Paper Panda And The Unfortunate Incident With The Concentrated Juice

Last week we travelled to Stoke on Trent for the Bargain Hunt audition. We were very super nervous but excited too because we've been Bargain Hunt nerds, sorry, fans since it first aired with the lovely David Dickenson. We always thought we could totally do it and buy lots of wonderfully weird things to sell at auction and make enough money to go into early retirement, or at least enough to get a Mr Whippy on the way home.

There were eight couples altogether, some really nice, and infinitely more unusual/interesting than us, but as only four get to go through to the show I'm not reet keen on our chances to be honest. We did a mock bonus buy reveal which went okay (it was a Mickey Mouse spoon worth a fiver) but when it came to the practise 'Tim' interview I totally fluffed it and seemed to lose the ability to put a sentence together.

"Hello, I'm Louise and I cut paper and am also called Panda and and and...I like animals with clothes on...riding bikes and such...maybe wearing a jolly hat...?" *sweat drips from face as dayglo red fleece makes you feel like you're standing in a small, low budget microwave* "...and I like cake".

Mr P: "I like, um...sculpting and dead things".

So, I'm not sure we'll get on the show as we made a bit of a corn beef hash of things, but it was a proper jolly day!

Also this week, I worked on a rather large therefore scruffy design that if it works out will wrap around a new posh cup. Now I've said it, it will probably be totally poo, but the intention is there. I got up before midday and everything...
In other totally unrelated news, imagine the headline:
"Paper Panda And The Unfortunate Incident With The Concentrated Juice"
I'm a very well hydrated bear after accidentally drinking a litre bottle of cranberry concentrated juice yesterday thinking it was one of those snazzy high tech energy drinks. Yup, a full bottle, I am THAT stupid. Rapidly chugged eight bottles of Evian in a vain attempt to dilute it in my tummy and by jumping up and down I managed to not only look like a total divvi but also created an unusual sloshing sound much to the delight of my cat.
The following seven hours were spent on the loo. I did catch up with Word Brain, though...

New in the shop this week - stunning prints taken from the original sketches handdrawn by Mr.P

Mr P was given 4 words to make into each miniature illustration that led to this amazing array of different drawings, often featuring objects that wouldn't ever usually be seen together such as a hen nesting on a pile of pencils.

These five designs are only available for 1 month, so don't miss out!

http://www.paperpanda.bigcartel.com/product/aceo-prints-taken-from-mr-p-s-sketches

One cup (two...no!) design:
10 hours
3 Adam & Joe pod casts
37 blades
2 hares
1 leftover bottle of water from The Unfortunate Cordial Incident
1 Roast dinner at Nanny P's
1 badger
1 piece of 160gsm hammered paper
5 Adam Ant Songs
7 Cokes
84 chewing gums
1 episode of Bargain Hunt
1 overused rubber (Helix Oxford)
2 broken nails
2 pencils (HB and 3B)
1 bum dance to Go Do by Jonsi
1 conversation where I try to convince TimSam to do a shampoo advert

Today I...
- Celebrated Chewy's big one birthday!
- Made some ickle tiny papercuts.
- Got 68 points for 'earlier' in Scrabble.
- Had curry on jacket potato for dinner.
- Made a papercut cat with a tiny gold mouse inside.
- Switched from full fat Coke to Curiosity Cola for the day (yum!).
- Wore my flip flops for the first time in 2015.
- Was very jealous of TimSam's hair which looked particularly salon fresh today. (Look out for TimSam's Beauty Tips in the next newsletter!).
- Painted my nails pink but shall continue to take photos of my cuts in progress in unusual ways until the two nails I broke grow back.
- Listened to 'Betty Davis Eyes' on repeat for 35 minutes until I was convinced that I do indeed have Betty Davis eyes (not that I'd know, I haven't checked).
- Missed the Mr Whippy van (that constitutes a day of dieting then really, doesn't it?)
- Wrote this post then...*looks into the future* watches Bargain Hunt

The Rock and roll lifestyle of a panda wink emoticon

Until next week folks, over and out!

