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Along my creative journey, I've been given a few permission slips, and I can't tell you how much they've helped! Permission to embark upon a creative career, permission to call myself a creative, permission to call myself an illustrator, permission to call myself... gulp... an artist. Each one has been a delightful nudge of encouragement for which I've been truly grateful. 

Before I started Toots Design, I created a hat brand with colourful winter beanies...

Here is a little behind the scenes about how it came about, and how it became a  part of the journey to finding you here now. 

Putting on a brave face alongside the things that worry us is so tiring.

Sometimes the thoughts and feelings themselves can be as (if not more) frightening than any situation we face. It takes great strength to hold them at bay, and it takes great strength to face them too. So if you recognise yourself holding up the wall with all your might, you are stronger than you know. And if you recognise yourself sitting with the courage to let them out, you are also made of more magic than any Marvel superhero.

I can't deny, and you probably have guessed it already, but I am highly sentimental! And Christmas sparks some of the biggest attachements to happy memories for me. Decorations often serve as a physical connection to Christmases gone by, so my favourites are often the ones I've had in my life the longest. My Mum used to decorate the house for Christmas overnight while me and my sister were asleep. It was the best thing! One day, you'd wake up and come out to a house filled with tinsel and the smell of the Christmas tree. Absolute magic. I know tinsel had a phase - maybe it still does?! - where it was a bit unloved, but it's always been a Christmas essential for me and it still makes me so happy.