I don't even know where to begin. Time seems to come and go, faster than the blink of an eye. The last time I wrote I was staring down the barrel of summer. Now it is most definitely winter territory with frequent frosts and ice and the first snow of winter last weekend.
This week has seen us accidentally smash E's nightlight whilst DIY-ing (it was a beautiful bone china owl from whiterabbitengland.com and I sobbed a bit as we tried to mend him - we told her he tried to fly and didn't know that he couldn't because he isn't real just yet... more to soothe my soul than hers I think) and my iMac break. Mack. My friend who I spend most of my waking hours with these days (Christmas and lots of client projects on the go). I feel oddly bereft without his great big screen in front of me, definitely out of my comfort zone working on a laptop and oddly don't have as much focus. Almost like when I work on Mack it most definitely means business. Anyone else have any odd work rituals or partake in personification of their tools?
There was a real temptation when he went belly up on Friday to crawl under the duvet and blankets and stay there. And I did, for a bit anyway. It seemed almost serendipitous considering I've just joined up with Ali of incredibusy.com to do #SGIEW_hibernate - I'll be honest, I've never done sponsored posts before (I'm not the safest of bets really am I with a post every six months on average) and haven't done a lot of teaming up or the like. I'm a fairly solitary worker and ok with that mostly, but I wanted to try new ways of reaching out to people I know would be our shop people (the people I buy for when I get stock in - I never purchase with a profit in in mind, always a person) and fill the void in my personal connectivity that the dreaded algorithm has left. Ali mentioned doing SGIEW and I clearly said yes. A bit of fraught photographing and doing battle with the grey northern skies and a little bit of chocloate pinching during shooting later, there are already people joining in - and it is so lovely. I especially love it when previous shop customers give us a mention or reach out, with that familiarity it really does start to feel like a community again.
Anyway... Head over to Instagram or here to see how it works (T's and C's and all that) and join in. I'm looking forward to meeting some new people over the next fortnight, we (Alfie's Studio) are giving away a hunker-bundle (shown in images) to the best post too.
If you don't want to join in (because you aren't on social media - I know it isn't everyones thing) but very much like the look of the bundle you can buy it all here:
recycled wool blanket, Ocelot chocolate, botanical note card set, floral notepad, Earl of East London wildflower candle, Let the Adventures Begin card. There's even a cheeky 10% off your first online order if you sign up to the mailing list.
*shameless plug over*
