#camblogmeet

last saturday i ventured up to cambridge and had lots of fun at the #camblogmeet! (i say saturday, that is  kind of a lie. my journey actually started friday evening ... i obviously haven't gotten used to the fact that i live on an island, it didn't occur to me to think how i'd get to southampton train station on saturday morning to meet with my new pals rachel and laura, until a few days before the event. after studying the bus and ferry timetables i realised i would have had to leave my flat at 05.50am!! ... ummm. no thanks. luckily rachel was kind enough to let me stay over the night before, otherwise i would have had to have slept on the table whilst everyone opened their goodie bags... the goodie bags! ahhmaagaa! more on those shortly)



the meet originally came about after stacie, rachel and i were discussing on twitter how we'd like to turn some of our lovely 'internet friends' into real life friends!
we decided to make it happen, and arranged to meet up in cambridge on 2nd march, and that was that.
luckily for us, claire got involved and used her superwoman like organisational skills to arrange everything from the venue to goodie bags ... she really made the day a success, so a massive thank you to claire for all of her hard work ♥

i am terrible at remembering my camera when it comes to things like this, so i only took a few snaps on my iphone, the rest of the photos i have stolen from claire, and you can see even more on her blog here and here :)

brunch on the train / goodie bags! / ombre smoothies / big fat burger / sightseeing / man playing a guitar ... in a bin .. obvs

we met for lunch and cocktails at ta bouche, which was followed by a bit of sightseeing around the town, before heading to carluccio's for tea and cake. very nice indeed! i've never been to cambridge before, but after my visit, i think i'm a little bit in love with the place.

above is a little sneaky peek at the contents of our goodie bags! i'm so glad claire thought of this, as it added a lot of excitement to the meet up! a big thank you to the companies who sponsored the event and provided treats for us, which included my favourite tea from teapigs, lots of lovely lush samples, a roll each from washitapes.co.uk, diy kits from crafty creatives in a cute polka dot bag, homemaker magazine, graze boxes, vouchers from printed.com, super cute stickers from stacie swift, a totally awesome hand illustrated greetings card by ohnorachio, sweet cambridge themed postcards from emma block, cute hand made rings by claireabellemakes, and of course some little cattoos by moi.

it was *so* lovely to meet up with real life people i have followed on twitter for what feels like forever. i think that's the only downside to working from home, the lack of human interaction. it can be quite easy to turn into a bit of a recluse, so i really appreciated the chance to get out and chat with some fellow illustrators, i'm really hoping we can arrange another one sometime soon :)
pictured above from left, stacie swift, emma block, rachel from ohnorachio, emma carlisle, me and laura from wrapped up in rainbows ... go and check out their blogs, you're in for a treat!
also you can see the full list of all who attended by checking out this very handy twitter list

i've said before, i'm usually really rubbish at meeting new people, and whilst i don't think i've overcome my fear yet i really enjoyed myself so if you have the opportunity to go to a meet up like this i urge you to go! don't be scared, everyone will be lovely (and probably just as nervous as you are!)
and! if you're planning any meet ups i'd love to know about them!