Storeyshop Twitters

Okay, so I have done it. I have signed up and I have twittered. I'm not sure what to do now. I have found a few people to follow from Company magazine, where I used to work, and clicked to follow Phillip Schofield (and a few other celebrities who get their PA's to twitter for them now again). Is that it? Is it just lots and lots of twitters? No photos or anything else at all? Maybe I just haven't embraced it fully but I think I might be bored of it already.

My twitter name is Storeyshop. When I first tried to register, Storeyshop was taken and I got all stroppy. Then I tried resetting the password for that username in case it was me and I'd just forgotten. It was. How bad is that, that I can't even remember? I think I nabbed it in the very early days just in case the name got taken. Anyway, it will be me twittering and it won't be all boring Storeyshop promoting so please follow me!

Today I have made and posted 5 card orders and made a few new cards which will be coming soon. Dave has taken the laptop to work today which has Photoshop on so no photo editing until tomorrow but that's probably for the best. I have a painful neck which I think is from sitting at the computer too long. Probably all the online scrolling through shopping pages! I should probably have a break from typing now too so I will leave you with a couple of new 'I love you more than...' cards I made a few days ago.







Have a lovely evening everyone and remember, there's still time to enter my free giveaway for a personalised Storeyshop card of your choosing! Read down to Mondays post for more details. All you have to do is follow this blog, join my Facebook group or comment on the prize draw post. I'll be doing the very grand prize draw tomorrow afternoon!

I Want Wednesday!

Today I woke up to sunshine, card orders and the chance to nab an Etsy treasury so all good! Here's my not-very-inventively-titled Red and White Treasury and a snapshot of it below. Enjoy! You'll need to click the link to go and see each item/shop as I haven't worked out getting pictures to link to web pages yet. That'll be my next thing to learn.




My 'I Want' for today are these handmade fish by Flora Douville. They are 'one of a kind' and come from Nantes, France. I don't know about you but I want one. I think Rodolphe, the William Morris print one, is my favourite. I love their enthusiastic smiles and I imagine they have French accents too which is always good!













All the fish are available in Flora's shop along side lots of lovely illustrated prints and the postage within Europe is free too. Flora also has a fab blog and website. Happy Wednesday!

Storeyshop Loves Dads Too!

I couldn't face more spreadsheets today and fancied making some new cards so have started early on some hand-cut Father's Day cards. Dads need love too! These will all be for sale in Storeyshop over the next few days. I have made some other new cards but the weather outside is so grey and 'orrible that I'll have to take photos of them tomorrow when the sun will, hopefully, be back.













For anyone who missed yesterday's post, Storeyshop is having a free giveaway! See below for details. Plenty of time to enter and thank you to everyone who already has.

The First Ever Storeyshop Giveaway!

First things, first. Happy Birthday Freya! 11 today!

I always get excited at the prospect of winning something so I have decided to do the first ever Storeyshop giveaway! The prize is a personalised, completely hand-cut card. If you win, you can choose the design, message and colour(s) of your card. It can be for absolutely any occasion. There are lots of examples of custom card orders on this blog and in my shop so you can have a think about what you would like on your card and who you will give it to.

Okay, there are three ways to enter the giveaway. The first is to follow my blog (over there on the right somewhere), the second is to leave a comment about this post and the third is to join my Storeyshop Facebook group. If you do more than one of these things, you will be entered more times. Simple as that! If you are already following my blog or are a member of my Facebook group you will be entered automatically just for being lovely and getting there first.

I am going to do the traditional 'picking out of a hat' winner selection (I will actually use a hat to ensure fairness!) and will announce the winner on Friday 1sy May. Good luck!

I Love eBay Vintage

Today has a been a boring but satisfying day of accounts. Yawn. I had got a bit, erm, behind so it was very overdue. I am up to date now though, woo hoo! I still have to sort out my receipts and my freelance design accounts but I'm getting there.

To make up for my dull day of spreadsheets (and to celebrate getting them sorted) I have been on eBay. Again. I am a little bit addicted to searching for home and garden products near my house. I have just won these fab vintage deckchairs so looking forward to picking those up this weekend. And for some more sun so we can use them.




The last eBay pick up was right out in the sticks and was for this vintage mirror which was the bargain of the century. I love it. It now has pride of place on the floral wallpaper, over the wood burning stove, in the lounge. It cost the princely sum of £2.20!



Who need Kirstie Allsopp's help to do up your house? I used to like her but she's so patronising on that new handmade home programme. We know we can just pick what we like to decorate our homes. You don't need to keep telling us!

On the subject of bargain hunting, here's my new 'I Love You More Than eBay' card which is for sale now in Storeyshop.



Right, dinner and off to the pub tonight I think. Have a lovely weekend!

I Want Wednesday!

