January end of month review

I recently came across a lovely little blog full of DIY craft ideas, interesting finds and lots of beautiful patterns.  This blogger would do a review at the end of each month just to sum up certain things that had happened, films she had seen, what her favourite posts were and I thought it was such a nice idea that I'd do my own end of month review.

Biggest news of the month!

This month I finally got my website up and running, it is only fairly simple and I still have quite a bit to do to it but I'm so happy to have somewhere for a more professional looking online portfolio.  You can find my website here!

Artist of the month

This month I found a truly stunning artist whose use of colour and brush strokes will have you mesmerised! Leonid Afremov, below are two of my favourite of his pieces but click on his name to see the huge range of pieces he has produced.

Patterns I have happened upon this month

Next are a couple of patterns that have jumped out at me this month and I just had to photograph them, the first is a cushion from Ikea whose black and white detailed pattern really caught my eye.  The second is some wrapping paper left behind by some customers at work (I work part time in a restaurant),it was the  colour palette and unusual geometric shapes grabbed me.

Favourite blog posts from this month

New Design Ideas, one of which I am extremely happy with! (Evergreen Wreaths)

Efuto's I've been sending (Picture envelopes) If anyone is interested in sending lovely mail art to each other please get in touch and we can swap =)

Other findings this month

In my second year of university we were asked to put together an online portfolio and I happened to come across my Behance portfolio this month and see some of my photography, drawing and textile work from past years which was a nice little surprise.  This made me want to get my old sketchbooks out and art books from A levels (sadly these are at home so I will showcase some of this work when I venture back to North Yorkshire next weekend!).  You can see these projects here and below is a snippet of the future post on my old artwork, two of my self portraits from A level.

I bought a lovely new cook book this month and will be making my way through all the delicious treats! Last week I made Lemon and Blueberry Muffins and they were delicious! Find the recipe here, here is the book I bought, it is a brilliant buy for anyone who likes to bake!

Now for what is in store for February! Well I have some new talented ladies to introduce to you all and have been searching for some new unusual artists and designers to share with you.  There will be some more Efuto goodness aswell as we are planning a second round of efuto swaps with a Spring theme!