September morning

I love September mornings - they seem to be sunny more often than summer mornings. If I take the time to climb into the loft, stand on a box and poke my head out of the skylight this is what I see...

Earlier on there had been a band of cloud on the river so you could only see the very tops of the mountains but it had cleared before I thought about getting the camera out.

I find September to be quite a productive time as well.  This is what was waiting for me on my work table:

And this is what I had by the end of the morning (despite a few interruptions), all ready for my new shop:

Not a bad mornings work!

A new shop

I have had my original etsy shop for 3 years now and it has been rather neglected of late as the ffflowers have taken over.  So I decided it was time for a new start, a new look and a new name.  My new etsy shop hypsela handmade will still stock my handmade journals and seashore art cards but I hope to be adding new lines in time as well.  Please visit and show your support!

To get my new shop off to a good start I have been making a lot of my journals/sketchbooks, including several of the larger size, which I will be listing over the next few days.  These make a great present for those hard-to-buy-for arty friends and relations!

The books are filled with pages made from a mixture of different papers.  They are the sort of thing I looked for for ages without success - so now I make them myself.

This last book is a new style for me, covered with kraft paper ready for the owner to customise - an idea suggested to me by Maisy of OneLittleHouse on etsy.

Over the last couple of years I have been secretary (and acting chairman and refreshments provider and...) for a local group which has now given up the ghost - I have been left with a lot of paperwork to get rid of and a big pile of over-sized brown paper envelopes which I have no use for.  But they work really really well on the covers of these books!  Waste not, want not!