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!

Blog hop challenge!

Hello! Long time no blogpost..again! Which is why when the wonderful Georgie St Clair recently nominated us to take part in a blog hop I jumped at the chance of having something to actually write about, meaning I could blow the ol' cobwebs off this poor bloggy. We've met Georgie and her family a few times at craft fairs where she's been a customer (and has kindly bought prints from us!) and it's been fantastic seeing her own beautiful illustration work develop over time. Also I love seeing her desk shots and work in progress photos as they're always so effortlessly stylish they look like they're straight out of a magazine editorial. Seriously, go check out her blog for yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Back to it! This post is a little insight in to our creative process, inspirations and work/life balance. Here we go...

What have you been making at your desk this week?

Mostly we have been making badges! We are total big kids and we had both wanted a badge maker for AGES so we were super excited to finally get one earlier in the year. It's so much fun coming up with designs and being able to turn them in to a product which you can wear really quickly (badges aren't just for small people you know!) Mostly we've been designing groups of animals...i.e. bears, tropical birds and safari animals. We also have a dinosaur set which have proved to be very popular! One lady has bought loads of different packs to have on the tables at her wedding this month...now that's our kinda wedding! 

Apart from badge making we've been screenprinting lots of orders for our Etsy and Not on the High Street shops and in general starting to stock up for the Christmas rush. We live in a small flat at the mo so all of our screenprinting is done on our kitchen worktop...which is fine as long as we remember to tidy up before dinnertime!

Where are you currently finding your inspiration?

It sounds like a bit of a cliche but we do tend to find inspiration everywhere and anywhere! We're constantly doodling and jotting down ideas which we bounce off each other. If both of us get excited about an idea rather than one of us being enthusiastic and the other violently shaking their head then we know we're on to a winner! We're constantly trying to keep up with our to do lists but we try to frequently go and hang out on the beach (luckily for us just a 5 minute walk away) or to go on a day trip to see an exhibition. We recently went to see Matisse's Cut Outs at the Tate and it completely and utterly blew our minds. Truly one of the best most inspiring shows we've ever seen! 

Also a constant source of inspiration for us is the late Alan Fletcher. His playful and ingenious way of designing always makes us smile and think, even when we've seen the pieces a hundred times before.

Alan Fletcher's designs

How important is being creative to you, and how do you blend this with your work/life/family balance?

For us being creative is absolutely everything! I think we're incredibly lucky that we founded and run hello DODO together, it must be tricky sometimes running a creative business which your partner isn't involved in. On the other hand, because we ARE both involved in hello DODO there is no balance really...we're constantly thinking and talking about it, making plans, screenprinting orders, working on new designs, promoting ourselves... It's very very rare that we take a full day off and when we do we tend to feel really guilty about it! We even took a sketchbook on our honeymoon and spent most of the two weeks working on new designs! Growing hello DODO makes us really happy though so I don't think we'd have it any other way... Our main issue right now (and actually has been for the last few years) is complete lack of space. Our tiny flat is FULL of big silkscreens and boxes of t-shirts, totes, drawers full of prints and cards...it's a bit bonkers! But we are planning to move soon and to have a dedicated studio space and then we can have an actual living space to relax in and possibly maybe occasionally switch off :o)

Passing the Blog Hopping Baton

Right! We've decided to nominate two of our favourite Brighton based small businesses!
First up is designosaur! As I'm sure you are already aware Karli and Jacques make the most amazing awesome laser cut jewellery in the World (of which I have quite the collection!)
My second nomination for the blog hop challenge goes to I Like Cats! Toby makes fantastic hand drawn jewellery, cards, prints, pencil cases all with...you guessed it...CATS on! His work is really quirky, unique and makes us incredibly happy. Check out both designosaur's and I Like Cat's blogs!

Shoreham House Boats

Shock horror! A blog post! Those who follow us on twitter and instagram will know we had a busy couple of months..just y'know..getting married and stuff. But before any blogposts on that whole shebang and all the other things to blog about queued in my mind here's a random post about Shoreham and the wonderful house boats there! We visited for the first time yesterday after lots of people had mentioned how lovely they are but I don't think we'd quite prepared ourselves for how INCREDIBLY AMAZING they are!!

It's a large community of houseboats of all shapes and sizes including barges, tugs and quite a few ex-millitary vessels. Each boat has it's own quirks and character, most of them showing the creative nature of the residents. There's loads of colours, plants and vegetables being grown, chickens and gorgeous cats (the one above seemed to be giving us a tour!)

 

Fluffy chickens!

This boat and it's neighbour below were definitely the craziest! Every where you looked you noticed something different...buses, washing machines, baths, caravans all cleverly incorporated in to the boat's design. So amazing!

After visiting Shoreham we hopped on the train to Worthing where the tide was out soooo far! We spent a while walking underneath the pier and finding little crabs.

More blogposts soon I promise! Have you visited the Shoreham house boats before? If not we HIGHLY recommend checking them out!

25% SALE BEFORE OUR HONEYMOON :o)

To celebrate getting married and jetting off on our honey moon early next week we're giving you guys 25% OFF any orders £5 or over. We go early next week so get your goodies as soon as pos before we shut up shop and jump on our plane to Greece... :o)

www.hellododoshop.etsy.com