Guilt

Guilt, that is what I have right now, guilt that I haven't up-dated the blogs as much as I should, guilt that I don't get as much work done in a day as I should, guilt that I need to do such mundane things as eating and sleeping when I should be working, guilt, guilt guilt!!

This is I find the one major draw back of working from home, the inability to switch off from work. I find myself of an evening gravitating back towards my Mac to just finish this little job off...oh and maybe answer the odd email...oh and I'll just print those Etsy orders off.....and suddenly is midnight arrrrrrr!

One advantage of my recent work obsession is that I finally, after a year of meaning to do it, have built a website for myself! hooray! Ok its not spectacular but at least its somewhere to refer people who are interested in my work too....introducing katwhelan.com



I have ditched my third blog katwhelanillustrations.blogspot and am now using the website, I may eventually (and when I figure out how) move this blog over to there as well but quite frankly just building the site made my brain ache so that will have to wait till another time.

I have been doing many other exciting things, greeting cards, new flat pack Circuses for my Etsy and Folksy shops, a children's book and making some very nice Christmas present for my nearest and dearest all of which I unfortunately can't show you yet, but I will soon!

and finally, did I get to go the the amazing, never to be repeated Banksy exhibition.....No....I was getting married instead.....guilt!

Banksy

Is their anyone on the plant that has not hear of Banksy right now? I think not so I wont bother to explain who he is (what else is google for?), I worked in Bristol for 2 years and was used to seeing his work around he city (usually sprayed 3 storeys up on the side of buildings) so I was really excited to hear he was doing a free exhibition at the Bristol Museum.



They shut the whole place for a couple of months so he could run around setting his artwork up (what an amazing job that must have been!!) at the moment it takes about 2 hours to cue to get in and is probably the most popular exhibition the Museum has ever had running, people for all over the world have been coming to see it!
Which makes me a bit ashamed that Rich and I, who only live 20 minuets away haven't been yet! Well we've got till the end of August, and by God I will go and see it even if I have to stand in rain for 2 hours! Here's what I've been missing...







At this rate we'll be the only people in the south west who haven't seen it, must go to Bristol next week!!!!

Time Slips Away

Ok it is well established by now that I am a bad blogger, but I'm getting married in 6 weeks! that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

I'm also lucky enough to have two children's books I'm working on for an American publisher which is very exciting! that will keep me quite till next March, but in between I'm still trying to producing one or two other bits and bobs as well as trying to keep my shops running smoothly.

Here's two little images I managed to squeeze in:






I'd love to do more things like this, fingers crossed!


©Kat Whelan

Art Show

Managed to get hold of the pics mum took at the weekend, here is the finished stand with my work on it...



Can you believe Rich built this all by himself out of 2 old doors we got of freecycle and a load of old pallet wood!



Rich had to make it in stages so the first time it was all screwed together and stand up on its own was at the show, we meant to test run it at home but it kept raining so we never got chance, good job he's so cleaver and it all fitted together fine!



I got some lovely comments about how well the stand complimented my work, it was Rich's idea to paint the shelves white then sand the edges off a little to give them a slightly worn look, I think it was works really well together.



and lastly here I am looking chuffed with my stand, lets hope it survives in our garage to do this again next year!



Hopefully I will be putting pics from the whole event up on the art show website (when I get 5 mins that is!)



©Kat Whelan

Where Have I Been!

I have just looked at my last entry and realized it has been a month since i posted, how very lazy I am! Well not that lazy actually, I've been working my little paper cut fingers off getting ready for the art show which was the weekend just gone. It went well despite a last minuet change of venue (meaning that all the printed fliers where wrong, but never mind!) I didn't sell anything but all my business cards have gone and I have had a few follow up enquires vie the shops so that's great! there will be pics of the show and the totally fabulous stand Rich built for me, but they are on Mums camera so I am waiting on an email for her (hint hint mum!)

Anyway right now I'm busy filling orders...



designing my wedding invitations...



Doing a little more logo design...



and when I get 5 mins where I'm not doing any of those things I'm making miles of bunting for the wedding...



No wonder my hands are aching!

Also a quick thank you to Francesca for choosing Under The Stair Studios as one of her Folksy Feature Sellers, its always nice to be recognized! Francesca writes a lovely blog totally worth a look here!

x

New in My Shops

What a lovely little break that's was, so many things done in such a sort space of time! The wedding plans are coming along brilliantly (we are amazingly managing to stick to our minuscule budget but that's another post altogether!)

