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Address

3 St Anne's Terrace
Bristol
BS4 4DY

naomi@thesetwohands.co.uk

These Two Hands | Handmade Gifts UK © 2021. All Rights Reserved

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Did you have a wooden flower press when you were a child? Almost everyone who visits my market stall and sees my flower presses, says they had one when they were young and wonder what happened to it. I was given one when I was 6, and it was finding that old press at my parents house, that led to me rediscovering the joy of pressing leaves and flowers. I started running pressed flower craft workshops and people would ask me where they could find a good quality, good sized traditional wooden flower press. I couldn’t find one when I looked so I decided to make my own.

This stuff is pure magic. Someone ordered a few pots yesterday and it reminded me that I don't shout about this enough. When you've tried it, you know and you won't want to put anything else on your face again. Having suffered for years with rosacea and spent a fortune trying to find creams and treatments to help my skin, I was nervous when I first tried this. It's upsetting when you spend money on new skin things that you hope will help you and they don't work. You worry about making the problem worse. But I've been using this balm morning and night for 4 years now, my rosacea is gone and I wouldn't use anything else on my skin. It smells and feels amazing. And mentally it prepares me for the day too. It soaks into my tired skin and makes it feel loved, nourished and renewed.

Making wild wreaths is one of my very favourite things to do all year round, but especially at Christmas. I made around 180 last year with people in person and online. I made wreaths with corporate Christmas zoom parties, groups of friends and some 1 to 1 sessions too. It is such a lovely way to spend a few hours. I love the smell and feel of the moss. I love foraging for new beautiful flowers, berries and foliage. I love playing with colours and shapes. Every year I find different things in different places. Last year I was especially excited to discover pure white holly for the first time underneath a huge holly tree which looked so beautiful on wreaths!

My pop up shop is going to smell soooooo good!! I've ordered a big batch of my soaps, balms, bath salts and wax melts. I've never had a shop so I have no idea how much stuff to order. Hopefully I'll have enough to be well stocked and not way too much that I can't find space for it.

Sundays are normally work days for us, either with craft markets or bands rehearsing in the studio or both. I often feel bad that we don't get much free time as a family, but I try to find little ways to make Sundays special. Breakfast is croissants or pain au chocolat with some Ella Fitzgerald or other Sunday feeling cosy music. And there's normally some crafting too. Today we'll be making our own lip balms using the great kit by @bohoboaromatherapies and also some glittery paper snowflakes while we work at the studio. And Sundays are bath days too 😀

Thank you so so much for all your lovely comments and private messages wishing me luck and cheering me on with my new pop up shop!! I felt much stronger and supported reading all your messages and I am so so excited about it. We put a table in there today and I ordered a few shop bits and it started to feel more real. A few people have already offered to help out with some shop shifts. I have four great local makers lined up to rent some shelf space. Two women walked past as we were carrying things in and were really excited to hear there's a new handmade gifts shop coming 😀

These Two Hands is 4 years old today! I hate sharing photos of myself, but this photo is all I have to go with my news today. And I really want to share my news today!! Yesterday's social media collapse makes this post even more important. In between refreshing all the apps out of habit last night, I was working on my email newsletter to send my community a special treat for my business 4th birthday today! I didn’t quite manage to send it out today so if you haven't joined yet, you can sign up on my website homepage. Yesterday showed more than ever how important it is to have other ways of communicating with eachother and I feel very lucky to have a group of people that want to hear my ramblings every few weeks 😀 Some of you have been with me since the start 4 years ago!

Dark days call for candles and lots of them. Today I have lit quite a few candles. When you rely on markets for the majority of your income, you become a bit overly preoccupied with the weather. It was really gutting for everyone to have the Clevedon Sunday market cancelled today. There is so much behind the scenes prep that happens before a market. Stock is made and bought in based on the markets you are doing. This month was the start of the Christmas shopping period market wise. Last month most people didn't buy because they said they were waiting until the October market 😩.

Happy October! Month of fires, hot chocolates, pumpkins, blankets, baths and candles. I find certain smells especially comforting when the days are darker - warming smells like cinnamon, clove and cardamom. The smell of spiced apple butter simmering on the stove or woodsmoke in the air. Hearty warming food and snuggling under a blanket with a book.

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