What a magical week this has been with both the Autumn equinox on Tuesday and the most beautiful Harvest Moon the following night. Each morning has been filled with gentle sunshine, illuminating the suddenly heavier dew and the many, many webs in my garden!

It's prompted a little Autumn Clean in my world - like a Spring Clean but on the opposite side of the calendar - and I've actually tidied my workstations, both in the studio and at home. I'm sure this will now induce a week of me not being able to find anything because I have "put it somewhere safe" but on the surface at least I feel very organised!

Have you felt the shift into a new season?

Sending you the very best of Friday vibes as always, and have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

It's thirty years to the day that Nirvana's Nevermind was released, and to celebrate BBC6 Music are playing ONLY songs from 1991 all day. I'm not sure if this is going to make me feel old or like a 17-year-old again, but either way, I'm totally on board! I might even dig out my old flannel shirt and DMs - yes I was THAT stylish. 

Stop motion has become my latest love! Initially driven by those pesky algorithms that say that video content gets more views on social platforms than still images, but now I'm kind of addicted. I keep thinking of new ways to show a product or a feature and seem to have about a dozen ideas in my head at once. My skills are trying to catch up to my imagination, though I still forget some basics like keeping props still! 

Here are some stills from my latest stop motion for one of our notebooks. 

The last image is my very basic setup to hold my camera phone still, and directly overhead of my "image zone" - it's been unbelievably useful. Then I edit everything in Video Editor which most PCs come with as standard and Bob's Your Uncle!  Watch the final video here! I'd love to hear what you think.

Apart from one very wonderful catchup with some old school friends in Northampton, I've mostly been sticking close to home the past couple of weeks. My knee has healed enough to be able to join Andy and Willow on the daily walks at Crickley Hill and I can't believe how quickly it seems to have switched to Autumn! It's only been four weeks but the sun is setting lower and earlier, and the bright purple thistles have changed to their silvery, skeletal selves.

I'm ready for it to be Autumn, I think. The days still feel long enough to achieve the things but the slight nip in the air is kind of thrilling - just me?

Welcome to Anthology 03!

As I type I'm recovering quite nicely from a little knee op with the assistance of a well-poofed corner sofa, a mug of soup, and a fresh loaf of sourdough from local deli, Bakers and Graze. Turns out it really is the little things that we turn to for comfort!

I hope your weekend is looking restful/adventurous/full of family and friends* and here in Cheltenham we have NO RAIN forecast for the whole of the Bank Holiday! Some of my recoup hours might be in the garden.

(*delete as required ;-)

Last Friday was all about Christmas with a long and hectic photoshoot with business pals Lola And Blake and the marvellous Felt So Good.

Our friends at Dawn Nurseries cut three Christmas trees for us - and yes we did get some odd looks at the recycling centre afterwards - and we had 19 different models of varying ages arrive throughout the day across six room sets as well as some outdoor shots. 

Our amazing photographer, Laura, captured some really beautiful images a few of which are below. We were all on hand with our own cameras too, taking the odd bit of video as well so you'll definitely see those crop up in stories.

Thanks so much to everyone involved, especially Harriet, who turned over her beautiful house to us for the day! If you're a fellow small biz owner then I highly recommend teaming up with other local businesses for shoots like this.  

Well, we didn't go to Italy! Like many, our international travel plans are temporarily on pause, but I know how much we'll love it and appreciate it even more when we do eventually get to return.

Instead, we decided to spend a few days in Brighton. We've been before but only as a fleeting visit and always with a course to attend, or friends to visit, which didn't really leave much time for a mooch and a wander. That's the best part of going to new places isn't it? The mooching!

We had a lovely wander around The Lanes, and found the Record Store Day release of Alive by Pearl Jam in a local record shop, Cult Hero, which made my day! And I couldn't go past Cass Arts without stopping in and geeking out over the paints and pastels. I had to take a photo of their noticeboard. I call it "How Artists do Business Cards" ;-)

Are you planning any holidays at the moment? 

My sofa day today is heavily punctuated by cuppas, which got me thinking about our first mug designs from 2012. 

We'd never really thought about making mugs, or anything other than art prints to be honest, when Scottish-based mug company, McLaggan Smith, approached us about turning one of our Union Jack prints into a mug design. Of course, I thought it would be a bit weird only having one mug so I designed another one to go with it, inspired by my lifelong love of dunking a biccie in a cup of tea. 

