01 Jul June days in the studio

I don’t know about you but June flew by over here at the studio.

It was a busy month mainly because I spent the first week or so preparing to take a holiday. An actual bona fida break. No email, no internet, no social media.

It was so wonderful and definitely what my brain and my body needed. It was the first time, I think ever, that I wasn’t running my shop remotely or worrying about orders. I had my lovely sister keeping an eye on things back in Ireland and it meant that I got to totally switch off.

I didn’t even bring a sketchbook or one of my notebooks, because weirdly I felt like I needed a break from being creative as well.

I came back feeling really refreshed, and was plunged back into catching up on orders! But it was most assuredly worth it and when I was thinking about holidays and taking time off I was reminded of this JM Barrie quote from Peter Pan.

Sometimes it’s good not to have a plan, to simply let life lead you on for a moment and relax. That’s where the dreams are made after all!

In other news in June

I went over to London for a fantastic Notonthehighstreet partner conference which was such a blast.

It was held in the amazing Brewery which is just beside the Barbican.

I got some lovely emails from customers

Maps were really popular this month with hand illustrated map pens from Mallorca, to London and beyond leaving the studio.

And Map Heart Prints too (which are my favourite thing to make at the moment)

And of course we can’t forget the Keepsake boxes. With an Aberdeen box going to a very lucky university graduate. The lady who bought it got in touch to say

Hi – received box this am and am very pleased with it – very high quality. Hope the Aberdeen graduate is too!  Thanks again for prompt service. The box was very well received – no-one had seen anything like it and were very impressed – thanks again

And another Anniversary Box of Aberystwyth in Wales. You can see in the photo below how the box is covered step by step in sections of the vintage map. This process is very detailed as you need to make sure that each side matches up perfectly so that it looks seamless when its finished.

So all in all a pretty good month. And now we are launching forth into July. With some new product photo shoots planned, some Christmas product planning in the works and an inspirational pencil idea that I can’t wait to finally get off the drawing board.

Until next time – Vanessa