Bloggeration Book Blogger Workshop

On a very cold and wet Saturday, I found myself rising at 6:30am to make my way all the way up to North London. Why might you ask would someone get up so early on a Saturday and make a 2 hour trip to London? Well I was actually really excited as I was heading to Bloggeration's Book Blogging Workshop, which the lovely Sarah from The Prosecco Diaries had said ALL the way back in August that she was organising and that Penguin would be making an appearance! I had been quick to get my name down when a date had been announced and was thrilled when I had secured a place. I had been looking forward to this for ages and I definitely wasn't going let an early Saturday start and long journey stand in my way of getting to this highly anticipated event.

I surprised myself by being one of the first people to arrive at the venue which was at the O Bag Store in Crouch Hill. The shop looked absolutely beautiful and I was keen to take some photos.  They are a huge brand in Italy and have opened their first shop over here in Crouch End, London. They sell bags which you can design yourself, as well as watches, sunglasses and bracelets. They are also available online and when I say you can design the bags yourself, you really can. You can change the colours, the designs and accessories to go with them. I genuinely think that this is a brilliant idea as sometimes when I'm out looking for a bag, I think oh wish it could be in that colour, or wish it was in that style, so the O Bag brand leaves you open to a room (or bag) of possibility.




After some photo taking, all of the 8 other bloggers had arrived and we settled down with some gorgeous Wordsworth notebooks from The Literary Emporium who I have actually bought from before as as you can see from the notebook, they do some really gorgeous stuff. We also had some very yummy and gorgeous looking macaroons from Anges de Sucre, I had a look at their website and my god the stuff on their looks amazing. I crossing my fingers someone buys me one of their hampers for Christmas if I give enough hints! 


It was lovely to sit around the table and chat and listen to the other bloggers stories and what they also blog about. It was actually really nice that it was only a small group of us, because normally events like these do don't get to talk to everyone as there is usually so many of us, so this was wonderfully refreshing. Whilst there we also got to enjoy some tea courtesy of Ringtons. I love their packaging, it's so pretty.


Before I knew it was time for lunch and I was starving, so was very grateful to have some very yummy pizza delivered to us from Basilico. I must also mention the gorgeous flowers on the table from Bloom and Wild, who are a very clever flower delivery service, where you can get flowers delivered to you straight through your letterbox, so there is no hanging around needed and no worry if you want to deliver to someone else and think they might not be there to receive them.


Shortly after lunch, Stephenie, who is a Junior Campaigns Officer from Penguin arrived to tell us all about the publishing industry and how they work with bloggers. This was the part of the day that I was looking forward to the most and Steph's enthusiasm for the industry and her job really shone through. Publishing is such a hard industry to get into, so was fascinating to hear about Steph's journey into publishing. Steph was so lovely and so helpful, I think I could have listened to her all day. 
All too soon it was time to head home, but we had some fabulous goody bags to take home with us. 

The first picture shows the amazing books that Penguin gave us. I started reading Yenomi Park's biography on the train and just have so much respect for her. I have put the Go Away I'm blogging mug in both photos because I LOVE it so much! I had been wanting to get the Go Away I'm reading one for ages but now thank to The Literary Gift Company I now have another fabulous mug. 



I must lastly thank Sarah from The Prosecco Diaries once again for organising this amazing event. I left with a spring in my step and lots of ideas for my blog. I hope I can make it to another Bloggeration workshop soon.