Storeyshop Gets Technical

Well, I have just sent my first Storeyshop card off to be laser cut which is very exciting. I will still be hand-cutting personalised cards to order but I will soon be offering laser cut cards alongside these which will be a bit cheaper and quicker to send out as they'll be in stock, ready to post. This process will also mean I can make wedding invites and stationery in larger quantities without breaking the bank or my fingers! This task has been on my 'to do' list for a while so it can now be crossed off. A day went spent.




This is the first design that will soon be available laser cut. Hopefully in time for Mother's Day in the United States on May 10th.

Super Geek

I don't understand computers enough to be a proper Super Geek although I wish I did. I'd like to be a whizz at web design but that side of things is still coming along very slowly. I have recently linked my website, blog and Etsy shop to Google Analytics though. It's really good. You can find out how many people look at your sites, whereabouts they are in the word, what keywords they used to find your sites, whether they came straight to your page or through other links etc etc. I think I'm a bit slow on the uptake of these things so this is probably old news but it's very handy.











I'm more of a sewing and drawing geek. I'll have to make those cards next. Actually, that could work. People could pick what type of geek their card is for and I'll make a card especially for them!

Right, must go and get breakfast and get ready to hit the road and head down to see our friends at the beer festival. Ta ra!

Roll On The Weekend!

It's been a cold, wet day today and I have been feeling like I need to get out of the house. I like working from home most of the time but I have been going a bit stir crazy this week. I'm looking forward to a work-free weekend! I think we're going to head down to Yorkshire tomorrow to see an eBay Landrover which Dave has his eye on and to join some friends at a beer festival down that way so I am looking forward to getting out (in our new little car too!)

Here are some of this week's Storeyshop offerings including my new Super Mom card. It's Mother's Day in the United States on May 10th so here's to all those super Mum's over there! I have been meaning to do a more girly version of my Super Cards for a while so here it is. More colours coming soon too...













Have a lovely weekend everyone!

This Week Is Going Too Fast

I can't believe how fast this week is going. It seems like it hasn't been long enough since last weekend for another one to be coming around. I never used to say that before I worked for myself! Now I actually want more hours in each working day to get everything done that I want to. Today has been quite productive though. I have made two monkeys and posted them off; one to Wales and one to Canada. I have another two new monkeys stuffed and ready to sew together too.

It's chilly so I'm going to get a fire lit and carry on sewing in the lounge. I'll leave you with some new photos of Seb when he was in the office with us yesterday. Bless him.

'I Want' Wednesday

Hello. I have decided my blog shouldn't just be all Storeyshop, Storeyshop, Storeyshop. My new weekly 'I Want' posts will be featuring my favourite thing I have found to buy, or have bought, recently. I'm sure it will have lots of lovely Etsy items as I have so many 'wants' on there but I will be featuring items from all over.

The debut 'I want' spot is taken by Benny. How brilliant is he? He is made by simplijessi. There are lots of other amazingly fun and original dolls available too and she will also make custom orders! You can also see what she's up to on her lovely blog, Studio jessi.








More 'I Want' posts coming soon. Thinking about it, I may have to have more than one a week as I have lots of favourites. I better get down to the post office with my latest card orders. Happy Wednesday!

Storeyshop Hand-Cut Wedding Invites

Woo hoo! I'm finished. If you follow my blog, you'll know I love making wedding invites and here's my latest completed order in white and silver. I'm very pleased with them. Every single rose is a tiny bit different too, just like in real life. I hope they go down well with the customers! Silver and gold lining papers are now available for all Storeyshop cards and also metallic envelopes at no extra cost.










Happy Tuesday! Post office now to post these off and then more monkey making and a run if I can muster up the energy. Dave and I have signed up to swim the Great North Swim again this year so we need to start getting fit again (well I do). I have to beat my time from last year. Not that I could really go any slower!

This time my mile long freezing cold open water swim is going to be raising money for Evelina Children's Hospital which is part of St Guy's and St Thomas' in London. My little nephew, Harvey, had heart surgery there last summer and I still can't believe how well he and the whole family were treated and the amazing care he got. I can still picture him when he was all wobbly a few days after his op but carefully toddling around in the little Early Learning Centre car. It would be great to give something back to help other little children who have to go there, maybe to buy some more toys for the young patients and their brothers and sisters to play with.

More details about that soon!

Sunny Storeyshop

I'm back! I have been ill but I am finally all better. It is so nice to feel human again without painkillers. Dave and I have both hold this horrible virus with the worst ever headaches. Storeyshop has still been busy with custom card orders and monkey sales and I haven't got too behind. I haven't been able to add many new items but that will be changing over the next few weeks.

It's so nice and sunny. I love it! It has been like this for a few days now and really feels like Spring is upon us. I have even been out without a coat a few times lately. Woo hoo! I am such a summer girl. What else is new? We have a new little motor. Well, new to us. I couldn't reach the pedals of Dave's last Ibex so it is quite exciting to have a car I can drive again now. Ikea here I come!