I'd completely forgotten until I looked it up just now that the mug went through a few design changes. Originally, I'd wanted it to be a full colourful rainbow of stripes. However, mug printing is not as straightforward as I thought and the professionals recommended sticking to a range of five colours, and preferably not featuring pink (apparently pink is notoriously difficult for consistency!)

From left to right we have the initial concept, the first redesign, and then the final version. Yellow was too difficult to read and again a bit tricky with the consistency issue. And we had to lose one biscuit to size it all better, so shortcakes bit the dust.

Without a doubt, the best part of the development process was sitting with a stopwatch, a hot cup of tea and a pile of my favourite biscuits to see how long each would dunk for! 

I love how they turned out and it's still my favourite mug to use at home. 

And a very good Friday afternoon to you!

Did you get a fleeting week of sunshine last month, and then poof, it disappeared? Us too.

Honestly, it feels less odd to be thinking about Christmas when it's raining outside (and Christmas is our main focus now!) but it would be nice to see a few more hot days before we admit that summer is on its way out.

If you happen to be in London, or heading there over the summer, I found a weatherproof, soulful way to spend an hour in the shape of an immersive Van Gogh Experience. 

Not to confuse you, but there are currently TWO different Van Gogh experiences in London. I guess that's what happens when no-one owns the exclusive rights to his images! 

The one I went to was Van Gogh Alive in Kensington Gardens - just opposite the Royal Albert Hall. It's there until September when it moves on to Manchester and I can thoroughly vouch for the quality of the pastries and hot chocolates in the garden cafe afterward!

Lightly animated and set to music, his most famous works of art are supersized and projected all around you. The way he saw the world takes my breath away.

It's suitable for all ages and my top tip is to try and go in the first or second slot of the morning. It's slightly cheaper and much quieter than later in the day. 

   

  

Well, hello friend!

Welcome to the very first in our Anthology series of emails, I'm so pleased you're here.

What's this Anthology all about then?

Well, you'll have seen emails from us before when we launch new products, or we have a promotion coming up, but this one is a bit different. We're throwing back the covers on just what it is we're up to every couple of weeks.

What we're listening to, where we've been, what we're celebrating, what we're pondering on - and asking you what you're up to as well.

So, grab a cuppa, maybe a biccie too, and let's get cosy.

If I whisper the word Christmas would you mind? Fab! I knew you'd be on board. 

Since we bought the new big printer (affectionately named Cookie Monster, because we name all our printers after Sesame Street characters and because he is blue and HUGE) my mind has been racing with ideas on how to add colour to all our products, but especially Christmas tree decorations. I also have a little bit of a thing about adding birds to my Christmas tree, so naturally, a bird-themed Christmas tree ornament is in development. 

We're thinking of a gilded birdcage and varying numbers of birds to represent family members.

The colours by the way just absolutely pop on Cookie! Cobalt blues and peachy pinks - yum.

I can't wait to try and take photos of them soon, if I can find a Christmas tree.... and possibly make some mince pies, maybe a bit of gingerbread, just to get in the right headspace of course.

June has been all about #CampaignShopIndependent and we've been supporting Holly Tucker and her team at Holly&Co in getting the word out. The Holly&Co team even hit the road on this beautiful double-decker bus and asked us to create a bespoke bus blind destination print to capture all the places the bus stopped.

We went along to the ribbon cutting at Catherine Colebrook's awesome new shop - the Department Of Hope, Joy & Wonder - to hand over the bus blind to Holly and to do a bit of independent shopping of course.

Shopping small and shopping locally keeps local businesses alive and thriving. If you want that wonderful bookstore to keep hosting read-along nights, or you want that local cafe to keep making the brownies you love, or you want the country pub to be open for the Sunday dinner you want to take your brother to when he visits, then you have to use them or risk losing them.

Today is #ShopIndependentDay so consider voting with your money and support an indie business or creative if you can! They will LOVE you for it.

I'm surrounded by notebooks as I type (and in life in general to be fair) but my favourite is always the current doodle book. Here is where I sketch out the bud of an idea from my head that might one day make it to becoming a product.

Sometimes, it's a really hasty sketch like I'm trying to catch the butterfly of a thought before it flies away. Occasionally, it will be a perfect vision already fully formed so I can transfer it to paper more neatly.

