Author Archives: amy

Alas having three blog posts about illustrated calendars isn’t quite enough given the amount of lovely ones popping up all over the place, so here’s part 4 for your calendar shopping pleasure! I can’t believe there’s only less than 50 days until the end of the year — where did the time go?!

Maria Helena’s 2011 calendar available in her two.dot.two shop.

Celebrate each month with a new mermaid! The Nantucket Mermaid 2011 calendar

A bow tie assortment for 2011 calendar by Lily X

The Design Files 2011 calendar featuring artists like Webuyyourkids, James Hankock and Marcela Restrepo {sent in by Marcela}

Pintameldia 2011 calendar by Esti

Lori Dean Dyment’s calendar

And here are a few sent in by Melanie, Pikaland’s chief interview lady:

A calendar of Able & Game girls 2011

Annette of Nut and Bee has a cute desk calendar out!

Invincible Summer Animal calendar by SpinsterSummer

Also, props has to be given to Susan Mitchell’s Little Poppets 2011 calendar — this one is a little different from the others because it isn’t illustrated by hand, but I’m parking it under this category because I love how she arranged her felt characters to tell a story for each month!

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See the entire illustrated calendar series here: part #1, part #2 & part #3

I’m going off for the weekend, but I’ll update you on where I’m posting as a guest later today, yay!

Jan Avendano is a graphic designer and illustrator currently residing in Toronto, Canada, and I love, love, LOVE her patterns. In fact, I loved her patterns even before I discovered her work. If you’re scratching your head at this last sentence, allow me to explain:

A lot of commented on my Twitter page background, asking me who was the designer behind it. The truth was I didn’t know — I downloaded the pattern from a website (the name of which I can’t remember because it was such a long time ago), who said that the patterns were available to use and that it was for free.

Last week, I stumbled upon Jan Avendano’s work and lo and behold — there it was! I had finally found the the designer behind the pattern that had haunted me for two years, but instead of feeling elated, I felt sick. I felt that way because that other website was blatantly ripping off Jan’s design and was passing it off as their own (for free too, how nice of them).

Though I was seething at my own stupidity, I quickly sent an email to Jan to explain about what I had just discovered. She was really sweet about the whole thing and even told me that I could continue to use the pattern for my Twitter background. {Thanks Jan!}

You know how there are things that remain at the back of your head because you can’t seem to figure them out? Well I’m so glad that I can finally cross this off my list! The only thing that would make this perfect would be if I could just remember the name of that nasty website…

Mengsel is a Dutch and Afrikaans word for mixture; and is also the name of the business that London based South African designer, Luzelle van der Westhuizen set up in 2009. Bright bold patterns in cheery colors are the hallmark of Mengsel’s wares, as Luzelle is inspired by geometric and hand-drawn patterns, as well as African and Scandinavian design.

Luzelle is giving away a Bigger boat screen print in bright turquoise worth USD$63, silk screen printed by hand. The print measures 15” x 11” (A3 size).

Just comment below by 16th November and we’ll pick out a random winner after!

*UPDATE: Commenting has now closed, thanks so much for participating. The winner of this giveaway will be announced tomorrow! is Sarah Cunningham!