Wednesday 22 January 2014

s t a t i o n a r y ...

I have a real penchant for stationary. Ok, anything even slightly related to stationary does it for me. I admit I spend far too much time looking at the stuff be it in shops, online on blogs etc, but it is ohhh so pleasurable. I am sure there are more than a few of you out there who can relate...you know who you are!
Occasionally I may treat myself to a special piece and will find myself strangely obsessing over it like I'm Charlie and it's a Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar or something. 

So, as the end of 2013 was fast approaching, I found myself getting rather anxious about my new 2014 diary. This Grafika one below in the pink and yellow was my special find for last year. I purchased it from Howkapow when they had their pop-up shop Bristol. I loved the graphics of all of the designs, but loved the pink one the most. It's a perfect size being between A5 & A6. It fit in my handbag perfectly and had plenty of diary room as well as an address book section and a plentiful notebook section. All this without being big and clumsy. I definitely wanted to invest in another for this follwing year, however to my extreme sadness I was more than disappointed to see that the makers, 1973 hadn't produced any new diary's for 2014, only a selection of notebooks in these same snazzy designs. 


 
So, frantically trying to find a good as replacement, I was beside myself when I came across this beauty in my locally owned store Something Else owned by the very lovely Sidonie & Kyle. Their wonderous shop sells a niche and very specifically selected collection of unique paper goods including stationary, books, magazines, maps and much more.


Stationary from Something Else


I have my eye on this - from Something Else
Among their plethora of goods I came across this 'Another Project' weekly planner by Seeso Graphics and highly recommended by Sid as her personal planner. On flicking through the pages I could see why. So much detail on the weekly/yearly planning you could go wild. Plus lots of space for notes on pretty pastel lined/gridded paper. The planner comes with stickers-o-plenty to so you can be creative with those I guess. I just love the colour, simplicity and endless ways of planning that can be done! The removable plastic jacket is great to make the thing last, but also doubles up as a pocket on the inside sleeves for those special looses bits of paper one tends to collect like gig stubs and the like.









Another find I made recently on Etsy was this. I love simplicity and combined with recycling, these cute little 'Matchbook Notepads' by One Fine Dae are great. Handmade using paper recycled from security envelopes. Perforated edges allow for ease of tearing pages out if needs be. This little notepad is pocket sized, ethically aware and cool.

Matchbook Notepad from One Fine Dae

Matchbook Notepad from One Fine Dae

Matchbook Notepad from One Fine Dae

Matchbook Notepad from One Fine Dae




Monday 20 January 2014

W e e k e n d a w a y ...

Happy belated new year to you all I hope 2014 is a wonderful and exciting one for all!

I must admit I've been having a bit of a breather since Christmas and really enjoying some serious down time. Catching up with my mum, sisters, nephews and niece over the holiday period was a joy. I must admit I was a little anxious to begin with as it was hard not thinking about work, making and orders, but I soon got into the swing of it!
This year I wanted to be more conscientious about my gifts to my nephews & nieces as children always get a ridiculous amount of presents at Christmas time and they usually get bored with them after 5 minutes!


I wanted them to be creative, and I wanted their gifts to be recyclable (being made from paper or wood) or handmade. I got them these marvellous 3-D self construct things (which were a little more than difficult even for me, but fun non-the-less) and these wooden Sumo Skittles both from Muji. The paper animals above were from a seller at the Bath Artisan Market where I regularly hold a stall. You choose an animal and a pack of coloured tissue paper and you get a bag with PVA glue & a brush. I was delighted when on opening these the kids decided to get stuck into creating straight away. A messy, but fun time for all I think.



So January in the UK has been very wet and pretty cold, but when the sun comes out it is most definitely glorious. I'm making the most of not having booked myself in for any market stalls this month and have been visiting local towns and cities every weekend.

This weekend Mr Red Bird took us away to a lovely b&b called The Swan in Wedmore. It's set in the little charming village of Wedmore in Somerset, only 40 minutes drive from Bristol. On our way we took a slight detour and paid a visit to the lovely market town of Wells. It has a magnificant Catherdral and I love walking about the moated Bishops Palace with the ducks and swans about the place. There's a farmers market in the square and this time around a book fayre. There are also many many charity shops along the main high street, so if that's your kind of thing you will be spoilt for choice (although it's not that cheap). Of course we picked up a few little bits along our way.
Bishops Palace
I am wearing Sparkle & Fade coat, black high tops, vintage
handbag (all Urban Outfitters), old scarf 
(French Connection), umbrella (vintage).





Lovely book fayre finds
I am wearing suede blue flats and skinny jeans (Zara).
Our room at The Swan
Gorgeous details in our room at The Swan


A nice brew...!

Out and about in Wedmore
I am wearing black high tops, coat & scarf (as before), leopard print cotton dress (Topshop) and tights (Primark)
So many cute cottages in Wedmore
Church of St. Mary, Wedmore


Taxidermy in the back of someones car!