Makers Month: British Stationery Wishlist

You know we are suckers for stationery around here and Makers Month gives us the best excuse to search out the best of the British paper pushers to add to our most wanted list. Who are your favourites???

Happy Jackson Notebooks  /  Ohh Deer Plan of Attack note pad  /  Studio Sarah Greetings Cards  /
Oh Squirrel Pencil set  /  Pygmy Cloud Paper Tape  /  Nancy and Betty Weekly Planner   /  Blogtacular and Lollipop designs Planner  /  Undercover UK Leather Ring binders  /  Oh No Rachio Notebooks

Have a great weekend
Sammy xxx

Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Wishlist: Getting Organised

1. Planner 2. Note books 3. Sticky notes 4. Tags 5. Labels 6. Tags 7. Drawers 8. Baskets 9. Box

January is the month for getting our lives in order right!? Well here are a few of the things I have been stocking up on to get myself organised.

Write stuff:  I love this planner from one of my fave stationery places online the Fox and Star, and these little notebooks from the lovely Oh No Rachio, Sticky notes, as you may know are my bag and this yummy set from Paperchase are not only stylish but essential.

Label stuff:  It's all very well tidying up but if you don't make a note of where it all goes how on earth are you going to find it mid April when you need it?  Labels don't have to be dull either, these heart shaped ones from Mail Box Happiness on Etsy are fun and cute but you can never go wrong with Kraft tags, these ones from Wilkos are perfect.  Along with these neon tags from Knot and Bow, that will bring a splash of colour to the dullest of filing systems.

File stuff:  If you want to jazz up your filing system whilst you are at it, think about this acrylic drawer unit from Ryman, or these yummy wire trays from another fave of mine Papermash.  This colourful filing boxes from H&M would be a great disguise for all your boring paperwork if you prefer to keep those bills hidden away until absolutely necessary.

How are you getting yourself organised this year? Are you a naturally organised person like our H or do you need more help like me?  Let us know in the comments and thank you to all of you who filled in our survey last week, the results have been very helpful in our blog planning for this year, so hopefully we can bring you even more of what you love from us in 2015.

Sammy xxx


Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Who's who: The Compartment Store

We first saw these guys when we went to Renegade Craft Fair last year and we just loved their paper goodness and the trunk they use - wow, just so cute.  We pinned them down before they wheeled away and had a quick chat for you to find out a bit more.

Who are you?

We are The Compartment Store, a mini department store on wheels! We are a collaborative shopping experience founded by Kitty Farrow, a specialist bookbinder and box maker, and gift-wrap enthusiast Victoria Jane of Gift Wrap HQ.

What do you do?

The Products - We make paper products and stationery. We have created an inventory that celebrates paper paraphernalia from the past and we have something for every occasion. We like to work with offcuts, saving all wastage where we can. It allows us to make an interesting collection of products that you won’t find in your average card shop. We particularly love the postcard, and have given it a little makeover. We have created our own version by incorporating our favourite technique, gold foil blocking. All our products are made by hand in London on vintage machines and using traditional techniques. You will find us folding, creasing, cutting, blocking whenever we can.

The Store - We sell our handmade paper goods from our travelling trunk, The Compartment Store. Our travelling trunk is reminiscent of that of a travelling sales man. We absolutely love the fact that we can open shop pretty much anywhere. The trunk gives us flexibility to move around and we can adapt it to a number of situations and spaces. We also like to move the compartments around and re-merchandise our shop as often as possible as we like to keep the customers happy and excited to discover what we have for sale in our Compartment Store, creating a mini shopping experience.

How did you start?

Friendship first then business! Originally we bonded over a love of letter writing and used to write long elaborate letters to each other for fun. It was in these letters that we dreamt up our idea for having our own department store, where we could separate our creations into their own sections or compartments. With a large ambition and no square footage quite in our price range we decided to go small and invented The Compartment Store, our very own mini department store on wheels! With lots of compartments to fill we began making.

What’s next?

