Personalised Storeyshop Sock Monkeys

Sorry for the severe lack of blog posts lately but I have been ridiculously busy. Last week I freelanced 9-5 all week and then made Storeyshop orders every evening. The weekend was another mixture of monkey making and DIYing but at least our hard work is paying off and the kitchen is looking lots better. The Storeyshop order waiting list is getting lots of nice ticks against it too!

I am loving personalising monkeys. It adds a special touch to each one and also another colour which I really like. Here are the two monkeys I posted off to the U.S today. The special offer is still on too, so get choosing the free felt inital you would like sewn onto any Storeyshop sock monkey purchased now!



I'm also very excited today as one of my best friends had a baby girl yesterday evening! Can't wait to meet her.

1000 Etsy Sales!

I'm very excited to have reached my 'by Christmas' goal of 1000 sales in my Etsy shop at the weekend! I can't quite believe it. I remember waiting months for those first few sales when I first opened my shop, so to have reached four figures would have seemed impossible back then. Thanks to every Storeyshop customer for supporting Storeyshop and handmade. I am enjoying it more than ever. Now for the next 1000!

For those of you who didn't know, I now have a shop on UK-based Folksy too. That one's a little way off the 1000 sales mark though (!) but it's nice to offer UK customers the choice to pay in GBP and I like the small scale feel of Folksy.

Well, I have been meaning to do a little cut-out or illustration to celebrate the big 1000 sales but I have been really busy with DIY all weekend (the bathroom is done and the kitchen is started -photos soon!) and custom orders all day today so that will have to wait for now. I am booked to freelance on a magazine over in Newcastle for the rest of this week too so may be a bit quiet in blogland and on Twitter but I'll be back soon!

My 1000th Storeyshop card order was for a new baby (yay)...


To celebrate this milestone and inspired by my recent personalised monkey order, I am pleased to offer one free felt initial or number sewn on to any Storeyshop monkey purchased between now and Christmas (normally $10 extra). Just order the monkey of your choice from the selection available in my Etsy shop and add which initial or letter you would like added in the 'note to seller' box.

Whistle-Stop Weekend!

I'm back at Storeyshop HQ after a brilliant action-packed, long weekend down south. Hadn't been down for a few months so it was great to go back and see family and friends in London and Sussex. It made a nice change to be away from the computer for a few days too.

The weather was very kind to us... Sunday was lovely and sunny! It's miserable and dark today though and feels like proper winter. Maybe Sunday was the last 'no coat' and 'no socks' day of this year? Sniff.

Really busy catching up with orders this week and it's a short one as I have an exciting day planned on Friday which involves heading down to London again. I can't reveal what it's for yet but should be fun. Still haven't unpacked from the weekend and we came back, yet again, laden with stuff my parents had 'sorted out' for me to take to my own house! I better get tidying after I have taken todays orders to the Post Office.

No exciting photos from the weekend but here's a new custom monkey order, from last week, who I liked so much that I have bought more socks and made him available to buy from Storeyshop. And also some photos of when Seb met Monkey.

Storeyshop Monkey In Print

Yay! Another Storeyshop monkey had made it into the press. This time in the 'Summer 2009 New Mom's Handbook' from 'Pregnancy Magazine' which is on sale now in the United States. Blue and Grey Monkey has snuck in the corner of this stripe-themed feature on ideas for first birthday presents. I love the zebra pillow too from designpublic.

New Little One In Town

Woo hoo! There is now a new, teeny, tiny member of our family. Daniel was born on Monday. Congratulations to Malcolm, Jo and Sally on their new addition! I can't wait to meet him...





Today is so lovely and sunny. I am really hot in just a t-shirt sewing monkeys by the window. One of the monkeys I am making may actually be my favourite ever too. All is good. I have just succumbed and bought a mixed set of postcards from Yuuco who I blogged about yesterday. She is as lovely as she sounds from her shop notices too! I am going to frame the prints and put them in the hallway I think.

Right, I am going to go out in the sun. I need to post some cards and most of the 'no coat' weather! Oh yeah, just before I go, I have added a new Etsy Mini of my favourite items on Etsy at the moment. It is down there on the right. It will constantly update whenever I find new items I love (quite regularly then) so keep an eye on it for lovely things. Clicking on any of the photos will take you straight to where you can find out more about them ...and buy, buy, buy!

Storeyshop Christmas Cards

Today I have mostly been making personalised Christmas cards. I have been embracing cats, nicknames and shamrocks in today's selection which have all just gone in the post. It has helped me feel a bit festive actually, I might even start wrapping some presents! To order your own custom Christmas card with the message and design of your choice, please visit Storeyshop.














