A Day Out!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to write about a lovely day out that I had on July 2nd.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation, as a blog writer, to attend the Press Event for the release of the new Autumn/Winter/Christmas items from Rex London (DotComGiftShop).

If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you may remember this post about bunting, which Rex London (DotComGiftShop) sent me, with a request to review it on my blog.  I'd been a fan of their lovely retro-feel bits and bobs for some time (see also this post from 2009!) and responded to a call for submissions from blogs, when they were compiling a list of favourite blogs that they had found.  
 

Anyway... It seems that they kept my blog on their list of favourites, because I received an invitation to attend the Event and bring a friend.  The Press Event was in London, so I set off in the train and met Keri-Anne at Euston Station, where she had arrived on her train.  

We walked down to the gallery where Rex London (DotComGiftShop) were holding their event and were made very welcome.  

Drinks in little jars, sweets to nibble... very welcome after our walk from Euston. 

...

Then this is what we saw...

...a roomful of wonders and treasure!

There was So Much Lovely Stuff, that it would take several blog posts to show you all of it (of course, you can go to their website/shop and have a browse for yourself).  Here are some of my own favourites from the Day: 

There's a big wildlife theme going on - in various styles - and I loved these little storage suitcases, with wild birds painted on them. Who could resist? 

There was a whole range of lovely items with the wild bird designs all over.  Coasters, mugs (in lovely giftable boxes), storage tins, a tower of lovely lidded glass bowls, glasses and drinking bottles, even a flour or sugar dredger for your kitchen.  Oh, and not to forget the pretty case for my glasses... Tempted again! My favourite is the Blue Tit design - I really like blue-tits.  

Still on a wildlife theme - Rusty and Friends.  A second set of suitcases, this time with woodland creatures on them, along with a number of other goodies, including these brilliant breakfast sets in melamine.  I could cope with eating my porridge, toast and orange juice from these and I'm sure my little nieces would love them! 

Then there were some great retro-themed items: 

Kitchen timers!  

A row of adorable and gorgeous china cups, that look like old-fashioned enamelware (memories of camping, anyone?).  The red one is my favourite, though I remember my mum having a white enamel mug, with a blue-painted rim... and actually, I love all four colours.  Have been trying to think of a good excuse to buy these - perhaps an "accident" will occur with our existing mugs (all 20 or so!)?  Maybe I can find someone to gift them to next Christmas! 

Alarm Clocks! Old-style clocks, like the ones I used to have on my bedside table when I was a very little girl.  Updated now to have a battery-powered clock and a beeping alarm, instead of the old bell-alarm that I had in mine; still just as appealing and I love the colour range! 

Then there was the Japanese Design Porcelain... 

Look at these!  They draw inspiration from Japanese pottery designs, each one being different and special.  I would love to have All of them in my china cupboard.  They are just lovely... sigh... There's a Mediterranean Stoneware range too, which is also gorgeous! 

There were items to appeal to all tastes - it wasn't just "pretty things" and items for children: 

For the Bicycle Fan in your life... 

For the Dapper Gentleman... 

For the Gardener and Nature Lover....

Keri-Anne and I had a lovely time browsing the little Aladdin's Cave full of treasures. 

You can see that there were loads more things to look at - I just haven't room to tell you about all of it!  If you are interested, do go and browse their website shop - it's full of great items, for yourself or to give as gifts.  After all, there are only five months to Christmas! ;-)  

We were sent on our way with a little shopping-bag full of goodies - aren't these lovely? And look, blue-tits on a cover for my new tablet pc! 

Many thanks to Rex London (DotComGiftShop) for your invitation and hospitality.  I had a really fun time and a lovely day out.  

...

And then we had Pizza for lunch before heading back home (spot the Selfie in the mirror!).

The End. 

Swap Treasure

Recently there was a lovely idea posted at Sian's blog.  She suggested we should hold a bloggers' Swap of Very Small Things. 

 

We e-mailed our details to Sian and she made up a Swap List.  The idea was that you would send a Swap package to the person below you on the list.  So I was sending my package of Very Small Things to Jean (whose parcel was posted today!); and I have received a package from the lovely Jane. 

 

What? Oh, yes, the parcel... what Very Small Things did it contain?

 

Well, this was inside the very nicely decorated bubble envelope... See the friendly message?

