This time last week I was getting ready for my wedding! My Other Half proposed to me last May on a holiday to Rome, and my desire to get married on his next birthday (our anniversary sadly fell on a week day) meant that we had just under a year to plan and arrange everything (and save up for it).

We decided to get married at the Great Dunmow Maltings as it was a nice small venue (we only had 40 people we wanted to invite), very affordable, and they were very flexible about what we could do for catering. Plus we could have the ceremony and the reception in the same venue, which was an added bonus since we had guests with small children who wouldn't want to shuffle them in to car seats for a short drive somewhere else.

My Mum suggested that we have an afternoon tea for the reception. Me and Jon aren't big party/dance people (and I don't drink) so having a long evening dinner and dancing thing really wasn't something we wanted to go with. Plus we have quite a few family members and friends with dietary requirements (gluten free and dairy free being the two main ones), so being able to let them pick and choose what they wanted to eat was the easiest way to ensure that they felt welcome, and wouldn't feel that they had to say "no thank you" to our invitation. My Mum did an amazing job sorting out all the food, including spending weeks testing different gluten-free scone recipes (my Dad is now a bit sick of the sight of scones), and baking them and cakes in the run-up to the event. My in-laws sourced all the drinks, and did a great job as everyone managed to find something they wanted, from a nice glass of bubbly through to a selection of soft drinks for the non-drinkers.

The afternoon tea thing also gave us the opportunity to spend a lot of time sourcing vintage china. Between both families we've been through charity shops, junk shops and eBay collecting all manner of pieces. My mother-in-law even found a lovely teapot (not vintage but still gorgeous) with a lavender pattern while she and my father-in-law were on holiday in Canada! She managed to get it home in her suitcase without damaging it, and it's now sitting happily on my kitchen shelf.

We also wanted to source some handmade items where our budget allowed. In the end the four things we managed to get were our wedding rings (mine from Nikki Stark Jewellery and Jon's from Grow With The Grain), the boutonnieres from Alana Phoenix & Co, and our dried confetti flowers from Shelsley Herbs & Flowers, who was brilliant and posted them by special delivery when we bought them a bit too close to our wedding date! Being a former Etsy seller myself, it was great to be able to get a few things from small creative businesses, and every shop was lovely to deal with.

Our lovely photographer was Maria Carrington, who was great to work with as she's seen lots of weddings and was a very calming presence. I don't have the photos from her yet, so she'll get her own little post in a few weeks once we've seen the shots and picked a few to show on here!

We generally had an absolutely fantastic day. It was lovely to have so many people we loved be able to share it with us, despite some of the distances there were to travel! We'd recommend every single business that I've linked to on here, as they all helped make our special day one to remember!

New Website!

One of the reasons why I've been so absent recently is that I've been working on a new website!

Due to various things going on at Etsy, which I will explain in a future post, I decided that it was time to wrap up Creative Classics and Creative History into one new website where I could have a blog, offer wholesale, and show off my eBook. It's taken a while to sort out as I needed to think up a new name, sort out the colour scheme, edit the photos and then build the whole site, but last week I launched it and now I'm in the process of uploading my products.

Therefore without further ramblings I'd like to introduce you to The Creative Historian.

I'm really looking forward to all the advances I can make in the future with this new site. I've started to feel enthusiastic about it all again. It has been very hard work, and it will continue to be, but I'm much happier with it than I have been on Etsy for months now.

I also have a Pinterest account to go along with it, and a Tumblr blog as well as Facebook and Twitter, so I'm covering all the social media bases!

I'm going to be continuing with Etsy for the next few months, get Christmas out of the way, and then I'll be wrapping them up in the new year and continuing alone with The Bibliophile. Which should mean that this blog gets more active in the future :)

How to File a DMCA on Etsy

Recently I posted about my recent dealings with Etsy's Legal Team after I found a shop using my photos.

One of the main things I learned about it is that when you are upset it's very difficult to actually work out what you need to do to file a "DMCA Takedown Notice". I could barely read basic English let alone legal language, and so when I filed my first DMCA Takedown I got a polite email from Etsy telling me that I hadn't filled it in right and needed to reformat it and send it in again.

Once I had calmed down I went back to the link they provided me and did the whole thing step by step. There are 6 things you need to include in a Takedown and Etsy themselves told me it was best to use each point as  "header" and post my information under each one, so that's exactly what I did.