Colouring in is the new rock n roll!

How fab are these new Alice vinyl decals!
Available in lots of sizes to suit any need. For your laptop, tablet, phone or other gadgetry, or even large versions for your wall, ceiling, table or other flat surface! 
Basically you can stick them on anything you like*

*Not recommended to stick on pets or children ;)

http://www.paperpanda.bigcartel.com/category/vinyl-wall-art

Speaking of Alice, we have some good news!
We now have a UK supplier for our fabrics, so the postage won't be too high. The other good news is, you can sell whatever you make with our fabric!
Here's just one of the five designs we have available, right now, through our partner site Woven Monkey.

http://www.wovenmonkey.com/designers/paper-panda/

Remember when you were a child... go on, sit back and remember some of the fun things you liked to do.
Remember getting the big box of coloured pencils out (mine was a Fortnum and Mason biscuit tin, cos I'm well posh, loike) and spending an afternoon just colouring in? 
Why should kids have all the fun? Colouring in is the new rock and roll! 

The super-talented Joanne Elliott has made three colouring in sheets exclusively for us! Look how fun and detailed they are.

http://www.paperpanda.bigcartel.com/product/guest-artist-colouring-sheets-by-joanne-elliot

What's all this then?! A new template, of course! 

This would make a perfect teacher gift. The wise ol' owl is teaching a class. 

You will receive the template to cut your own owl teacher papercut.
You will also receive a second sheet that you can print off with the backing paper, as shown.

You could customise the background yourself and pop it in with the a special message or the teacher's name too, for a really personal and unique gift.

Commercial licences are available for this too! 

http://www.paperpanda.bigcartel.com/product/papercut-diy-design-template-teacher-2015

Well, that's it for another week, I have my Bargain Hunt audition tomorrow, wish me luck!

New Guest Artist!

Chatty Nora is the newest guest artist to join us!

Jane is a graphic designer working under the pseudonym name of Chatty Nora. Since the arrival of her daughter, she's been working from home in the tiny village of Towton. Their home is shared with a completely bonkers cocker spaniel named Henry, and an aged agoraphobic cat name Louie. Chatty Nora is named after her parents' cat, a little chat noir. ;)

She brings us this awesome typographical piece.



Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

—Ronald E. Osborn

This piece is a hand pulled screen print. It has been hand drawn and then reworked in illustrator, you can see a few in progress shots on Chatty Nora's Instagram acc - chattynora1.)

11" x 14" in size. Shown in black ink on ivory paper.

Jane brings this piece to us with this backstory...
Here's how it came about. A little while ago a message appeared in my inbox from the lovely Paper Panda, it was a nice little surprise as it had been a long time since we’d last chatted! Anyway, she asked if I would like to be a guest artist and produce something for her shop, something aimed at crafters and creatives...tricky, we're all so different! So I decided I would think about Paper Panda’s incredible creative journey. When I first knew her she was mainly working on typographic pieces and some stunning Alice in Wonderland scenes, it was all going well. Then she picked up a pencil and a sketch pad and started drawing, she developed a lovely little bunny character (that was soon joined by a hedgehog) and that was when it all seemed to go 'BOOM!' for Panda! She went out of her comfort zone and did something new, people loved it and I think from that point she went from strength to strength, her following grew every day and she was becoming a true inspiration for crafters everywhere. So that's where this piece came from, I found this quote and thought it was the perfect message to inspire us to move on from what we know, to grow, and to become amazing (hopefully!).

You can get your very own copy here -

We absolutely love this inspirational quote, do you have a favourite?

A to-do list.

