New Bits For The Shop!

 

Hi! Well, what d'ya know, it's November already, this year is flying by! What with back to school, halloween, half term, a crazy 6th birthday celebration (and a slightly slower paced 35th birthday celebration;) ) it's fairly safe to say life has been busy around here. I've kind of been waiting for something to drag my blogging mojo off the proverbial sofa where it has been putting it's feet up for a while now, and here it is! Shiny new notebooks for the shop, and oh how much do I love that perfect Pineapple print right now!? :)

Hopefully they'll be in stock next week, please do stop by and check them out! :) 

The Bear Essentials!

I don't know if you have noticed, but bears seem to be all around at the moment and I'm really loving looking out for them and discovering lots of lovely bear things!

It started a little over a year ago when, on our anniversary, my hubby gave me this Butty Bear card above, from Lisa Jones Studio. I stock some of her lovely cards over at a neat little shop and had loved this card for ages so it really put a smile on my face when I opened it (even though the bear looks a little sad!).

Then, knowing how much I love my little card (seeing as I've had it up on the mantlepiece for a year!) M also surprised me the other day with the new Butty Bear mug from Lisa Jones' new ceramics range. I love it so much (I'm a bit of a weird cup-obsessive when it comes to tea drinking and the size and weight/style of this cup is perfect!) and so now always drink my tea from it :)

So I thought I'd round up some of my other favourite bear friendly things at the moment... 

This set of bear tableware from the fantastic Donna Wilson is definitely something for the wish list - I have a couple of her plates already on my wall (the Fox and Meg plates) which I love very much - and these are just as wonderful. Especially that set of Daddy, Mummy and Baby Bear bowls, would make a lovely new baby gift for a family.

Bear Plate

Daddy Bowl

Mummy Bowl

Baby Bowl

Bear cup, all by Donna Wilson

I also love Seventy Tree, since discovering Kerry Layton's blog of the same name, a couple of years back, and particularly like these bear prints, perfect for a cool kids room. 

B is for Bear, Seventy Tree

Circus Bruno, Seventy Tree

And sticking with prints, as we all love a nice print don't we, this small print from Old English Company is cute - perfect in a simple, little frame. I like this edition from Southwood Stores, but there is a grey edition available on the Old English Company website.

Bear Hug Print, Old English Company at Southwood Stores

And I really love this print from Banquet Atelier - the red is so striking and would make an eye-catching statement on the wall. I kinda wondered about this for Sam's bedroom wall in the new house (it's becoming like a running joke now, 'the new house', that's if we ever move!) but M thinks it's a bit scary for a kids room - I saw it here and it looked cool, but the jury's still out I guess. 

Bear Print, Banquet Atelier

Looks good right?!

So, want to join me on my bear hunt?! :)

Hello Pippit!

So today I've mostly been exploring and experimenting with the new app, Pippit. This is a new social media app, created by two of my favourite stateside bloggers, Joy Cho from Oh Joy, and Naomi Davies (alongside her husband Josh) from Love Taza. If you get a chance to check it out I think you'll like it!

So far it seems simple enough to use and I'm a complete technophobe so that's saying something, but there are still some features that I've not got the hang of (i.e the search facility, am I missing something?!). It's got similarities to Pinterest so it works in the way you might expect, although that's not to say that it's just the same as Pinterest, it's got a lot of different things going for it which you'll soon see.

I'd be interested to know if you like it too? Follow me at @aneatlittleshop!

a neat little shop 2.0

I'm pleased to say that the new site has gone live this evening and I'm so pleased with how it's turned out! I really wanted to simplify the look of the shop site and create a space where the products could stand out, and hopefully this is what we have achieved. Do pop over to the site and let me know your thoughts! 

(A big thanks to Mec for working so hard on the rebuilding of the site, and for being patient with me whilst I figured out this redesign! Teamwork eh! x )

New Look Site!

It's taken a few weeks to do but at last the new look site for a neat little shop is almost ready to go live! Featuring new products such as Sian Elin cushions, and bold animal print scarves by Zixiao, (which I'm really excited about), as well as previous favourites such as cards from Alison Hardcastle and Rifle Paper Co, I'm really looking forward to seeing the site up and running and I hope everyone likes it. (Special thanks to my husband for working so hard on the redesign, I owe him pizza and a beer big time I think!)

Just a few more final checks and then I'll hit the go live button! Hooray :)

a neat little shop + Sian Elin

I recently discovered Sian Elin and her amazing collection of textiles, wallpapers and home accessories at the Top Drawer trade show back in January, and immediately knew I wanted to stock her products in my shop a neat little shop. Her gorgeous designs aim to combine simple Scandinavian styling with a bit of Eastern flair, and focus on using bold, graphic patterns inspired by architecture or motifs seen on trips to the East. I would have loved to stock her entire range, but for now I'll be stocking these 4 cushion designs below. I'm so excited!

