30 May 2012

I Want You for Myself...


There is nothing quite like the feeling of wanting something that you don't necessarily need. It is a purely emotional response to something - and a strong one at that. It is a yearning. This random selection recently caught my eye, and my heart simultaneously.

• Hot Chocolate Print, £28.00 - Belle & Boo
• Cloud Pillow, $62 - The Land of Nod
• Standing Eggs, £10 - Cottontails Baby
• Wooden Ice Cream Spoons, $9 - Pomme
• Wooden Salad Bowl, £21.03 - Wind & Willow Home
• Little Bunny Rabbit Bead, £5.26 - Tree Wings Studio

25 May 2012

The Olympic Torch Comes to Worcester!

A couple of months ago, we put our names forward to bag ourselves some free tickets to Worcester's great celebrations, as the Olympic Torch passed through our City - and bag some we did...


We are huge fans of our beautiful City at any rate, but yesterday afternoon proved to fill us with such pride - more than we thought possible to muster.

As we strolled along the picturesque river, making our way slowly to the cricket ground, the sun was blazing hot on our pale skin, which felt so eager to absorb the rays, and allow them to drain us of energy. In order to fully embrace the occasion - and the fact that we had such fantastic weather for the event - we stopped by a mobile ice cream parlour for a cone. It had been years - at least 15, surely - since I'd had mint-choc-chip. It was simply delicious, and actually, our first ice cream of the year!

The cricket ground was vast, and the grass a beautiful rich green, manicured to perfection - so perfect in fact, that I wanted to kick my shoes off... even lie down on it. After grabbing a drink, we found our spot by the railings, and settled there to watch the entertainment on the big stage ahead of us - and the various families having some good old fashioned fun with frisbees, in the open green space, too.

There were flags everywhere, and as the torch got ever nearer, crowds gathered to form a 'runway' for the relayers to pass through. Finally, after what felt like a long anticipated wait - taunted by the ever nearing helicopters overhead - the torch arrived with us, at the grounds. The last relayer was lined up, ready to receive the flame in her own torch, to carry to the finish line of the great stage.

The crowd cheered in delight and a sea of flags waved frantically from all around. As our final relayer made it to the stage, Worcester's cauldron was lit, to mark the official arrival of the torch. It was a touching sight to see such a symbol, and the sheer volume of support from the local community.

Since we are not going to be able to go to the Olympic games in London, this was our piece of it, and we loved every second. So bravo to Worcester for hosting such a great celebration, and be sure to let your hair down and celebrate with your community, when the torch comes by you.

23 May 2012

A Fairy Tale in New York

I have mentioned this amazing project a few times on our social pages, during the time that I was working on it, and finally, I can share it with you...


• The Invitation Collection
• Reverse of the Invitation Card
• Inside of the 'Passports'
• Reverse of the RSVPs
• Inside of the Map


Ben proposed to Helen in New York, and we chose this moment to focus the theme of their stationery
on; Fairy Tale in New York.

The invitations introduce guests to the story of the proposal, and invite them to share the fairy tale with Helen & Ben, on their big day.

The RSVPs were produced in the form of boarding passes, with perforated 'ticket' parts, which contain
all of the vital details, and that could be torn off and kept - ideal to keep in purses, to stick in diaries or
to display on fridges.

All further information was contained in passport-style cards, and included all of the details that you would expect to find in the real thing.

To complete the little invite packages, explorer-style maps were created, with an old, used affect, detailing a map of their venue and accommodation details.

Finally, to contain these little treasures, the packages were carefully bound in matching hot pink silk string, and were then slipped into matching printed envelopes.

These have got to be one of our favourite invitation projects to date, because they are just so different. They were super fun to create, and I was overwhelmed by the response that we had from the lovely couple and their guests...

"I had to email you to thank you for the invitations! I know I told you how much I loved them, but honestly, you have done such a fantastic job! I can't honestly get over how many people have said the invites are unbelievable - they have all said they are the best invitations they have seen! I really love them and thank you for all your time and effort into making the invites so perfect and suited to myself and Ben."

It is just the icing on the cake when clients are as pleased as this, and it is what I love about my job. Shortly, it will be time to get cracking on the remainder of this stationery - for the big day itself - so I
will be sure to cover that too, when the time is right.

