Babble + Yak

Yak:Emma Hello! firstly I just want to apologise to you for neither of us being in touch this year and we are already nearing the end of April...I'd say where does the time go, but its dragged, its really dragged and honestly I think that we have both just struggled to get motivated.  Life has got in the way but we have still been working away behind the scenes.  I hope that you're doing ok and with vaccines and roadmaps we might be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  New postcard designs to send out with orders January and February were mostly taken up with an arts council career development grant application.  Both myself and Jess applied and we are waiting to hear back.  I don't really want to talk too much about it as we spoke today and agreed that if we think about it too much, or speak about it, then it will never happen for us?! It sounds pretty superstitious doesn't it? It was a lot of work, and a lot of going back and forth and I think we both just

  Its that time of year again!  Its always good if and when you can, to support small or independent business' and as Christmas 2020 fast approaches its seems even more important to champion this market.  Gifting something from a small business comes with love and gives the recipient something really a bit unique.  Below we have listed some shops you may want to visit.  These are people we love, know through our business community, or have bought from.  We have tried to group them but grab a brew, put your feet up and have a scroll through!  were not in the habit of promoting ourselves but if you would like to visit Jess or Emma's shop then just click our names-Happy Shopping! Prints-cards-calendars  Sketch book designs -Sunderland lad, Manchester based, music, football and city typography art. Emma has bought t-shirts and cards in the past-good gifts for the men in your life that are typically hard to buy for....Free UK delivery-Sign up to newsletter for 10% discount. (C) Sk

What is your value?  How does anyone know what their worth is? I have been getting a lot of comments lately about my products being under-priced.   Musing on  this, in my head at least, I have narrowed it down to two reasons. 1, I wanted to keep my work accessible to as many people as possible and 2, I don’t value myself much so it’s logical to undervalue the work that I make.  Expanding on point 1, my customer base, I need to realise that not everyone is my customer, and on the second point, that is just a bit sad. Initial sketch for Christmas Cards 2020 2020 and Covid has made me really appreciate my work and what I want to do with my life, what is my career and how do I want to make a living.     Behind any small business there’s someone (normally one person) who makes the product, researches the materials, experiments with techniques, orders resources and stationery to make, wrap and post the product as well as doing all of the administration, marketing, packing and delivering of

Babble:Jess Emma's entry below this one, was written at the end of July.  I was supposed to add my section but found myself rather unmotivated in August and it's taken a while to pick things up again throughout September...Well, I say unmotivated, I think back in August, I'd finally resigned myself (happily I might add, after lots of worry and frustration) to just enjoying the last few weeks of the summer with my kids.  I was giddy at the freedom we suddenly had after months of lockdown (which was mostly just me and the kids.  My husband works for the NHS and has worked some long-ass days since March.  I feel like I puff up with pride for him and all of our NHS and key workers when we talk about these past few months...anyway I'm going off topic! Back to giddy freedom...) We visited beaches, parks, castles and took Milo on many a woodland walk.  I even splurged on a trip to the aquarium.  This outdoorsiness was also admittedly partly driven by the fact that Mr Kinnersl