Yeah, yeah, I know! I’m leaving it a bit late for valentine’s designs. But my procrastination and inability to start things until the last minute should come as no surprise to anyone who follows my work and strange brain workings.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
*You may share the work, but you must attribute this work to me and link to the product/post, and/or to my blog Lee Lee and the Bee
*You MAY NOT use this work for ANY commercial purposes excluding earning affiliate commissions (where aplicable) through linking back to a product offered on selected websites with affliate programs.
*You MAY NOT alter, transform or build upon any part of this work, unless customizing a product prior to purchase on any of the websites where this design/work is offered for sale.
*To contact the artist regarding purchasing exclusive rights to this image/design, or for more information, please use the contact form at my blog Lee Lee and the Bee

A little while ago, in an online artists community I am a part of, someone suggested that we all try our hand at a Bluebird. I cant remember why cause my brain doesn’t work well at remembering things sometimes, but it sounded fun.

Now, me being me, I got caught up in doing a bunch of other things and then suddenly realised that I hadn’t gotten around to my bluebird picture. So I cheated a bit. Just a bit though. I used an old image (my ‘Mister Robin Finds The Key’ design in fact) and bluebirded the be-jebus out of it.

Then, again me being me, I took forever to actually post it about the place cause I kept getting side-tracked with shiney things like Pinterest (which is stupidly addictive and I officially love it) and Twitter and setting up a spanking new laptop to work from (which I also officially love).

But now, here it is in all of it’s cheaty-pants design glory. ‘Little Bird Blue’ is available now through most of my online outlets, and hopefully in the future will also be made into a repeating patterned fabric over on Spoonflower as well. So keep eyes open for an update on that one in the future.

Click on any of the various store links below to see what is available in the “Little Bird Blue” range.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
*You may share the work, but you must attribute this work to me and link to the product/post, and/or to my blog Lee Lee and the Bee
*You MAY NOT use this work for ANY commercial purposes excluding earning affiliate commissions (where aplicable) through linking back to a product offered on selected websites with affliate programs.
*You MAY NOT alter, transform or build upon any part of this work, unless customizing a product prior to purchase on any of the websites where this design/work is offered for sale.
*To contact the artist regarding purchasing exclusive rights to this image/design, or for more information, please use the contact form at my blog Lee Lee and the Bee

Once again I’ve had a grand old time creating a design specifically for a Spoonflower weekly fabric competition.

This week’s theme was “cityscapes” and I just couldn’t resist showing off some of my favourite bits of architecture here in old Aarhus, Denmark.

The design, ‘Cycling Aarhus’ is a simple repeating pattern of these favourite buildings, interspersed with the bicycles that are a permanent fixture of Danish society. The buildings featured include Aarhus Domkirke (The Cathedral), Toldboden (Royal Customs House) and Domhuset (The Courthouse). I’m guessing it would be perfect for curtains and interiors, for lovers of architecture, travellers, your Danish friends, cyclists, and anyone who enjoys simple line designs in pastel colours. I think voting is open until Thursday, 19th of January 2012, so get in quick to cast your votes. You can vote for as many designs as you like, and be warned, there are some fabulous patterns on display, so you might want to put your drooling bib on.

Alternative voting link: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=118

This design, and variations of it, is also now available in my webshops including Zazzle, Artflakes, Society6, RedBubble and Skreened. I’m also working on getting it made available on a bunch of products in my CafePress store too, but have not quite finished making all the images required. So stay tuned for more info on that.

Once again I’ve had a grand old time creating a design specifically for a Spoonflower weekly fabric competition.

This week’s theme was “cityscapes” and I just couldn’t resist showing off some of my favourite bits of architecture here in old Aarhus, Denmark.

The design, ‘Cycling Aarhus’ is a simple repeating pattern of these favourite buildings, interspersed with the bicycles that are a permanent fixture of Danish society. The buildings featured include Aarhus Domkirke (The Cathedral), Toldboden (Royal Customs House) and Domhuset (The Courthouse). I’m guessing it would be perfect for curtains and interiors, for lovers of architecture, travellers, your Danish friends, cyclists, and anyone who enjoys simple line designs in pastel colours. I think voting is open until Thursday, 19th of January 2012, so get in quick to cast your votes. You can vote for as many designs as you like, and be warned, there are some fabulous patterns on display, so you might want to put your drooling bib on.

Alternative voting link: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=118

This design, and variations of it, is also now available in my webshops including Zazzle, Artflakes, Society6, RedBubble and Skreened. I’m also working on getting it made available on a bunch of products in my CafePress store too, but have not quite finished making all the images required. So stay tuned for more info on that.

Hello all. Well, if you have visited any of my stores or blogs before, you know that what you see right here is a big change up!

Gone is the old white text on a black background and in comes the fresh new light page with darker texts.

The reason for my doing this is twofold. First, it’s a whole new year and I felt like I needed a refreshing change. I work on these sites everyday and sometimes, a punch in the face with a re-design is just what one needs to keep sane and to rejuvenate.

Secondly. I am getting old, and all that white on black was hurting my eyes! My poor old person eyes! And if it’s hurting my eyes, I can only imagine how hard it is for folks with even older eyes than my to cope with it.

So welcome to the ‘New and Improved’ Lee Lee and the Bee network. Feel free to browse around all of my stores and profiles and let me know what you think.

