And the winner is..

Lisa Warner!

Two goodie bags will also be winging their way to Sarah of Mostly Yummy and Caleigh very soon. 

Congratulations ladies and thank you to everyone who took part and helped to make this the best giveaway yet!

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A Birthday Giveaway and a Big Thank You

On March 1st, The Dress Tree turns three!

I got a little emotional last night as I looked back over the last three years. There's of a lot pride here and a pretty big sense of, "what the hell was I thinking??"
To say I jumped in at the deep end without a clue as to what I was supposed to do would be an understatement! A lot of hard work and late nights have gone into making The Dress Tree what it is today - a small yet viable business which brings me so much joy. It still blows my mind to imagine that there are people dotted around the world who wear something that I've made. Or that people take time out of their day to leave a comment, send me a message or in some other way, give me encouragement to keep going.
It's really hard not to get too slushy, so I'll stop here. Just know that I am deeply grateful to every one of you who have supported me over the past three years. This is more than just a business to me and you will never know how much your encouragement has meant.

As a thank you I would like to giveaway a skirt from the shop. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning it is to answer a simple question "which skirt would you choose if you won?" You don't have to follow me anywhere, like anything or comment on this blog post. And it's just one entry per person, so everyone will be in with an equal chance.
Your choice isn't set in stone either. I will contact the winner once the giveaway has finished to find out which skirt they would prefer. And I do mean any skirt too. It could be one of the ready to ship ones, or one of the custom made ones. Although if it's the latter, it will take a little longer for me to send it to you as I will have to make it first! But that's ok isn't it. ;)

So pop on over to the shop, have a look at the skirts and enter the giveaway. I mean, only if you want to. You don't have to, it's not as though I'm the boss of you.

But I am the boss of me and that is, AWESOME!!!

The Dress Tree Shop

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"How you turned my world, you precious thing"

On Monday I was going to publish a post about cookies of all things, but then David Bowie happened and the day went to shit a little bit. I couldn't concentrate on much and ended up listening to Radio 6 Music instead, with Lauren Laverne leading the tributes. One beautiful moment: dancing around the kitchen with Alessi to Space Oddity.

She asked me who was singing and I told her it was the Goblin King.

Cookies can wait.

Resolutions for 2016

Work, keep it simple

I'll have more time than ever to focus on the shop in 2016 so I don't want to fall in to the trap of taking on too much, only to stress myself out trying to meet unrealistic deadlines.

Time with Alessi, make it count

She will be starting school in September and it will be a milestone for both of us. The true end of her youngest years and I want to make sure that on her first day at school, I'm not left wishing I'd made more of this time together. 

Accept myself

Last year was something of an eye opener. The loss of good people, and some close shaves kept hammering home the same message over and over again. 

Life really is just too damned short. 

I'm going to admit that I have always cared what people thought about me and I've finally learned that this is no way to be. It's ok to care a little, but not to the point where you constantly curb your own behaviour just to appease others. I'm guilty of that. So I'm working on just being me and accepting that not everyone will like who I am or understand my ways and that's ok. But more importantly (and urgh, I do realise how flaky and cliched this sounds), it starts with me. I've got to accept who I am too. That means the social awkwardness, the occasional abrasiveness and that yes, I do laugh loudly and swear too much. 

This year I won't be fucking apologising.

Read 

I've never been a fan of e-readers. Yes I agree that they are extremely convenient, but they seem so soulless. And they don't have that book smell either. It's just not the same and in my stark refusal to embrace the technology I have instead, stopped reading altogether. Which is worse than the e-readers so when I get paid at the end of the month I will buy myself at least one book, and get back into it.

Celebrate my accomplishments

I am so shit at this. Most of us are to be fair. Something I've wanted to do with my Etsy shop for a long time was reach 100 sales. A small goal by many peoples' standards, but it was an important one for me nonetheless. I hit it and instead of giving myself a moment to enjoy it, I simply carried on about my day. Not even so much as a cup of tea and a biscuit. This year I am going to mark each of my achievements, no matter how small the celebration. And I suspect many of my rewards will be food based.