Always Judge a Book by Its Cover

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post! I'm so sorry this blog post is late, I've had such a busy week and lots of exciting news so I didn't want to rush this one, and I knew I would have some time today (Saturday) to be able to sit down and tell you all about my week properly! Where to start eh? Hmmm... probably from the beginning!

Harrogate Home & Gift Fair

As many of you already know, I work in my family's clothes shops alongside my mum and my grandparents, as well as working for myself for Puffin Prints. Well, every year we (Mum, Nana, Pops, Holly and I) attend the Harrogate Home & Gift Fair, a 4 day trade show specialising in (guess what) gifts and homeware. We go to research and source exciting new giftware for the shops and also to re-order from our favourites who attend the show every year. So Mum and I set off early Sunday morning to Yorkshire from Anglesey, a 3 hour journey (but we stopped for a naughty MacDonald's and a drink to break it up). We arrived to the show and met up with Nana and Pops and had a fun day buying and ordering new and fun stock. We then headed to check into our hotel and had a lovely meal at the hotel too (along with a little/lot too much wine). As well as buying, I also got to spend some time with my favourite little pooch, seeing as it was so hot, Pops and I took turns chilling in the park with Holly!

This was also how I spent Monday and Tuesday, before a long drive back home on Tuesday night to be back for work in the shops on Wednesday!

Graduation

Now this one is a little bit of a long story so buckle your seat-belts and get comfy! Again, as many of you already know, aside from a passion for art and painting, I also did a Bachelor's degree in theoretical physics. I did this over three years but due to a number of circumstances last year, I couldn't attend my graduation ceremony and so I deferred it until this year. And so the second of three reasons I have been so busy this week is that my graduation ceremony was on Friday of this week! And that's where the long part of this story comes in, because I didn't attend this year either. I went to Lancaster university and so to attend my ceremony, it would be a 7 hour round trip to get there and back in a day, as it's over 3 hours travelling time, or probably more if Summer holiday traffic is accounted for. Each student is only allocated 2 tickets for the ceremony itself, and this was a bit of an issue for me because there were at least 4 or 5 people I wanted to see me graduate, the people who supported me and helped me throughout the process and without whom I wouldn't have managed to do my degree. Finally, most of my friends have either already graduated last year or aren't graduating at this particular ceremony, and so it would have been a rather lonely day for me taking all those things into consideration, since Farren wouldn't have been able to come, none of my friends graduating with the same qualification would be there, and my Nana and Pops wouldn't be able to make it either due to the lack of available tickets, as well as the fact that they had to manage the shops if mum and I were to go. With all of these things combined, and the fact that I've already technically finished and graduated and received my qualification a year ago, I decided that I would much rather celebrate at home with the people who I care about instead. Also, the whole ceremonial fancy gowns and what have you isn't really me anyway, and so we decided to celebrate in a much more me way - we had a tea party!

Myself, my Mum, my brother, my Nana and Pops and Farren (and Holly, although she had to snooze in the car for the most part) went to a lovely place called Fron Goch and had afternoon tea, with super fancy tiered layers of sandwiches and cakes of every kind you could possibly want, and enough tea to satiate even me (for a while, at least!). It was a lovely afternoon and personally I feel it was a much more appropriate way to celebrate my graduation. (And a lot more cake than there would have been in probably the whole of Lancaster University, which is obviously also a perk!)

My First Book Cover!!!

And saving what might be the best until last, the final reason my blog post is late this week, is because of my first book cover! Friday morning, before my graduation tea party, I met up with a publisher who I have worked with on a few occasions in the last year and who I have been working with for the past month or so in secret, to bring to life my first ever book cover! I am so super duper excited about this and I can't really even believe that it's real, it's absolutely mad to see my work printed on the cover of a book... but I'm getting ahead of myself now so let me go back to a month or so ago when Richard got in touch and asked if I would be interested in designing the cover for the latest book he and his company, Red Hand Books, were to be publishing. Of course, I said yes, and he gave me the brief and I excitedly got to work. There was a bit of a rush to get this done and so that is why, if you do follow me on any of my social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - where I would usually regularly be posting updates on my latest works) there's been a bit of a lack of regular art posts unless they are 'throwback' pieces. Apologies for that but this is the reason why! Obviously, until the book launches (which it now has and is on sale at here, if you'd like to buy your very own copy, hintedy hint hint, wink wink nudge nudge) the cover needs to be kept under wraps and so it was a bit of a secret project, the secret project I've been alluding to in several previous blog posts!

The book itself is titled 'The Reputation,' and this is the blurb on the back of the book for anyone interested:

The cover I was asked to create was to be in an Edward Munch-esque style, incorporating an Icelandic background but without feeling too

pretty or picturesque, and very much trying to convey a sense of brooding, with bold and striking colours. And so, without any more waffle, I know you're all dying to see it, and so here it is, in all of its glory!

I'm so proud of this, which is very unlike me because as you probably all know, I'm very critical of my own work and as most artists are, my own harshest critic. I am still very critical of this and as always, after the deadline I find little bits here and there I feel I could have improved, but on the whole, I can't believe that my art work is physically published on the cover of a fantastic book and I'm so excited!!! (Have I said that already? Maybe once before?) I hope you like it and again, if you feel like you'd like to inspect the cover in greater detail, and read what is sure to be a fantastic read, you can buy your copy here.

Apologies again for the late post this week but I hope you can understand why, and forgive me! I will catch you next week, and I promise I'll do my best to get back to regular scheduling next week,

Rachel x