Really Rather Wild

17/12/2024

😳 JUST when you think you're winding down for Christmas, and someone wonderful pops in with the biggest order of your year 😳 In fact, the second biggest individual order since you began business 4 years ago!

🫣 Small business is W I L D! I don't talk much money and sales here, but I'm not afraid to say book sales have slowed this year, for several reasons. This angel in my inbox could have gone for that famous 10 for £10 deal but instead they came to little old me. And it's made my week! (Month/year)

Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who shops small, or supports with engagement, recommendations and general good vibes from afar ❤️ I know it's often cheaper and easier to go with the big guys, but those CEOs are *probably* not still so excited by customers that they're taking cheesy chuffed selfies in front of the Christmas tree...so thank you for that! 🥰🥰🥰🎄

Oh PS... for what it's worth, I hold my own stock, printed sustainably in small-ish batches by a UK printer. So if you ever need a bulk order and sharpish, I can help! I sign them all too 🥰😇

16/12/2024

I'm just about ready to wind down for Christmas, but very excited to be part of this adorable event in January! Who doesn't love Winnie The Pooh 😍🍯

I LOVE being part of Hocus Pocus Play events, it's the perfect spot for storytelling and immersing kids in imaginative play.

Find out more about this Winnie The Pooh event at: https://www.hocuspocusplay.co.uk/store/half-acre-woods-play-day/

12/12/2024

What a way to end the year ❤️ Today was my last public event of 2024 and the perfect ending to a year of community focus.

Thank you to Swindon City of Sanctuary and their We're Open Families group for inviting me along to read The Winter Wish Tree, sing nursery rhymes and talk lots about stars! The children then got stuck into making Wishing Star cards... glitter everywhere! ✨🙌

I have LOVED wrapping up 2024 with a large scale community project, and while 2025 will see a return to commercial 'authoring' (new book news soon 🤩), I definitely want to take on more projects like this and meet more brilliant, funny, messy, noisy, creative little souls along the way ✨📚🎨

A huge thank you to all our participants Swindon City of Sanctuary, Wiltshire Treehouse and Swindon Carers Centre, plus the fabulous schools. And again to South Swindon Parish Council for seeing the golden value of community storytelling and...storycrafting...I'm making this a word and taking it into 2025. 🙌✨

Let's storycraft together sometime soon. You can find all the ways to work with me or book me for a visit on my website, just tap the link in my bio or pop me a message!

Right, one more week of school visits then I'm going to delete allllll the apps and eat allllll the Christmas things. Hope you can relax a bit too, what a privilege ❤️

05/12/2024

⭐ The loveliest afternoon, decorating our mini Winter Wish Tree as part of the NSPCC Festival of Trees at the Wyvern Theatre ✨🌲

My recent workshops with local schools and children's groups produced SO MANY wonderful wishes and charming illustrations, that it was easy to fill our little sponsored Christmas tree with colour and cuteness.

If you're visiting the Wyvern for Cinderella this panto season, be sure to pop up and see this forest of festivity in the Spotlight Room. Lots of lovely themed trees by other businesses and organisations, making for a beautiful backdrop for family photos and all to support the work of the NSPCC 💚✨

04/12/2024

❤️ Freya and Brandon joined my Winter Wish Tree workshop with Wiltshire Treehouse, working as a group to create a young character facing bereavement. The group also wrote messages to their special person or people who have died, concealing the messages within a memory bear which can be seen pictured in the story. 🐻💌

I am SO proud of all the young people who contributed to this community story, and I hope they felt just as proud of themselves when they spotted their work on the Enchanted Gardens Light Trail ❤️✨

🌲The Winter Wish Tree can be found as part of the brilliant trail around Town Gardens until Christmas Eve. Find out more at: https://towngardens-swindon.co.uk/enchanted-gardens-light-trail/

The story boards are also accessible during the day, without needing a ticket 🥰

03/12/2024

✨ Christmas books are such a magical part of the festive build up for children! National Literacy Trust in Swindon are running 7 days of giveaways to win some gorgeous books, go take a look! (Santa's Christmas Journey with its wind-up sleigh is a firm favourite in this house!) Good luck...

