Change of address!

Our brand spanking new website is now up and running... So unfortunately this blog is no longer in use (for now!)
Do pop over and see our new digs, and let us know your thoughts! (Just click on the link below ...)

www.feltmountainstudios.com

Thank you and have a nice day!

Love
Stephanie B x
 

New year... New us!

Happy New Year Everyone!

It's officially 2014 and we have some exciting news to share!
Over the past few weeks Felt Mountain Studios has undergone some big changes... 

You may have notices we have a new branding design? Well that is just the start!

We Love Christmas!

Wohoo Christmas is near and the Goose is getting Fat :)

I know I haven't been keeping my blog updated recently (sorry!)

I promise I will do it more from now on... 

But in the mean time this is just a quicky to show you my new Christmas Card and matching tags designs!

It is nearly Christmas after all- or did you forget?

 

 All now available in my shop!

Wohoo!

x

Somewhere over the Rainbow...

This is pretty much reflecting of my mind at the moment... slightly busier and full of colour!

Available now in my online shops :)

Hurrah! 

x

Doodles and dreams...

Since getting back I seem to be super inspired and motivated for the future of Felt Mountain Studios...

(This could jolly well be down to the San francisco coffee that I brought back from my travels to give me some va va voom in the morning!)

But either way whatever it is, it's working! 

I have been doing a new design a day so far and hopefully I shall continue with more...

This is my fave up to now :) Who doesn't love a hot air balloon?

 And this one I had in mind for a new notebook design, as I just thought - seen as my notebook was attached to my right arm whilst I was away - that it is important that we remember how necessary it is to doodle and scribble, as they are where dreams begin!

(but it is also available as 'Follow your Dreams' for those who perhaps aren't as 'doodley' as myself!)

Both designs are now available in my Shop- and hopefully I shall be getting more in there too very soon indeed!

Happy Friday everyone!

x

Vegas baby!

So it's the final part of our trip... and after over 2 weeks of city hopping and sight seeing in USA, it's going to be lovely just chilling out and doing nothing but relaxing...

Oh wait- we're in Vegas! Damn I didn't think about that...

First things first, when we arrived after just a 40 min flight from L.A, we only had to put our bags down in our lush room before my sister, her boyfriend and his whole family arrived too! Joy of joys... there shall be no relaxing on this holiday now!

The hotel we stayed in was called The Aria, and was apparently one of the newest hotels on the strip (we are talking controls that open and close your curtains!) We were on the 8th floor (just high enough for me) with a great view over Vegas and the mountain ranges behind....

Straight away we set about exploring the well known hotels... And first up was the Bellagio! (The one from Ocean's 11 with the fabulous fountains!) 

Inside there was a full room dedicated to autumn (sorry I mean fall...) and halloween with talking trees, scarecrows and gorgeous glass flower displays suspended from the air. They really go all out here (of course they do- it's Vegas!) But all I kept thinking was my God imagine what it would be like at Christmas...

It was great getting to spend some time with my sister again, she's off to live in Dublin in a couple of weeks so we've been soaking up all the time we can sunbathing (yes this is how she sunbathes!) And going out for incredibly delicious (and super filling) meals around Vegas! I am not surprised that most people put on weight whilst visiting here... the food is amazing- and so much choice! 

The next night was very exciting indeed-we got to go and see Penn and Teller the magician double act- and even manage to get a picture with Penn himself afterwards! 

This was even more exciting for me (can you tell by my face?) Because I know them more as Drell and Skippy from Sabrina the teenage witch... which I am ashamed to say I was (and maybe still am) slightly obsessed with!

The next day we went to visit the 'Bodies' exhibition which was in the Luxor hotel... which yes, is in fact a pyramid! (There is also a giant sphinx, an Eiffel Tower and an entire New York skyline scene! Only in Vegas hey...)

Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures, but a great exhibition it was! All I can say is when you see the effects that drinking does to your liver like that, it makes you never want to drink again! (Well at least for a couple of hours... we are in Vegas after all!)

That evening we went down town to Fremont Street which is the original part of Vegas where it all began! This was my favourite night because it was a bit more familiar and exciting at the same time! They have this huge dome style cover all along it that they do amazing light shows on at regular intervals and

there were bands playing on the side of the street (we had the pleasure of witnessing Yellow Brick Road and Uncle Cracker!)

Plus everything is much cheaper down this side including the drinks ($24 for a round for 9 people!) And not forgetting the casinos too which were the only places I saw with a minimum bet of $1 as apose to $15/20 up at our hotel!

