Cherry Pie Lane » Handmade lovely things

Monday, Monday… time for a tea party!

Feb 202012

Alrighty, apologies for the lack of Sunday post yesterday, but I was celebrating my little (or not so little now) brother’s 20th Birthday!!

Anyway, remember the sneaky peek I gave you guys a couple of Mondays ago… no?! Well, it’s this one. I showed you one of the new drinks labels. THEN, the fabulous Jay Archer blogged the whole new collection on her awesome site last week. NOW the whole party has been featured on les enfants fabulous party blog, so you can see how the collection was used and to see how it looks ‘in situ’ – these pics were taken by the mighty Sassy of Assassynation and feature some of my other fave suppliers too; Jay Archer Floral Design and Cat’s Whiskers Cake Design.

In case you missed the new collection launching last week, here are a few snippets for you:

Let Them Eat Cake - White Glazed Letters

Sugar and Spice Vintage Style Sign

'Eat Me' Garland

Drinks Labels - Cream Soda, Lemonade, Ginger Beer

The rest of the collection can be found on our FB page – they are not yet available in shops, but if you fancy grabbing a few up, just drop me a mail on: info@cherrypielane.co.uk They can also be totally personalised too… Gin & Tonic labels anyone?!

See you all on Thursday!

C x

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My Awesome Find… Polka Dot Love

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Feb 162012

Ever have one of those days where you just feel a bit ‘pfffffff’ or ‘meh’?! Well, I think today is my day for that. On a quest to cheer myself up a bit and a little bit of an escape back to being a teenager, I’ve decided that it is high time I bought myself a new pair on Cons. *cue searching about the net & plumping on the Schuh site* I found these… I NEED these…

My New Love Interest from Schuh - Two Fold Hi Li polkadot Trainers

OK, I’m off for 10 minutes of listening to some Pearl Jam, drinking some tea & pretending I’m not grown up – then I’ll get back to work again, promise!!

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Monday, Monday… Design Service

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Feb 132012

Afternoon all!

No blog post from me yesterday as I had a very rare day of entertaining lovely people so I swapped blogging with baking! I made a rather fancy looking banoffee cake complete with gold leaf dust and red glitter (ok, ok, so the cake probably looked better than it tasted, but hey, who’s complaining!?!)

Yummy sparkly banoffee cake

So, I thought I’d better get something a bit exciting for you today. I’m going to point you in the general direction of the design service that I offer for custom work.

I get through A LOT of custom orders. I reckon for every stock design order I make, I must make about 5 custom orders!! I really love making different designs up for you guys, it makes it somewhat of a challenge for me – especially when the design involves loads of artwork, colour, glazes and lustres (I really love lustres!!). I always suggest getting the design package as part of your custom order with me as so often, details can be lost in translation – it’s really quite difficult to design without imagery and emails are always hard to decipher!! With the design service, you get to see initial ideas, make any alterations needed and then see the final design as it would look in ‘real-life’. The best bit of this is making sure that your design is PERFECT before we get started on it – I always want you guys to be happy with your designs.

Final Custom CAD Design

Final Custom Wedding Sign

So, how does it work??

Well, firstly, you need to pick the right design package for you… there are 3 base packages and then a selection of ‘add ons’ that you can select either at the start of the design process or during it.

* Sketch me up package – This package is the most basic and involves a selection of hand-drawn sketches. You can have up to 3 initial idea sketches and then 1 final sketch. These are for illustrative purposes and won’t exactly resemble the outcome. The cost of this package is £10.

* Sketch and CAD me up package – This package is the most popular as it gives you up to 5 hand-drawn initial idea sketches and then 1 final CAD design. This is also the package that I would recommend the most for general custom orders. The CAD designs are a brilliant help, especially if you like to see exactly what you’ll be getting. I try to make the CAD pics replicate your design as closely as I possibly can, so that you’ll get a good idea of how your final piece will look. These are also in full colour, including details such as lustres, glazes and ribbons. The cost of this package is £15.

