IT’S A NEW YEAR!

This New Year arrives with promise; a milestone for goal setting.  A clean, fresh start for all...

2014 was a pretty good year for me.  We moved into our new family home (which I realise I haven’t posted any images of before or after!  These will follow shortly!  Although we are still working towards the finished article the house is looking pretty cool, all down to the hard work of my amazing partner Dan),  Freya turned one!  We had our first family holiday in an Eco Cabin in South Wales which was fabulous, so relaxing.  I have been spending the last week celebrating the New Year, Birthdays and generally enjoying spending time with my little family. 

You might have noticed a change to my blog design, I am still tweaking but this is the start of the new and improved *HANNAH REDDEN.* I wanted something different and a little more simple but still in keeping with my theme, when I started this was not what I thought I wanted but I LOVE it.  New Colour, New Headers for a New Year!  I've been getting organised over this festive period too.  I've got big plans for this year.......  I found this passage from a very influential blog for me.. The Textile Blog

Life is of course full of endless possibilities and of course because of that it is also full of endless choices. How you move through life depends upon those choices. Unfortunately, so many choices are made for us, or we are made to feel as if we have no choice, no decision in whether we go this way or that in our life path. However, life paths are extraordinary things, it is amazing how many times they seem to veer off track and then slowly come back to centre again. 

I've got so many ideas in my head and get distracted so easily, I really feel that the above passage is correct, the last two years have really been driven by becoming a mother (what a big change!), house renovating, becoming a landlord!  I now feel however, that upon reflection, these changes have also given me the excellent opportunity to concentrate on what I want out of life, I'm in a place to drive forward my new business plans.  What an exciting year to come!!!!

I've also joined a new group on Facebook titled 'Sketch a Day' I'm using this as my driving force to actually do a drawing a day!  Check the group out and follow our daily doodles......

Cheltenham Christmas Market

Well after finding this draft from January in September!! You can probably guess that things have been a bit manic this year :)  We ended up moving into our home in March so only a month delayed.  We have now settled in and have unpacked, apart from my studio which still remains Dan's tool room!  This will soon have to change ;)

January 2014: 

I've settled back into a more productive (artwise anyway) way.  I set myself the New Year resolution of doing a drawing a day, and although I haven't quite achieved this I have started doing more drawings and quick sketches.  I feel motivated and ready to take the next step.  MORE design work.  I have been collecting all my ideas this month on Pinterest ... you can check out my boards, from HomeDesign Inspiration, Baby Makes, to Small Spaces (we have a very narrow house).  We've set the date to move into our new home on the 28th of February so we have a month to make final arrangements.  We had a painting party for our birthdays where our very VERY generous friends painted the whole house for us!! I was very surprised, firstly I didn't think anyone would actually turn up.  I mean really, doesn't sound like much fun for most people (although I actually LOVE painting,) does it?  I left early as little Freya was getting tired, however we returned the next day and I was amazed.  Really, we owe all our friends big time for the work they did for us.....

I managed to keep up the drawing throughout the year and have built up a portfolio of design work ready to be turned into fabric designs.  I have also recently found my sewing machine again (I missed her!), so I do feel like I am getting my feet firmly on the ground again (16months after having my little one!!).  I had planned to return to work part time (Facilities Manager in a hospital), but this wasn't to be.  I have now come to terms with being a full time mother but am also rather excited about the possibilities which this allows me. 

I have just agreed to take part in an Etsy Christmas fair in Cheltenham which I am rather excited about.  This feels like the next step in my journey to being my own boss.  More details to follow soon.

 

 

Our Completed House

Our house is now completed and all spick and span. After four years of hard work we're now ready to move on and find a bigger property to make our family home. It has been quite strange allowing the agent to inspect our home and take control of selling it for us. I think it will be quite sad when we do leave, as this is our first home together, but on to the next adventure!

22 Ashley Street

St Werburghs Arts Trail 2011

I'm going to be opening our home again this year for the St Werburghs Arts Trail.  It will be on the Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th of September.  I'll be showcasing my new Tea Towel designs along with some new product ideas which I'm rather excited about!

We'll also be selling cakes and drinks, hopefully the weather will be nice and we can enjoy them in our new garden!  Check out the Arts Trail website for the full line up - St Werburghs Arts Trail 2011.

See you there.

The countdown has begun . . .

Only four days to go until the St Werburghs Arts Trail, I've still got a lot to do.  This mainly involves getting the space ready to hang my work, Dan's still got plastering to do in the living room!  Then we're having a painting extravaganza on Wednesday night to get the living room white washed.  My job tonight is to finish the painting in the hallway and then start deciding which pieces I'd like to exhibit.  I've got some lovely frames to use for some of my research work.  I can't wait to see what the finished pieces will look like.

If I have enough time I'd like to bake some rock buns to entice people into the house!  Fingers crossed I'll get everything ready in time.  I'm quite excited about hanging the bunting on Saturday morning, I think it will feel like we've reached a massive goal post with the house, getting so much completed.

The Arts Trail will also be the launch of my new cards, I picked them up this weekend from The Bristol Business Centre.  I'm really happy with the outcome, you'll have to come and have a look . .

If you are going to pop along to the event then Sunday afternoon would be a fab time to call by, you could follow your visit by joining in the after party celebrations . . .

