At home: Welcome to the garden

On days like this I feel very lucky to work from home - Sunshine, freshly baked gingernut biscuits cooling in the kitchen and a pot of tea by my side.  What better way to get in the right frame of mind for working on exciting business plans?

There is a cute water feature surrounded by white stones which remind me of island hopping in Greece, although we don't actually turn it on very often as it seems like such a waste of water.  The neighbour's cat tends to get more use of it, as a mirror in which to preen himself...

And there is a wall of black bamboo which reminds me of where I used to live in Kyoto, surrounded by rice fields and bamboo forest.

But my favourite bit of the garden is this sunken table, which has benches on each side and played host to a party of 15 with room to spare last weekend.  We had the clematis cut back a bit, got rid of the bindweed and tidied up the deck so it is now a lovely shady place to gossip, play cards or relax with a chilled glass of wine...  It looks magical at night, all lit up with small spotlights in the steps, and little candles on the table.  Now all we need is a barbecue...

Having lived in flats with no outdoor space for years, this is a very special place indeed. 

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For more peeks around our new house see here

Exciting creative business news

Sometimes great things seem to drop from the sky just when you need them.  This is one of those times.

With huge good fortune I have been chosen as one of around 15 young female entrepreneurs to be part of a groundbreaking business mentoring programme run by a leading national glossy magazine here in the UK.  This awesome opportunity partners us with some of the country's most inspiring and successful businesswomen.

Kanya King (photo courtesy of MOBO)

I have been gifted the most amazing mentor - Kanya King, founder of the MOBO Awards, the largest urban music awards in Europe with a television audience of 250 million.  Kanya is a creative entrepreneur of quite astonishing energy, talent and courage.  She founded the awards 15 years ago, remortgaging her house to pay for it.  Since then Kanya has won over the music industry, negotiating major TV and sponsorship deals along the way, to turn MOBO into one of the high points of the annual music calendar.  Not only has it been a huge commercial success, but it has also become a shining light for social responsibility within the industry. 

I am so excited that we will be working together on branding and expansion of my creative business - and there are some seriously cool things in the pipeline which I will share with you here soon.  I will also use this space to share the many things I know I am going to learn from Kanya, so stay tuned, and get yourself some mentoring by proxy! 

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This year's MOBO Awards will be held in the music mecca of Liverpool on October 20

Say it with a card...

Having recently been overwhelmed by kindness I have many thank yous to say right now.  There are many ways to say thank you, but I like the hand made way...

Here are some of the cards I have been making in my new studio this week, using gorgeous ribbons from East of India, Tim Holtz's Distress Inks and hand made paper from Southern India, recycled from cotton rag

How do you like to say thank you?

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PS The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap will be back in October!