2017 in Review

It’s that time again, the year in review blog post! I’m terrible at remembering what I’ve done in a year, and tend to think I haven’t done much of anything, which is why I’ve got my diary out so I can go through the year month by month and remind myself of all the exciting stuff that’s happened. My hopes for 2017 were to grow my business in bold new directions (hello book deal!) but also to achieve more work-life balance and spend more social time with my husband and friends. I’m very happy to say I think I’ve done it!

January

My year started off with some pretty exciting work as I traveled to Berlin in January to live illustrate for SisterMAG. In January I started hosting my own watercolour and brush lettering workshops at West Elm. Until then I had been running workshops for soemmmebody else, and taking sole responsibility for teaching, promoting and running workshops was a little bit scary. I kept having dreams that I hadn't sold any tickets or that I turned up without any materials. I’m happy to say neither of those things happen and I have now taught a whole year of sell-out workshops at West Elm. I’m very excited to be adding some new workshops to my repertoire next year, including my gouache workshop which has already been very popular. I worked on a couple of book covers in January and provided illustrations for the Mollie Makes Creativity magazine. My husband and I also booked tickets to Peru!

February

This was the month but I got my book deal! At the end of 2016 my amazing agent sent out my book proposal to a few different publishers, and by February I had an offer! I read the email on my phone walking back from a Pilates class and when I met my husband for coffee I started crying out of shock and happiness. This month I taught a couple of brush lettering workshops with Etsy, which was really exciting as I wanted to work with them for a long time. I also did some illustrations for the Betty Collective website.

March

In March I went up to the north Norfolk coast to visit my aunt and uncle. One of my goals for 2017 was to take more time off, and visiting family who happened to live in a beautiful part of the country was a great way of doing that. That month I also did some live illustration with Dermalogica in Selfridge’s, and Viktorija and I hosted a second London Drawing Club event at the beautiful Barbican conservatory. I also illustrated some very popular postcards for Mollie Makes and illustrated a lovely article for Stylist Magazine.

April

In April we celebrated my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, and the day afterwards my own wedding was featured on Love My Dress. I had a super busy month of workshops, trying to squeeze in as many as possible before my trip to Peru. I also did some live illustration with Reiss at Brent Cross shopping Centre. I also made time to see the amazing Hockney exhibition with Viktorija.

May

I spent most of May travelling.  I had a quick trip back to Suffolk to see my parents at the beginning of the month, and then I was home for one night before heading off with Nancy to a trip to Somerset with Joules, and then three days later I was heading off to Peru. Our time in Peru was absolutely amazing, and you can read more about it here. It was such an incredible trip and a great way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

June

In June I taught a really lovely watercolour workshop for Pinterest as part of their interior design awards, at the beautiful Bourne and Hollingsworth Building. I also taught a very special watercolour workshop with Oasis that took place in London Zoo. I got to chat to the zoo keepers and feed two pygmy hippos, which made it one of my top workshops ever. June was also the month that I initiated my Monday afternoon dates with my husband. He is a jazz musician so mostly works evenings and weekends, which means we need to be organised about spending quality time together and not just working all the time. He rarely works on Monday, so we decided that was the best day to take an afternoon off and do something fun together. In the last year our Monday afternoon dates have included trips to the cinema, exhibitions, lunches out, walks in national parks, vintage shopping and we've explored lots of new neighbourhoods in North London.

June is the month that I really started writing my book properly. The last few months I had been waiting to get the contract sorted, and I didn’t want to start actually writing it until everything was signed, although I had been researching and planning it in my head. It was so exciting to actually sit down and start writing my book! For me the challenge was finishing up all my other projects and saying no to new work to give myself the time I needed to do it.

July

I spent most of this month writing my book and enjoying the heat wave in London; going to barbecues, street fairs and summer parties. I also had the chance to go to a really lovely bloggers event in Somerset, which was such a lovely break away from the city and work. I had to hand in the first half of my manuscript on the first of August, which meant the last few weeks of July were very busy getting things finished and organising hundreds of images and pages and pages of writing.

