I'm a bit of a greetings card hoarder, and I'm putting up some of my recent findings, purely just to show them off on the blog for my own enjoyment as I think they look so nice, I know not everyone will be interested but I'm pretty sure some of you will like them. I'm very prone to buying things for their sparkle, beautiful packaging and colour, and greetings cards are definately one of my big loves. Some girls are addicted to buying shoes... my thing is postcards and notebooks! I have a box of about 50 cards that I keep for sending to my family and friends. It's great to find ones that you know will be perfect for a certain someone, especially my mum who is always so thoughtful with the notes and packages she sends to me. Some I can't part with, or I buy two of the same card, and now I have started scanning my collection :-P
These two are by textile artist Amanda Ross, who has a beautiful range of cards, notebooks & prints of her work available in certain art and book shops, I'm getting one framed for my bedroom soon! 
I love the quirky little owl, so adorable!
Beautiful illustration, brilliant photography, vivid colour, embossed detailing, on wonderful thick textured card. Totally lush. I could spend hours in stores that sell this stuff. Yup I am an art shop nerd. The best places to find them are quaint, boutique style treasure troves with rows upon rows of gorgeous pictures, books, boxes, wrapping paper, ribbon, intricate gifts - that when I walk in I literally have to calm myself to make sure I go around the whole shop without missing anything in my excitement at all the precious things, and refrain from making a little squeeling noise (unless I'm with
Bink and then we do an open mutual squeel, as I know she shares my craftsy passion).
I used to work at a wonderful little shop in Oxford called
Arcadia (which is where some of these are from)
and still visit every now and again; it's a complete Alladin's cave crammed with every glistening and artistic wonder you could possibly imagine from wonderful beaded feather birds and antique frames to shimmering diaries and art nouveau prints. The shop was on a sidestreet and I remember asking one of the owners if he'd thought of putting an advertising board at the end of the main street so more people knew it was there, but he said he liked to keep it as a 'hidden gem' that people could stumble across. How fantastic that he regards his customers feeling of special mystery as more important than pure financial gain. And it works for him because he has such lovely friendships and exchanges with people who go in there, who like me probably like to think of it as
their shop! :-)
I have so much blogging to catch up on - loads of beautiful pictures to post up over the next week, so keep coming back to see what's new ;-)
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