My to-do list:
- Tidy the house for a workshop tomorrow (*note* hide Mr P's insects!)
- Make another 10 templates for a magazine supplement
- Complete 4 lots of interview questions
- Wash a tee shirt to wear tomorrow that doesn't have a swear word on it
- Make a tiny 'Twinkle Bat' for a lady visiting tomorrow
- Finish the rest of my ACEO's
- Brush animals as the weather is warm and we have a carpet of beige fur on the floor
- Answer 9428 messages
- Set up for the workshop tomorrow
- Eat Mr Whippy
- Pack for Poppy as she's away this weekend
- Lots and lots of others things that I can't remember.

What have I done instead? I made a cute kitty papercut and decide to put sticky tape over any offending words on my top *wink*

This gorgeous piece has been listed on eBay this week - it ends tomorrow.
(Saturday 11th April)
You can view it on eBay here.

'Freedom'
A red flash
Over the hills
Through the night
Until Tomorrow.

**NEW LOWER PRICES**

Both our full beginner's kit and the sheets only mini kit have had their prices revised and lowered to £25 and £19.99 respectively! Huzzah! 

You can find them both in our online store - www.paperpandacuts.co.uk 

Oh and one final note - 

This little Rhino had a mani/pedi this week! *winks* 

Happy Friday everyone!

A Dutch Tale...

So, we went to Holland last week! You had no idea? Well, we did, honest! That's the beauty of working online is that the interwebbynet goes everywhere with you!

Did we have a nice time? Well...

It was up to Mr P this time to find a place to stay. We got to a house in a great location and went in to find 5 flights of stairs that had no right to call themselves stairs as my toes only just fit on each tread. I'm scared of heights so this was a challenge for me but we made it (and I made a mental note to abseil down again), it was like a nod to my old student days though, and we spent a terrible night on grey stained sheets counting the different electrical wires hanging from the ceiling and wondering what unusual bacteria we could take home as a souvenir from the kitchen. You could keep the city of Liverpool stoned on the amount of joint ends in the ashtray (no, not ours!) and sadly the clothes and shoes STILL IN THE WARDROBE didn't fit.

It was BAD. So the next morning we legged it to our favourite hotel (my choice!) and spent a relaxing few days watching movies, visiting our favourite places and shops to buy wonderful artwork, doing research, being totally inspired and drawing aceo's (yes, really!) before heading back on Friday. Well, we tried to head back, anyway...did you hear about the Amsterdam power cut? Well, that. So we checked in our luggage and walked the 72 miles to the gate to hear that the flight had been cancelled! No more flights that day. Oh, not only that but they no longer knew where our case was. Leaving the airport in a very grumpy mood we found no trains running and a 2 hour wait for a taxi.

Cue a frantic shopping trip trying to find size 20 clothes, toothbrush etc in Amsterdam at 4.30pm and a very expensive last minute hotel (didn't fancy the airport accommodation after the weeks earlier disaster) and yes, it was as hard as it sounds! All Dutch ladies are teeny tiny! I found some socks that fit me anyway.

This break had disaster written all over. £1900 in hotels, £300 taxi fares, 683 miles walked, 20 hours in the airport, 4 different beds, all my stuff kicking about somewhere in the world as the case still isn't back. If anyone sees a case with a cat scarf tied to it with rather large pants inside and a bra you could use as a parachute then I'd quite like it back please as I'm fond of them, being mine n'all. 

I got back yesterday, kicked off my shoes and got back to work...to relax 

wink emo

I made this...

In other news, we got a lot of new products this week! 

Three snazzy new spiral bound notepads...

...awesome wooden hanging decorations made by Shani...

...and another amazing print of a painting by DD from the Litus Gallery.

Sadly we won't be adding the TimSam wall vinyl to our range... April Fools! ;) 

Happy Easter everyone! Don't eat too much chocolate ;) xx

What a Wonderful Week!

Well, what a wonderful week we’ve had here at Panda HQ! There’s been tonnes going on….

We have made 4 original Paper Panda cuts live on eBay! There was the stunning ‘Infinity’, featuring Stag; then this evening we released ‘Serenity’, featuring the beautiful badger and his cub; then there’s ‘Buttercup’ and finally the fabulous ‘You Can Do It’ is finishing in the next few hours!