August

August was all about writing my book, and I only taught one workshop all month to make sure I had plenty of time to focus on it. People always say how difficult it is to write a book but I actually really loved it. It was so nice to just work on one creative project continuously for three months, and not have to deal with contracts, negotiations invoices and everything else that comes with being freelancer. I also managed to enjoy the sunshine in London a bit and visited Columbia Road flower market with friends. I also worked on some content with Pink Lady Apples.

September

In September I had to hand in the second half of my book. This time I was much more organised, having named all the files correctly as I went along and kept the manuscript in better order. It turns out writing a book in order from start to finish makes life a lot easier than writing it in any old order you feel like! In September I also taught my first ever Instagram workshop which completely sold out and was a big success. I’m teaching another one in February.

October

In October my husband and I headed off to Lisbon as a post-book writing treat. Whilst I might have finished writing the manuscript and painting all the illustrations, there was still edits and changes to make, which I worked on during October. Fortunately the edits to the book were very light and not much needed to be changed. In this month I also personalised notebooks with brush lettering for Papier at Brides the Show, and did some live illustration at Harrods. I also had an interview and photoshoot with Moo in my flat, which was really exciting as Moo were one of my very first clients, read the interview here. I also worked with my friend Kathryn on the branding for her new company Wander for a While. I also developed some new products for my shop including note books and new Christmas designs.

November

November was a bit of a funny month. I had so many hospital appointments and social engagements that I felt a bit all over the place. The hospital appointments were for my wrist (for my ongoing RSI) and for my troublesome tooth. Fortunately both seem to have settled down for the moment. I also spent a lot of time preparing for an onslaught of festive workshops in December and sent out lots of Christmas Etsy orders. I also worked on some lovely magazine illustrations that I can't show you yet and some branding for The Market Beautiful. I also got to attend Weekend:IN again, this time in East London.

December

In December I taught lots of Christmas bauble painting and lettering workshops with clients including Topshop, Battersea Power Station and Seven dials. I also finalised the cover of my book with my publishers and got to see a first proof copy of my book. It was so exciting to see all those months of work come together into 250 beautifully designed pages.

So that was my year. I achieved my main goal of getting a book deal and writing a book, I also managed to travel and spend lots of time with friends. I think there’s a bit of a myth that as a creative freelancer you have to be badly paid, working constantly with no social life, and definitely no exercise routine, and it’s just not true. This year has been all about saying yes to exciting opportunities, no to the projects that aren’t right for me and learning to look after myself.

I’ve got some pretty big goals for next year, which include travelling more and hopefully writing more books. I’m so excited to see my first book come out this August, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Thank you so much to everyone who has come to my workshops, bought something from my shop or just followed me on Instagram, Your support means so much to me.

Peru Part 4: Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel

After leaving the Inkaterra Urubamba Hacienda  we travelled by taxi back to Ollantaytambo to catch the train to Machu Picchu. The train station in Ollantaytambo is charmingly old-fashioned and the cafe on the platform serves an excellent cup of coffee. It was busy in the cafe so we shared a table with an older Canadian gentleman with an excellent handle bar moustache, who shared a giant bag of Peruvian gooseberries with us. Once on the train the landscape changes from arable fields and purple snow topped mountains to the incredible green domed mountains so characteristic of Machu Picchu.

There are three ways to get to Machu Picchu, you can trek the Inca Trail which is a four day hike through the mountains, you can take the train which is what we did, or you can get a minibus to the hydroelectric station and then walk along the train tracks into town, which is the cheapest option. The town of Aquas Calientes is most people's final stop before reaching Machu Picchu. It is a small town in the mountains with a hot spring, which it is named after. It sounds quite nice on paper but in reality it's a total tourist trap. The buildings seem to have been thrown up with no consideration to design and there is scaffolding everywhere. It had started rained when we arrived, but the moment we stepped off the train the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel staff were there to meet us with umbrellas and to take our bags. As soon as you step onto the grounds of Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel you you are enveloped by dense jungle and an immediate sense of calm. It is such a perfect oasis away from the noise and hubbub of the main town. Inkaterra own 12 acres of unspoilt cloud forest, and the hotel is nestled right into the jungle. The hotel is made up of 83 traditional white adobe casitas and several main buildings, including a beautiful dining room. The rooms are simple and cosy, and you feel incredibly close to nature at all times. Just wondering around the casitas you can spot beautiful wild birds gliding between the trees.

