Coast Festival Banff

The Coast festival was on this past week in Banff and Macduff so I suggested to my mum and sister that we go and see what was on. The journey didn't start well as we drove out to Banff it was pouring with rain and reminded my family the last time I suggested to go to an event which was in Huntly and rained all day and we had to drive back through floods. Thankfully for me the sun came out by the time we got there. After a few wrong turns and a couple of 100 point turns from my mum we parked up and had a look what was on.
We went to a knitted exhibition where people had donated their knitted objects. I love the matching jumpers and knitted food as you can see in the photos there was also a dubious knitted thong which was scarily big as was originally supposed to be a knitted jumper. We then went on to Duff castle, yeah they have a castle where we saw Donna Wilsons maze we got a bit lost but managed to get to the end. I love getting my sister to do comedy photos so I made her stick her head through the maze and get a photo with a random skeleton we found in one of the exhibition rooms. We went on to another couple of exhibitions going on, too many to mention. Then I went back to the city on the country bus which I nearly missed as I was standing at the wrong side of the road. All in all a good day out.

Bless this Mess

Well its been a couple of weeks since Johnny Come Lately has been closed and this has been the first chance to get up to date with the blogging. As you can see from above I have managed to squeeze the remains of the shop into my room and thought it appropriate to illustrate the mess with the bless this mess sampler from Miso Funky. Slowly but surely we will get back on our feet and online to bring you some new and old favourites of cards. For now I better go and tidy my room

Meltdown

No I have not had a meltdown myself although I am close to it tying up loose ends with the shop closing. I am talking about my teacup candles. Out of all the products in the shop the teacup candles are the only thing I make, ashamedly. Well today I got the wax I ordered so I decided to do a marathon candle making sesh. Everything was going well until some magazines fell of a shelf onto the teacups which hadn't set and the wax went everywhere. I didn't realise wax was so hard to clean up. I deffo wont be getting up to any mischief with wax like Madonna in the film body of evidence if it takes an age to clean. Eventually I managed to clear the wax and wash some of it down the sink which then hardened and blocked the sink. So another half hour later I finally unblocked the sink. My lesson is leave the making to the professionals.

Glasgow Weekend

So I headed up to Glasgow on Saturday night full of the intentions of running a 10k on the Sunday morning. But after a meal at Wagamammas on the Saturday night the nerves kicked in and when I woke up on Sunday I completely chickened out and ashamedly never did the run. So after a bout of feeling a bit guilty I decided to be productive and go up the west end for some vintage shopping and cakes. We started of at the Two Figs for a late lunch of cocktails and curry. We then ventured up byres road stopping to check out the vintage shops where I was strangely drawn to bumbags and tribal bags I must be wanting to create a 80s rave hippy vibe thankfully I was talked out of purchasing said bumbag.

Then after all our browsing we were parched and went to Auntie M's in the De Courcys Arcade. It was decorated like a 50s diner and had lots of lovely cakes. I had lemon and ginger and Kate had chocolate and pistachio and Pam had coffee and walnut. Good big slices and fine cup of tea. Although I didnt run I still had an ace time. Maybe stick to cakes and shopping instead of runs.

Bricks and Mortar Store Closing down

Its been a hard decision but we have decided to close our bricks and mortar store and operate online on a smaller scale and blog about lots of lovely things. We will continue in some shape or form. We will keep you posted through this blog and facebook x

Card of the week

Its been a while since I have done this so apologies for it being late. Its baby fever round me at the moment with a few friends and family having their bundles of joy. So I thought a few new baby cards are in order

Pringle of Scotland Animation by David Shrigley - Life Behind The Scenes

We love Pringle and David Shrigley so when we came across this promotion of Pringle by David Shrigley we had to share it with you.

Card of the week

I thought I would put a few of this lovely range of cards from Crumpet and Skirt. These saucy ladies are classic and cool and not to racy for the older generation. These lovely ladies also have names, above we have Ava, Maureen and Jane. Enjoy

Card of the week

Card of the week is from nineteenseventythree popart range. We like this card at Johnny Come Lately as the tune although rather annoying does cheer you up a bit and stays in your head forever. I bet you are humming along as you read this....always look on the bright side of life de dum dum de dum......

Etsy Shop of the week

This week are choosing Asking For Trouble. We love their Kawaii inspired stationery and accessories and they have been in store since we have opened and have proved popular with all our customers. Our favourites are the bookhearts and the magnetic shopping list. Click here to see more products from Asking for Trouble

Card of the week

Seeing as Easter is upon us this weekend we have picked a eastery looking card. This card if form illustrator Eilidh Borland Who draws a number of different animals from bears to rabbits. We think they are lovely.

Esty shop of the week

As well as the card of the week we are going to bring you our Etsy shop of the week. There are lots of lovely things to be found on Esty and you could spend forever browsing pages. So hopefully we will be able to point you in the direction of a few sellers on Esty. So for our first shop we are picking farouche We love their 50's inspired Giclee prints and they also do baking, craft and personalised tags. Above is some of their prints that are available in their Etsy shop

The xx

what we are loving listening to at Johnny Come Lately at the moment.