It’s also been a bumper week for guest artists, firstly, Martin Tomsky used his incredible artistry to design and create brooches based on PP designs, there was Bunny with a brolly, Bird with some balloons and FBH with a cupcake. Then we had Ullagami’s ‘LionHeart’ template, which can be yours for the very modest price 100 of your English pennies.

Talking of bumper, this week we sold some goodie bags *Huzzah*, costing just £20 plus P&P, each one contained a minimum of £30 worth of products. Each one was a total of mixture of items, including notebooks, mirrors, canvases, magnets, greetings cards, keyrings, badges, bottle openers - I could go on!

This was the week where all the admin staff (and TimSam) dressed in yellow for #wearyellowforseth, to raise awareness of a rare disease, which means little Seth will need a bone marrow transplant.

I hope you guys have had a great week too! Xx

And the winner is...

**Special Competition Time**
WIN a papercutting weekend away for you and a friend worth £600!

You will win:
A one night stay at the Old Manse Hotel for you and a friend (twin room, including breakfast). The hotel is situated next to the tranquil River Windrush, just a stones throw from Panda's house in beautiful Bourton on the Water, in the heart of the Cotswolds.
You will both come along to the workshop on Saturday 17th October 2015 to learn different aspects of paper cutting, including hints and tips from Mrs P herself - plus all the sandwiches and cake you can eat!
You will each receive a full Introductory Papercutting Kit, plus 10 DIY Templates from the current range.
You will each receive a signed copy of Mrs P's new book "20 To Make Papercutting".
PLUS £100 spending money each!

All you have to do to win this amazing prize is pick a friend and say why you'd like to win! Please feel free to spread the love by liking and sharing this post - sharing is caring, after all.
A limited number of workshops dates are also available to purchase on 17/18th Oct, 14/15th Nov and 9/10th Jan 2016 here.
This prize is worth in excess of £600. It is non transferable.
The winner will be selected at random at 8pm on Sunday 22nd March. Paper Panda staff are not permitted to enter. Over 18s only.

Drum roll please...

 THE WINNERS ARE:

Rachel Yexley & Tory Victoria Gosden.

"I would bring my sister Tory Victoria Gosden who is one of the most talented, creative people I have ever known. She is currently facing and winning a battle with depression and agoraphobia which she has suffered with for many years. I would love to do this with her to show her how proud I am of all she has done and will do. X"

Congratulations ladies, can't wait to meet you! Please drop us an email Rachel -
admin@paperpandacuts.co.uk

Thank you so much for all of your entries, all of your lovely comments and reasons show what wonderful people you are! Until next time my lovelies! 

P xx 

The Weekly Bit!

'Lucky Dip' Aceo sketches (2 5/8" x 3 5/8") arrived and flew then out of the shop at almost the speed of light this week! They're all being drawn up and posted as we speak!

Artist Info:

Mrs P
AKA Louise Firchau is the artist behind the folk style Paper Panda papercuts. She created the characters Bunny & Bird, the naughty cake-eating FBH, and Jess & Brown Bear among others and is currently working on her second papercut design book.
Her sketches will be mostly in pencil with maybe a hint of watercolour in some.

Mr P
AKA Ryan Firchau is responsible for the darker, more gothic PP papercut designs but apart from Paper Panda he is a very much sought after artist in his own right, creating work for Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, also winning a BAFTA for designing computer games for Microsoft, he has created drawings and 3D concepts for many games and movies and is also a talented sculptor of scary stuff in The Room Of Death.
His sketches will be mainly in pencil and blood. (No, not really).

TimSam
AKA Sam Woropaj is head of...the PP packing room. He is very extremely tall, beardy and you can't understand a word he says. He likes cats, bakes cakes and refuses to wear the hat I bought him for Christmas with copulating reindeer on it.
If you pull TimSam out of the metaphorical hat then you're in for a treat. His scribble will be worth millions* in years to come and I wouldn't be surprised if he draws it in chocolate.

