Saturday 26 February 2011

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Tom has been working away this week so we got a rare family weekend and decided to make the most out of the sunshine at the seaside. One of the things I love most about living on the coast is being able to shoot down the beach in the rare few hours of winter sunshine we get and be home in time to be nice and snug when the inevitable rain arrives in the afternoon!



Jack has his first sleep over last night!! Only next door at his best friend Tyler's house, but I think that is enough for the two of us, we spent the evening listening to them all running around and screaming and wondering if we would get a knock at the door at 2 o'clock in the morning from our little baby wanting to come home... But he's getting so big, "4inapril" as he keeps reminding us, and was absolutely fine, and up bright and early with the others (screaming and thundering down the hall) at half six!

So off we went this morning with a grumpy little man who hadn't had enough sleep for a lovely seaside walk. We went down the see the cannon fired across the harbour at midday and then walked along the beach to the local fish market and bought some gorgeously fresh fish for lunch.


Jack loves going because all the the crabs and lobsters are in a massive tank for him to see and he likes to stare at the bug fish eyes staring right back at him. The boys had a big bag of mussels and I had to make do with some (still very nice) Cod loin and just a dunk of the mariniere juice cause of being knocked up! Just one of the many inconveniences of pregnancy, good job it's worth it in the end!









Now were all snuggled up on the sofa to watch England beat the French in the rugby! Have a lovely weekend everyone x


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday 23 February 2011

who wants a brand spanking shiney new logo for their business!? All for FREE!

To celebrate the launch of my exciting new Design service I am running a competition for 3 of my lovely likers to win a logo design for their online business.

So how do you win such a brilliant prize?! All you have to do is comment below on my blog and next Wednesday the 2nd of March at 7.00pm I will select the winners from all the comments and will post them on Design @ No.11's Fabebook page.

Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Claire xx

I launched Design @ No.11

Today sees the exciting launch of my new design service Design @ No.11...
...my lovely new design service where I will be offering everything from Business Branding and Design to Invitations for Weddings, Birthday Parties, Hen dos, as well as Birth Announcement Cards,Change of Address Cards and anything else my lovely customer would like from me.

As everyone who is a fan of my Spare Minute Productions page knows I love to be creative in any way I can. I have a degree in Illustration and my day job is working fro a local children's charity here in Portsmouth called The Elizabeth Foundation as a graphic designer. I use Adobe CS5 alld ay everyday and so Photoshop and Illustrator are my main tools but I love to hand draw things and then mess around with them on the computer. Such a varied work environment means my style can be adapted to suit any business.

As an online buisness owner myself I know that the thought of having a logo and business stationary designed for you can be a really scary and often expensive option. I am lucky enough to be able to do my own but I wanted to offer that option to others at a reasonable price so have put together a few pricing options:

One off buisness logo design £20.- This includes an initail email cosulation to let me know what you would like and what your business is about/how you would like to be presented. I will then design a logo from the information you give me and will email it to you to be used as you would like.

Logo Design Service £35 - This is the same as the one off design process but I will send you 3 different logo designs to chose from. We can also tweak these a little if there is part of one you like and would like it added to another design for example. I will then email you your chosen logo design once it is complete.

Additional Items £10 -  This includes postcards, business cards, folksy/etsy/online shop banners, letterheads, compliments slips, letter heads, or anything else you would like to order. Feel free to email me images of your products if you would like these to be included in your design aswell. I am happy to use an exisitng logo if you already have one but will charge a £10 design fee for this.

Anything else you would like to commision me to do, please do get in contact, I am always up for a challenge!
Claire x



Friday 18 February 2011

We have got a picture frame at home that we have had since we moved into our first flat five years ago and found out we were going to have Jack. We were out one day and Tom picked up a black box frame in Cargo, we had all kinds of plans for it, we were going to put Jack's scan piccture in it, his hospital bracelet etc and make a little memory frame of his first few weeks.... turns out being a first time Mum and finishing your degree at the same time is quite alot of work and I never got round to it, so it has sat empty in our spare room all that time, waiting for the perfect project which I have FINALLY found!

I was having a friday afternoon blog reading session when I came across this brilliant idea from Little Birdie Secrets. I'm no way near organised enough to use the menu planner BUT I do love a good To Do List! It makes me calm, I know its sad, but it does!

So this weekend, along with cleaning the house which is all of a sudden filthy, and doing my Spare Minute Productions  orders, I am going to have a go at making this bad boy, will post pictures once it is finished!

Will leave you with some pictures from our night time trip to the beach on Wednesday night. It wasn't exactly what I had been dreaming of all day long (no sun at all, just the moon) but any trip to our special part of the beach is lovely with my boys! The lack of sun didnt seem to bother Jack because he still pulled off his shoes and socks and went for a paddle (and had to be carried back to the car and stripped off from the waist down because the waves got the better of him!)




Wednesday 16 February 2011

i window shopped!

In anticiaption of pay day tomorrow I had spare five minutes to have a look around Folksy and Etsy for some supplies to inspire me. Its a beautiful day here in Portsmouth (we havent had many recently!) and so, even though I am stuck at work, I'm feeling inspired to make some lovely, bright, happy bits to go with the weather.

I've wanted to do a wreath that could be personalised for a bedroom door for a while and these gorgeous lillipop spotty buttons from Big Fish on Etsy are just the inspiration I need (along with about a million other things in the shop!!)

Lollipop Pairs x16 big buttons

So these will be in the shopping basket tomorrow as a little treat, and keep an eye out for a bright and colourful bedroom door wreath, coming soon!

In the mean time I will sit at my desk and dream about spending the day down at the seafront with my boys in what Jack calls "Mummy and Daddy and Jack's special place"!



Tuesday 15 February 2011

Spare Minute Productions Design Service was born!

I've been thinking about launching a design service for other online businesses for a little while and, after spending some time on my own bits, I have decided to go ahead and do it! *little nervous wobble*

Im sure lots of you out there are very creative and are able to do your own bits but for those who aren't quite as  handy with a computer I am now offering a design service that can be tailored to your needs and, I think, is fairly well priced. I know alot of people are put off by the thought of spending hundreds of pounds to pay someone else to do their design for them and end up with something that they arent quite happy with.

My service is completely personalised to you. If you have loads of ideas but just arent quite sure how to bring them into reality, or you completely draw a blank when you try to think of how you want your business to look I can help. I can include pictures of your work, or just take a look at what you do and create an idea from the feel of your shop... the sky is the limit!

I can offer:

Shop Avatars
Shop Banners
Business Cards
Postcard
Compliments Slip
Invoice Slip
Letterhead
Logo
Shipping Label
Stickers

There will be a £10 design charge plus and additonal £5 per item from the list above.
The £10 design charge includes conversations about ideas via email so that I can get a clear picture of what you might think you want (or dont want) I will then do an intial design which I will send to you for approval or changes. Up to 4 changes per customer (unless these are very small changes like wording etc.) Once design have been approved you will receive a high res version of your items for printing, use on your website etc.

Please contact me on my Facebook page or email Spareminuteproductions@hotmail.co.uk if you are in need of some lovely designs!

My shop's Spare Minute Productions designs might inspire you a little bit. Alot of  my images are quite bright and colourful so I wanted to keep my backgrounds quite simple, but I can go as spotty, dotty bright as you would like!


Postcard - ideal for popping in with your orders to say thanks to your customers


Folksy Shop banner