Its's a jungle in here!

This is me relaxing this Christmas! My two shops carladaly.com and carladaly.co.uk are now finished for Christmas shopping. I have had a busy run up to Christmas, and it gives me great pleasure to think that kids as far away as Australia will be enjoying my kids wall art this Christmas! I want to thank all my customers, I really hope your shopping experience on my site has been a good one. So all that is left to say is Merry Christmas ! We are of course open for business as usual, I know there is always a need for a baby gift or christening gift!

They wrote the alphabet around my alphabet wall stickers . Looks great! I donated some of my artwork to a lady called Kate Cleator, she is just back from Malawi where she was doing building work for an orphanage in Khola (southern Malawi). They used my work to decorate some of the walls and I think it inspireded the kids too, as they did some lovely artwork around my picures. Here is the link to the Joshua Orphan Care Trust

Me delivering all my gifts! Believe Santa works very hard!!! Wow! I have been busy, so, I haven't really had a chance to write any blog posts, I am working too hard at getting all my Christmas orders out! Here are the last shopping dates for my sites carladaly.com and carladaly.co.uk If you are located in Ireland my last shipping dates are 20th of December , UK/Europe 17th and USA 14th , anywhere else, I am afraid, the last shopping date was the 6th of December! There is a lot to choose from in my shops, kids and babies will love these colourful art pieces for their walls! Don't forget there is plenty of items personalised, growth charts , door signs & nursery pictures to name but a few! My special gift wrapping service is also available, if you really want to make your Christmas gift one to remember!

For all you shoppers in the USA and Ireland ...... 10% Discount Coupon @ CarlaDaly.com Code- xmas10 You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code xmas10 in the box provided, and click on the redeem button. The coupon is valid between 23/11/2010 and 18/12/2010 Don't lose the coupon code, make sure to keep the code safe so you can benefit from this special offer. Visit us at http://www.carladaly.com Happy Shopping! Last shopping dates for Christmas- USA 14th Dec, Ireland 20th Dec, UK/Europe 1...

For all you UK shoppers ......... 10% Discount @ CarlaDaly.co.uk Code- cdxmas10 You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code cdxmas10 in the box provided, and click on the redeem button. The coupon is valid between 23/11/2010 and 30/11/2010 Don't lose the coupon code, make sure to keep the code safe so you can benefit from this special offer. Visit us at http://www.carladaly.co.uk Happy Sh...

I had a nice surprise yesterday when I was listed in Irish Times - Ireland's Own Great Gift Sites . Not a bad list to be in! Here is the list below - Beautifully drawn and often hilarious limited edition prints (€150-€250) from this Sligo-based artist. anniewest.com Children’s illustrator Carla Daly has all kinds of growth charts, door signs, kids’ wall stickers and personalised art for kids’ bedrooms. carladaly.com Possibly the best online T-shirt shop, with tops emblazoned with slogans you’d have to be Irish to understand, eg “Where’s Grandad?” hairybaby.com This site has loads of presents, from cheesy mugs and novelty socks to natty lamps and Ugg boots. peoplelovepresents.com An online marketplace for finding lessons in everything from tuba playing to bee-keeping. mindhives.com A very cute site with a range of home accessories and gifts selected for their nostalgic feel, their sense of fun or their handmade nature. mabelandviolet.com Pigeon lamp, Charlie Monkey ...

Rollercoaster birth announcement print I have just finished two new baby birth announcement wall prints. These are a really lovely baby keepsakes and a unique gift for a newborn or baby's first Christmas. My baby keepsakes (birth announcemnt prints) are one of my best sellers on my site. I hand personalize each print with baby's name, date of birth, mum, dad, sister and brothers names, other family details are added. The amount of information on each print varies to suit the artwork. Jungle Park birth announcement print With Christmas coming, these are a great baby gift that all the family will enjoy! Don't forget I offer free shipping worldwide on all orders!

4 Letter Name Wall Art Phew! I have at last finished designing and uploading my new products to my online shops CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk . I am producing a range of wall art made up of kids names, and kids names as hanging mobiles. The wall art is printed on heavy card and laminated for durabilty, there are sticky pads on the back for easy attachment to the wall. 5 Letter Hanging Mobile The name hanging mobiles are also printed on laminated card, they are attached with string which attaches to the ceiling. Your baby's name or your childs name is printed on both sides.