The examples shown here are:
Glitter, Dachshund, Wine & Alpaca (drawn by Mrs P)
Courage, Dragon, Mouse, Rainbow (drawn by Mr P)
Unicorn, Cupcake, Hedgehog, Cat (drawn by TimSam)
Stars, Friends, Happy, Courage (drawn by Mrs P)

We will donate £5 from each sale to the furry babies at Burford Blue Cross Centre - have a look here for more information about what they do.
http://www.bluecross.org.uk/17…/Burford-adoption-centre.html

Please allow up to 3 weeks for delivery as it will take some time for us to complete each one, especially as Mr P draws his 8963 times before he's happy.

*millions of, um, Yen.

**NEW STUFFS**

You might remember ages ago I featured the work of freelance illustrator and graphic artist Martin Tomsky. He's properly talented, creating the most amazing scenes and brooches, laser cut from plywood.

Well, lucky old you can now can buy the brooches in the guest artist area our shop *wees a bit*, there's four stunning woodland creatures to choose from, robin, fox, mouse or rabbit.

Which is your favourite?



**Special Competition Time**
WIN a papercutting weekend away for you and a friend worth £600!
You will win:
A one night stay at the Old Manse Hotel for you and a friend (twin room, including breakfast). The hotel is situated next to the tranquil River Windrush, just a stones throw from Panda's house in beautiful Bourton on the Water, in the heart of the Cotswolds.
You will both come along to the workshop on Saturday 17th October 2015 to learn different aspects of paper cutting, including hints and tips from Mrs P herself - plus all the sandwiches and cake you can eat!
You will each receive a full Introductory Papercutting Kit, plus 10 DIY Templates from the current range.
You will each receive a signed copy of Mrs P's new book "20 To Make Papercutting".
PLUS £100 spending money each!

All you have to do to win this amazing prize is tag a friend and say why you'd like to win! Please feel free to spread the love by liking and sharing this post - sharing is caring, after all.
A limited number of workshops dates are also available to purchase on 17/18th Oct, 14/15th Nov and 9/10th Jan.

The winner will be selected at random at 8pm on Sunday 22nd March. Paper Panda staff are not permitted to enter. Over 18s only. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook.

It's here! It's time! The book is ready! Hooray!



I've been busy signing hundreds of the book for the lucky few of you that bagged yourself one. Have you got yours?
They are available in limited quantities in our online shop now. We're posting as quickly as we can - and of course it's dedicated to you lot - yes, YOU (and poor Mr P haha!)...


On a final note this week it's with great sadness we say farewell to
Sir Terry Pratchett.

 April 28th 1948 - March 12th 2015

I started reading Terry's Discworld series of books 20 years ago. My first cat was called Greebo (I always said when I got a kitty it would be!) after the feline figure in the books. I even have it tattooed on my arm. He means a great deal to us here and although we are not shocked, we are deeply saddened and our thoughts are with his family, our friends Sandra & Rob Wilkins and Paul Kidby who created the most wonderful book cover artwork.
You will be very greatly missed and it's been a pleasure helping your characters come to life in paper and working with you and your team over the past couple of years. It was the greatest honour.
Rest in peace Terry, may you live on in your words as we pass your wonderful books to our children for them to love too.
RIP Sir Terry. xx

Exciting happenings at PP HQ!!

Hello Hello! Welcome to March! Sheesh! How quickly is this year going?!

A BIG change for three of our templates this week!!
The female & male heart designs and floral frame design!



These all now have a commercial license for you to purchase!! What does that mean? Well, it means you are purchasing the rights to resell up to 100 papercuts for 1 year.
You can find full Terms & Conditions on our website here -
http://paperpanda.bigcartel.com/terms-conditions

How to purchase:
For example you want to resell the Daddy Heart.

