Many of my designs are inspired by our beautiful home up here in the Western Hills, in our own micro-climate, away from the rest of the Hutt Valley. The idea for the 'meadow' theme came from all the lovely flora and fauna with which we are surrounded. I also keep being asked to incorporate more reds into my designs, so that drove the inclusion of the amanitae muscariae and the ladybirds. I wandered around the property for some more inspiration, and it came together really nicely.

Back in September 2013, I decided to make a soft-toy shark. I was enjoying my life in my tiny, colourful flat, spending most evenings crafting and watching wonderfully terrible movies (most of which involved sharks), and I had a delicious new nephew for whom to make something cool.

The Underwater Unexpected collection was the third winner of my 'inspiration' competition, just over a year ago. This has been one of my most successful designs EVER, so I thought its anniversary was a good opportunity to talk a little about its origins. 

Some time ago, a friend-of-a-friend was selling her beautiful creations to raise funds to pay vet bills for her bunny. We ended up becoming friends, and I have greatly enjoyed her posts about her bunnies, succulents... and axolotls! So when Beka suggested that I draw axolotls as a fabric design, I knew it was a winner. They're weird, they're recognisable, and they're fun to draw.

Plaids and stripes have always been an important part of my personal design aesthetic, especially when I mix patterns in the same outfit.

I was scrolling through Facebook last year, as you do, when an amazing photograph of an amazing rock crammed full of fossilised ammonites appeared in my news feed. I just *knew* that I had to draw it! I Googled for inspiration photos, and soon, I had enough to get me started.

A year ago, my nephew was turning three, and I was designing an artwork for his wall. People had been asking me for a Kiwiana range recently, and wee Mr. almost-3 was a big fan of robots at the time, so that's what I made. The number of characters was driven by the letters in his name - and the stripe in the background, as with many of my stripes, is actually derived from a word, written in barcode font. In this case, it's my nephew's name.

Autumn has always been my favourite season. Growing up in Europe, it was clearly delineated by the falling leaves at the end of summer, and the onset of a real, often snowy, winter. This seasonal change was the thing I missed the most about Europe when we moved to NZ - that is, until we moved to our place in the Western Hills. Here, we have deciduous trees, mushrooms and toadstools, and even an apple tree to harvest. 

Around a year ago now, one of my close friends was having a baby shower. As a non-parent, I always struggle with buying gifts for people's kids - so I decided to make something a bit different. We were having a dinosaur-themed party, because of her interest in history and geology (and also, DINOSAURS, like, come on. Who doesn't love dinosaurs?), so I knew what my subject matter would be. I also knew the colour scheme, thanks to this inspiration cake from Luxury Cakes. Now, I needed to figure out the details. 

The Insectivorous Plant collection is made up of a selection of plants that eat insects – Dionaea Muscipula, Drosera Binata, Heliamphora minor, Rafflesia arnoldii, Sarracenia Purpurea, with their victims, flies, and a honey bee.
Hand-drawn on paper and digitally coloured by Cat Drayer (that's meee!).

Over the last few weeks, I have been developing a series of colourable items. Here are the first ones in this series - my colourable patches. ​They feature designs from my Dinosaur Activists, Kiwiautomata, and Poster Kitties ranges.