Wednesday 27 March 2013

Country Living Fair 2013

At the Country Living Fair in Islington with - Left: Artist, Marna Lunt, Middle: Photographer and Stylist, Lyndsey James, Right: Yours Truly, Angie Spurgeon
Hello!
What a fantastic weekend I've just had. I feel all refreshed and full of ideas having spent a few short but very precious hours in very good company at the Country Living Fair in London. 

On Saturday I did something I've not done in many years.  I caught the coach to London for the day and went to the Business Design Centre in Islington where I met up with for the very first time, two very lovely and talented ladies who I've chatted to through emails before and have had the pleasure of working with...

 Please allow me to introduce you to Marna Lunt and Lyndsey James....  
Beautifully Embroidered Hoops by Marna Lunt available from www.littleadesigns.co.uk

My friend Marna is the immense talent behind Little A Designs and Little P Frames.  We found each other very early on in our social media travels and we have worked together lots in the past couple of years.  She initially commissioned me to create the logo for Little A Designs and I have since created lots of graphics for her which has evolved into a more collaborative way of working as we tend to spark ideas off each other. Saturday was no exception to this buzz of creative thinking we whip up together.  On my journey home I was manically scribbling ideas for new designs and ways of developing my little business all thanks to spending a few short hours with Marna looking at lovely things....

'Life is Sweet' Gift Wrap Photographed by Lyndsey James

We also met up premier product photographer and stylist Lyndsey James for some cake and a good old chinwag!  The three of us would have happily sat chatting for hours and not seen any of the Fair as it was very easy to lose track of time with such an opportunity to meet up with like-minded creative souls....but I'm happy to report we did manage to get around the fair and had an excellent and very inspiring day.

Lyndsey is the face behind the lens of many artists and crafters product images including my very own Life is Sweet greetings cards and gift wrap range.  Here are some of the photos she took for me that were used in the Somerset Life Magazine interview I did at the end of last year.  For me it was an investment extremely well made.  I've been hearing fantastic feedback about her current 'photograph your craft' workshops from those who have been lucky enough to attend one.  It looks like the next workshops are heading north to Scotland for the summer, so here's the link for more info about those: http://www.lyndsey-james.co.uk/workshops/

'Life is Sweet' Gift Wrap Photographed by Lyndsey James


This was my first Country Living Fair and I thoroughly enjoyed it - I could have easily spent a fortune there but was extremely well restrained.  I did manage to stock up on some pretties for my desk to remind me of our little day out - something lovely to store my growing collection of drawing pens in and even more washi tapes as you can never have too many! I also bagged some very tasty cheese and chutneys from The Truckle Cheese Co and have my eye on some new dresses for my girls over at Bread and Jam.

The other exciting thing that happened last Friday was a very large box arrived containing the stock of greetings cards I'd ordered for my website of all the new Living the Dream and Love and Best Wishes ranges I'd designed for Spring Fair International last month.  So that's 32 new card designs and a new gift wrap design to get photographed and listed soon.  Busy times ahead for me then!

So I'll leave you with a little snap shot of some of those cards as a taste of things to come from me 
and simply say...


Have a great rest of the week!

Best wishes

Angie :)