Woman & Home Magazine Feature With Rachel the Hat

Woman & Home | The New Friendships | June 2014

Since the end of March I've had to keep a little secret: Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen I was at a photo shoot up in London, and I can now finally reveal what it was for! I was so excited to be part of a feature in Woman & Home magazine about the 'new friendships', and with me was the utterly gorgeous Rachel of Rachel the Hat - we've been great bloggy friends for a couple of years now and part of the feature was the chance to meet at the photo shoot itself! (If you have access to Woman & Home we're on page 76 of the June issue.)

Now I can't deny that the chance to have my hair and make up professionally done, to be dressed by a stylist and enjoy a day in a stunning residential London home with the most fantastic team of people wasn't fabulous - it was such a fun day and a great experience - but the highlight of the day was without doubt meeting Rachel herself. Many of you know her already: a raven-haired Welsh beauty who I love as much for her gorgeous, accessible style as I do for her honest and down-to-earth writing. We were interviewed in advance of the shoot, and then asked a few more questions afterwards to find out what we thought of the whole experience of meeting a virtual friend for the first time.

I've met other bloggers before, but only ones I've not previously connected with online - not someone I've known and been corresponding with for a long time. It was a strange experience to turn up at the house and have the Woman & Home team introduce the two of us to each other...! We sat and had our hair and make up done at the same time and we chatted non-stop. We crammed in all the things we wanted to talk about in what seemed like a very short space of time and had the best time trying on all the jewellery, clothes and shoes you see below. As you can probably imagine the two of us were in our element because we were left alone with about five times more jewellery than you can see below with instructions to "put on whatever we wanted".

Kids in a sweet shop, much?!

I have to thank the w&h team - they really were the best bunch of people ever to spend the day with and made us feel really special. We all had such a giggle, and I'd like to think I've made lots of new friends - and cemented a very special friendship with Rachel. The article is beautifully presented, really well written, and the photos are fabulous.

I'm having an absolutely brilliant time blogging but it's flippin' hard work, and it's times like these that make all the late nights and stress over having so much work to do so worthwhile. The friendships I've made - and the ones I hope to continue to make - are without doubt the best part of all, and to my friend Rachel: it was an absolute pleasure to meet you and an honour to call you my friend. You've become a very, very special person in my life, hun x

What about you - have you made any amazing friends online, and are you planning to meet up? And if you have met, how did you get on? Do share in the comments!