Horseshoe Arch in Teal cushion

Inlay cushion

Large Horseshoe Arch in Grey cushion

Riad cushion

In stock on the new-look website (wahoo!) soon!!

Have a great weekend x

Hello There!

How cute are these dolls from Naked Lunge (weird name I know but I think they were going for something memorable!). I came across them whilst researching some new stock ideas for a neat little shop.com. They are hand painted designs drawn onto white cotton and then sewn into perfect little dolls just right for little hands (they have cool contrast backing like black and white polka dot, or chevron designs too!). They'd make a perfect little baby present or I can even see Tabby playing with them, sitting them all round for a tea party of a picnic! You can either choose from a selection of ready made designs, or they can make customs dolls for you based on your own idea. I think they're fab so maybe an idea for the shop at some point...

Betty Doll - £15

 I think this one is my favourite!

Navajo Nancy

Navajo Nigel

Bunny Boy

Once again I've been slack and not posted on here in a while, but in fairness things have not exactly been quiet around here.  We seem to have gone from starting the new year with no particular plans or designs for change, to suddenly being 3 weeks into January and we've sold our house! I'm not really sure what our plan is exactly, we've been talking for ages now about trying to move somewhere bigger but it seems we've started the ball rolling on the spur of the moment. So we're house hunting and crossing our fingers for something bigger and better (yet affordable!) to show up. 

I've also decided to really make more of an effort this year to work on a neat little shop.com and so have been trying to turn my attention to researching and sourcing some new stock, focusing my direction and also working on a new look for the site. It's nice to feel that I have some new energy to put into it.

2014 really could be an exciting year after all!

My Weekend And Top Drawer

Hello! Well, what a weekend. The troops are back from Bexhill and I think Mec just about survived! It was a tough weekend for him I think as both kids have returned with colds (first week of nursery germs I'm guessing!) so whilst I'm rested and rejuvenated, Mec is in need of a weekend of recovery himself! I really missed them while they were away, the house was so still and quiet (I think Zoe, our 16 yr old cat was delighted!). And as if a peaceful weekend to myself wasn't enough of a treat, daddy and my babies bought me a little surprise from the De La Warr design shop (I love that shop!) - a De La Warr mug by People Will Always Need Plates. I have a yellow version already, so my new green mug will feel right at home. Thanks lovely family! :)

So, what did I do with my weekend then? Well Saturday I did a few bits around the house and then met a couple of my girlfriends in town for some tea, cake and a catch up (our fav place does amazing banana and walnut cake so it would have been rude not to). And then on Sunday I went up to London to look around the Top Drawer show, at Kensington Olympia which was a fair old trek but well worth it.

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming around my shop recently and I'm thinking I want to change direction slightly with the look and feel of the shop, as well as the stock, so I was looking forward to getting some much needed inspiration at this trade show. There was some really great stands there (as well as some not so great) and where possible I tried to snap a few shots on my iPhone to share...

The House Doctor stand was great - an amazing range of products, pretty much all of which I would love to either stock or have in my house!

I loved these Wooden/Metal hooks, and the canvas washbags were great too...

These coloured Wire Bowls caught my eye too... 

And these large canvas bags were fab - I love this "Carry Me Away" version!

Next I popped over to Rice. Their display was also huge and packed full of colour and textures. Not sure it's right for my shop but I do love their products. 

I love the green tin from this set, vintage inspired and very pleasing to the eye!

The Rice stand was very homely, as you can tell!

I took a break from the Home section to look around the Stationery stands - there are so many talented people out there, designing wonderful cards and stationery. This area was tricky to photograph as most people were pretty cagey about having their stuff photographed (understandably so I guess if you're livelihood is drawing, you don't want to get ripped off!) so I only took one at Louise & Lygo (with the illustrator's permission!) - I loved this range, in particular my favourite was this "You Are My Greatest Adventure" card, so cute.

So you'll have to take my word for it that the other stationery stands were good, and finally I headed back to the Home section for a final look around. My last few photos are of the Northlight stand - they represent so many great scandinavian brands (and Skinny LaMinx from South Africa) it was easy to spend a while browsing through their product ranges. 

Ooh, what to look at first!

The Littlephant stand was fabulous with playful homewares and great kids products. 

I loved the new Ikonik range from Darling Clementine - rubbish photo, sorry...

And one of my favourties, Skinny laMinx - her textile designs looked great in cushions, aprons and bags. 

A much needed cup of tea and a fruit and nut cookie before heading home!