Featured : Living Etc Magazine

Hooray! Our London Underground Pencils are featured in the March 2017 issue of Living Etc Magazine in an article about the latest news, updates about London. 

Absolutely giggled through the write up about our pencils, in the article titled "Write On" - Pencil snapping as an alternative therapy - definite food for thought.

Talking about food, this month's Living Etc also contains some super delish recipes from one of our favorite food stylist / chef in Australia, Donna Hay's quick pasta recipes. Definitely trying some of the recipes out this week, supermarket shopping planned. Yum!

It was a lovely to have great natural light at our "How're you feeling?" Pop Up Shop in Clerkenwell this week. Found some time in between running the shop to style the photo during our pop up, cutting some paper confetti from pastel sheets of coloured paper and overlapping the magazines. Bliss! ☺️✂️🎉📷

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Ta! Thank you every one. It's the time of the year to give thanks. We have many things to be grateful and thankful for. Most importantly thank YOU.

Here we go! Our one day sale of the year. 30% off the entire store ends 5pm GMT 25/11/2016.

Enter code "TA" at checkout.

P.S. Sorry, although we do not have a serving of pecan / pumpkin pie... but we have sweetie pie! Always a YES to cranberry sauce, custard cream and many yummy things. All things to be thankful of.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

National Espresso Day

23rd November is National Espresso Day! Woohoo! As coffee fiends, think the body clock kinda fine tunes to national coffee days... this morning an extra coffee boost please!

So let's turbo charge our day with a double shot of espresso, for double happiness. Coffee Twinning eh? ☕️☕️👯‍♂️👯🙂🙃 Double Espresso = Coffee twins... yay! New formula.

Whether you spell Espresso with a "S"  or with a "X" Expresso, may we wish you an awesome caffeinated day and happily full of beans! 

Espresso pencils - part of Coffee Buzz Buzz pencil set

Tiny Pantones

Small is beautiful. Perfectly matched small objects with its perfectly matching pantone colour shade. Yay! Discover all things tiny from @TinyPmsMatch Instagram account by designer Inka Matthew. Particularly love the name of the object for colour match to Pantone 2036, "Chick Magnet"- tickled pink! 

I AM A X Shop At The Museum at Le Bon Marché

Bonjour Paris! Together with Shop At The Museum we have created 3 brilliant set of pencils for their Paris pop up at Le Bon Marché.

The pencils are all in French including our favourite things about France - pâtisserie, joie de vivre and the Paris Métro.

1. Joie De Vivre Pencil Set

The joie de vivre pencil set have many of the french daily life we love. This includes:

• Bruncher

• Bouquiner

• Paresser

• Danser

• Chiner

• Embrasser

2. Pâtisserie Pencil Set

The pâtisserie pencil set have all our favourite French pastries. This includes:

• Tarte aux fraises

• Paris-Brest

• Mont-Blanc

• Madeleine

• Macaron

• Eclair

In the process of designing these pencils and shooting the below photo, we gobbled many macarons from our all time favourite Pierre Hermé. They always have the most innovative and cool flavours of macarons - jasmine tea, mandarin and olive oil, chocolate and earl grey tea are divine.

3. Paris Métro Pencil Set

Our favourite Métro stations in Paris. The thing about Paris Métro stations, every Métro station has a different decor or different theme. We love cruising along the Métro lines, as some stations are just like visiting a museum, a piece of art in its own right.

Like our London Underground Pencil Set, the Paris Métro pencils the colour of the lines and their interchange foiled onto HB pencils.

• Odeon

• Saint-germain des Près 

• Opera

• Bastille

• Invalides

• Louvre-Rivoli

These are all Limited Edition designs, and could only be purchased directly from Shop At The Museum at Le Bon Marche between now and Christmas. A great souvenir and gift from Paris!

As the famous saying goes from the movie Sabrina by Audrey Hepburn - Paris is always a good idea!

Chocolate

Chocoholic dreams. Best treat for elevenses, in fact all day, from photographer Rachel Been.

Got Milk?

Hear, hear to Tony The Tiger, these vintage Japanese Kellogg's cereal boxes packaging - "They're Gr-r-reat!" from Kellogg's Japan.

Meet : The Clever Badger

Becca + Lewis : The truly Awesome duo behind The Clever Badger

It's our honor to have the cutest catch up with our stockist and collaborator : The Clever Badger an online gifts and greeting cards company supporting independent designers. You will never run out of fun, goof, laughter and warmness with this adorable couple : Becca and Lewis , the duo behind the brand and the brains behind the pencils which we collaborated with for The Clever Badger Boxes including "I NEED COFFEE", "FUDGE OFF" and "I HATE MONDAYS". 

Beyond the giggles, we explored a long admirable trait that we loved about The Clever Badger - running a business together as a couple. And then of course ... fun ... carpool karaoke ... sarnies ... upcoming trends... so read on.

I AM A : THIS MAY BE A CHICKEN AN EGG QUESTION - DID THE BUSINESS NAME "THE CLEVER BADGER" COME FIRST OR THE CONCEPT OF THE BUSINESS ?

Becca : We had the concept of a design gift shop first and the name came second. We spent many afternoons trying to concoct the perfect name, I remembered Lewis thinking of a really  good suggestion ( for the life of me, I can't remember what this was ) and so I rubbed his chin and called him a clever badger ! Cringey pet names are a big thing in this household I'm afraid. 

I AM A : WHAT ARE THE TOP 3 TIPS YOU CAN SHARE WITH US ON RUNNING A BUSINESS AS A COUPLE ?

Becca : Our top 3 tips are :

1. Remember to have some down time. We normally go for a walk in the woods near our house if we're getting a bit stir crazy !
2. Always listen to each other and spend time checking in with each other. Our TCB ( The Clever Badger ) mostly meeting always features a slice of cake .
3. Always remember to have fun together. We do tend to have a weekly nerf gun battle !

I AM A : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SANDWICH AT ALL TIMES ?

Becca : Fish finger sandwiches with mayo have to be my favourite!

Lewis : Roast beef & onion baguette!

I AM A : WE ARE JUST OVER 3 MONTHS AWAY FROM CHRISTMAS . WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE KEY CHRISTMAS GIFT TRENDS THIS YEAR ONLINE ?

Becca + Lewis : We do believe the pin and patch trend will carry on going. It really seems as if it's here to stay for 2017. Another big trend is the hygge way of living, any accessories or lifestyle gifts the encompass the relaxing nature of the Danish living style will be key for Christmas. 

I AM A : For carpool karaoke, which song / songs will you be singing ?

Lewis : Dolly Parton (any song) or Majestic by Wax Fang

Becca : Anything Abba related or KISS! I think we might have the weirdest taste in music ever…

I AM A : Which is your favourite : Rainbow / Unicorn / Fries ?

Becca : Rainbows! I’m a colour magpie

Lewis : Fries !

I AM A : Favourite Quote of the Day ?

Lewis : I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul

Becca : Not today Satan! (You can tell who the intellectual is) haha ...

Thank you to Becca and Lewis , for all your time for the interview. It's been such a pleasure and nothing but fun. Thank you for the pictures too. We love them !

#Dontmissout on all the curated colorful goodness from this adorable duo by following their store and social media updates : 

• Website :  http://www.thecleverbadger.com
• Instagram : @thecleverbadger
• Twitter : @thecleverbadger
• Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thecleverbadger
• Pinterest : https://uk.pinterest.com/thecleverbadger/

Best piece of wisdom : "Always remember to have fun together" + have Cake !