HUGE apologies and a very Merry Christmas!

It has been far too long since I lasted posted an entry on my blog so I am very sorry.

Jim Jam Sandwich totally took off this Christmas and I was so inundated with orders that after coming home from my full time job every day I have been working until about midnight most nights making brooches and cards. Having only started with NOTHS a year ago and not being that well established back then, I didn't have any idea of how busy I could possibly get. I ended up having on average about 4 - 5 orders a day with some through Folksy as well. I have been so thrilled :-) It has been incredibly hard work but hopefully worth it in getting my name out there. It seems my 'I Love Tea' brooches have been my best seller to date and I have a few new similar ideas for the New Year so watch this space!

In amongst the Christmas rush I also had an order from No8 in France requesting Christmas cards and lots of brooches. Eve asked me to make some 'J'adore Cafe' brooches to see how they went down with the French. I was quite pleased with how these turned out so they will making an appearance on my NOTHS and Folksy shops in the next coming weeks.

I did a blog giveaway a few months ago which I also must hugely apologise for not announcing the winners of. I promise to do this on my return in January and two lucky people who left a comment will still win one of my brooches x

Anyway I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and very Happy New Year. Thank you to all my followers and fans for helping JJS to do so well. I'm off to Borneo for Christmas to try and soak up some sun (inbetween thunder storms!) and to climb Mt Kinabalu so there will be lots of photos on my return.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

Cupcake heaven!

I forgot to blog about this last week so here it is, the pictures of the most amazing cupcake a very special friend gave to me. I've been through a bit of a rough patch and to cheer me up my friend Jemma searched her local area and found this cupcake shop 'Candy Cakes' and bought me this cake, totally delicious! I almost didn't want to eat it though as it looked so incredible. They have several shops in London, the picture below is of their Monmouth Street shop in Covent Garden. I haven't yet been there but am planning to go tomorrow.

Second blog giveaway, yippee.....

This is long overdue so many apologies. My new job is taking up every spare minute I have. Anyway finally I have a day to myself to catch up on blogging and Jim Jam Sandwich :-)

I was going to do a festive blog giveaway but I have decided to leave that until early December. So that means you get an extra one now!

I have recently been inundated with orders for my brooches so I thought I would share them with my lovely blog followers. Up for grabs is one 'Cupcake' brooch and one 'I Love Tea' brooch. All you need to do to be in for a chance to win one is to become a blog follower, if you're aren't already following me, and leave a comment below this post telling me which special person you would give one of my brooches to and why.

Two winners will be randomly picked on Sunday 29th November so you've got a week to enter. Happy commenting people x

Jim Jam Sandwich in France!!

I had a large card order over summer from a lovely little shop in the south of France called No8 and I have just received photos of my cards in situ! No8 is a gorgeous boutique shop in Auberterre in the Bordeaux region selling beautiful gifts, accesories and my cards :-) Eve has sold most of them and is hopefully about to place an order for some more.

How cute is this little place... You can see my cards on the top two shelves below.

Christmas card designs are here at last....

Its taken me quite a while longer than I hoped but what with a new job which is taking a lot of my time and energy up its been hard to find the time to get these done.

So far I've done two designs, a Christmas Pud and some little Christmas Robins. Both card designs have been handmade using felt, fabrics, buttons and sequins. They are listed on both my NOTHS and Folksy stores. I have another few designs up my sleeve which I hope to get done by the end of next week.

I would really appreciate any feedback from all my lovely followers.......

Watch out for my next blog giveaway which will be coming in the next week.

Still alive, just very busy!

Hello blog followers. I am still here but my new job is just so so crazy! I just want to say a huge big Jim Jam Sandwich welcome to all my new followers, hello!

To say sorry for not blogging recently I am also going to do a blog giveaway which I'll post this coming weekend. Lots of goodies will be up for grabs so come back soon :-) x

Christmas Gift Tags for sale....

Here's what I managed to get done yesterday, a set of hand printed and hand finished Christmas Gift Tags. They come in a set of four with the following messages: Snowflake, Merry Christmas, Shining Star and With Love. There is a choice between silver or gold print with either fuschia or aubergine satin ribbon. I've never done gift tags before so thought I would give them a go. I have listed them for sale on my Folksy store at £3.00 (inc p&p) for a set of 4 so fingers crossed. I wanted to keep them simple and just go for some fab colour combo's. Would love to hear your thoughts followers and fans.......