I offer free delivery on all my proucts worldwide, to achieve this I use the standard postal services. Sometimes there can be delays, so if you need to receive an order quickly please use my express post service. The express post option can be found during the checkout process, you have to pay extra for this option. I try to keep my costs down on all my products and at the same time delivery quality kids wall art, so I hope it is worth waiting the few extra days for the postal service and receiving an affordable gift for a baby or one of my colourful art decor for your kids and baby's room!

Well, my version of recycling! I sometimes create pieces that I love, then decide I hate, then a year later decide that I do like it but it needs more work. My three new growth charts are an example of this. It was like the original finished art just wasn't quite complete and I come back to finish it, this might be up to a year later! Giraffe - growth chart is just a simple version of my original giraffe growth chart. I wil now be selling both on my site as my original giraffe growth chart is one of my best sellers. Cool Cats - growth chart has been selling on my site for a while, I just needed to give it a facelift and now it will be sold in the above format. Animal Friends - growth chart I used to sell on my website, it was very popular, then for some reason, that I can't remember, I stopped selling it. I recently came across it in my files and decided to offer it for sale again on my site. All the above growth charts will be available on my site for Christmas.

I am liking my new agent so far, I have only been with them for about a six weeks and they have me designing Christmas cards already! It was really nice to work on something different then my children's wall art range. Here are the three new designs ready to be liscensed. If your interested contact my agent - Advocate-Art

I am up early today and thought I would catch up with my friends Lisa and Eric Ring. They have taken a year out of the Irish recesssion (lucky them) to travel around the world, with their kids I might add! They are putting all their adventures down on their blog Rings Round The World . They are in Malaysia at the moment and, I think, half way through their trip. I had the pleasure of visiting Malaysia some years back, my sister lived there for a few years and I paid her a visit. Wow, what an beautiful country. Looks like Eric and Lisa are really enjoying themselves and I wish them good luck for the rest of your journey.

I just want to wish Kate Cleator a volunteer in the Joshua Orphan Care Trust, she is off to work in the orphanage in Malawi. She and others are helping in the building work and she was looking for some wall decor for the children. I sent her a large package today. She is going to send me some pictures of the children and my artwork, I will post them on my blog if she allows. I really hope they like the art I sent. You can read about Kate and her fellow volunteers here .

Yipee! My article in XFuns magazine has been published. I think it looks great. Here are two pages from the spread. You can buy the magazine here .

New Baby Keepsake Art August has been a busy month for me, sales have been great and I have juggled work with spending time with my kids. It has been hard work but fun. I am taking them off for a weeks holiday next week, unfortunately there will be a slight delay in the dispatch of all orders, sorry! In the meantime enjoy up to 30% off on both my sites CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk Also, I have added a new baby keepsake print to my site, you can view it here .

A blogging mummy/shopping site has reviewed my work and is offering a $40 shopping voucher for my site. Click here for the details.

You will have read on my blog that I have toyed with the idea of getting an agent to license my work. Well, I have taken the plunge and have signed up with a London based illustration agency, Advocate-Art . They are a big agency and seem a very good, they represent some lovely artists. I am keen to have my art on different products and don't have the time to attend the licensing shows. I am hoping Advocate-Art will get to show my work to some product manufacturers at the licensing shows they attend. So I am crossing my fingers and will keep you posted on any interesting developments! Click here For my page at Advocate Art.

20% Summer Sale @ CarlaDaly.com Code- summer10 You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code summer10 in the box provided, and click on the redeem button. The coupon is valid between 23/07/2010 and 31/07/2010 Don't lose the coupon code, make sure to keep the code safe so you can benefit from this special offer. Visit us at CarlaDaly.com Happy Shopping!

I have been kindly wriiten about by B Is For Baby , a blog which is part of PocketChange.com . This site is a really good idea, it is a shopping blog directory giving shopping tips, gift ideas, 2010 hot products, reviews & buying guide. There is a write about my work on B Is For Baby which you can read here

Baby Keepsake Art Print Well, it has been a busy time for me at the moment. Sales are going very well, which keeps busy and I am painting some new art. I am having a sale on my Baby Keepsake Art and the sales are rocketing! As you know, I on and off think about licensing my art and periodically look for a licensing agent. Although I sell my art succesfully through my shop, I would love to see my work on other children's products that I don't produce, like, kids bedding, furniture, clothing etc. I dip in and out of this idea as I think it might be hard to find an agent who you can trust, and feel is out selling my work as eagerly as I sell my work! I don't really push my work through the media but a few weeks ago I was approached by Xfuns design magazine to do an interview. I was thrilled with the invitation and completed the interview last week. I will post it on my blog when I get a copy. That's it for the moment, I am off to paint now!

