Pippa creates all sorts of arty stuff, from sock monkeys and scrapbooks to collage and crochet! See all her creations on her website: Pippa’s Arty Life, only a selection of what she has been up to is shown here!

Her work is bright and often spontaneous, she turns her creative eye to everything from what to wear to the bits of ice that form in the freezer!  

“I love to try new things. I don’t really have a speciality at the moment. I’m a jack of all trades and master of none… for now.”

Her art cards are all so different and express a thought, feeling or belief. They demonstrate a very good eye for detail. (See more at http://myartylife.blogspot.com/2008/05/backdated-art-cards.html)

Pippa has ME. She had depression to begin with, then two years later, during her final year at University she developed ME. She has had ME for about two years so far. The depression has improved, but the ME has not.

She has always been interested in art and nearly studied it at university, changing to Linguistics at the last minute.

“It was during a particularly bad trough of depression in my second year of university that I decided to take a wee break from essays (just a few days) to do something I wanted to do. I ended up getting some ceramic paints and painting some mugs. I found the whole process so therapeutic and found something so healing about creating. I then got into card-making and tried a bit of glass-painting. I found these little crafts so helpful in lifting my spirits. By my third and final year of university, I was also making jewellery and selling my handmade cards. Every so often I made sure that I took some time out when things got too hard. On one ‘day off from life’, I painted a sunset onto a big canvas – that cheered me up no end.”

And here is that sunset: 

Since getting married just over a year ago, things have changed a lot. She relies heavily on her husband for household and caring tasks, but having this help has allowed her to go from making things just to amuse herself, to blogging about it, to opening her own online shop!

“If I hadn’t have been ill then I wouldn’t have had the time to start a blog – or do so many arty crafty things. I think I would have ended up pursuing the money-driven career of so many other graduates. Being ill has forced me to take time out and think about what I really want to do and what I enjoy doing; creating is one of the few things I can actually do right now.”