The Dutch Kiwi

Time for a little refreshing update! This is an older tulip design that I used in the new banner of my Spoonflower shop, they make such gorgeous little napkins! I wanted to incorporate both the Dutch and Kiwi (New Zealand) parts of The Dutch Kiwi. My original logo was of a Tui, a New Zealand native bird, based on a photo I took at the very bottom of the South Island in a town called Bluff. It was part of a 30 day caravan trip around the South Island just after covid restrictions lifted to allow us to travel around the country. We took a day trip to Bluff to check out the very bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. While watching the kids look through all the beautiful stones at the beach, I sat on a bench near a large Harakeke (flax) and this beautiful Tui came and hung out with me. Singing a beautiful song and drinking the nectar from the flowers. I was looking at my logo the other day and realized that most people outside of New Zealand would not recognize the Tui as a New Zealan...

Retro Nouveau Design Challenge I am getting in early for the next design challenge on Spoonflower. The Retro Nouveau Design Challenge  is one I was very excited about. I thought I had never drawn an Art Nouveau inspired design. But, once I looked for inspiration I found that there are many similarities to one of my favourite styles, Art Deco. Art Nouveau Retro Floral Warm Earth Tones Large  This is the original colour way that I drew. I liked the warm earth tones and this seemed to tie in well to the Nouveau themes I had seen. After many edits, extra layers to add a little more detail and take some away again, it is finished. I began to play with the background colour to see how it would look on a darker background. Art Nouveau Retro Floral Dark Earth Tones Large And that is how I ended up with this darker earth tone version. I love the extra more obvious detail in the first design but the elements pop so much more on the darker background. I have been running a poll on Instag...

Designs Sold on Spoonflower in October 2025 In October I made 8 sales, just one down from September. Things are looking a bit more stable again. I have decided to up my game in regard to social media and interacting online. Hopefully we will see the results here over the next few months! I wrote a post about it,  Does Following Designers or Favouriting Designs on Spoonflower help? In New Zealand we are only a few short weeks away from the summer holidays so I will have a lot more time to create and interact soon. Here are designs that sold in October 2025:   Croissant Soft Textured Blue Small I have recoloured this design adding three more colours, I wrote a post about it,  Delicious Croissants with Soft Texture - New Colours!  This was because I noticed them featuring regularly in the monthly sales posts. This month is no exception and 3 of the 8 sales this month were for the croissant design. Croissant Soft Textured Blue Medium  (x2) Textured Waves in Aqua Tea...