Oh my! What a month... Does anyone else feel like April picked you up, shook you over for loose change and ran away with it?
We've had quite the productive month to be sure. Fueled by a good dose of hot chocolate, late nights, and sparkling autumn sunshine. We've been inspired by pastel colour palettes, relaunching our Hello Pretty store, and adding a few new semi-custom ranges to our catalogue.
Monthly Roundup April 2019: Colour Palette
Honestly, how could someone not be inspired by such a collection of hues??! With the cooling of the season, I've been loving more softer tones of the traditional autumn colours — I keep finding myself coming back to this range — especially that mustardy butterscotch!
Watercolour Illustrations
I find it important for my creative drive to find time for personal creative projects. Taking time to paint or make something for no other reason than the fact that I want to and creating something I find interesting with no intentions of making money from it. I think it would be easy to burn out if I didn't make time for these sort of pieces.
During a power outage early in April, I picked up my mum's copy of Nigel Slater's 'Taste', with the intention of distracting my mind from the fact that the power was off and I dearly wanted a cup of tea. Well, all I can say is that I was drawn in! Within the space of a few pages, in the light of a paraffin lamp, I was drinking up stories on how to choose the best apple tree for a small London garden(imperative knowledge for a woman in South Africa), growing plump gooseberries, and deterring even the most persistent of garden pests. I had completely forgotten about that cup of tea.
Since, then, I've been enjoying watercolour food illustration, and sketches of cute little English cottages — definitely good for fueling the creative drive!
Reopening Our Hello Pretty Store and Watercolour Monograms
Back at the beginning of April, I was so excited to announce the reopening of our Hello Pretty store! Our store had been closed since my move to the Eastern Cape last year, while we sorted out the boring bits of a creative business like courier services... With this in mind, I relaunched with (mostly) digital products — the first being one of Caterham Co.'s most requested items; a range of semi-custom watercolour monograms/crests! I had such fun designing this range. There are five different designs to start off with and I'll be designing more as time goes by.
Digital Invitations
Speaking of digital... Earlier this month, I asked on our Instagram what you Loves thought about digital invitations. I had been on the fence about adding them to our services for a while now. I think that as a stationery designer, I have been quite biased about them though because your response was overwhelmingly positive (especially in light of our struggling postal service...). You convinced me that they might be a good thing after all! So, this month, we've launched two new digital invitation suites (invitation, save-the-date, and thank-you note), to our Hello Pretty store.
I'm particularly in love with our 'Greenery' invitation suite, where we have matching day-of stationery like menus and place/escort cards, which you can order to tie your wedding stationery together beautifully.
I've really enjoyed writing this monthly wrap-up post! (More than I thought to be honest...) I think I'll make this a monthly thing! I hope you all have a wonderful May. Hmmm... I'm already thinking of cold weather, frosty nights, crackling fireplaces, and jewel-toned colours.
Happy Planning, Loves.
