100 things I loved in 2025
(in no particular order)
1. Starting a pom pom and fairy light mohican which will be finished in Jan 2026!
2. Celebrating my business turning 5
3. Working with all the amazing people who are my clients through Coaching with Sarah. I really do love this, always.
4. Being invited to No 11 Downing Street (excellent canapes, fizz medium) and the House of Lords (weird canapes, delicious fizz).
5. Watching my 14yo perform one of his own songs at a professional gig
6. Taking on big projects which challenged myself in new ways, especially creating 30+ online courses in a matter of months for Articulate Cultural Trust
7. Celebrity Traitors
8. No… not just celebrity… ALL traitors. Linda forever.
9. Maybe, most importantly, watching the national treasure that is Claudia Winkleman
10. Supporting the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s fair access team with their strategy
11. Creating a beadwork Mardi Gras haberdashery that won the Founder’s Award at the Great British Bead Show
12. The Wes Anderson retrospective at The Design Museum in London with the 17yo
13. Discovering how much I love Adam Buxton’s podcast
14. Delving into a range of books with my book club including Intermezzo, Butter, Katabasis and Special Topics in Calamity Physics
15. Going to see Yungblud’s Idols tour with my 14yo in Zurich
16. Supporting the Scottish contemporary art network, SCAN, facilitating a board & team meeting
17. Celebrating my Baldiversary with some lovely pals (a party to stare adversity in the face and celebrate the anniversary of the day I shaved the remaining hair off).
18. Getting my logo redesigned with Laura at Paper Arcade
19. Getting an embosser for said logo. The best thing ever!
20. Seeing the Importance of Being Earnest at NT with the 17yo in January
21. Working with a menopause and health coach - made lots of positive changes and some surprising discoveries
22. Continuing to support Albatross Arts CIC as a director
23. Trying and failing to find a literary agent with my book proposal (new proposal currently in development!)
24. Having my Weekly Planner featured in the print and web versions of Ideal Home Magazine
25. The annual Easter Egg hunt at my mum’s which, in 2025, got us all tied up in vast amounts of string
26. Working with the fabulous Sorcha at Killer Whale Coaching, creating a kick ass Clifton Strengths online course for her
27. That dinner party scene in The Roses - a masterpiece IMO
28. Continuing with 2-3 yoga classes and the occasional pilates class week in, week out throughout the year. Yass!
29. Celebrating my mum’s 80th at the Ritz
30. Working with a new-ish beader as their mentor for the annual challenge
31. Getting my boiler fixed and it not costing the earth!
32. Printing some gorgeous Cartographer stickers for returning participants
33. Delivering some warm and engaged webinars: Space is Where the Magic Happens
34. Working with a new VA who is fab!
35. Swimming in the Charles Jencks artwork at Jupiter Artland
36. Finding a milkshake vending machine at 11pm in a sleepy little market town in Devon
37. Catching up with extended family after far too long in that Devon town!
38. Enjoying a bumper January with 9 new clients and lots of people signing up to the Cartographer’s Compass
39. The inaugural sailing of the Compass - every workshop was a delight and felt so perfectly aligned
40. Being a guest on Sarah Stewart’s podcast
41. Getting the Compass ready to sail again for 2026
42. Finally getting round to watching Slow Horses. So good.
43. Running a workshop on imperfection for Creative Strathaven
44. Visiting my Dad’s heart on the National Covid Memorial wall a couple of times. Your graffiti is still going strong, Dad!
45. Discovering a deep love for overnight oats and goji berries. Who knew?!
46. Stumbling over Adolescence on Netflix before it reached the papers and watching the first episode with my jaw hanging open before dashing upstairs to tell my two teen sons they had to watch it.
