50 Facts About Me

So I thought I'd do something different this week. I share a lot of my work on here but I rarely show myself so after being dared by a pal I thought I'd share 50 facts about me... this will be hard!
So if you're new around here my name is Siobhan Beer and I'm a freelance illustrator/artist. I am 28 years old and live with my partner in Wiltshire in the UK.

1. I have lived in the same town for my entire life just in two different houses.
2. I'm a country girl at heart and love that I live somewhere so close to fields and trees. 
3. I absolutely hate big towns and cities, I can't see the big deal with them and have no interest in staying in them for longer than a few hours.
4. My nickname is Shiv, short for my full name Siobhan. I rarely get called my full name by anybody unless I'm being told off or being professional.
5. I rarely go out without any nail varnish on, it's like a constant thing with me. If I'm not wearing any I'm usually very stressed or snowed under a lot of work.
6. I used to want to work with animals but the world kept that door shut for me so I could find my way to illustration.
7. I was completely obsessed with cats as a child, then horses in my early teens followed by rats in my late teens.
8. I am a vegetarian and have been my entire life, I hated the taste of meat. I've also been very healthy my entire life so don't believe that vegetarianism is unhealthy for kids!
9. I have severe anxiety which can get in the way of life at times.
10. I'm constantly fighting my anxiety and depression which makes people think I'm either stuck up or overly happy and annoying.
11. I'm good at cheering people up.
12. I love animals, in this world they are the one thing that can just fill me with utter joy.
13. I don't really like kids and am not interested in having any.
14. I am however a romantic and do want to get married some day.
15. I used to work in only graphite and acrylic paints when I was younger until I found coloured pencils and watercolour and I haven't looked back.
16. I am an only child.
17. One of my favourite plants are Bromeliads and I currently have two that seem very happy, well they're still alive after a few months so I'm guessing they're happy and I'm doing something right!
18. I am a bit obsessed with prehistoric life, like dinosaurs and ice age creatures to put it simply. I wish I could incorporate them more in to my work.
19. I wanted to be a writer when I was younger and spent a lot of my time writing stories that then transferred to comics for a short while.
20. My favourite colours are blue, purple and teal... so basically a peacock!
21. My favourite place to be is Cornwall, nothing beats rambling around the cliffs of Cornwall and a good cold drink in a village pub.
22. I don't drink. I have had alcohol a couple of times, the first time I got migraines and the second time ended in me getting a little tipsy and thinking I was having a stroke... I decided then that alcohol wasn't for me!
23. I'm a bit of a doofus and goof about a lot to make people smile.
24. I don't get on with technology... all the parts I use for work are basically me winging it.
25. I love to cook and experiment with food.
26. Autumn is my favourite season and October is my best month.
27. Fluffy socks and candles are the way to my heart.
28. Long nature walks bring me back to earth when I feel like I've lost my grip.
29. I get affected by the moon cycles, I get very twitchy and anxious around every full moon. 
30. I also come from a family where the women are more in tune with the world around them, we call it our witchy side. I have the rough ability to know when bad things are about to happen.
31. I love to make pom-poms.
32. I'm good at painting, baking and making people smile.
33. I'm bad at maths, social situations and being tidy.
34. I am naturally dark blonde haired but can never decide whether I want to be blonde or brunette.
35. I have never studied art and failed GCSE art because I wasn't fast enough.
36. I was told I was wasting my life and was never going to achieve anything.
37. I run Silly Badger Designs by myself and hand make every product, all the prints are printed at my home studio along with the greeting cards and bookmarks and every little thing is done here.
38. I love birds. It's always been an obsession but then again my family have always kept birds. Cockatiels are the best pets and I love corvids and hornbills!
39. I'm terrified of grasshoppers and crickets. I got bitten by one when I was little and ever since then I've been terrified of them.
40. I nearly always walk in to door frames, it's like I have this magnetic pull towards them and tend to bounce off them well!
41. I'm badly allergic to rats and can never own them again which is why I draw them so much. I miss them.
42. I paint both realistically and characterized, I can't pick just one as I work with both equally.
43. I love playing games but never give myself the time to sit down and relax. It's a bad habit.
44. I've been with my boyfriend for almost 5 years and we're still as weird as we were when we first met.
45. I would love to own a ragdoll cat and adopt a dog.
46. I have trouble thinking about facts about myself!
47. I'm a believer in hard work not talent. I believe talent helps but hard work is what wins in the end and I truly respect hard working people.
48. Foxes are my lucky charm. Every time I see a fox something good always happens after.
49. Badgers are my spirit animal.
50. Silly Badger comes from my initials, SB. It came to life when I was on holiday watching wild badgers and I started doodling them. that was over ten years ago now and the little Silly Badger has stayed with me all this time.

Well! That was fun... and silly... and full of randomness which pretty much sums me up. I'm mainly all about smiles and animals. I'm a very simple person when it comes down to it!

So that's a bit more about the person behind the business! I hope I haven't ruined my image too much!