No Bones About It

In case you were worried for the lack of dogs and cats and the abundance of running-related posts here on this blog.... well, worry no more.  I give you dog stationery.  I give you postcards and stickers.  All ready to paw-chase from my etsy shop.  I also have one set of dog stationery to give away.  All you gotta do is pick your FAVOURITE product from my shop and tweet who you would buy it for. Include @nicolarowlands and #giveaway in the tweet.  A winner will be chosen tomorrow at 7pm! 

Mixed Bags

Been sorting some deliveries the past few weeks, so that Nicola goods can be conveniently bought from a gift shop near you.  Some funny totes went to Chifferobe in North Carolina:

Keeping Manchester's Fig + Sparrow stocked up with pocket manfriends always and always:

Kitty cat stickers, tote bags and cards went to Shop at the Old Fire Station in Oxford. 

Also, a few more vaguely interesting things:
1.  My house portrait was featured on a lovely blogpost last week! Thank you Kate!
2.  I am doing a giveaway on my facebook page.  This is the loot up for grabs.

3.  I'm looking for an intern.  If you're a student in the Manchester area please drop me an email with a link to your website and just a little hello.  One day per week, travel expenses covered.  Approx 5 hours per day.  Tasks will include packaging things up, making cups of tea, cutting fabric, going to the post office and keeping me sane.

That's enough from me for now.  Lots of miles to run this weekend.  Lots of dogs to draw. Lots of coffee (/beer) to drink.

Free gifts for people

I've almost reached 2000 sales in my etsy shop. I can't be-friggin-lieve it, can you?  I'm giving a FREE GIFT with every order until the 2000th sale. These are the gift options here.  Also, the 2000th sale will be receiving a YEAR'S SUPPLY OF GREETING CARDS. That's exciting! I'm excited.

Everyone's a winner

(Unfortunately not everyone's a winner because there can only be one winner, but thank you to all the nice people who left comments on my blog.)  Congratulations Lucia, you get a grab bag of Flow Magazine goodness with extra special greeting cards from yours truly. Please let me know your address for posting.

PS: New unicorn badges now in my etsy shop! Because we heart unicorns.

Beautiful flow magazine

I have a wonderful copy of the first international issue of Flow Magazine here.  It's so colourful and pretty, with different kinds of paper and interesting articles and loads of nice things to look at.  It also comes with a free Japanese craft notebook, pretty wrapping paper and I also have a special poster as well.  I first found out about Flow when they featured my pocket manfriends in issue 4  of their dutch version.  I was sad I couldn't read the articles despite loving the super pretty pictures.  So I'm sure I'm not alone in being excited the ladies have decided to create an English magazine.  Look how nice:

I've decided to pack up this magazine, special poster & notebook, and of course a bunch of my greetings cards and stickers and give them away to a reader.  Just leave a comment below!
(Check out Flow on twitter and facebook - they are super nice people who run the magazine!)
I'll choose a winner next Friday.

x o Nicola

12 miles, cheese love and poncey powders

A couple things that made me feel emotional this week:
1. Got to Dance.  Just pretty much all of the contestants always ever, dunno why but I cry at every single one.
2.  My mom and Dad moved to France to begin their dream of running a business and living a sustainable life together.  Mom tells me they have been given fish pie by the neighbours and my dad has told me to download a new app called 'whatsapp.'  I feel confident in saying they are going to be just fine.
3.  My freaking aprons only went and got a total big deal blog mention last week and sold out.

Turns out, PEOPLE LOVE CHEESE hey.  There were some funny comments on the blogpost specifically one person who adapted a Beyonce song to incorporate cheese. Of course.

Oh if you want to buy aprons, you still can do.  Just click over to my etsy shop.  

I also chose a winner for the giveaway on my facebook page.  Well, two winners because two is better than one (unless you're talking measures of spirulina cuz that stuff stinks and I mean it's mega whiffy) 

So yeah I'm excited to send out some love to these ladies.  Oh and speaking of sending love in the post, check out Creative Pay it Forward.  I got involved on facebook and if all goes to plan I should be receiving something handmade and also sending out some goods to old pals I've not seen in a while.

And speaking of old pals, I may have to reward my legs with denim this week as they covered some mileage this weekend and deserve a present.  2.5 mile yesterday and 9.6 mile today.  That's a new jean-worthy 12 miles. Go legs! I love you. Now please, choose expensive jeans and I shall buy them for you guiltlessly.

Last week I was having some issues with hydration/moodswings but it seems a combo of some crazy healthfood powders I can't even... Baobab (how is that a thing?) and Spirulina (don't even) along with my other protein/crazy diet stuffs my post-run hunger rage seems under control and I'm not getting major thirst headaches anymore.  Was really hoping to avoid sugarfilled sports drinks and fingers crossed I might be on the right track.  

Alrighty! Off to eat some fish, pack up some aprons and hopefully finish the book I'm reading.  Thanks for being wonderful.  It's been emotional but nothing some new jeans can't fix. 

Work more, sweat more, and win cats

You made it through the first week back in the real world!  So did I! This calls for chicken hoagies.  Hope you're feeling the newness of the new year and enjoying laying down the law for hows it gonna roll in 2013. I'm making a conscious effort to make more bad drawings.  Here's one I did yesterday. 

Some good words to live by.

And in celebration of reaching 1,000 fans, a giveaway is happening on my facebook page.  Because I like you.  You can win a bumper pack of greeting cards, some rad stickers, a big cat print, a Ms Spanner print, a blue faces coaster, one of the original pocket girlfriends, a Motel California tea towel, an 'I love you so much I could fart' pocket mirror and two mini drawings.  What you can't win are my feet.  I need them!

Today involved 90 minutes of hot yoga at Bikram Yoga Manchester.  Hot damn it was good.  So sweaty and so good.  Yesterday started with a fresh early morning 3 mile run.  I'm alternating my Janathon updates between here and my instagram account so's not to get my blog too sweaty or my instagram feed too running-obsessed (you know I want to though.)

My Be Obscure tote bag showed up on the etsy front page this afternoon. Wowee!!

And lastly, there's a shiny new (she's shiny and colourful) runner on my running blog. If you'd like to contribute to We Do Run Run please get in touch!

Happy Friday to you. x

Win some loot!

I'm doing a giveaway on my facebook page.  You can potentially win a taco kitty tote bag, beardy man charm, xmas gift tags, sweet ass cards, stickers to put on your face, pocket manfriend number 300 Ralph, a foxy keyring and a taco time pocket mirror.  The feet are not being given away because they are mine and I need them for various things including walking and running.

♥ Winners! ♥

Congratulations to Michelle Price who is soon to be the proud owner of a taco kitty tote bag :)

And because I was so flattered and excited by all you super nice folks joining in the giveaway I've chosen two runners up who I will send a package of stickers and cards.

THANK YOU to everyone for commenting, tweeting, facebooking and generally showing super taco kitty enthusiasm.  If you are a winner please email me your address and I'll get your loot in the post. x

Taco Kitty Cotton Tote GIVEAWAY

Cotton Taco Kitty tote bags are now available to buy, and as it's my birthday tomorrow, I've decided to give one of these bad boys away.

All you have to do is comment on this blogpost with what you'd use the taco tote for if you won it.

For extra entries
1. Tweet tweet "I wanna get my paws on a taco kitty tote bag from @nicolarowlands  http://bit.ly/oBuQRS"
2. Facebook status "I wanna get my paws on a taco kitty tote bag from @Nicola Rowlands Illustration and Design (you'll have to like the facebook page first to be able to tag it in a post)

I'll choose a winner on October 21. meow!