Storeyshop headquarters is now half of our office rather than the kitchen table and (ever increasing) surrounding areas. It's much better. I have my desk over by the window too so better for natural light and seeing the world go by. I have some new sets of drawers and a new bookcase to sort out this afternoon once I have been to the post office. It's nice to be getting all organised. Photos to come, but for now, here are some photos of my latest cards in the sunshine..












Sorry, bit of a boring blog today. More exciting one next time I promise! Oh yeah, the Storeyshop website is progressing slowly but surely. I now have a patterned background. Thank you again to the lovely lady in the Wordpress forums who has been helping me!

More Custom Cards

I am having a quick break from sewing monkeys and uploading some new photos of this week's personalised card orders. Here are some of my favourites. I like the random images some customers ask for like 'pointy shoes' (see Alex's card). I have also just finished a card with a BMX bike on it. I packed that card order up and forgot to take a photo of it but I've decided I like bikes even though they are tricky to cut. They might be appearing on more cards soon! I like knife and fork images too. Probably due to my love of food :)

Disney Cardboard Project

Get me, keeping up my daily blog! It's a nice sunny day today so I have been taking photos of new card orders and monkeys. The sun shining makes me want to take photos of everything! Here is a little cardboard armchair that sits on my desk and looks after the odd rubber or pile of paper clips. It was returned to me recently from a freelance Disney project I worked on last year for Mr & Mrs Smith in Soho, London. It was Donald Duck's armchair. You should be able to see the video here if you have a Facebook account. I will try and get the video uploaded properly here soon.

Storeyshop Website Coming Soon!

Well, actually it has arrived. Sort of. The Storeyshop website in it's very, very basic first state (don't laugh). I am finally getting around to sitting down and actually trying to learn some website basics. I am using Wordpress software so have spent hours reading through help sections and forums. I have never used coding before so it is all very new to me. Today I have managed to change the colour of my text to pink. That is the level of my progress!

Still, it's here and I can't have it saying 'proper website coming soon' forever so I have to get my head around it and make it look good and be worth visiting. Please have a look and check back every now and again to keep me on my toes!

Apart from trying to learn to speak HTML, I have been making some new monkeys and getting lots of card orders made and posted out. The latest monkey has just been dropped off at the post office for his flight to Finland and another is packed ready for his trip to the United States in the morning.

Storeyshop Hen Party Cards

Here are some photos of a custom card order that I have just finished for personalised hen party cards. I love doing card orders like this and I hope they go down really well with the girls in Idaho, United States. Congratulations again to the bride-to-be!

Storeyshop Loves Mums

So much for my daily blog efforts. I can't believe has been over a week since my last post, this year seems to be going so fast. Happy first day of March!

Last week we went to a North East Business conference for a couple of days and then dealt with washing machine dramas for another one. Friday consisted of mopping up soaking wet floors, moving 2 faulty washing machines around the kitchen and lots of piles of (still) dirty washing. Our new Indesit washing machine arrived at 7am on the dot so I was overly excited about finally getting the last month's worth of washing done but it didn't work. It turned on and started filling up with water but then stopped and flashed it's lights. After waiting for a few hours with no success, we phoned the support helpline and without even asking what the problem was, they arranged for the machine to be collected and a new one delivered. I'm not such that that says much for the success rate of their products but we'll see..

Anyway, the Storeyshop side of life was a bit cheerier last week. Lots of Mother's Day card orders and new card designs for Mums out there are made and ready to list in the shop. There can't be anyone more deserving of a nice thank you card than the Mums can there?









Sorry about the photos. I'm working on that! My plan for the next couple of months is to organise my work space more. Storeyshop has now moved from the kitchen table to upstairs in the office. The next step is to get more shelving so I can be more tidy and organised (honestly, it's just the lack of shelving at the moment) to get a bigger, sturdier desk and finally to sort out a better mini photo studio. My photos will hopefully be clearer, brighter and maybe with nice backgrounds too.

Today I have a couple of card orders to make and some new cards to list. I'm feeling really tired though after spending the early hours of this morning stuck in stationery traffic on the A69 while the police tried to catch some runaway horses! We had been for dinner in Newcastle and then seen saw Kaiser Chiefs play at the Metro Radion Arena (it was a great show but nowhere near as good as Keane were in January). Anyway, coming home I was tired and I didn't have my glasses on. The traffic started slowing right down and there were lots of blue lights ahead of us. The next thing I see is a slightly blurry vision of a giant horse walking past the car on the other carriageway. It was so surreal! There were a couple of these stray horses getting more and more freaked out as the police chased after them on foot and in their cars with blue lights flashing away. I'm no horse whisperer but I'm sure that wasn't helping!

We were stationary for an hour and a half. Everyone was out of their cars wandering around and chatting to each other. Dave's Ibex truck got lots of attention! About an hour in to our wait, a half-naked and very drunk girl in a tiny dress was escorted out of the taxi next to us by her boyfriend. He tried (but failed) to preserve her dignity as she stumbled up the bank to relieve herself. And then fell back down the bank. Other people were running around with cameras. Horses were galloping to and fro past the cars. Honestly, it was like a dream. Helicopters were above us with searchlights beaming down and we could see quad bikes whizzing around in the fields nearby. I hope they caught all the poor horses and that they were okay.

Have a lovely Sunday!