To help others that might have the same issues I thought I would post a guide to filling out everything for Etsy. Hopefully if you're upset and not sure what to do then this will help you get through the legalese and file things promptly and with enough information for Etsy to deal with it quickly.

First of all a few points;
1. You can only fill in the DMCA Takedown Notice if YOU are the owner of the photos OR if you have been formally appointed by the owner (i.e. you're a lawyer working on behalf of "XYZ Plc"). You cannot just go through Etsy and file DMCAs on behalf of Disney or another company, even if the shop is breaking copyright law.
2. Don't use the email to swear or rant at Etsy's Legal Team. You're upset and that's normal, but no one wants to help someone who is being abusive and it's not fair on the staff member who gets your email.
3. Don't rush to the Etsy forums to name and shame the shop. It won't affect your dealings with the Legal team but will get you in trouble with the Forum staff and the last thing you want is to get a formal warning from the Admins.

So with those things in mind, let's take a look at Etsy's Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. Point A on this website includes a numbered list for reporting violations. This is the "form" that Etsy requires you to fill in. Etsy told me to use each point as a header and put my information in underneath, probably because it makes it easier for them to read and see the issues.

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or intellectual property right that has been allegedly infringed upon (by fax or regular mail – not by email, except by prior agreement);

First of all if you are residing abroad email the Etsy Legal Team, explain that you are overseas and don't want to wait weeks while your signature travels by airmail, and would like to request permission to use an electronic signature. An electronic signature is basically your full legal name typed out. If you have 12 middle names, then it will be a long electronic signature. Once you get permission for this then you can fill out the rest of this form.

Identification in sufficient detail of the material being infringed upon (for an allegation of a patent infringement, please provide a patent number);

This means they want to see YOUR photos, preferably in the form of your shop listing links. If you have found multiple violations in one shop then make a numbered list for your items. I actually started it off with "These photos were taken from my shop - "URL"" and put in my shop link. Then because multiple photos had been taken and grouped together I listed each link under a "Photo Group #" sub-heading that corresponded to the listing I linked in the next section.

For example;

Photo Group 1
URL #1
URL #2
URL #3
URL #4

Photo Group 2
URL #1
URL #1
URL #1
URL #1

And so on and so forth. If your items haven't been grouped into multiple photos then just list them as "Photo #1 - URL" "Photo #2 - URL" etc etc.

Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing upon the intellectual property. Include information regarding the location of the infringing material with sufficient detail so that Etsy is capable of finding and verifying its existence (for listings, please provide item numbers);


This means they want to see where in the other shop your photos are being used. Again I included a link to the shop in general, and then put a list of the listings that used my stolen photos, in the order of the group I put in the above section.

For example;

Photo Group 1 - Other Shop Listing URL
Photo Group 2 - Other Shop Listing URL

Because multiple photos of mine had been taken and grouped together my photos list was a lot longer than the offending shop's one. If you've had 10 photos taken then when you've filled out this section just double check that you have got 10 unique listings URLs in this section and make sure you haven't copied anything twice, otherwise you may find you have to file a second notice for anything you accidentally missed.

Contact information about the notifier including the name of the intellectual property owner, the name and title of the person contacting Etsy on the owner's behalf, the address, telephone number and, if available, e-mail address;

Once you get to this part you are on the home stretch! Because I was the owner and contacting Etsy I started this part by saying that I was the intellectual property owner and was representing myself. I then filled out my full legal name (again, just in case), my address (including country as I'm in the UK) and my phone number and in my case 2 emails as I was contacted Etsy via my personal account, but my shop is registered under another one (I have 3 shops and Etsy requires them to be registered under different emails).

A statement that the notifier has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the intellectual property or copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

Here I stated again that I was the owner of the photographs and that I knew for certain that I had not given any permission or authorisation for them to be used by the other seller, or any seller at all.

A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and the notifying party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the intellectual property or copyright owner.

Finally here I stated (I actually used the phrase "I swear on penality of perjury") that everything I had put in this email was true and accurate and I confirmed again that I was the owner of the photographs and that I was representing myself.

It looks scary and complicated but I promise you it isn't. It requires you to be thorough, and it means you have to go through the offending shop with a fine toothcomb to make sure you haven't missed anything. If you have multiple shops using your photos then file separate forms for each shop, it makes it easy for Etsy to check and deal with.

