As a completely fabulous, proper weekend draws to a close, I’m once again pensive. In a good way. For the first time in I genuinely can’t remember how long, I am excited for Monday. The first week of the new job mostly involved meeting people, familiarising myself with the uni’s website and eating cake. But I am looking forward to being there, to the challenge of the first tasks I have, of getting to know my (perfectly lovely!) new colleagues, of discovering the campus and the surrounding areas, of spending the evenings of this week eating good food and making stock for fairs and the fabulous Tea & Sympathy boutique.

This weekend has comprised seeing the Ruby Slippers at the V&A, eating a ridiculous amount of food, catching up with fabulous friends, catching up with fabulous family and walking around in a state of wonder that I can be this happy in normal, everyday life. Read on for more…

I found this toadstool on a walk around campus earlier in the week. It’s elicited comments such as “wow, it’s like working in Snow White’s forest” – which made me smile in itself, and also because it sort of is. It’s a million miles from London, and there are a surprising number of City escapees working there 🙂

This week has also been full of Free Range Humans inspiration, which has been fantastic – and Contrariety Rose’s Lou and I have been keeping each other sane with the increasing pressure (good pressure) of shops wanting to stock our work within the same month. Eeek!

My weekend has been perfect. Friday night was quiet, pottering making my flat feel like home, mooching round my studio and doodling inspiration for a new range of necklaces. Saturday I set off to London (it was so weird getting on a train again) and met the fabulous Caroline and her friend Carol for lunch. (Yep, Caroline, Carol and Carla… you couldn’t make it up!) Much wine and a ‘British cow pie” later, we wandered past the Hummingbird Bakery and popped in for dessert. My first whoopie pie was so good it didn’t get photographed, I pretty much inhaled it. It was in this box… honest!

Caroline and I then headed off to the V&A to see the Hollywood Costume exhibition – courtesy of her lovely sister, who works at the Smithsonian (who lent the original Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz) and managed to get us sneaky VIP tickets though it was sold out until the shoes have left! It was glorious – from the “oh yes, special tickets” welcome to the dress made of peacock feathers and the ruby slippers themselves (did you guys know they were silver in the book, and were changed for Technicolour? I probably should have done, but didn’t) – I loved every minute of it.

We then retired to the pub we’d had lunch in (I’d left my scarf there and didn’t really want to go home without it) and found Aspall cider… this made me happy, as I don’t often spot it in London. It’s made in Suffolk and it’s lush. We proceeded to get a little bit tipsy (me, on very little alcohol) and drink like a normal person (Caroline) and put the world to rights. A quick visit to the St Paul’s funfair and an impromputu visit to the top of One New Change to check if a building was on fire (it wasn’t, it was the air conditioning… lol) and I headed home tired but very happy. St Pauls at night is quite stunning, too…

This morning I woke up leisurely, made a cake for my parents, whose anniversary was yesterday, and drove over in the quite amazing sunshine to my Gran, aunt and uncle’s, and their five children, my honourary siblings (for the uninitiated, I lived with them for a while so they’re more like brothers and sisters than cousins) – we went to the pub for an incredibly Sunday lunch. Nom nom nom. Mum and Dad popped in to see us on the way home from a family wedding in Devon, and it was all round gorgeous. Cuddled puppies, stroked horses, talked non-stop and returned home to make jewellery and blog before bed.

I am spending a large amount of time at the moment wandering around in a state of shock at my good fortune – I can’t believe my luck. I am crossing my fingers it lasts… and there is no reason for it not to, this state of being is what I’ve been trying to engineer since before I knew it was possible 🙂

(Sorry… my blog has taken a definite turn towards smug in its happiness recently. Can’t help it – it’s so exciting!)

So on that rather lengthy note, I am off to bed and to anticipate tomorrow. Squeee!