Forty

Yesterday I had a big birthday. It was quite possibly the best one ever. All day family, friends, food, treats, and the best thought out personal presents.

Emily, my lovely sister has recently discovered a flair for cake decorating and with each birthday she has made us beautiful personalised birthday cakes.  She arrived with the family in tow and one of her big white cake boxes. What would mine be? Something lamp related maybe? 

It was my big armchair and my cats! Absolute genius! 

My Mum made me a gorgeous quilt for Christmas and all I have been doing since Christmas is sitting under it and my cats, chilling and reading and recharging my batteries so it was perfectly fitting. 

And Emily recreated my quilt in ICING! Soooo clever.

Here's my Dad and the cat boys having the quilt experience...

...and here's my Dad forty years ago with his little newborn me!

Later on the evening Robert took 'pass the parcel' to a whole new level! Little did I know that for the last two months he has been tracking down my old far away friends, most of whom he hasn't even met. With every layer of the parcel one of them would leave a message or poem and perhaps a photo from years passed. 

There were tears and belly laughs as we passed the parcel, not knowing who would pop out next. There were sweets too, just like the ones I remember from all those childhood birthday parties. It was altogether brilliant. Robert my love you are so beautifully thoughtful and have such fantastic ideas!

I like 40 already. A nice round number and the beginning of a new decade for me. Nice to be setting out into it surrounded by such a tremendous bunch of people.

I feel so very loved. 

Happy Christmas!

(I bought some Kirsty Elson house decorations for the tree)

Hooray it's Christmas and it's time for a big rest. This season has been busier than ever before (see, no blogging for weeks...how I have missed it) and me and the elves (Matt, my Dad and Bryoney) have been busying away in the studio making lots and lots of lamps for people Christmas presents. Nice to think how many there will be underneath Christmas trees all over the world right now!

This year has been awesome and I'm looking forward to putting my feet up for a couple of weeks, surrounded by friends, family and cats and dreaming about my new studio (moving in on 8th January) and all that is to come! I'll even be having a fortieth birthday in there too (bring it on, this nice round number)!

Look out for issue 5 of The Simple Things magazine, out on the 27th. I've got a lovely lovely feature in there so no doubt I will be back on the blog then to share it!

 Hope you have a wonderful, cosy, sparkly Christmas of lovliness!

Our new studio

I've been keeping this photo open on my desktop today to remind me of the wondrousness that is to come. Look how big it is (Sarah's wide angle lens does exaggerate the space but that's fine by me)! It is what's keeping me (just about) sane as we deal with the chaos that is December with a very busy shop/website and a teeny studio to make lamps and wrap lots of parcels. Honestly getting from side of the room to the other is an obstacle course!

It's coming on tremendously. Remember the carpet and the blown vinyl wallpaper? Well it's all gone gone GONE. 

 JP Renovations carried our 86 square metres of laminate floor up the stairs and laid it in three days. AND they took all the carpet away. You've got to love them for that!

And Emma stripped and steamed all the wallpaper off and and is working her magic with the roller (whilst dreaming of cycling..when she's not painting she is an awesome triathalete).

There is a sense of peace in there...and the light in the morning is golden. We can't wait to move in. New Year, new studio! :)

Winter sunrise

We've been blessed with some cold and frosty blue sky days this week and the other day we were out early enough to see the sun rise over the hill.

Such golden light.

The sun doesn't reach the bottom of the valley much at this time of year so it's nice to get up high and be in it.

A night of lights and celebration

There was a tangible buzz in the air as the night drew in on Thursday. People were coming to Hebden Bridge from far and wide to enjoy the Valley of Lights and it was really really EXCITING!

The parade was awesome, full of energy and celebration and kids proudly carrying the paper lanterns that they had made. The TV cameras were there to soak it all up. You can get a sense of the energy from this video on Look North.

There was a night market on the marina, the canal boats were all lit up 

and there were strange luminous shapes floating in the water..

I only got a far away view of the fire dancers on the old bridge but it looked amazing. There was music and entertainment all over town and such a great atmosphere. Everyone was blown away by the spectacle of it all.

The best bit was the brilliant sense of the community celebrating together how far we'd come since the floods in June. 

This town needed a party.

It was the most magical celebration.

Valley of Lights

Hebden Bridge has  had a hard time this year with the floods and everything and just at the moment as the shops re-open one by one there is a sense of celebration in the air. There has been soooo much effort made to keep spirits up and people have created many lovely events to bring people to our town from far and wide. It's been amazing.

One such event is the Valley Of Lights, which the vision of Totally Locally front man Chris Sands. How amazing it would be to light up the valley... to have a handmade parade of fantastical  lanterns ..an illuminated bike ride throughout the valley,  a glowing flotilla on the canal, music, fire dancers and night markets and celebration! 

Oh yes :) I would have to agree.

They gave all the shop keepers in Hebden, Mytholmroyd and Todmorden some print outs with the sweetest drawings by Angela Smyth to roll up and turn into lanterns to light our shop windows and they have been popping up all over town in anticipation of the event.

Of course I had to give them the Hannah Nunn treatment and do some cut outs, laminate them and turn them into lamps. They are in my shop window and people have been trying to buy them all weekend......No they are for Valley of Lights night!!! (you can make me an offer after the event...all proceeds to Valley of Lights)

You can check out the website for the event timetable.

I can't wait to take photos of the event. Pray for a dry night on Thursday. We need to celebrate!

Winter Wedding Candle Covers

I made these this afternoon for a lovely customer of mine who's daughter is having a December wedding.

One candle cover to go in the center of each wedding table.

They look lovely all lit up on the shop floor now it's dark outside. I don't want to blow them out!

Sunday Morning Walk

An early Sunday morning walk making the most of the sun while it was making an appearance and soaking up the lovely Autumn colours.

Such beauty.

I'm quite glad I'm not very good at lying in!

I found a new studio!

You see the mill  in the middle of this picture nestled among the houses and the trees? Well on the second floor down on the right hand side is my new studio space.

It is vast and spacious. I joked that I wanted to be able to do gymnastics in it...well here we are. Back flips a plenty ;)

I'm always a sucker for windows and the windows make this place. 

Right outside sit some copper beech trees which fill the windows with their rusty leaves.

It is vastly too huge for me alone but luckily it has two separate office spaces and it didn't take long for them to be snapped up, one by Robert so he doesn't have to work in our bedroom any more and one by Sarah Mason who will be moving out of her attic office at home.

We are too excited for words. Spaciousness and room to grow, surrounded by the best creative cohorts. It feels like a wonderful thing. 

We get the keys at the end of the month and then the transformation begins. We need to put a floor down....office carpet is just not the thing for all my tiny scraps of paper and poppers. And now I am planning how best to use the space.

A space for designing, a space for making and definitely a chair for dreaming....

Can't wait!

Well and truly launched!

What a lovely, sparkly, happy day we had yesterday at my book launch.

There was fizz served by lovely Suzi,

lots of people

 smiles

laughs

and lots and lots of hugs.

Cathy made the most DIVINE hazelnut macaroons inspired by The Simple Things mags recipe

and Hattie drew the sweetest picture. She even went online to research her drawing to see what colour eyes I had!

It was good to share an achievement

with neighbours

 and friends 

and celebrate 

with a few drinks.

Bryoney worked wonders behind the counter,

the girls entertained us with their sweetness,

and Sarah nipped about all afternoon taking these beautiful photos (lots more in this album).

The book feels well and truly launched now. Thanks to everyone who came and all the people who couldn't make it who were there in spirit.

I feel happy and grateful to you all. xxx