February....already?

Where did January go? 

No time for blues around here - thank goodness. Chipper Nelly love blocks have been flying off the virtual shelf, and there must be worse ways of making a living (I'm still feeling extremely grateful!)

 The 'I Love You More Than Cake' option came with the offer to substitute 'cake' for a word of your choice. I've made a good few 'I Love You More Than Chocolate' options as well as a pizza, snow, buns and custard tarts!

 

I also had some nice commissions - this big block was for my friend Janice as a gift for friends celebrating a silver wedding anniversary. I love working with silver leaf, but it's tricky, so I keep putting off making it an official product in the shop!

Our favourite girl Mabel also celebrated her first birthday last month! Can't believe it's been a year - Nelly and G Kisby have made fabulous parents and Mabel is adorable - we all love her very much.                              I didn't get many photos of the party afternoon - hopefully Nelly did (and will work out how to share them in her next post!)

I made Mabel some vintage style blocks as part of her gift - the images are really wonderful and free to download (here) from a great blog called Rook No.17, bursting full of inspiration. 

Unfortunately they are only for personal use - so they won't be finding themselves in my shop either!

We caught up with an old friend Joanna, who has recently moved to Switzerland. I met Jo when we found ourselves working in Monsoon Manchester 20 years ago, after finishing Uni...both waiting for 'real'jobs!She went on to get said job, I continued to work for the company for the next 17 years! 

 Incidentally, in those days we were 'given' an allowance to spend in the shop - free clothes that we DIDN'T WANT! It was a struggle to find something...really! How things have changed!

(lovely to see you Joanna!)

I made her a block for her new home - think a version of which might be finding itself in the shop since I'm still addicted to the old dictionary!

 We also visited the vintage market (Treacle) in Macclesfield last month along with Jane and her boys. It was a great way to spend a (very cold) Sunday morning, warmed by some hot spiced cider!

We even managed to sneak off for half an hour, boy free, for a little ooohing and ahhhing by ourselves (including a few 'we should be doing this' followed by some 'lets do some more research'!!)

It's a food and drink market too - worth a visit if you're anywhere local. There were some great photo opportunities - here are my favourite three:

 

Speaking of photographs (seamless!) Cleggy and I worked together this month as Bloomsbury commissioned me to take the photos for his latest book. It's called '50 fantastic things to do with paint'....or as it appears in my documents '50 things I'll never ever want to do again, with paint'!

Due to Cleggys workload we had but one morning to achieve said photographs, and of course it was the wettest, darkest day of the month. I can't believe I EVER thought I could be a teacher.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of kids (especially the naughty ones!) but trying to get a bunch of 4 year olds to do what I wanted was hard going. It didn't help that we got the exciting activity out, took some photos, then whipped it away again. Harsh!

Anyway - we got what we needed and look forward to the next assignment - 50 fantastic things I won't want to do with squidgy stuff! 

(Note to self: next time don't wear best boots!)

Here are some other WIP's filling my head space this week

First mothers day product

Some new 'Girl Blocks'

 And my current favourite, teeny tiny alphabet blocks. Ever since I made these chunky ones for a friend I've been trying to think of a way to make them viable and affordable as I love a set of blocks that can say words and phrases. These might just be the answer. Unfortunately they are fiddly to make, but the blocks are cheaper to buy in the first place...may well be available in the shop before too long...

 And finally - I decided about a year ago that I needed a new short haircut. It's been long for years and all I ever did was wear it in a (messy) ponytail. When I saw that one of my blogging pals had opened a salon nearby I decided it was a sign (?) and duly told her to do what she wanted with my hair.

Amanda's salon is a thing of beauty - right up my street 

(and probably yours too!) 

She also has a little pop up cafe and craft section - it's the dream hairdressers. I'll do a homage in my next post - as she is also stocking a small range of Chipper products - how exciting!

Meanwhile - here is cheesy grinning old me with new hair

(and my lovely Mum!)

fee x

I lo♥e my hair Amanda!