the green gal

Christmas-ifying my kitchen dresser

It's taken me a while to finish but finally I have Christmas-ified my kitchen dresser! 

I stuck with my favourite Christmassy colours of pinky red and icy blue, and couldn't resist hanging up half a length of my Christmas star paper bunting. I haven't changed an awful lot, it was more a matter of adapting than chucking out the old and in with the new. I've piled up some silver baubles on the glass cake stand and the candle lamp on top of the dresser is from Ikea. I forgot I had this set of fairy lights and I think I'm going to keep them up all year round, just like the lights around the mirror in my sitting room. 

Inspired by a post on bright.bazaar I filled a clear glass jug with paper cupcake cases which you can see to the left of the vintage typewriter. I love how cute the candy canes look in the little blue jug, they're going to be used as part of my gift wrapping in a couple of weeks' time. 

I put eucalyptus branches with the red berries so there's a faint but lovely aroma wafting from the dresser. And if you look closely you can just see the little fairy perched between the vintage china! My sister gave me her years ago and she usually sits on top of my Christmas tree. But as this year we've decorated branches instead of a tree I thought she'd be happy nestled in between some pretty china. 

And in case you missed the photo of my Christmas branches, here it is!

Are you feeling Christmassy?

5 Days of Christmas – 50% off Christmas bunting

Day 3 of the 5 Days of Christmas means another special offer, today it's 50% off Christmas star bunting! The discount has already been applied so no need for a code, simply take a wander round the virtual aisles of thegreengables.co.uk/shop and make the most of the half price festive decorations! Tomorrow a new special offer will be revealed…

Find me at Out of Love's Christmas Fair

This Saturday the place to be is Milford Village Hall near Guildford in Surrey! There you will find me along with lots of other lovely small businesses as it's the venue for a festive Christmas Gift Fair, organised by the clever Lisa Cooney from Out of Love. You'll be able to find lots of your Christmas gifts, decorations and wrapping at the fair as well as enjoy a well earned cuppa and slice of cake. I will be bringing along my stationery gift sets, bunting, Christmas cards and gift wrap, along with lots of other favourites.

You can read the full list of who will be exhibiting at the fair here. The fair is open from 10am until 4pm and the full address is Milford Village Hall, Portsmouth Road, Milford GU8 5DR. If you can visit be sure to stop by my stand and say hi!

Pretty display

The photo above shows my plantable wildflower paper heart bunting on display at one of my lovely stockists – House Envy in Boverton, Vale of Glamorgan. I think it looks lovely on the front of the table, and it seems the customers think so too! There are so many gorgeous things to look at and it only shows part of the store. If you're anywhere near House Envy I suggest you pop in for a good browse.

My weekend + Drawing a day: 13 August + new press

This pretty much sums up my weekend – me working, dog sleeping. The hubbie and I had a productive weekend, getting odd jobs around the house and garden finished and working on new ideas for the green gables – more about that in another post later today!

I've been super efficient and done today's daily drawing too:

And, my week has started off very nicely with a new piece of press! My plantable wildflower paper heart bunting is in Wedding Flowers magazine, if you like floral arrangements and pretty posies you'll love this magazine, whether you're getting wed or not!

Don't forget that my special offer of 10% off EVERYTHING at thegreengables.co.uk finishes at 8pm tonight when Theo Paphitis picks a new bunch of #sbs winners on twitter!

New business cards

My new business cards arrived today, and I am so pleased with them. This is the third order jamjarprint.co.uk have printed for me and I would definitely recommend them. The recycled stock they use is great and their customer service is excellent, thoroughly nice people!

Have a lovely weekend, and if you're watching the Olympics, enjoy, and if you're not, enjoy whatever else you're doing! (The 25% off offer on Union Jack bunting at thegreengables.co.uk is still on till Monday!)

Special offer on Union Jack bunting

find it here

The Olympics are almost here, finally! Feels like a v long time in the making but this weekend sees the opening ceremony and the first events. The road cycling races are coming through my village in Surrey on Saturday and Sunday and I'm rather excited about a) being trapped in my village because the roads are closed b) seeing an Olympic event for the first time and c) Tour de France champ Bradley Wiggins racing past me at high speed!

So, if you want to get in the mood and show some patriotic spirit take advantage of my 25% off special offer on 2.5m and 5m lengths of Union Jack paper flag bunting! Offer lasts until Monday 30 July at thegreengables.co.uk. Go Team GB!

You can't beat a bit of bunting

You still have time to order Union Jack bunting for your Diamond Jubilee celebrations! And of course you can bring it out again in a couple of months' time for the 2012 Olympics too.

Find hand drawn Union Jack paper flag bunting, available in 2.5m and 5m lengths, and designed, printed on FSC paper and made in the UK, at the green gables here.

Spotted in the press

This week I'm v pleased to see the green gables' products pop up in three different publications! And, unsurprisingly, it's all paper bunting as Diamond Jubilee fever picks up and wedding season gets well under way.I don't always find where the green gables appears in the press so if you ever spot one of my little lovelies in a mag you're reading do let me know! And so thanks to @project_goddess on twitter for telling me about Good Homes. What a shame I've had to buy these mags to add to my press page, I'll just have to have a cuppa and read them in the sunshine!

My studio

I'm taking The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course and as it only just started this week we were asked to take a photo of our workspace and share it in the flickr group. So, I thought I'd share it here too. 

It's a bit of a mess but if I tidied up before photographing it that would be cheating! I try to keep the piles of stuff to the two ends of my desk and the middle section clear for me to work. A lot of what you can see on the wall is my own work but I've also got a few other inspirational bits and bobs, I love the two little quote posters in particular. One reads: 'always believe something marvellous is about to happen' and the other is a quote from Anne of Green Gables: 'One can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things'.

The light coming in from the left is from double doors that open out onto my garden, it's lovely in summer. The sun shining in can get a bit hot and bright but I'll never complain about sunshine!

There's plenty more of my studio but I haven't snapped the rest as it's mainly boxes and packing materials I don't think it's very interesting to look at. 

So, now you know where I beaver away on the green gables most days!