Win a Christmas story bundle… 🎁 🎅 🎄 🎉

It’s day one of our seven days of giveaways!

We're celebrating the amazing difference you make as a parent in the moments you share with your child at this time of year.

Every day this week, there will be a prize bundle up for grabs with beautiful books based on themes little ones love. 🤍

To enter today and be in with a chance of winning five fantastic Christmas and winter themed stories, all you need to do is:

✅ Follow this page and comment to tell us your family’s favourite festive movie. 📺

Day one top tip: 🌟 chatting with your child about the characters, scenes or plot in their favourite festive movie is a great way to grow their interest in stories and storytelling.

For more ways to teach your child new words this winter and build their language and communication skills from the start, visit: https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/go-for-a-winter-walk/

Included in the Christmas story bundle:
✨ The Twelve Days of Christmas (board book).
📖 Lights and Sounds Christmas.
✨ The Owl Who Came for Christmas.
📖 The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
✨ Santa's Christmas Journey with Wind-Up Sleigh.

See you tomorrow for giveaway day two and a new themed prize bundle! 👋 👀



Please note: this giveaway competition will close at 12pm midday on Wednesday 11 December 2024, when we will select the winners at random. Prizes will be available for collection from your closest library. We will announce the winners via the National Literacy Trust in Swindon page only. We won’t tell you that you have won via comments or ask you to click on any links. Please be aware of fake accounts.

Find full terms and conditions: https://literacytrust.org.uk/communities/swindon/terms-and-conditions/

30/11/2024

✨...and by night! A really special evening, seeing this wonderful community project come together under twinkling magic and light!

👏 Congratulations to all involved in creating The Winter Wish Tree and the interactive Wish panels ✨
Swindon Carers Centre
Wiltshire Treehouse
Swindon City of Sanctuary
Lethbridge Primary School
The Croft Primary School
King William Street Primary School

📚 I hope that this special story of wishes, community, inclusion and magic ✨sparks✨ conversations on the way round. I hope that you stop and look at the wishes of over 200 children from our town...From snow to gifts to dream careers and 'Save the trees, save the water, stop apartheid' as pictured ❤️

🌟 The majority of these panels were drawn just after hearing The Winter Wish Tree and considering how we can work together within our communities to make each others dreams come true without magic. But actually, storytelling IS magic. Creating stories with and for children, to reflect their realities and imagine better ones for the future, nothing like it.

Thank you South Swindon Parish Council for this very special commission and congratulations on another gorgeous, interactive, community and arts driven trail. We're lucky to have it!

Also a fitting opportunity to wear my Women in Hebron Collective embroidered bag, with its festive tree design and hopes for the future contained within ❤️🍉🪡🌲

Town Gardens Bowl, Swindon

28/11/2024

😍✨ Oh my! I've just been for a sneaky walk around Town Gardens Bowl, Swindon to check on The Winter Wish Tree and honestly, it is SO beautiful up there and it's not even completely finished or lit up yet!

I know tickets are a little more expensive than last year (what isn't) but I can see the amount of work that's gone into this year's (longer) light trail and honestly think if we don't support and visit these local attractions, we'll lose out on having them on our doorstep 🫣 I didn't want to spoil things so not sharing too much, you have to go see for yourselves! ✨

Well done South Swindon Parish Council, it's all looking amazing and I can't wait to see it all lit up tomorrow night!

28/11/2024

📚It looks amazing! As Steve said, I too was sad not to be able to accept my invitation this time, but am also arranging something for the new year ❤️

Go and support Prospect Hospice in this gorgeous new location!

22/11/2024

It was such an honour to present these two brave young people with their Storyteller Award at the Wiltshire Treehouse 10 Year Anniversary Awards tonight 💚🏆

Sully and Freya have shown incredible strength in sharing their bereavement stories, and will have had such a lasting and immeasurable impact on other young people experiencing the death of someone close to them. Congratulations again, you should feel so proud.