After an easy day by the pool attempting to soak up some rays (im still as pale as I came!) We all got dressed and headed out for the final meal for The Holmes-es. We ventured out to the Paris hotel (where the Eiffel Tower is...) and managed to squeeze into this gorgeous 'Paris scene' style restaurant that made it seem like you were sat outside on a quaint Parisian street! A few steaks and bottles of wine later and we shuffled off to an Irish style bar on the way back to the hotel, there they had a Karaoke (not like any Karaoke I had ever heard over here in England- everyone is super skilled with incredible voices... definitely made me change my mind about getting up!  

After saying our goodbyes, the next day (our last day... tear!) We spent most of the day shopping for last minute presents and last minute bargains for ourselves (well it would be rude not too!) Then we headed off to the pool to bake in the sun again... I refuse to come back and have people say 'oh you have been away?'

Later on we dressed up in our swankiest gear to go for our final meal actually UP the Eiffel Tower... which has the best views over the strip and the Bellagio fountains. It was full of couples who had just got married, holding hands and enjoying the absolutely fabulous food and drink they serve there. 

Coincidentally it was my parents wedding anniversary this day too... so even they were super loved up (I wasn't jealous of all the couples at all...)

It was the perfect end to the holiday :)

With that, we went back to the room and packed- we still had a 12 hour flight the next day (boo!) to get home... but I didn't care... I was excited to get back and re-start my life again after the most exciting and inspiring trip!

Hope you all enjoyed the journey as much as I did- thanks so much for reading this far :)

See you when I get back to sunny England!
Au revoir

xxx

Hollywood!

Since planning this trip, we (and by we I mean mostly my mum...) had decided that since we are passing by a village named Ojai (a short drive away from Santa Barbara) on our travels whilst the lovely Byron Katie is holding one of her 'The Work' life changing workshops there at the same time... well that it would have been rude not to book ourselves onto the half day workshop too!

So on the Friday eve we rolled up to the adorable village of Ojai (spelt Oh Hi! Which I loved...) booked ourselves into a B&B and got some good zzz's for the workshop starting on Saturday morning...

The village itself is so sweet... with breathtaking mountain views around it, lots of pretty hippy and vintage style shops and people who generally seem happy to be alive and living there!

And the workshop itself... well that was on another level!

We couldn't take any pictures unfortunately as it was being broadcast onto the web and all over the World (something I wasn't expecting!)

But it was truly eye opening and pretty much life changing! 

My mum is a holistic therapist and so loves to constantly broaden her mind and thinking... where as although I do too, I always thought I was a bit more down to Earth.

So Katie with her simple, blunt and -now that I see it- pretty obvious ideas on controlling your thoughts and enjoying life without resentments, spoke wonders to me!

If you haven't heard of her, I promise she is really worth a look- her books are super to read and the best bit is that even though you may discuss other people and situations... it's actually all about you and how you view life... everyone's favourite topic!

So after our Katie come down... we grabbed our beach gear (my fruit salad tote was so happy to finally get an outing!) Got back in the car and carried on down the coast towards L.A!

On the way we passed all the places we've seen on 80's cop shows and music videos or have heard about in songs by Sheryl Crowe... including Malibu, Sunset boulevard, (which coincidentally is the picture I got above of the beautiful Sun setting there...) Venice Beach, Muscle beach (oh yes!) And the lovely Santa Monica Boulevard which is pictured here...

All of them were so vibrant and eye opening and I was excited to finally see all these places in real life!

As it was getting late we searched (quite hard) for a hotel and eventually found one where we could settle for the night (at a pretty whopping cost- Santa Monica is expensive man!)

Then the next day it was up bright and early for our continued trip to L.A...

First up we hit Beverly Hills and hopped out for some gorgeous breakfast on Rodeo drive (I mean lets be honest we could hardly shop there so this was the next best thing!)

Then it was off to Hollywood... but we couldn't go without dropping by Mulholland drive and Bel Air first and seeing some of the Millionaire houses (whilst also playing the game 'I know you wouldn't... but if you COULD which celebrity would you like to rob?' which actually turned into quite a serious conversation about how there are no size 12 celebrities under the age of 50 with clothes that would fit me!)

When we got to Hollywood itself, we grabbed a frappacino and strolled the pavements looking at all star's names. I like to think Hollywood is pretty much like Blackpool on acid (and a few more sex shops...) and although it was interesting to finally see it, I think we may have been spoilt by all the beautiful places we had been to earlier in the trip, so we pretty much went in search of the sign (you have to don't you?) Then we high tailed it out of there to our next stop of Long Beach!

