Surprise Prize!

I had a lovely surprise in the post this morning from Junky Chicken over on Folksy! I became the 100th person to 'favourite' Jenny’s shop and as a special thank you, she sent me a lovely set of upcycled sheet music envelopes.

The package came beautifully wrapped in an upcycled handmade outer, and contained a set of Jenny's envelopes and her very quirky business card (an upcycled playing card!) A really great idea to reuse existing paper. I'm sure you all know that I love recycled paper, but this is taking that to another level!

They are amazing quality and I really recommend them – I've never considered buying upcycled envelopes before, but this has really changed my mind – they're great!

If you like the look of these envelopes, Jenny still has some available in her Folksy shop. For more photos, take a look here and press 'add to cart' to make someone very happy today!

Ruby's Workshop Pt.3

OK, OK! So it's been a little while since my last blog! I've been busy getting I Love Handmade off the ground, and recovering from my trip on the Coriandr Express!

I can't believe that my last post about Ruby Spirit's workshop – The Shed – was back in May. I have no idea where this year has gone! We've been patiently waiting for our friendly builder to fit us into his very busy schedule and finally at the end of September everything dropped into place!

The new stairs arrived, a vast improvement on the old ones, which wobbled precariously underfoot! The first photo shows both old and new side by side.

The staircase has been flipped around with a little quarter turn step added (a much more gentle descent!)

All the electrics have been upgraded to cope with heating, kettle and kiln etc. An extractor fan has been fitted to get rid of any nasty torch fumes. New flooring has been laid upstairs, and the ceiling has been insulated and boarded…

…and given a lovely smooth coat of plaster.

Any loose bricks have been made secure and holes have been filled…

…and finally we have a proper light fitting upstairs!

We can't wait to get in with some masonry paint for the walls! Watch this space!