First Night Design | Valentine Blush All Over the Place

Valentine Blush Low-Top Sneakers

Valentine Blush Guest Book

Valentine Blush All-Over Print Tank Top

Valentine Blush Stationery

Valentine Blush Tote Bag

Valentine Blush Cushion

Valentine Blush Notebook

Valentine Blush Gift Tags

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America [14 fulfilment centres in 5 countries]
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #Valentine Blush #Screenwriting

Valentine Blush © First Night Design/Sarah Vernon

I can’t bear it when I have nothing of my own to post because while I love finding other work on art, books, writing or photography to introduce you to, there’s always those niggling thoughts that run: “But you need to be promoting your own work to earn money!” or “Why aren’t you going back to writing your memoirs?” But it’s got to stop, as I’m sure you’ll tell me. Living is more important when push comes to ultimate shove and you’re not the twenty-eight-year-old you feel.

Quentin Crisp NYC 1992 Ross Bennett Lewis

Valentine Blush is new and I had every intention of uploading it to the galleries in time to catch the Valentine market. It didn’t happen and so it’s still not available to buy. I don’t care because I’ve become more embedded in the local community by making some new friends including writer Barbara Jane Mackie whose screenwriter father, Philip Mackie, adapted short stories by Saki in 1962 with a cast that just happened to include my father, Richard Vernon. Some of you might remember Mackie’s later work as he was responsible for the incomparable adaptation of The Naked Civil Servant [1975] with a never-to-be-forgotten performance by the late John Hurt as Quentin Crisp.

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Vintage Pretty Girl is Like a Melody Mouse Pad | Zazzle #Sold!

Song sheet for Irving Berlin’s famous number, ‘A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody’, sung in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919.

Source: Vintage Pretty Girl is Like a Melody Mouse Pad | Zazzle

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Island Love Postcard | Zazzle

Orientation: Postcard

Create your own vacation-worthy postcards right here. Any view you’ve seen, any monument you’ve fallen in love with, can all be added to our postcards with our personalization tool. Craft touching, hand-written correspondence while on your next road trip!

• Dimensions: 4.25″l x 5.6″w (portrait) or 5.6″l x 4.25″w (landscape)
• Printed on 110 lb, 12.5 point thick, semi-gloss paper
• Postage rate: $0.34

Source: Island Love Postcard | Zazzle

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First Night Design | “Your lips know what to do, just like sea anemones.”

FROM THE ARCHIVE 10th February 2015

A Valentine image taken from a vintage postcard in my collection that early readers may know but is here shown on heart stickers, greeting cards and make-up bags.  Heart Stickers Greeting Cards iP…

Source: First Night Design | “Your lips know what to do, just like sea anemones.”

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#Valentine Seahorses Coffee Mug Set | Zazzle

Style: Coffee Mug Set

It’s a match made in heaven for this lovers’ mug set! Made to perfectly fit together, this ceramic mug set is a great gift for a wedding, anniversary, Valentine’s Day, Sweetest Day, or any other special occasion. The heart-shaped handles on each mug add an extra touch of love to this already very romantic gift! Customize with your pictures, photos, and text to make a one-of-a-kind mug set that will be cherished for years.

• 8-ounce capacity
• Dimension: 3.8”h x 3.2”diameter
• 100% ceramic construction
• Meets or exceeds FDA requirements for food and beverage safety
• Printed on demand by the Photo USA team in Fremont, California

Source: Valentine Seahorses Coffee Mug Set | Zazzle

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Just Dropping In #Valentine Card | Zazzle

Size: Greeting Card

Birthdays or holidays, good days or bad days, Zazzle’s customized greeting cards are the perfect way to convey your well-wishes and salutations on any occasion. Add a photo or pick a design and brighten someone’s day with a simple “hi”!

• Dimensions: 5″l x 7″w (portrait) or 7″l x 5″w (landscape)
• Printed on 110 lb, 12.5 point thick, semi-gloss paper
• Matte finish inside for smudge-free writing
• Add photos and text to all sides of this folded card at no extra charge
• Printable area on the back of the card is 3″l x 4″w (portrait) or 4″l x 3″w (landscape)
• Standard white envelopes included

Source: Just Dropping In Valentine Card | Zazzle

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Make Me a Willow Cabin… Greeting Card | Zazzle #Valentine

Size: Greeting Card

Birthdays or holidays, good days or hard days, Zazzle’s customised greeting cards are the perfect way to convey your wishes on any occasion. Add a photo or pick a design and brighten someone’s day with a simple “Hey”!

• Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm (5″ x 7″) portrait or 17.8 cm x 12. 7 cm (7″ x 5″) landscape
• Printed on 110 lb, 12.5 point thick, semi-gloss paper
• Matte finish inside for smudge-free writing
• Add photos and text to all sides of this folded card at no extra charge
• Printable area on the back of the card is 7.6 cm x 10.2 cm (portrait) or 10.2 x 7.6 cm (landscape)
• Standard white envelopes included

Source: Make Me a Willow Cabin… Greeting Card | Zazzle

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Love Letters #Valentine Binder | Zazzle

I think I’m repeating myself with this post but I’m too tired to check and Valentine’s Day is not far away!
What could be more romantic than receiving a hand-written love letter? Use this beautiful folder to store them.

Size: Avery Signature 1.5″ Binder

You’ve spent time crafting interesting reports, so why not create an eye-catching Avery custom binder to match? Showcase your business with custom client binders, proposals and reports, or design unique wedding albums, recipe books and photo albums.

• Dimensions: 10″l x 11.75″w; Spine: 2.2″
• Full bleed photo-quality printing
• Designed for letter (8.5″ x 11″) sized paper
• Fits 400 pages with 1 Touch™ EZD™ Rings
• Binder inserts not included
• Made in U.S.A.

Ring Type: One Touch EZD Ring

1″ Capacity: 275 pages
1.5″ Capacity: 400 pages
2″ Capacity: 540 pages
Locking rings open with ease and keep pages secure.

Source: Love Letters Valentine Binder | Zazzle

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Bird in the Hand Neck Tie | Zazzle #Sold!

Original & vintage art © First Night Design [www.firstnightdesign.wordpress.com]

Source: Bird in the Hand Neck Tie | Zazzle

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“Bird in the Hand” Studio Pouches by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

Features / Creation 2 February 2015 / Everyday Women 16 October 2014 / Artists with Disabilities 16 October 2014 / Visual Texture Group 15 October 2014

Photoshop / Own ephemera & textures

• Also buy this artwork on bags, apparel, stickers, and more.

Source: “Bird in the Hand” Studio Pouches by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

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Christina Georgina Rossetti says: | The Müscleheaded Blog

“Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.”

Source: Christina Georgina Rossetti says: | The Müscleheaded Blog

First Night Design | #CoverMakeOver Week 7 — What Dreams May Come

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 6 What Dreams May Come
Original & vintage art © First Night Design [www.firstnightdesign.wordpress.com]

‘Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife. After he dies, his wife, Annie killed herself and went to hell. Chris decides to risk eternity in hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven.’ IMdb

When Julie Powell announced this week’s challenge, I thought the film, What Dreams May Come (1998) with Robin Williams, was not one I’d seen. The original cover gave me no clue and even the details Julie gave about the movie winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction didn’t conjure up the story. Only when I looked at IMdb did I realise that we saw it on television a few weeks ago and rather enjoyed it. IMdb’s blurb makes it sound too ethereal for my taste but in fact, it’s a film that makes you think about life, death and love in ways you might not have previously. And the landscapes are luscious.

I have used a design I’m still creating as the backdrop in a bid to show the landscapes of the film. The title font and strap line is in Seravek ExtraLight while the star’s name is in Goudy Medieval Regular – perhaps a little too Gothic but I was running out of time.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

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First Night Design | One Man and His Dog #Repost

FROM THE ARCHIVE 21 February 2014. I’m reblogging this post as a follow-up to yesterday’s Magnificent Mongrel image.

This exquisite watercolour of one man and his dog was a special commission. The artist is Janet Weight Reed. The subject is Mr FND with our dog Pisch.

In the twenty years we have been together, we have rarely been able to give each other birthday presents. Let us say it has been the norm more often than not to let the occasions pass us by with barely a nod; finding money for food and utility bills has taken precedence.

I determined that last winter would be different because our circumstances were changing. Mr FND was in London selling our flat and as soon as we exchanged contracts, I emailed Janet asking if she would be able to paint a watercolour in time for 19th December if I sent her a photograph.

She could, she would and she did!

It was at this point that…

Source: First Night Design | One Man and His Dog 

Keats on the Joy of Singledom and How Solitude Opens Our Creative Channels to Truth and Beauty – Brain Pickings

Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton

“The roaring of the wind is my wife and the Stars through the window pane are my Children… I do not live in this world alone but in a thousand worlds.”

BY MARIA POPOVA

“Nourish yourself with grand and austere ideas of beauty that feed the soul… Seek solitude,” the great French artist Eugène Delacroix counseled himself in 1824. Just a few years earlier, another timeless patron saint of the creative spirit extolled the rewards of solitude as a supreme conduit to truth and beauty.

Celebrated as one of the greatest poets humanity has ever produced, John Keats (October 31, 1795–February 23, 1821) married an extraordinary capacity for transcendence with an uncommon share of sorrow. His short life was suffused with loss from a young age — his father died after a horseback accident when Keats was eight and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen. And yet even amid his darkest despair, Keats…

Source: Keats on the Joy of Singledom and How Solitude Opens Our Creative Channels to Truth and Beauty – Brain Pickings