Hey there all,
I have had the busiest week ever and so this post has taken a little bit of a back seat, why is the end of the school year so manic and hectic!? Anyway, I want to write a little bit about an event I attended on Saturday 25th June in London and can I just say it was one of the best I had ever been to. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the company of other fellow bloggers and within all the activities set out. I have a strange feeling that one of the reasons I really enjoyed myself was because of the setup and structure of the event. To me, events are usually lots of different brands scattered around a room and lots of bloggers mingling in between them trying to talk to as many as possible to find out information as well as mingling with bloggers they may already know or recognise, but this event had more of a calm feel to it, it only had a certain amount of bloggers in and only three tables set up with activities for us to complete and discover. I have slight OCD so this to me was perfection as there wasn't a huge muddle everywhere, it was fun while still being organised. (How Monica from FRIENDS do I sound right now?)
The event I went to was for
Viking, an office supply company that has lots of stationary too. I have blogged for viking before so was really excited about the event, but also because I love all things stationery, I mean who doesn't? We had been using the hashtag
#VikingArtyParty on twitter beforehand as it was a craft event and I could not wait to get inside and get messy. I met up with
Cat at the tube station and we followed google maps to find our way there, we arrived a few minutes late but it was okay as they hadn't started yet. We got given name tags with our twitter handles as that's just probably easier to spot most people out and we were given a drink. Which I was more than grateful for after the fast walk from the tube station due to being late. We were put into the blue team which were doing block printing with
Tea and Crafting first. We were given a file to print onto, some acrylic paint which is beautiful to look at but a right struggle to remove off nail polish (so be warned), some sponges and another sponge to do the printing. We had lots of photos around us to give us some inspiration, and we were told to do a simple shape as it's easier, some of the girls prints were incredible and so intricate but I stuck to a simple one of arrows. Block printing is so much fun and very messy, but once you get into the rhythm of it, time just went by so fast and I really enjoyed making my file look all colourful.
After the block printing, we had a little break, where we could mingle with the other bloggers, have something to eat, grab a drink and make a pit stop to the bathroom too. It was so lovely to be around all these different bloggers, some of which I had seen before and others I met on the day. It's always nice when you are around like minded people, it doesn't feel awkward to stand by the table and take 50 million photos of a single banana for a shot. (Not that I did that, at least not this time).
After our break it was straight into our next activity and this is one that I was so super excited for. As an avid fan of Pinterest, I see so many beautifully written pieces around and I have always wanted to learn Calligraphy. We had a 45 minute workshop class with
A-laise, We were given a pad with the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase as well as some patterns to practise on first, some ink, a calligraphy pen and some tissue as it could get messy, especially if you sat next to Cat. We were taught how to hold the pen correctly and how much it was about the force in which we were applying to the pen when writing with it. I really enjoyed this workshop and could quite happily have sat there for a whole 2 hours just practising. We had lots of jokes made throughout the whole experience, and it just made everyone feel a little more comfortable at the fact that it is actually a tricky thing to learn.
When we finished the calligraphy, we were given another little break, which is where I took the opportunity to photograph the venue as it was actually so pretty and quaint. I also took the chance to take some outfit photos.
We then moved on to our third and final activity, which was another one that I had an interest in as I had seen so many of the beautiful things you could do if only you knew the skill. We were going to have a 45 minutes workshop on Origami with the wonderful
Samuel Tsang. Sam taught us that the art of origami and folding the paper is that as you are doing it you shouldn't be thinking of anything, it is supposed to be like yoga for the brain and you are just supposed to fold. Even if the folds don't come out right, don't worry about it or rush it, it's not a competition much like life, you just gotta live it and let it be. Sam showed us how folding paper into a simple bird (I say simple, but it was a struggle at times) could actually make you money if you were to then sell in online especially in an etsy shop. He also showed us, how he makes bouquets of flowers by folding paper, and some of his designs are beyond words, people buy them for weddings and as anniversary gifts and I can totally see why, I would love a guy to buy me the flowers that Sam makes. I learnt so much through his workshop, mostly I learnt, whatever you do on one side do it on the other side too, but also "always help out people who need it, you never know they may give you an envelope that they have made by hand" ;)
And just like that, the event had come to an end. I really enjoyed myself, and this has been one of the best events I have been to, I just want to say a huge thank to Viking and
Search Laboratory for inviting me and letting me be a part of their messy craft day, you guys sure do know how to throw an amazing party. I feel like everyone should take up these three hobbies, they were so calming and relaxing, and I think I throughly enjoyed meeting new bloggers and just talking about life, not just our blogs but about our lives too, as i've always said sometimes life just gets in the way and it was nice to just talk a little about our everyday shenanigans while doing something creative and relaxing.
Were you at this event? Im sorry if I didn't get a chance to come by and say "Hello".
Ana
..xo
No comments:
Post a Comment
Want to spread your love, do so below. If you have anything interesting, witty or an opinion to share why not? Want to spread your hate, theres a red X button in one of the corners, click it!