I saw some toddlers the other day, all out for a walk with their pre-school teachers. These kids, who were probably 5 or 6 years old maximum, were all rugged up against the cold in the most fun coloured jumpsuits, jackets, hats and scarves. As they noisily bustled and rustled past me, one of them particularly caught my eye. She was decked out like a little Christmas ornament, all in red and green and with a grubby, well-loved Santa hat shoved jauntily on her head. She was obviously well liked and happy too, as a couple of her friends were holding her hands and as the three of them walked along they were singing some little song which made no sense to me at the time, but was so pretty.

This amount of adorable was too much to bear. I just had to some home and create something to illustrate just how cute these girls were in their big foompy padded winter jumpsuits and rosy cheeks. And so the ‘Yule Chorus’ range was born.

The design depicts three young girls in an almost ‘kokeshi’ style wear Christmas patterned cloaks, warm scarves, and Santa and elf hats as they stand in a row singing carols loudly. Now what could be more indicative of the season than excited children singing traditional songs? Nothing…that’s what!  

Click on any of the various store links below to see what is available in the “Yule Chorus” range.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
*You may share the work, but you must attribute this work to me and link to the product/post, and/or to my blog Lee Lee and the Bee
*You MAY NOT use this work for ANY commercial purposes excluding earning affiliate commissions (where aplicable) through linking back to a product offered on selected websites with affliate programs.
*You MAY NOT alter, transform or build upon any part of this work, unless customizing a product prior to purchase on any of the websites where this design/work is offered for sale.
*To contact the artist regarding purchasing exclusive rights to this image/design, or for more information, please use the contact form at my blog Lee Lee and the Bee

I love the phrase ‘drama llama’. It makes me giggle. Beacuse of this, I use it a lot. I call my husband a drama llama, my cat, the birds outside, the lady down at the shops who gets into a bit of a huff because the line is more than 2 people long.

The other day, on an internet forum I frequent, I was chatting with a friend and called her a Drama Llama. Another friend thought this was hilarious and declared that she’d wear a shirt like that. I of course responded that I’d make a shirt like that.

So I did.

And made a whole bunch of other products too. Cause that’s just the type of drama llama I am. It’s all or nothing I tell you! *flounce*

Click on any of the images below to see the entire “Drama Llama” range.

When I was young, my favourite story in the whole world was “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It’s still high on my list of all time favourite novels, and I have probably read it 10 times or more. Even as a child, I loved the joy it imparted at the simple pleasure of being outdoors and the idea that becoming familiar with nature helped one grow as a person.

Recently, the urge to revisit the story overcame me, and I needed - yes, ‘needed’ - to read it again. Unfortunately, my copy of the book is way back in my homeland of Australia (somewhere in my grandfathers house I think) and I was hit by this sudden urge to read the book, with no immediate way to fulfill it. Then I came across librivox.org and discovered that ‘The Secret Garden’ (along with thousands of other public domain classic novels, short stories and journals) is available as a downloadable audio book read by some lovely volunteers. Oh Bliss! It didn’t take me long to listen to the whole story all over again and revel in it’s awesomeness once again.

Afterwards, I knew I wanted to create an image inspired by the story, and I knew the exact moment I wanted it to be - when the Robin helps Mary find the key to the garden. I remember the first time I read that part as a child and thinking to myself how magical it was and wanting a clever little Robin friend of my own. (Now that I am a grown woman, I realise how silly that idea is, of course - It’s obvious it would way cooler to have a murder of trained crows instead!)And so, this image was born. While making it, I also learnt some wonderful new techniques in photoshop and experimented with new ways of designing the products available for sale at Lee Lee and the Bee, so the whole experience became a fun little personal growth excercise!

As usual, the design is available on a huge variety of products, and all of them are completely customizable, just hit the ‘CUSTOMIZE IT’ button on a product page and go crazy with the personalisation.

Click any of the images below to see the full “Mr Robin Finds the Key” range at Lee Lee and the Bee

I’ve entered another fabric design competition at Spoonflower. This week the theme was ‘Alphabet’ and after a few stops and starts idea-wise, I went with this design, which I have named ‘Letters from the Circus’:

You can vote now if you like, and as usual you can vote for as many designs as you like. There is lots of great talent in the mix this week, so have a good look.

Click here to vote in the spoonflower ‘Alphabet’ competition.

For those that follow my designs on spoonflower, you might also be interested to know that I have just started the process of making 15 of my most asked-after designs available for sale there. So stay tuned for more information about when you can start purchasing Lee Lee and the Bee fabrics for your crafty projects. I’ll also be working on making the ‘Letters from the Circus’ design available on a whole bunch of products at the Lee Lee and the Bee zazzle store as well, so keep and eye out for updates about that too.

Hi, been a little busy of late but have recently updated Lee Lee and the Bee with a couple of new designs.

The first is yet another bit of steampunkery called ‘Get Along’ and features a dog-like beast of burdern wearing a leather gas mask out side of a domed city.

The second was just a silly little idea that popped into my head whilst I was doing the dishes. For some reason the ‘hands on’, dishwasher-free, simplistic way I was tackling the task made me think of Henry David Thoreau and of ‘Walden’. About half an hour later, this resulted:

Remember, clicking on any of the above images or swanky little flash slideshows will take you to the store where you can peruse and shop to your hearts content.

An old design popped into mind when I saw this week’s Illustration Friday theme ‘Cultivate’:

Click on the image above if you would like to puchase this design on any one of a wide range of products.