iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 05/01/2026

That’s the moon, not the sun. Snow has fallen in Cambridge. Incredibly grateful that my office is at home. Stay safe. Recommending Yaktrax, they really do work.

210

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 28/11/2025

Petition to make Coldhams Lane in Cambridge safer for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers too. Link to sign cambridgeshire.cmis.uk.com/ccc_live/ePe...?

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 20/11/2025

The nicest gift to myself is snoring dog, herbal tea, bed and books. Current reading. #books

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 18/11/2025

Hanging out with the legendary Vic Lee #designersujited. Love the Corona Diaries and so much of his story chimes. Freehand and Quark!

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 14/06/2025

Diamond wedding celebrations for my parents this weekend, we had a lovely meal out minus dog who chilled out with a dog sitter at 3 Horseshoes in Madingley. More celebrations during the week, I’m feeling blessed to have them safe and well in my life. 60 years, blimey!

A white thatched pub with chairs outside and a lawn on the left.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 08/06/2025

Best night at @cambridgejunction.bsky.social Sung myself hoarse enjoying the Ale House Boys and recreation of tavern music from Cromwell period. History, cursing and music 👌 nice.

020

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 01/06/2025

I thought I’d be Monty Don and Lady Molly Lickalot would be Ned. True to form she has arranged a ball wherever I want to plant and tried to dig more holes, despite her advancing years.

A black dog with a red collar lying on a lawn

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 31/05/2025

A lovely end of the week and end of the month. Digital Women enable and empower women in digital skills, including design. I support them because they also have a carer award that honours the many ways women care, thereby enabling childfree and childless women to take part.

Well, that's a lovely surprise. Thank you Digital Women ® for a lovely end to the week and the month of May.

***
Image of purple and yellow background with the words Finalist Digital/Graphic Designer Berenice Howard-Smith Digital Women Awards 2025. In a circle is a picture of Berenice with curly blonde and red hair wearing glasses and a grey jumper, looking at the camera, behind her is a green wall with a pink, orange and blue print.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 25/05/2025

This is a win. Anyone who has self published will know it’s complicated. Using a professional designer means you can have a coffee with a friend like my client who authored this book whilst I organised error free designed pages for Ingram Spark. If you need a hand, ask. #selfpublishing

Green on green text that reads Your content files have no errors

021

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 24/05/2025

Rain in Cambridge, at last. Weather chat feels important in this dry summer. I left buckets out all over the garden so I can top up the water butt which leaked and has been empty for weeks. David Austin’s Sceptr’d Isle is looking relieved.

Pink rose almost in bloom covered in raindrops surrounded by buds and leaves.

021

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 02/05/2025

Cambridge is so much more interesting than our disappointing mayoral election outcome (this would probably be seen as a waste of money) … the beautiful sky garden of Cambridge and a ghost sign to bring some cheer. It’s neck achingly gorgeous.

110

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 20/04/2025

Perfect day for walking in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Back home and Cambridge is so quiet as the retail parks and shops are closed. No Asda, Sainsbury’s etc. The air feels better and birdsong too. I’m sure environment and consumerism would benefit from Sunday closing.

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 10/04/2025

Low-carbon blister pack, AI free zone. Each version of any AI image uses water and removes vital resources from our planet. Not only in the creation but each time it’s updated and discarded in the noise of social media but all too often it’s seen as fun and playful.

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 04/04/2025

Up on the roof in sunny Cambridge at a coworking event. Fantastic cake, lots of work done and a great talk on personal branding - authentic, consistent and add value. The view was amazing, from Spillers Mill to Sheep’s Green and the distant Gog Magog hills. #Cambridge

A view of Cambridge skyline work plants in the foreground on a sunny day.

110

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 30/03/2025

I miss the winter evenings. I love the hibernation and that can feel lonely when everyone is enjoying sun. I’m finding solace in the garden. David Austin Roses tell me it’s 50 days to Chelsea. I’ve got paint for fences, ordered giant obelisks. Also got a chap helping me to clear back garden.

120

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 15/03/2025

I packed the wrong art materials. Watercolours when I wanted my inks to prep for a Lino print and use my automatic pens. I’m not why I have them! I could have used watercolours in the pens now I think about it 🫣

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 15/03/2025

We’ve been away for a bit. Some scoping of the area with a move in mind. In Cambridge we are battling developers; in this area it is coastal erosion and councils. I guess it’s a different battle.