Christmas card designs are still sadly not done as my felt is still stuck in the postal strike! Hopefully I should receive that this week and finally be able to get them listed really soon.

Goodies from Greece

My wonderful mother sent me a gorgeous little parcel of goodies from Greece from her's and Dad's recent holiday to Rhodes. After a very busy first week at my new job this was a lovely surprise to wake up to this morning. Enclosed was a beautiful sarong, which will come in very handy for my Christmas trip to Borneo, some very strong and delicious smelling herbs/spices and some authentic natural sea sponge! Thanks Mum you are a star xx

And the 2 winners are.....

8. CRAFTY ELSIE

&
9. MARICE

CONGRATULATIONS you've both won one of my new Fairy Cupcake cards

They will be winging their way to you in the post asap. Please can you email me your addresses (link on my blog). Thank you to everyone who entered and for sharing what type of tea (or coffee!) they would choose to accompany one of my little cupcakes.

Marice has a wonderful shop on Folksy called Marice's World so make sure you go and have a look at all the lovely things she sells.

Sadly Crafty Elsie is a new follower and I'm not sure what/if she sells but please let me know if you do so I can mention your details too.

The two winners were randomly picked using Random.org

For those of you who didn't win this time I will be doing another giveaway in the next few weeks so keep your eyes open for it. I hope you've all had a great National Cupcake Week. x

A special thank you xx

A very quick blog post to say a huge thank you to all my new blog followers this week. You've helped me reach the fab 50 mark and its put a huge smile on my face. The pretty daisys are to say thank you to all, new and old followers!

I will be doing my second proper blog giveaway in the next few weeks so make sure you all keep your eyes peeled for it. Lots of lovely goodies to win.

Also remember you still have a few hours to enter my Fairy Cupcake card giveaway which is to celebrate the wonders of National Cupcake Week. So far there's 8 entries. Get commenting on the National Cupcake Week post below this one to be in for a chance to win one of these cute little cards. I will reveal the two winners later this afternoon.

Happy Friday all you wonderful followers and I hope you continue to enjoy my blog. xx

National Cupcake Week!

I can't believe I didn't know about this until this morning, how amazing! And funnily enough I have spent all afternoon making my 'Cherry Cup Cake' and 'I Love Tea' brooches, very appropriate I thought!

So as you're well aware from my designs, I love cupcakes too! So to celebrate, Jim Jam Sandwich is offering 15% DISCOUNT all week on all my cupcake related items (cards, brooches & framed pieces) on my Folksy store. When ordering please use the code NCW.

AND I'm giving away two of these cute little Fairy Cake cards that I made today using a lovely new printed fabric I bought at the weekend. To be in for a chance to WIN one all you need to do is become a follower of my blog and leave me a comment stating what tea you think would best to accompany this little Fairy cake :-) I will announce the winners on Friday.

There are also lots of other fellow bloggers, crafters and tweeters helping raise awareness of this very special week including some great cupcake giveaways which not must not be missed out on!

Domestic Sluttery are giving away a box of cupcakes (from Cupcakes & Peonies) every day this week so make sure you check out their blog every morning to enter.

New Mummys Tips has also just posted a cupcake related post on her blog with some great exclusive cupcake products and offers so another must to check out this week. Carol has very kindly mentioned Jim Jam Sandwich and all my cupcake related brooches, cards and frames so thank you.

So, Happy National Cupcake Week everyone and I hope there will be lots of glorious indulging! xx

Festive fabrics & fireworks galore!

I was about to post this entry on Monday morning but then got totally carried away when I discovered it was National Cupcake Week! So, back to my original post for this week.............

I finished my old job last Friday and now have a blissful week of craftiness before I start my new one on the 21st. I have planned to get all my Christmas card designs, gift tags and festive accessories made this week and listed on both my online stores Folksy and Notonthehighstreet.com.


I have already ordered a wonderful Christmas felt pack from Lupin which has all the perfect colours to make all my designs. Last Saturday I then headed to Fabrics Galore on Lavendar Hill in SW London to buy some festive fabrics (above). FG is a fantastic shop and always full of new & exciting fabrics including Paul Smith, Liberty prints and Amy Butler. I always get very distracted so I had to makesure I went in for Christmas fabrics and only came out with Christmas fabrics..............it almost worked!! I was very controlled though and only strayed twice (see pink spotty fabric and cute floral print below). It would have been rude not too!