18 May 2012

My Kind of Jewellery


I have never been one to buy lots of jewellery - things really need to capture me. Alas, lately I have come across this lot of gorgeousness, and I am captured - arrested in fact. I want it all, and I'm pretty sure that it wants me.

• Crochet Nursing Necklace, £18.72 - Kangarusha
• Mummy and Me Lucky Bunny Bracelet, £12.00 - White Rabbit England
• Owl Necklace, £40 - White Rabbit England
• Alice's Day Dream, Deluxe Pocket Watch, £18.95 - Roses are Red
• 'Fiona' Vintage Filigree Flower Ring, £16.00 - Helen Woodward
• Silver Bird Nest Necklace, £15.50 - Sweet Bluebird Jewelry

11 May 2012

My Week in Photos


So you know I took a week's break last week, and as I said, it was pretty eventful. Aside from gallivanting around beautiful shops for Leaff, we did take a good amount of time out too, and so I thought it would be pretty darn nice to share the best of our week with you, through photos.

From past posts, you should already know just how much we appreciate indie/rock band, Thrice. Well, after their recent, sad, announcement of their hiatus, last Monday night they held their one and only UK farewell gig, in London. Of course we were there - with bells on - and I have to say just how incredible that gig was. The crowd moved, chanted and sang the roof off all night long - and not even the fact that we missed the last bus, walked for 10 minutes in torrential rain, and fell through our front door at 4.30am, could have taken the shine off that night! It really warmly reminded me of the early and youthful years of mine and my husbands relationship, where we were forever going on gig adventures like this.

Saturday saw the gathering of our big group of friends in the beautiful countryside of Derbyshire, for our friends' wedding. The weather held out (despite the dodgy forecast) and it was such a good day. For me, it felt especially great to just let my hair down, hit the dance floor and go a bit crazy - something that I haven't really done for a very long time. My party days were definitely over long ago, but it reminded me of the importance of letting myself go every once in a while.

The bank holiday weekend was far more typical for us, and consisted of good food, home-made sloe gin, and log fires by night with our friends. During the daytime, the sunshine held out for us to enjoy some beautiful walks around Worcester. Along the canal we discovered a charming secret garden, occupied by a group of crazy, hungry chickens - the guys enjoyed lobbing slices of bread over to them like frisbees, while the chickens were humorously springing all over the place with excitement! They are pretty quick on those feet! All the way through the gorgeous Gheluvelt park, and out around the racecourse we went
- passing all sorts of activity along the river bank - and that beautiful fairytale tree with a heart naturally carved out of it. It surely is a tree for me; just magical.

So the week was a welcome break, where we caught up with friends, let our hair down and just really focussed on ourselves for a change. Do you find that breaks always make you realise just how much
you work? But this one also taught me about things that I had forgotten, that are really important to me and my well being; I love wearing my 'Leaff' hat - it is a big part of who I am - but it is also important to take some time to wear my 'Kate' hat once in a while too, and really lose my inhibitions. There is a moral there... somewhere.

09 May 2012

A Bit of Leaff News

Incase you were wondering where I had disappeared to last week, I was taking a week's break. I really missed blogging, and today I have been fit to burst, so here I am, kicking things back off with a bit of Leaff news.

There are some serious developments happening at Leaff at the moment, and while I cannot share them all with you just yet, I can share one in particular.

Last week, and following the launch of our shop in January, we visited a handful of carefully selected independent local shops, who we adore, to discuss the stocking of our cards in their shops. It was all very exciting, and we are currently busily working behind the scenes on expanding our range - I will have more on that for you soon, along with details of all of our stockists, so stay tuned!

To kick things off though, allow me to introduce to you our very first stockist - the beautiful Mangojuice.

Mangojuice is both a gallery and a workshop, which can be found on New Street, in Worcester. Not only can you find an array of gorgeous cards and prints in the shop, but a huge array of beautiful hand made jewellery, which is really what Mangojuice is all about.

The owner of the shop, Popi, is a jewellery designer and maker, and her creations adorn the walls of this gorgeous little shop. Head on over to her website to find out more about her, here.

So if you live in Worcester, or are ever in the area, pop on in to say hello to Popi, and see if you can spot our little bird cards, nesting on her wall.

As Free As A Bird blank cards. Now stocked at Mangojuice in Worcester.



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