Meow!

Yay! I'm so thrilled to let you know that Meow! is now selling three of my super cute cards! You should check them out as well as the amazing range of products for crazy cat people that she has.

When Milly reached out to me after finding my cards on Etsy, I was so happy to first; find somebody else that loves quirky cat goodies as much as I do, and secondly; be able to see my cards being sold in a great shop alongside some really well designed items. It's definitely a different feeling to see products you've designed yourself in a great shop.

Milly is over the moon to see her shop expanding so make sure to check it out regularly as she's got a lot more to come very soon :)

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Little Festival, Big Heart

Last Saturday, Jason and I made it to the Ymuno festival, a great music event which takes place every couple of years in Abergele, North Wales.

We were lucky enough to have some free tickets (thank you for your generosity Asher!) and we enjoyed meeting our friends and colleagues (well, former colleagues for me) for a whole day of festivities. The atmosphere is the best thing about it. So relaxing and welcoming! The festival is also great for families as they always plan a tonne of activities for kids. You can see little Alex enjoying the magic bubbles of Dr Zigs!

Unfortunately the rain was on and off the whole day but we still managed to enjoy the sun when we could. I think performers preferred when it was raining as everyone would go inside the tents! In the afternoon, we were lucky to see once again the fantastic band Boat To Row that our close friend Alice introduced us to a couple of years ago. These guys were in Glastonbury this year!

After a yummy pizza, we decided to just chill out and enjoy the music until late at night.

Definitely a great festival that you can't miss if you're in the area! If you fancy buying the weekend ticket, you get the camping free as well as breakfast every morning. Not bad eh? Keep an eye out for the next dates!

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Giveaway - July wallpapers

Happy first of July!! It's my birthday month and to me July means summer, sunshine and fresh fruits. I've always loved having my birthday during summer and because this year it's on a Tuesday, I think it's only fair to ask for a birthday week rather than a birthday weekend, right?!

This month I created for your guys some warm, colourful wallpapers that will make you think of a nice summer day out even though it's rainy and gloomy outside. I'm really into these shades of orange and pink lately (if you haven't noticed yet) and to have one of these artworks on my desktop motivates me straight away in the morning. Hope it's the same for you!

Download:
WHOLE SET // PHONE 1 // PHONE 2

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Oberammergau and a cable car experience

Oberammergau is a small traditional town known for its Passion Play, but to be honest, we felt it had a lot more to it and it's such a nice place to discover! We loved all the painted buildings and the mountains in the background everywhere you look.

And, even though it was the beginning of June, we entered in a shop FULL of Christmas cheer. Abba was even playing in the background! We were astonished at some of the decorations as a lot of them were done by hand, but we felt kinda weird about it all. But I'd say it's worth having a look at it any time of the year!

We carried on our little stroll, going from landmarks to landmarks, taking it all in (in between the rain). One of the last building we visited called Pilatushaus hosts workshops and is famous for its fresco painted in an illusionist style. You can watch the painters and crafters creating their art and it also contains a small gallery. By that time we were ready for cake! Plus, it was shucking it down.

We unfortunately don't remember the name of this place but OH MY GOD! We literally spent ages trying to figure out which piece of cake we wanted because everything looked amazeballs. If we had this type of café down the road I would gain 10lbs in one week! Anyway, it's on the main road and it saved us! I tried to take more photos of the cakes but the reflection made them look pretty rubbish. Sorry!

Before leaving for the day, we couldn't resist taking more photos of the stunning landscapes and still couldn't believe where we were. Snowdonian mountains are high, but wow, they can't compare to these ones!

Being so close to the Alps, we ought to explore the highest mountains in Füssen on our last day. It didn't disappoint. We weren't too sure at the beginning because of the thick layer of fog, but we would have been crazy not to go because of it as it turned out to be pretty clear in so many areas and the views were great! We took the Tegelbergbahn and it was (yes I'm going to use this word) EPIC.

Again, couldn't resist showing you more photos of the amazing views we got to see. We were absolutely knackered by the end of the day though, going up and down the mountains to reach the places without too much fog. Worth it! Also, how impressive was it once you start seeing the trees through the fog in the cable car?! I wasn't feeling so well though when I clearly saw how high we were when the fog disappeared completely!

