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.

Wedding Venues And Leeks!

I think we have finally sorted out a wedding venue! We looked around quite a lot and were down to two options, a castle hotel and a village hall. Both very different but nice in their own ways. We visited the village hall a couple of weeks ago and it was great as we were told we were welcome to come and have a look around on the Saturday but strictly after 6pm as, before that time, they would be judging the village leek competition! How brilliant is that? I am definitely a proper country girl now that I have been to the local vegetable growing contest.

So, we went to have a look round Whitfield Village Hall (at 7pm just in case the judging was very tough and went on a bit) and all the veggies were laid out for all to admire. The smell was amazing! I didn't know whether taking pictures was allowed but people seemed to be happy that I was taking the odd snap. Maybe it was their proud produce that I was capturing! It wasn't just leeks either...









Well, the village hall turned out to be too small in the end and would have taken a lot of planning and organisation on our part. Especially as most of our friends and family live far way and wouldn't be able to help out easily. So we are hopefully going for the castle. We have a meeting tomorrow and then, all being well, we will have a wedding to go to! Good job really seeing as I have already ordered my dress and found some amazing shoes. Woo hoo!

New Storeyshop Card Orders

When I have time and remember to, I like to take a quick photo of my personalised cards before I package them up and post them to each customer. The photographs aren't always the greatest as the light can be rubbish when I need to quickly snap a card and they often end up sitting on my memory card neglected for a while but they are nice records to have. Definitely more fun than just keeping accounts! I've had a sort out this morning and here are some orders from the last few months...

















A couple more card orders to make and post this morning and then I have a website to design. Not my own unfortunately but this one should be a nice design project. I am designing the different elements and general layout in InDesign and someone else is doing the technical website build. Perfect for me and hopefully a good way of seeing how the different elements are used together. A mini step closer to learning a bit more of the technical side of things one day!

I Want Wednesday

I'm not sure how it got to Wednesday again already but I have another 'Want' up my sleeve. Anyone who knows me, or who has been reading my blog for a while, will know I have a bit of a thing for storage. I think it may be to do with the amount of stuff I have. I love drawers and boxes and pots and bags. And I love, love, love these little graph and lined paper pencil cases from madebyanna. The amazing school patterns are sewn! I really want one. Actually, I really want them both.









I found Anna's lovely shop by looking through the 'favourites' of someone who had 'hearted' Storeyshop on Etsy. I like to see what other items people who like my things, like. It's a great way of finding treasures. There are also some brilliant, original illustrations and a giant screen print in Anna's shop too.

Great North Swim 2009

Phew, it's over! It was the Great North Swim on Saturday and I did it despite not feeling on top form. Well, that's my excuse! I was right at the back with the old people but that still counts in my book. I'm really glad I did it, even if I was a slow coach. The weather on the day was amazing; hot and sunny and not a cloud in the sky. That definitely made heading into the cold, dark lake a bit more tempting. Dave also swum on Saturday and finished in nearly half the time it took me! Dave's Dad, John, swum on the Sunday so we went back down to Windermere to support him and take some photos of his race.











After working a few of the last weekends, I decided to take last Friday off and go shopping to the Metrocentre. I was looking for bridesmaid dresses but didn't really find many. I did find a nice grey boyfriend blazer and a floral dress for myself though! With the weekend spent in the sunny Lake District and an entire day of house sorting, cleaning, tidying and organising yesterday (it was well overdue!) I have managed to have a cheeky four days off work. Today is back to Storeyshop to make and list more cards and get my accounts up to date ready for the dreaded tax return form!

Sun, Swimming and Seb

A sunny day! Just me and Seb in the office this afternoon as Dave has just gone to his workshop to build boys toys. We went for the last practise swim this morning before the Great North Swim on Saturday. I am not feeling quite right at the moment and am dreading the swim to be honest but at least there are rumours of nice weather this weekend! I better get back to my card orders so will leave you with some photos of Seb and his new favourite spot on the bookcase.

Wednesday Winter Woollies

My 'I Want Wednesday' posts have been a bit few and far between lately but today they are back. know it's only September but it has been quite chilly for the last few days so I have already had my eye on a few winter treats for the colder weather. I'm definitely a summer girl at heart but when the weather is wintery, I do love a nice winter coat and cosy scarf combo. There's something so nice about chunky, hand-knitted woollies too. A recent Etsy find has been NotoriousKnits where you can find gorgeous, hand-knitted winter warmers like these...
















International postage on NotoriousKnits items is very affordable too so the only problem is deciding which colours to go for. My favourite winter coat is my navy blue, hint-of-military Topshop one from last year so I'm thinking the green scarf and maybe the red mitts. I think I might go through all my current scarves and gloves and eBay a few to make some money for new ones!

Better get back to work. Today I am back at Storeyshop HQ after a few days freelancing over in Newcastle. I am catching up with orders and listing some more of my new, limited edition, machine-cut cards. They look nice and pro in their clear sleeves. If you are looking for clear, self-sealing card sleeves I found these at Lothian Crafts. They are great quality, cheaper than ones on eBay and arrive very quickly especially considering the free postage. Highly recommended by Storeyshop!