The goose is getting...

Good morning, well how much thought have you given to Christmas, none, nope well i guess you are with the majority in that sense lol. Meet Lauren. I think i came across Lauren via another blog or a comment on a blog but was instantly attracted to her lovely art, some of which is festive and some pretty and patterened. I knew she would be perfect for my Christmas in July feature. Here is a bit about Lauren:-

I'm an Illustrator/Surface Pattern Designer that works from home! I trained at Huddersfield Uni (Thats 10yrs ago now... oh where has the time gone?) I achieved a first in BA Hons Surface Pattern..... I loved it!! Anyhow after this I got a job in London designing print for Fashion, painting straight onto fabric. This was fun for a while but I missed the variety of designing on paper and in Photoshop! So I decided to try my luck else where! I got myself a Licensing agent and set about learning to design for the greetings industry! So 10yrs on I've been lucky enough to sell designs world wide, mostly in America but quite a few here 2. Its Christmas most days in my world..... but the odd bit of floral or birthday mixed in for good measure! Today I'm designing pop-up and 3 fold greetings cards....... eeek! I love cats, music and red wine!!! 

I'm sure you can see why i love Laurens work so much just wish there was somewhere i could direct you to that you could purchase some of it. In the mean time you can check out her blog here

Thanks for sharing Lauren :)

Yes it's that time again - Christmas in July

Please meet Elizabeth, she is the founder of Childrens Woodland a company she created when she was only sixteen! I chose this piece originally to feature in last months Childhood favourites theme but due to lack of other posts saved it for Christmas in July. The reason i love this story is as a child we had this on a Disney album read by Jimney Cricket. I'm pretty sure if i remember this right when we were quite young we made a little display on a table with Christmassy things, snowy sheets with little lights and played the story whilst watching the scene (which probably didn't do anything compared to the animated things we have now). I'm sure we loved it all the same. So it's one of several things that i carry with me and makes me feel good when i read it to my son at Christmas time. Anyway this is a bit about Elizabeth and her company...

Creating handcrafted keepsakes is a pastime that has been passed down from one generation to the next in my small, Michigan family. That is one important reason why Children's Woodland is still a family owned and operated business.
I created Children's Woodland in 1996, when I was just sixteen years old and began by selling my cloth activity books at local craft shows. My customers were impressed with my attention to detail at such a young age and over the years my enjoyment of creating unique and well-made toys has not changed.
Today, after selling my products on eBay and Etsy.com and the debut of the Children's Woodland website, the main focus of my toys is still to teach as well as provide hours of enjoyment. It always makes me happy to know that my toys are being enjoyed by children as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Thank you for taking the time to visit us here at Children's Woodland! - Elizabeth Cole


I hope you will stop by and check out all Elizabeth's creations, you can check out her web site here. I'm sure you will find something suitable for the youngsters in your family whether it be for Christmas or any special occasion :)


HO HO HO...