Hello!
I was recently asked to review some products for a lovely little Etsy shop called Fancy Paperie. They specialise in really wonderful quality paper good such as letter sets, postcards and greetings cards as well as a wonderful range of seasonal items.
You can see my review in the video below – let me know what you think! Oh and make sure you watch all the way to the end to receive your discount code to spend at https://www.etsy.com/shop/fancypaperie7
Blimey, where are the weeks going??? Once again, we are in the middle of the month before my goals are going up and it’s been four weeks since my last post again! Time seems to be galloping ahead without me at the moment but I’m desperately trying to rein it in and get posts up more frequently! But for the meantime, here are the outcomes of my August goals, and the goals I have set myself for September.
August Outcomes:
Once Upon a Time Sampler – In August my aim was to get the two remaining frames stitched in as well as the design for the month and I completed this so I was thrilled that it is almost up to date! I even managed to make a tiny start on the banner at the top…can you see it? Also, a sneak peek of the September design there too – this month is Black Beauty!
Cut Thru’ Caravan – I also managed to finish the page of the Caravan pattern that I was working on! It is coming together nicely but I am starting to realise that meeting my deadline of Christmas doesn’t look likely to happen – especially with all of the other presents I still need to make! Continue reading
Some of you might have seen my post last month reviewing my first ever #Paperhaul subscription box. It was a brilliant collection of retro 70s inspired paper goods; many of which I thought would be ideal for my music loving Dad and brother. This month’s box has arrived this week and this one is certainly all about me!
This months box is a sweet treats summer explosion of ice creams! Yum yum! This box has really got me down to a tee. It is crammed full of pretty pastel treats and retro inspired yummy goodness that I really appreciate all the more since I’m being good and can’t actually eat the real thing! Here is a closer look at what I got inside: Continue reading
Hello!
As you all know, I love a good subscription box! And thanks to a post by Stephanie Pomfrett I was introduced to the #PaperHaul box. #PaperHaul is a box of paper goodies for paper lovers. Each box contains a whole host of goodies suited to that month’s theme, and my first box was a very groovy 70s themed box. Typically each box contains two greetings cards, three postcards, three gift tags, a roll of washi tape, a sheet of stickers, two sheets of double sided printed craft paper and mini notecards. Here is what I was lucky enough to receive in my first box:
Look at all of these wonderful paper goodies! I couldn’t believe how much was in my box when I first opened it up – I didn’t know where to start! You can see a breakdown and close ups of all of the individual items below. Continue reading
Hello! I hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend!
As you all know, I’m a book lover. I always have been since I was a child (a long time before I was old enough to read them!) and right now my house is crammed full of bookcases as well as boxes of books that I can’t fit on them!
What I do love more than anything though are the books that really inspire you, and I was lucky enough to find two of them on a recent trip to Salts Mill with my parents while James was away.
What inspires me most about these books is that they are completely unique – I have never encountered books like them before. They have stunning graphics that really speak for themselves, so prepare yourself for a photo heavy post. Because of this, I’m only going to give them the briefest of introductions, then let the pictures get you inspired too!
The first book that I bought was Snail Mail: Celebrating the Art of Handwritten Correspondence which is simply an essential for anyone who, like me, loves snail mailing. It is a stunning hardback volume with over 200 pages crammed full of inspiring stories, tips and crafts for avid snail mailers. The author is truly passionate about the art of snail mail and really presents it as an art form through the beautiful photographs. Mackintosh shares the origins of her love of snail mail from her Dad’s romantic telegram messages to her mother, and walks you through the etiquette of the hobby. The most inspiring thing about this book however, is the wonderful abundance of ideas that this book invokes – everything from font styles to handmade envelopes and gifts, to stamps and decoration, which really urge you to dig out you stationary straight away and get started! See if you can make it through the next twenty photographs without rummaging around for a pen and the address book!
Hello!
A little later than anticipated but here is my round up of my April goals and how I did! Also, goal setting for May too!
April Outcomes:
Once Upon a Time Sampler – No progress on this one sadly! I didn’t manage to get those last two frames in because I was spending all of my time working on my Barcelona Sunset as that is my priority right now. I am staying with my parents this weekend though so I am packing my sampler with me since I obviously can’t work on my Mum’s present! I have saved this month’s design to stitch while I am here but if I get that done before the end of the weekend I might have time to add a frame too.
Barcelona Sunset – I am so close to finishing this quarter right now! i just have a block of grey across the bottom that no matter how much I stitch it just doesn’t seem to get any smaller! However, I should be on track to finish this quarter by the end of next week at the very latest (since I am losing this weekend!) so then I’ll be ready to tackle the final one. Continue reading
Hello!