I always then fly it past the rest of the team to see if they like it, or can add to it, or even think it's possible - some of the things my brain thinks we can do, the laws of physics haven't quite caught up with yet!

I love looking back through the doodlers and here's a great example of the initial idea to finished product from way back in 2015.

I had absolutely no idea how to create a paper advent calendar that would hang like a garland,  or even how to suspend each shape, I just knew it would look stunning when finished.

Beautifully photographed here by the splendid Yeshen Venema, a whizz with a camera based in Islington. 

Three elements of the perfect personalised notebook.

We had a baby! Okay, not an actual human baby, but each time we launch a new product that we have poured our heart and souls into, that has been in development for, well, nine months, that we can't stop looking at because we're a little in love with it... it does sort of feel like we've had a new baby!

We're beaming like some kind of proud parents, can we introduce you to our new creation?

If you're anything like us then a good notebook is definitely something to get excited over! The humble notebook is to so intrinsic to our daily life. There's something so alluring about a great personalised notebook, despite the very handy notes functions on our phones, or a well thought out Trello board!

Perfect for doodling, or ideas on the hop, or writing down your thoughts at the end of a long day, or planning your next business dreams, or keeping memories safe of your growing babies or your exciting travel adventure. You can stick pictures in a notebook, or press a wildflower between its pages, or spray it with the scent you wore that day. Try doing that on a phone!

Are you ready to dive deep into the world of Betsy Benn notebooks - it'll be a beautiful journey I promise.

Our Favourite Things About Notebooks

Let's start with the heart and soul of a notebook; the paper.

Have you ever chosen beautiful correspondence paper? Or maybe been given paper by your mother to send a thank you letter after Christmas? Can you remember holding that paper in your hand and how comforting the thickness was, how something fragile could feel robust at the same time? This was the memory and the sensation we took with us when choosing paper for the inside of our luxury notebooks.

So, when you open our notebooks you'll find 160 pages of pale ivory 100gsm paper. We tested eight different types of pen on our paper samples to ensure that the one you love to write with will settle beautifully on the paper.

After a poll on our Instagram stories (thank you so much for taking part!) we went with lined paper over blank. Blank is great for sketching and doodles and we know some people prefer that (yes, even Betsy herself) so we specified feint lines to achieve a great compromise for the doodlers! And those lines, they're not too close together - your words need space my friend.

We weren't quite done there with the paper. We wanted to add some extra beauty so we ensured the corners were rounded and we coloured the edge of the paper to match the cover of the book. I don't know why such a simple addition makes an enormous difference but it does. A little bit like adding lemon zested buttercream to a Victoria sponge cake, not entirely necessary but oh wow does add it a zing!

When we thought about how you might use this notebook our list was almost endless. There were the ordinary lists and everyday reminders that you just need to write down to keep track. There were the sublime moments in life like planning a travel journey and researching all the places you wanted to stay. Or the simple but soulful process of keeping a diary. However you want to use your notebook, we decided it would definitely be beneficial to have a ribbon place marker, which of course has been dyed to match the cover of the book.

The big "thing" that a notebook has over any electronic way of keeping notes is just how wonderfully tactile a real book is. When you pick up a Betsy Benn notebook we wanted you to adore it a little. To just keep stroking the cover, your finger tracing the engraved details, and be rewarded with the pleasure area in your brain firing all over the place. 

We're utterly delighted with the vegan PU leather covers that we sourced. Each book looks and feels like it's covered in a high quality leather, but no animals were harmed in the making of these books. Wonderful products should be wonderful for the planet too, don't you think?  

And then, we were thrown a curve ball! The company that makes our books offers both hardback and softback covers. We loved both, but we plumped for the softback covers because they were a little more individual, stood out from the crowd, and just felt more us. So, why do we have both hardback and softback books now available on the website? We could spin some kind of customer choice story here, but honestly, there was a communication issue somewhere along the line and hardback notebooks were made instead of softback notebooks. And this was only realised on the day they were due to leave the factory - potential nightmare scenario! 

We had the email confirming that we'd ordered softback notebooks so we didn't need to accept delivery of them and could've asked the factory to scrap them all and start again with the correct order - but that felt so wrong. They were perfect notebooks, not what we had ordered, but certainly not landfill fodder! And I worried that *someone* would be in trouble with a boss somewhere. So, we took both versions. And honestly they are so beautiful we now can't choose a favourite and we get to share them with you too!