* CAD me up package – This package is a bit of a super deluxe job! It is most definitely the one you want if you are looking to get the most perfect result. I certainly recommend this package if you are after something really, really special & perfect.You will get up to 5 initial CAD designs and then 1 final CAD design. This is perfect for tweaking the design and getting a sense of exactly how your piece could look with different fonts, different colours and additional details like buttons and crystals. The cost of this package is £20

Final CAD Design

Final Custom Wedding Heart

*Add ons – any of these packages can have extra bits added to them to tailor them to your needs. Sometimes you just need one extra drawing to get the idea right, or you might want to see your idea in CAD, you might even want to get a few different colour variations to look at. These add ons are only available in addition to a design package. There are various costs for each add 0n: Extra hand-drawn sketch= £2, Extra CAD design = £3, CAD tweaking (e.g. a colour change or slight location change for text/image) = £1 for up to 3 tweaks.

CAD Design Tweak 1

CAD Design Tweak 2

CAD Design Tweak 3

Final Custom Wedding Heart

Do you know what the best bit of this is?? It’s knowing that you guys get £5 off all design packages until the end of the month – so, till March 1st, you guys can grab yourselves some bargain design work and make sure that your custom piece is EXACTLY what you want!!

Have a fab week peoples x

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My Awesome Find… Soapopotamus

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Feb 092012

So, some of you already know that I really, really love to peruse etsy – you can spend hours and hours on that site and never get bored of finding fabulous new handmade things. On the run up to Christmas, I spent an abnormally large wedge of my life scouring the site for really awesome and interesting gifts for people. I was decided that I wanted to buy handmade as much as possible, not just because of the personal touch, but the fact that you really cannot beat the variety available to you on etsy.

Anywho, on one of my mammoth searching rampages, I stumbled across the most amazing company – Soapopotamus, run by Regina. I actually found it through a search for gherkins/dill pickles (depending on which side of the pond you are on) of all things! See, my brother and I like the little pickled dudes quite a lot (in fact, i managed to source a ‘pickle in a pouch’ for his birthday last year – another very, very awesome find!!), so I wondered what kind of gherkin related handmade gorgeousness existed on etsy.

Pickle in a Pouch

Well, whaddya know… I only went and found THIS:

Big Dill - Lip Butter

The ‘Big Dill’ is a DILL PICKLE FLAVOURED LIP BUTTER – absolutely perfect for what I was looking for. I figured that anyone brilliant enough to make a gherkin lip butter just had to have more amazing stuff in their shop & I was totally right!

After perusing the pretty extensive selection of other funky lip butter choices, I plumped for ‘Happy Apple’ (caramel apple) for me and ‘Elvis Sandwich’ (peanut butter & banana) for Mr CPL. I could easily have bought nearly all of them, but I only live in a diddy cottage, so devoting a whole room to just awesome lip butter is probably not a good plan!! However, my mind is still boggling about the ‘Italian Sausage’ lip butter

Happy Apple - Lip Butter

Elvis Sandwich - Lip Butter

If lip butter isn’t your thing, then check out what else is to offer in the Soapopotamus shop. The soaps are literally some of the most amazing creations I have ever seen. I had no idea you could even get soap to look just like other things! Check out my all time faves:

Nom Noms Soap

Cinnamon Rolls - Goats Milk Soap

Rice Krispie Treats - Goats Milk Soap

Glazed Half Dozen - Donut Soap

Strawberry Jam Toast - Goats Milk Soap

Sunny Side Up - Goats Milk Soap

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin - Exfoliating Soap

Roasted Chicken - Goats Milk Soap

AND… if neither lip butter nor soap floats ya boat, why not check out the solid & oil perfumes. I love the sound of the ‘Cotton Candy Clouds’ and the ‘Wasabi’ one really intrigues me! I also love the sound of the ‘Cream Sake’ perfume oil.

Cotton Candy Clouds Solid Perfume

Wasabi Solid Perfume

Cream Sake Perfume Oil

OK, run, go, get over to Soapopotamus right now and fill your life with amazing stuff!!

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Monday, Monday… Sneaky Peek

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Feb 062012

So, yesterday I promised you a sneaky peek of something that will be making it’s debut on Jay Archer’s blog later this month, so…

A sneaky look at one of the new products

Whatcha think??

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Sunday Brainspill

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Feb 052012

Sorry for the web silence of late… my laptop took a turn for the worst at the beginning of the week and then promptly died on me.

