family affair

I've gone card mental... Although in reality I have talked about getting my Dunnottar Castle cards out there for years now, so really it's that I've only just got around to it now.

 It seems fitting that they're now part of the Mother's Day display in my son's shop, except having just uploaded and zoomed in on the image he sent me this morning, the signage is less than appropriate.... "Remember to treat the angry woman who raised you, or else!". The "angry woman who raised you"?!? Oi! Wait til I get hold of him! (although, yeah ok, he maybe has a point...).

good things come

Little things make me happy: this weekend's delicious Spanish red, the label of which is featured in the contemporary wine label design book I recently acquired as research for the beer label project. 

As a design theme it works brilliantly: according to the blurb, Matsu is a Japanese word that translated into English means "to wait". But Dunnottar Wines, my local wine emporium, doesn't stock the older dudes - I guess as you would expect, they're featured on the finer Matsu vintages. (Not, incidentally, a metaphor that necessarily holds true outside of the wine world...).

As an aside, I downloaded the snapseed app to edit the image on the iPad... and I like it! It's more intuitive than PS express and has a bunch more filters and textures. Best of all, it's free. And, as the blurb on the website where I found it said: "Snapseed: only you can decide whether to make your photos approximately 72 per cent more ominous"!!! Recommending...

off the shelf

I think I've already said, but I'm super excited to be designing the beer labels for new, upcoming Stonehaven tipple, the Green Lady. I'm a regular visitor to the fabulous Dunnottar Wines, who will be brewing the brew, and not just because no.1 son is the manager! This time though, it was for genuine beer label research (although I did pick up a hitherto untried 2011 Malbec while I was there...).

So, I'm currently swotting up on all things label design (bliss!), and also managed to use the drawing of ghostly, elfin type creatures as an excuse to purchase a mini copy of Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, which I have coveted for years (nay, decades!). It doesn't get much better!