Papernation

We were lucky enough to spend Christmas in San Francisco and had a chance to pop in and see Cavallini in the south of the city.  It was all a bit hairy getting a cab from the centre of the city and telling the driver where we wanted to go.  He didn’t have a clue how to get there and nor did we.  After the driver made a couple of  calls we headed off out of town.  We got there in one piece and this is a photo of Cavallini’s headquarters.  I’m obviously not very dextrous with the camera as I only managed to fit a corner of the building into the shot.

We said hello to everyone and had a tour of their HQ.  A lot of it, as you would expect, is warehousing, but the real treat is their offices.  It’s like stepping into another world, as everyone’s office is full of beautiful objects and quirky ephemera which is the inspiration for their gorgeous products.  Here’ s a photo of their reception area to give you an idea….

While we were there we were given a sneak preview of some fabulous new products being launched over the coming weeks which we are very excited about - we should have them on our site quite soon and so watch this space.

Everyone at Cavallini made our visit very memorable and they make the best cup of tea in San Francisco.

One of the things that I love about Bristol is that good things pop up virtually on every corner.  We popped down to the local shops this afternoon and came across an art sale in a bar of the ever-fabulous Gloucester Road.  Art events in pubs or other non-art venues can sometimes be a bit dubious, but not this one.  There was some fantastic talent on display…

The beautiful fold-out creation is actually a quirky kind of business card, and wasn’t really for sale – but illustrator Natasha Almeida was happy to part with it for a small sum. It contains the most delightful drawings of a lurcher and it’s the sweetest thing I’ve seen in ages.

You can see Natasha Almeida’s website here – make sure you look at the section entitled ‘Animals’ – they’re gorgeous (actually, everything on Natasha’s site is utterly fabulous…)

Two other artists that caught my eye were Bryony Budd and Lindsay Mcdonagh.  I took a teensy card (which was nevertheless exquisite) of Bryony’s but haven’t been able to find a website to share with you…possibly because she seems to be just 17 and still at school!  Amazing.  The only reference I could find online about Bryony is as part of her school’s entry to the Saatchi Gallery’s Art Prize For Schools – this link shows Bryony’s style…and I hope to be able to post more about her some time soon.

I’ve seen some of Lindsay McDonagh’s art elsewhere in Bristol…it’s beautiful.  Hares and birds seem to be a particular interest, and they make for striking images.  Lindsay’s website has a great gallery of her work, and you can buy prints and greeting cards online too!

Harvey Nichols have really come up trumps with this advertising campaign for their gorgeous food halls.  I’d seen the ads in some local magazines, and loved them.  Proof that the campaign is proving popular is the fact that these characters are now available to buy as a set of six postcards from Harvey Nicks. I was given a pack as a little gift this evening, and I adore them!  Yes, I know they are essentially an ad for Harvey Nicks, but the execution is absolutely spot on!

Now you would think that being part of Papernation would mean that I’d seen enough of gorgeous cards by the time the weekend arrives, but that’s often not the case.  Today, we went on a gorgeous walk through Brandon Hill park in Bristol, and then on home via the fledgling Bristol Art Market.  That’s where I picked up a fabulous greeting card featuring this beautiful illustration of a tin of golden syrup. The artist, Georgina Luck, is based in the wonderful Jamaica Road Artists Studios, and I’ve seen her work there too. I could be very tempted to buy a print one day, but for now, this lovely card will suffice – it’ll go on the Wall of Loveliness at work (which is where we stick all the lovely things we come across that inspire and entertain).

You can see more of Georgina Luck’s art here.

The next card I bought was from a chap who takes photos using a Victorian camera on a tripod, then colours them by hand. All his photos were shots of Bristol landmarks, and the one I chose shows a boat down on Bristol’s Floating Harbour. If you look closely, you can spot the SS Great Britain in the background. The card is perhaps slightly touristy, but I like it nonetheless!

It’s been an interesting morning…it’s not every day that you’re asked to take part in a TV feature for the local news!  We were approached yesterday by ITV West, who asked if we’d be willing to talk about how the Royal Mail strikes are affecting small businesses like ours.  Our Twitter followers will know that this is a subject very close to my heart, so of course we agreed.

It wasn’t quite as nerve-wracking as I’d imagined, but I suspect that I ummed and erred far too much! I’m hoping that they’ll do some cut and paste editing to make me look more articulate!