I have templated all my Christmas card designs and have all my fabrics and supplies so tomorrow is dedicated to finally getting some made, yippee :-) I will let you know as soon as these are ready for sale.

As well as my fabric trip last weekend I also went to the Thames Festival on Sunday evening. Having lived in London for 8 years I can't believe I have never heard of it until now. My bf, myself and some friends followed the wonderful carnival procession at 7.30 pm and then wandered around the food and craft stores on the southbank waiting for the fireworks display. It got a little chilly later on so we were praying the fireworks were going to be worth the wait, and they were. It was truely the most incredible display I have ever seen and roused our spirits for the journey home. I managed to catch some great shots on my camera so thought I should share a few with you. If you're in London next year make sure you go.

Things I cherish...

I was lucky enough to have incredibly crafty Grandmothers and they both left me all their amazing collections of threads, buttons, needle cases and all sorts of wonderful containers/boxes which housed these crafty things. They are things that I use and work with on a daily basis and I wanted to show them off!

My true favourite is the small box addressed to my fathers mother, Mrs Geoffrey Thomas. It is so beautifully made and I just love the old stamps and italic writing on the label. The date stamped on the the box is sadly not visible but the stamps have George VI on and were brought out in 1941 so this little box is probably over 50 years old! Its something I would grab if there was a fire in my flat. I cherish it so much. It's home to all my machine spools, I'm not sure what Gran used it for but I like to think it was something similar.

Here are also some of the wonderfully retro/vintage buttons my mothers mother left me. I'm planning to incorporate & use some of these in my button jewellery swap.

Below that is a picture of Granny Thomas's needle case.

I'd love to hear what items you really cherish that may have been handed down to you. x

Button Jewellery Swap - meet my partner.

Yippee, partners for the swap (organised by the fab Incy Wincy Stitches) have been announced and mine is Jane from Hooked Yarn ☺ You can check out Jane's website and beautiful shop on Folksy. Here's a peek at one of my favourite pieces of hers, this stunning Sea blue bracelet hand crocheted in wire with myuki beads. Its already ear marked for a friends birthday.


Our parcels have to contain the following,

Handmade button jewellery and/or accessories

Some craft supplies (for example, extra buttons or ribbons, beads, etc) and a chocolate or sweet treat :)

I've got a few ideas but am so busy this week I'll have to leave it until the weekend when I have more time to sit down and think and plan.

I won't post photos until Jane has received her goodies otherwise that will spoil the surprise so I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a few weeks to see what I come up with. x

JJS's wet and wonderful fjordland adventure ☂

Back from hols and finally time to dry off! Norway is well renowned for its damp, drizzly weather and it didn't let us down! It was however a fab 5 days spent with my brother and his family surrounded by beautiful scenery, the freshest air you can possibly imagine and plenty of adventures including white water rafting, beaver/elk night tour and lots of fantastic walks up steep hills.

I sadly didn't have time to shop and find any crafty Norwegian bits for my next blog giveaway but I am planning to still make something that sticks with the Norwegian theme. Keep your eyes peeled for the date to be revealed.

Anyway here are a few photos from my holidays. I will endeavor to get some more craft related entries posted soon. I only have 8 days to go at my current job then a week off where I'm planning to get all my christmas card designs/gifts done and listed for sale on both my folksy and notonthehighstreet stores.

Norway bound...

I'm off on holiday tomorrow to stay with my brother and fiance who live in Norway and I'm EXTREMELY excited! Five days of lovely fresh air, walking in beautiful mountains and maybe swimming in fjords if its not too cold.

I also thought that whilst on my travels I would look for some typically Norwegian handcrafted pieces to include in my next giveaway. Their greetings card selection leaves a lot to be desired but I may try and find the worst possible example just to show you all how terrible they really are!!!

My next post will be an update from my holiday in about a week so until then have fun and keep being crafty ♥

Home to some of my goodies!

Anne of Angel Eden who won my first blog giveaway lives very near Tiddlywink Interiors in Castleton, Derbyshire where some of my cards, pictures and brooches are on sale. She had a day out in her local area last Friday which you can read about on her website and she also really kindly took a photo of Tiddlywink Interiors for me. Sadly it was closed but it looks very cute from the outside. Thanks Anne ♥

Knitted Toy Tales by the fab Laura Long!

