I know its been a while! and with it been the new year and all, I'm doing the typical thing.... attempting to change certain aspects of my life. One of them been to start blogging, I always attempt to blog but it fails pretty quickly.

I don't normally blog about personal things, I find blogging a difficult task one because I can't write! but also because I think what do people want to read.  Do they want to learn about me and my life what's behind the façade or do people just want to keep it nice and see all the pretty stuff? The illustrations, the pictures that capture the odd fun stuff that I do, not real life, so I'm going to put myself out there and write for me a pretty personal blog post. ( I deleted most of the really personal stuff  before I pressed publish! not sure i'm ready for that!)

I find blogs and the whole of social media one of my favourite thing and also one of the things I loath. Why? because I look far too much at pictures on Instagram that portray peoples perfect lives, other designers perfect lives... been successful and doing awesome things all the time! My husband is constantly telling me not to look at social media as it gets me down about where I am with my business and that I haven't succeeded what I want to.

So what do I want to succeed? I'm not sure to be honest. I just know I love making, I love letting my imagination go into over drive coming up with ideas and new designs. I normally constantly have things going around and around in my head but never do anything about them, but at the moment there seems to be no new ideas. I currently feel like Jodie Anna has got stuck in a bit of a rut and I have fallen out of love with my designs and feel like I need a fresh start. In some ways I do feel like constantly looking at social media has contributed to this rut as I compare myself too much to what other people are doing. But also a lot has happened to me in the passed year, things that have changed me as a person and to be honest I am a little bit lost.

So the first step to get out of this rut and try and get new ideas my husband has challenged me to go a week with out social media..... a week doesn't sound that long but I think it will be tough!!! So here goes a whole week without social media and to keep my occupied I have challenged myself to do one drawing every day!

Here goes wish me luck!

I have so many daydreams about how I would love a bigger studio! A studio in a vintage caravan or a lovely attic, but I am very lucky to even have a room and space to call a studio! I am looking to redesign it at some point next year and will be doing some Blog posts about my design process, but for now here a few images of where all the designing, making and packing take place!

I always find it really hard to decide what to write about when blogging, I try to think about the things I like to read in blogs, Lifestyle, Fashion, Baking, thoughts and aspirations.

How can I start placing these topics in my blog. Blogging can be a difficult thing as it is sort of a window into your life, I always find it hard to decide what people would like to hear about and what I want people to know about me. So I am slowly going to try and place more things I like to read in blogs on my blog and also start share a little bit of the life and workings of Jodie Anna! And to start this I am going to share with you some corners of my home!

 I live in a small 18th Century terrace house in a sleepy village in West Yorkshire,

along with my bearded husband Paul one half of Stott and Atkinson photography and our imaginary pug, I say imaginary as I really want one!!!! and I am slowly talking Paul round! I love our little house and always try to put our tastes around us to keep us both inspired, I love to collect a range of things some people may see it as hoarding! but I love to be surrounded by objects that make me smile and keep me inspired. I collect objects and keep objects that mean something to me and hold memories. Here are a few shots of the corners of our house,








In these few shots I have included a sneak peak at my passion for collecting 1950's/60's ceramic animals and old cameras! along with my clock which is very special to me as it was the last Christmas present from my late Grandma Mabel and a little picture of my dressing table..... which Paul is wanting me to sell..... NOOOO!!!

Well thank you for reading and joining me on my new journey to start blogging more about what I like and what I am about.

Nail transfers how to! So A little while ago I posted a Blog post about my new nail transfers and promised a ‘How to’ Blog post, so here it is finally. They are really easy to use and don't require been placed in water beforehand like some Nail transfers, simply cut around the shape and peel off the backing paper. So step one make sure your nails are clean and dry, you can place the transfers onto nude nails or to add a bit of colour use a nice pale colour just so the transfer stands out more, I used baby pink and baby blue and these colours worked really well with the transfers. (Just make sure your nail varnish is completely dry before applying the transfer). Then carefully cut around the nail transfer you wish to place on your nail

