Monday 30 November 2009

James Davies: Home to Roost (Private View)

What a lovely launch to a lovely exhibition! Fresh vegan cakes lovingly baked by Sophie from Nimbus Promotions provided all who braved the cold wth a welcome treat. Plenty of postcards and badges were bought and the buzz created by the exhibtion should see it have avery succesful month at SHOP!
















Christmas Newsletter!

SHOP love, love loves Christmas and that is a fact. From the 1st December SHOP will become a magical Christmas grotto and will be force feeding you overly sentimental Christmas cheer along with mince pies all month long! Lucky Shop Club! As well as the schmaltz, we are putting on some really lovely events. Look: told you:

NEWS
New Board Member
SHOP, as a Community Interest Company has appointed its first Advisory Board Member! We are very excited to welcome Simon Moreton to the company and are looking forward to stealing all of his good ideas. Look out for events next year, led by Simon, which will from this point on be renamed 2000 and Simon.

Christmas Opening Hours

SHOP will be opening on Christmas Eve from 12pm until 4pm, just in case Santa decides to make an early visit to his adopted home on the Christmas Steps and in case you need any last minute goodies. Or, just come along and soak up some of SHOP’s excess excitement at this, SHOP’s favourite time of year. We will have mince pies aplenty all month too. SHOP will then be closed from Christmas Day until the 3rd January, reopening on the 4th at 11am.

EVENTS
Exhibition: ‘Home to Roost’ by James Davies
1st December – 24th December
11.00am – 7.00pm
James Davies is exhibiting his beautiful original drawings and prints, as well as handmade toys, postcards and badges in SHOP during December. The Private View will be on the 30th November at 7.30pm onwards and all Shop Club members are exclusively invited to get the first peek. Have a look at James’ other work here: www.jamespeterdavies.blogspot.com

Christmas Artisan Market
5th December
10.00am – 3.00pm
The third Christmas Steps Arts Quarter Artisan Market takes place on the 5th, with a special Christmas theme this month. Many of the artisans taking part are selling special Christmas decorations and gifts alongside their usual lovely wares. Mulled wine will be dished out to all punters and mince pies and roast chestnuts are being sold on the stalls. Fingers crossed we will have arranged some carollers by then too (get in touch if you want to volunteer yourself!!)! Surely, surely, SURELY there cannot be a more Christmassy way to spend the day.

Private Hire
10th December
SHOP is hosting Hot SHOP Member and Pear Café Owner, Elly Curshen for an old school Christmas Party for local foodies. Sorry to titillate your taste buds, but none of you are invited! However, please don’t hesitate to ask about using SHOP for your own party.

MotherSHOP: Christmas Cafe
12th and 19th December
11.00am – 7.00pm
A Shop within SHOP returns with Lynda and her lovely Christmas Cafe. Lynda will be setting up a bakery and café within SHOP for two Saturdays this month. Come and take a load of your wearing pads by stopping off for a healthy, homemade, delicious snack. Or why not take some home?

Plus, Sally and Rob’s 100% natural, organic, fair trade, homemade health and beauty products return this year for the month of December. They make you feel beautiful inside and out. And they make great gifts!

Christmas Fillum Club and Present Wrapping Evening
16th December
7.30pm – 10.00pm
We at SHOP turn into big children during the holiday season and we like to maintain certain traditions, like watching the most saccharine, mushy American Christmas films possible, whilst wrapping gifts and eating far too many sugary seasonal goodies (used the words mince and pies way too much in this newsletter)

This years Christmas film is Scrooged! It's Christmas Eve in New York and Frank Cross is his usual ruthless self, which is how he got to be president of a TV company. Bill Murray is brilliant in this hilarious tale of a modern day scrooge who gets his comeuppance after being visited by some truly outlandish creatures!

Come and get in the Christmas spirit whilst wrapping some of those gifts that are piling up on top of your wardrobe. SHOP will provide cellotape and fingers, as well as some wrapping materials and …. mulled wine and mince pies! And popcorn for the film. They put popcorn on Christmas trees in the U. S of A, so you could also try your had at stringing some popcorn. Why the hell not?!
So, that’s that for 2009! Merry Christmas to all- and to all a good night!

Love, love, love from, SHOP

Saturday 28 November 2009

Anne Wilson MotherSHOP 2...

Anne Wilson has popped back for her second shift on the MotherSHOP today.........


I'm going to miss her sitting and knitting in the corner of the lounge.....hopefully she will be back soon.





Thursday 26 November 2009

Happy Buy Nothing Day!


HAPPY BUY NOTHING DAY!
SHOP is closed on Friday 27th to celebrate. Business as unusual from Saturday. Don't forget to remember to not buy anything.

Monday 23 November 2009

MotherSHOP!

The MotherSHOP has landed! Anne Wilson was beamed down into my lounge on Saturday and spent the day there with her own little shop within a SHOP. Annes knitted products proved very popular with everyone who had braved the weather to pop down the steps at the weekend and I'm looking forward to having her back next week (Saturday November 28th).












Christmas Lights Big Switch On!

The Christmas Steps had it's official lights switch on on Thursday 19th of November. The children from St. Michaels school made sure it was especially chrismassy with heart warming carols and everyones tummy was warmed by some lovely mulled wine and mince pies!






Wednesday 18 November 2009

Artwork heading our way.......


What a Mother.......


Having already signed up Anne Wilson for MotherSHOP (shop within a SHOP), I am also incubating some more SHOP Cubs by providing a little bit of space for HOT SHOP MEMBERS Sally and Robs indie natural home-made Health and Beauty products! Lip Balms, Hair Masks, Facial Scrubs, Body Butter and Body Scrub are all in SHOP now. 100% Fair Trade, 100% Organic, 100% Natural!

Thursday 12 November 2009

MotherSHOP has landed!

On Saturday the 21st and 28th of November Anne Wilson will be selling her lovely knitted and stitched pieces in SHOP! My lounge will be turned into Annes very own shop within a SHOP for both days.

If you would like to get involved in MotherSHOP then please go to the SHOP website and fill out a form at the bottom of the 'Community Arts' page.

Another event and a change of date....

My volunteers in their haste to get the November Newsletter out missed a whole event off and put the wrong date for another. You just can't get the voluntary staff these days!

Here's the correction......

Christmas Steps Christmas Lights Grand Switch On!
Thursday 19th November (not 20th) From 5:30pm (switch on 6pm)
The children from St Michael's school will be singing carols for a bit and then they will be turning on the lights...how christmassy is that? There will also be mince pies, mulled wine and some of the shops (including us, of course) in the area will be opening for a spot of late night shopping.

And the event they missed off......

Buy Nothing Day
Friday November 27th All day
As we have done for the past 3 years SHOP will be shutting it's doors in support of 'Buy Nothing Day' an Adbusters campaign that aims to raise awarness of the perils of our consumer culture.





Monday 9 November 2009

New stock if you please.....

By the looks of my volunteers' mug shots some new stock has arrived! There's some new men's winter clothing (just in time, with the nip in the air) including some 70's Roller-neck jumpers. The ladies have not been forgotten either with the arrival of some lovely dresses and winter skirts. Oh and there's a little bit of homeware too.


Artisan Market

The Christmas Steps looked great on Saturday for the second Artisan Market. I was awoken early by the sight of the bunting going up and the clattering of gazebo poles. The sun even made a brief appearance as the traders arrived. There were a lot more tables than last time and the standard of arts and crafts looked just as impressive as those at the first Market in October!







Now I really can't wait for the Christmas one on December 5th, I heard a whisper that there will be mulled wine, mince pies and chestnuts roasting and of course the Christmas lights will be up and twinkling by then!