Long Beach is a very pretty harbor  town with a lovely pier and pretty beach themed shops.

We were only there for an evening but could see that it was a very nice place to visit (it is also where the Queen Mary ship is now stationed!) So we strolled the late night pier shops, had some DELICIOUS pizza and then headed back to the room again to prepare for our final Coastal stop the next day: San Diego

The next morning we couldn't set off without first having some yummy breakfast aboard The Queen Mary (apparently yes you can do that- it's now a full blown hotel ship!)

Then we accepted that we still had a couple hours of driving left before we reached San Diego... so we jumped back in our super cool rental car and set off down the highway...

I've always been intrigued by San Diego (mainly because of Anchor Man...) so I was happy that this was our final Coastal place.

We spent a couple of hours chilling by the pool there (the first proper sunbathing yet!) Before popping into the vibrant centre for some dinner- which was super nice and fun (I get the impression that it is quite a good party town... mainly because most of the bar and restaurant names had some kind of drink in them!)

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to the car and then we caught our final internal flight to our final destination spot... Las Vegas (that's right!) 

So this is where I go off and catch some much needed Nevada sun... but watch this space as will have more on this fab part of our trip very soon!

Now I am off to lose all my money on slot machines... toodles!

X

Route one! The Californian sunshine Coast...

The next part of our USA journey was the bit I was most looking forward to... The Californian Coast Roadtrip!

So after picking up our rental car (a brand new Cadillac none the less!) from San Francisco centre... we set of down Route 1 in search of some sea air :)

We hadn't even been going long when we spotted a cute little farmers market going on at one of the villages on the side of the road... so we stopped off to explore and that's when I came across this gorgeous vintage and handmade shop called Ressurected boutique filled with super lovely goodies!

But this was just the beginning of all the beautiful places and quirky shops that were to be seen on this trip...

Our next stop was supposed to be Santa cruz, but after we got there quite late on in the evening, we decided to just pull into a best western for the night and chill out.

The next morning we had to head off straight away to get as much in as possible for the day, and by gum did we find some even more fabulous places...

First we hit Monterey and stopped off for a quick iced tea at a wonderfully quirky and super friendly cafe named Lou Lou's... it was a very pretty town from what we saw- but we were on a time limit so it was back on the road and on to the next place...

From Monterey there was a '17 mile drive' which you could pay $10 to go on which took you around a scenic part of the coast... so of course we went down it and so glad we did too! It took us through the most beautiful coastline, through a place called Pebble beach and straight to the next village on a journey... Carmel-on-Sea

Carmel is such an adorable village- all the buildings are adorable and there are so many cute cafés, restaurants and shops to work your way around.

Apparently Clint Eastwood used to be Mayor here and still owns a restaurant and hotel where you can sometimes find him there playing the piano some nights! 

Similarly Doris day has a hotel here too (these gorgeous tiled steps are actually from her reception...) and we were very close to staying in it but we came across another equally gorgeous one that had a lighthouse theme and I was sold...

The lamp lighter inn is a gorgeous beach themed hotel with super pretty cabin style hotel rooms and lodges (which is what we stayed in!)
 I got to sleep in my own little bed nook which you had to crouch down to walk into... and there was even a handmade fireplace for those wintery seasons down here (if there are any!)... can u tell that I loved it?
At 5-6pm everyday they serve cheese and wine by the fire pit in the courtyard, and the breakfast every morning is the same meaning you can sit and chat by the fire to other travellers with a muffin in one hand and a coffee in the other- totally lovely :)

The next day we picked up and set sail towards The Big Sur which is supposed to to be one of the most beautiful sights in America... and I can see why!  

We were instantly hit with the most beautiful coastal scenes ive ever come across!

These views plus a bit of soft American country music on the radio meant you couldn't help but be inspired! 

So in the extra driving time we had on the journey (which to be fair there was quite a lot of...) I managed to get some doodles in for design ideas when I get back home (before I got too car sick!)

On the way we had to do a fair few stop offs for loo breaks- and one time I happened to find this written on the back of one of the toilet doors... it was so fitting I had to just share it! It was the perfect sentence to describe the trip completely. ..

Totally beautiful.... (and by that I mean the sea views- not me doing my dog impression!)

Definitely one of the best things I've ever seen... I feel so lucky to have been able to do any of this trip so far! And we are still only half way!

Next stop we are off to a cute little village named Ojai to take part in a super duper workshop with a super duper lady... so will fill you in in that for sure!

But for now I am off to get some well needed zzz's

Au revoir!

xxx