I was given a tour of the grounds and then popped over to the main building for teatime, including teas grown right there in the hotel grounds. After that my husband and I decided to explore a bit and walk along the path into the cloud forest. Walking deeper and deeper into the jungle, marvelling at the wild orchids and humming birds everywhere, was such an incredible and unique experience. The hotel run a number of excursions in the cloud forest, with a focus on wildlife and conservation.

After our walk and a freshen up in our casita we made our way over to the dining room, where we had the best culinary experience of the whole time in Peru. My husband had an incredible tiradito, a traditional Peruvian dish of raw fish, and I had a traditional Amazonian river fish, washed down with a couple of Pisco sours. After that we got an early night so that we would be up bright and early for our trip up to Machu Picchu in the morning.

Fortunately the hotel serves breakfast from 5 am, which meant we could fill up with a delicious buffet breakfast before joining the queue for the bus. Even at 5:30 in the morning there was a long queue for the bus. The bus is about £20 each return and they are quite picky about what kind of debit card you can pay with, so I would recommend paying in cash. You can walk up, but it takes several hours so if you want to make most of your time I recommend just getting the bus. The bus takes you on an incredible journey winding up through the mountains, zig-zagging higher and higher until you reach the top. Once we got to the main gate we joined the queue with our tickets and passports ready. Fortunately the security guards didn’t notice that my husband had gotten my date of birth wrong when he booked our tickets, making me 117 years old.

We briefly joined the crowds taking obligatory Machu Picchu selfies and then made our way up to the Sun Gate. This was my favourite experience at Machu Picchu. The morning light was incredible as we walked up into the mountains to the Sun Gate, and at this point the trail was very quiet. The view was incredible from the top, and for people hiking the Inca Trail this is their first view of Machu Picchu.

You can’t bring your own food into Machu Picchu, so we had to go back out the main gate to buy food and drinks. You are allowed to enter through the gate three times in a day. As you would expect everything is a bit overpriced, and you even have to pay to use the toilets. We bought a couple of empanadas for lunch then headed back in. The citadel itself is amazing, but for the most part you can’t just roam freely, you need to walk round in a particular route following the many tour groups. One of my favourite parts was breaking away from the crowds managing to capture some shots of llamas looking dramatic against the magnificent backdrop as the mist started to descend.

At some point we got back on the main trail and realised everyone was heading towards the exit. The security guards wouldn’t let us turn back so we were herded out. We debated queueing up to get back in the main entrance again but it just started raining, so my husband and I decided to get the bus back into town for a coffee and some food before catching our train. We went back to Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel for coffees and they had our bags all ready for us, having stored them for us during the day. We had a a last moment soaking up the atmosphere of the hotel and the beauty of the cloud forest before catching a train to Cusco.

We stayed at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel free of charge, but all views and opinions ate my own. Thank you so much to Inkaterra for having us, we had an amazing stay.  

Peru Part 3 - Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba

Arriving

As you step into   Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba there is an immediate wow factor. This gorgeous hotel is nestled at the foot of a mountain with stunning panoramic views of the Andes, which the hotel takes full advantage of with floor-to-ceiling windows. It has possibly the most impressive hotel lobby in the world. When we arrived we were given a glass of Chicha Morada, a traditional drink made from purple maize and then we were shown to our room. The hotel has 24 casitas dotted along the hillside and 12 rooms in the main building. Our room was a private casita, which was bigger than our flat back in London.  It had stunning views of the mountains, comfortable beds, sofas and a well appointed bathroom. The thing I love most about this hotel is the attention to detail. The keyring for the room key is made of plaited naturally dyed yarn, the room is decorated with traditional rugs and blankets sourced from Chinchero and even the bottle of water has a woven cover. After settling in we headed over to the main building to claim our free Pisco Sours. The bartenders were lovely and gave us a mini lesson on making the perfect Pisco Sour and gave us some useful advice for Machu Picchu.