We have our own online store, thecompartmentstore.co.uk, which is very exciting. So we are working on refining that and teaching ourselves the ways of online shopping. We are also trying to do more fairs and finding out where our market is and what our customers respond to. We are also working on a few commissions.

What advise would you give yourself , if you could go back to the beginning?

We are just starting out so we are at the beginning, any advise for us would be gladly taken! We would love to do more events and bespoke work for parties. We also love working in collections and themes so we will hopefully get to work on some more special ranges for summer, maybe a summer holiday compartment!

How can you resist all this gorgeousness!?!  We both love stationary and paper goodies and so combining that with having a shop you can take wherever you want is amazing!  I'm sure it won't be long before these girls have their own place though and are taking over the world, one postcard at a time!

H & Sammy, xxx

5 Things I love about ... Organising

This time, the '5 Things I love about' list was really really difficult to keep down to just 5 things as I could have gone on for much much more.

This time I am talking about Organising and so lets get organised and start:

1.  I love the order - it makes me feel calm.  When I feel overwhelmed, I like nothing than sorting and getting rid of things I don't need anymore, whether it's my desk or my wardrobe.  It all helps.

2.  I can find things when I want them - as everything has a place and so I roughly know where to find it again.  I know people who are not organised would say the same thing.  But whichever way you work as long as you stick to it, you can always find what you need.  When my desk is a mess, it takes me forever to find stuff.  Living in a room (as I houseshare) means I have to have a place for everything, or it won't fit in.

3.  I like lists - I like writing them, spending time thinking about what I need to do and then planning on how to do it.  I love lists of lists!  I always make sure I put something on my list that I have already done or am halfway through, as this then gives me the push to do more.

4.  It makes other people think I am always organised - sometimes I really am not!  I do usually go for the theory of tidy place, tidy mind.  But sometimes I really am not that organised - probably more than some people, but all the same, I can forget birthday's and buying presents like the next person.  I also don't have my DVD'S in film order or colour code my socks for example, although, maybe I should!

5.  I can buy stationary, boxes and tubs in preparation for all the organising!  Which is just an excuse for more shopping really.  I like stationary, I like all the colours and the notebooks for more lists.  Just basically stuff!

As I said, I could have gone on forever with this one and so it was really difficult keeping it down to 5 for this series.  Which utilised my organisation skills in itself!

What's your favourite thing about being organised, or not as the case may be?  Let me know in the comments below.

Off to organise the sock drawer perhaps! ha, ha.

H

Make it: Fabric envelopes

1. Fabric document envelope  /   2. fabric envelope  /   3. Linen envelope  /   4. Felt envelope

 5. fabric envelope  /   6. Fabric envelopes   /   7. Fabric and ribbon Envelope   /  8. Fabric Valentines 

H and I are both big stationary geeks, we can spend hours in places like Paperchase. I Love it when I can combine my love of paper with fabric, this weeks Favourite Friday is no exception. Look at all these yummy fabric envelopes!

 I Love sending real letters and I love to receive post that isn't bills. I was surfing Pinterest the other day and came across some darling fabric envelopes, so I searched around for some DIY's to share with you. Here are my favourites.

Aren't they beautiful, I am going to rummage in my fabric stash to find some pretty fabrics to make some of these with.  On a foodie note, we have an exciting announcement to make soon, can't wait to share it with you all.  Also did you all catch the first episode of  The Great British Bake Off? If not catch the repeat this Sunday at 7pm or on iPlayer the first episode is all about Cake, yum. One of my favourite shops Hobbycraft have just launched a great range of products to accompany the series, why not hop over to their website and check out the range. Even better if you are looking to order anything this weekend Hobycraft have kindly offered us a discount code to get free standard UK delivery on all orders! Brilliant! 

Enter

FREEPOSTBH

at the check out to get free delivery!

 Free Standard UK Delivery on all Orders

Available until midnight on Monday 26th of August

What are you up to this weekend ? What will you be making?

Or will you be baking???

Sammy xxx