Of all the things I enjoyed most about my trip was the people. I’ve travelled a bit, taken photographs, done tours, seen amazing things, hell I’ve even done an epic abseil and black water rafting in the spirit of travel and adventure over the years. What did I enjoy most on my recent trip? Believe it or not it wasn’t the fabric shopping (stop choking now – it was fun). It was the people I met.
People makes places special. Even the most beautiful buildings, churches and galleries all have people at the heart of them. People that have lived, created, loved and laughed within their walls. The Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, galleries, museums and parks – all these places are bursting with stories of people – otherwise they are simply bricks and mortar – nothing more. It’s people that make places special.
THE BEYOND EPIC MEET-UP
I was kinda AMAZED at how many people turned up – I think everyone was! I was so very very tired after my first week of travelling, flying over, tackling Paris etc. I wish I hadn’t been quite so tired and been more ‘Lizzy’ for everyone. Maybe in New York 2014!
The Epic Sewing Meet-up
RACHEL
This girl is the bombshell of the sewing blog world. She’s tall, elegant, creative, intelligent, thoughtful and amazingly well organised! Not only did Rachel organise the epic Bloggers’ Meet-up of the Century, she also invited me out to her hometown the following Tuesday – which was lovely as we actually got to talk – which was a challenge on the epic meet-up day! I got so busy talking, eating and wandering about that I forgot to get a picture – but here is one from the meet-up with me looking like a derp face.
Rachel & Me
And at the meet-up there was…
Karen of Did You Make That? Yes, she’s a real person not just a blogging Rock Star – don’t know if you have ever noticed but the fabric of the dress in her blog header is the same as the fabric of the dress in mine! I find that amazing considering we are in different hemispheres.
Karen from Did You Make That?
Dibs of Dibs & the Machine … this girl is delightful, I wanted to pop her in my suitcase and take her home…
Dibs – she’s just delightful
Roisin of Dolly Clackett … and yes, she is that cute and cool in real life…
Roisin of Dolly Clackett. I had a special piece of ‘happy’ fabric for this girl. Sydney Harbour fabric, I thought it would make her smile x
Kim of Kim-ing… Kim has been around since the early days of my blog. She is sweet – and I wanted her Pavot!
Kim of Kim-ing
The By Hand London girls… super glam, super lovely… I am just waiting on some fabric for my Victoria Blazer…
By Hand London girls
Tasmin of Pimp My Curtains (had a lovely chat), Catherine Daze of Cyberdaze (I was rather in awe as I love her style) & Amy of Sylkotwist (so lovely to meet her, she’s as gorgeous as I thought she would be)
Tasmin of Pimp my Curtains, Catherine Daze of Cyberdaze, Amy of Sylkotwist
There are more people to mention but I’ll save that for my next post… or I will never publish this!
AGNES LE PONT
The very French & very delightful host of my little BnB accommodation in Paris. I was terrified of tackling Paris on my lonesome but she was amazing. Kind, helpful, friendly, full of advice – and she drank beer (gotta love a beer-drinking woman!)
BARBARA of Stitching up Paris
I don’t think I would have been able to navigate Paris and all its fabulous little shops and shopping eccentricities without the professional help of Barbara!
CARLA COULSON
I went to Paris for work. To interview Carla Coulson, a photographer who spent some of her teenage years in Port Macquarie. She is a beautiful person and one of the most fascinating and inspiring people I have met. At 35 she was a Sydney businesswomen with all the trappings of success – but deeply unhappy – rather than accept it, she totally changed her life. Carla’s blog is a great source of inspiration for photography or just read her amazing story on her blog.
Clare of SewDixieLou
Clare is gorgeous in every way. We met up in Lewisham and had a HUGE chat about life, the universe, sewing and everything over a cup of coffee. She took me to her favourite fabric shop, Rolls & Rems, in Lewisham and I LOVED it! I spent the huge sum of 6 pounds 50 pence and went home feeling like a champion!
THE DINNER & DRINKS CREW
Oh my lord, this was fun. Organised by the astonishing gorgeous and lovely Clare, along came Emma of My Oh Sew Vintage Life, Janene of Ooobop, Hannah of Sinbad & Sailor, Nicole of Nicole Needles, Jo of SewLittleTime & Clare of SewDixieLou. I swear I don’t often drink that much – but it was fun. Thank you girls for a great night! I swear one of these girls kept filling up my glass because I’m not quite sure how I managed to drink so much all by myself!
Ummmm, just press the button, yes that one…
Has he taken it yet? No I don’t think so…
It seems the camera wasn’t French…
WINNIE of SCRUFFY BADGER
Now I didn’t get to meet Winnie in the flesh 
but we have a little email friendship going on and it’s like we met in spirit. I think she’s actually my long-lost sister (she’s just the funnier groovier one).
Now I’m in Sydney and off to my first Aussie meet-up – even though I haven’t quite finished this post I’m going to publish it and write another one soon about the two swops I’ve been part of & a few other things. Life has been frantic since I got back & it’s been hard to find any free time to blog
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT MARVELLOUS PEOPLE
My life has its fair share of ‘challenging’ and, at times, really unpleasant people. The sort that make you grind your teeth in frustration while you smile until your face aches. The ones that like to quietly whittle away at your self esteem and pick at everything you say and do. You know the ones… in fact I bet you are thinking of someone right now and thinking ‘yep, that’s the sort Lizzy is talking about’.
You can choose to let these people’s misery infect you, dominant your thinking or you can choose to find and focus on the fabulous people – people like you. People that have encouraging things to say, jokes that make you laugh til you cry, send you something special from across the globe ‘just because’. People who celebrate your individuality and quirkiness – rather than grooming you to conform.
It’s not an easy thing to do. Once someone said to me “but it’s easy for you – you don’t care what people think!”. Well actually, (I hate to admit it) I do care. However I’ve reached that point in my life when I’ve realised that while I might care, I can’t actually change what other people think. So why waste energy on it? I choose to define myself- no it’s not easy, it’s a daily battle I’ve come to love/hate waging and I can’t declare a truce. Love me, like me or loathe me. I’m just me. Plain old Lizzy for better or for worse (and trust me I have my ‘worst days’ more often than I would like). The only thing I can do is work on being the best version of me. And that’s a much more interesting way to live than trying to be the ‘someone’ people think you should be.
Thank you for coming to the Bloggers’ Meet-up. Thanks for helping carry my bags. Thanks for sharing a meal, a drink, a laugh, your fabulous town. You are all epic, beautiful, creative women and the world deserves more of you. Mwah.