Overall I hope this proves to be useful to someone. Etsy's Legal Team were polite and helpful when they contacted me, and they were very prompt at dealing with the problem.

Have a nice day everyone!

Image Theft and Etsy

I had a bloody great shock on Etsy recently. While testing out my tags in an attempt to get this damned SEO thing nailed on the head I spotted a set of my product photos, for a listing in a shop that wasn't mine.

I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but I felt like I had just been punched in the chest. I just sat there, not moving, not even breathing, staring at this photo set and WILLING the shop name underneath to change to mine. I really couldn't believe that someone would steal my photos, I assumed it must be a joke, a twisted one, but a joke nonetheless.

When I finally regained the power to move my hands (and remembered to breathe) I clicked on the shop and had a closer look. This wasn't just a one off, this person had taken multiple photos of mine and combined them into several listings in their shop.

This was the point when the tears started to threaten. It was almost as if someone had stolen a child from me and then posted photos of them on Facebook with a new name. To say I was relieved when I checked this shops sales and found they hadn't sold any of those items would be an understatement. I then checked their Facebook and Twitter pages (both were linked to the shop) and found that they had posted links to their stolen-image listings. The Facebook one was the worst, they had several likes, from people who genuinely believed that they were great items and the shop owner was brilliant for coming up with such an idea. Except it wasn't me or my shop getting the credit.

But I didn't cry. I felt hurt, but it was soon replaced with anger. Actually anger would be an understatement, I was bloody furious. Since my housemates weren't in and there was no one to disturb I indulged in a few loud curses and phrases that turned the air blue for a few seconds. I was determined that I was going to destroy this other shop completely. I was going to go on Twitter and denounce them, post on their Facebook showing that they were a thieving little sod, rage on Tumblr, bellow on Pinterest and find their address so I could get a damned lawyer involved.

Then sadness came rushing back in because I can't afford a lawyer and I was suddenly very worried that if I contacted this shop and pointed put the wrong then they would simply brush it off and accuse ME of being the thief. This person has far more Facebook likes and more Twitter followers than me, not to mention more sales and therefore more positive feedback. I've been on the internet since dial-up, I've seen people get ripped apart on DeviantArt when I've known them to be in the right, I've had to moderate a few disputes when I volunteered on a large forum. The person with the biggest following wins, hands down.

So instead I filed a DMCA with Etsy's Legal team. Actually I had to file it twice as I didn't do it right the first time but they explained the best way to fill it out properly and I took their advice and got it sorted. I sent them links to this other shop and their listings, and included links to my shop and my listings where the photos had been taken from. I explained that I hadn't given any permission to this person to use my photos and wanted the listings taken down, and then offered to provide any more evidence if it was needed.

I had to sit back and wait. I have very little patience at the best of times, but this was agonising. I had to go back to this shop at least once a day to make sure they hadn't sold any of these listings.

Luckily Etsy's Legal Team dealt with it within 48 hours, a remarkable turnaround given all the complaints I hear about Etsy. Maybe it was because I had plenty of evidence, or maybe they were having a slow week and so there wasn't much in the queue in front of me. Either way I got an email back from them informing me that things had been dealt with. I then also got an apology from the shop owner. Things have been dealt with to my satisfaction, and dealt with very promptly.

The thing is, I know this happens. I just never thought of my products being possible victims for it. I'll be the first to admit my photos are a bit rubbish, I don't have a lightbox, I live in a flat that doesn't get much light, I only have a basic understanding of how to use the DSLR my Dad gave me, and me and Photoshop have an awkward relationship. Not only that, my items are unique. Seriously, it's a small market, no one sells anything like this. Of course I would spot someone using my photos, so I assumed it wouldn't happen to me.

I have gone to lengths to not to say who this was, or even identify which of my shops was involved. I could have ranted, I could have screamed, I could have accused them on Facebook and possibly ruined their reputation to a few of their customers. But I'm happier for having kept it between just me, them and Etsy. To be fair Etsy did encourage me to contact the seller myself, but I was too angry and upset for that. I can only assume it was a silly mistake on behalf of the shop owner, there's no point in me naming and shaming anywhere.