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 10/03/2025

Didn’t want The List of Suspicious Things to end. The fear of the Ripper and wanting control reminds me of the worry of a murder when I was 11 and my imagination then, & realising crimes of men and impact on women and girls. It’s very relatable. Thank you @jenniegauthor.bsky.social I loved Miv.

142

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 10/03/2025

I read somewhere that black rescue dogs and cats are overlooked by some people as they aren’t as photogenic 🙄

A black dog with her head on a cushion staring at the camera

130

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 08/03/2025

Another year and more confusion over International Women’s Day. This Medium article is about the dirty secret behind Accelerate Action and why seeing all women would be a true act of equality. #IWD2025 medium.com/gorgeous-by-...

011

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 02/03/2025

Cambridge is under threat from loss of residential amenity following Railpen’s decision to lobby the government. This could happen to your area as greedy developers forget residents needs www.betterbeehivecambridge.net/blog/current...

A model image of very tall grey buildings up to 46m height by domestic housing of 20m.

100

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 22/02/2025

Not a rescue greyhound but my rescue all sorts Molly, who has been entertaining me with singing, bit of dancing, gave me feedback in my discourse with barks and kept guard wherever I went. Twelve years of this, it’s wonderful.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 12/02/2025

Soup maker has broken. No soup of the week. I can bring curried beans. The jug exploded when the planning committee voted. Not a sign I hope.

A plate of beans in tomato sauce, in a blue and white bowl.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 10/02/2025

This week at Hello Lovely Design and Co … a new book to design, completing Moxie set up and a front cover to update, and client landing page publishing. Sold a front cover from the store 💪. A new nature theme set dropping this month . Font of the week: Bodoni. Feel free to ask design questions

Extract of Latin text in a font called Bodoni an ornate serif font.

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 09/02/2025

Dinner this eve was celery soup. Threw in spud, onion. Best thing on a low day and good nutrition. This week we’ve had veg box leftovers with sweetcorn and miso, pumpkin, carrot and ginger, and beetroot with apple, leftover broccoli stalk and horseradish. Grateful I can cook from scratch.

A bowl of green celery soup on a spotted grey table cloth with a slice of bread in the background on a plate.

040

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 09/02/2025

This is what I’m defending, those little green boxes are homes. The big grey things are the buildings proposed by Railpen. They’re calling it an Innovation Neighbourhood, somewhat ironic as they called the area inconsequential. Happily the case officer agrees with 200+ objections. Worried.

210

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 08/02/2025

It’s been two weeks since Hello Lovely Design and Co relaunched. Micro agency offering bespoke design with limited bookings and pre-designed book covers for modern fiction and website templates in Squarespace. Professional, flawless and unique. #design

011

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 03/02/2025

Browns in Cambridge is a bit of heritage trip. If you’ve lived here long enough you know the original purpose, maybe waited around. In my twenties a well paid ex took me there for food. I remember Mrs Brown’s salad. It was lovely last week too. A friend’s DNA test lead us there.

A single storey brick building with a terrace and awning reading Browns

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 02/02/2025

My Pottery Throwdown shop would be the newsagents and Parade at Polzeath around 1980s, when people lived in Polzeath. Yes, lucky bags! @potterythrow.bsky.social

An advert for a newsagents called Philip Couch and Son showing a row of shops with flats above.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 25/01/2025

No broadband and hotspot not connecting to Riverside so I’m missing the @thefullstoppod.com recording. Gutted as we’re talking equity and inclusion. Distracting with cleaning and listening to …

An album cover reading The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis bold as love

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 21/01/2025

Me, my home and my business welcome, support and keep a safe space.

050

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 20/01/2025

One of my favourite things in life is a proper tea pot. This is my late gran’s tea pot which brewed tea for most of Great Shelford over the years. The mismatched lid makes me smile #BrewMonday

Tea cups and a jug with a blue and green tea cozy and a tea pot in green china with a yellow lid

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 15/01/2025

My lunch is better than yours! Three things I can’t recommend enough. - soup maker - slow cooker - Doctor’s Kitchen app subscription. It’s so easy to get into poor food habits at home but these make it easier, reduce excuses. Today is sweet potato and sweetcorn chowder from Dr Kitchen. Yum!

Soup in a white bowl with sweet potatoes and sweetcorn

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 12/01/2025

Saw this beautiful fox this morning by Himself’s shed, it was climbing in the veg trug in the foreground looking for food. It looked well, I checked before I found my phone! We hear them at night, this was unusually late at 8am. Luckily I hadn’t let my dog out! Gorgeous creature.

