Bye Bye Blogspot!

OK it's official! I'm moving my personal blogging over to a shiny new site. It might take a while to re-direct people but I will now be posting at:
www.estherorridge.wordpress.comwww.estherorridge.wordpress.com
It's a more clean cut blog where I'll be posting things in a more tidy manor. Hopefully it will be easier to read and follow (and look nicer also). Thank you for all your following. Please will you follow me over to Wordpress? I don't want this to be the end of our blogging relationship :) Thanks again and see you over there x

New Email Signature 2012

I'm putting this up for practical reasons (to see if I can get it to work from here). It's something to look at though :) Should look neater than my old "logo" type signature. Hopefully all my social media will have a crisp theme running across them all.

Don't mind these, they are buttons for the new blog... Hopefully they will work.

New Notelets

Bought from Paperchase

I set out to find some fun and kool notelets/cards today. On my lunch break I came across these hidden at the back of Paperchase on sale! Score!! I thought they were very suited to what I required. I love tea, and cake, and I love to bake so I think that they reflect me perfectly! Look out because you might get one of these soon :) They are so lovely I almost don't want to send them out!

Paint your' pot UK style!

I'm excited to tell the world that I've officially been to paint my own pot in the UK. Last time I did this I was about 13 years old and it was in the USA with my step-family. I really enjoyed it over there and have always wanted to go over here too.
On Saturday I went to a little place called The Potter's Den, in Holmfirth, where a group of us girls had a lovely time. Each of us painted our own creation. The image shows you mine as it was drying and getting ready to be fired in the kiln. We should get them back at the weekend. I'm expecting it to be really bright as I accidentally forgot that it's much paler when you put the paint on originally. I'll post the final mug up when I get it back. Can't wait to use it!!

Bake Sale!

Well it's been a while but I thought I'd update you on what's been going on since we had our internet connected at the new house! Yeay!
This weekend was as busy and eventful as ever. Never a dull moment... I was asked to lend a baking hand with the Cathedral Mice bake sale on Sunday. So I had a baking session on Friday to make my contribution; Cornflake buns. Mmmmmm!
I also made a big Victoria Sponge for the long awaited baby shower that I've been planning with a friend called Al, for another friend called AlliBell. I designed the shower invites earlier in the year. If you've not seen them see here! I'm really proud of them! Unfortunately I didn't get chance to take a photo of my baking work. The party went really well and the Mummy-to-be gave us her compliments. That's what it's all about!
There's lots more to post about but I can't until the events have passed so watch this space :D

Oops!

Just a quick note to apologise for the lack of posts! We have moved house and are in the middle of an internetless season. So as soon as we are re-connected to the WiFi-world you will have a lot more to feast your eyes on :) Hopefully quite a few of my other on-going projects will be far on enough to post also. Let's see how it goes...

Say cheese!

Esther Orridge 2012

Last week I was introduced to a brand new cheese from the Sainsbury's range. I'm not a massive fan of cheese but this one is just so fabulous it's irresistible even for me! I bought some for treat time and a box of Ritz biscuits to compliment it! Mmmmm!
Yorkshire Wensleydale with clotted cream & strawberries! Ooooh!

Esterellas

Well I found these in the Spanish supermarket last week and had to buy them! One of my very few nick-names is Esterella (even though my name has a 'H' in it). I wanted to see what they tasted like and actually they were very tasty! Great snack-type sweet biscuits to keep you going. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to buy more to bring home :( but I'm sure if we go again then I'll definitely get more!! Mmmm!

Tweet Tweet!

Dare I say that I've taken flight to Twitter! It's easier to post things on there whilst you are mobile or away. I'm also trying to generate a bit more interest in the blog through it. Hopefully my work and inspirational posts will be welcomed by any newbies to the blog :)
Tweet me: https://twitter.com/#%21/inaglow

This coffee is personal..!