Card of the week

This weeks cards are from Belle & Boo. Belle & Boo heads up a collection of artworks from the imagination of illustrator Mandy Sutcliffe Belle is the bobbed haired little girl who goes on adventures with her friend the rabbit Boo. These cards have a nostalgic vintage feel and would be ideal for a child's birthday.

P.S..........

Sorry if you have left comments and there has been no reply we just figured out how to read them today whoops. We will keep an eye out for all your comments

Card of the week

Spring is finally here, well its still cold but at least its not snowing anymore. So the card of the week is this recycled card from Lisa Jones one of her many cute characters. We thought this card was very apt for Easter with the cute Easter bunny on the front. Easter is on the 4th of April so still plenty of time for creme and chocolate eggs.

Card of the week

Card of a week is this mixtape card from La Familia Green. It reminds me of back in the day when you used to tape your own raido show, tape the charts and make mixie tapes that only consisted of mix of two albums well mine did. On Lauren Laverne Radio 6 show they have a memory tapes section where once a week someone has dug out an old mix tape and tells the story behind the tape (mostly love stories)and they play a selection of the playlist and showcase the artwork of the cassette cover. So if you can get hold of an actual tape or tape deck do the next best thing and send them this card.

Shop Life

We have just realised that this blog is called shoplife and recently we haven't been giving you a slice of what goes on in the life of a shopkeeper. So since we have been open 2 years we are going to give you a rundown of some highlights and low lights and some of the weird and wonderful people we have encountered. We will keep you posted from now on to the coming and goings of Johnny Come Lately

Well highlights, there has been many. Apart from the lovely customers that come in the characters are on George Street are very entertaining.
We have seen drunks having full blown fights,
a motorcyclist get off his bike and punch the driver in the car in front and drive away,
the resident beggar who goes up and down the street pouncing on passer bys,
a stopped bus and all its passengers barricading the door so someone who had obviously got chucked off couldn't get on the bus.
A oil worker who was a bit oiled himself who told me about karma,yoga and the effect of LSD while painting
The shoe toucher who liked to come in and chat and asked if he was allowed to touch my shoes.

Low lights
People who come in and just don't get it and don't understand why a card that is hand printed is £2.85 when you can get 5 for a £1 in Asda
Having a flooded basement for a month and not realising that it was foul water we had been cleaning up for a month.
Finally shoplifters

These are all we can remember at the moment,one thing for sure George Street is a very lively street

Spoiltpig Blog

Spoiltpig is a friend of the shop and we stock some of her resin jewellery and just now she is doing a cat themed swap on her blog. All cats from tigers to tom cats are included and once you have signed up you need send cat themed items to your swap partner and see what goodies you receive back. For more info check out the Spoiltpigs blog
Johnny Come Lately is going to take part in this swap too

Card of the week

Luchadors are Mexican wrestlers who take part in Lucha libre wrestling that is a wrestling style from Mexico that involves high flying action and masks.
Probably the most commonly known Luchardor is Elsanto who wore a silver mask and wrestled for over five decades during which he became a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man. When he died he was apparently buried with his silver mask on.
So if you know a budding wrestler that likes to wear a mask this card would be ideal for them.

Card of the week

Whoops not been updating this weekly so I thought post one today and one on Wednesday and it will make up for my lazy style. The first card this week is going to be a wedding card as it was a friends wedding this weekend and it was a lovely day with home made bunting, cake and chutney and jam favours.

Japanese Paper Balloons

We have the very popular paper balloons back in stock. Just blow them up and you have a cute creature to decorate as you please our favourite is the elephant

Built by Wendy

Feeling skint and got nothing to wear but don't want to wear Primark like everyone else in city, then why don't you make something yourself. We were browsing for some cool patterns to make something and came across the site Built by Wendy. The designer Wendy is based in New York where there are stores to buy off the rail items that are classic with a contemporary twist but it also offers you a chance to buy patterns to make your own outfit and if you wanted, your own wardrobe. We are going to challenge ourselves down at johnny come lately and make ourselves something and we will keep you posted via our blog buy patterns from Simplicity website. Happy Sewing x

Mothers Day Cards

Mothers Day is on the 14th March and we all like to treat our mums to thank her putting up with us. Here is a selection of the cards we have in stock.

La Familia Green Cards

Here at Johnny Come Lately we have been stocking La Familia Green cards since we opened and we are always very excited to get our we parcel of hand made cards from across the waters. Above are some new designs we have in store today along with the old fave hammertime card. We so far are the only stockists in Scotland

Valentine Cards of the Day

Only 2 days to Valentines day. Here are some cards from pango with cute his and hers magnets

Valentine Card of the Day

Invite someone to join you in the tunnel of Love with this hand printed card from Lisa Jones