📚Sharing our stories connects us to others in so many ways. I feel very lucky to have seen Wiltshire Treehouse begin their story 10 years ago and look forward to supporting them for many more. They don't receive government funding so please do follow them for ways to join their fundraising and offer them much needed support where you can 💚

22/11/2024

✨ Only a few more days until the children's hard work is on display within the beautiful Enchanted Gardens Light Trail ✨

🏆 But first! Off to join Wiltshire Treehouse and some of their wonderful participants in their 10th anniversary awards ceremony tonight! Huge congratulations to all the nominees, I can't wait to celebrate your courage with you all 💚

200 Swindon kids took part in winter storytelling workshops with award-winning children's author Kate Claxton.

20/11/2024

📚✨ Story Explorers explore Aurora!

Once a year I allow one of my book babies into the Story Explorer bag and this week was the turn of mine and Amber Orozco's colourful night sky adventure, Searching for a Roarer 💚🩷

I had a little smile to myself when I overheard one of my explorers, who has the book at home, whispering the plot to her friend before we started. It's still such a novelty to have bits of my imagination out there in the wild 🥰

ANYWAY! On to the craft (a sentiment I often feel from the kids, hurry up reading Mrs, so we can get on with the messy stuff 😅) After I shared the book with them, we got to making our own Aurora lamps with clear cups, tissue paper and flickering (battery) candles.

✨ It has been so wonderful to have the added context of UK Northern Lights sightings this year. I remember really questioning myself when I wrote/designed Searching for a Roarer, would it be realistic for a kid to see the lights from their garden, without snow on the ground or an obvious Scandi setting?! I needn't have worried now so many have spotted that dancing lion from home 🥰

📚 If you're looking for a new read or a gift for a little one this time.of year, you'll find signed copies on my website below. And remember, small business owners do a little dance/sigh of relief with every order 😂😘

✨ https://www.reallyratherwild.com/books ✨

19/11/2024

❄️ Eek! There was something very magical (and a bit soggy) about collecting The Winter Wish Tree story boards in the snow this morning ❄️✨

Thank you so much to Raj and Mark Minuteman Press for yet another fantastic job, the boards look amazing and are now safely delivered to South Swindon Parish Council ready for installation in Town Gardens Bowl, Swindon🌲❄️✨🌟

There are now only 10 days until the Enchanted Gardens Light Trail begins and I can't wait to see our community story up on display and to imagine how proud our participants will feel ❤️

If you're local to Swindon and don't already have your tickets, I would highly recommend a visit. It's a new, longer route this year with some amazingly interactive light displays and several very special community collaborations like ours.

The countdown to winter storytelling magic is ON! ✨📚

15/11/2024

📚 Thank you for the very exciting invitation, South Marston CofE Primary School ✨

🦁 I LOVED sharing Searching for a Roarer with you all, and what an honour to help you open your beautiful new library! I can't imagine how many imaginations will be sparked in this special space for years to come! 📚🤩

30/10/2024

😍 Make a 'Warm Welcome' Jumper with us! 🧥✨

Today was the final Winter Wish Tree storytelling session and what a gorgeous one it was! We held a drop-in at Central Swindon Libraries & Information Service with Swindon City of Sanctuary and their We're Open Families group, plus guests!

💞 Fitting to the important work Swindon City of Sanctuary do to welcome people to our town, we themed our session on Welcomes - what makes us feel welcome? What does 'welcome' look like to you? How can we make others feel welcome? 🌍

🎨We then used our knowledge and new friendships to get creative. While the younger children coloured trees, leaves and stars, our older participants chose materials from collections labelled 'happiness', 'safety', 'inclusion' and 'communication' to create a jumper for their character to wear! Swipe to see how we got on, they all agreed the jumper looked very warm and welcoming...plus a little bit funky!😍

👏 Well done to all our little creatives, it's now less than a month until your drawings, ideas and most importantly your representation is up on display in Town Gardens for the Enchanted Gardens Light Trail! ✨

South Swindon Parish Council
City of Sanctuary

25/10/2024

🥹 This was such a special session for me ❤️

🌲✨ Yesterday I took The Winter Wish Tree project to children's bereavement charity Wiltshire Treehouse. We spoke about what feelings and emotions we have when someone special dies, what our comforts and happy things are and what we could do when someone wishes to hug their special person again.

