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Well, hello friend!
Welcome to the very first in our Anthology series of emails, I'm so pleased you're here.
What's this Anthology all about then?
Well, you'll have seen emails from us before when we launch new products, or we have a promotion coming up, but this one is a bit different. We're throwing back the covers on just what it is we're up to every couple of weeks.
What we're listening to, where we've been, what we're celebrating, what we're pondering on - and asking you what you're up to as well.
So, grab a cuppa, maybe a biccie too, and let's get cosy.
If I whisper the word Christmas would you mind? Fab! I knew you'd be on board.
Since we bought the new big printer (affectionately named Cookie Monster, because we name all our printers after Sesame Street characters and because he is blue and HUGE) my mind has been racing with ideas on how to add colour to all our products, but especially Christmas tree decorations. I also have a little bit of a thing about adding birds to my Christmas tree, so naturally, a bird-themed Christmas tree ornament is in development.
We're thinking of a gilded birdcage and varying numbers of birds to represent family members.
The colours by the way just absolutely pop on Cookie! Cobalt blues and peachy pinks - yum.
I can't wait to try and take photos of them soon, if I can find a Christmas tree.... and possibly make some mince pies, maybe a bit of gingerbread, just to get in the right headspace of course.
June has been all about #CampaignShopIndependent and we've been supporting Holly Tucker and her team at Holly&Co in getting the word out. The Holly&Co team even hit the road on this beautiful double-decker bus and asked us to create a bespoke bus blind destination print to capture all the places the bus stopped.
We went along to the ribbon cutting at Catherine Colebrook's awesome new shop - the Department Of Hope, Joy & Wonder - to hand over the bus blind to Holly and to do a bit of independent shopping of course.
Shopping small and shopping locally keeps local businesses alive and thriving. If you want that wonderful bookstore to keep hosting read-along nights, or you want that local cafe to keep making the brownies you love, or you want the country pub to be open for the Sunday dinner you want to take your brother to when he visits, then you have to use them or risk losing them.
Today is #ShopIndependentDay so consider voting with your money and support an indie business or creative if you can! They will LOVE you for it.
I'm surrounded by notebooks as I type (and in life in general to be fair) but my favourite is always the current doodle book. Here is where I sketch out the bud of an idea from my head that might one day make it to becoming a product.
Sometimes, it's a really hasty sketch like I'm trying to catch the butterfly of a thought before it flies away. Occasionally, it will be a perfect vision already fully formed so I can transfer it to paper more neatly.
I always then fly it past the rest of the team to see if they like it, or can add to it, or even think it's possible - some of the things my brain thinks we can do, the laws of physics haven't quite caught up with yet!
I love looking back through the doodlers and here's a great example of the initial idea to finished product from way back in 2015.
I had absolutely no idea how to create a paper advent calendar that would hang like a garland, or even how to suspend each shape, I just knew it would look stunning when finished.
Beautifully photographed here by the splendid Yeshen Venema, a whizz with a camera based in Islington.
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