Snapshots from July 2014

Cute stickers, you'll be the death of me! I found the loveliest little kitchen stickers (along with a whole stack of others) plus a stamp. Now everyone will find my birthday cards to them even more insufferable, hah!

Stink bug! Found this little guy in the middle of the pavement and quickly proceeded to drop everything in pursuit of him. It was even harder to snap him in focus - he was fast!

Opened my Etsy shop Schooner House and finally put my cards up for sale. If I'd written a list of goals for this year, this would be a major one I could cross off now. I'm so happy to finally be sharing my work. Got some new designs going in soon too!

Now that's some gooood eatin'.

Also, I made a lemon meringue pie that was actually successful! I can't believe how good it was. It was the practise run for the one I'm gonna make for our anniversary gathering later this month.

My well known love of cacti seems to know no limits. The collection has grown with the latest one (a gift from mum) being the cutest, tiniest little thing. It's practically polka dotted!

Also new is the antique 'kakteen' print that got lost in the mail for 4 months.

And finally, my sister went on holiday to Tenerife which is apparently covered in them. "You'd have been in cactus heaven Charlotte." She brought us back some marmalade made from their fruit, prickly pears!

The heatwave we've had this month has been amazing, not like English weather at all. With all that's gone off in the city - The Tour De France, Tramlines festival etc - I've been outside a hell of a lot and my favourite post from this month is from one of those outdoors days:

A Mini Ramble

Hope you've all had a brill July too. If you want to see more you can follow me on instagram. 

oxoxo

Last Day Gratitude

What a horrible, brilliant day yesterday was. I worked my last shift at my Monks Cross store, 'twas a poignant day to say the least! I'm glad it was a 10pm finish so I could slip out without an audience. I was really dreading it because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it together, and of course, I couldn't! I was choking them back on several occasions throughout the day. My colleagues were so generous though, there was a mountain of presents for me which I would have liked to have been able to open there and then but there was just no way. The flood gates would have really opened and there would have been no way to recover from it let alone carry on working and serving customers! I really love them though, they've been shared on Facebook and I want to share them with you too. Look how lovely they are!

As you can see a beautiful bounty. A handmade cushion with cool retro print made by my crafty friend Helen Bowden. You can and should check out the rest of her stuff here. A bottle of Chardonnay, Thorntons choccies, a really cool antique coal iron (wow!) and lastly, the most extravagant of all, the Betty's tea set hamper. This is so gorgeous. Betty's is pretty well renowned here in England. There are only 6 of them, all in Yorkshire. There are two here in York and I've never not seen a queue out the door going down the street. It's a very high end place, as you'll see below the Queen also uses it's fine bone china!

As used by Her Maj!

Seriously cute handmade cushion by Helen Bowden

Antique Coal Iron!

So thank you to everyone, the last four years have been the best. I feel genuinely lucky to know you. Now on to new hilly horizons!

xoxo