24

Wishing a wonderful Christmas to everyone everywhere. 

Let your hearts be light!

Much love.

x

23

The Eve before the Eve.... a tiny baby deer wrapped just for you. 

x

22

Today is Pug day. This little chap has been 

waiting patiently to make an appearance. 

x

21

A snowy owl.... how could I forget this little fella. 3 days until the big Eve everyone. 

x

20

And the bear found a small present wrapped just for him...

:-)

x

19

Yep, I know leopard's aren't your typical festive creature but who cares...

everyone's invited to this Christmas party! 

x

18

I love robins... they're little feathery packages of winter magic. 

x

17

He made it! 

x

16

Lost amongst the fir trees.... will the deer find the Christmas party in time? 

x

15

I think we need a bit of peace from this fella today. 

x

14

May all your presents be delivered by camels with big gold bows. 

x

13

We're having a sort of an early Christmas day at ours today for some of my family. 

I should really be throwing the mince pies in the oven (the ones I haven't made yet) instead of doing this.... gotta run! 

x

12

Half way peeps!! 

All swans should wear sparkling crowns don't you think. 

x

11

If only foxes were glittery, maybe just at Christmas time...that would be nice. 

x

10

and a little bit of wonder and magic... that's all I want for Christmas. 

x

9

A bit late today... one poorly daughter and a tree that needed decorating. 

Both much happier now.

x 

8

It's Monday again! :-O 

7

A Partridge joins the party, with a pear or two. 

x

6

Frost on the ground, Winter's definitely in the air now. 

Keep your eyes out for foxes.. this is their busiest weekend for Christmas shopping,  so I hear!

x

5

Somewhere, in the middle of a fir tree forest, the snow is falling, the stars are glittering and the animals are gathering for their Christmas Ball. (See, I told you my advent has a story to it!)

x

4

4 already! Prepare to perfectly panic about Present preparation! 

(channelling a little Popper's penguins for you there :-) ) 

x

3

You know in old black and white movies, when they're shopping and are balancing big piles of boxes wrapped with ribbons and filled with beautiful dresses. I'd like some of that this year please. x

(oh, and a giraffe to carry them for me ;-) 

2

So, this year I'm going for a bit of a glamour story in my advents... a bit of glitz and glitter mixed up with a sprinkle of Christmas magic. 

A touch of the kind of party you want to be invited to with a great big gold invite delivered to your door. A girl can dream hey!

For more of a peek, go to my website home page.... or just wait every day and see what pops up. :-) 

x

1

At last count, we now have 9 advents on the go in our house... 3 chocolate ones, 3 paper ones, 1 Playmobil thing and 2 on the iPad. The kiddos are going to have to get up an hour earlier just to get them open before school. And one of them is hidden all round the house just to add to the challenge, ha ha. So, going with that more is definitely merrier,  I'll be doing the full 24 on here too. I LOVE the build up to Xmas, it's my favourite part. So, hope this brings a little Christmas magic from me to you.

You can also check out our Dotty Wren advent each day here too, 6 from each of us.... you can never have enough! And my fellow wren Dawn will be posting one on her blog too. (So that's 3 for your advent pile already. You might need to to set aside an hour too... x)

I haven't had much time for blogging recently so I've now got a back log of new things to tell.

First up, I was really excited to be asked by MOMAZINE to contribute to the fall edition of their beautiful magazine. It's a stunning and creative publication for motherhood, filled with beautiful photography, and styling, just gorgeous. 

I'm so pleased with my thankful affirmation... I'm already planning more of these. 

But the best part, For a limited time, it's available for you to download over at momazine. 

Just in time for thanksgiving if you're over in the lovely USA!  

x 

How can it be November already? How? How? How is that possible? 

I like November though. Cold and cosy with

 the promise of Christmas sneaking up on you. 

And I think there's a little bit of finesse to this month's pic... hope you like it. 

x

Wishing you a merry spooksville time this week Peeps! 

