another lovely magazine

Another sweet little magazine came through my front door this morning :) advertising a lovely company named plumo. They have some lovely lovely home items, as well as fashion etc. Unfortunately though they are rather expensive! None the less, here are some of my favourite items available on their site :)

fairytale swap!

Ok everyone :D I have decided to host my very first swap! The theme is fairy tales, and i have decided the easiest way to do this, is for each person who signs up to chose a fairytale, that their partner can base a package on. You will have a choice to create a package to the value of either £5 or £10, so that each person may recieve a package to the same value as the one they sent. If anybody is unwilling to send packages abroad then please let me know!
For everyone wishing to take part, please leave a comment containing your name, email address, your chosen fairy tale and your package value :) the deadline for everyone to sign up to this swap will be Sunday the 9th of May. After this I will assign partners to everyone, so you know what package you'll be making :D Also, people are welcome to chose the same fairytale as somebody else :) i'm aware that certain stories will be favourites to lots of you :D
As this is my first swap, i need all the help i can get to encourage people to sign up! If all of my lovely blog friends would be so kind as to spread the word, and pop the button up for me :D xxx
-----EXTRA INFO-----
Just a note to all of you crafters taking part :) it'd be lovely to include hand made items in your package, especially as you can make it as relevant to the story as possible! However, not everybody is a crafter, and so please don't fill your package with £10 or £5 worth of your own items, as this won't be fair on people who have to buy everything for their packages :)
For anybody who needs them, here are some examples of things you could include in your packages :)
-keyrings
-jewellery
-candy (check with your partner if they are able to recieve food items if they live abroad! this has happened to me in the past when posting a package to mexico)
-hand made items, such as toys or art work
-candles
-soaps and smellies
-vintage items, ornaments etc
-paper goods
Anything you can find really that relates to your given story :) As this is the first swap that I have hosted, I'm aware that I may not have included all information required! If anybody has any questions etc then please let me know in your comments :) Once I assign partners to everyone, I will put up a new post with all of the rules again, so that everyone knows what is happening :)

a pretty place

This morning a lovely little catalogue flopped through my letter box (yes, some mail does arrive!) which was just so pretty (and affordable!) that I had to share with you all :) The company is called Cox and Cox, and they sell all manner of items, from craft to decor :) The above image is of their lovely robin's egg soaps, and here are some more of their pretty items!

a lovely french style shelf

An oh-so-cute musical toadstool

Gorgeous storage bags

Pretty gift tags and ribbon

A week day, chalk board, shelf and hook thingy!

A sun canopy!

And the nicest bird table i've seen :)

i hate royal mail!

Ok everyone, brace your selves for a rant! For the past 3 years my relationship with royal mail has been a thin one. It all began when we lived in our first flat, and whenever I had a parcel delivered, the post man would never ever knock on the door, and would just leave a "sorry you were out" card, regardless of whether I was home or not. This meant I would usually have to walk to the sorting office twice a week! In our home now, our postman never shows his face before 2pm, parcels or no! Because of this, I am never home to recieve parcels, and there for have to AGAIN try to get to the sorting office twice a week, which is about 3 miles away. Fortunately this is no longer such a problem since getting my vespa! But today took the biscuit! Today I drove down to the sorting office, armed with my "sorry you were out" card, which stated that the item needed to be signed for. Imagine my suprise when the gentleman behind the counter told me that even though I had the card that proved the parcel wasn't delivered, that their system said I had already recieved the parcel, and it was nowhere to be found. Better still is this is the second week in a row this has happened, meaning I have two parcels missing somewhere out there, and the manager of the sorting office has made no effort what so ever to fix anything! For such a major company that used to be known for its reliability, I can safely say that Royal Mail is a joke, that needs fixing ASAP!!!