I was just browsing the Gift Guides on Etsy actually and noticed on of my cards in the Personalised Gifts section. Woo hoo! Right, must get back to making more monkeys as I am still trying to stock up for We Make Christmas but they keep selling! The latest one to jet off to Philadelphia is Blue Spotty..




Ta ra

Storeyshop Monkeys

I am busy making monkeys this week to stock up for We Make Christmas (see my previous post for details). They are selling well so I am having trouble stock piling but it is all good. I am enjoying making again after my busy month of magazine design and have lots of plans for new Storeyshop products too. I am away tomorrow but I think Storeyshop is being featured on the We Make blog so do have a look!

This is the latest monkey I have made for a lady on Facebook. There is a Storeyshop Facebook group you can join and also 'Your Sock Monkey Needs You' group. Everyone welcome!

New Handmade Monkeys

Still very busy with the current issue of the magazine but I thought I'd take a little break to upload some new Storeyshop monkeys. Here are the latest newies and there will be more new designs next week!














All available to buy now. I can also personalise monkeys with felt initials sewn on their fronts or sewn names. Contact me through my shop for more details..

Have a lovely weekend!

Ta ra

Taxing

Hello, I haven't been updating my blog much lately due to the dreaded tax return! I have been busy trying to organise my accounts and let's just say it took some time. I'm not the most organised when it comes to keeping receipts together and printing invoices and I'd never even done a spreadsheet before. I think I am finally sorted though. I have honed my Excel skills and have promised myself (and Dave!) that I will be organised from now on so the next tax form doesn't take days.

The Great Swim is fast approaching too. Thank you very much to everyone who has sponsored me for Marie Curie Cancer Care. I have my start time and my ankle timer (I don't know that I would have signed up if I knew it was carefully timed!) is in the post. No backing out now. I have been for lots of swims lately. A few in the local pools and a couple in the Lake District. We went for a dip in Ullwater this morning and it was extra deep due to all the heavy rain (the jetties were under water) and absolutely freezing! The coldest yet -I could hardly put my face in. Hopefully it can only be warmer than that...

Still time to sponsor me! There's a link top right :)

Other than swimming and boring spreadsheets, I have been making more new sock monkeys and lots of cards. I have just posted two Grey Retro Monkeys to New York! I need to make more little bags this week too as my supplies are getting low. See the shop for new additions...

Oh yeah, the Chainbridge Honey Farm Fair the other weekend was good too. Note the Ibex in the banner on their website made by Dave and his dad! I sold a few monkeys, cards and bags which was great especially as it was pouring down most of the afternoon.

Here's a photo of my modest little stall in the craft tent..



Right back to my monkey ear sewing and dinner!

Ta ra

Something Lovely!

Blue Spotty monkey is now available to buy on Something Lovely. It's a fab online shop with lots of beautiful things! Let's hope he gets lots of admirers and does Storeyshop and Something Lovely proud. Storeyshop monkeys are still jetting off around the world. Two went off to Las Vegas this morning and two emigrated to Canada last week!

I am still stupidly busy with the new magazine, logo designing and Storeyshop but it's fun and definitely keeping me occupied. Beca and I have just signed up do do another We Make craft fair in London at Christmas time so I'll be packing a case full of Storeyshop goodies again and trundling down to London. Will keep you posted..

Oh yeah, click here and here for a couple of photos of Storeyshop's stall at We Make London in June!

Ta ra

Every Good Turn...!

I just bought myself a little treat from a new Etsy seller. It's a gorgeous necklace. I like to think of it as helping a fellow Etsy seller to get her first sale! I can always come up with excellent reasons to spend money. The thing is, just as the payment left my account, a lovely person bought one of my sock monkeys. One of my favourites too -Blue Retro Monkey. It was meant to be!



On the subject of sock monkeys, my Green Stripey Monkey has been featured in ellebeestudio's blog. Have a look, it's a great blog. Here is a link to her fab Etsy shop too!

Visitors

Living up in the sticks miles away from most of my friends and family means visitors up our way are a bit few and far between these days but, this weekend, we have had quite a turn out! My little brother came all the way up from Brighton on friday and Beca and her man popped up today from their holiday cottage in the Lake District.

We took my brother for a walk up to Hadrians Wall on saturday morning and got caught in a torrential downpour on the way home to the point that even our undies got soaked through. Phil ended up with one muddy sock after losing a shoe in the mud!





Today we took Beca and Tom for a big ol' roast dinner in this brilliant old lady canteen-style pub near us. Hard to explain but it just makes you think of wedding receptions as you're eating your lamb and yorkshire puddings on a table positioned on the wooden 'dance floor' area. Lovely food though and such a bargain. You don't get places like that in London.