47. Creating some fun and games based facilitation, making consultation more creative and engaging for Articulation’s Summer Gathering
48. My name being mentioned on The Rest is Entertainment! Totally, hands down, my favourite podcast.
49. Making zig zag beadwork earrings that I wear at least once a week
50. Reconnecting with CHARTS to provide some coaching support
51. Playing at Bunbury Banter’s games day, Untested. We created a game about consensus and travel agents!
52. Visiting lots of galleries including a couple of exhibition openings for some fabulous clients
53. A lunchtime tour of the GSA archives - a cheeky midday artists date
54. Going away with 2 other families for the 5th time and having a blast
55. Losing one eyebrow - the comedy of it is worth putting on this list
56. Discovering I reject tattoo ink with the microblading for said eyebrow refusing to stick
57. Regrowing half that eyebrow in the autumn… half! That is also comedy gold. I currently have 1.5 eyebrows.
58. All of my eyelashes regrowing - this really is a full on, non-ironic thing to celebrate!
59. The Citz reopening and feeling all warm and fuzzy getting a tour around the place
60. Chilling in the Oxford botanic gardens on the hottest day of the year
61. Working on strategy with the wonderful Dirliebane theatre and their phenomenal two Artistic Directors
62. Reconnecting with Creative Glasgow and going to some fab events
63. Taking a boat trip down the Thames on a sunny Saturday, with my family whilst the red arrows flew over followed by a lovely lunch in a very old pub in Greenwich
64. Reading Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman - the book hasn’t left the bedside pile as it is so easy to dip in and reread a bit of is undoubtable wisdom
65. Writing my first beading pattern in yonks. A stash busting Christmas tree.
66. Diving into the world of Lemonading and writing about it
67. My blog on glimmers still getting loads of hits
68. Getting out in the morning for a stomp along the glen
69. Attending my first Alopecia UK’s big weekend and running a self-care mini zine drop in
70. Being at a party where there were more bald women than ones with hair!
71. Hosting my first Meet Mingle and Make for the Beadworkers Guild, beading with people from all over the world
72. Discovering (admittedly quite late) The Greatest Night in Pop documentary. The bit where Stevie Wonder helps a hopelessly lost Bob Dylan by doing an impression of him is amazing.
73. Feeling financially stable for the first time in ages
74. Daily puzzles - NY Times, LinkedIn, the i newspaper. Killer Sudoku (with pencil on paper) still my favourite
75. Realising that pistachio pavlova is gluten free (after the discovery of my gluten intolerance)
76. Discovering this GF seeded loaf - loads of fibre, protein and very little carbs.
77. Also baking lots of Ricciarelli. Also GF!
78. Whilst on the GF roll (pun intended), discovering that Big Bear Bakery’s sour dough is still lovely and doesn’t upset me
79. M&S’s individual GF panettone
80. I totally nailed GF sweet short crust too. My mince pies this year were a thing of beauty.
81. Making it along to a few Creative Morning events (one of my fave networking things ever)
82. GF puff pastry, however, not so good, so the Christmas beef wellington had the normal stuff (which I just took off… and that was grand… in fact it was glorious).
83. Being one of Small Business Saturday’s 100 best small businesses for 2025
84. Reading the fabulous Truth Like Water by Carys Shannon and feeling all smug about getting mentioned in the acknowledgements (in a coaching session, I encouraged Carys to hit send on the scary email sending this marvellous book to Parthenon who ended up publishing it in September!)
85. Making glittery resin letters… actually for an idea that got shelved, but the making was loads of fun, especially with the 14yo’s help
86. Continuing to attend, support and organise workshops for Beadwildered, my local beading group
87. Celebrating with my 17yo for not only becoming the national schools Public Speaking champion but also getting into the Scottish debate team and will be off to Kenya to compete in the world championship in the summer
88. Watching Chunky Jewellery again - such a funny, powerful and entertaining show. Loved it.
89. Playing far too much Two Dots on my phone
90. The return of Feathers McGraw
91. Being in the Slough Observer for the first time in 30 years!
92. Delivering some coaching for Clore
93. An instagram and a linkedin live, talking all things stationery with Vaishali Shah
94. Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent - loved it
95. Delivering a workshop on creative remote facilitation for students on the Creative Therapies course at the City of Bristol college
96. Getting out of my comfort zone with the boys at Alton Towers
97. Lots of gorgeous dinners out with pals: Lobo, Ox and Finch and Margo were my top ones (all Glasgow)
98. Not getting the flu my 14yo had just before Christmas
99. Facilitating the workshops for the Cartographer’s Compass - I know I’ve mentioned it before in this list, but these small but perfectly formed gatherings really were such a delight and a highlight for my business this year
100. Not being afraid to try and fail at things, or ditch ideas when they’re not working, or sometimes park them for later