Christmas Coffee Morning 2011

...a crazy, hoarding, uplifting, testing, busy, charming, floral, exciting, direction changing, life learning, exhausting, vintage inspiring, energising, printed and embroidered kinda of year....

Some weeks have blended into months due to the nature of the diary and the demands of being self employed. Sometimes having to sacrifice family time to meet deadlines, working into 'silly o'clock' when all you want to do is sleep, days having to be an accountant when all you want to do is get your teeth into designing or finishing an order.....but nothing can match being your own boss. Every morning I start the day feeling energised, as each day is different, interesting and challenging. The last two years, since I became a designer/maker of stationery full time have been so rewarding. One of the rewards that I hold dear to my heart are all the new friends that I have met as I have been step-stoning my way from month to month. So a few weeks ago I decided to open the studio doors and hold my very first Christmas Coffee Morning a small gathering of new friends and people I desperately needed to catch up with. Thank you all so much for popping along and making this mad ol' stationer a happy one....and thank you for helping to eat lots of delicious home baking and thank goodness for Marks and Spencers!! Oh and I can strongly recommend Betty's Christmas Tea Blend.......

So here are a few pics of the morning taken by a special little lady who I love dearly, who also happens to be a wonderful photographer - the one and only Becky Mitchell....

This is my last post of the year and I promise to be back with more frequent posts next year - lots of new exciting ventures to document. Lots of inspiring images, me on my travels, new designs and colour palettes, a few little special offers, a few twists and turns, exciting collaborations, and a vintage fair that I will be helping to organise....

So I wish you a wonderful time with your friends and families, wrap up warm, love and be loved, fill your house with laughter, good music, good food, flash those fairy lights, mark what 'you' want to watch in the Radio Times, write your wish list for 2012, and ensure you put on at least 7lbs in pure indulgence, mine tends to be accumulated through posh crisps, baileys and a whole christmas cake to myself (I love marzipan), so deck your hallways with bells and holly and I will leave you with the christmas song that is my 'christmas guilty pleasure' So before you go and leave me and enjoy your christmas I want to know what is your 'christmas guilty pleasure song'..................