My gorgeous little god daughter!

I had the most fantastic weekend in the Yorkshire Dales last weekend with all my closest friends. We don't see eachother as much as we'd like to as we are all spread around England but inevitably when we do get together there's always a lot of laughing and fun to be had. Last weekend was made even more special as my god daughter Amy was there, the first baby out of our group of friends and quite the centre of attention!

Here she is all snug in her baby bjorn!

New stock, yippee (+ my efforts last night!)

Yesterday was an exciting day when my stock of picture frames arrived! I think the delivery man thought I was slightly mad, I couldn't contain my excitement!! It was like Christmas unpacking my two boxes of goodies. I am so pleased with them and need to send a special thank you email to the suppliers who have just been so wonderful and helpful.



I dashed home last night with one box safely in my clutches with the aim to make some gorgeous things to fill my fab new frames with. But alas there were more important things to do like a personalised mini motor card order from notonthehighstreet.com. I also had to make 35 discount vouchers for goody bags (organised by ShopHandmadeUK) which are to be handed out at a womens confidence coaching workshop.

Jim Jam Sandwich gets mentioned

Very excited to have a picture of my new Cherry Cup Cake brooch on ShopHandmadeUK's blog alongside lots of other great new designers. They've just reached 1000 designers listed on their directory. So far I've had lots of interaction with them including putting products forward for PR opportunities and a sample box proposal. As a small business trying to expand it, its fantastic to get these chances to be seen and heard more, thank you ShopHandmadeUK!

Shop Handmade UK

I've recently joined this great website called Shop Handmade UK which is the UK's largest directory of artists, designers and makers of quality hand made goods. Its a really wonderful website to source lovely unique gifts from and also nice to support small businesses and designers in the UK at the same time. I'm listed under cards/stationery so come and have look.

They also do features on designers and I particularly love Yunisacs who was featured in April. Such beautiful purses. I want one of these, her large Tea Garden purse!

20% discount for all my blog followers and FB fans.

For the next two weeks I'm offering a lovely 20% discount for all my Facebook fans and blog followers. This is just to say thank you for supporting me. This applies to all my card designs and my new little cup cake brooches. You can view all my designs on my online stores Folksy and notonthehighstreet.com. Please email me directly if you would like to order anything.

Old sketch books full of new inspiration

Whilst at home a few weeks ago I had a clear out and came across all my old sketch books from uni. It was so strange going back over all my projects and seeing how much work we used to have to do. I certainly don't draw as much as I used to but I found some work that has given me lots of new inspiration and ideas.

Cup Cake brooches baked and ready to go!

I'm so pleased that I have finally got around to getting this little brooches done. Its been on my to-do list for far too long and although I was up until very late last night battling with my laptop and tiredness I managed to get them up on my Folksy store. They have already made my housemates and lots of friends smile so hopefully I will sell lots :-)

I have got some other designs coming which involve little chicks (of the feathered variety!) hearts and hopefully tea cups if I can have enough patience with all the fiddly cutting out.

The Sandwich is twittering!!

I'm on twitter, come and follow me!

Striving to expand

Its been a while since I've last posted any news but its a been a busy few weeks at my full time job and my evenings have been spent training for the British 10k run which is this Sunday!

To try and have more of a focus I've set myself a challenge to make one phone call or enquiry every day to try and give myself the step up I need to get Jim Jam Sandwich moving on to bigger and better things. Today was a call to my local pottery cafe in Dulwich, All Fired Up to see if they would stock my cards. Marilyn, the manager, seemed quite keen although they don't sell a huge amount of cards she has asked me to pop along this weekend. Christmas seems like it will be a better time to start though.

I have also finally found a great supplier of ready made frames and am going to get my order in this weekend so I can start framing some of my designs which has been on my to-do-list for ages! On the button/badge front, I am really happy with a a few I've done this week so this weekend I'm going to sort out the packaging and then get them up on my Folksy online store.

And finally a quick note about last weekend when my friend Sarah came down from Liverpool. We had the most fab weekend, catching up with friends, their babies, a day at Henley Royal Regatta where my boyfriends boat of 8 was competing and a Sunday of culture including a trip to the Saatchi gallery and tea at Fortnums, yum!

THE best ice-cream in the world!

Ok so I have to admit to not having the sweetest tooth but working next door to Italian ice cream makers Sulqui has recently changed this, especially in this heatwave too! My housemates and boyfriend wait expectantly on warm evenings to see if I return home with another amazing flavour. So far the melon I had the other day was totally out of this world, I can't even begin to explain what an incredible experience it was :-) Others to add to the favourite list have to be their Dulce de leche and hazelnut. Anyway check them out, it will be a life changing moment!