Cake and Gossip

It's Friday!! It always throws me out when we have a Bank Holiday Monday, this week has whizzed by so fast,12 New cards printed on Wednesday plus card and wrap reprints. And to end a very productive week another set of 12 new designs finished to disk today and a new wrapping paper to match the 'Simple Divine' all going in the post to the printers for proofing next week. We have been very busy little 'Vegemites' here at Cavania and into an equally exciting weekend which I will tell you all about on Monday. What do you think to this designs? It's a little different from the normal Cavania. Any ideas for a range name? Please leave your ideas below in the comment box.

New Greeting Cards

Just got home from a seven hour round trip to Lincolnshire to visit our printers. I must say what a worth while trip, the new range of greeting cards 'Deco Art' came out a treat.
Printed yesterday was another run of our hit range 'Silhouettes' we only launched this in January and its been reprinted already!Another batch of Dresses, Shoes & Handbag wrapping paper was printed this morning its been out of stock for the last couple of weeks so if you are a shop and want to get your order in WP04 is back in stock and shipping from Friday. A sheet straight from the press of the new card range 'Deco Art' an age range with yummy colours and elegant ladies just waiting to be silk screened with a clear varnish over the black ink to give it a little shine. They will all be finished with diamantes and a pearlshine envelope and be with all our agents in about one week. If you would like to be the first to stock the new range give the office a call and make arrangements for an agent to drop by to show you all the new bits. The office number is 01895 824899.

Ethan's Toy Box

Christian constructing the wooden toy box.
It was just like the old days before Cavania when I used to make children's toy boxes and height chart etc to sell in a few gift stores.
Ethan my godson had his third birthday party today and he is totally mad about Thomas the tank engine, so what better then a painted toy box to keep all his Thomas toys in. Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy x

Easter Time

Happy Easter to you all, what ever you are doing for the long weekend lets hope the sun shines and we all have a great time. God bless.

Lots of lovely things

Here we have a photo from the Tutbury Present Company in Tutbury, Staffordshire 01283 810081 .A gorgeous shop filled to the roof with lots of lovely things and a very pretty display of the bone china mugs by Hudson & Middleton with the illustrations from our 'Blush' card range.If you are a shop and wish to stock the Blush mug range you will need to contact www.hudsonandmiddleton.co.uk

Butterfly Ceramics

Sandra Haischberger makes the most gorgeous ceramics including butterfly vases, dishes, and pots, and you know me and butterflies. I must put one on my wish list.
http://www.feinedinge.at

Shopping

Need I say anymore, too many choices and not enough change for the car park!

I've just seen a ghost!

Here I am sitting watching the Kylie Special and I've just seen a ghostWhy do I feel like someone is watching me! See post 16/12/07

Ian the Action Hero

Friday I got 22 emails from 'Ian the wonder agent' he was climbing the side of a mountain with his better other half Lorraine, somewhere in the Lake District, Derwent Water. Each time the computer pinged another image of the stunning landscape and a very amusing caption appeared in my in box. Top left caption was 'The top 630 meters, Wheres the pub?' and the one that made me chuckle was 'Tea & cake' a man after me own heart! The amazing wonders of technology and phone cameras.'Baba black & white sheep'Third time lucky. Finally at the real Top, for Real Men The Pub, the Beer...... the End!

Are you the Easter Bunny?

This is a sketch inspired by my Godson Ethan he will be 3 years old soon and is adorable. Have a lovely weekend, I'm off to collect twigs to make my Easter tree. Bye x

Goodbye Paint Brush hello Spanner

Thats it I'm off got my greasy clogs on and time to get my hands dirty.
No it's OK I haven't completely lost my marbles, this is an advert for my Brother in law in Australia that Christian did for them this morning and the email connection has gone down between us and them somewhere. So we used our heads and put it on the the blog, so Geoffrey could proof it before we send it to the printers. What do you think Bro?