Are you a tricker or a treater?? ;-)

So last weekend, we bought a kooky looking acorn squash from a food festival. Mmmm, roasted in the oven, delish you might say. But no... it tasted DISGUSTING! Not a little bit disgusting... full on the most foul tasting bitterest thing on the earth disgusting. So much so, we luckily didn't even manage more than a tiny taste. Whilst our mouths and lips were burning, we googled 'disgusting tasting squash' as you do, and found out that sometimes, on rare occasions, squashes can turn all weird and produce a toxic poison that could actually be deadly. Mmmm... nice one. The taste lasted for over a day. I keep having taste flashbacks.

So, the moral of this cautionary Autumn tale is....

Beware of evil squashes everyone. 

October's here. How'd that happen? I'm not quite finished with September yet. I haven't got anything to wear. It's cold... come back Summer. (Don't worry, I do this every single year... you have to drag me into Autumn Winter kicking and screaming. Yes, I know Autumn's so pretty with falling leaves and stuff, I just don't enjoy the cold or shorter days. I like skipping about in shorts outside at 9pm eating strawberries. I actually don't think I really do this but I know you definitely can't do it in the Winter and it's annoying! 

ON the plus side though, I've got another busy month, it's all go. I've been working with some amazing people recently and I've got lots of ideas in the pot. Shorter days mean I'll sit at my desk more so that's all good for the hard worker in me. :-)

You've got to love a few days of foxes. I think the collective term is a funkadella of foxes.
 :-) 

Oops!

I've just noticed my website is not working, and have since discovered my domain name didn't renew as it should. Hopefully it will be back up in the next couple of days. 

In the meantime, if you want to get in contact please email

lizziemackaydesign@gmail.com

Many thanks and sorry about that, I'm a bit rubbish with this kind of stuff! :-) 

It's still nice but there's a little bit of Autumn in the air isn't there. 

Plus side, I don't mind working so much when it's grey and chilly. 

Quick little plant whatever for a warm up today, thought I'd share it on here. Might make this into a bigger pattern when I have a spare mo. 

You've got to love the Summer holidays for the constant ball juggle and the pure fact that work and children off school do not mix... AT ALL. I feel guilty for working and guilty for not working. 

In the back of my head, I've been thinking that, in a few years, my children will think I'm boring and won't want to hang out with me at all so I should allow myself some precious moments while I have them. I hope everyone will forgive me if things are taking a little longer than usual to get done. Normal service will be resumed in September, I promise! :-) 

Today's warm-up doodle is celebrating Summer... how did you guess! 

Yep, six scoops for this rabbit! My kind of guy! 

Still love love lovin' Summer! 

I am loving this hot and humid short wearing Summer so far. I'm meant for warmer climes so it's suiting me down to the ground. Big up to feelin' hot! 

Better late than never. I started this the other day but haven't had time to post until now. 

Oh July, July, please stay dry. It's raining today and it's cold. I'm wearing socks. Summers with actual sunshine is how life should be. Ok. 

New Look!

I've had a little blog makeover.... a bit of me with a tropical twist... channelling all the Brazilian fever at the moment. I'm hoping it will inspire me to gee up my blogging which has become a bit pathetic at lately. I'm thinking of changing things up a bit too and adding other titbits that catch my eye along with my pictures. 

So stay tuned... but don't wait with baited breath, it's Summer and these things can take a bit of time... Swingball in the garden of an evening is winning at the moment. It'll be back to rain soon and I'll be back! 

Reason to celebrate..

Today I had to draw a monkey. I'm not a big fan of drawing monkeys... I quite like gorillas but monkeys fill me with dread. But today, I actually drew some I quite like! Not big news in the big scheme of things but a tiny achievement for me. yay!:-) 

More blogging soon, I promise... been a bit busy and a bit lacking in the blogging lustre department to be honest. But for now, a partying monkey fella. 

Everything to gain...

I was really excited when the lovely Jenipher Lyn Gallardo asked me to be a part of her blog party to help promote her brilliant book "How being stubborn, unpopular and depressed saved my life."