One thing that has come out of this is that I will be writing a post on how to contact Etsy with a DMCA. The language they use is legal and therefore complicated and when you're angry and upset and on the verge of tears it is almost impossible to understand it. I hope no one following me ever has a need to use it, but hopefully it will be useful for someone who is going through the same experience I did. It should be up next week.

Have a nice everyone :)

2013 in Review

Happy New Year everyone!

I had a quiet New Years Eve, watched Family Guy and ate cheesecake XD

2013 proved to be a good year, I launched Creative History, got more sales for Creative Classics, and started dating a lovely bloke :) Me and the gentlemen visited quite a few places over the year, including Canterbury, bits of London such as the Chelsea Physic Garden and galleries including The National Gallery. I also, before we started dating, visited Wesminster Abbey and the Foundling Museum, both of which were very interesting.

Looking back on it I think I've seen more of London this year than any other year. Now I need to sit down and find some more places for us to go to once the weather clears up!

2013 has also been a good year for my shops, to the point where I thought I'd put it in numbers.

The Bibliophile - A grand total of 3883 views for the year. I really do feel guilty about neglecting this shop. It also had 224 favourites, 50 shop favourites and 174 listing favourites. The most viewed item was a book called "Wild Wales", which went to a good home in November. Overall this shop has held it's own during the year despite my neglect, I need to pay more attention to it during this year.

Creative Classics - This year was a whopping 10910 views!!! So close to 11000, but never mind, that's a target for next year. I had 511 favourites, 79 shop favourites and 432 listing favourites. The most viewed item was one of the postcards, although the most favourited was the Archaeology Geek badge listing. My aim for this year was to average 2 orders a month, which I've reached and gone past, but I've not quite hit an average of 3 orders a month. I also aimed to get have 100 listings in this shop, again a target that I reached! This year I'm aiming to expand on the groundwork I built up this year, and have a day at Camden Market with my badges to see how they sell offline.

Creative History - My newest shop, it's only been open a few months but I thought I'd include it anyway. It's creeped in under the 1k mark with 872 views, but it has had 106 favourites of which 23 were for the shop and 83 were for the listings. The most viewed item was my Team Richard III badge while the most favourited was Team Anne Boleyn. It's already had some sales, which I'm very happy with, so for the new year I need to work on expanding the number of listings and start properly writing down my ideas for development.

In terms of this blog I aimed to do 365 days of blog posts, and failed. For the time being I'm going to keep up my current schedule of updating as and when I have the inspiration, rather than continuously forcing myself to write when I'm really struggling. It just doesn't work.

I'm also currently working on a side project, which I'm keeping under my hat for the moment but should be out in the open in a few months :) This year I want to continue working on my shops, and continue to spend time with my Gentleman Caller.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2014!

Small Business Saturday

Us British are starting to develop a trend of copying the Americans. However today we're copying something that I actually agree with, Small Business Saturday. It's a chance for small businesses to highlight themselves and encourage shoppers to consider alternatives to large supermarkets and branded stores.

Firstly just to remind everyone (since this is my blog) I have three shops on Etsy, The Bibliophile which sells vintage books, Creative Classics which sells ancient history themed badges and postcards, and Creative History which is more badges but with more medieval themes.

So, shameless self-promotion set aside, I thought I'd highlight some of the UK-based Etsy shops I've been buying from recently.

Pale Aqua Sea Glass Earrings by thestrandline

The first shop is thestrandline which sells the loveliest jewellery. Maureen Gilbertson lives in Northumberland and sources her sea glass from walks along the Northumberland coast. I recently purchased something from her and not only was it dispatched quickly but she also took great care to wrap it in bubblewrap and put it in a padded envelope. It came in a lovely blue giftbox secured with a silver ribbon, and I have no doubt that the person I bought it for will love it. If you're looking for something a little unusual but still pretty and tasteful then I cannot recommend this shop enough.

Washi Tape - Green Selection by JoandFlo

I must admit I think I'm becoming a bit of a washi tape addict at the moment. Maybe it's because it's so much prettier than normal sellotape. Or perhaps it's because JoeandFlo are so awesome to buy from. Don't let the fact that they have 14 listings fool you, each one gives you multiple tape choices. Most of the tapes are £1.60 each (except for some of the more elaborate ones) and the postage charges are very reasonable. You have a very wide variety of tapes to choose from, and at the moment they're also featuring Christmas tapes if you want to give a different style to your Christmas wrapping.