So I have rushed home to add my latest creations to my 2 shops, here's a little taster...















I'm really please to get the little card designs up in the shops, all these new items will be featuring in the art shop in May, fingers crossed people like them!



© Kat Whelan 2009

New Ideas & A Little Break

Well I am going to be taking a little blog break for a week or two, I'm off to spend a week organizing things for our up and coming wedding, I will hopefully get a little free time to work on some new designs and ideas too. Heres some new stuff which will be added to the shop when I'm back and its open again.



Also heres a quick pic of Rich's valentines prezzy I made him...



Yep, its a ninja squirrel theater! Isn't love a wonderful thing!

Art Exhibition

Phew, what a busy 2 weeks its been, I have signed up to do a local art show at the beginning of May, I also made the slight dubious decision to volunteer to put together a website for it! Am I mad, maybe?!

Any how it has been what I shall diplomatically describe as a learning experience ( I have learned NEVER to volunteer for things! only joking!) the website is finally up and running with most of the artists who are taking part on there, although I have a feeling I shall end up tweaking it until the last minuet, mostly because I keep thinking of useful things to put on there or if I just moved this and this around it would look better!

Anyway its all good practice for building my own website which I will eventually get round to sometime this century!

So if anyone's in Bath on the Mayday Bank Holiday Weekend (2nd,3rd & 4th of May) and you fancy a look at some very beautiful things, come and see us!

Here's my entry on the site:



Take a peek at the site and then say nice encouraging things to me!

The Wonderful Ginko Papers

Such a beautifully designed site this, and what their selling is very lovely too! The first thing I always look at is the design and layout of a website, if its badly put together it can really put you off no matter how nice their products are! In this case the site is as yummy as the cute little cards and stationary they sell!

All sourced in Japan, no one does cute little characters and brilliant pop ups like the Japanese! And the best bit is Ginko Papers have just started doing global shipping, so we can all have a bit of cuteness in our lives!

Crocks & Pots Logo

Well I have been asked to create another web logo, the last lot I did where for Lucy over at Rural Muse, apparently Stephen and Serena over at Crocks & Pots saw these and liked them so got in touch to see if I would mind doing them one for their re-designed website. These guys also run the very excellent Victoriana Nursery, a brilliant family run nursery that supplies plants and seeds all over the UK.
In fact this year I will be reviewing some of the Victoriana Nursery seeds and plants over on my gardening blog, baring this in mind Stephen approached me with the proposal of trading some more plants for the logo design, this is something I hadn't considered before but as I would more than likely spend any money earned on plants anyway it made sense (plus I have always liked the idea of trading skills!).
So there we go, one 4ft olive tree will buy you a new logo for your website, anyone out there fancy trading some chickens for a few drawings?!






© Kat Whelan

New Shop!

I have finally got another shop up and running, phew! I've been meaning to start another one to get a bit more exposure for my work but have as usual been side tracked by shiny objects!
The best bit is this one is in lovely Sterling, so no more confusion trying to work out postage on the international currency converter.

I'll be keeping my good old Etsy shop going for international buyers but for any Brit's out there you can find the new one here:

http://www.folksy.com/shops/UnderTheStairStudios

Paper Theaters

Yes Theaters not Circuses, I'm branching out! I only have 3 designs at the moment but hopefully I will be adding to that soon, I've stuck with using the Hares again as the Dancing Hare Circus has been far and away the best seller, plus I just love drawing them!

Moon Dancing Hare Paper Theater





Little Baby Hare Paper Theater





Star Gazing Hare Paper Theater





© Under The Stair Studios

New Watercolour Work

As I said in my last post, I am finally putting some work up thats NOT a circus!
I recently had to do a few illustrations for my agent to add to my portfolio, I wanted to produce some soft character based images as most of my resent stuff has been quite graphic and computer based. I love painting with watercolours, I find it very relaxing, just listening to my music and quietly building my pictures up.











© Kat Whelan

Valentines Circus

Wow the last few posts have been nothing but Circuses recently! I promise I will blog about something else soon!!

Anyway here's the latest edition to my shop, a pale pink and cream Valentine's offering, arrrr some bunny loves you!











Hopefully this will be as popular as the Hare Circus has been but we'll see!

I'd also like to say a quick thank you to all the wonderful crafty blogger people out there that have posted about my little creations , I have tried to send thank you emails to everyone but in case I missed one of you a huge hug and than you, its always lovely to hear that others like what I'm making!!

© Under The Stair Studios