Petit Pleasures design for Papier

Papier asked me to create a fun illustrated pattern showing people enjoying various hobbies. I used rough gouache texture and a palette of soft complimentary colours. It has been used for their excellent wellness and productivity planners.

Watercolour in Blossom with Papier

Earlier in the year I had the chance to work with Papier, one of my favourite clients, on some content for their magazine. The team came over to my studio to film me painting one of the pieces from the stationery collection. The cherry blossom stationery suite is quite an elegant, pared back watercolour design, and it’s lovely to see it come to life in the video. It’s such a treat to work with talented photographers and filmmakers, and every time I work on a project like this I learn something new. I’m so happy with the final film and photos, but you would never know how much tidying and re-organising it took for my studio to look like that. Behind the scenes whole room is a tip to make room for all the lights and tripods!

You can read the accompanying interview over on the Papier website.

Own Your Story with Kikki.K

Back in January I had a day of filming with a stationery brand that I really love. Kikki K have just launched a new collection called Own Your Story, and they gave me the opportunity to share a bit more of my story with you. We spent a whole day filming in my local area of North London, and we managed to get some really lovely shots despite the terrible weather. It was so nice to film and the area of london I grew up in, and live in now. The team were a total joy to work with, and 8 hours of filming flew by. I think my followers are very familiar with my work, but maybe not to familiar with my story, so it was nice to share a bit more about my self.

National Stationery Week

Happy National Stationery Week! I love stationery and I'm not the only one. Hoarding unused notebooks that were too pretty not to buy seems to be a pretty common problem. Maybe you do the same? I don't know why stationery bring so much joy. Maybe because it's an affordable treat that can be both practical and beautiful.
Here are some of my favourite stationery items. I love metallic stationery at the moment, particularly my gold scissors from KikkiK, my amazing hexagonal gold pen from Not Another Bill, rose gold paperclips from Paperchase and gold bulldog clip from Papermash.
When it comes to writing implements you can't beat MUJI. I love their mechanical pencils and black gel pens.

Personalisation is the ultimate luxury when it comes to stationery, whether it's an embossed notebook or personalised notecards. For personal stationery Papier is your one stop shop. They create beautiful customisable stationery designed by a range of illustrators and artists (including myself). Their designs are fresh and elegant and the quality of the product is simply outstanding. The paper has a gorgeous texture and it looks like the designs have been hand-painted straight onto them rather than printed. 

My favourite stationery shops:
Choosing Keeping | Present and Correct | KikkiK | Papier | London Graphic Centre | Paperchase | MUJI

All The Little Details

When it comes to blogging about your wedding it’s difficult to know where to start. It’s only one day but there is so much to say! I have already done a run through of the day, but I wanted to focus a bit more on the amazing suppliers that made our wedding so special.

The Venue

Finding a venue was quite tricky because our guest list meant that most traditional wedding venues were too big and most pub function rooms were too small. We were so happy to find Clissold House, a beautiful listed building in Clissold Park, Stoke Newington. Clissold house gave the day the perfect elegant yet relaxed vibe, and the glorious weather meant everyone could enjoy the terrace and the beautiful park setting.

The Flowers

Where do I even start with the flowers? They were incredible. I am very good friends with Migle, who owns Your London Florist, and you can really see the love that she put into everything from the table arrangements to the button holes. Migle knows me and my taste so well that I was able to just trust her to do her thing, which meant the flowers were a total surprise on the day. The archway of sliver birch and cherry blossom she created was just stunning, and provided the perfect back drop for both our ceremony and the first dance. Apparently the whole room smelt amazing, but as I had a sinus infection I couldn’t smell a thing. If you’re getting married in London and looking for a florist you should definitely speak to Your London Florist.

The Dress

I knew straight away that I didn’t want a big traditional wedding dress, and there wasn’t really room for it in our budget either, so I didn’t even bother setting foot inside a wedding dress shop. I did some research online and was pretty sure that I would be able to find something on the high street, and I was right. This dress was actually the first one I tried on. It had the vintage, romantic feel that I was going for and fitted perfectly. My veil was actually my mum’s, and my shoes came from Boden. My husband wore a suit from John Lewis and a beautiful vintage tie we bought in Nashville. The bridesmaids wore dresses from Asos.

The Cake

We knew that we definitely didn’t want a traditional wedding cake with fondant icing. I wanted something really pretty and whimsical, and most importantly very tasty. I first met My Little Cake Tin at Renegade Craft Fair, and I found out that she was actually based very locally to me in North London. My Little Cake Tin were absolutely wonderful to work with, and the cake was delicious as well as well as stunning. We had a rich chocolate cake with chocolate ganache as the bottom tier, which we ate for dessert, the middle tier was lemon and elderflower sponge which we had at the evening reception, and the top tier was another chocolate cake which we took home with us. Being able to enjoy eating a little slice of wedding cake every day for a week after the wedding was so lovely. I definitely recommend doing this!

Photography

Emily Quinton isn’t actually the wedding photographer I originally booked. Two weeks before the wedding the photographer that I had booked let us down, which meant I was frantically searching for a new photographer very last minute. I emailed Emily, knowing that she didn’t do wedding photography any more, but hoping that she might be able to help us out, and amazingly she said yes. Emily was so fantastic on the day, she made it all feel really natural and relaxed, and the photos are absolutely stunning. They capture the day so well and don’t feel forced or posed. Like I say Emily doesn’t do wedding photography any more, but if you’d like to learn how to improve your Instagram or learn how to use your camera I can’t recommend her workshops enough.

The Band

My husband is a jazz musician so we were always going to have live music at our wedding.  Five of his friend played traditional jazz for us whilst we and our guests ate. Go to Place Avenue Swing to book them.

The Little Details

I wanted to add some little personal touches to the day, without going overboard on crafts and DIY, which is why I chose to play to my strengths. I designed and illustrated the invites and the on the day stationery myself.  I also hand lettered the seating chart and the welcome sign. I would definitely advise leaving the seating chart to the last possible minute, there’s always one guess that drops out two days before! I also hand painted the wedding cake toppers.