A brown fox standing outside a green shed with a veg planter in the foreground covered in frost

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 10/01/2025

She was part of parochial charity to drive the creation of almshouses and it was good to read it’s been built at last, she’d be delighted and so am I! @greatercambs.bsky.social

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 08/01/2025

Mini shelf. The keys from the old back door. Painting is gift from late mother in law of Pentire Point. Metal type which my husband casted spells his name 'Ticker'. Font looks like John Peter's Castella but uncertain. Any ideas? #fonts #findthefont #typography

A shelf with a grey background. On the shelf is a piece of metal type, a set of house keys and a painted minature of Cornish coast.

020

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 30/12/2024

I’m reading Trelawny’s Cornwall by Petroc Trelawny and being transported hack in time to memories of the overnight sleeper and 1980s Cornwall. Very interesting and absorbing read about place and identity.

A book cover that reads Trelawny’s Cornwall, a journey through Western Lands by Petroc Trelawny. The cover has a sky with rocks and sea in the background and green fields in the foreground.

091

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 27/12/2024

Dinner with Laurence and a soggy cycle over the river through Cambridge past a deserted quayside. Not a lot open this evening apart from pubs. At times like this it feels like my own city but brings back shivering memories of lockdowns when I cycled around - we’re close enough for that to be legal.

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 27/12/2024

Who is working today? Each week, I allocate an hour to work on Hello Lovely. It might be a desk tidy, desktop tidy, investigating a new system, or writing a blog post. Over Christmas, it is quiet on client work, so this is a longer period of focus for me. Spoiler below. #designer

021

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 26/12/2024

I see many dogs being dragged on walks as humans burn off calories without allowing their dog to sniff and have their time. Tired dogs, dogs in pain or overstimulated with no safe space are unhappy dogs. When you’re checking in with your holiday plans, include the dog!

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 26/12/2024

Christmas book haul with thanks to my lovely friend and fellow @thefullstoppod.com cohost Sarah for the mug. Now ssssssh and do be quiet, I’m reading #book #readingpile

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 25/12/2024

My mum’s fabulous knitted manic reindeer decoration. Don’t look too long at the eyes.

A brown knitted reindeer with a grey chest, wonky white smile and blue eyes with a red nose and knitted antlers.

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 25/12/2024

I wish you a peaceful day. I’m treasuring my parents who insist on cooking lunch, thinking of those we miss and what may have been. Take good care of you.

Black text on white background reads ‘I think the hardest thing about the holidays is how much they make you miss the people who used to make them so special’

020

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 23/12/2024

When I arrive back in Cambridge I do a cycle ride to get grounded and be grateful. This morning I was up early at the always good Norfolk Street bakery and then over the Camb to deliver cards off Chesterton Road via Cutter Ferry bridge. Feeling acclimatised! #cambridge

Six plates of pastries and tarts in a shop window with a counter behind them.

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 21/12/2024

Wrote a comment on Joy, the film on IVF on how 75% of cycles fail with little support. I was diagnosed with PTSD from the experience, the clip of Jean Purdy discovering her infertility through endometriosis brought home how IVF isn’t for all. It’s not the miracle society thinks it is. #IVF #joy

030

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 19/12/2024

Made a call, it works! When I remembered to put money in it! Pip pip pip

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 19/12/2024

43 years ago today the RNLI’s Solomone Brown went out on a shout to rescue the Union Star in Cornwall. All lives were lost at sea. My dad set up a collection at Cambridge station and we went to Cornwall, as we did each year, to donate the money. Thank you #RNLI. Off to Cart Gap to donate.

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 17/12/2024

Had The Haunting of Alma Fielding on my reading pile since it was published. Loved a hard back. Fascinating andI had no idea my home city has Fodor’s research. #books #booksky #reading

000

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 15/12/2024

I love Command sticky strips. I balanced on a ladder and found a spot for this gorgeous paper star, and I don’t have to worry about bashing holes in the ceilings that I decorated myself.

Dark green walls with three prints hung from picture rails. There is a large paper star hanging from the ceiling

010

Berenice Howard-Smith @hellolovely.design · 14/12/2024

Books I bought this year are many as I went to Hay in Wye. This is a favourite. Diana’s own collection with her handwritten notes inside. I’ve always admired her sass and her unapologetic way of living.

010