Piano!

We have just had our piano tuned for the first time in seven years since we were kindly given it!

I managed to get a quick picture of the inside whilst it was being tuned.

The girls are now taking piano lessons on it as it sounds lovely, and we were treated to a wonderful piece of Beethoven by their teacher, which made our day. Our house is years old and it was so lovely to hear it come alive with such wonderful sounds. Since we have had the piano, no one has played it so beautifuly!

(In the picture you can just see my sticky notes on the keys in an attempt to teach myself how to play over the years... they were quickly taken off by the girls teacher!) I am now trying to teach myself "Ode to Joy"

Multiplication!

I have just bought this cute little wooden abacus from ebay seller mostlytoys1066 for my eldest daughter to help her with her multiplication! (Well OK... it's really for me to play with too, I always admired friends abacus's when I was a child, but never had one myself!)

We have been spending a little time each day together doing times tables, sat outside under the parasol on our great table that we bought from Devon Oke Designs a couple of years ago. We bought it because it is such a great design and so solid and although our garden has fantastic views of Dartmoor, it does catch the wind and most things fly around the garden if not very heavy! It is so nice to find our table and chairs now in the same place that we left them! We decided to leave our table untreated and it is now just starting to turn a lovely silver grey colour... it is one of our best investments, and hopefully it will still be around when the children grow up and come and visit us!

Rob Ryan Update!

On ebay at the moment is one of Rob Ryan's delightful 2009 lasercut sage green/pale yellow calenders, also check out the sellers other items for sale too.

In Rob Ryans Etsy shop, Misterrob is his new two colour screenprint "Everything That Is" which celebrates the first year of Ryantown! There is a limited edition of just 111 at £111 each so get one while you can!

... and while over at Etsy shop Misterrob I also noticed that one of my favourite tapes is for sale again "And I Walked Again"

Redecorating!

I am redecorating the kitchen at the moment, and have just bought three of these great antique large roses mugs which are white with pink rose design on pale blue decal to brighten up our mug tree. I looked everywhere for some floral mugs and finally found what I was looking for in Homebase at a fantastic price of just £1.99 each. They even have some little roses on the bottom of each mug which just finishes them off nicely when on the tree.

I also could not resist Nigella's ceramic sugar bowl & storage jar in cream from Bliss Home for our sugar and tea bags!

Loving these wall decals!

During a visit to etsy I came across these fabric wall decals by lovemaestore... arn't they just great!

Sofa Design!

I have been looking for some new sofas for quite some time now, and recently received some literature in the post from Multiyork.

I just love these two sofas, the Grosvenor and Keats-Eliot, the fabric choices are just great (the bold patterns are wonderful) and the features available mean you can perfect an already prefect sofa!

... my only worry is, with two young children and a third on the way would I let them sit on it or would I claim them both for myself? hmmm!

(Oh... Iv'e just noticed that their summer sale starts on June 22nd with a preview weekend on 20th & 21st!)

Pop-Up Cards

... are you going ga ga yet? These amazing Gagatree Pop-Up cards are available at Purple Greetings Cards!

The way we pack your orders - Part 2 Labels!

The address labels on your orders are handmade by us, recyclable, re-moveable (if you would like to re-use an envelope), but most importantly ALWAYS handwritten by us.

Wherever possible we stick on stamps rather than a white printed postage label - it may take us a little longer to pack your special orders this way but we think it's nice to receive an interesting envelope/parcel from the postman!

... at the moment we are having fun sticking flower fairies stamps on some of your orders!

The way we pack your orders - Part 1 Sellotape!

... here is a little bit about how we pack your orders, starting with "Sellotape"!

We use Sellotape Original to seal your orders with, it may cost us a little more than the usual clear packing tape you can buy but we like to use it as it is made from cellulose film which breaks down naturally in the soil.

Cellulose film is derived from natural wood pulp which is sourced from sustainable forests that are sensitively managed to conserve the wildlife that live in them.

So, if you recycle/compost (we hope you try to!) your board backed envelopes, boxes or Jiffy Green Envelopes or bubble wrap, if a little tape is still left on it will naturally break down.

Playing with Blog Colours!

I have just been playing around with the blog colours!

I am trying to make the website and the blog look more streamlined. I am (as usual) not sure I like the new blog colours now or not. I think I will leave them like they are for a day or two to see! I have managed to alter them as best I can to match the website but can't quite get them "just how I want them to look" Frustrating!

Instant Admin!

We use a great accounts package called Instant Admin, it was by far the best package we could find when searching on Google - especially if you use a Mac!

Before we had even finished the 21 day trial we had already decided we were going to buy it! (anyway most of our accounts had already been entered on to it by then, and I already did not want to be without it!)

It just runs smoothly and something I thought was great was each time you exit it it automatically pops a backup on your desktop for you to save wherever you like (we use a Kingston USB stick)... little things like this have been obviously carefully thought about.

You pay just a one off payment (just £59.00 plus VAT) , not a subscription and best and most importantly of all, YOUR accounts are kept on YOUR own computer, unlike others we looked at!

A trial is available to download at www.instantadmin.co.uk

... give the trial a go and you will soon see for yourself how streamlined it is.

Wow!... what more can I say!

... check out Crankbunny's website & blog for yourself! as I just don't know where to start explaining these amazing pop-up cards!

Like me... you won't know what to order first!

Wow! (again!)

Beautiful new cards!

These beautiful embroidered cards are part of a new range that we have on order from designer Elspeth Thomson.

The cards are designed and then entirely handmade in Lancashire. Each card features exquisite multilayered embroideries. The embroideries are hand made using a variety of textile media, including machine embroidery, applique and fabric painting. Hand dyed fabrics are incorporated with iridescent and transparent organza's to produce a range of exquisite, individual greeting card designs.

All embroideries are then mounted on to a high quality, printed, textured soft white card. The card is produced in the Lake District from 100% Elemental Chlorine Free Pulp and FSC Credit Certified Timber.

... a firm favourite just has to be the purple flower! (shown above)

Vintage Medici Postcards!

I have just sourced some delightful Medici vintage postcards, by artists such as Molly Brett & Margaret Tempest... which are due to arrive very soon and are just great to give or frame or give and frame as a gift!

My favourite is "The Balloon Goes Up"

I remember reading the beautiful books when I was a child and now my own children have many of their own, including some of mine such as "The Jumble Bears" by Molly Brett (still my favourite) I always remember (and still am!) fascinated by the illustrations especially the center pages.