2014 Round Up!

I'm feeling just a teeny bit smug to be writing this blog post rounding up 2014 as it's only the 3rd 5th 6th* of January....YYYEEEESSSSSSS! Last year my end of year round up didn't come along until February...and uumm....you can find that post just one page back from this one. Yep THAT'S how much I blogged in the entire 365 days of 2014. To be fair, it was the biggest craziest busiest year of our lives and there was just no time for blogging. HOWEVER I've declared on social media that running this 'ere blog properly is my New Years Resolution and I'm sure Karli of designosaur will be nagging me to do so (Hi Karli!) so there'll be LOTS more posting going on round here. Now, let's take a look at what kept us so busy in 2014..

*Yes it took me THREE days to write this post. This is why I fail at blogging.

As soon as last Christmas was over we were straight on to full on wedding planning and prep mode ready for May. We sort of punished ourselves a bit by deciding to do sooo many things ourselves (we were drowning in pompoms by the time May actually came around..) We screenprinted these double sided mini tote bags (above) which were our wedding favours, these then had little bear gocco prints which we printed inside (below) badges which we designed and made ourselves (below again) and lots of sweets.

We decided to screenprint our own wedding invites which started off being quite straight forward at first but somehow ended up being a 5 colour print run. We had lots of fun doing them, particularly the RSVP part! (see above)

For quite a few months are flat was covered in glitter, pompoms and all sorts of strange decorations! 

I commissioned the wonderful Kate of Oh Someday to make these bracelets for me and both of my bridesmaids with the phrase 'What Would Beyoncé Do?' - I gave them as gifts to Rose and Anna for being such awesome bridesmaids and for keeping me (marginally) sane! I love mine so much and wear it most days.

We also commissioned the brilliant Miss Cake (another BTNETSY talent!) to make us a whole host of wacky cake toppers. I love these hearts she made for cupcakes which we then googly eyed!

Before we knew it February was here already which means MY BIRTHDAY!! (instax photos stolen from Karli) This was the GREATEST Birthday EVER! For a start my bestie Rose who was living in Cambridge at the time (now Australia...waaah) magically showed up just as we were leaving for the pub (Jam was in on this super surprise) and then it was just the most fun night ever with all of the most fun people! That's me and Sarah from Rock Cakes getting down on the dance floor above! And me with Rose, Karli (designosaur), Toby (I like Cats), Kieran (Little Mountains), Anna (Anna's Drawing Room), Vicky (Woah There Pickle) and Jam of course in the jazziest jumper!

PICK ME UP! If you haven't heard of Pick me Up before where have you beeeen? It's the huge once a year contemporary graphic art fair which takes place at Somerset House. This year I was sad that I didn't do my usual BUMPER blog post about it (it was getting VERY close to wedding time) but to be honest my photos were a bit naff anyhow. You can peruse my blog post about Pick Me Up 2013 here and 2012 here. My ultimate fave from 2014 was Jessica Das and her 'Cat Island' part of which is in the above montage, bottom right.

We participated and helped to organised the Brighton Etsy 'Craftivists' event which had loads of awesome team members 'live crafting' in the window of Super+Super. We created this little gocco print!

In 2014 we also launched badges which went down very well online and even better at Christmas markets. We've got LOADS of fun new designs in the pipeline too...

May meant it was Artist's Open Houses time again and we were super lucky to be invited back to AT Open House which was full of amazing designer makers as usual (if you haven't checked out this house before it's INCREDIBLE! Make it a must-see this year!) Our fave from the house in 2014 was Teresa Stewart-Goodman (top right) with her cute and sometimes naughty paintings and cutouts.

DODO WEDDING!!! It blows my mind a bit that I never actually did a blogpost about our wedding but as most of you know it had PLENTY of exposure on Instagram. Maybe one day I might do a post about it but right now I just don't really feel the need. It was the craziest best day full of amazing people who did AMAZING things to make sure things ran smoothly and that we had the most fun ever! Extracts from the best bits would be Rose bringing the BIGGEST helium cannister EVER, Paulie prepping and cooking the most delicious food, Anna drawing lovely wedding dodo's on the barn's chalkboard, DJ James somehow rectifying the music cutting out when I began walking down the aisle, my Mum reciting The Owl & The Pussy Cat, Andy with his pop up darkroom outside doing wetplate portraits and blowing everyone's minds, the CONGA! All the incredible homemade cakes people brought, giant jenga and ping pong, the hilarious photobooth pics and James ending the night by repeating Stevie Wonder Superstition just for me :o) Oh! And wearing THAT amazing custom Oh My Honey dress and Beksies Boutique headdress AND custom designosaur and I like Cats jewellery. BRIGHTON RULES.

Our wedding was followed by THE most perfect two week honeymoon in Santorini (again which I spammed instagram with) Words can't even describe this holiday!!!

Jam's baby niece Zoe was born!!!! This is her at one week old when we went up to Manchester to meet her...

We also had lots of fun exploring Manchester!

The Brighton Etsy Team held their second Craft Party! LOADS of people came and helped to craft some bunting flags, played some games and used the AMAZING photobooth courtesy of Big Booth Boutique. We also designed and screenprinted 100 goodie bags see above) for all the attendees!

We exhibited once again with Maker's Boutique in the Fishing Quarter Gallery on Brighton Seafront and had a lovely day manning the gallery in the summer sun.

The Brighton Etsy Team had a pop up market stall at Glug Brighton, showcasing a whole bunch of awesome talents from the team. It was a lot of fun!! (see some of the fun below)

We released new designs!!! Our Totem Pole, Ship Faced and Ta Da! designs all became very popular :o)

We designed the 5 of Spades in the Brighton Artists Playing Cards which was a really fun and exciting project to be involved with!

We did LOTS of design work for the Brighton Etsy Team! Here's just a few examples...

The Brighton Etsy Team had a Christmas Pop Up shop!!!! After talking about it for what seems like forever the team took on a shop for a month, decorated it and made it look super pretty with all the curated designers involved. It was a huge success and many customers wished it was permanent. 

Our Ta Da! T-shirt (and Jam's face..) was featured in Inside Magazine!

Market season arrived and first up was the FIRST ever Brighton Etsy Market at The Open Market. We had lots of fun!! Here's Jam and Jacques hard at work...

We returned to Renegade Craft Fair for the third year running! It was AWESOME as always.

Craftaganza was also amazing! Lots of Ship Faced tees went off to new homes and one couple bought FIVE screenprints for their bedroom :o)

We returned to the fabulous Crafty Fox Market but for the first time we were at their Peckham market. We LOVED the Bussey Building and had a great day...high-lite would have to be Supermarket Sarah featuring our Happy Cat on her CAT wall and then modelling our t-shirt for us!

LAST market of the season was at Street Diner's Christmas event alongside the amazing BEST and Delicious Industries. There was yummy food involved!!

Jam got to hang out with this little munchkin over Christmas! Now 6 months old and somehow EVEN cuter!

And here's a nice way to end 2014 with this lovely poster sent to us from Etsy! It was an amazing fun year and although hello DODO grew loads we do feel like half the year was taken over by our wedding and so we're REALLY hyped to see what we can achieve in 2015 and have some really exciting ideas of where to start...STAY TUNED!