Here’s hoping that a resolution to the dispute is found very quickly.  The internet shopping industry needs a reliable postal service, and Royal Mail is best placed to provide that – and to reap the financial rewards of being delivery provider of choice.  Prolonged strike action compromises Royal Mail’s lead position, and will make it ever harder for them to recover the trust and custom of British business.

We are committed to maintaining the delivery standards we’ve built our business on. We have strong courier relationships that have been in place for years, so we’re confident that we can work through the dispute with very little disruption to our customers.

Do you have the urge to keep a diary, but don’t like the thought of that slightly-teenage nightly routine of  simply recounting your day from start to finish?  Want to do something a little more creative and freeform? You need to start a doodle diary!

No special materials are needed, just a pen (or several if you get carried away and start to like your doodle diary a lot) and a notebook.  There’s no obligation to write every single day if you don’t want to – just date each page when you do write, so that when you look back, there’s some context for what you’ve doodled.  If you’re super-talented with a coloured pen, that’s great, but if not,  don’t worry about the artistic quality of your doodles – your doodle diary is for you and no-one else…and you’ll get more comfortable with it once you’re past the first page! And you don’t have to stick to just doodling – stick things in, use rubber stamps…whatever comes your way and fits with what you saw or felt that day is fair game…

To help inspire you to start your own doodle diary, here are some fabulous examples of gorgeous doodle diaries that I admire:

@DIYSara’s Doodle Diary

@loulouloves’ Doodle Diary

With thanks to both DIYSara and Loulouloves – you can see more of their diaries and other artwork on their blogs:

DIYSara

loulouloves

If, like us you love beautiful stationery, then by extension, you’re almost certain to covet a dream desk on which to spread out all those notebooks and pens.  We saw two contenders for the title of Dream Desk recently, when we visited the 100% Design show in London.

This first example of desk deliciousness is a modular system designed by Robin Grasby. Start with the legs, then add components to build the desk that’s exactly suited to your own personal needs. Want a desk that’s really big with a sleek drawer, but no need for the hanging storage slings? No problem…just choose the components you want, and it will all slot together perfectly. Personally, I think the example combination in the photo is looking pretty good already!

My second choice for Dream Desk is this gorgeous Walk Desk, by designer Steuart Padwick. It’s sleek, stylish and makes us think back to the good old days of school desks with lift-up lids (if you’re reading this and you’re under 30, you probably won’t know what I’m talking about, so just ignore that last remark!).

I’m not entirely sure whether having one of these amazing desks would help productivity, or whether it would cause me to sit looking lovingly at it for hours, carefully rearranging pretty notebooks and accessories. Still, I think I could live with the latter…

Have you seen your Dream Desk?  Tell us about it!

 We’ve got a fabulous sales promotion running this weekend. We’ve hand-picked 25 amazing bargains and have priced them at just £2.50 each!

There are notecards and notebooks, things for children and things for adults…in short, plenty to tempt you!  With Christmas just round the corner, why not take a look to find some early gift bargains?  Of course, with prices this good, you might just want to treat yourself!

View the 25 deals for £2.50 each now!

p.s. we’ve also reduced the threshold for free UK delivery to just £50…which is one more reason to take a look at these deals!

We went along to the 100% Design Show at Earl’s Court a couple of weekends ago. It was packed with energetic young designers brimming over with the most creative ideas, and it was a lot of fun to attend.  One of the highlights was the live ‘design a chair’ competition hosted on site by Claystation and design mag Blueprint.  Each competition entrant was given a flatpack chair made of Whitelines® card, with the rest up to individual creativity. Pictured above, are a few of the chairs that had been submitted when we stopped at the competition stand, with more shown below.

Aren’t they cute? And very creative!  The competition stand was packed with people of all ages, busy working on their designs. I think it really caught people’s imaginations and got people creating – which can only be a good thing.

There’s something fascinating about Bristol. It has such an amazing positive vibe that runs throughout the city. It’s hard to understand if you don’t live here. I can’t work out what it is.  Probably a combination of a hundred different things.  One things that Bristol has a’plenty is hot air balloons, and the sight of one is guaranteed to lift the spirits of even the most jaded soul.

This one floated over the house this evening, as we sat outside enjoying a late summer evening.  We must be on a ballooning flight path, as they seem to float over the house very low and more often than you’d imagine.  We always wave!