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

Tree of Life Candle Covers

I usually do my designs to scale. I don't set out to do this particularly but it turns out this way and I like it. Birds, flowers and butterflies are usually about life sized.  This tree totally is obviously not but it's cute so it can stay!

How sweet it looks with Kirtsy Elsons houses. I won these at the Hebden Spirit auction and they now live happily on my mantelpiece. Kirsty has a remarkable skill for turning old bits of battered wood and rusty screws into things of beauty. Have a look at her work here.

I've just added my Tree candle to my website. You can see it here.

Time to celebrate

Will you join me for a celebration?

There is only five days left to go until the official launch of Illuminate into the big wide world. Then it'll be available on Amazon (can't get a signed copy there though can you ;)) and in shops!

I'm having a little celebration at Radiance on the 10th of November between 2-5pm. Whether you can make it in person or just in spirit I hope you will raise a glass with me!

First review in The Simple Things

This beautiful magazine first jumped off the shelf at me in WHSmiths in Kings Cross station and I sat and read it all the way home on the train with the fields rolling by and the sun setting soaking up the beautiful photographs and being inspired by life's simple pleasures. I wished I could be in it...

So you can imagine my excitement when two issues later here I am. Woohoo!

They have given Illuminate a lovely review. It's first review.

Being in this magazine is like being wrapped up in a big cosy blanket. I'm enjoying being all snuggled up.

Meeting up with the Starry Blue Sky

We were here this morning standing on this jetty in South Queensferry on the outskirts of Edinburgh looking over the water to the majestic Fourth Bridge. We broke up our long (492 mile) journey home from Skye with an overnight stay at Rhiannons house. She has a lovely house that looks out over the water and an enviable studio at the top of her steep garden that looks out right over the top of her house. 

I met Rhiannon (@starrybluesky on Twitter) on The Do What You Love retreat last year and we shared the Summer Isles book binding adventure earlier this year too. It was lovely to visit her world. 

This is one of her polaroid prints available on Etsy and you can see more of her photography on her website. This is her blog where she has just written about her trip to Hello Etsy conference in Eindhoven. I'm off to have a read of that right now...