On the Storeyshop front, I had my fastest ever monkey sale on friday morning. My Yellow and Grey Retro Monkey sold in under a hour and to a fellow Northumberlander. He was only sat on our sofa for a few hours but the time we had with him was special! As well as packing Monkey up and sending him on his way tomorrow, I have a couple more New Baby card orders to make and I'm also going to start on a new product range. Look out for more little bags and animal purses (hopefully) very soon!

Ta ra

Back In The City

I'm in London today. It's a gorgeous sunny day and I'm in the office working on the magazine. It's a quiet spell so I thought I'd update my blog. I came down Monday morning and finished off a sock monkey on the journey. I'm sure the train guard walked past an exra few times trying to work out what I was doing.

Here's a photo of him all finished sitting comfortably for the rest of the journey!



This week has been really busy but good fun and a nice change to working on my lonesome at home. It has been a bit of a break for my scalpel fingers but I have still been getting orders and making them after work and during lunch hours. I have just made a card for someone's aunt who is about to turn 100. How cool is that?!



More cards to make after work tonight and then I'm back on the train heading home. I'm glad. London was always a bit too hectic for me and, now that I'm used to the rural countryside, it's even more so. A couple more crammed tube and train journeys and then back to the fields.

Here are some photos of the Chinese New Year lights on Oxford Street..





Ta ra

Ready to sew!

I'm back up north and ready to get sending and making!
I was freelancing in Cardboard land all last week back down in London. It was very fun but really tiring and I did get lots of UHU glue headaches and papercuts! Just to recap, Beca and I were working with Maggie who we went to university with. We were (and Beca still is) making town scenes and room interiors entirely out of mostly brown, corrugated cardboard. As you do! It's looking good and when it's finished I'll add some pics on here. We didn't have any internet access in our little office though so I felt a bit stranded from the world and was missing updating my blog and checking Etsy.

I'm very pleased to be back in Haltwhistle, even if the weather is horrible and rainy. I have sold 2 monkeys over the weekend so I'm getting them all packed up today and ready for their journeys and I have a birthday card to make which needs to be in the post by this afternoon too. Other than those things, I am going to get sock monkey and bag making today. I'm planning to do some new personalised card listings on Etsy too.

The bathroom up here is useable now which is quite a treat! It's still missing floorboards so you have to be careful not to fall down the holes and probably through the kitchen ceiling but mustn't grumble!

This is one of my favourite monkeys which has just sold and is off to live in Manchester..




Ta ra!

PS: Note my new links to Morganstreet, Rawsoil and 2minutesplease blogs on the right --->
They have all added lovely mentions of Storeyshop products!

Ready to go!

Here are the monkeys all wrapped up and ready to go!



(They get wrapped in protective plastic wrapping too on top of the pretty packaging!)

Monkey photoshoot

The newly returned monkeys had their photoshoot today so there'll be appearing on Etsy in the next few days. I hope lots of people decide to buy them as christmas present for people!
My trouble is I have been using flash to take the pics and it makes the white stuffing show through the monkeys and makes them look a bit thin and threadbare especially the ends of their arms and legs. They don't look like this in real life. I need a new camera that doesn't have to be plugged in to work so I can venture outside and take photos of them on Hadrian's wall or somewhere.




I took some photos a couple of weeks ago of monkeys on Hexham weir so I'll have to finsh the film (my good ol' 35mm point and shoot special!) and see how they've come out. This is the scenic weir.. there were loads of salmon jumping out of the water trying to get upstream when we were there. Very cool!




New digital camera with a nice new battery that lasts longer than 2 minutes is definitely top of my Christmas list!

Friday!

Yay! It's friday evening. I can't believe how fast this week has gone though. The week's used to drag a bit when I first moved up here and was looking for work and not doing much but now I have Storeyshop to keep me occupied, I can't seem to find enough hours in the day!

Today I have been taking photos. Lots of photos! I have replaced lots of the pictures on Etsy with new ones with colourful backgrounds rather than white to make them brighter and cheerier. It was a bit of a grey day, so I'm quite pleased with the results considering. I have also been doing stuff on here like my mini Etsy shop over on the right and my links. I'm very new to all this web language so I'm very pleased I got it all to work.

I'm hungry now and waiting for Dave to get home. Fancy getting out of the house tonight as I haven't gone out all day! May have to head over the road to the pub. Fireworks tomorrow too so looking forward to the weekend.

Back freelancing at Company in London next week. I hate the early mornings and the travelling but I like working with all the Company girls again. All the hustle and bustle makes me appreciate living in the country too!

Ta ra