And the litle package was so pretty... and exciting...

...and when I opened it, all this gorgeousness spilled out!  Look at the fab little bits & pieces - buttons, sparkly things, butterflies & flowers, tiny folders and die-cuts, little pieces of paper, tags, twine, ribbon, even a cute crochet flower. 

 

I feel lucky and very spoiled.  Thank you so much Jane, I'm delighted! 

 

Jane has also blogged about her package today - she received some lovely little things too and seems to be equally happy. 

 

What a great idea this was - thanks to Sian for organising this!  

Happy Happy Happy (Mail)!

Today's post.  Three parcels.  All Treasure.  Happy Three Times Over!

Happy #1!

A set of printing inks - red, blue, yellow, white, black and gold (!) - plus additional tubes of turquoise and a special print medium.   A bamboo baren (burnisher for rubbing the back of the paper to transfer the ink).  Samples of lino (the little grey one is the "traditional" hard stuff... don't think I'll buy more of that), the blue (green on other side), is a lot less hard than the original grey stuff - it's a kind of vinyl.  I want to try it out.  Pieces of Japanese mulberry and kozo tissues, to experiment with. 

Happy #2!

Three fat quarters of Liberty of London Tana Lawn fabrics, courtesy of Miss E. from Miss Elany.  Wonderful fabric - it's 100% cotton lawn, printed with gorgeous Liberty designs.  I already have quite a stock of Liberty prints, to make books for my shop.  These are new designs - the golden one has peacock feathers on it - I have some lovely ideas for these...

Happy #3!

A pack of hand-printed lino-cut cards, from Amanda Colville of Mangle Prints!  I bought a pack of 4, but she's sooo nice, she sent me an extra.  They're lovely - in fact, so lovely that I will have trouble parting with them; I may have to add at least one to my New Art Wall!

I could hardly believe they all arrived at once - it was almost like having a birthday... 

Happy Mail from National Scrapbooking Day

I really must post about this, before I forget - which would be so rude of me! 

On Friday, while I was busy and busy, getting ready for the Sock Monkeys Workshop Day - of which, more will follow - the postman brought me a package:

Um, don't mind the brown rolly one, it's paper supplies... it's the Big White Box you should be looking at!!

I had forgotten about this.  It's just been so manic round here and my blogging sessions have been short and infrequent.  I forgot that I had dropped in to see how Susanne was getting on, over at Snaps and Snippets.  She has been taking part in one of the Counterfeit Kit challenges and had made herself a fab little kit, all colours and cheeriness - and, in honour of National Scrapbooking Day, she was offering another made-up kit, to a reader who left a comment for her. 

So, I duly commented - it was a great kit and I loved it - then forgot about it.

 

Then found I had won the Kit - yippeee!! 

Then I forgot about it again, buried under a pile of Books and Monkeys, notes and plans.

So when the post came on Friday and I saw the name of the sender on the Mysterious Parcel from USA, I thought "I know that name....", but couldn't think what was inside.

So nicely packed....

How Exciting - how could I have forgotten?

With a lovely hand-made card...

...with such a friendly message!

A great selection of colourful papers...

....some sets of alpha stickers...

...chipboard stickers and some little edging bits...

...a lovely collection of brads, buttons and chipboard bits...

...this cute sticker-sheet...

...a second cute sticker sheet...

...ribbons and trims...

... journalling cards and little envelopes...

... Wow!

So much lovely Treasure!  I felt like the most spoiled person in England!  What a lovely gift and fancy sending it all the way to UK (postage isn't cheap and paper goods are heavy!). 

So, Susanne, I just want to say that I really appreciate your kindness.  I love the Kit and will do my best to make time for some scrapping very soon. 

After all, it's the least I can do, after receiving such a lovely present.

Thank You Susanne!

Baby - and Big - Buntings...

All about bunting !

The other day, Jo-Jo put a post on her blog, all about how she was featured, by Rex London ( was DotComGiftShop), in a list of 50 Craft Blogs that they liked. After having a look - and jumping up & down with excitement because Jo's was No.3!!!! - I sent them an e-mail to offer my blog for inspection (as they had asked for more blogs). 

I had a lovely reply, saying that my blog was just what they were looking for. It made my day, I can tell you!

Anyway, they also asked if I'd consider helping them, by reviewing some of their rather fab Paper Bunting.  Now, Rex London do have rather a fabby collection of bunting and I've had my eye on it for a while.