Woo hoo. Wednesday again. Halfway through the week, The Apprentice is on again tonight AND it's another 'I Want' for the week! This Wednesday, I want these little wooden, hand-painted dolls from mooshoopork. I love them. They're bright, fun, simple and stylish. I think they'd look fab on my bookshelves at home.













The best thing is that you can order custom dolls! What a great present for a family -a little family of tiny wooden versions of them. I highly recommend a browse of mooshoopork's shop, for presents or for you. They are so well painted and are varnished with non-toxic materials. There is even a man doll in the shop with a little goatee beard. Oh, if only I knew someone with a goatee!

Well, today has been very productive. I have made and posted 3 personalised card orders and finished off some designs for a competition which needed posting today too. I have entered a couple of drawings for the competition which is run by The Royal Mint to come up with new designs for 50p pieces to celebrate the London Olympics. I didn't have much time as I only found out about the competition a couple of days ago but thought I may as well post off what I had come up with. You never know!

Shopping, Sun and Hallways

Oops, my daily blogging has slipped a bit again. Nevermind. I had a weekend off and spent my blog time yesterday sitting in the garden. The weather is so nice and we don't get that very often so thought I'd make the most of it!

We had a very nice weekend. I braved the shopping mall on Saturday which is quite rare as I usually use the perk of working from home to sneak there on a nice, quiet weekday if I need to. It actually wasn't that bad, though. I was shopping for a present for my soon-to-be 11 year old niece, Freya. It was strange wandering around trying to pick a present. I kept finding something nice and then thinking 'Oh no, what if it's really un-cool?'. Maybe, I am now the old, unfashionable Aunt? I hope I have done ok with my picks. I better not say what I got, just in case she looks at this.

I must admit, I did treat myself to a few things too. A few nice tops, a necklace and a beach bag. I hadn't been shopping in quite a while so it was nice to not know what was going to be in any of the shops. When I used to work in central London, I used to nip in a shop or two most lunch times so would always know what was around. It got a bit boring (and expensive!) It's my birthday next month so I am going to try and save all my purchases to wear over my birthday weekend and trip down south. We'll see how I do.

Apart from my shopping trip, we went for a bike ride, chilled out in the garden, did some boring cleaning, went to the pub, ate nice food and put some photos up in the hallway. I have had the photos in the lounge in various stages of development for ages so it's nice to finally get them up. I'm still on the look out for more vintage and metal frames to add but here's how it's looking...




Most of the frames are oldies which I have altered in some way, I painted a couple, covered a few and added new wall hanging hooks on the back of some. Cheap and unique! It's a bit of a far cry from the interior magazines but maybe once we sort the floor out and cover the dodgy, hand-me-down nest of tables you can see on the stairs it will start looking alright.

Today I have been making new cards. I'm trying out the 'I love you more than...' cards in different colours and with some new subjects. There was a forum post on Etsy earlier today asking everyone's favourite foods. It was inspiration for a lady who makes felt play food but it was interesting reading for me too. A few of those ideas will be appearing on cards soon!

The Incident

Before I stopped work on Wednesday to have dinner and watch The Apprentice (Ben should have gone in my opinion), I wrote a long To Do list of things I wanted to achieve the next day (yesterday). I decided it was going to be The Most Productive Thursday Ever. I even woke up yesterday morning remembering the mission and got up early ready to start. And then I spilt tea on the laptop.

I have had a fear for years that I would do it one day, and it happens on Most Productive Thursday Ever! The laptop shut itself down as soon as I had grabbed some tissues to throw onto the keyboard. I powered it off, took all the leads out and sat it upside down on my lap while I called Dave. It's Dave's laptop.

After some blow drying, some pieces of kitchen paper tucked between the keys and a day sitting upside down on the sofa, Dave took the laptop apart and cleaned it with some sterile distilled water we found in the first aid box which went out of date in 1997. Luckily, the tea had only gone over one corner of the keyboard and we just found a few drips under the keyboard. They were on a flat silver part (you can tell how technical I am) and not on any circuit boards or components. Anyway, to cut a long story short, she worked when we powered her back up and she is still working now!

I went straight upstairs to back up all the things I had spent the day worrying I might lose, onto the PC. Phew. Must back up more often too. Everyone reading this -do a backup today!

Well, apart from the tea on laptop incident and some time Google-ing 'what do I do if I spill tea on my laptop', I used the day fairly productively after all. I made 9 new generic cards in nice bright colours to brighten up the shop and designed some new 'I Love You More Than...' cards which will be coming soon!

I Want Wednesday!

I nearly missed it. I'm all muddled up after the bank holidays and have been thinking it was Tuesday all day. My Wednesday Want for today is basically anything by Reiter8 (pronounced reiterate). Reiter8 is the nicest shop ever and totally unique. You can find handmade cushions and bags 'upcycled' from boat sails. Anyone who knows me will know I love all things nautical and you can't get much more nautical than that! Lots of my favourite colours too; white (I know it's not technically a colour but it's still my favourite), red and navy blue. These are my top picks but there are lots more in the shop...

