The two above are shops that I've bought things from recently, but there are plenty of other UK shops on Etsy that have some awesome products which would make great Christmas presents. GingerDuckSoap sells handmade soaps and candles, Pouch is a mixture of handsewn goodies and vintage accessories, BreadAndJam has printed mugs and tote bags and OfLifeAndLemons does prints and cards.

Have a lovely Small Business Saturday everyone!

Orchids

I'm probably the only person in London that occasionally has to move a large washing up bowl, stuffed with orchids in their pots, out of the shower and on to the bathroom floor so that I can have a wash XD

One of my housemates likes to grow orchids, and they do look lovely on the bathroom windowsill as he's got whites, purples and yellows so we have a nice mixture of colours. They don't need to be watered frequently but you do need to give them a nice long soak on occasion, so every so often they can be found in a big bowl in the shower tray.

Orchid Necklace by ElizabethSMurray

I stumbled on this shop while looking at orchids on Etsy and I loved it so much I had to feature it! Every piece is made with stamped silver and polymer clay inlays. The details are incredible, such as getting the right shade of blue on the kingfisher, or the little purple speckles on the petal of the orchid above.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Autumn Mist

Woke up this morning to find my corner of London had a lovely autumn mist! It gave a slightly damp feeling to the air and made me feel quite happy as I walked to work.

It had all burnt off by the time my morning teabreak rolled around and the sun was out, which made my lunchbreak later in the day far warmer than I expected.

Naturally this has put me in a very autumnal mood...

Autumn Leaves Lavendar Bag by FledglingCrafts

I hope my previous mentions of my love of lavendar explain why I chose this particular item out of all the other autumn-themed ones on Etsy ;)

Have a nice evening!

Draft Excluder

When I was a little girl my grandparents had a draft excluder in the shape of a snake. It took me a while to work out what it was actually for, I assumed it was just a cuddly toy that stayed on the floor. Now that winter is coming I'm starting to think that getting a draft excluder for my room might be a good idea.

Sausage Dog Draught Excluder by TheSherbertPatch

This shop is full of gorgeous handsewn decorations for the home! There's draft excluders, doorstops and cushions, all in pretty patterned fabrics, so whether you like pale pastels or brighter shades you should be able to find something to your taste!

Have a nice evening!

Melbourne

Today is the day that the city of Melbourne in Australia was founded! Since I frequently celebrate the anniversaries of American states I thought it was only fair to balance it out with something Australian.

Porcelain Blue Pattern Earrings by MyBlossomCouture

It was hard to choose a shop to feature, but in the end I went for this lovely jewellery shop. There's lots of lovely earrings, as well as necklaces and some pretty hairpins.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Rise of the Guardians

Over the weekend I finally got round to watching the CGI film Rise of the Guardians. It was created by DreamWorks Animation (creators of the Shrek films) and came out in the cinemas last year.

It tells the story of Jack Frost, who is chosen by the Man on the Moon to become a Guardian of children. The current Guardians are Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and the Sandman. Santa has a Russian accent, and the Easter Bunny is Australian (and voiced by Hugh Jackman). The "bad guy" is Pitch (as in "pitch black"), a Boogeyman that no one believes in.

Rise of the Guardians buttons by beanclam

The story is good, but I was really impressed by the animation and the scenery design, as well as some of the twists on childhood tales. Everyone knows that Santa has Elves, but did you expect to see Yetis? And the Easter Bunny lives in a lush green wonderland with tiny little eggs that bathe in paint to make them multicoloured.

If you have children, or are like me and just like kids films, you should really check out Rise of the Guardians. You might want to leave it until winter though, it has a very Christmassy feel to it, even though it's actually set at Easter.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Never too early

If you're planning on making homemade gifts, or you're a knitter or crocheter who's going to be attending craft fairs, it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas!

Every year I consider making my own Christmas cards, and then leave it far too late and don't get round to it. It's not got to the point where I instead buy Christmas cards in the January sales and simply store them away until December (although we won't mention the first year I did this, where I bought the cards and then forgot about them the following Christmas).

This blog post was mostly inspired by a Treasury I found, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Jolly Robin Knitting Pattern PDF by fluffandfuzz

This Treasury has plenty to help you get started as it contains knitting and crochet patterns to download and supplies such as ribbon and bells to decorate your creations.

Have a nice evening!

Singer Sewing Machine

On this day in 1851, Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.

