Shiver me timbers landlubbers, there be treasure ahead!

Talk about forbidden treasures!

Sat nestled amongst 2000 deliciously tempting chocolate coins sounds like any woman’s idea of absolute heaven and Joanne is no exception! This week she found herself knee deep in the chocolately treats as she produced a whopping 235 mini Treasure Chests for a very special kind of party. Altogether now… “Oooh- Arrrr….”

Contacted by Jo Bircumshaw back in August 2010, Joanne was asked if Vintage Twee would do the honour of making the unique party favours for the “Pirates and Pearls” MS Society Ball, presented by the lovely Calum Best to be held on Saturday, March 26th at Mere Golf and Country Club, Knutsford, Cheshire. The purpose of this fantastic event is to raise money for the MS Society, helping the sufferers and carers of this debilitating condition with much needed funds for respite. Jo, the organiser of the Piratey themed party spotted the eye catching Vintage Twee Treasure Chest favours in an edition of Cheshire Life and swiftly ordered 140 of the cute boxes. As the popularity for the event increased, the boxes multiplied and soon there were enough gold coins, pearls, skulls and crossbones piling up that Joanne could have filmed Pirates of the Caribbean 5 in her studio!

Each guest of the event will enjoy swashbuckling banter with the party’s very own Captain Jack Sparrow before being seated at the Captains Table for a delicious meal and goodies. Treated to fire entertainers before dancing the night away to live music from local band Beaver, at the end of the evening the guests get to keep their own Treasure Chest as a fitting memoir of the bash.

As you can imagine this has been an absolutely amazing opportunity for Joanne and Vintage Twee to take a step in to the world of mass production (still, all created by one pair of hands! Oh, and a little help from Mum and Dad who faithfully filled up the treasure chests with coins until they started thinking they were actually about to board the Black Pearl themselves!). We’d like to wish Calum, Jo and the team the very best of luck for Saturday night and hope they raise lots of pieces of eight for this well deserving charity. And not forgetting a hearty thank you for choosing Vintage Twee to provide the Treasure Chests and we sincerely hope the guests feel like they’re taking a little piece of buccaneering booty home with them!

Long John Silver would be proud!

A year in the life of Vintage Twee!!

Yesterday marked the anniversary of a particularly special day in the life of Vintage Twee- it was the grand old age of one year old!! It seems almost unbelievable that this time last year Joanne had just about started cutting, sticking and being badgered in to making her big sister’s wedding invites (thanks, sis!). Now, here we are celebrating a year of creativity with a cosy Vintage Twee birthday party!

Just a small piece.. oh go on then, make it a big one!

Gathering together on Little Underbank in Stockport, Joanne was greeted at the bash by Nia and Shaun, the duo behind the fantastic Gallery 6 Studios. http://www.niafiori.com/ http://www.gallery6studios.com/ Swiftly joined by Claire from the popular English Wedding blog http://www.english-wedding.com/ , the four of them popped open the champers and attempted to salvage a glass each from the bit that Shaun didn’t feed to the floor! Traditional birthday balloons decorated the room and of course it wouldn’t be a birthday party without a cheeky slice of deliciously calorific cake… The high point of the day though was the amazing collage board that Nia had thoughtfully made, presenting in true celebrity style all of Vintage Twee’s best bits! Spending the next 3 hours chatting and putting the world to rights, they all discussed how far they’d come in their respective businesses and how they’d managed to turn what once seemed like pipe dreams in to reality. It was a real celebration of all the hard work, long nights and trips to the Post Office Joanne has made in the last year but I think we’d all agree it has certainly been worth it to see this special business flourish.

I’d like to add how very proud we all are of Joanne and her achievements this past year, she always was the creative one in the family and when we were kids she could turn her hand to anything if it involved a glue stick and some glitter! Not sure if mum and dad ever thought they’d be packaging up rows and rows of miniature cardboard teapots whilst watching Corrie of an evening but they’ve been invaluable to getting all the deliveries out on time!

So, all that’s left to say is here’s to many more years of Vintage Twee and its rise to global stardom with Joanne and her antique treasures at the helm. HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY VINTAGE TWEE! xxxxx



Jazz hands, Claire (left) and Nia??

                                                         

And the award for best actress goes to...

This week was the much anticipated, celebrity event of the year, awarding the silver screen’s finest with that recognisable golden statue. If you were one of the millions that tuned in to the Oscars, you may have failed to notice glamorous young Joanne in her pearl earrings strutting confidently down the red carpet and wondered to yourself just how she managed to keep her “English rose” skin tone over in sunny LA.



"I'd just like to thank...."

Ok, so maybe Vintage Twee didn’t quite make it to the star studded Oscars but this week was quite possibly the beginnings of a new relationship with a camera of the motion kind. Joanne had previously agreed (in one of those moments where you agree to something without really thinking it through, e.g., signing up for a 5km run when you can barely trot round the block) to filming two adverts for Warrington Market to be shown on prime time TV and soon found herself panic buying the Spanx and hoping she didn’t fluff her lines!

Working together with Steve Pickering, the marketing manager for the fantastic Warrington Indoor Market, Joanne is the star of the latest advertising campaign which will be shown every evening the week before each of the markets, right before the North West settle down with their cuppa’s to watch Emmerdale. The first advert will see Joanne, in full party mode, introducing the Fair Trade Market to be held in Warrington on Saturday 12th March whilst the second will prove that Vintage glam really is the look of 2011 as she demurely promotes the Vintage Market on Saturday 30th April. Kitted out in a stunning floral dress and looking every inch the vintage beauty, Joanne enjoyed every second of the filming (despite wondering if the camera really does add 10 pounds) and is an interesting mix of excited, nervous and downright terrified to see the finished version be screened next week!

Make sure you don’t miss a) the advert and b) the unique, fabulous fairs, on from 10am-4pm, so pencil them in your diaries now! Joanne tells me she’s sharpening her quill ready for the barrage of autograph requests sure to come pouring in as she is aiming to flutter her TV lashes at the Vintage Market in April! Come down, say hello and purchase something from the brilliant Vintage Twee range (Joanne has assured me she’ll stay grounded despite the fame….)

The link to the adverts will follow for all Vintage Twee fans not living in the North West and it will be put on the Vintage Twee Facebook page once it's available.

Joanne would like to add thank you to Steve and colleague Paul for the wonderful opportunity to be part of the best indoor market in the UK and is looking forward to the offers flooding in from Tinsel Town!