Now you really do have a great choice, but it was one of those happy universe accidents and not an actual plan. I kinda love that though. We’d love to hear which version you prefer.

Explore your new favourite notebooks here.

If you can’t get together with the family at Christmas this year, send a mini stand in!

One of the absolutely best bits about having a job as a creative maker is that I have the coolest machines to play with. So, when I get an idea we can just play around with it as a team until we get it right. The very best ideas come from a need, and if we ever needed a form of connection with the people around us, it was this year! 

That was the starting point for this fun filled Family In A Box. I really wanted to have a fun way of seeing the family, of being in Christmas photos with them, even if we couldn't physically be in the same place. And so the minis were born!

We’ll use your digital photographs and make gorgeous mini wooden versions of you to post to your loved ones.

Imagine the fun to be had, positioning your mini wooden substitutes next to the gravy boat at the Christmas dinner table, standing next to the biscuits with a morning cup of tea, or thoughtfully posed in the background of a selfie?! The Instagram opportunities alone are worth their weight in gold.

It's been bloody brilliant to see how people have embraced this concept. So far we've had many many families being posted overseas, or to the other end of the country, but we've also had a cancelled 80th birthday party box of guests and 12 wedding guests, dressed in their finery, as a gift for the bride who now can't share her day with her besties.

How to order :

We just need a full length photo for each person that you want to include. From the top of their head to the bottom of their feet. And honestly it might save you hours of scrolling time if you take new photos on your phone just for this.

Don't leave it too long though - we've been a bit taken aback by the popularity and we're rapidly running out of wood to print them on.

And if you want a full chess set of all your friends and family - DEFINITELY get in touch as I really want to do that!

First things first - we're still open! 

We thought for a long time about whether to have a break, how that would look, what kind of business we would come back to if we did and what our impact is on the other businesses we work with and our customers. 

It's the 19th March 2020, just a little bit before lunchtime and just short of three weeks since the first case of Coronavirus was confirmed in the UK. So much has changed in that very short space of time! Things moved rapidly from the word on the street thinking "it's just another flu" to all UK schools and universities being closed for the foreseeable future and many people following advice to self isolate for 7, 14 or 84 days! 

So, of course, we've all had to react just as quickly. Make on the spot decisions about where we need to be, what resources we need in place (kind of wishing I'd bought shares in Andrex right about now!) and how we're going to carry on functioning; as an individual, as a family, as a community and as a business. And those speedy decisions are made by our gut instincts because we're a bit triggered at the moment by our flight or fight responses. If there's one thing that shines a light on the core values of a human being, it's pressure like that!

So, how have we reacted? How have you reacted? What's going on in your head, in your family, in your community and in your business? I'm sure that we've all been in conversations lately that seem to enhance our level of calm when the rational voices are speaking, and equally, there have been conversations that have deepened our sense of panic when the fear has been speaking.

In the words of motivational speaker Jim Rohn:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

The people we surround ourselves with are the biggest influence on our behaviour and attitudes. Which means, the people you are around — what they’re thinking, saying, doing and becoming — sets the course of your life. The people you spend the most time with shape who you are. They determine what conversations dominate your attention.

From my perspective that is never more evident than in times of unprecedented crisis like this. And if we really are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, then I must be "average amazing" because my two teammates, Catherine and Rachel, are outstanding. 

Just as a tiny bit of background. I'd already been out of the studio for nearly two weeks after a small shoulder surgery before Coronavirus really hit, and that in itself had come about with only two days notice! Just as I'm getting to the end of my "sling phase" (seriously stylish - keep an eye out for blue nylon slings on the catwalks soon) and could be getting back to it all, my husband comes down with the dreaded symptoms and we're in full lockdown.

These two wonderful women took everything in their stride, covering all the physical work that I couldn't do, receiving in good humour all my brain dumps of work that could be done, moving computers and stock around to create emergency contingency plans for if they have to work from home long term and generally lifting mine and each other's spirits. What diamond's they are. And have always been actually - I didn't for one second expect any less of them.

So, if they are two of my five, then I already have an amazing baseline!

Having their immediate and unwavering support has enabled us as a business to keep going and offer our lovely customers a few little extras as well. We sent out an email to our newsletter subscribers this week to say that we're now, and for the foreseeable future, offering free gift wrapping and gift messaging on all our products. If you are sending something directly to the recipient because you can't see them in person, we'll do our best to make it a bit more special - just let us know it's a gift and what gift message to include. So, a little bit like this but with ribbon and some added pizazz! 