 It's filled with lots of quotes, quirky illustrations and advice with the aim of helping and encouraging teenagers through those sometimes tricky and emotional adolescent years. It's all about being yourself and being happy that you're YOU. And we've all been there, right, with bells on.

This week deals with Ambition AKA Diving In..

It's the same all through life isn't it... the only things you really regret are the things you don't do. 

I've let opportunities pass me by because I dithered and was too nervous to step out of my comfort zone... I'll never know where they would have taken me if I'd just had a bit more courage.

But I've also done things I was really scared of too. I remember at 16, finishing school and everyone was staying on at 6th form to do A'Levels but I really didn't want to. I didn't really love school, they weren't my favourite years at all. I wanted to try something new so I took a brave leap and chose to go to a whole new college. I didn't know anyone. But, do you know... it changed my life. The friends I made there are still my friends today. It was the best jump into the unknown I ever made. 

These days, I'm forever telling my children to 'get stuck in' and 'try it'... to make them a bit braver than I ever was. My daughter won't do things like a new club or something if her friends aren't doing it too. I remember I was the same at her age. But the thing is... she'll probably get more friends just by being diving in there. And there's nothing quite like the exhilaration after doing something you were totally afraid to do. 

So, to all you teens out there and older peeps too... don't be scared... go for it... whatever the situation, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain! 

And if, on the odd occasion, it doesn't work out (annoying but that happens sometimes) then you can still be proud that you gave it a right good shot. :-) 

By the way... I put a tiger in my picture in homage to Katy Perry's ROAR... (and in the 'Rocky' film where's Sylvester's training and runs up the steps... I love that bit)... a bit sad I know. Both of them really motivate me when I'm feeling a bit lost. Put them on your iPod, go for a jog and sing them loud and proud! They'll get you going! (And if you have loads of steps to run up near you, that's a bonus! :-)) 

That's it, I'm packed, my work is packed, the 2m tree is packed (don't ask!) I'm off to the big apple

in about half an hour. My stomach is rolling, half with nerves, half with excitement. 

What I've got is what I've got... I just hope people like it. Come and say hi to us dotty wrens and check out our work... and our booth... that's where the 2m tree comes in.  Booth 834... we've got free sweets and everything! ;-) 

See you on my return. Love x

The other day I spotted some cute little fish of mine in Sainsburys. 

I wanted to show it on here as I really love that they've made a whole range of the sweetest little clothes with them in the prettiest palette ... my favourite being a vintage hand knit style cardigan with little fish pockets. Here's just a few of the garments below. Love Sainsburys! 

In store now! :-) 

my original designs...

All copyright belonging to Sainsburys Ltd. 

That's me! In 2 weeks, I'm off to the Big apple to sell my wares! 

I would love to see you if you're going, so pop by and say hello. Can't vouch for what state I'll be in though, I've never worked so hard in my whole entire life... 70 hour weeks, trying to fit all the prep for the show and the day job and I'm still not out the woods yet. I'm excited though. I can't wait to spend a week in NY with the dotty wrens. If nothing else, we're going to have some FUN! :-)

I'm popping my head out above all the work I'm swamped in to wish you a very Happy Easter. 

I like to think it's where the new year really begins and everything starts to grow.... new possibilities, sunshine again, blossom and buds everywhere, lambs skipping about, all the good stuff! I've been blessed to be so busy recently with some really dream clients and it's now 28 days to Surtex and counting. I feel like I've barely just begun, terrifying but exciting. Nothing like a deadline to pull it out the bag! Wish me luck! x

I'm so lucky to have my work selected to appear in the Surface Pattern Design Guide in the latest edition of Uppercase, out now. It's such a design dream, I'm honoured to be amongst so many other amazing designers in such a respected and elegant publication. Thanks Uppercase! 

Here's one of my designs featured.... go get it and be inspired!

Find out how to get hold of your copy here