We have moved!

Thanks for stopping by but we have now moved our blog to memeloudesigns.wordpress.com please click on the link and have a read :-)

Hollie Nicole photography

I recently had some new product and mood shots done for my greeting card ranges by my friend and fab photographer Hollie. Having good product shots make such a difference to my business.

Hollie use to be a work college of mine and last year she decided to set up her own photography business. She is such a talented photographer and her business is going from strength to strength.

She does wedding, portrait and product photography. Below are a few examples of her work. I highly recommend Hollie. She’s friendly, professional and so easy to work with. If you would like more information  on Hollie you can visit her website here http://www.hollienicolephotography.co.uk

Weddings

Family portraits

My product shots

The lovely Hollie herself!

 

My new Christmas card range “Cosy Christmas"

Well it’s officially Christmas month so I thought it was about time that I told you all about my new christmas card range called “Cosy Christmas”. I tried to keep this range a bit more traditional and stick to the usual greeting card size format rather then doing an unusual shape or size.

I was inspired to design “Cosy Christmas” purely because I love the woodland trends that have been around this year and designing animals and creatures is my most favourite thing to design.  I know santa and baubles are not woodland but they still play a huge part in being cosy and warm when you are at home on christmas day.

I wanted you to get a sense of warmth when you look at the cards so the colour palette had to be right. I really like bright colours and colours that clash. I love how the red is really prominent in this range even though its only featured a small bit on some of the cards. I also really like the clash with the red and the teal.

The range consists of 8 designs and come with a brown craft envelope-perfect for christmas! They are available to buy here on my website memelou.com.

Have a lovely day!

My first trade fair

Oh my oh my..........It’s been a rather quiet week here at memelou so I decided it was time to take the plunge and book a trade fair. I’ve put it off for the last couple of years mainly due to funds, having the confidence, the ranges and starting a family.

Memelou is run on a shoestring budget. I do freelancing to pay for memelou and of course to survive. The result being that memelou has took a very long time to get to this point. I’ve also had my little Oliver in the middle of this so I freelance and do memelou to fit around him as many mum’s who do this it is not an easy task!

I’m quite an impulsive person so if I decide to do something I almost do it instantly. Although I have thought about doing a tradeshow for a long time it just wasn’t possible until now so on Monday I decided to do one and by Tuesday I had booked it! It was between Top drawer and Progressive greetings live.

I decided Topdrawer was too short notice to get everything ready for January so I decided to go with Progressive greetings live as thats in June next year which gives me ample time to plan. They have a section for newbies like me called Springboard so it’s pretty perfect.

So now the fun starts..........LOTS of planning to do but I’m so glad I’ve took the plunge and am giving memelou the chance to meet the world. I’m excited.....and nervous!

My journey

I woke up today to the sad news that Robin Williams had passed away yesterday. Like millions around the world, I didn’t know him but I feel like I did and I just know that he was a good person.
It’s been alleged that he committed suicide due to his long battle with depression and depression is something that I can relate to- please excuse my poor punctuation, spelling,grammar etc.

I write this with tears streaming down my face. Not so long ago I was almost at that place and I never thought in a million years that I would ever get depressed like that and understand why people kill themselves but now I do. Various things have happened to me in my life and perhaps I didn’t deal as well with them as I should have and maybe this triggered something in my brain as an adult. No one really know what causes depression. I’ve always had tendencies to feel it in my adult life along with anxiety but have always known how to stop it before it gets too bad. Usually by exercising, meditating, changing my diet and allowing myself to be alone for head space. After the birth of my son, I hit rock bottom. I didn’t know why as I was so incredibly happy to have him. I loved him desparately, bonded with him but I felt incredibly vulnerable and sad- sad to the core and for the first time in my life I could understand how depression can lead to people contemplating suicide.

I have everything. A wonderful, loving family, who gave me the best childhood, an amazing husband who supports me and loves me, the most wonderful, beautiful, happiest little boy, amazing friends and a career that I love and enjoy and dreamed of doing. I literally have everything that matters. I’m very lucky so I couldn’t understand why I had this utter sadness, feeling of complete hopelessness and feeling in a constant state of torment.

I have been seeing a therapist for many years and she has taught me how to control it but like I said it had never been bad enough to affect my life until the birth of my son. I ignored it as I thought it was just the baby blues but it got worse and worse to the point where I thought I can’t live like this but I don’t know whats wrong with me. I couldn’t tell anyone as I feared they would think I was a bad mum and a pathetic human being so I tried to hide it. I also didn’t think I needed to go to my therapist as she would think I was pathetic and incapable of coping with daily life too. My family and husband noticed there was something very wrong and urged me to get help. Thank goodness I listened too them and went back to my therapist.

I’m now virtually 100% better. I see a Human Givens therapist and she has changed my life but you can also speak to the samaritans or even your local GP. Just talking to someone made my head a lot clearer. I saw my therapist yesterday and she is very happy with my progress. I feel like I’ve been on a incredibly tough journey and come out a different and better person at the end.

If you are reading this post and find it hard to understand depression. Please know this, we can not snap out of it. If it was that easy don’t you think we would love to do it to feel better? We are not having a bad day and tomorrow will be better. Another thing I hear is"You have it all what have you got to be depressed about"...........it doesn’t work like that. All I know is it happens, It was an incredibly difficult time. I would not wish it on anyone and people need to stop treating it as a taboo subject.

I know this is my creative blog used for my creative business but I felt that I have a connection to the outside world, why not share how I feel? Social media can have its faults but it can also have incredible power in a positive way and thats why I felt I had to share this with everyone today and hope it can make a positive difference to someone/anyone reading this. This wasn’t a easy post for me to write. I am a very private person and this blog post will come as a shock to some of my friends. Everyone see’s me as a happy, positive person. which I am 90% of the time but even people that can seem very happy on the outside can be suffering terribly on the inside sometimes. What Robin Williams must have been feeling to take his own life-if thats turns out to be the case, must have been utter despair and my heart truly breaks for him and his family. I hope in the sadness of his death something positive can come out of it in people suffering with depression find the courage to get help and if you think someone you know is suffering with depression, talk to them, be there for them.

The main reason I wanted to write this blog post today is to urge any of you out there that feel life is to much to please talk to someone. Once I was better and felt able to talk about how I had been feeling It’s amazing to hear how many people suffer with the same thing. You are not alone. You matter. You need to be here. If you are suffering from depression you have nothing to be ashamed of. Millions of people feel the same. Depression needs addressing. It can ruin lives. Life is a beautiful thing. You only get one shot at it so lets try to live it and live it well.  R.I.P Robin Williams, may you be at peace.

Naughty me!

Oh My was my last post really in October-Thats terrible! I have no excuses apart from I have been extremely busy since then. I’ve been up to all kind of things. Working on some new ranges, still perfecting my wedding range. I have also teamed up with “A fresh Bunch” so have been working on various designs for them as well as freelancing for my many customers. Am I forgiven?
Any way here’s a little taster of one of my wedding ranges. I hope to bring them to you very soon. Watch this space!!

Holidays are coming

Good morning all.  I'm very excited today as we have just done the photo shoot for our Xmas baubles card range. 

I love these because in true Meme Lou style, these are not only cards but also a gift.  Instead of cluttering up the mantelpiece your friends and family can hang them from the tree as a decoration

They are now available to buy from www.memelou.com