Nora's Bigger Nest

 

The first hit...

At the beginning of January this year, we embarked on an exciting new chapter for Nora's!

Following a good few years of 'ummming' and 'ahhhing' we decided to extend the size of the shop by knocking through in to what was our store room!

Several months of planning, four weeks of building work (plus a significant amount of dust) later, we're beyond excited to bring you a sparkly new Nora's!

Here are a few pictures of our journey from the start...

 We hope you like the bigger space we have created and we're really looking forward to welcoming you all!

Our Store Room (looking tidier than ever before...)

                   

 

The wall coming down...

Building the floor up

Ceiling lowered and new stud wall

Plasterboarding

Flooring 

Almost done...!

Ta Dah!

            

 

So there we go. The next chapter begins...

Whimsical Wonders

We discovered the work of Freya Ete about 18 months ago but I only recently realised that I'd never blogged about her and her beautiful range of cards, prints and textiles. 

We love anything that's heartfelt (and makes us go a little bit mushy) so, when we saw Freya's amazing work our hearts were stolen... 

Born in Australia, Artist and Poet Freya now lives in London and designs incredibly beautiful and optimistic pieces.  What we love most about them is that their whimsical sentiments are perfect for absolutely any age, from newborn baby through to adults. 

They've now become one of our bestselling ranges so obviously you love them as much as we do!

Here are some of our (and your) favourites...

       

The Archivist Letterpress

Anything stationery related gets our hearts beating a little faster... add the word 'Letterpress' and we're close to having palpitations...

Which is why we were so thrilled to discover these amazing greetings cards.  Made in a very traditional style in the heart of Oxfordshire: with the help of wood blocks, an intricate system of suction, gears and levers...oh, and a windmill.

Just in case you're unfamiliar with the process of Letterpress, here's a little explanation...

If you can conjure up an image from your history books of a Caxton press, you will not be far away from visualising the production process of an Archivist Letterpress greeting card 500 years later...

In contrast to the world of offset printing, the role of the 'press minder' is still key.  Armed with an oil can, an inking knife and his judgement, he constantly adjusts and tweaks the arms and the plates to create the perfect print.  

Archivist is not soulless factory printing in an industrial unit.  Instead, the workshop is suffused with the heady smell of printing inks and resonates to the rhythmic workings of the press. The human element of the process gives each impression a charming individuality.  Everytime the block hits the paper, the result will be different.  

Here are a couple of our favourites...

          

If you'd like to see The Archivist Letterpress in action, Click HERE for a little video (I'm sure you'll fall in love a little bit, just like we did!) 

Cards priced at £2.95 each and are available at Nora's Ilkley

New Year, New Finds

Firstly, Happy 2012 everyone!

After all the hustle and bustle of November and December, inevitably life resumes its more standard pace in January so apologies for my tardiness in blogging.

• I have been trying to get inspired for the coming year and I've been busy hunting out some fabulous designer makers, one in particular has cheered me up no end this month with their fantastically bright leather accessories.

Designed and hand made in Cambridge by partners Ros & Ed this collection of glasses cases, iphone cases, card wallets and make up bags from 'Stabo' are made from soft nappa leather and images are carefully screenprinted on to create unique accessories that suit both ladies and gents!

Buy the Glasses Cases Here

• Second on our list of 'finds' manages to successfully continue our 'Stationary Revolution' - as you know, we are committed to keeping the art of letter writing alive and we're sure that with the help of  'SORT' (The Society of Revisionist Typographers) we will succeed!

SORT consists of Messrs. Thomas Boulton and Theo Wang.  They specialise in typographic design and use traditional letterpress techniques and fuse them with contemporary digital processes to create whimsical, unique stationary that we just can't get enough of!   Arriving very soon so we can hopefully pass our obsession on to you too...

So, here's hoping 2012 will be a great year for you all and we're looking foward to sharing it with you!

Over and out...

Easter Offerings

Easter is only a few weeks away and in our house we like to celebrate with a pretty Easter Tree, yummy Easter Sunday Lunch and we're not allowed to forget the compulsary chocolate.

We'll be putting up the shop's Easter tree tomorrow (after I've chopped part of mum's tree in the garden down!) and decorating it with lots of goodies!

Easter Cards are in stock  and probably should have ordered more pretty Easter Wreaths as we've sold 3 already! 

I must not forget to mention our extremely popular knitted bunny egg cosies (£7.50 inc egg cup) - I'm still knitting away trying to get more ready for the weekend!