It's here... the Tropical Fusion Blog Hop

Welcome to the Tropical Fusion Blog Hop. For 4 days 45 surface pattern designers are linking their blogs together to create a feast of new and exclusive designs. All you have to do is click on the link at the bottom of each post to move on to the next blog. To start the blog hop from the very beginning just click on the logo over on the right and you will find yourself at Groovity Designs.
You have probably just come over from Anne M Bray's blog Pattern Recognition and taken in her fab patterns. Now it is time for me to reveal my designs which have been created especially for this blog hop. The theme is Tropical Fusion and incorporates the Pantone Color of the Year 2014 - Radiant Orchid. 

I have taken my tropical inspiration from the luscious growth of vegetation - flowers, grass, roots, trees, leaves, fruits and seed pods. My original sketches were scanned and digitally elaborated to invent unique motifs to work with. 

With the wealth of icons I'd created I then began to put together my main design. I wanted it to be strong and really make the most of the Pantone Color of the Year 2014 - Radiant Orchid to give an important beginning to the collection. With a lot of movement in the design and a bed of dark leaves below… (you know how much I love my feathery leaves) the pattern began to emerge. It has rhythm and style, is rich and detailed, and above all, dark and luxurious. The 'Lush & flourish' collection is completed with complementary designs which all pull together to create a very tropical collection!

For more tropical goodies just click on the link below to move on to the lovely Maike Thoma's blog Pattern jots where you will find more beautiful designs and inspiration. I do hope you have enjoyed your visit here at Nice and Fancy, please come back soon. You can follow me on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.

Announcing the Tropical Fusion Blog Hop!

Next Saturday, yes it's almost here, the Tropical Fusion Blog Hop will begin. Over 50 surface pattern designers will link their blogs together to form an inspirational 'blog hop' with the theme Tropical Fusion featuring of course the beautiful Pantone Color of the Year 2014 Radiant Orchid. Nice and Fancy will be taking part and you must be sure to come and visit.

So please make a date from the 18th through to 21st of January 2014 you can run through our blogs and enjoy a taste of new, exciting and inspirational work. Make sure you have some time on your hands and a cup of tea handy, it's gonna be a load of fun. See you there... I mean here :)

Radiant Resolutions

Hello my lovelies. I am here to wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2014, and of course, I hope all your dreams really do come true!
This year my New Year's Resolution was NOT to make New Year's Resolutions, so there you go, I got all that done and dusted pretty quickly. However, that doesn't mean I haven't got any plans, hopes or dreams for 2014 it's just that I am working on them and not writing about them.

When Pantone announced their Color of the Year I realised that for me 2014 was starting on a high. Such a fab colour! To design patterns using colour palettes which include a bit of Radiant Orchid will be a dream. I have begun a new project (and I will write about it pretty soon) which has this beautiful colour as part of the brief... so watch this space.

 

If you love Radiant Orchid like me you can read more about it on the Pantone Website or follow the Color of the Year on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. I also have a modest Color of the Year board on Pinterest which will I hope you will follow. Maybe it will inspire me to greater things pretty soon! 

P.S. Happy New Year to you all xx

News from the 'posh gift shop'

The festive season is finally in full swing and we are rushing around in the 'posh gift shop' selling lots of useful, fun, nice and not so nice gifts of every kind imaginable. This year we are a little understaffed so it's hard work but we still find time to joke and smile. The traditional competitions are all underway for the sweetest client, the rudest client, the most ridiculous request, who spends the most, and, who spends the least wanting of course all the trimmings like beautiful gift wrap and a free bag!

 
Some of my Keka cases are in one of the five windows, I am still hoping to sell them ALL! We have already sold our last singing snowman who has spent the whole of 2013 in a cold storeroom waiting for his moment, we are happy he has gone to a good home. The old lady who comes in every year to buy all her Christmas presents for NEXT YEAR!!! arrived today so the world is still as it should be :) I still have to wrap up an ironing board but as a substitute I have already wrapped up a hat and coat stand so we are still in practice. 
There are still 9 days left to go, for us each day that passes is always worse than the last because the clients become more and more frenetic and demanding. Some are convinced to have seen 'this or that' in our windows last week at 'that' price and we don't have the heart to tell them that we have never had an item like that in stock! In the run up to Christmas all is feasible and possible... even the impossible. 
Looking forward to Christmas Eve when things begin to calm down and everyone is at peace that finally what they still haven't bought they won't be able to buy because the shops all close in half an hour. Then just when you think you are safe you see him coming 30 minutes before closing time to buy 2 gifts and he is without fail always, ALWAYS, our last customer!