be-lated christmas wishes

merry late christmas!

blog feature

Well it was a lovely suprise to come back from a weekend at my parents to find that a piece of my work had been featured on this lovely blog over the weekend... take a look here! 

Thank you so much Iona!

Christmas Cards

I have started squeezing in some time to make some christmas cards recently, so I thought I would share them. One design is for sale already in my etsy shop, so go take a look HERE! :)

halloween cakes :)

The past few days have been RUBBISH! yesterday morning started with a flat tyre on my car which meant i was late for work which meant mooorre overtime so lessss time making cards and things. From then on it has been a hopeless few days.... BUT I am going home for the weekend tomorrow and spending tomorrow evening with my good friends who I do not see enough. So I have decorated some halloween cakes for them :)

It was my first attempt at piping icing. not bad i think. :)

anyway thought I would share them with you.... well a photo of them.

im still here. promise.

Well full time work seems to have been keeping me busy over the past month, hence no posts and sadly not much illustrating. 

I have had a second sale on etsy though so this has made me happy and got me making again and today I AM going to be making some christmas cards. 

I am going to try and fit more blogging and etsy-ing and making into my schedule again. I think it just took a while to get used to my new full days. Am enjoying my job and am already looking on etsy for christmas presents to spend all my money on. hehe. 

i haaaaaave a job! fiiiiinally!

Woodland List

As I have some time on my hands (inbetween job hunting of course), I thought I would make another etsy treasury list :) I love making them because I love looking at beautiful things that people have made. 

It is a woodland inspired list as I love walking or riding my horse through the woods. It is one of my favourite places actually. 

heres the link to the treasury: Woodland Wanders

speaking in triangles

Well this is what I have been doing today. He is now available in my etsy shop :)

Oh and I made THE BEST bread yesterday. yuuuummm. my best yet, which im very proud of. (normally they turn out a bit heavy and stodgy.) but not this one! Wish I could a photo to prove it. Maybe next time.

muchos muchos

The extent of my dads spanish "muchos" "muchos" hehe. 

Anyway, back from a lovely week in Menorca with my family. Was very warm! Did loads of swimming and relaxing and eating yummy breakfasts. Lots of pancakes were involved. yum!

Heres just a few photos from my holiday :)

Bears Bears Bears

I made a treasury on etsy today... guess what the theme is? Bears! :) I love my little bear characters so thought I would see what other bears are around on etsy. Soooo many things that I want!

Heres my treasury: bears bears bears

1st BLOGIVERSARY + FREE GIFT!

I have been blogging for 1 year today! I'm pretty impressed about that! 

I do like my little blog!

I have had a thought... to celebrate my blogiversary and the re-awakening of my etsy shop, whoever buys something from my etsy shop today or tomorrow will get a free gift! 

How exciting!

sooooo mooch on over to my shop :) 

Peppy has gone mad with excitement.

bringing my etsy back to life

After a busy few years and not much etsy-ing, I have started to bring my etsy shop to life. Got a few cards in there if any one would like one or two or more (please). hehe. 

Anyway, I would plug it too much on here, coz that doesnt mke very good reading.

buuuuttt while im here: MY ETSY!

Also... going on holiday next week! Veeeeeeery excited!

Friendly Bear

Busy

I've been keeping myself busy today by making some new cards. 

The first one I made a few days ago for a friends birthday. You don't see enough racoons on birthday cards!

Tough Times

Having a bit of a tough time at the moment. Nothing major, just little things. Probably normal for someone who has just finished uni and job searching.

To remedy this I am planning on going on holiday with my mum and dad in a couple of weeks to Menorca. I'm very excited about this! Sitting on a beach and swimming everyday! although I do live by the sea... the warmth will be nice! and to spend some time with my parents, as I do miss them alot. 

Will be taking my sketchbook and my camera to get lots of holiday inspired illustration ideas. So will hopefully come back feeling refreshed and full of ideas.

Can not wait!

Also! Just realised I will have been blogging for a year on thursday next week.I am quite proud of this.

Facebook Fan Page

I have set up a facebook fan page for my illustration! 

Have a look and join here!

New Character

A while ago I created a new character for a childrens book illustration competition. Sadly my style wasnt for them, but I now have a brand new character to share with you. 

I'm thinking of writing a new story for him but for now he will be appearing on new greetings cards and things

I dont have a name for him at the moment because I have had to change it since the competition. 

Anyway, here he is! 

 He is a cheeky chappy!

 

My Lovely Horsey

love this

Oliver Jeffers is one of my favourite illustrators. His childrens books are so lovely. 

I especially love this image.

Race for Life

On sunday I completed my 3rd ever Race for Life. In previous years I have only walked it... taking about an hour to do so. A while ago I decided that I was going to jog the whole of the 5k, and that I would train for it. My training was LAME! I was rubbish at going for jogs on my own so ended up only going jogging a few times in the build up before the race. This was not good as I am nooooo runner! So I figured I would probably be walking it again this year with maybe some bursts of jogging at the start and end.... but! I suprised myself! I jogged the whole thing, apart from maybe 500m of traffic jams where the track got thinner and everyone slowed down. I managed to do the race for life this year in 36 minutes. I am so proud of myself! 

