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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

A Guide to Social Networking

I have recently been inspired to write this post, by a few of our clients, who are just entering the somewhat daunting world of social networking. So how important can these platforms be for your business? How often should you use them? And how should you use them?

Social networks are like little windows...

The way that I often describe social networks to our clients is that they are like little windows into businesses. When you are first starting out, and no one yet knows about you - or even when you are established and you need to broaden your audience - social networks can be an invaluable way of introducing your company to your community, fellow businesses, and, well, the world.

Advertising can be so great if you hit the right places, but so often I hear of people regretting the big hole that they have gouged out of their tiny small-business budget, having invested it in expensive advertising that has turned up little result. So, unless you are sure that you have found a really great platform to advertise on, I would say that social networking is a fantastic tool to use for the exact same purpose - and it is free!

The other reason that I think social networks are great, lies in the name itself - it is sociable and it is a great networking platform. It can get quite lonely, running your own business, and I really think there is a lot to be said for being linked up on these platforms, for this very reason alone. Even if you are not actually in dialogue with anyone, it can really help to read what other people are up to during their day, and in their businesses. It enthuses you - energises you - and really develops your business skills. There are so many ideas, there is so much support, and so many sources of inspiration to be found on them.

It is however very daunting to get into social networking when you are so new to it - I know this - but once you have bagged a few good pointers, it really is easy - and if it doesn't end up paying off for you, there is absolutely nothing in the way of you stopping.

Make them work for and not against you...

This is one of the major hindrances with social pages I think - they are high maintenance. After all, they are an ongoing means of communication between you and your audience, and so your readers will expect regular updates and dialogue from you.

I think that everyone that has had social pages for their businesses, will have experienced a time where they felt that it was taking up too much of their day. I myself have felt this way. The real secret is to schedule your time on them, and stick to it - if you do this from the very beginning, you will not only find them easier to use, but your posts will have far more substance to them.

A good rule of thumb would be to schedule, say, 10 minutes 3 times a day to spend on your pages like Facebook and Twitter. During this time, you can create posts, and keep in touch with other pages / companies / people that you are linked up with. As for your blog, checking it once a day would suffice, to respond to any comments on your posts, and to keep up to date with other blogs that you are following.

Speaking of blog posts, these are things that can take up huge chunks of your time all by themselves, but it is important that you try to stick to regular blogging - your audience will appreciate the consistency and it helps them to know when to expect a new post, which is how you are going to gain regular readers.

Releasing a new blog post once a week is sufficient - and sometimes more often if you can. Once a week is easy enough to fit in, and at your busiest times, you can easily schedule your post writing to be done at the end of a day or during an evening, so that it is not interfering too much with your working day. Remember that the point of your blog is to enjoy it!

Lastly, at the end of every week, it is good practice to review your statistics, in order to keep check on how your Facebook page and your blog is performing.

Achieving a strong social presence is key...

There is a whole load of information that I could give you on this topic - it is a minefield - but here are some staples for creating a strong social presence...

• Do implement your brand carefully and consistently across your social pages.
  - Both visually in the design and physically in the names that you give to your pages.

• Do make use of filling out all of the information in your profiles.
  - Blank / half filled out information fields won't cut it!

• Don't get too personal.
  - There is a fine line between showing your personality and being unprofessional.

• Do use proper English.
  - The use of slang, bad language and slack punctuation just looks unprofessional.

• Don't bad mouth other people, including your customers.
  - You never know who is reading it, and it just isn't necessary.

• Do think about your brand when posting.
  - Certain things may reflect negatively on your company.

• Do support other people and businesses.
  - This is how you make important connections and build relationships.

• Don't only use your pages to advertise yourself.
  - Your audience will tire of this stiff, corporate approach.

If you haven't already connected with us on Facebook or Twitter, then head on over to our pages here and here - it would be great to see you over there! If you have any tips of your own that you think might benefit others, then please do leave them in the comments box!