My poor broken laptop

It decided to take all of my files, pictures, blog posts and well, pretty much everything with it. So, a few days later and several pounds worse off, I have a nice new laptop from which I am writing to you now!

We should be back on track again tomorrow, when I’ll be sneaking you a quick peek at some new pieces, but you’ll have to wait another week to see them properly as I’ll be previewing them on Jay Archer’s blog

Have a fab Sunday and enjoy the snow… if you got any of it!!

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My Awesome find – Antique Shopping

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Jan 262012

Hola! Those of you lucky, lucky people that follow me on twitter, will already know what an amazing couple of finds I snapped up at the weekend. Those of you technophobes/social media haters/twitter-dislikers will not, so…

Introducing my fabulous new antique sewing box/table thingy!

My rather exciting new purchase!

The CPL family popped out for a bit of antique perusing (as one does when one lives in Royal Berkshire, lol!!) last Sunday. Mr CPL had already sellotaped my hands to the inside of my pockets to prevent my mass spending on assorted ~~junk~~ precious that we don’t really need or have room for. Anyway, on our way out of the first & rather amazing antique barn, I saw a gorgeous little table huddled in with lots of other ‘less desired and slightly broken’ pieces. Seeing some of the prices from inside, I was guessing this funky little opening table would be a good £70-£100, but fate tempted me to go take a looksie anyhow.

Boo-yeah! I win, the ~~junk~~ precious Gods were smiling on me that day… TEN ENGLISH POUNDS was all that this little beauty would set me back!! So, as I stood outside, fiercely guarding my new find and counting the shrapnel from inside my purse, I didn’t notice that Mr & Mini CPL had done a runner. 5 minutes later, they both reappeared with a receipt The box was mine, ALL MINE!!!

I am now loading it up with tools, colours, glazes, lustres and other delicious things that I use to work my magic on clay. So, from now on, all of your orders will be coming to you with a little help from my lovely awesome find!

*Please ignore the various pieces of junk and half-finished DIY jobs in the photo backgrounds, feel free to admire my gorgeous Irregular Choice shoes and my vintage typewriter!*

Sewing box with closed lid...

Sewing box with open lid - check out the suspended drawer!

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Monday, Monday…

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Jan 232012

OK, due to the late night Sunday post yesterday, I won’t overload you with lots more scribble today, so I’ll direct you back to a post from a couple of weeks ago – the release of the 2012 collection… remember it has got a big fat discount across the new ranges for all readers, so have a quick read and take advantage of the offer before it runs out at the end of the month! Ooooh, and don’t forget to tell your friends if they are getting married, it may well save them a few much needed pounds!!

I’ll be back on Thurs with an awesome find for you!

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The Awards – Part 2…

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Jan 222012

In a change to Sunday’s normal random musings, you are getting part 2 of the wedding ideas awards blog – better late than never, eh?!

So…

I’d met lots of lovely weddingy types and eaten some dinner (check out Giddy Kipper’s FB photos for an excellent pic of the starter!!). The awards started off with a sketch from comedian Rob Deering *cue lots of laughing & singing of George Michael songs.

There were 16 awards in total, but there were 5 I was reallllllly looking forward to seeing:

Best Wedding Photographer

Best Special Touches

Best Stationery

Best Accessories

Best Bridal Retailer

As these categories contained so many lovely people that I tweet with, though it made some categories really tricky as some of them had 2 or 3 of my fave people against each other :-/

Anywho, Emma Case, Giddy Kipper, Lucy Ledger, Chez Bec & Ellie Sanderson all became the fab winners of my fave categories. They all got whisked to the stage for photos and some very cute, tearful & *some* emotional rambling speeches of thanks. Then they were taken to a special secret ‘winners’ enclosure’… no-one knows what went on in there!!

After the awards, the bar flung open (and boy, have you ever seen wedding industry people near a bar… like flies around *ahem*!!)

You may have heard about the famous giraffe shaped vodka luge… check out Heidi with her mush shoved against it… she ended up wearing a lot of it, haha!!

Giddy Kipper's Heidi getting friendly with the Giraffe!

Check out more pics of the do here – I’ll be booking my tickets for next year!!

