anyone seen the sun this morning?

...it may be dark and gloomy outside but summer sampling is in abundance in the studio - so feeling quite perky this morning...

dessert for breakfast

... if you are slightly addicted to foodie blogs - like me - then the story behind Stephanie's will entice...this is a girl who almost solely eats dessert for breakfast and breakfast for dinner...perfect, tomorrow I shall start the day with lemon drizzle cake, mascarpone and raspberry cream and end with a bowl of oats and blueberries...and then dream of breakfast for the following day

take a trip to desserts for breakfast

studio treat number 5

thank you wrapped in a gorgeous bow

I just wanted to say a big thank you to Louise at Bow Occasions for featuring me on her fab blog, take a look to not only read the article but to browse and be inspired by all the vintage inspired posts you will just want to scroll through - you may want to sit with a cuppa as I think you will be there for a while. The blog has only been up and running since July but she has a pile high of delights - so you may want to sit with a couple of custard creams as well.... THANK YOU LOUISE... Click here

plates spinning

...I always reach this time of year and feel as if I am trying to keep all of the plates spinning - from sampling to production to packing to marketing...but... this is the time of year I love as this is the month that I start to work on the ground drawings for the new collections for 2012 until November.

I have been growing an abundance of hydrangeas in the garden this year ready to photograph with next years new collections. Working with ribbons to create the right colour palettes, the colour of the hydrangea petals, once dried, are simply perfect...

'tis the season....

I know we have only just dipped our toe into September, but am I allowed to mention Christmas, as I have been working on weddings that fall over the festive period since July - I just wanted to introduce you to the christmas department at PAPER STORE - a very small selection of hand finished products - christmas card sets, place cards for receptions or dinner parties and place/gift tags. All products are decorated along the way in either flashes of silver or gold gild, stitch detail, diamante, collage, vintage cotton lace and are all from The Winter Collection. Here's a little peak...

love signs

...we are still working hard stocking the shelves of THE PAPER STORE - here's the latest additions 'love bunting' signs... take a peak... they live on the general reception stationery shelf - simply scroll down once there...

handpicked - lemon drizzle cake

...citrus is a seriously strong trend for next summer and the sample request packs that are coming through for next year are prooving just that...so here's something sweet from the handpicked pages of our research files...particularly love the 50's styled cake above from derbyshire based vintage and cake ...it would look perfect matched with our Miss Fondant Collection...

intimate weddings

the sweet and saucy shop

vintage and cake

once wed

paper store - hankies for happiness

...there will be no question that there will be endless tears of joy on your big day. You have spent hours, days, weeks and months (some of you years!!) chanelling all your attention to the little details from button holes to dessert menus, seating plans to hair up - hair down...... but have you thought about 'a must have wedding hankie' vintage of course - yes? - no? - just as you thought you had everything on your wedding list ticked off I tempt you with one more little detail.....

The vintage drawer in the PAPER STORE has further additions this week allowing you the opportunity to wipe away your tears in style instead of using Aunt Violet's crumpled Kleenex..... can you resist????

paper store - cordial & soda

...I have now started dedicating a few hours a week to FINALLY filling the vintage drawer in the PAPER STORE. Some of you may not be aware of the little on-line shop we also run. Introduced this year to sell limited selections of stationery that you can purchase 'off the peg' - from place cards to table numbers, favour tags to birthday cards. We also have two shelves titled vintage drawer and bottom drawer and these are now starting to be filled with the vintage finds and hand made creations that currently live in the studio. So take the time to have a little look and remember to keep visiting as we will be placing something new and unique in there each week to help make your day that little bit more exciting - all you need is a PayPal account to purchase....

So this week we have just posted a few sets of vintage fruity labels for you. These would be perfect for you to use as table names if you attach them to card or paste them to vintage bottles or jam jars. The images over at the PAPER STORE are quite small (you will need to click on the little image to enlarge it!!!) so here are a few images as a little starting point.....

image credits:

vicky trainor . style me pretty
ruffled . once wed