Sewing machines weren't new at the time, but Singer's was more practical to use and could be adapted to use at home (according to Wikipedia).

Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Instruction Booklet by sewmuchfrippery

Singer 66k Sewing Machine by HomeRetroUK

Happy birthday Singer sewing machines! I think they're pretty iconic, the very old vintage ones certainly are.

Have a nice evening!

Trajan

On this day in 117AD the Roman Emperor Trajan passed away. He was the son of Emperor Vespasian, and is the second of the Five Good Emperors.

Vote Trajan by The Creative Historian

Have a nice day everyone!

Tanabata

Today is the beginning of the Tanabata festival in Sendai, Japan (the date of the festival follows a lunisolar calendar, so the date can be different for different regions). This festival celebrates the story of The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. The Wikipedia page has more about it, but the story basically goes that the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd meet, fall in love and marry. They neglected their duties, so the Weaver Girls' father, the Sky King, banned them from seeing each other.

The Weaver Girl was upset by this, and begged her father to let her see her husband. The Sky King agreed, but stipulated that they could only meet once a year. When the time came for them to see each other they found that they were on opposite sides of a bridgeless river. The Weaver Girl cried so much that a group of magpies took pity on her and made a bridge with their wings, so she could cross the river and be with her husband.

Since this is a "star festival", you can look in the sky and see the lovers, separated by the Milky Way.

Tiny Silver Star Wish Bracelet by lilyloveslola

Have a nice evening everyone!

New Doctor

Last night the new actor to play The Doctor was announced, and it's Peter Capaldi, who is known in the UK for swearing quite a lot in various films and TV shows.

I'd pay good money to see him tell a Cyberman to "f*** off", but then they'd have to broadcast it after 9pm :(

Tardis Bayeux Tapestry T-Shirt by flamingimp

Naturally this all means that I went searching Etsy for Doctor Who, and now it turns out you can get a t-shirt (and a mug) with Doctor Who in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry!

Have a nice evening!

Beatrix Potter

On this day in 1866, the English children's writer Beatrix Potter was born! Naturally this means I'm going to have to rewatch the film "Miss Potter" this afternoon.

Along with publishing children's books, Potter helped preserve the country landscape of the Peak District by using her money to buy up farms and their land, and when she died in 1943 she left most of it to the charity National Trust. The land is now part of the Lake District National Park, an area that I intend to visit at some point in my life.

Beatrix Potter Tales and Nursery Rhymes by VintageCuriosityShop

Most children grow up with some of Beatrix Potter's work on their bookshelves, if you search on Etsy there's quite a few vintage copies of her books (including the three above, which are from a shop located in the UK) as well as some lovely items made with fabric and prints of her artwork.

Have a nice day!

Royal Baby

Yes, it's in the news wherever you are, Great Britain has a new Prince!

Here in the UK we like a good old Royal celebration (just look at the Royal wedding), so now's the time to get ready for a party because no doubt we'll find a way to make an extra Bank Holiday out of this (and if we don't I'll be very disappointed).

Union Jack Distressed Style Bunting by AllTheTrimmingsUK

No British party would be complete without some Union Jack bunting!

Have a nice evening everyone!

Storms

I was woken up just before 6:30 this morning by a rumble of thunder overhead. This rumble was soon joined by another, and then another, until a bloody great crash went off above my head, and then got quieter again as it moved on.

It was also accompanied by a few minutes of heavy rain, which was lovely for the plants but doesn't appear to have done much, the grass is still looking very unhappy. Right now I'm watching a storm radar on Netweather to see if there's anything approaching my little corner of London.

Stormy Night Necklace by DesignsbyZoZo

Turns out there's quite a few "storm" items on Etsy but this one caught my eye because of the awesome silver cloud and crystal raindrops!

Have a nice evening everyone!

Cat Mug

The weather is finally starting to cool down a little here in London, or maybe it's just the humidity that's dropped. Either way it means that I can now drink my usual amount of tea without feeling ridiculously hot!

Cat Coffee Mug by vitaminaeu

LOOKATTHECUTEKITTY!!!! This lovely Italian shop has a collection of cute mugs, including coffee mugs and the smaller espresso mugs, with illustrations of cats, people and a really nice owl one. She's also taking part in "Christmas in July", see her shop announcements to find out how to get 10% off!

Have a nice day everyone!