Fancy Tea Swap

Hello everyone,

Today I have decided to throw my first every swap. And of course it had to be tea related!

So here we are with the Fancy Tea Swap.

I love trying all types of tea, but I can't buy them all and I never know whether I would like them or not, so I thought this would be the perfect swap for me and like minded folks.

I know there are lots of swaps going around at the moment especially xmas ones, but this swap is really really super easy and not much effort required but lots to gain.

To be part of my swap all you have to do is:

• Love tea.
• Love trying different tea.
• Email me over your name & address & the teas you have tried before to shedraws[at]hotmail.com
• Send at least 5 different tea bags or loose leaf tea samples to your swapping partner.
• A tea related extra of low value like stickers, card, tags etc.
• And finally enjoy!

This swap is open until 4th November to sign up and then until the 14th of November to send out the tea.

Yay! I can't wait.

The Small Object

I love all the things is this shop called The Small Object. They have have so much charm in each piece you don't battle with yourself too much in falling in love. All their items are made in limited editions so if you don't get them now you loooose out.

Buy their things here.

I can't wait for someones birthday so I can buy this.

Loving their "do's".

Fabulous custom wedding toppers!

DIY Candles

My sister, the owner of Mr. Wick has sources some really fabulous large tins which she currently has for sale in her Folksy shop only these tins are up to you to choose what candle colour and scent you would like from her collection. These DIY candles allow you to create the perfect kitsch candle for gifts or just yourself. She also has many other new candles so pop over to her shop to check them out.

Fab Oxo tin

Large vintage tea tin

This is my fav, a yummy shabby chic sweetie tin.

It's Christmas!!

I finally got round to printing some christmas cards. I had this idea in my head for ages then finally got it to the mac but thought I wouldn't have any time to print them for all you lovely organized people. But here we are, I realized that we still had two months until Santa comes and so I got printing yesterday and finished them today, a lot quicker than I thought I would too.

Instead of the usually festive colours we went for She draws alternative festive colours of coral and grass green!! I also added some glitter for a bit of christmas jazz.

You can find them in my folksy shop right now and I hope you like them!!

SleepyKingp

I just found this super cute shop, Sleepyking.

A little treat

After my exciting week at my job trial, I decided to treat myself a little while I had some money spare and since Clarks are having a sale on how could I refuse a new pair of shoes. Whenever Clarks have a sale on I usually go a grab something because I am loving all their shoes at the moment and I just can't go wrong. I browsed there site and saw the pair I was for sure going to get, they were black, shiny and flat, very practical (I have the same pair in purple). I was positive I wasn't going to get red shoes as I've have 3 pairs already, but I do love red shoes.

Anyway so here we go strolling into clarks and I picked up the pair i'd seen online, then the BF goes "get these", holding a pair of shiny red heels in his hand. I knew this was going to be dangerous as 1. he never usually has an opinion on ladies shoes so he must mean business this time and 2. I had already seen these shoes online and secretly wanted them! I was trying to resist as they were exactly what I didn't want to buy, bright red and heels, but you know what? I got them. That's right. The boyfriend said he wouldn't let me out of the shop if I didn't buy these ones as he reckons they were "me" in shoe form!

O and I got a new hair cut :)

When I won giveaway No. 2

So lucky me is back again, now with the second blog giveaway that I won.

I was so pleased when I found out I won this blog giveaway and I was really surprised as I had forgot all about entering and as we all know how I previously won the yellowgoat blog; I thought it would be too good to be true to win yet another blog. So this is what I won, a super duper cute squirrel brooch from the Nottingham Craft Mafia blog, handmade by Kate Broughton, who sells her wares on Folksy and you can actually buy the same design if you love it as much as I do.

I must say that the quality of stitching is fabulous and I must admit that although I really loved this little brooch I don't think I would ever have bought it myself as I thought maybe I wouldn't wear it much. But since receiving Mr. Squirrel in the post I couldn't have been more wrong. I have worn him so much already and he is perfect for the autumn and most importantly it has made me change my mind about all those things I usually like but think I will never wear. I'm not sure my jewellery collection needs adding too, but now I have Mr. Squirrel I think he needs some friends!

