I started Mary’s House Designs as a creative outlet for me (very selfishly!) as my two daughters were growing up and I was feeling the need to create visually again. I think I had spent so long being a mum, being a teacher, looking after the home and being creative in that way, that I forgot about the need I have to make things for myself, or even just play! Anyway, I thought I’d share where the name for Mary’s House Designs came from, so the nosey ones amongst you can have a read.

My name is Angela and my middle name is Mary- that was the starting point. I have been an art teacher for a long time (23 years!) and a mum of two daughters for even longer (29 years!) so I wanted the name of my brand to have a connection to me, but for my creative business to also have some distance. The work I make is very sweet and almost naïve at times and I felt that my middle name of Mary reflected that too- it has an old fashioned charm and sweetness as well.

The name Mary also connects to my family and heritage….my mum’s middle name is Mary, (she is Bernadette Mary) and her granny’s name was Mary too. My granny (Josephine) and grandad (Patrick) came to England from Ireland about 100 years ago and made a life here, so my Irish catholic roots are also included in the name.

My Irish grandparents and mum, the side of my family where the name Mary comes from.

In my work there is often a personal connection or story, sometimes I’m not even fully aware of it myself! I grew up next door to a warren and spent hours and hours there, surrounded by nature, collecting flowers and making posies, pressing them, making rose petal perfume (who didn’t in the 70’s!), finding poorly animals and looking after them, the list goes on and on!

Floral cards, drawn and painted from observation and imagination.

But my love of nature is reflected in my work and the personal connection I have to it, sometimes it’s a memory and an imagined flower, or a sky or a tree or landscape.

Tree prints from imagination and memory.

Other times it’s a story from my life that makes its way into my work (like Doris the Dachshund who was Eva, my daughter’s little doggie friend when she was small).

Doris inspired a collection of cards, prints and stationery for my daughter, Eva.

I also liked the thought of the house and home in the name; Mary’s House sounds like somewhere I’d like to go and have some wholesome fun and I hope my work is like that for people, I am all about bringing smiles, helping people feel happier and to try to remind them of the joy in the colour we find in the everyday…so I invite you into my house that has been filled with flowers, nature and pretty things so you can escape for a while and share in my love of colour and pattern!

Thanks for reading- I’d love to hear about your names or stories you’d like to share- please feel free to comment below.