{#BEDM} passion project

My passion lies in design and creating. From a young age I was always drawing and making things, I'd save my pocket money up and go on a spending spree to John Menzies (like WH Smith) and buy tonnes of stationery. Now I'm just the same, and I buy tonnes of stationery!

You may {or may not} know that I have my own graphic design and photography company called AEM Photography and Design and when time permits I sell personalised prints {mostly from my Facebook page}, I always have an order or a project on the go to keep me sane.

Two of my best sellers and my favourites are...

personalised home print

This is the home print that I had displayed in the hallway whilst I was pregnant with the littlest now the McBump has been changed to her name. I have sold loads of these, great for a wedding gift or a new home gift and great for a family gift for a new baby.

baby bunting

The baby bunting prints are so cute, they have 3D bunting and can be personalised with date of birth, weight, time of birth and in any colour... this one pictured sits on top of my TV cabinet.

I'd not be able to retire on my earnings from my passion project or give up my full time job but it's a hobby that earns me some pocket money and I love creating.

A x

Hurrah {for Friday}

It really has been an exhausting week. It's one of those weeks were Husband and I don't see each other at all {due to our shift patterns}...

The week looked like this:

Monday - drop big girl off at work before I go to the office (a 30min detour from my usual drive to work). Work until 4pm, pick big girl up and rush home for 5pm as Husband leaves for work then (he's with littlest at home when I'm at work and vice versa). Once littlest is tucked up and we've eaten dinner I then work {I run my own Graphic Design business from home AEM Photography and Design}. Bed time around 1am.

Tuesday - up at 6am, drop big girl off at work, drop littlest off at Gran's then head into office for 9.15am. Work till 4.30pm then pick up littlest from Gran's. Pick up parcels that I had delivered to the depot, deliver some prints, head home for dinner. Working again till around 1am.

Wednesday - up at 6.30am, made homemade soup, wedges and lunch before heading off to work for 11am.  Rush home for 5pm as Husband is leaving for night shift again {with a pitt stop to drop off clothes to big girl}. No work tonight as my lovely friend popped round and we shared a bottle of wine {that's the first night in months that I've sat down for a whole evening, it was bliss}

Thursday - up at 6am, surgical appointment at 10am {I have a stomach repair op within 6 weeks.. great huh?}, work at the office then home for 5pm again {Husband working again} but with a stop off for some groceries... can you believe we're out of bread! I asked my Aunt to pop along and sit with littlest for an hour as it was the first night of a very new craft club {thank you Auntie}, before I headed out to craft club I quickly made littlest dinner and brushed my hair {hair really needs washed!}, home for 7pm. I caught up with all my post circle replies tonight.  Bed at 1.30am

Friday - thankfully! I've been up since 6.30am, have to get ready for work soon {with a pitt stop to drop off a gig ticket to big girl, which she forgot to take with her}. After a busy day at work I have to drive to my frame suppliers {at the other side of Glasgow} then home to make dinner then spend the night framing orders.

It's a 3-day weekend and I'd love to spend the weekend with nothing planned and just going with the flow but so far we have a garage to tidy {new flooring delivered next week so need to store it}, MIL birthday at weekend so need to visit, my Parent's have asked for some little things to be done so will visit them too, squeeze in a baby ballet class, then it's Monday before we know it and Husband is working.

I won some tickets for the Ideal Home Show too but right now I'm struggling to fit in time to wash my hair so I might not even be able to go... boo!

The next few weeks are little bit crazy too {aint every week?}... it's crazy that I might be looking forward to my operation so that I can rest up under Doctor's orders.  Oh yeah, I'm still working on my stationery designs for my etsy shop launch... it will be soon {sorry for the delay}

hello... sorry, you nodded off there.  I know this is a boring ole post but I feel better for getting it all down and the pity party can come to an end.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'll be jealous of all your chilling out! x

Busy {bee}

STOP the bus, I need to get off! That's exactly how life feels right now.

There is not enough hours in the day, days in the week, weeks in the month... I know I've just been on holiday but even that was far too busy and we were constantly on the go. I'm juggling my full time office job, my service assessing, being a Mum, Wife, Cook, Cleaner, Personal Shopper and still fitting in some design jobs I have scheduled... AND I'm crap at juggling too!

I'm usually such an organised person but my head is literally spinning.

So, what do I do when I'm so busy? I sit down and I design something funny to cheer myself up. I've said this phrase out loud so much in the past few days (not in-front of baby though, don't worry)...

This design will feature in a collection of postcards that I'll soon be launching in my etsy shop and it will also be available to purchase as a print. I already have my first order for a print and it's not launched yet! I get the feeling this design will be popular, I still giggle when I read it!

What do you do when you're stressed / busy to cheer yourself up?

Exciting Times

There has been a lot going on today, all very exciting.

First there's the small matter of this www.anneeapple.com a lovely surprise from my Husband!  I have wanted the domain for a very long time but it's just recently become available and now it's mine.

As if that wasn't enough exciting news for the one day, I woke up to read this very lovely blog post by Miss Beatrix.

You'll all know {unless you've been on your holidays for over a month} that I joined up with Miss Beatrix's #PostCircle and I am loving being part of it. I've had some gorgeous mail and little gifts sent through the post, there is something wonderful about snail mail. I've been on the hunt for some stationery and it was / is a hard task to find something that I liked, if you've ever looked online for stationery you'll understand what I mean. I even scoured local shops for some nice writing paper and envelopes and no joy! So I made my own!

I started off designing some envelopes which ended up rather complicated and fiddly so I scrapped that and focused on some writing paper designs. A few late nights and about 30 designs later I am kicking off my range with 'Tea Time', 'Yelo' and 'Grey Heart' {I might change the names as I develop the range}. I've also designed some lettergrams.  I love lettergrams, I used to buy these from the post office when I was little and I wrote to my pen friend in Australia, they were so convenient to use especially when I was writing abroad. I just knew I had to design some lettergrams as to me they are a symbol of snail mail.

I'm in the process of setting up my etsy shop  {you can come over just now and follow me there so you don't miss out on the launch} and I plan to offer sets of writing paper, personalised writing paper and also lettergrams. I have lots of other little things swimming about in my head too and I have also now mastered the envelope making {with a totally new design}, so there could be some handmade envelopes available too!

To celebrate the launch of my new etsy shop there will be a giveaway on my blog, right now I'm in the process of designing and organising the goodies for the giveaway.  I'm off on my jollidays next weekend {some lovely time in the sunshine} so when I come back it will be all systems go!

You can follow this blog using the link on the right {via bloglovin or you can follow by google connect or email} so that you don't miss out.  I'm also on Twitter and Facebook come over and say hello!

Thank you to you lovely people who are already supporting me and encouraging my new venture and a big thank you to Miss Beatrix for her lovely blog post and most importantly for setting up #PostCircle as without it none of this would be possible and let's not forget all the new friends I have made recently... hello to you all!

Ax