We also tried to think about how we could show our appreciation to the front line workers in the NHS who are under so much pressure right now. All we could think was to offer as big a discount as we could. So, if you're an NHS worker and need to send someone a gift, we're offering a 35% refund on your purchase. Just send us a pic of your NHS ID card (with any sensitive info hidden if need be) along with your order number and we'll do the rest. If there's a better way to do that, then let us know - it's the only way we could think of for now.

Widening the circle, what about the rest of the community? How's that going? How's your local world reacting to this?

Okay, yes there has been panic buying. It's amazing what makes people feel safe and I honestly think the majority of that behaviour has been motivated by fear, not reckless selfishness. The result is the same and I really hope that behaviour is coming to an end now and supermarkets are starting to put measures in place to manage that situation. Outside of that, I'm so heartened to see the good and the brave that is rising up everywhere I look. Neighbours are reaching out to each other and making sure the vulnerable are looked after; friends are having virtual coffee meets to keep each other sane or doing food drops to those self-isolating; humour, in general, has notched up to a new height on social feeds proving that there really is one great human reaction we all have in common (see Dame Julie Dench's sheep hat for example!)

Here are some of my favourites:

• Adobe giving all it's subscribers an instant free two months access - this is very niche to the creatives but so very helpful!
• The Find - independent cafe in Cheltenham announcing free hot drinks and 50% off food for NHS workers
• Oliver Jeffers reading one of his storybooks every day on Instagram at 6pm - #letsbeboredtogether - other authors are also doing this.
• National Trust opening up their green spaces for free to encourage outdoor healthy walking
• Joe Wicks running a PE lesson every morning for free at 9am on YouTube - aimed at kids who are now at home.
• Holly Tucker at Holly&Co dedicating her staff and days to compiling and sharing all the information they can find and verify on the impacts of this crisis on small businesses.
• the Notonthehighstreet.com community of sellers putting community over competition and sharing all the resources, offers of doing post runs for each other, all the good things.
• The Indigo Girls free webcast concert last night that 60,000 people watched - never seen them stand so far apart! 
• Sports clubs donating the food they'd bought in for match days to charities.
• Free books posted to those who need them from companies like Bookishly and individuals like Scarlett Curtis.

And so, so many more. Really everywhere you look, the best is coming out in people. And it just keeps coming. Each small action prompts another small action in our communities, both the physical ones and the virtual ones. Maybe then, actually, we're not the average of just the five people around us. Maybe we're greater than the average.

Love to you all

Betsy and her team of superwomen

Oh, it’s nearly Christmas!

Every year, as soon at it hits November 1st, I'm right there with the Christmas decorations, the Christmas lights, the Christmas cards, and yes sometimes even a Christmas tree. A potted one so I can take some last minute product images, or make videos or new personalised ornaments, but a Christmas tree nonetheless. It'll join the others in the garden very very soon!

I could tell you that the very first decoration I get out is the family Christmas Eve Box, but that would be a slight fib. Mostly because I never bother putting it away. This wooden Christmas house was a design out of pure love and I'm just SO proud of it. We extended the range to include two smaller houses and they are incredibly cute.

 

We have three brand new wooden Christmas house for your decorative pleasures!

   

  

So, apparently, I’m super easy to please. I can hear both my home and work families trying to stifle a laugh as I type but bear with me.

I like EVERYTHING. Want to get together and do something. Fabulous. Go on a hill hike, slob around in PJs watching Friends reruns, expand our brains with a lecture on sociology, go window shopping for things we can’t afford, hit the clubs, take a boxing class, whatever you want to do, I’m on board. Same with music. I can happily listen to the grungy stylings of my first love, Pearl Jam, or the soulful swoops of Bach’s Cello Suite No.1, the ditzy vocals of Dolly Parton, the super quiet and melancholic Lucy Rose and then jump straight into a hot Zumba track. If you want to try it I have a Spotify playlist here. I like EVERYTHING.

