Read All About It: Storeyshop In Telegraph Magazine

I'm very pleased to be part of a feature in the Telegraph magazine today focusing on British sellers on Etsy. There are some great illustrators and makers featured so I've found some new shops too. It's a really good article and it will hopefully raise Etsy's profile in the UK. I was contacted back in January about the possibility of being included in this so it's very exciting to actually have the magazine in front of me now!







It's a shame that the feature refers to my personalised cards as 'laser cut' when they're nearly all lovingly cut by my own fair hands and a scalpel, but nevermind. This is the most mainstream press Storeyshop has had so far and it's great. Welcome to my blog if you have found me through the magazine. The article is also on the Telegraph website.

The Garden & Our New Tenants

Good news. Number 7A, round the back of our house, is newly inhabited by Blue tits! We've lived here for over 3 years now and have never seen any signs of bird activity in the box but a little family seem to have taken a shine to it this summer. Maybe because the family of Blackbirds, who normally take up residence in the tree opposite, have moved higher up in to the ivy on the garage. I'm no Chris Packham but I have loved sitting in the garden eating my lunch, for the last couple of days, and seeing a Blue tit popping in and out of his new pad. I think that officially makes us landlords. I hope they look after the place.



I am loving the sunny weather and the flowers appearing in the garden. Credit must all be given to the green-fingered lady who lived here before us, Philys. She did a grand job. We have tried to keep it tidy and not let it all go to pot but neither of us really have a clue what we are doing with plants. I think quite a lot of my prized flowers are actually weeds (go on, you can break it to me!) but we enjoy it anyway. I do want to plant some new plants in some of the gaps and have a better tidy up and weed clear-out but it's hard to find the time when we both run our own businesses. I am in awe of people who run businesses, have children to look after, cook lovely dinners from scratch every night AND do gardening! One day. We missed the tomato and veggies planting this year but some nice pink flowers (weeds) have popped up in the mini greenhouse so it's not all wasted. Here's a little snapshot of those and the rest of our (very) little patch of Northumberland...

Weekend Roadtrip & Glamping

Hoorah. I'm back and am finally back up to date with all my card orders. Sorry if any of you have had to wait a little bit longer than usual, but your cards are all on their way to you now. The reason for the slight backlog was some freelance design work last week and also our wedding roadtrip at the weekend. This was the first wedding we'd been to since ours and, as it was quite a way away, we decided to do some extra roadtrippin' and see some folks. We ended up doing Scotland, Yorkshire, Leamington Spa and Sussex in four and a half days but it was so nice to get away properly and catch up with friends and family. The weather was lovely and sunny too. Perfect for our budget accommodation choice... glamping!











Both wearing the shoes we wore on our big day! The photo below shows my relief at changing into flat shoes later on, I think. Don't know about Dave's excuse. Pimm's and champers, probably.

Shameless Copying

So, I blogged a while ago about someone who was copying my cards. I have been trying my absolute hardest since then to ignore her and just put all of my energies into my shop and products rather than into her and what she is doing. That's why I have avoided any more blog posts or anything. Anyway, I have just been sent a link to this card of 'hers'!



And it's even being promoted by Etsy. I don't know what to do or say really. I am just so shocked about the blatantness (if that's a word!). Here's my one which I am currently selling and sold this time last year.



There are lots more cards in her shop which I think are just too similar to mine too. I'm not going to say anything else now while I'm so upset. I'm shaking! If you have any tips or suggestions on what I can/should do about this then please let me know.

Sunshine, New Card and Folksy Feature

Well, this year is certainly flying. I've barely had time to think, let alone blog. I am now a year older (it was my birthday on Wednesday), we have a new little niece (Esme Martha born today!) and we have even had some sunshine for the last few days too! We decided to make the most of the weather and headed to Whitley Bay on Saturday for ice creams on the beach. It was lovely and so much quieter than the beaches would be down south. One definite advantage, I'm learning, to living up here. The other thing I am growing to like up here are the crazily vast moors where you can walk for miles and won't see another person. We had a wander on the way home from the seaside -the last photo below is me in our glorified back garden!











I have been busy working on custom card orders today as I am freelancing on a magazine for the next three days and wanted to get as many as possible made and posted out. No time for pics of today's orders but here are some photos of a card order from last week which I liked. It is an engagement card and the customer requested white on white for the colours. I hadn't thought of that before but thought it worked really well. I'll definitely be using these scheme again.







Oh, and the other exciting news is that Storeyshop is currently a 'featured seller' on Folksy! With my new name and everything. I'm very pleased to be showcased among some other fantastic sellers.

Wedding Sneak Peek & Handmade Place Names

Gradually getting peeks at some more of our wedding photos. I love some of the random ones like this one of Dave holding his bottle of Newc'y Brown and my wine while I bunch up my dress and try to walk quickly over the grass before my heels sink in to the ground!


While on the 'W' subject (again), here are pics of the hand cut place names I made for the big day. They were really simple pieces of thick, textured paper and I just cut a heart shape from the back of each to stick up when folded in half. I printed all the names onto sheets of paper in the right place and printed a cutting guide on the back of each (you can just about see in the photo below) so it was actually quite quick to cut each one out but they looked a bit more special than just a plain folded card. And a bit more wedding scalpel action would only be right!

Hand Cut Wedding Table Numbers

Really looking forward to seeing our professional wedding photos but, until I have some of those to post, I thought I'd add some pics of the table numbers I made for the big day. I had to have some papercut action in there somewhere! The only thing is... I don't actually think anyone took any photos of the tables at the wedding. Probably a good sign that we were having too much fun! Some might turn up though so will add some if they do. Here they are on my trusty cutting mat...



I didn't really know what do for them when I started but found the fancy-looking typeface we used on our 'save the dates' and used it to print the numbers we needed nice and big. I started off cutting out different bits in navy blue and gold (our loose colour theme) and making them quite fussy but then decided just to keep it simple and, instead, cut each one from black card which would be stiff enough to stand up on its own without any backing.

I was planning to buy some metal table number holders to pop the finished numbers in to but they work out quite expensive (although I have since found some nice ones at quite a good price in Tesco if anyone is after some) so I decided to use an idea I had seen in a wedding magazine for place names, and use corks as little stands.







Oh and, obviously, the other essential item in the whole process was a lovely cup of tea! I think I am going to add hand-cut table numbers to my shop too as I loved making them and would enjoy making them for other peoples' weddings and other events. I did have a quick look at what was around to buy before deciding to make ours and there didn't seem to be much. Do get in touch if you would like something similar made for you. My next little 'show and tell' will be our cheap but chic (notice the theme here?) table place names.