🧸 We created our own memory bear, each choosing a section and writing a personal message to our loved one/s on the back. Each piece was stuck back on the bear, which will feature in the illustrations of this community story ❤️

✏️ The children also described and designed one of our characters, who I've helped them turn into someone super cute...swipe to see her and the bear! I feel beyond proud of our young participants and what they've created.

💔 This session had the potential to be very heavy, but I'm really lucky to have been working with Treehouse since they started almost 10 years ago. I stopped my group support work when I was pregnant but am such a huge supporter of Kath and the team. It also felt like a full circle moment to share my dedication to my dad in the front of Searching for a Roarer, I started volunteering for Treehouse just after the 1st anniversary of his passing ❤️✨

I wish we could package up this level of bereavement support and send it around the world ❤️

👏 Well done kids, I can't wait for you to see your courage and creativity on display in Town Gardens Bowl, Swindon for The Enchanted Gardens Light Trail 🌲✨📖

Thank you South Swindon Parish Council for enabling me to do this project, it really is something so special ❤️

24/10/2024

✨✏️ Last week, I had the pleasure of taking The Winter Wish Tree project to Swindon Carers Centre and their Young Carer's group.

🌲✨ The Winter Wish Tree is a community story that, once finished, will be turned into a trail through Town Gardens for South Swindon Parish Council's Enchanted Gardens Light Trail ✨ I have been working with schools and three very special children's groups, creating the story together.

🎨 Our Young Carers session focused on what it was like to be a young carer, what qualities a young carer has and what a child with extra responsibilities and less free time might wish for. The session was totally led by them and I can't wait to bring their designs and ideas to life for you all to see. Well done Swindon Young Carers! 👏

✨ The project rolls on to Wiltshire Treehouse this evening, where we'll be remembering our loved ones and creating our own memory bear art piece 🧸

The Winter Wish Tree story trail will be in place at The Enchanted Gardens Light Trail from 29 Nov - 24 Dec. The story will be accessible all day, but I highly recommend the light trail, find out more at: https://towngardens-swindon.co.uk/enchanted-gardens-light-trail/

23/10/2024

🔎 EXPLORE MORE 🪔 Diwali!

✏️ This week's Story Explorers are reading The Best Diwali Ever by Sonali Shah and Chaaya Prabhat, and creating their own rangoli patterns!

📚 This beautiful book introduces us to Ariana and her build up to an exciting Diwali celebration, but her little brother gets a bit carried away and ruins her plans. A great book for introducing Diwali to little learners alongside an engaging and sweet story for any time of year.

🎆 Our Explorers loved the often relatable story of an annoying younger sibling 😂 and they were really excited to talk about the fireworks. I loved the incredible richness of Chaaya's colourful illustrations and the extra information page at the back. Oh also those rangoli end papers are 😍

🔎 Take a look through this week's Explore More post to see our Explorer's rangoli designs and find out about a couple of exciting Diwali celebrations in our community this week...will you be celebrating light where you are?

🎨 Locally, our friends at Old Town and Badbury Park Libraries Swindon will be running a Diwali craft session this Friday! Swipe for more info and email [email protected] to book. We'll be there too, looking forward to getting crafty ✂️

There's also a free event at Haydon Wick Council on Saturday that looks really fun for families!

🎇 Are you marking Diwali or exploring more to try a new craft, foods or reading a new story? Let us know in the comments if you have any recommendations!

🍂 This was our last Story Explorers of the Autumn term, looking forward to all things Winter after the break! ❄️