Which is handy – I’m unlikely to be disappointed with your choice in pretty much anything – but not so handy when you’re trying to actually make a decision on something like buying a sofa or decorating a whole room. There’s just too much choice, too many colours, so many gorgeous things and I was paralysed by indecision. It led to us being seduced by one gorgeous spread in Elle Decoration and painting the whole house white. No choice necessary between wall and ceiling (and no tricky edges) and it kind of worked but was not exactly deeply soul-satisfying and when we started playing with more colourful elements and added a bit of wallpaper here and there or committed to one actual rug (it took me weeks) it all just started to jar and I didn’t know why or how to fix it. Plus… kids, animals, white walls…

So, when I saw that the queen of colourful interiors, Sophie Robinson, held a once a year colour lovers masterclass I jumped on board. Which is how I found myself rocking up to the gorgeous Regency Townhouse in Brighton with 15 other fine colour lovers to dive in and figure out the secrets. 

A quick side note about the venue – holy moly it was perfect. This amazing townhouse is mid-renovation and you can see the bare bones of the house in some areas – just plastered walls – and completely finished gorgeous original detailing in other areas – windows, painted coving and cornicing. Staged with some of the most colourful vases full of fresh flowers I’ve ever seen from Kate Langdale florists.

I’m not a colour virgin. I know what colours look great together on an art print – I kinda built a business around that! Beyond the colour wheel though I’m not sure why they work and why certain colours speak to me and why others don’t. (Apparently blue speaks to me a lot – which I discovered when I tried to find something colourful in my wardrobe before getting to Brighton – just a sea of blue with the odd bit of orange – complimentary colours on the wheel incidentally!) It was a joy to hear all about colour psychology beyond the basics of blue is calming and red is energising and really start to understand how colours in your environment make you feel, how colour families go together and the colour seasons.

We had a field day on the THREE WHOLE TABLES of colour swatches, fabric samples, magazine tear sheets, ribbons, washi tapes, buttons – a literal sea of colourspiration. You’ve never seen 16 grown-ups looking happier with a glue stick in hand and permission to just play! By the time we’d all done our three versions of mood boards of course it looked like a bomb site and I have visions of the lovely Luisa sitting and sorting through it all today (sorry!)

Like much of the UK, my happy place is in the Autumn colour spectrum. Think summer’s last hoorah, conkers bursting open to reveal those warm honey browns from a bright green shell, fields of golden dried hay in bundles, and the jewel tones of ripe pomegranate; any colour really as long as it’s rich, intense, warm, deep and earthy. Which completely makes sense when you see the first colour board I did.

It’s clearly why I have a bloody massive bright turquoise velvet sofa covered in mustard, orange and pink cushions. I’m so pleased it’s one of our big purchases that I didn’t get wrong. I admitted in the group that I definitely would’ve been one of those people in the Seventies that bought an avocado bathroom suite as I know how swayed I can be by certain trends and images and the sofa purchase was absolutely a result of some excellent marketing by Loaf.

There was lunch – of course, there was lunch – and you don’t need a litany of the deliciousness but let’s just agree it was delicious and, of course, full of colour. There were edible flowers. Enough said.

Post-lunch our mission was to start pulling together a room board, having already found our true colour joy roots and created a vision board bouncing from that. And that’s where I hit a bit of a wall. I found myself back in the “but I like it ALLLLL” camp. Then Silva on our table turned to a double page spread that was all creams and washed out linens and off-white walls and hanging chairs and my heart leapt. If I could wiggle my nose and magic that room into my front room and be done with it, I would. In a heartbeat. Which was even more confusing. Those colours are absolutely what I would say fit into the summer theme, not Autumn. I went and pouted in a corner with a stack of magazines and a confused look on my face which was probably what drew Antonia - a seasoned stylist and official helper - to me. We talked over my earlier vision board and she gently reminded me that this whole process should be, and had that morning been, fun! And not to get too bogged down in the detail and logistics and maybe go and look at some fabric samples whilst she pulled a few more images from some magazines. It definitely helped.

And just like that, the day was done. With a glass of fizz in hand and new confidence in our heads, we thought about what we’d most loved about the day. For me, it was just the chance to be a bit self-indulgent and take a whole day to throw yourself into a skill set and really experiment and question and think. Because, really, how often do we get time to do that without our attention being pulled from one issue to another? (Seriously, this is the fifth time today I’ve sat down to finish this blog post!) I can’t wait to get started on my plans for my little room – stay tuned for a before and after at some point.

In the meantime, here are a couple of my favourite products that have an obvious root in the autumn palette and I never knew why I made them but now I do.