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.

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!

We had a great time making this video! We wanted to show you what gorgeous creatures are lurking in the Magical Menagerie kit that we’ve just added to our online store. And if a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video just says everything there is to say.

We don’t expect stocks to last long so close to Christmas, so if this super set of 20 cardboard animals appeals to you, buy now!

This sample of a new range of notebooks arrived on my desk at the perfect time. I needed a new notebook to use as a business card holder, and this has the perfect layout for that purpose – plain paper on one side and lined on the other. It’s a similar (but different) notebook to a Moleskine pocket notebook…I love it for its funky strap and end papers!

I’ve added the first batch of business cards, and shown some of them below. I haven’t yet got around to adding my notes on the lined page, but I’d normally add where and when I picked up the business card, as well as what I thought of the company and its products or services.  I stick the cards in using repositionable invisible tape, so I can take them out if I need to. I just tape the top end, so that I can flip the card over to see the other side.

I’m a little bit of a business card geek (you might guess this…) so sometimes the cards I collect are as much about gorgeous business card design as they are about relevance to what we do at Papernation. Anyway, here are a few samples from the new notebook:

One last thing that makes this notebook so cool for this purpose is the pocket at the back…I can pop new business cards in there until I have time to stick them in with tape!

Watch this space for this great new range of notebooks…they should be available online in the next week or so. They’ll be available in 12 different styles and two sizes – pocket and A5. We’re sure they’re going to impress!

Fear not, we’ve carefully selected our top 5 suggestions for what to buy the designer for Christmas.  Each one has a strong design-led feel and a design community following.  Here they are:

1. Anything Whitelines or Rhodia – both of these notebook brands have a cult following in the design world. Simple, elegant and functional – everything that a designer could wish for. If you’re looking for more than a simple notebook, the Rhodia range includes a Rhodia Essentials Gift Box, and some beautiful leather journals.

2. Speech Bubble Paper Clips – the perfect stocking filler for anyone who knows that it’s the little details that really count.

3. Fabio Handcrafted A4 Leather Journal – this journal is absolutely the epitome of the perfect leather notebook. With 100% cotton paper inside, and the finest leather cover, you can actually smell the quality of this journal.

4. An Acme Designer Pen – Acme commission designs for their pens from leading designers around the world, including Rod Dyer, Karim Rashid and Alexander Girard.  A solidly designed pen that feels as good as it looks.

5. A luxury any day diary – this is a sleek and chic diary that lets you start at any time of the year – you simply date the pages as and when you use them.  A great idea for anyone who wants to note their creative ideas as and when they arrive.

You can view the writing set here

Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox was one of my favourite books as a child.  Miraculously, I have carted it around with me since leaving home, via various flats and houses that I have lived, to my house in Bristol now.  I think I loved the fact that Roald Dahl wrote about nose picking and horrid things that I thought were hysterical.  I’m not sure my parents were so impressed, as I regailed them with tales of Boggis, Bunce and Bean at the dinner table.   Meal times, even in the 70’s, being so much more genteel than they are now.  Goodness, I think I’m giving my age away now.  Anyway, here’s a photo of my copy of Fantastic Mr Fox.

I’m not sure if I’ll go and see the film, it might spoil my memories of the book.  I probably will though.

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.

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