Tea Time

My favourite feature of this hotel is the teatime, which happens every day from 3 to 5 pm. I think every hotel should have teatime, in fact I think every day should involve teatime. A hot water urn and a selection of local herbs were set out in the lobby and guests could make their own infusions and help themselves to a selection of delicate biscuits infused with local flavours. I had a blend of wild growing mint, and my husband had a coca tea, which is believed to help with the altitude. If you need a little extra help adjusting to the altitude the hotel has oxygen tanks on hand.

Dinner Time

The hotel offers a number of free nature walks and excursions. Before dinner we went out for the Twilight walk. We each grabbed a candlelit lantern and headed up the mountainside lead by our guide. As the stars came out he explained that this valley was sacred because the flow of the Milky Way mirrored the flow of the river. We learnt the Incan constellations, so different from those we can see back in England and he explained the Incan theological hierarchy. This was such a wonderful insight into the traditional culture, and such a beautiful experience.

After we got back it was time for dinner. I don't have pictures of what we ate because there's nothing worse than somebody getting out a digital SLR and standing on a chair to get the right angle, but needless to say everything was delicious. When we got back to our room a fire had been lit (it gets chilly at night in the mountains) and a chocolate left on each pillow.

I think breakfast might be my favourite meal in the hotel; I had quinoa at pancakes and my husband had Peruvian style eggs, all made to order, with an array of fresh juices, smoothies, fruit salads, cold meats and cheeses available on the buffet. I know I've said it before, but the thing I love most about this hotel is the incredible attention to detail. Everything is thought out and on brand. In the dining room there are beautiful chairs covered in traditional textiles from Chinchero, the plates and bowls perfectly match the decor and even the placemat is woven. We were very sad to leave this beautiful place, but we needed to head onto the next leg of our journey to Machu Picchu.

We stayed at Inkaterra free of charge, but all views and opinions are my own. Thank you so much to Inkaterra for having us, we had an amazing stay.

Peru Part 2 - The Sacred Valley

We arrived in Cusco airport and got a taxi into town to buy our Boleto Turistico, a ticket that gets you into many of the ruins and museums across the Sacred Valley. You can pay for them individually, but the Boleto Turistico is much cheaper.  It is valid for 10 days and you get a stamp for every site you visit. We then got a collectivo to the Incan village of Ollantaytambo. Collectivos, also known as combis, are shared minibus taxis, and are a cheap convenient way to get around. They leave when they are full and passengers get on and off along the route. It was a two hour journey through the Sacred Valley to our destination, but the route was stunning as we slowly descended through the mountains.

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo is a unique intact Incan Village, and is often people's last stop before reaching Machu Picchu. This can give the place a bit of a backpacker vibe, but instead of just passing through, we decided to stay there for four nights. It is referred to as a living Inca Village, because the traditional Incan streets are intact and it is still inhabited by the indigenous  Quechua speaking community. The people living here in Ollantaytambo today are the direct descendants of the people who built the town.

On our first day we explored the ruins of Ollantaytambo. We went slightly off the tourist trail and found a path that led us right up the side of a mountain, leaving the tour groups far behind. The route we took gave us a spectacular view of the valley and the low-lying clouds. We then climbed up to the granaries on the opposite mountain. These mysterious sloping buildings look like churches, perched on the inhospitable hillside, but they are in fact store houses that were used by the Incas to store grains.  

Moray and Maras

The next day we decided to visit some of the local sites with a driver, as recommended by our hostel. We visited Moray, Maras, Salinas de Maras and Chinchero in one day for the cost of about £40, plus tip. The mysterious circular terraces of Moray look like an amphitheatre, but it is believed they were actually used as an agricultural laboratory. As the different levels of the terraces receive different amounts of wind and sun, it allowed them to see which crops grow best in different weather conditions.

