Since I've been gone ...

Collaged and hand made card by Katy Acquaye-Tonge (yours truly!)

It's been over a couple of weeks since I've been here and boy have I missed it! Over the Easter holidays I wanted to give my undivided attention to my three lovely boys hence the break from blogging. I do have some back dated posts that I am yet to publish and lots of photos of what we've been up to as a family too. I'm itching to get started on setting up my new work space in my bedroom, since that lovely hubby of mine bought me a new table and chair to work from. The self control I have demonstrated has been immense since we purchased it nearly two weeks ago and things aren't set up yet - holidays are intense and I had no reserves once the kids were in bed! Hopefully by the end of the week my space will be up and running and I'll be able to go into full production mode with card making and a series of A4 and A5 canvases. Before you know it, paperchase will buy my designs and I'll be rich, RICH, RICH I TELL YOU!!!!! And yes, I am a little insane. This is why I should not take long breaks from blogging!

Summer, summer, summertime ...

It's summertime and it has been lovely to catch up with family and friends over the last few days. We had a wonderful time in Liverpool visiting my in-laws, who in one fell swoop managed to make eldest son's summer wish list come true by taking us to Wales, for a paddle in the sea followed by fish and chips ... it doesn't get better than that!! (well obviously it does but hey, he doesn't know that yet) plus it was a fabulous day out for all.

B & E (my in-laws) were even sweet enough to let hubby and I have a night out whilst they stayed in with the kids!! A great time we had too sipping cocktails and visiting a couple of indie bars in Liverpool town centre, listening to great tunes and reminiscing about back in the day!!!

Yesterday, I had the luxury of a few hours to myself and so met up with a great friend of mine who I actually studied with at university. The very lovely Emma is a very talented artist who I am desperate to feature on this blog because ... well it would just be rude not to share her beautiful work!! In fact I am very excited to say that she agreed yesterday to let me interview her about her art practice and I hope that interview plus lots of delicious examples of her work will be featured here on this blog in the next couple of weeks. I have been hugely inspired and motivated by Stephanie Levy's Artists who blog and figured I already know lots of people who are very talented that I would love, love, love everyone to know about. So, watch this space for further developments with that!!

In the mean time, here are some photos I took of a shop window in North Wales ... I thought these hand made boxes with images of birds set against traditional net curtains and occasional floral print were just ... beautiful!

Picture me, picture me, picture me!

This is the start of my third drawing for my 'Susie Sue Series' which I am now under some pressure to complete as I need to complete five drawings altogether that will feature in Premier Pli very, very soon. I tend to photograph my work outside in our back garden (a place that is slowly being destroyed by the boys as we enjoy these summery days!) and then I upload the images to the blog. I haven't really been able to get much work done over the last two weeks due to the easter holidays and prioritising being with the family. So I saw a window today just after hubby and Zach left the house to go off on a 'man adventure' followed by a trip to the cinema to see 'Rio' (a long enough outing for me to get on) when just as I started photographing the work Elliott declared 'No, picture me, picture me, picture me!!!!!'. So, how could I resist, particularly when he started with his famous shaky bum bum dance!!! You only have to sing 'shake your bon bon' or our preferrred version 'shaky your bum bum' and he will happily oblige!

Easter Holidays - Day Two

Everybody needs a little place to take off to for some time out. Yesterday 'The Tent' became everyone's special haven at different times of the day. Even I spent a little time in there reading (a great gift that hubby bought me) a book I'll probably end up blogging about so I'll keep quiet about it for now. I was particularly amused at hubby's ability to find 'The Cave' no matter where he is or what he's doing. Oh and for those of you who I worked with at Waterstones all those years ago, I sincerely apologise for referencing a popular psychology title! I have referred to a concept from a certain book but I assure you I haven't read the entire contents of this title! Lastly, I am presenting more photos of my family because it's the Easter holidays and it's highly unlikely that I'll get any art work done to display here and also because my sister-in-law in Madagascar is enjoying seeing what her nephews are up to.

Hubby hiding in 'The Cave'