Add 'Daddy Heart' (£7.50) to the cart.
Add 'Commercial Rights' (£100) to the cart.
Total £107.50

Voila! You will be emailed the template and a copy of your license agreement that will have all the details you need! Don't lose this! *wink*

So, who likes surprises?
I do! I love surprises! Well would you look at that, we have a surprise ready and waiting!

I can tell you that it is a template... it features Bunny and Bird... and it's suitable for beginners, so if you've just finished your starter kit, this would be a great template to try next! You can get it here.
And if you have subscribed to our newsletter, you can get this surprise template at half of it's already bargain price! 
You can sign up to our newsletter here - www.eepurl.com/2WJ9P


I've spent a morning (yes, MORNING, I totally got up before midday!) being coughed on in the doc surgery to be told that I gotta have a biiiig mean needle in my elbows for 'tennis elbow' from sitting at my desk cutting all day. Bum! She suggested I, erm, stop cutting...or have nasty needles. Hmmph. No fair! I'm guessing with this 'job' I'm just gonna be a crooked mess in another 5 years, with my knobbly hands, dead legs and ruined neck/shoulders. If you are a papercutter please take care of yourself by having a slope to work on (brings your work closer to your face), take regular breaks, have chiro massages to get your neck moving again and and and...or just ignore it all like me and turn into a wizened crone!


 I've been working on a birdcage template for a supplement magazine of templates with my name on them for Craftseller. My list includes all kinds from card designs to hearts, houses and Christmas stuff (am I the first to mention the 'C' word this year do you think?) which is super exciting.
*wiggles legs to stop them going dead*

Well well well, what do we have here?
Another guest template!



This one is by the amazing Mad March Moon Designs, look how detailed it is! Check out all the animals in there, I could look at this for hours. This comes in two sizes, A4 and A3, the A3 one is clever because it's two A4 pages you can join together! This will make it easier to cut as the details will be larger It's like two templates for the price of one! x Best of all, it comes with a commercial license option, so you can sell this one... super excitie-pants! You can buy it here.


Also this week saw these four gorgeous new cards landing at PP HQ!

These designs are perfect for Mother's Day! You can get them from the online store here

Each has a different phrase and is coloured in a beautiful delicate shade! They're blank inside for your own lovely message to your mum! *aww*

Printed in full colour on luxury 300gsm card with a brown envelope. 148x148mm.



Woman down! No cutting for me any time soon due to walking into an industrial sized bin knob. No other way to describe it. It hurts. A LOT.


I have to be the clumsiest bear in the world! Can't move it without it hurting and there's one helluva bruise under the ink I'm sure. Enforced rest - buggrit!!!
Didn't like sprouts and parsnips suck so they have been sacrificed for the greater good. *wink*



I'm off to rest my arm. *rings bell for ice cream*
Have a great weekend folks! P xx

And the winner is...

Well, there were around 75 of you in the running and three names have been picked in the traditional Panda way, completely randomly with the list of orders. The three originals will be packaged up and will be leaving Panda Mansion on Monday via Special Delivery to get to the lucky recipients as soon as possible!!
**DRUMROLL**
And the winners are -

Lauren Ballard

Lezley Galloway

Christine Harris


If that is you, then don't forget to answer the door to postie in the week (doesn't matter if you're still in your PJs) because you'll have to sign for your original Paper Panda papercut. We'd LOVE to see a photo of you with it. Congratulations to all three winners!!

Thanks so much to everyone who took part. If you weren't the winner, then I do hope you love your Oz templates!- thanks heaps for joining in!! You're awesome.
Please drop us an email if you are a winner!
P xxx

Miniature Mad!!

Phew! What a busy week!!

We kicked off the week with Tiny Tuesday, which saw you lot doing copious amounts of finger exercises in an attempt to get your hands on one and a lot of you did *Huzzah*, while all that was going on there were pancakes galore at Panda HQ, we all enjoyed home-made chocolate sauce on ours…yumm!! There was nothing tiny about them I can tell you!!


