Birthday, Sale and Free Prints ♥

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEE! Well, not ME, me.. but to Dearest Jackdaw for she is ONE YEAR YOUNG TODAY! I even made a cake or 12. (The rest were long gone before I could snap this piccy!)

So, what has the year taught me? That I love my job? Yes indeed I do. And I cannot WAIT to see what the next year has in store - there are already so many things I want to do I'm finding it tricky to keep up with myself!

Becki Button Love ♥

This post is long overdue but there is no better time to post than today. Let me get this straight - I LOVE receiving packages in the mail. Even boring supplies that most of the time I've forgotten I bought, I just love it. And I love it even more when I flip the package over and it has Becki's address on the back! This girl is far too good to me and I have had so many goodies from her over the past couple of years she is deserving of an enormous package from me some time soon! So this post is dedicated to the lovely lovely Becki Button and her utter creative awesomeness.

I received this today out of the blue. Just in time for my favourite season - Spring ♥ HOW CUTE IS THIS? It's a laser cut lamb necklace complete with white felt woolly fluffiness!

Excuse the non-make-upped face, I was so excited to upload this I didn't have time to spruce myself up for the photo!

TUTORIAL - Freezer Paper Stencils

I know I know I know - there's approximately one hundred billion freezer paper stencil tutorials out there in the blogosphere. But what better way to celebrate this entirely made up fact than to create my own? (you can never have enough tutorials. Fact)

In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create a simple stencil using freezer paper and then transfer it to fabric. Now, first of all - I couldn't find freezer paper ANYWHERE in the UK so ended up buying mine from amazon for a reasonable price. UK folk, greaseproof paper is NOT the same thing - unfortunately. If you manage to find any please let me know!

This is a great project to do with kids, just keep small fingers away from sharp and hot things! Adults do the hot and choppy bits, small people do the messy bits. Perfect. 

Antlers

Caroline and I went for a wander in the woods at Brandyhole Copse on Thursday to shoot some headshots. We found a huge clearing where some trees had recently been felled and stacked in groups and the sun was setting behind the trees with a gorgeous orange glow. After we'd photographed what we needed, we thought we'd shoot a few arty things before she headed home. We didn't particularly have a plan, but the sun was setting quick and the light was amazing so we just went with the flow with what was available at the time. Here's one of the shots we managed to get before having to take a trip to A+E for a non-twig related incident! (Don't panic, all is well!). Doesn't she look pretty :)

 ♥

Dearest Jackdaw HQ

I snapped some shots of the studio today whilst it was still tidy! It's been a work in progress over the past couple of months but it's slowly getting there. If you click on the panoramic image it'll open in a new page with notes over the top for those of you as curious as me! ♥

Hello January!

Hallo! Not getting off to the best of starts for 2012 on the blogging front now am I? So I thought I'd do a little update on what I've been up to this month with some photos - Enjoy!

Music, maestro:

Gabrielle Aplin - Home

Welcome, 2012!

2011 is well and truly over and I feel I've achieved so much in the past 12 months. My main achievement has been the little beginnings of Dearest Jackdaw as a business and watching it grow month by month. I'm really excited about what 2012 has to offer for both myself and Dearest Jackdaw, I'm just itching to get on and do so many things!

I'm definitely not one for new years resolutions, as I mentioned in my last post I always seem to fail them. But I do want to achieve some little things this year which shouldn't be too difficult - here they are:

• Explore the United Kingdom
• Keep a journal
• Take more photos
• Shoot at LEAST 3 personal photo stories
• Discover amazing music and art
• Blog more
• Organise my studio

Here's to 2012 ♥ Below is a photo of mine from each month of 2011. Enjoy!

January 2011
Freezing cold product photo shoot in the woods with the beautiful Rachael Holmes.