We also visited the salt flats at Maras. You can wander around the extensive salt mines on a network of wooden bridges. Warm salty water drips constantly between the hundreds of salt ponds. Salt has been mined here since pre-Incan times. Naturally salty water emerges from an underground spring and evaporates in the sun leaving pools of white crystals behind.

The town of Maras its self is very small and very quiet and has an unusual and slightly eerie atmosphere. Our driver took us on a route from Maras to Chinchero via the back roads, which in the winter are completely impassible. This was a wonderful opportunity to see the unspoiled Peruvian landscape. You see whole families working in the fields growing traditional crops like corn and wheat, the way they have done for hundreds of years. At one point we had to make an emergency stop as a herd of piglets ran across the dirt track. The scenery is stunning, with golden green fields of wheat and dramatic snow topped mountains.

Chinchero

The little town of Chinchero is famous for its traditional weaving community, and was one of my favourite places in Peru. The Incans knew it as the birth place as the rainbow, and it certainly produces a lot of colour and beauty.  At over 12,000 feet it was the highest altitude we experienced, I must have been an alpaca in a past life because I was completely impervious to the altitude. We later met people who had gotten serious altitude sickness from visiting this village. There are numerous collectives of weaving families who sell their wares together and give demonstrations of the traditional processes. The alpaca wool is washed and spun by hand before being dyed with natural organic dyes. Purple corn, lichen and cochineal are used frequently. The women demonstrated how the shade of red produced by the cochineal can be changed by adding ingredients like salt or lime juice. The finished yarn is then woven to create beautiful textiles used in traditional dress and homewares. The weaving process is elaborate and lengthy, and the traditional designs incorporate many symbols of Peruvian nature, such as pumas, lizards, rivers and mountains. The most expensive textiles are those finely woven with alpaca wool; they are very detailed and are often used in clothing. The dense weave keeps out the rain and different towns have different traditional designs. My favourite type of traditional Peruvian textile is the Frazada, which means blanket in Spanish. They are made in two halves and then sewn together. These are a chunkier, heavier textile and quicker to weave, which is why they are less expensive. They are used as rugs and blankets are and cut up to make backpacks and cushion covers. In the square in front of the white washed church of Chincero,  women in traditional dress sell their colourful textiles. This open air market backs onto the Chinchero ruins.

Pisac 

Pisac is famous for its market, and is busiest on the main market days when tourists pour into the town from a fleet of coaches. The market is a colourful maze spread over the cobbled town square, and sells everything from the most beautiful textiles to the tackiest tourist tat. A lot of the goods are mass produced and there is more of a hard sell here, which is why I prefer shopping in Chinchero. After wandering through the market we decided to head up to the ruins. These were our favourite ruins; they were a challenging walk with spectacular views and Inca terraces and fortresses dotted all over the mountain. We had the trail almost completely to ourselves. At the top of the mountain we met a tiny little old lady selling bottles of water from a huge bag on her back.

Where to Eat

As a pair of jet lagged coffee snobs it's always important to us that we find a good local cafe. Our favourite in Ollantaytambo was Cafe de mi Abuelo. The coffee was good, the staff are friendly, the top floor has an amazing view over the mountains, and they have great home-made alfajores. Also they have a daily happy hour, which means you get two Pisco sours for around £4, which is exactly what you need after a tiring day of walking up mountains. On our last day we discovered Cafe Mayu, which is right next to the platform in the train station and has excellent coffee. It is attached to El Albergue restaurant and B&B. Uchucuta was our favourite restaurant, and did an excellent alpaca steak with red quinoa and Andean sauce. We also visited Hearts Cafe regularly, a casual cafe and restaurant whose profits all go to local community work. The Living Heart charity does lots of fantastic work in the local community, and I am proud to support them with the sale of this print.

