Green and Yellow

My anniversary card customer if after a bit more colour so I have tried the green with yellow inside? I think we have a winner..



Excuse the dodgy lighting. It's getting dark already. One day summer will arrive. I can't wait to put the winter coat away and get the 'light jackets' out (no coat at all is still a distant dream..)

Work is done for me today. I'm packing tonight for my weekend trip down south to Sussex to see the family and the girls down there. Have to get the presents and cards ready for my brother and sister's birthdays and my dear old ma's Mother's Day treats! I'm really looking forward to it. I will have to take some card designs and monkeys etc to get on with on the train (10 hours I think, there and back!)

Colour Decisions!

I have made a personalised card for someone on Etsy today but can't decide which lining colour looks better. I like the white but I'll add the photo here so she can have a look and decide before I get it in the post!



I like doing the lovey cards!

Ta ra

I Love My Mum!

Mother's Day is just around the corner so I've been making more cards this morning. Going for a spring theme with the colours. I'm planning some more ornate cards with detailed leaves and butterflies and new flower designs next. Watch this space!



Happy monday!

Living The Country Dream

I'm back to the Storeyshop making! I have finshed my latest stint on the magazine in Newcastle (it was so nice having a lie-in this morning!) and I have spent most of today making cards and taking better photos of my remaining sock monkeys still for sale.

I have just got a treasury on Etsy. Da daa!



One day one of them has to make the front page!

Going to call it a day soon and get dinner and relax. Maybe head down The Black Bull for a swift one. Hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow so we can get out for a walk or a bike ride. Oh yeah, I took my camera the other day when Dave and I went for a walk around our new homeland. Here are a few (I got a bit snap happy!) of the photos..









Look how lovely it is. I have my days when I do wonder why I ever moved out to the countryside. When I am waiting for the 6.50am bus to start a job at 9am for example! Being able to walk into gorgeous scenery from your front door makes it all worthwhile. The thing I most hated about living in London was that you couldn't just walk to anywhere rural. It always had to be a big all day mission in the car or on the train.

Next time I'm waiting at a freezing cold bus stop in the dark I have to remember that!!

Ta ra

Fight Club

Oooh crikey I haven't written anything on here for ages. I've been so busy. I have been working in Newcastle on a fighting magazine (there's a quiet spell again..!) for the last couple of weeks. It's a nice variation to women's magazines actually and it's good to work with blokes for a change. It's the opposite to the magazine I work on in London quite a lot, where there's so many women, the toilets on our floor are all 'ladies'.

This job is bit of a trek from our house in the sticks so I'm getting up at the crack of dawn and not getting home until quite late but I'm getting used to it. I'm getting to see a bit more of Newcastle and find my way around too. I have found an amazing big super-modern M&S (I'm a Marks geek and have already bought way too many basics and knicker and vest sets!) and a Primark (managed to resist the cheapness so far though).

I'm looking forward to getting on with Storeyshop more in the next couple of weeks. The stock is selling out! We need to get making. I have lots of ideas so need some time to crack on with it all. Beca is making lino-cut stamps and printing blocks so look out for gorgeous cards and notelets, all completely hand-printed, very soon. They look fab!

Just heard about an Etsy craft fair in London in June soon too so that sounds exciting and a good thing to think about. I like the idea of people being able to actually see and touch all the products. It will be fun to meet all these UK Etsy people we have been talking to! Good excuse for a trip back to the big smoke to see my friends too..

Better get back to designing. Will blog again soon and add some photos etc. I have been buying some nice things on Etsy lately (all in the name of research, honest) so I'll get them on here too.

Ta ra

Oh yeah, other big news is that we have bought two urls www.storeyshop.com and www.storeyshop.co.uk Very exciting! Both link to our Etsy shop at the moment but the plan is to learn how to make a fab new website. Will have to get reading the Dreamweaver bible!

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

Card Central

I can't believe it's friday already. This week has gone so fast. I have been scalpelling for England with the card orders! I have lost track of how many I have made and there's still plenty more to do, not that I'm complaining! My fingers are getting quite sore now though and I'm racking up the scalpel cuts. I think I'm going to have to start buying plasters en mass along with scalpel blades.

Here are some of the latest creations..










I have hopefully arranged some freelance design work on a magazine up north which is good news. I do like the a trip down to London to work for the odd week here and there but it will nice to come home in the evenings after work and it also means I can keep up with Storeyshop better.

I definitely need a break from card cutting so I'm quite looking forward to a week on the Mac next week freelancing down at Company magazine. I get to catch up with all the girls there too. I miss the daily catch ups and banter (and the cafe round the corner for mushrooms on toast!)

I really hope the weather improves for the weekend. It's been snowing, hailing, raining and generally grey for the last couple of days. Monday was lovely and sunny when I went over to Newcastle for my meeting and it made me want to go back and explore the town more. One day of my weekend will be DIY on the bathroom I think but the other day I'd like to go out somewhere. There's so many places up here that I haven't been yet!

Ta ra

Oh, and my target for sales by the end of January nearly made the 60 mark let alone 50! This 'setting targets' thing works :)