Thank you Mr Postman

Hey look what the postman delivered today, a hot of the press March edition of Greetings Today. Cavania has been featured twice, once in the Engagement and Wedding special and in the Spot Light for new products. Quick put the kettle on I feel a tea break looming, it's great to catch up on the gossip.To get your copy of Greetings Today give them a call on 01442 289950

Windy Weather

England is certainly being battered by the weather at the moment, so wrap up warm, hold onto your hats and don't fly a kite what ever you do. Take care not to get blown away.There is a competition coming soon to win a Cavania original from the Dresses Shoes & Handbags range, so pop back soon for more details.

Sock Girl

It's amazing what you can do with socks, they don't have to just go on your feet.
My new socks

Lloyds Lunch

Today I was a guest speaker at a 'Celebrating Successful Women' lunch at the Lloyds Harrow branch. I was so nervous as I have never done anything like this before, my best friend Sunny won't take no for an answer and before I knew it I had agreed to speak about Cavania and how it started.
Today was the launch of the new Business Lounge which coincided with 'International Women's Week', and so the day was filled with inspirational stories from many successful female entrepreneurs. The facilities at the bank are fabulous and really well thought out and the staff were all exceptional and extremely enthusiastic. If you are a business and near Harrow, Middlesex, Lloyds is certainly worth checking out.
Sunny spoke first about her businesses which are 'Miss Reception' and the amazing 'The LRA', London Reception Academy, they provide comprehensive training for all receptionist needs. We have been friends since we were 18, bridesmaids at each others wedding and Godmothers to each others children. We often joke that we will get two rooms next to each other in a retirement home! I love her to pieces and when we are together there is never a dull moment.A happy pair of friends its all over and now time to enjoy the rest of the day.

Dear Visitor

Top left is a poll, have you voted yet? Please do so as I am trying to gauge who is dropping by, so I can post more of the side of Cavania you might like to see!

Flat Sticky Toffee Mango Cake

Plate by Emma Bridgewater- Love & Kisses range.

I had a mango in the fridge and decided to throw it into a cake mixture to see how it would taste, along with a packet of toffee sauce. It turned out fabulously scrumptious so here's the recipe to share. Make a batch of sponge cake mix to the size you wish, I got 12 cupcakes and an 8" cake from 8oz self raising flour, 8oz margarine, 4oz caster suger(only put 4oz in as the toffee and mango should be already sweet), 4 eggs. Fine chop a ripe mango and add 3/4 of a sachet of toffee sauce to the cake mixture and spoon into desired baking dish. Bake in oven till golden, decorate with icing and a dollop of the toffee sauce. Hey Presto a lovely moist flat sticky toffee and mango cake, yum yum.

Letterpress Collection

Yippee the post man just delivered some old letterpress blocks that I had bought over the net all the way from America, I have a little collection of blocks in my home office. We both were having a relaxing lunch with a phone in one ear and both laptops sending mail! when there was a knock on the door and it was our friendly posty. This is my Adana press waiting for me one day to spend some time and learn how to use it. It was given to me by a gentleman called Robin, it was his late Fathers, but for now it sits there looking interesting.Here are a few close ups of some of the blocks I especially love the ones that have the children playing with dolls.Other than magazines I don't really collect anything so these little blocks are my only dust collectors, oh OK I collect shoes, and handbags! I'm a girl, I can't help it!!!

Hollywood Goddesses

The glamorous Audrey Hepburn
The gorgeous Marilyn Munroe
I've been playing with the computer and thought a little touch of hollywood glamour should grace the blog. And who better than the above two stars. Hope your day is full of glamour after all you are a star yourself, darhling.

Gift Focus Advert

Last week we did a photo shoot for our latest advert for Gift Focus, we were very pleased with the result. What do you think?

Hop Hop Easter Bunny

Easter is on it's way and Faye & I have been out shopping for Easter trimmings in our local gift stores and garden centers. Now we will have to go for a walk to find and broken branch to paint white and make our Easter tree. Come on hop to it we have to get every thing ready for the Easter egg hunt.

Live

Live is our new men's range of sporty birthday cards there are 12 in total all with a splash of colour on the base card. The image on the front of the card is a drinks coaster which can be pulled off and used leaving the same image on the card underneath. It's my Dads birthday today and he got the cycling one from me. It was fun sketching all the images and then colouring them up on the computer.