In 1900 my grandfather, James Daly was born in Dublin, 16 years later in fought in Boland's Mill in the 1916 Easter Rising . He spent time in Frongoch but ws quickly released when they found out his age. Last week his daughter, my Aunty Kathleen passed away at the age of 85. I feel a great loss since her death as she was such a one off, they don't make them like Aunty Kathleen anymore! Born in Kimmage, Dublin, she started her life from humble beginnings, leaving school very young she went to Liverpool to study as a a nurse. A women ahead of her time, she went on to open a very successful nursing home in Dublin. She was a successful business women, mother, aunty and grandmother. I want to wish my Aunty Kathleen well on her final journey in life and she will always be in my thoughts.

My alphabet wall stickers are now back in stock. Sorry about the delay but I have a new printer producing them. I have to say the quality is lovely, they are a really fun and colorful way to decorate your baby's nursery. They also cover a lot of wall space which is good! You can puschase them here CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk

I thought you might want to participate in this review and giveaway by DealWiseMommy. You can win a free growth chart of your choice!

Here, I sit in my attic a week after returning from my holidays in Portugal. I am looking out over the river Liffey and it is grey, windy, cold and threatening rain! Good God, it is miserable!!! Since my return from holiday I have had a lot of catching up to do, all my orders received through out the holday had to be dispatched. It has been busy! I also employed a new Indian seo company to work on my www.CarlaDaly.co.uk site, I hope to boost my sales to the UK. A lot of people are asking about my alphabet wall stickers , which have been out of stock for some time now, the reason for this has been a change in the printer who produces them for me. They will be available on my site within the next week. Sorry for the delay!

The Ring Family I wanted to share a blog with you, it is that of my friends Eric and Lisa Ring . They have taken a year off from the dreary Irish weather and the very dreary Irish recession, to travel around the world. They are doing this with their two children Elka and Axel . It is a lovely blog and really great photgraphs. I think it might inspire a few people to take that step and do something out of the ordinary! RingsRoundTheWorld.Com

Just a quick post to say I am back and about to start working. I had a lot of orders while on holiday and want to thank you for being so patient with me regarding the late delivery of your orders. All orders will be dispatched in the next few days and should be with you very soon!

Yes, this is me on my holidays! I am taking a holiday which I really feel I need, I don't think I have been this eager to get away and soak up some sun for a very long time! Unfortunately, an Icelandic ash cloud might have some other ideas for me. I plan to leave on Friday and my sister is flying in from the States to meet me. I hope it will all go to plan and a nice wind whips up and blows all the ash away from us! I will still be taking orders on both my sites- CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk but there will be a delay with delivery, don't worry I will be keeping on top of things even from the beach!

My alphabet wall stickers are such a great seller, but for some reason I keep changing the design of them. I just completed some new dinosaur images and thought they would look great as an alphabet sticker, before you know it, not only have I added them but re-designed the whole 26!!!! Okay, this has to be the last time, as people are waiting to purchase the stickers. Sorry! They will be available soon. I am also looking to get them printed on a thicker sticker and finding a printer to do this is taking some time. What do you think of my new images, each sticker is 12.5 x 12.5 cm.

Dinosaur Wall Growth Chart My week has been incredibly busy, the Irish Times article shot my site into overdrive! I am now playing catch up, I have a lot of orders to get out and other new products to upload onto my sites CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk . My new products are dinosaur related prints/growth charts. T Rex Personalized Name Art Print I really enjoyed doing the dinosaurs, and with the success my animal world map, I am thinking of adding a dinosaur world map to my range. Though this will take a long time to illustrate! Dinosaur Kids Posters In the meantime I hope you like the new additions to my websites

World Map 40% discount for limited time only! From the 22nd of April until Sunday 25th of April, the Irish times are offering, to their readers, a 40% discount on my world map wall plaque. If you would like to purchase my illustrated world map at this greatly reduced price please click here . Offer available until 10pm Sunday 25th of April, 2010. Here is the write up/offer in the Irish Times

Dinosaur Growth Chart to add to Growth Chart Category At last I have finished my dinosaur growth chart, it took me a while but I am pleased with the result . I hope it will encourage kids to eat their green vegetables, what do you think?