Click here to see Katherine's 'Handmade Portrait' too. I have only just found it and it's a really nice video to watch and see how the Reiter8 goodies are made. I'm going to have to treat myself to a cushion or two. Or maybe a bag.. I need a sail with a 'H' on. It's my birthday soon too!

A Belated Happy Easter!

I'm back at my desk after a relaxing Easter break in the sun! By the sounds of it, we were definitely in the right part of the country for the sunny weather and we made the most of it. I feel so much better for having been outside lots and got some exercise at last! We went for a trip to the Northumbrian coast which is always really nice and we also sampled Morpeth, just outside Newcastle. That was nice for a wander-around too. I had spotted a craft centre near Morpeth on the map so we left the A1 when we spotted the brown sign but then found there weren't any more signs so we couldn't find it. I'll have to add that to my list of art places around here to explore one of these days. We did, however, find some charity shops! Yay. I do love a good charity shop. What else? Erm, we went for a bike ride, we did a few bits around the house, we ate lots of nice food, we had a lovely Easter Sunday lunch at Dave's parents. All very chilled. Here are some photos...

I Love Shopping!

I've been finding new pretties on Etsy and managed to get another treasury to show some off! I realised when I looked at my favourites that I must have a thing for red and yellow...



It's the Easter holiday weekend. Bank holidays just aren't the same when you work for yourself though. I actually think Dave and I might work and save our 'bank holidays' for my birthday or when we go down south at the end of May. It will hopefully be nicer weather and better traffic! I might have a sorting out my work area and craft supplies day tomorrow as an easy Friday. I need to get some inspirational things on the walls of the office as it's all very beige. I have been waiting until we decorate but that may be some time judging by our DIY speed and budget at the moment.

I'm hungry so must go and get some dinner on. I'll leave you with some of my recent personalised cards.

I Want Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I am doing some boring but necessary admin today so thought I was due a tea, cake and blog break. My 'I want' for today is this 'Owl Be In The Tree With My Friends Pillow' by Olive. I might have to treat myself when we finally get our living room decoration finished. I found this lovely shop by looking on Etsy for black cushions to match our black floral wallpaper wall in the lounge. When we finally find the perfect sofa and get rid of the horrible pink carpet, I'll be cushion shopping and this is top of my list!




Olive has lots of other gorgeous pillows and cushions too including this cute 'Whistling Bird Pillow' and 'Take Me Anywhere Suitcase Pillow'...

My recent cushion hunt has led me to lots of lovely ones on Etsy actually. I will have to do a 'cushion special' post soon. Looking at nice house bits inspires me to get on with doing ours up. My current projects include getting a little group of photos in frames up in our hallway and covering some old furniture that my parents off-loaded onto us last time we went down south. I am 'upcycling' a little table to give my brother for his birthday so will post pics soon!

Happy Birthday Dave's Parents!

It is Dave's parents' birthday today. They have their birthday on the same day which I always think is very romantic. Happy Birthday to them! We gave them tickets for Jools Holland when he tours in Newcastle in December.





I have to admit this was their birthday card from last year. We bought them one this year. It's quite a novelty buying one these days! It's a lovely sunny day again today and I have just finished off a new style rainbow monkey and listed him in Storeyshop.








This afternoon is going to be spent making more templates for the laser cutting man. I am going to get some 'I love you more than...' cards laser cut as an alternative to my hand-cut ones (which will still be very much available). The laser cut cards can then be stocked in shops more easily and hopefully featured in another magazine or two. I must tidy the office too, there is cardboard everywhere!

I Got A Treasury!

Yay! I got a treasury. I burnt the dinner waiting to nab one but needs must! It's been ages since I made one. Here is a snapshot of my selection of lovelies but click here to see the real thing.

My New Favourite Storeyshop Monkey

It's Friday! Not quite sure how that came around so fast again but I am looking forward to the weekend. I think we are going to go and investigate the Ouseburn Valley area of Newcastle where the Art Works Galleries are. They contacted me recently about stocking my cards so I'd like to see what it's like and I have heard it is well worth a visit. Other than that, I think it will be a weekend of sorting out the garden if it's nice weather and eBaying. I have had another wardrobe sort out so can hopefully make a few pennies (and some space for new finds!)

This is my new favourite monkey of all time that I mentioned in my last post. Check him out! So far I haven't been able to get any more of these socks either so it's looking like he's going to be very limited edition...











I won't mind at all if he stays around sitting on the shelf in the office but if you want to buy him you can find him in Storeyshop now.

Have a lovely weekend!