In fact, I've had my eye on quite a lot of their stuff for a while.  You may remember this post, about a recent arrival of DotCom Treasure... but recently it's been Bunting that has caught my eye (along with a couple of other lovely things, which I'll come back to later).

As you all know, I have a bit of a liking for the flappy, flaggy little strings of stuff... well, it's just so bright, cheerful and eye-catching. Guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone's face and to make any little party or afternoon tea into an Occasion.

So I couldn't say no, could I?  Of course not. I sent back a reply, saying "Yes please" in my bestest typing...

Then the doorbell rang:

An Exciting Envelope from DotComGiftShop (Rex London)...

* * *

You have to admit that Bunting is quite Exciting stuff.  It's been quite fashionable recently too.  Lots of people I know are doing cool stuff with bunting:

Check out the clever playing-card bunting at SJ's Birthday Party!

How about this cute stamped bunting on Shimelle's blog?

Sian has been using it on her layouts - such as this one...

Kirsty sneaks the odd bit of bunting into her layouts and cards...

Jane Dean made paper bunting triangles, to decorate her studio...

In fact bunting seems to be everywhere just now... 

* * *

You know that I love to make bunting too...

These little strings of mini-bunting...

Little strings of bunting and tag-strings to decorate a hand-made baby album...

A loooong string of House Bunting (papers courtesy of Rinda, from her Blog House Party!). 

Every little house is hand drawn by me and each one is different. I had a lot of fun making these.  The "houses" were actually punched out with a tag-shaped mini-punch, which is how they are all the same shape. Each one is 3/4" high.  I haven't decided what to do with this yet, though it may end up in my "Project 2009" album (as it's houses).

And of course there's this little string of fabric bunting, which I made for my new baby niece's bedroom. 

It was entirely stitched by hand, as I was still recovering from my back injury and couldn't use the sewing machine. I did a little bit at a time, until they were finished. 

This now lives on the wall of Elle's bedroom -

She has such a lovely bedroom.

See the little fawn and height chart wall stickers there?  Those came from Rex London (DotComGiftShop) (in the Treasure I bought!).

* * *

And speaking of Rex London (DotComGiftShop)...

We left the story at the point where the doorbell had rung and the post-lady had given me an Exciting Envelope with stuff inside from Rex London (DotComGiftShop)....

Remember this?

So, what could it be?

Well it's obvious it was bunting, as that's what they said they'd send me; but which sort of bunting?

Here's a bit of a sneak-peek...

Well, obviously I was fairly excited... two packs of fabby paper bunting... like this -

Vintage Paisley!

and this....

White Lace!!

Look at the lovely design... oooh... (they do this in coloured paper too).

Once I'd opened it all up, I was Extra Excited! 8 Metres of bunting - Two lots of 8 metres of bunting!

And we're having a family party on July 4th, to celebrate my mother's and niece's birthdays...

So, of course, I had to try it out in the garden; to make sure it would look just right for the party...

Tea Time in the Garden...

with Vintage Paisley Bunting!

Fluttering in the breeze...

...actually it's good stiff paper, a bit like cardstock, so it flutters, but doesn't rip...

These are the two designs on the paisley paper bunting. 

They are double-sided papers too and the string is strong and easy to tie (not slippy!), with plenty of spare at either end.

  

These are the lace ones...

I thought I'd hang both up together...

... they looked so pretty, blowing about against the blue, summery sky!

I'm so happy with this bunting - it's just what I wanted to decorate our garden for the party.  Keri-Anne loves vintage style, also lace and bunting, so it's got to be a winner for her birthday party!

* * *

So, what else will I have from my Favourite Online Shop, at the party?

A cute door-mat?

A spotty cake stand?

Definitely cakes in these spotty cases!

made with ingredients measured with my heart-shaped measuring cups!

displayed on some fab pink doilies?

(someone around here, was saying the other day, that they'd like some heart-shaped doilies!)

 and some lace table mats to go with the bunting?

Frankly, I'm spoilt for choice! There are so many lovely things to choose from.. I can spend hours browsing their shop (and could spend all my hard-earned shop money on stuff too!).

I'm excited about our party in July and it's going to be so pretty in our garden!

Thanks guys, for the great ideas and the fabby bunting!