Just a quick post. I have at last sat down and painted some new work. All to be revealed soon! Here is the artwork of my soon to be, new dinosaur growth chart, to add to my Growth Chart Category . A lot more work to be done on it, I better get working!

Original Elephant Growth Chart I am back painting! Yes, new creations and ideas, it feels great. I have to reprint some growth charts and add a new growth chart design to my Growth Chart Category . I have started a new dinosaur image and also have revamped an old image - The The Elephant Growth Chart , is very popular but I felt the colours where a little dark so I have lightened it. What do you think? New Elephant Growth Chart I know people have been asking about availability of the some of my growth charts, a few are temporarily out of stock but please bear with me, they will be available soon!

Well, it has been a busy week at CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk which is great for business but creatively it has been slow. I have employed a search engine optimization company to work on my CarlaDaly.com site, they only started yesterday, so I am crossing my fingers! The only other thing I did of significance this week was deactivate my Facebook account. I have been thinking about this for a while but could not bring myself to press that deactivate button! Well finally I pulled the plug on Tuesday evening, I was really sick of logging in and looking at photo's of people I really didn't know. The only downside to this is that my Facebook page promoting my business has gone, but I want to focus on my blog and my twittering and wasting time on Facebook just wasn't helping me. So a cheer for my liberation from Facebook! Funny, I found this article on the web just after I posted this article, I think it is relevant don't you? Social Networking Myths

Kids Name Mobile I redesigned and reprinted my alphabet wall stickers , when I did I really wanted to make some other products from them. I felt I should use my illustrated letters in a product that makes up a child's name. I first thought of doing name signs but it just wasn't working out. I then decided on kids wall letter signs, a customer can purchase an individual letter to make up a child's name or word they might like on their walls. Kids Wall Letter-D My wall letters quickly developed into Kids Name Mobile which I really love. They cost a lot to produce and they are put together by hand but they are great fun! I only put them up for sale last Friday and I have sold some already. So from one product my alphabet stickers have have creatd two other products for my online shop, no bad for a weeks work! Kids Wall Letter-O

Paddy's Bus tour Well it feels good to be Irish! We celebrate our big day tomorrow and I will go with my husband and kids in to the St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin city. The weather in Ireland for Paddies day is usually cold with wind and of course, throw a bit of rain in there, and we have a classic Irish day with some classic Irish fun! Well we call it fun! Ahhh, I am joking it is a great day and there is a lot of tourists in the city at the moment, so I hope you and they enjoy the....craic agus ceol! Baby Birth Information Print You can purchase prints on my children's wall art site site with an Irish twist, my sheep print is really popular. I don't think you have to Irish to enjoy sheep dancing in a field! HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY ;-) Irish Sham-Rogues

I am finding it very hard to keep up with my blog, twittering etc. I just don't seem to find the time, things have been very busy! I have found time to illustrate some pages that your kids can download and colour in. I have only uploaded them to my .co.uk kids wall art site as unfortunately I haven't found the time to upload it to my .com nursery art site yet, sorry! Also, I have only created two images and want to add more. Yes, when I get the time!!!! I decided to offer free downloads after my daughters birthday party. I did an art party for 12 kids and it went down really well. I had a silent party for an hour and a half! The just got stuck in and were totally absorbed in colouring the pictures I had created for them, finally we had to drag them away from the colouring to get them dancing! So, I decided to spread my art love to your kids with these free downloads, watch this space as there is more to come!

My 10% discount offer. I have scratched out the code as you have to participate to avail of the discount! The meningitis research foundation of Ireland are attempting a Guinness World Record in April in Dublin – the largest amount of babies pushed in buggies. They have asked me to do a giveaway or a discount for my kids wall art shop . I have produced an a4 sheet with a 10% discount, it also doubles up as a colouring page for kids. These will be part of a goodie bag given away on the day . Record attempt information or log onto Meningitis.org I think this is such a good idea, so if you have a baby and a buggy please come and participate. It is on the 24th April 2010 and cost just 5 Euro. Contact number for more information is 01 8196931