Then the sun came out and we felt that if we wanted to deserve the massive meal we were about to eat (more sausages and sauerkraut ha!), we should walk the 30 mins walk to get to a different bus rather than going for the easy option. We did well because we got to see the Neuschwanstein castle from a complete different angle and we also took all the vitamine D we could!

One thing that we found quite cute around the area is that most of the cows have a bell around their neck and everywhere you go, you can just hear their soft music in the background.

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed seeing what were up to in Bavaria :)

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New cards available + a discount!

Right guys, I feel that we need to cheer up a little bit, so here's some good news: Four new cards, designed by yours truly, are now available in my Etsy Shop, AND there's a 10% off discount on all the cards until the 3rd of July. So what are you waiting for?! Check them out RIGHT HERE.

Use the code SUMMER10 to get your discount and you can happily wait a couple of days to receive your cute cards in your letterbox!

Thank you so much for your support and have a great Sunday :)

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On being different

I wasn't too sure if I should share these thoughts with you as you must have noticed that I don't often talk about personal topics on the blog. But then I thought, what the heck, if it can help anybody else or even just give you a nice excuse for a 5 minute break at work then why not!

First of all, sorry if the crazy gif annoys you, but I just love these kind of things lately and I wanted to do my own! If you like it, well then you're my favourite reader ;)

Lately I've had to work on various things that allowed me to think more about who I am and where I stand. And I guess going freelance recently made me realise that I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and my goals and got me thinking even more about myself.

I didn't have a tough childhood I think. it wasn't the best, but god I've seen way worse happening to kids all the time so I guess I can't complain too much. Everything was fine in my family, but I struggled more outside of it. I was far away from being the popular one in school, and I was rejected all the time by everybody. I realised afterwards that it was because I was quite different and wasn't really following what all the kids in school, high school, college and even university were doing/thinking. Don't get me wrong, I always had one or two really good friends that I felt understood me. But I don't think that was the issue, I didn't really want to be the popular one anyway, but growing up, it really hit my confidence.

I was in eternal conflict with myself, thinking that I should try and be like all the other ones to be accepted, and the minute after, I would contradict myself and decide to stand for myself and it's not my fault if I'm seen as weird. The problem was that I started to hate attention, blushing all the time, never giving my opinion out loud and doubting all the time about everything. It didn't help that I fell in love with a guy and obsessed over him for 3 years before finally being able to call him my boyfriend. I started a profound depression at that time, hating myself, and losing myself. I became anorexic for almost a year and didn't even realise how ill I looked. Obviously this relationship didn't last, and I was very very low. The lowest I've ever been. I was studying very hard at university but compared my work all the time to the others and didn't believe at all in my skills.

One day I sat down with my parents and realised that if I wanted things to change, it was up to me to do something, nobody else. So I said that I needed therapy. It might sound over-dramatic, but trust me, at that time therapy saved me and I slowly went back to my normal self. Back then I was in my very early twenties, and it clicked. I didn't care if I was different, I didn't care if people didn't like my opinions, the way I looked, the way I decided things and the way I lived. I'm me, and if people can't accept me the way I am, then too bad for them! I wanted to feel proud of myself. It cost me a few good friends, but I guess it was for the best. However, still living at my parents, in the same area I grew up, and my ex-boyfriend still haunting me from time to time, I thought 'that's it, I'm going far away'.

And I came here, to North Wales, somewhere where nobody knew me, and I could start from scratch and accept myself once and for all. I'm not saying that it solved everything, I still have my moments of doubt quite often (who doesn't?), but wow it did me good.

So now I'm almost 27 (next month! Aaaah!), with a man that I truly love and loves me exactly for who I am, with all my imperfections and craziness. And if I have a bad time, doubting myself, or if I go all shy, blushing whilst trying to say something, I don't give up, I let the red fade out from my cheeks and I carry on.

Because there's one thing I figured out with time, is that being 'different' makes you unique and I should try and embrace it rather than wanting to fit in.

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