Buying from friends

I am blog shopping. Earlier this week I bought jewellery from Sybille, as you saw in my last post. Today my card order arrived from fellower blogger and friend PG, all beautifully packaged in red tissue paper with matching red string. I chose the Tin Mice cards, and bought lots of the same design, but there are a wonderful selection of images to choose from, have a look on her blog, where you can find links to Gretels cards and also papercuts in her new etsy shop, and read all about life in the country as an illustrator, click here:

http://allaroundus.blogspot.com/

I think it is so much nicer to purchase unusual things from individual people, rather than buying for example mass produced jewellery from high street stores, or online from places like Accessorize, where everyone else has exactly the same as you, and it's all factory made, or cards from Clintons, the same designs all over the country. (I shouldnt really be saying this because I am a commercial illustrator myself and most of my clients are large publishers such as Disney and Hallmark, and my cards are for sale in Clintons! but, that is another story, I do that to pay the bills. www.omniadesigns.com )

It's also good to support small businesses, and individual artists, I would rather give them my money than the big companies.

I have just enquired about some beautiful postcards from another illustrator online, and ordered an etching from a blogging friend, so watch this space, and I will show you those too when they arrive!

Penny.