I had a sneak preview last night of my friend Laura Long's first knitting book that is being published and I have to share how excited I am for her!


She has been working on her book for a while and it will officially be on sale in October. You can pre-order it through Amazon now. Knitted Toy Tales shows you how to make each of the 20 adorable characters in the book. With beautiful photography and illustrations by Laura its a wonderful gift for all abilities and ages I can't wait to get my hands on one ☺

She has been selling her wonderful knitted goodies for years, from dolls and mice to little purses each item is exquisitely made. I recently commissioned her to make a doll for my goddaughter and it was utterly perfect! She has her own website and you can also find her on notonthehighstreet.com

Exclusive discount for facebook fans

Announced yesterday, I'm offering all my fab facebook fans an exclusive discount on all items listed on my Folksy shop until the 24th August.

All you need to do is become a fan and then email me for your special code and then you can shop until your ♥'s content :-) There are also FREE goodies to be given away if you spend a certain amount.


If you see anything you like and want it personalised or altered in any way then just ask I'm very happy to create whatever you want.

G xx

One of my favourite places to go and get inspiration

I spent most of my childhood summers in north Devon (Hartland) where my grandparents lived and I recently took my bf there for the first time for a long weekend.


Its a very special place and one where I can always switch off and find myself being inspired by the beautiful coastline and fresh country air. My grandparents had the last house on the way down to one of the most beautiful rugged beaches which never had anyone on it (and still doesn't). For us grandchildren its known as 'Grandpa's beach' and it was always a very magical place with lots of rock pools to explore and have adventures in. At the age of 28 my bf was exactly the same!! I hasten to add I was bare foot and straight into the Atlantic but his wellies stayed firmly on this feet, wimp!

Anyway I just wanted to share a few pictures, enjoy x

Anyone for 'A Spot of Tea'

Finally after starting these weeks ago they're ready for sale and listed on my notonthehighstreet online store.

Each set of tea cups are made from vintage fabrics and felt and presented in a beautiful distressed white frame with mount and glass. There are two colour ways available, pink/blue and green/blue. They come with the message 'a spot of tea' on the mount but can be personalised with a name/date/message.

Would love all your thoughts and comments. As my followers/fans your feedback is invaluable.

Please email me with any queries or if you would like to place an order directly through me. x

Logo

I thought it was about time JJS deserved a proper logo so I have commissioned a fab graphic/jewellery designer I met through Folksy to design one for me. Laura from Glue&Glitter has done some really wonderful logo's and her style is so appealing. Take a look at her blog to check out some she has designed recently.

I don't want to give too much away just yet but here is a peek at the starting point, a machine stitched outline of a jam jar!! Laura has some great ideas for it, which even I am yet to know about, so I am just waiting for her to work her magic! The finished logo will be posted as soon as its ready x

The winner of my first giveaway is....

Anne from Angel Eden, Congratulations!!

Anne please can you drop me an email with your address and let me know if you want specific greetings on the cards. You will find an 'email me' button on the right hand side of my blog.

To see Anne's beautiful jewellery please visit her website Angel Eden.

Thank you so much to all 11 of you who entered and for leaving all your lovely comments. There will be plenty more fab giveaways and prizes will only get bigger and better so please keep your eyes out for the next one.

In the meantime if you still want to get your hands on some gorgeous cards you can find me on Folksy and Notonthehighstreet.com.

Coming up in the next few weeks will be a special voucher/code entitling all blog followers to a discount through my Folksy store so keep your eyes peeled!

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks again for entering and for supporting Jim Jam Sandwich. x x

Framed Cup Cakes finally for sale.

Having photographed these quite badly last week I finally had time to get them done properly this week. I listed these on my notonthehighstreet online store yesterday evening and fingers crossed for a good response.

These were my first two which have gone off to Tiddlywink Interiors up in Derbyshire. I also sent up one of my framed Tea Cup pictures which I haven't yet listed online yet but it will be up there really soon.

Please watch out for a special discount voucher for all you blog followers/facebook fans which will entitle you to some money off one of my new pictures. This is to say thank you for following me.

Please remember that if you want to be in with a chance to win some of my handmade cards in my first giveaway leave a comment below the giveaway post.