the window. Was really hoping to get my calendar printed, but I'm way too late for that now! Never fear though, you can still download it as a desktop. I'm providing two sizes for now: 1920x1080 and 1600x1200. If I get enough requests for another size then I will provide that too.

Here's February! Just click on relevant size, right click and set as your desktop.

1920x1080
1620x1200

If any of you still want January, let me know :)

monday talent (on a wednesday)

2011-02-02T18:08:00.004+02:00

Hem, well I think I shouldn't really be restricting myself to a day if I can't keep it up, should I. Again, I'm late off the mark, but I am really super busy (which I shall explain in another post). Anyway, this week is the turn of Noisedup. Nothing to say except some things sometimes make me say 'holy wow'!!!

le chignon
katherina
jo
chelsea
buns and combs

There's lots more styles to choose from... all very reasonably priced. She does lovely bags and postcards too.

it's a giveaway day!

2011-01-30T21:32:00.003+02:00

OK folks! It's time for my very first giveaway!! About bloody time I hear you cry! My all new Etsy shop is up and running and generating interest... so in celebration of this auspicious event I am giving away a free 'Beef Cuts' 9x11 print - a gallery quality Giclée print on heavyweight 180gsm matte paper printed with long-lasting archival inks. It's a thing of beauty of which I am especially proud.

Simply leave a comment below with your name and email address. I will pull a winner out of the hat on Friday 4th February. And as I'm feeling generous today the winner will also receive a one-time 15% discount coupon for my shop!

Good luck!

Giveaway is open until midnight PST. Winner will be notified Saturday 5 February.