Last month I set myself some monthly goals to try and achieve everything that I wanted to in March. By setting myself the deadline of the end of the month I hoped that I would feel motivated to complete everything on my list to get it all done. Overall it didn’t pan out quite as I had hoped! However, I’m not going to let that put me off setting monthly goals; here I have written a summary of how my March goals worked out (or didn’t!) and what I want to achieve in the month of April. Hopefully although I didn’t get as much done as I was hoping to last month, I will still be able to achieve big things this month!
March Outcomes:
Once Upon A Time Sampler – Last month I set myself the goal of stitching the four remaining frames on the bottom of the sampler. Unfortunately I didn’t get all four done but I did manage two so that it something! Easter Weekend also spurred on my productivity with this project as I dedicated it to stitching this month’s design so I feel like I am off to a good start with this one in April, even though I didn’t manage to do everything I wanted to with it in March.
Barcelona Sunset – Again, I had hoped to get a bit more of this done than I did. You can see from the photo below that I did make progress, but I was hoping to have that big gap in the middle filled in by the end of March! I just really wasn’t in the mood for cross stitching in March for some reason, but I do seem to have been bitten by the bug again the last few days so hopefully April will see a lot more productivity! Continue reading
Hello!
Once again, I have had another busy month of snail-mailing! I’ve had a lot of mail going out and I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot coming in too! Here’s a round up of the incoming and outgoing mail throughout March.
Outgoing:
A lot of the people that I was posting to via Postcrossing this month really liked collecting local postcards showing landmarks from your home city, so I have picked up quite a few this month. The first outgoing one is still making its long journey to China! Its recipient is interested in history, so I sent a postcard of the local historic monastery, Kirkstall Abbey.
Another local card travelled to the Netherlands in 9 days. The recipient of this card is interested in architecture, so I chose a postcard of Leeds Corn Exchange because of its interesting architecture. Continue reading
Hello!
Many of you know that I am an avid snail-mailer and I love receiving letters and postcards in the post. Having recently posted about my New Year Pen Pal Boxes, you already know that I am involved with #Postcircle and if you look waaaay back to June 2013, you will also find my post about Postcrossing! I’ll let you read the previous posts if you want an overview of what Postcrossing and #Postcircle are, but I thought I would share my incoming and outgoing mail from February with you!
Outgoing:
This butterfly postcard is on its way to Spain making a 981 mile journey to Menorca!
I loved this ‘London Town’ postcard from Paperchase so much that I sent out two of them. One of them took 8 days to reach New Jersey in the US, 3,438 miles away, and the other one took 12 days to travel 1,143 miles to Belarus! Continue reading
About a year ago I signed up to #Postcircle. As many of you know, I am an avid snail-mailer and love writing and receiving letters. When I first signed up to #Postcircle, the group I was in wasn’t very active and I only ever received one letter. Over time I forgot about it, but a newsletter popped up in my inbox last year and it inspired me to get started again. As my first group hadn’t really taken off, I requested to join a new group instead. This time round I was lucky enough to be placed in a group with 5 lovely ladies who are all as snail-mail mad as I am! I have received mail from everyone in the group, and with some participants we exchange letters/parcels almost every month! I’m absolutely thrilled to be involved in such an active group this time round and I am loving getting to know the fellow members of my group.
Last year was such a chaotic year for me though, and although I always replied to my letters quickly, I felt that I didn’t have enough time to make the parcels as special as I would like. I really wanted to have the time to choose the perfect little gifts in my parcels for each recipient, or, even better, I wanted to be able to make things to exchange. At the close of 2014 I felt a little guilty that I was receiving such wonderful things in the mail that the ladies had put so much time and effort into, so I wanted to do something special to mark the new year, and a year that would give me more time to dedicate to my hobbies such as snail-mail.
I decided to send each of the participants in my group, and my US penpal from another blog, a box of wishes for the new year. After my chaotic and stressful year last year, I realised that it would be really useful to have a box of necessities to go to if I was ever in need. But the things that I needed weren’t necessarily physical things, they were things like friendship, health and happiness. While I knew that I couldn’t send these things in the post, I decided to do the best that I could by sending something to symbolize what it was that might be needed. I picked 6 things to send; love, friendship, memories, prosperity, health and happiness, and packed them up in a box like this:
And when you open the box, you see this little card:
I wanted to create a vintage look for the box, so I chose the cover image and the tag template from Pinterest. I added the text to the card that read ‘Dear ***, Wishing you a Happy New Year and sending you best wishes for 2015. I hope your year is everything that you want it to be, but if you ever find that you are having a bad day. I hope you will find what you need in this box. Remember, sometimes it only takes a little thing to make the big problems better. Love, Hannah xx’
And inside the box? I chose the following items to represent the wishes I had picked. Continue reading
Handmade by Hannah 