Well, 2016 is turning out to be quite an eventful year already and it’s only May! In January, I moved into my new premises, a small but perfectly formed studio space on the beautiful site of Hanley Farm in Tidenham, near Chepstow. As with any business owner, the leap of faith it takes to find rent for a premises every month is pretty daunting, but I think it displays that you are serious about your business and elevates you to a new opportunities. I’m five months in and I don’t regret it so far, so long may it continue. Then came February, when I took delivery of a life sized rhino (as you do), a fibreglass sculpture for the Paignton Zoo and surrounding area. This is my third sculpture to date, as part of an art trail and this big fella took over 56 hours to paint. At the moment, it’s still a bit of a secret, but the big reveal will be in July and the trail will be on until the 9th of October.

So, then came March, which was an eclectic month of inspiring creativity, working with a school, ladies with learning difficulties, the Tutshill WI, running arty parties, plus a mosaic activity at the Monmouth Women’s Festival. As you can see, never a dull moment here! And so on to April, a month that saw me receive Finalist for ‘Business Person of the Year’ for the Forester Business Awards. What a shock to the system that was. Not only did it mean staying up late on a weekday evening, it also meant a) wearing a dress, b) wearing heels, c) having a hairdo and d) not falling over in said high heels. However, I managed it and was absolutely over the moon to receive the Finalist award (which is a posh way of saying runner up – I didn’t actually win it). The award felt like a huge pat on the back for all the hard work and effort I’ve been putting into my business over the last eighteen months. It really was a special moment and my certificate is proudly placed in my studio for the world to see.

So now we are well into the month of May and yesterday I had the amazing news that I’m a Finalist again, but this time for the Gloucestershire Women in Business Awards and I’m up for “Creative Woman of the Year”! As you can imagine I am incredibly proud and delighted that I have been selected from a list of tremendously talented women for the WHOLE of Gloucestershire! I can’t quite believe it. The award ceremony is not until the 16th of June, so plenty of time to get practising in ‘those’ heels. I’m up against two incredibly innovative and accomplished business women, so who knows how far I will get, but for now I’m just very happy to have even got this far. I’ll let you know how I get on (both at the awards and in the high heels) x