The Sacred Valley is a magical place with truly unique people. Stay tuned for part three and four where we spend a night in the Urubamba Valley at Inkaterra and then venture on to Machu Picchu.

Peru Part 1 - Arequipa

Lima

After flying into Lima and staying one night we arrived in Arequipa. Arequipa is Peru's second largest city, but its compact Colonial centre makes it easily walkable. Uniquely among the cities of Peru, Arequipa has never been an Inca settlement and was founded in the 16th century by the Spanish. We decided to start our Peru journey in Arequipa as it is around 2500 meters above sea level, which is the perfect place to acclimatise to the high altitude. It's also a stunning city that deserves a few days to explore and appreciate. 

Arriving in Arequipa

Arequipa is surrounded on all sides by three majestic volcanoes, which means the city operates with two distinct climates. Before the sun rises over the mountains it is freezing cold and after it is pleasantly warm. We stayed in Casa de Melgar, which turned out to be a brilliant choice. This hotel was once a colonial mansion. The rooms are set around colourful plant filled courtyards and are complete with antique furniture and embroidered wallhangings. It was also only a five minute walk from the Plaza de Armas, the centre of community life in any Latin American town.

Visiting the Monasteries 

The Santa Catalina Monastery is like a city within a city, built in the 16th century and painted with striking natural pigments. The monastery covers over 20,000 square meters and has its own streets named after cities in Spain. Twenty nuns still live there today. The monastery has an incredibly peaceful atmosphere. Whilst it is a beautiful building to explore on your own, the way to get the most out of it is to have a guided tour. For example a small dark room took on new meaning when the guide explained that this is where the secluded nuns would speak through the grill to their family living in the outside world. 

We also visited the Santa Teresa Monastery, which is much smaller and less well-known but definitely worth a visit. It houses a stunning collection of art from the Cusco School. Before coming to Peru I had never heard of the Cusco school, it is a fusion of traditional Catholic devotional paintings with a Latin American influence. It is characterised by decorative floral detail, embellishment in gold and the rosy cheeks of the subjects. The monastery is home to one the most stunningly beautiful rooms I think I have ever been in. The walls are covered in pale pink and green frescoes from floor to ceiling; hand-painted hundreds of years ago and carefully restored and maintained. 

The Countryside

We took an excursion out to the countryside for one day. Neither of us drive so we used a local bus tour company. It was a four hour tour and worked out to be good value and was a great way to see the countryside. One of my favourite places that we stopped at was the Mansion Fundador, a colonial mansion in the countryside once owned by the founder of Arequipa and subsequently his insane son. Like so many buildings in Arequipa it is painted in vibrant colours and furnished with beautiful antique furniture. We also visited the Old Mill at Sabandia, which was a particularly charming and tranquil spot

Where to Eat

Arequipa gave us a great introduction to Peruvian food and was very good value. Our favourite restaurant was Pishku, which had a beautiful courtyard and served the best ceviche I had all trip. I became a bit obsessed with the sandwich chain La Lucha. We went there for lunch in Lima and then again in Arequipa, and I am still dreaming about those sandwiches. We had marinated pork (Chic Charron) with sweet potato and red onion on chunky, crispy rolls. The staff were some of the friendliest and most attentive we met in Peru and the sandwiches were amazing value.

We discovered Chaqchao chocolate cafe on our last night and wished we'd found it sooner. As you would expect it makes amazing hot chocolate as well as a selection of craft beer and chocolatey treats. Alfajores are not uniquely Peruvian, but they are delicious and they are sold everywhere in Arequipa, particularly in the Plaza de Armas. They are round crumbly shortbread biscuits filled with dulce de leche and dusted with icing sugar. Peru is known for growing coffee but not for making it. More than once we bought a takeaway coffee so bad we had to throw it away. Fortunately we found Kaffee Haus right opposite our hotel and during our four day stay managed to fill up a loyalty card and claim a free coffee. They roast and grind Peruvian beans in house and make delicious coffee.

Stay tuned for part two to read about our travels to the Sacred Valley.