Sydney abcd meet-up Spring 2012 - afternoon tea, pink caravans and Polli saves the day

We had such a great afternoon on Saturday for our Sydney abcd (art + blog + craft + design) meet-up. If you were in Sydney you would remember it was cool, drizzly and a bit miserable. Our plans for an afternoon at the park were thwarted, until the amazing and generous gals from jewelley design team Polli stepped in to offer their design studio as a venue. We jumped at the chance.

 

 This time Lisa (theredthread) and I joined together with the new Sydney Instagram meet-up group and 25 of us brought a plate of handmade goodies to share with new friendsat the meet-up. We were so lucky to have Kelly from Sweet Jane's Travelling Teahouse on site with her gorgeous pink polka-dot caravan serving tea, coffee and an amazing berry punch.

 After chatting and snacking, we formed small groups to talk about the topic of the day - covering grey hairs and neon shoes. No! Instagram! (although there was a fair amount of time dedicated to shoes and the grey hair issue). Rebecca (Wee Birdy), Jayde (Little Paper Lane) and Jaclyn (Little Paper Trees) led the discussion groups and we talked through how to use Instagram to promote our businesses, privacy issues, copyright issues, and shared stories on how we were using the app. So much to absorb!

It was so fun to collaborate with Lisa (as always), Jayde and Jaclyn from the Instagram group, and with Tess and Anna from Polli. Lisa brought the fabric bunting, vintage table cloths and chalkboard, Jayde arrived with flowers from The Flower Drum, Instagram bunting, thousands of washi tape rolls and the great jars, Jaclyn brought flowers and her styling nouse, the Polli ladies provided the incredible space, ladder and water drinks station, and I brought a car-load of jasmine, bougainvillea, geraniums, daisies and cuttings from the garden. We all got busy styling up a storm to go with our vintage afternoon tea theme.

These are some more of the amazing ladies that we met, chatted to, and learned from: Catherine DuBois, Sophie (Scoops Design), Michelle (MeWe), Tessa (Down That Little Lane), Lisa (And A Day Photography), Tara (Dudley Redhead), Jodie (Apple Cart Co), Steph (Moobear Designs and OverIt! Designs), Sheryl Cole (twospoonfulsofsugar), Lamina (Do A Bit), Rachael (The Bowerbird Girl), Anika (Miss Luzi), Fiona (Fiona Kate Simple Gorgeous Storage), Makisa (Studio Luxe), Alyssa (Red Bow Designs), Babs (Patchwork Cactus) and Kirsten (Lilypad Designs).

Thank you so much to my ever-fabulous hosting partner Lisa, Instagram buddies Jaclyn and Jayde, and Anna and Tess from Polli for collaborating on such a fun and inspiring afternoon. Steph from Moobear Designs gave us the biggest compliment of all saying that the event was "an inspiring, friendly and truly unique event". We couldn't ask for a better response. Thanks Steph! Of course it's always about the interesting, fun, lovely people who come along each time and we can't wait to see you all again on 21st February 2013 for an extra special meet-up that we are sooooo excited about. More details soon!

To keep up-to-date on new events, join the abcd meet-up mailing list right here, and you can also find us on Facebook (although we recommend the mailing list as you may not see it in your FB feed).

See previous abcd meet-ups here. For more amazing photos, head over to Jaclyn's blog Little Paper Trees and Lisa's blog theredthread and check out the hashtags #abcdmeetup or @sydneyinstameet on Instagram.


PS: You can also find me on Instagram (sbond).