Lauren Cherice Designs is Ready to go!

So, I am so excited my studio is more or less finished. Needs a little bit of decor here or there but I have my table up! It has been a hard 6 months with the decision to move home and studio but has been worth it. I have also now left one of my part time retail jobs and ready to get back to doing what I love most.. designing and printing. 

So it began, a few months ago, moving in to a house with a little building in the bottom of my back garden. It then slowly started to get filled with my huge collection of arty supplies, big and small.

My screens made themselves at home on the racking. 

I am very lucky that my studio is metres from my back door. Dylan regularly patrols the area, making such everything is safe and sound in the garden. He hasn't yet spent an afternoon in the studio, but hes certainly been in to check the place out.

The hardest part of getting my studio together was rebuilding my print table. It took some muscles but eventually got there and is a lovely 3 metre in size. 

I then recovered and gave it a good clean to remove all dust ready for printing! I can't believe I've actually got it in, it seemed so large but has fit in the space perfectly with room to work and print around three sides of the table. It also has plenty of room for storage underneath. 

The last step was somewhere to wash my screens, here we have my makeshift wash bay. Made out of a long plant pot. When I do get printing I am going to back the wall with some plastic so thought I don't end up with multicoloured outside walls. Hopefully this will be a success! I'll let you know.

So that's it! I think I am now ready to get back printing. I am going to give it a go over the next few days. The only worry I have is the hot weather and how this might affect my printing as I am sort of printing outside. I am sure it will be fine. So back to the drawing board! I best get busy!

:)

My love of growing vegetables.

Well a few months a go I adopted a vegetable patch and some little trees. Now a few months down the line I have blackcurrents, potatoes and some other vegetables (fingers crossed).

With some little help from my nan I turned these black currents into a jam. I did taste one straight off the bush and it is fair to say it wasn't as nice as it smelt. It smelt like Ribenna but tasted extremely sour.

To make it into jam we placed the currents in a pan and added lots of sugar, stirring whilst their boiled.

Then leaving them to cool the next day I ended up with some jam on toast. I'm sure to make a more nicer jam it would need some extra steps but I was just to excited to experiment.

Then I had all this open space with the odd little plant starting to emerge. I then realised these were potatoes and decided to plant some more. This was the beginning of May. With all the contrasting weather, rain, sun, more sun, more rain, the combination started the potato plants to grown.

We have a lot of cats in the area to to try keep them off I added some netting. Then when the plants started to emerge I began to bank the sooil up around the potatoes. This helps the roots under the flower to grow making potatoes!

And grew...

They then grew...

And grew... I then also planted onion, carrots, runner beans, peas and spring onions. We will see how these grow. I do see some onions emerging. And here you have it! I have some potatoes! These are just a few of the plants that emerged. I cannot believe how many I have so far! Hopefully they will keep me going a while. :) So impressed! Even if I say so myself! 

A week ago today...

I was catching up on some sleep having spent the previous week at the magical place that is Glastonbury. I have never been to a festival before but I think I certainly picked a good one for my first. Glastonbury was amazing, filled with all different types of performing arts. I didn't realise it had such variety, especially for all the family. It was lovely to settle in the first few days of exploring with some gorgeous sunshine!

This circus performer had come all the way from Australia. He may have only had a small stage but the crowds grew as his act took place. I couldn't believe his balancing. Amazing!

After the sun came the mud, it was alot of fun, but my phone nearly got lost! Good job its yellow!

Music, performers and lots of stalls! The choice was endless. These felt hats were very popular amongst the crowds, I wish I had bought one myself. They were so much fun.

Glastonbury has many different areas including its healing field and craft field which held different work shops throughout the day for you to take part in! I do think to get everything done I needed at least a few more days. The place was huge! A lot bigger than I thought.

I really hope I get to go next year :)

Bridlington's Secret Gardens. 2014.

After a fab time at Glastonbury, I am now spending the next few days updating you with news on my blog! I hope my blog has missed me! Many of my blog posts do include lots of floral pictures! But why not! We are all embracing summer so let enjoy what nature gives us. A couple of weeks a go with some friends we went to visit the Bridlington Old Town's Secret Gardens. It has been on every year but due to work commitments I have never been to visit boo. But this year I was in luck.....

It was lovely for the home owners to let us into their gorgeous homes for this event. The event is held at numerous houses around Bridlington, but due to time I only managed exploring the Old Town. First up was the gardens behind the Georgian Tearooms. Along with enjoying cakes and a cup of tea, the tea rooms also hold a fantastic variety of antiques and vintage finds! I did make a purchase of some rustic metal flowers for my gardens! You may see a pic on my Instagram. 

After the tearooms we visited some gorgeous houses! When walking down the High Street you would not image what beauty would be behind those walls! I was in shock. The size of the garden's alone were amazing! 

It was also lovely to see so many people interested in the garden's and enjoying the beautiful flowers. 

Lots of my favourite flowers about, including the foxglove! So many of them popping about at this time of year! Along with finding many secret doors..... 

Alongside all the secret gardens, behind the shops and homes of the High Street in Bridlington is a farm and allotment. I was a little confused by this but the ducks, chickens and geese run so freely, it is fantastic to see them enjoying life. You can certainly tell this has its benefits by the size of the eggs they produce. In this glorious sunny day they were enjoying the lovely sun. 

This is my favourite shot from the day, I am rather scared of bee's and wasps but was determined to get this picture so I could draw it. I love flowers and drawing so it was a perfect occasion to get my inspired. 

I will now wait until its opened next year :)