Sale in my shop!

Hey everyone!

People who follow me on Facebook might know it already, but I'm currently doing a sale in my shop! Since I will be moving in a month, I decided to clear out some of my stuff so I have less to pack away and move with me across the sea. It will also be a nice way to maybe start with some new products once I'm settled in and have found a job. =)

So if you're interested in some of my jewellery or cards, head over to my shop by clicking on the image below!

Click here for sales up to almost 40%!

House Hunting

So I'm sure some of you remember me mentioning (in my last post here even) that my plan is to move to the UK soon to live with my boyfriend there. I can now say that after lots of looking online and visiting some houses in real life, we have finally found a place in Bournemouth! =D
(if you just want to see the pictures and don't want to read the story, just scroll down)

It has been a bit of a busy 2 weeks, not just with Christmas and New Year, but also with the house hunting. I had made a list of houses/flats I liked and kept checking the website for new additions every day. When I finally got to the UK at the end of December, we started making appointments to check out houses.

The next day we already got to check out a place and we immediately fell in love with it! It was a one bedroom place, but the living room, kitchen and bedroom were quite big. Plus a lovely shower, 2 toilets and best of all, furnished! It's located in a quiet residential area, with the back leading into a park. We were sold.

But we knew that we couldn't just go for the first house we viewed without at least comparing it to others. So we arranged some more viewings and checked out some more places (well, 3)... but we just kept thinking about the first one, and none of the others seemed to be as good. Either they were older, smaller, not in a good location, none were furnished, yet they all cost the same.

So after a few nervous days being afraid it would be gone, we called back the agency to say we wanted the first place... and they said we could have it! =D
We went in to sign the contracts, paid our deposit, rent and fees and on Friday we got the keys! We already bought some small things from Ikea and other stores to get the basic kitchen stuff ready and to make it feel a bit more homely. Sadly I had to return back to Belgium on Saturday, but I'll be planning to move at the end of February/start of March. I will finally be living in my own place!


For those interested, here are some pictures taken with my crappy phone. They don't even do the place any justice since it's bigger than it looks!

Our front door, at the back of the building.

The communal garden seen from our front door.
The park is through that gate on the right.
There were squirrels running on the grass. =)

The living room with two leather sofas and the shelf unit.
The tv isn't ours, so that might still go (we have our own anyway).

Dining table, with a small window to the kitchen. Love it!

The kitchen. Hard to show in a picture but it's big!
That hole is going to be filled with another shelf unit,
as that's where the previous owner had his dishwasher.

The cooker and fridge/freezer.
I will love filling that fridge up with yummy food! =D

Big shower, wheee!

Part of the bedroom, with the door leading to a small built-in wardrobe.

And the bed. Very simple but I'm sure it'll be fine.
As long as my boyfriend will stay on his side. =P

So that's what my place currently looks like! It still needs some work done of course, but it already looks lovely to me. Now I just have to hope my boyfriend won't mess it up before I move in there!

One step closer to growing up...

So the news has been announced to my parents. I will be moving out soon.

Of course how soon has yet to be defined (probably somewhere after December?), and I won't just be moving out. No. I'll actually be moving to the United Kingdom, to go live with my boyfriend (who lives there already).

But of course I need to save up some money first so we can find a place to live in. It's a bit hard to do when you have no job and finding a job for two or three months is almost impossible I think. So I'm trying to sell cards and jewellery, so far without much success haha.

If you're interested in any of my stuff and want to help me out, you can have a look at my Etsy Store. Or commission me for a drawing or something. Anything! =)

I made a cute brooch a while ago, which I recently put on Etsy. It's based on my 'Whistle' drawing (which you can also see in my blog banner). I simply wanted to try out my clay to see what I could do with it. If I get more inspiration, I might try making more stuff like this.

Music note brooch.

Also when I was in Spain, I didn't just make those four Christmas cards I posted about in my previous post. I also made a drawing, something a bit different. I had taken a list with me with a lot of random words on there, to hopefully give me some inspiration. Bottled is one of the words that was on the list and a word that stood out to me, so I started sketching.

The word “bottled” brought up the “message in a bottle” image for me. But I didn't want to have a typical letter in a bottle, so I changed it around a bit to have an actual person in there. Maybe a bit weird, but to me it fits. It's something that I imagine would go well with a poem. =)

A message of love and kindness, bottled away for when you need it most.

'Bottled Love'

Drawn with inks and white ecoline ink on brown paper, then I touched it up in Photoshop. I decided to sort of leave the creases in the paper (from the water/ink) because I think it adds to the image. =)

Christmas cards

Hey everyone!

I've had a bit of a "vacation month" during October, taking a break from everything and basically travelling to different places (some planned, some not). It's been a really nice month and I felt like I needed it to regain some inspiration and energy.

I've not sat still during this time. Apart from the travelling, I also made some new drawings! To get out of my artist block, I forced myself to make Christmas cards. It wasn't an easy task as I made them in Spain, while it was usually about 30 - 35°C outside. Not an easy task to think of Winter scenes then. =P

But here are the cards I've made, apart from the one with the snowman as I made that one a longer time ago.

Christmas cards!
Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

These cards are available for sale if you would like them. They are folded greeting cards with room for you to write a message on the inside. They also come with a white envelope.
It's €2.5 per card, but if you order 3 or more, they become €2! So you could get all 5 cards for €10. =)
They are also available in Dutch, except for the snowman picture which I only have in English.

If you are interested in any of them, feel free to let me know!

And now for something different

So I've been trying to pick up drawing and painting again recently. Things are still moving slowly as I'm still trying to find some inspiration though. It's difficult to get back into it, so if anyone has some inspiration to share, feel free! =)

I bought some new acrylic paints recently as I had noticed I had completely run out of my old ones (most had dried up, awww). And of course I had to try them out. I couldn't really think of anything illustrative to draw, so I decided to do something a bit more realistic, something I used to do when I was younger.

So I found myself a small canvas I had laying around and decided to paint a golden eagle. It's not the most realistic or detailed painting ever (it's a bit tiny for that too), but I like the result, especially since I hadn't used acrylics in a few years. =)

Golden Eagle in acrylics

Super Llama!

I was contacted a while ago by Wim Leers, who saw my stall at a local art market. He asked if I could draw an image for his new website (www.wimleers.com).
Not just any kind of image though, no. He asked if I could draw for him a Super Llama!


And of course I wanted to give it a try!

It took me quite a few sketches and some redesigns, because apparently llamas aren't as easy to draw as you would imagine. But in the end the result turned out quite nice I think. =)

Super Llama!

If anyone is ever interested in a commission (be it a logo, a drawing or something else), feel free to contact me. =)

And the winner is...

So the Give Away has come to an end! Time for me to pick a winner!

(Sorry for the bad picture quality, I had to use my phone for this.)

All the names are ready to be put in the bag.

The innocent hand (mine!) is ready to pick a name!

And this is the winner!

Congrats Karen Vandelaer! You have won in my first Give Away! =D
You can contact me at info@inespee.com to let me know what prize you want (and of course to give your address).

For everyone else, thank you for participating!
I'm sorry if you didn't win, but I'm planning to do more give aways in the future, so maybe Lady Luck will be on your side then! =)