Compass presents

The Official Arts Trail Afterparty @ St Werburghs City farm Café

Sun 26 Sept 19.00 - 23.00

Free Entry

Come and celebrate the end of a great weekend of art & culture, meet local artists, bring your friends, & end the weekend in style!

Live music, excellent food, licensed bar.  Keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground for

The Compass: Festival of Lunacy coming soon to Bristol!

Visit http://www.compass-film.co.uk/ for more info

House Renovating

We've been in our home now for two years and a month.  It feels like a long time, we've done quite a lot, but still have a fair bit left to do.

We've now completed the kitchen, whooo hooo.  After a lot of deliberation we finally settled on colours.  It's quite difficult compromising, when I would love to go really girly and Dan loves black and white, we aimed for a retro feel instead (I thought I can girlifie it later with curtains, pictures and
soft furnishings, I 'll just slowly ease them in!  sssshhh!!).

We opted for Dulux Apple White - A classic, clean pale green which can make a room feel fresh and alive. We used this on most of the main walls, but stayed below the dido rail.  Above we kept fresh and clean with a pure white.

Then we used a dark Overtly Olive - A calm, muted green that has an air of sophistication about it.  On the chimney breast wall.  As you can just about see in the below right image.

By using the same colour but in different shades you can create interest in a room without being too overpowering. Overtly Olive works well with Apple White.

 

The next project is to complete the bathroom, this was started about Easter last year.  

Since then we've been having a bath every morning, this started out as a luxury but soon wore of it. You get a bit fed up of getting up 20mins prior to bath time! 

Dan has been very good and made us a lovely swish bathroom. It feels such a luxury to use it now.  We have an awesome walk in shower that Dan designed and made for us.  If anyone wants a bespoke shower you know where to come! 

I have to give lots of praise to Dan as he has been  working so hard, I can't keep up with the pace he's going at.   Dan really encouraged me to apply to take part in the St Werburghs Arts Trail this year.  This has really spurred me on to start thinking creatively again.  It has also however given Dan a very tight deadline to work to.  Dan's aim is to complete the majority of the building work in the house prior to the Arts Trail which is at the end of September.  This involves getting the living room in a usable state, it has been our store room for the past two years, then also decorating the hallway and landing.  If anyone would like to lend a hand painting get in touch!!

The bathroom is almost there, we now have everything plumbed in and working.  It's quite long and thin so we opted for quite pale, light shades to make the space feel as big as we could.  However, we did splash out a bit and just added a feature wall of GOLD!  How bling!  I wasn't quite sure about it at first but I think it actually works really well.  It's not too over the top. 

As well as getting the bathroom to a more finished standard our spare bedroom needs to be completed Oooo I'd say in about 2 weeks tops!  We have family coming to stay so have a lot of work to do.  I'll upload more pics of this work soon.

     

Colour for the kitchen. Any Ideas?

Above Image -

Kerastar white ceramic floor tile, Salsa red wall tile, and the colour swatches are from the Dulux O8 Colour guide. Overtly Olive, Apple White and Egyptian Cotton

I really like the Dulux feature wall combination of the 'Overtly Olive' and 'Soft Apple' but the soft apple looks almost like a mint green when placed next to our red tiles. We have also tried an 'Earth Green' but that placed next to the 'Overtly Olive' looks to similar . . . Ohhh what to do? . . .

Green Earth, Apple White and Egyptian Cotton

The below image is from - Green Rooms

I realy like the colour cobinations from this blog, she is a photographer who has gained recognition in several editorial publications, fashion campaigns, album covers and art exhibitions.

She finds beauty in everything, from still life, Interiors to fashion shoots.

Kitchen Ideas . .

Floor Plan

We are almost ready to put out cooker and fridge back in place after tiling the walls and floor in our little kitchen. We knew ages ago that we wanted to go for black and white floor tiles.

Inspiration

Image from - House to Home

I found some gorgeous tiles originally from Tile Flair, unglazed matt black and white from the Johnson range but found the exact same tiles at a very discounted price from Bristol Tile. They had so many samples in store but not the type we wanted. We then spoke to an assistant in the shop who brought out more samples and also helped us to source the exact tiles that I had spotted in Tile Flair. The were so helpfull. At the same time we also looked at wall tiles, also for the kitchen. For this area we knew that we wanted small square tiles, really small, about 2cm square. We had toyed with the idea of using green tiles as we have double doors leading to the back garden, and felt green would 'bring the garden inside', but we decided in the end that with green walls that might be a bit too much green so in the end we went for red glazed ceramic tiles.

Dan at work - Grouting the floor tiles.

I'm so excited, it really feels like the kitchen is pulling together really nicely. We are now pondering what colours to us on the walls in the kitchen and dining room. Definetely green, but there are so many options to go for!

Inspiration in these cold months

We have been working on installing our kitchen over the last few months and have only recently got the sink and cooker installed, we still have to pick a colour scheme and tiles etc. My thoughts hadn't really stretched to any other areas of the house yet.

I have however been looking at Design Sponge and found this lovely article on a 'Before and After' a bedroom make over, albeit it a childs bedroom, but I love it! It got me thinking about our bedrooms and how we can make them more appealing and colourfull. At the moment they are filled with boxes and feel more studenty then my student rooms when I was at Uni!

Design Sponge

The combination between the coral, black and white is gorgeous.

I am so excited about getting to the painting stage! I do think this might not be for quite a while as we still have electrics to alter, plastering to do and much more, but I can always dream and plan ahead!