Once you have cut around the image you need to carefully remove the backing paper, you then effectively have a sticker, try to make sure the sticky side doesn’t stick to your fingers and get caught. A good tip to removing the backing paper is to peel them off with some small manicure scissors. Once you have removed the backing paper place them on your nails, if they are not in the right position you can carefully reposition them. Once in place just go over them with a top coat! Simple! And to remove them just place them in warm soapy water. The Nail transfers have been very popular and will be featured in this year’s Not On The High Street Christmas catalogue! They are the perfect stocking filler! And watch out for some Christmas themed nail transfers. The Nail transfers are currently available in four designs! Afternoon tea, Rule Britannia, Great British biscuit and nautical. Each pack contains 36 transfers with a mix of 4/5 designs and cost £3.75 you can purchase them from my online store!

I started working on the idea of temporary tattoos and nail stickers about 2 years ago now! and due to just time passing me by they always took a back burner. It is something I've wanted to add to my collection for a while so for the passed few weeks I have been putting together my illustrations in collections and created various sets of temporary tattoos and nail stickers and here is a little sneak peek at some of the tattoos that will be available soon.

I am hoping to slowly add more designs soon let me know any tats you guys would like? These will be available on my on-line soon in the following sets, Afternoon tea, Rule Britannia and By the sea. I am also going to be making temporary tattoo greeting cards so please keep an eye out for those!

Friday is here again! and here are few of my Friday favourites, I'm loving Layla Amber's new hedgehog necklace so cute!

For a long time now I have not been happy with using Shrink Plastic, it doesn't produce the high quality that I have been wanting to achieve, it was easily breakable and when producing my work there could be a lot of wastage due to items not baking right or splitting.

I wanted to keep the jewellery and my illustrations looking the same but wanted the overall material to be different. I have tried a range of options and have finally found a material that creates the look and style I wanted to achieve, but still keeping my illustrations the same.

WOOD! I have had my illustrations printed onto wood and then laser cut, there have been a few teething problems but they are finally ready! I will be photographing the items next week and they will be available to purchase very soon. I am really excited about using wood and have been busy designing lots of new teacups and cupcakes to add to the current range as well as expanding on my seaside range, which will be available in time for the summer. So here are a few sneaky pics of Jodie Anna in wood!

That means sadly no more shrink plastic, but fear not I am working on some 'Do It Yourself' shrink plastic kits, shrink plastic is a brilliant material and you can create some really good products, I am producing some exclusive designs for these kits to let you guys have ago at creating some jewellery your self!

Moving Jodie Anna forward and working in wood has finally made me fall in love with Jodie Anna again and I am working on lots of new ideas, lots of exciting projects for 2014..... including blogging on a regular basis... I PROMISE.

Thanks for reading!

Hello!

After a long while away Jodie Anna is back! with lots of new designs and new products, they are slowly been added to my store over the next few weeks, here's a little sample of what to expect.

Jodie Anna will be back on a weekly basis with lots of blog posts!

Hello,

Over the past few weeks I have had plenty of time to sit and draw! I have lots of new ideas that will slowly develop.... hopefully! One that I have been working on is a new necklace and brooch for my Great British Tea range. Not every body likes tea so decided to create a coffee pot! This was inspired by a lovely coffee pot I found at a charity shop a couple of years ago. It sits in my kitchen window... and mainly contains flowers not coffee!

Enjoy the rest of your fathers day!

Hello!

It has been a while since I last blog but with a massive rush at Christmas and then been poorly I have got a little behind with everything! So I am slowly getting back to myself.

I have lots of new exciting projects coming up, One of the biggest changes to Jodie Anna is..... that all my items are going to be laser cut, it was a big decision as I was worried that having my items laser cut would take away the handmade side of my items but I have had my samples back and they look great! .... well I think they do. It makes my pieces look much sharper and pristine. I am also working on two new collections that I hope will be ready soon and fingers crossed by mid March Jodie Anna will be re-launched with new packaging and new laser cut items! all very exciting.

But if you can't wait to for a sneak peek of my new collections I will have some items with me at the following fairs, International women's day on the 4th of March at the Queens hotel Leeds.

I have lots of exciting bits going on but will leave these for my next post, just one more bit of exciting news me and my boyfriend.... well Fiance finally booked our wedding! yeah so lots of posts about my projects for this.