So as I said I thought it was too good to be true to win two blog giveaways, but guess what?? Yes, that's right I have won a third!! Can you believe it? I tell you I am having a really lucky time at the moment (I better go do the lottery, haha) and I will do a blog about my next prize when I receive it.

Hannah Zakari 5th birthday prize hunt.

Hannah Zakari turns 5 next week and to celebrate they are giving away 5 prizes throughout the week and you can win some of my items on Tuesday!

Here are the prizes in order:

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

All you have to do to enter is search for a present on the Hannah Zakari website and once you have found it email happybirthday@hannahzakari.co.uk with your name and the place that you spotted it. They will then pick a winner at random and post it on the blog the next day.

Please see the blog for all the details on the prizes and contacting them and good luck!

When I won a giveaway.

I was a very lucky lady last month because I won 2 blog giveaways, yes that's right two!! I totally love both the prizes I won, but this is the first prize that I am showing you which I won at Yellowgoat's blog.

So here it is a gorgeous 5" inch handmade plate from LAS design on Etsy. It is create from recycled stoneware clay and has a fabulous lace or doily pattern imprinted into the clay before firing. It is then glazed in a bright yellow, which i love as it's my favourite colour and so I am even more pleased I won this item.

As you can see it has already found a home housing my rings. I have a few quite a few plates and cups which i lay my jewellery on at the end of the day so this little plate feels right at home.

I will show you my other prize very soon.

Tshirt PRE ORDER for you...

I am offering all my blog friends a pre order for my Mr Britain screen printed tshirt, which will be great for an xmas gift for the guys in your life (my dad, my boyfriend & his brother will all be getting these for xmas!). At the moment they are just for the guys, although all your girls can still wear them oversized with a belt & some rolled up sleeves.

My special *pre order* price is just £10 instead of the usual £14 so grab yourself a real bargain! See here for all the details.

There is a choice of 2 colours, navy with a sky blue print and forest green with a olive green print. They come in 3 sizes, S, M & L and they will be printed on a soft feel classic style tshirt as shown below.

Congratulations, you're my winner....

Abbi from Edwina Simone!! (take a look at her shop).

Yay, well done you.

We look forward to seeing the trip he goes on now :)

Tutorials: Recycle your old business cards

A good (design) friend sent me a link to someone who loved their Moo cards so much they decided not to give them anyway and recycle them into magnets. And since the swap over of names and shop I naturally had quite a few Glue & glitter cards left and so after seeing this tutorial for the Moo cards I thought I'd make some of my own but this time with my old regular sized business cards. The design of my cards are perfectly formed (with a bit of luck!) for this project as there is a square just dedicate to my illustrations and since all the other details on my business cards are now redundant I was able to just snip them off to leave a the illustrations in their square form. So here we go.

1. All you need is some old (or new) business card, some scissors, some double sided tape and a magnetic strip. Here I am using some magnet paper I had left over from years ago, but you can buy a magnetic strip tape which is already tacky on one side and fairly cheap about £1.50 for 1 metre.

2. Here is me snipping off the redundant part of my business card to leave the pretty illustrations. I'm not sure what I could do with bit I cut off but I am convinced I must be able to do something, especially as one side has "glitter" written across it. Maybe this will be a later tute when i've thought of something.

3. I cut my magnetic paper into small long strips and then taped them up with the double sided tape. If you buy the magnet strip tape then I don't think you need to tape the back as it is already done for you, making them project even more simple!

4. Peel off the tape and stick to the back of your cards. I have used two pieces, one at the top and one at the bottom. And there you have it some nice magnets which are great for taking to craft fairs or giving as free gifts.

As in step 2. I cut off the details but you could leave them on or if you use the moo cards they have the details on the back. These would be very good to give out as business cards as I reckon the receiver would be less likely to throw them away and so hopefully remember you!

This is a super simple project and so obvious. I wish I had thought of it myself, but never the less we can also have a go and do a bit of recycling. I will be giving my new magnets away with all purchases bought from my shop. Enjoy!