Hi everyone,

Hoping you are all enjoying some well deserved sunshine at the moment, and making the most of our well deserved summer this year. What a year it has been for all of us… one, in a lot of ways we would like to move on from, but are unlikely to ever forget. It has mostly had more lows than highs for most of us, and I think we are all cheering on getting to delayed Freedom day on the 19th of July - when we can all finally get on with the business of living our lives free of COVID restrictions (well … fingers crossed !).

It has been a very strange time to launch a business… I think a few of my friends thought I was a little mad !(which I won’t deny is probably true) , but by the time I hit that launch button on the 12th of June last year - Island Home had already been a year in the making, and it seemed then was as good a time as any to give it a go. It has been like being on a rollercoaster most days, crazy busy at times, super quiet with no explanation at others . My customers, you guys… have been brilliant. The support and encouragement I have received from people that had only just a short time ago been strangers, has boosted me a times when I doubted myself and what I was doing, and for that I am so very grateful to you all.

I know Island Home isn’t for everybody. I have a very defined look, and I have tried to stick with that look as best I can. In some ways Island Home is a way for me to feel closer to home, when at times in the past 12 months, I have never in all the years I have lived overseas - felt further away. I know to many who look at the site, its just a collection of things to consider purchasing - but to me, many of them remind me of memories of my Sydney childhood, or the years we lived in Sydney bringing up our young family. They speak to me of sunshine, and warm breezes, sunburnt noses and walking along beaches - things that in the depth of what was a difficult and lonely winter for us all, helped to remind me that good days would come again. I hope that having a little piece of my Island Home, brings that same feeling to your home, and to you all - my wonderful supportive customers.

Finally I just want to say thank you. Thank you to each and every one of you who has followed my progress on social media, browsed and then ordered from my website. All those of you who have been patient when we have had delays with stock, and who have come back time and time again to order just something small, maybe a gift for a friend or another piece or two of foliage for that stone vase you loved and ordered from me previously. It all helps, as I say in a lot of my notes to you guys that I pop in with your deliveries - it is lovely customers like you who keep little shops like me going… I am so grateful for your custom and for your support - because I truly love what I do, and I do have to remind myself all the time - how very lucky I am for that to be the case.

So here’s to the first year of Island Home… lets blow out the candles on the cake and celebrate!

Take care everyone… speak soon x