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My Awesome Find – Part One:

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Jan 192012

Well, I was never the typical ‘bride-to-be’, so I didn’t venture very far into the wedding magazine market… until I started Cherry Pie Lane. I kinda wish that I had started CPL before I got engaged as I have found so many amazing suppliers, venues, magazines, ideas, inspirations, blogs etc. Anywho, I am now far more interested in weddings – and, more importantly, other people’s weddings – than ever!

Cue my find… Wedding Ideas Magazine.

Those of you that have been devoted bride-to-be’s and anyone worth their salt in the wedding industry will know what I am talking about. The bag-friendly sized mag that is chocka-block full of ideas, real-weddings, tips, offers, makeovers – you name it, it has got it! They are also the most amazingly supportive magazine for little people like me!!

Wedding Ideas Magazine - Issue 104

I found these guys on a business level around 18months ago – on twitter, there are hundreds of companies that recommend joining their list of ‘cherished clients’. So, I took the plunge and did Since joining these guys, I have had heaps of features and loads of new brides find me – they really do help support big and small companies alike.

Anywho, I’m not here to sell you the magazine, I’m here to talk to you about Wedding Ideas very own awards night that was held last Friday in the Brewery, London. You lucky, lucky people – this will be coming to you in 2 parts, so you’ll have to wait until Sunday for the second instalment!

I was adamant that I was going to go to them this year as last year, nature had intended that I should be up to my eyeballs in pain producing my now nearly 13month old daughter! So, I got myself booked in. I was under no illusion that I could be within even reaching distance of an award, but I was there to have fun, meet lots of wedding lovelies and (dare I say it), leave the house for the first time in yonks!!

Little Monkey!

I talk to so many fab wedding industry types on twitter and I was so looking forward to meeting some of them – always nice to put a real face to a name (especially in my case, as I am massively averse to having my face out in public… I’d wear a bag on my head 90% of the time if I could!!). The person I was most excited to meet was the lovely Heidi of Giddy Kipper – who happened to have her fabby man-friend with her (who, she likes to introduce as, “Steve, he hits things with hammers”). Poor Heidi had the misfortune to first meet me whilst I had a handful of moisturiser, half in my hand, half on my face – poor girl!! Anyway, she really is just as lovely, maybe even more lovely in real life than she is on twitter – my brand new bff, haha!!

OK, fast forward through the getting ready, squeezing self into Bridget Jones style reinforcements, meeting back up with the rather gorgeous looking Heidi in a fab long teal blue dress and Mr Kipperchops looking ever so slightly 007 and then getting to the venue…

I think that the second I stepped in to the Brewery, I suddenly looked like a rabbit in headlights – I knew more or less no-one and I knew that I was surrounded by the wedding industry celebs. Cue lots of stuttering, blushing and generally looking very lost! I zipped through the first bit in a haze of introductions and photographs and I was sooooooo very pleased to find a cocktail waiting for me at the top of the stairs – good call, Herd!!

And there I was… facing a room full of fabulous looking people with Mr & Mrs Kipperchops at my side!

The drinks reception seemed crazily short, as time was flying by – we saw a few familiar faces in the blur like Laura from Lobster Love and then Adele from Blue Lights Photography came bounding over with her Mum, who were all so lovely.

Dinner was called and we descended the stairs to find our table, number 16 (which Heidi took a photo of… crazy lady, haha!!). I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I was really excited to be sat just across from Lucy Ledger’s table – I have been dying to meet this lady for absolutely ages… I think my husband is a bit jealous of how excited I was to be able to see her, I mean, she’s like wedding industry royalty!! Lucy had come along with her lovely hubby and her very very nearly here bump. I’m sure I made a complete arse of myself in front of her, as I often do with people when I meet them for the first time – hence why I love email, I can re-write those a million times to make myself sound less like an idiot before I click ‘send’!! All I can say is “sorry Lucy, for I am a total prat in general, haha”.

Other people on the list of ‘must meets’ were Emma Case and her uber stylish husband. Honestly, these 2 look like they’ve just stepped off of an awesome photoshoot – Emma in a gorgeous vintage blue dress and Pete wearing a full on suit with waistcoat combo.

Anyway, onto dinner, the awards and the after party… but you’ll have to wait till Sunday for that!! I’ll let you see this quality photobooth shot of Adele (BLP) an I!