Afterwards, feeling great (before all the aching set in) I realised why people get so addicted to running. Although I dont think I will be becoming one of them just yet! Will try and keep the jogging up though....now that I know I CAN do it (even with my horrendously dodgy knees) No more excuses for me!

(Me, Sue, Aimee, Sarah and Mum before our 3rd Race for Life together)

Folksy

I have decided, while I am job hunting (unsuccessfully) I will set up a folksy account and update my etsy account to hopefully earn some income from there. So far I have only set up a folksy and listed one set of cards, but its a start! will be updating my etsy and adding more to folksy sooooooon! 

Wouldnt it be lovely to not have to job hunt and just earn all my money from selling my illustrations? yes. yes it would. I can dream. 

oh nearly forgot! my folksy is:HERE!

AUCB Illustration Degree Show

Please come visit our degree show at the Arts University College at Bournemouth.

It will be open from the 24th June until the 1st July - 10am - 5pm. All are welcome. 

I have my book in the show, it will be found by the sofas so get comfy and have a read!

Come take a look at all the beautiful work in our illustration studio. 

by the way

I am not sure what is going on with the layout of this page. I will be sorting it out in the near future (or trying to!)

Coming to the end

I graduate on the 2nd of July. Exciting! 

Get my final grade on the 25th June. Terrifying! Thats next week!

and then off into the world of work I go. wierd!

in the process of looking for and applying for jobs at the moment. Anything I can get will do for the moment because I just need the money to keep me going and then once Im settled then Ill start looking for a grown up job. I WILL be trying to get my little book published. that would be a dream come true. The dream situation would be that I could work as a childrens book illustrator. 

In between job hunting and stress/nervous breakdowns about finishing uni, I have been dreaming up some illustrations for a competition for a new publishers. The winner gets the job of illustrating a little series of books about a little dog. I am very excited about this. I have been having trouble getting the little dog to look like how I imagine him, but I think I have found him now. 

Will put some pictures up soon to get some opinions :) 

Anyway, the deadline is next week so i better get a move on! 

Got a lovely weekend ahead... going home for my lovely boyfriends birthday and then we are going to London to watch some cricket and then we are coming back to bournemouth with his friends to play cricket at such on the beach and then I'm going back home for sunday because I am taking part in the race for life (which i was meant to be jogging, but training has gone badly so maybe a bit of both walking and jogging)

and then I have the rest of the weekend to spend with Pepperlump. (my big grey lovely horse) cant wait to see her. I miss her so much.

Right! back to little dog illustrating!

website

website is finally working. Made it a few weeks ago and thought it was working, but it wasnt so finally got it working. yay.

its very basic at the moment, and does something strange for the first few clicks, but then it sorts itself out. I will be sorting that out and also adding more work onto it soon. 

address is.... www.holliemcmanus.co.uk

website making!

Just making my website, hopefully it will be up and running soon!

Its kinda basic, but hopefully more beautifully simple.

Exciting!

eek!

I have just ordered my book for my Extended major project. I feel wierd, because I have 2 weeks before the deadline, and I feel like I have finished (technically have), but I feel like something is definatley going to be wrong with my book, and I will have to redo loads.

plllleeeeaassee turn out ok!

patterns

I made a pattern today for my project... for the end pages of my childrens book. I quite liked how it turned out, and am thinking about making more patterns when this project is done. Quite like the idea of making my own wrapping paper and other patterned things. This pattern features one of the characters from my story, and some elements from the backgrounds also seen in my book.


I like it :)

etsy

I am hoping to put new work up on etsy to sell because it seems we are slowly running out of money, and I dont really have time to get a job yet because of this final major project (i want it to be good) so I thought I would see if people would like to buy some drawings and collages of mine. Money could also go towards my end of year show. :)
Anyway, will hopefully be organising things soon.

How To Help | DressageDisgrace

How To Help | DressageDisgrace

This is really important to me, so please even if you are not a horsey person could you sign the petition. (you dont have to donate after if it asks you to)

Basically some dressage riders are using techniques to train and ride their horses which means that the horses chin is touching its chest. This creates breathing problems, and "blue tongue" and other problems with their head. You can see that the horse surcomes to forced helplessness. This is rediculous as this is not how horses hold themselves naturally.

I dont know why people want their horses to look like this when horses hold their heads beautifully naturally.
We need to make a fuss so that this trainig method is banned!!!!!!
There is a petition link on the site so please please sign it.
Thank you

Thank you for reading my angry ramble. :)

keeping it alive!

I have decided not to neglect this blog now, as I quite like it and want to keep it alive.

I have been mega busy with uni work. Getting into my extended major project now. quite exciting. Im doing a childrens book, which I have written! I hope to enter it into the macmillian childrens book competition in April.

Ive got quite alot to do before the project deadline! like make a WHOLE childrens book! buuuttt its my last proper project of uni, and I want to get a good mark for it, so I need to work hard!
I am going to be making my website soon for my illustration work. So that will be exciting! and i hope to put some work up on etsy to sell :)

Also starting to think about work after uni! scary, but exciting!

rubbish at blogging!

I have been rubbish at posting on here since I started back at uni. must mean that i am super busy! :)

just started a new blog which will act as my learning log for my FINAL PROJECT! eek.

so this blog will most likely remain neglected untill in finish uni now.


Hollie