But the tiny things bug really did hit Panda HQ this week, I went all tiny things mad and created two of my recent cuts in miniature! I managed to cut ‘home’ to the size of a postage stamp! An actual stamp!


Next up, we launched a new guest artist section in our shop! And so far have a template by the lovely ‘Made by Julene’ and a lovely fine art print by DD at the Litus Gallery! But that’s not it! Oh no! We will be adding more artists shortly, so keep your eyes peeled.

Spread the love & Tiny Tuesday!

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
There's an offer,
in the store for you...

3 for 2 on greetings cards. Use the code 'ILOVEYOU'

Happy Valentine's Day you lovely lot. *insert gushy, soppy, lovey-dovey appreciation here* *wink*

www.paperpandacuts.co.uk

(The boring bit - Flat rate discount of £2.70 when 3 cards are added to cart. One use per transaction.To purchase more than 3 cards & activate discount, please checkout seperately. Not valid with any other codes. Valid until 11pm GMT 14.2.15)

I've been meaning to make this for my friend Marnie (Marnie Makes on Facebook!) for the longest time! Finally sent it over ready for her to open today - Valentines Day! Aww. She loved it, there is a little video on her page, where she opens it. It's the sweetest thing. If you haven't checked her work out, then you really should. Go - on go now! *nudges*

Tiny Tuesday is coming up on this Tuesday the 17th of February! Don't miss out. Pop over to the online store to see the originals, being added right up until the get go! ;)

We had so many of you lovely folk ordering our Valentines hearts for your loved ones! We're super touched by the response and truly hope they love them too!

A little update on Richard, seeing as we're spreading a little love around this Valentines Day.
He's doing well, has a roof over his head, is clean shaven and has some new clothes. He's already had one interview which went fantastically! We're all overwhelmed with your support for Richard and for all those that have been inspired to pay it forward too! 

Have a most wonderful weekend and we'll be back next week with more news from PP!

Raising For Richard.

After coming back from a rucksack drop in Cheltenham. (Remember a couple of months back I posted about filling up bags of stuff for the homeless? Well, that.)
I met three people that evening, Jo, John & Richard. Richard surprised me, although I don't know why, I like to think I have an open mind but I wasn't expecting a philosopher with multiple degrees under his belt who used to be a top Michelin star chef. We chatted for quite a while. He gets to go to the library for an hour each day. He's okay for food as people are actually very generous and he told me to save my money when I offered to buy him his dinner as the cafe around the corner provides it most evenings. I asked him what would really make a difference to his life and he said a laptop. A laptop? Not my first choice if I'd have to guess, but he said he makes meal plans for restaurants and gets emails from old clients asking for his help and an hour just isn't enough time to get something together before he has to leave the library again.
He told us his story as to why he was on the street. Yes, he does actually sleep there too, he doesn't go to a hostel. He was reading Tolstoy. Tolstoy!
We decided to help Richard out! Starting up a Yimby fundraising page (here) to raise £500 to buy him a cheap laptop/bag/mifi stick with any extra going towards a roof over his head and wifi time. It reached well over the target in the first night - so thank you very much each and every one of you!! 

This will make a remarkable difference to Richard & help get him back on his feet!! We are currently at a WHOPPING £1200! How ruddy marvellous!


For any of you interested in what we did and you'd like to do it yourselves, we packed a plain, cheap rucksack with the following:
Tissues
Wash kit
First aid kit
Lip balm
Ear plugs
Underwear
Socks
Floor mat
Hat
Gloves
Snood
Fleece blanket
Pen
Stamps
Writing paper & envelopes
Book
Wind-up torch
Lighter
Food

If you choose to go out to deliver yourselves please go in pairs. Also if you pop a note inside the bag saying what is inside and where it came from then if anyone wonders where they got it from they can produce it.
There are organisations that distribute them for you too, like The Rucksack Project.

It's really bloody cold out there. Let's try and make a difference xx