After 6 years of working for my current publishing company I’m off to pastures new! I have been offered a job at another very prestigious Oxford publishers and so had to say my goodbyes. This was my leaving lunch at the always lovely Steveton House hotel. Instead of a leaving present I asked my colleagues if they would be kind enough to put some funds towards my sponsorship goal, and by goodness they did. The final total just from their efforts is nearly £500! Certain individuals however who shall remain nameless (totally Michelle) ignored the no presents rule completely and to my utter surprise (and I must confess delight) I was presented with my very own ‘box or Awesome’ – a box containing lots of things made or contributed by my friends that reminded them of me or they thought I would like. First let me show you the box.
Isn’t it lovely? You may recognize the butterflies they were made with my stamp that one of my team mischievously borrowed. Shall we take a look inside? The items fall into 3 main categories , things to make/and things that were made, photographs & music and things to grow. First up things that were made and are to make:
It’s a handmade Arucana egg cosy, how cool is that?!?
My ‘desk wife’ Sophie made me this, its a rose made out of strips of felt (she is so clever, I don’t know even where I would start trying to make one of these). 
Lovely crocheted earrings made by my friend Lynn (who took over leadership of the knitting group, safe to say they are in safe hands). There was also lots of supplies for my own crafting endeavors…
And then there were the images…
A few of my favourite Folk pin ups,
A grown up colouring book
A signed copy of ‘Shire Folk’ (the magazine my friend Graham writes for) plus the new Richard Thompson album (score!)
My friend James yet again proved how talented he is by producing these
And my personal favourite
Ding dong its the Doctor 🙂
Finally there were some great seeds and planting kits as well as some truly lovely fabric flowers from my friends Michelle.
And that was pretty much it, apart from this secret message that I didn’t spot till after the presentation.
Thank you guys so much, best leaving presents EVER! And now onto the next adventure…
