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.

New York, New York!

The interview I mentioned a little while ago, that I did with Leah from Try Handmade is now live! I went on a bit in my interview so it's quite long (!) but fab. Please show it some love and leave a comment.

In other news, I am very excited by the brilliant feedback I have had lately on Etsy. Woo hoo, I love it when people are really happy with their Storeyshop cards! Here are a few photos of the New York-themed Bar Mitzvah card which went down well in the US recently...







Busy day today. I am finishing off a custom camouflage monkey for a lovely customer in Scotland and I have a few wedding card orders and a birthday one to get making. I have to tidy the office too, it's a mess.

I Want Wednesday!

Nearly missed my chance to do my 'I Want' this week as Etsy just had a funny five minutes but it's back so I haven't. Today I fancied finding some jewellery and was also thinking about weddings seeing as ours is now booked! Woo hoo! I stumbled upon these gorgeous lace necklaces by LiveInStyle on Etsy. I love them...







I really want the bow necklace! There are gorgeous, unique hair pieces in the shop too. I don't think a hair peice will work with my dress for the big day but I'm going to show my Mum. She quite fancies wearing something in her hair but isn't a hat woman. They could be perfect.

New Vintage Find!

After my last sad post, I'm happy again! Thank you to all you nice people for your comments. I'm more inspired than ever to up my game and get new Storeyshop products online soon. I'm also happy because my Mum sent my some socks through the post, I just posted 27 items at the post office and am (nearly) up to date with my orders!

In the Post Office earlier, a teenage girl asked the lady serving her how to get the stamps to stick. How scary is that? When the Post Office lady informed her of the highly technical process of 'licking', the girl explained that she'd never used one before; only ever email. It made me feel old. Although, saying that, I'm sure my young nieces and nephews even know to lick stamps!

I had a good tidy up and sort out over the weekend so I thought I'd debut my new charity shop find; a lovely crocheted blanket which looks fab on the bed. Perfect as the nights get chillier too...









My trilby from the photos of Seb Chinchillason the other day and my little china deer which I felt sorry for at a recent car boot sale. He was left at the end of the day so I splashed out 20p for him. Double the asking price! Well, I couldn't just leave him there.

Storeyshop Cards Are Being Copied

I'm really annoyed and disappointed today as I have just found someone selling hand cut personalised cards just like mine. Even very similar shapes and designs. It is a new shop and even the person's descriptions about her items have big chunks of the same text as mine. How do you fellow crafter and shop owners deal with this if you come across it? I would love to hear from you.

I guess there's nothing you can do except see it as flattery. It's such a shame that people who are obviously artistic and talented can't come up with their own ideas and concepts. I could never copy someone. It's really ruined my day to be honest. Must stay positive and see it as inspiration to come up with new and better ideas and products. On that note, here are some new 'I love you more than...' card designs...

The Chinchilla and The Hat

I have been treasure hunting again and, last week, I bought a vintage tweed trilby in the local charity shop to wear with my new navy wellies this winter. I'm a country girl nowadays after all. Dave wandered into the office the other day with a little something under the hat...







The boys in my life, what handsome chaps. Dave will kill me if he sees that I have put these on here. I had to though (and I don't think he reads my blog so I think I'll get away with it). For anyone who has recently started reading my blog, Seb is my eighteen-year-old chinchilla who I got when I was 10 years old! I keep taking plenty of photos of him in case his days are numbered but he still seems on top form. He's a little grumpy sometimes but aren't we all?

Excuse our undecorated office walls. We'll sort them out one of these days. But for now, it's the weekend. We're off to get a Friday night takeaway. Have a lovely one everyone!

I Want Wednesday!

Woo hoo, the sun is blazing into the office today and I have just heard about a possible exciting project too so I am happy. Let's hope I can reveal more soon! I have been having a little Wednesday browse of handmade goodies too. My top shop for this week is MrPS.

My perfect combination of tea, food, cafes, Britain, fry-ups, bingo and simple design in the shape of tea towels, posters, mugs and shopping totes! All handmade and based in Manchester, MrPS products have been featured in British Vogue and French Elle among others. I like!












Lovely jubbly! The cafe ideas remind me of my beloved Picadilly Cafe in London. It is no longer, sadly, but I have very happy memories of lunches there with the art girls when I worked as a designer in London. Lunches would vary but we would always have mugs of tea and bread and butter all round. Why does it taste so good when you have it in a cafe?! One of the staff used to be constantly talking on the phone too. I mean, constantly. He'd be talking when you went in and I'm sure it was the same conversion when you left an hour later. In fact, in all my time there, I'm not sure that I ever saw him without that phone in one hand and his butter knife in the other.