Starbucks, Leeds Train Station, Vanilla Latte

... But not quite personal enough! :)
I missed out on my FREE Starbucks Latte the other day when they launched their new personal service which entails the staff writing your name on the take-away cup. Now I thought this was just for the promotional day. But today I decided to treat myself to a Vanilla Latte from Starbucks (normally I go to Costa). I was pretty happy to have a personalised cup however, the lady who served me - even after spelling out my name - spelt my name incorrectly. A bit gutted but I didn't kick up a fuss! I'm just glad she didn't put "F" for Female instead of the "G" (which I'm guessing is for "Girl"?? I've finally shaken off a nickname that I don't want to come back thank you! Ha!
I've also been fascinated by handwriting and how everyone's is expressing something different. I noticed that this has been spelt all uppercase except for the second "e". I'd like to do a personal project on handwriting one day. I have a good favorites list already! You know who you are my lovelies! ;)

New e-mail signature

Well I've finally decided to put my own signature image on the end of my e-mails. This hopefully will help people to know that this is me and this is the right blog. I hope it brings some more interest to the site. It looks prettier than boring text and a link at the bottom of my emails. Let's see if it makes a difference..?

Easy Fundraising!

Please support Huddersfield Christian Fellowship

Do you shop online? iTunes, Dorothy Perkins, New Look, Amazon.... Through easy fundraising you can shop as normal and for every purchase (if the store is registered with them) the company you buy from will donate either a percentage or fixed amount of your total spend to you selected charity. It costs you nothing but gives to the cause.
Our church has just registered and I thought it'd be great to ask if you would support us through this way - you can also raise 50p just by downloading the "easy fundraising tool bar" (that reminds you to shop through them). Please will you check it out (click the image) and support Huddersfield Christian Fellowship.
Thank you :)
P.s. This isn't a design post (unfortunately I didn't design the logo or anything).

To think about...

A thought provoking video that I was shown on Tuesday.
On a design point, I like the composition as it's been kept simple so that you can focus on his words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

Barnacles!

Over Christmas we went to the in-laws. What a lovely time we had! Thanks Miriam! :)
I did take the camera however the weather wasn't that great and when I finally did take the camera out to the beach, it was so windy I didn't want to risk scratching the lens (might sound stupid but I didn't want to risk getting sand in a camera that wasn't mine).
So instead I randomly started to collect a few barnacle shells. I tried to go for the most colourful - they were darker/brighter when they were wet.
I think it's one of the funniest words I know! Barnacle.
Excuse the towel. I thought they'd stand out more on a darker background than the pale wood of the table.

Oops!

Just a quick hello! And to say I'll be back soon after the Christmas period. This whole New Year thing is just about levelling back out. Will post again soon :) Hope you are having a great New Year! X

Wish list!

Dear Santa or Sinter Klaas,

Please will you bring me Michael Buble to make my Christmas kool! You can buy him here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Michael-Bublé/dp/B005H0IW6W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322757496&sr=8-1

Thank you x

P.s. I've been a really good girl this year! :)

Wokon Packaging

Yesterday I was introduced to a brilliant healthy fast food restaurant in Leeds. I was cheeky and asked if I could have a clean box to bring home. This is the second time I've seen this type of packaging used within the space of 2 or 3 weeks. It reminded me of the "Puur" packaging from an earlier post.
Thanks Sian for introducing me to Wokon! You are a star! :)

Happy Birthday Jonny C!!

Made for You by Me! 2011

This is a card I made today for a friend's 30th birthday!! It's my favourite birthday card I've made this year. I plan to use the cake illustration sometime soon :) I really like it, Jonny really liked it and I hope you really like it too!

Autumn Inspiration!

My first piece of Cherrygorgeous work is on their blog!
Check it out: http://www.cherrygorgeous.co.uk/blog/wedding-favours/autumn-weddings
One of my first briefs was to create a mood board for the Autumn season brides. The stationary design is called "Autumn in Love".

Dutch Deisgn

We recently went to Holland for a short holiday to catch up with my husband's family over there. They are AMAZING!! They really looked after us and I learnt a lot over there.
One of the family members bought us some special chocolate from a Chocolatier in Gouda. I instantly loved the packaging and I had to pop it on here for everyone to see!
"Puur" is the word for "Dark" in Dutch. They specialise in Dark Chocolate. Mmmmmm... We were definitely spoilt. I didn't have time to take photos of all the chocolates as they were eaten too quickly but I grabbed a photo from their site to show you what kinds of fun things we had in the box...!
(Their site is http://www.puurchocolade.nl/foto_culinair.html if you are interested in seeing the gallery. The site is in Dutch so I thought you'd appreciate the pictures)