To top off a beautiful month, we booked our first adventure requiring\u00a0those<\/em>\u00a0little booklets<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Things picked up the pace in a big way, as the days drew closer and closer to the Life in Style Trade Show – a key event for the wholesale arm of my business! I launched\u00a0our first notebook collection<\/a>\u00a0and connected with many beautiful new retail partners around Australia and New Zealand, tipping our stockist network over 200, and making the show a big success. With my dream quickly growing far bigger than I was, my amazing parents hurried over to Melbourne to help me handle all of the orders.<\/p>\n With the last orders bundled with love and out the door, I hit the road with Charles to spend a few days exploring (eating) our way through the\u00a0Goldfields and Spa country of Victoria<\/a>, on a campaign with Visit Victoria.<\/p>\n Last but not least, I bought myself a car! The biggest purchase in my adult life beyond a plane ticket, and an exciting addition for my life in Melbourne (her name is Margot).<\/p>\n The first few weeks of March was all about unpretty work behind the scenes – trade show follow-ups, long hours at my desk, keeping up with orders, emails, enquiries and more orders.\u00a0I also turned\u00a0<\/a>28, and spent the day filled with all of my favourite things: breakfast, flowers, cake, wine, a night market, and friends.<\/p>\n The night before I flew out on my first big adventure for the year, I posted this news. Everything was about to change! After growing beyond what I could handle alone,\u00a0I put the call out to the world<\/a>\u00a0for a studio fairy \/ assistant to join me at Emma Kate Co.<\/p>\n To see out the month, Charles and I jumped on a plane to Japan, to spend two weeks completely away from all work, following our feet, with anywhere to go and nowhere in particular to be.\u00a0Our time away was everything we needed<\/a>, and we returned feeling rested, restored and inspired to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n Direct from Tokyo, Charles and I spent a weekend in Adelaide for a dear friend\u2019s wedding, and I stayed on a few days longer to be part of a live panel event all about leap taking and courage, hosted by the beautiful Of Kin.<\/p>\n It had been a long time between \u2018speaking gigs\u2019 for me, and I was ridiculously nervous, but telling my story and voicing my experiences in business felt really good. I was reminded of the power of intimate, in-person events and the beauty of conversations had and connections forged. Nothing beats the feeling! I made a mental note to put myself in the way of more opportunities like this (and as it turned out, the world had the same idea, with a number of other speaking requests cropping up later in the year.)<\/p>\n Back home in Melbourne, I threw myself straight into sorting through the studio assistant applications, and catching up on all of the work. In late April, I welcomed Brooke to the team!<\/p>\n The month of May saw me almost entirely on the road, with a design market in Sydney, another in Adelaide, \u00a0a design conference in Brisbane,<\/a>\u00a0lots of meetings [and hotel stays<\/a>], and weekly pit-stops back in Melbourne in between, to be in the studio for Brooke\u2019s days at work.<\/p>\n After a few wonderful weeks in our little studio with her bright smile and her organisational fairy ways, Brooke came to me with unexpected news of needing to move back to Canberra to be with family. So again, for a little while, it was back to me and my two little human feet, doing my very best to keep up with it all.<\/p>\n May also was the month for a long-awaited weekend in Byron Bay and Cabarita Beach\u00a0reuniting with my bestie Carly<\/a>\u00a0after almost eighteen months apart (Carls had just returned from living in India and Nepal!). Our time was filled with salty air and soul chats, wines, coffees, and sunrise shoots on the beach. Dreamy.<\/p>\n June was my most grounded month of the year, spent almost entirely immersed in the studio! I designed and produced my next collection, started to design the 2018 planner, and put plans in place for our biggest trade show yet. Behind the scenes, a secret collaboration with my dear friend Sonia was also taking shape for August (more below).<\/p>\n And just when I thought I would spend the entire month in Melbourne, \u00a0I was whisked away for a\u00a0whirlwind adventure to Sydney with Olympus<\/a>! In the company of some amazing photographers, we spent an evening playing with some amazing cameras, with Vivid Sydney as our canvas. Pinch me!<\/p>\n I quickly fell in love with everything this brand is about, and while I didn\u2019t realise it at the time, this would be my first of many creative projects and opportunities ahead, partnering with Olympus.<\/p>\n July was a\u00a0month of intense bunkering down in the studio! I didn\u2019t leave Melbourne once, and I pulled some of the longest hours I ever have before, with 20+ hour days working, before collapsing into bed for a handful of hours – rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n The August Life in Style Tradeshow was a core focus, as was finessing the 2018 planner design, with some wonderful feedback from a 15-strong inner circle of advisors who kindly volunteered to support and offer feedback through the process (I couldn\u2019t have done it without them!)<\/p>\n In the last week of July, \u00a0Zalie arrived on my studio doorstep<\/a>\u00a0with a suitcase FULL of enthusiasm to shake things up around here for the better. With freshly world-wandered feet (literally straight from a plane South America), Zalie joined the team just in time for trade show week – and has been working alongside me ever since.<\/p>\n I also changed Emma Kate Co. from sole trader to a Company structure (which really just felt like a lot of paperwork, but also: a milestone of sorts!)<\/p>\n The first week of August was everything Life in Style! It was our biggest trade show yet, and we spent a wonderful four days catching up with our dear Australian + New Zealand retailers – and connecting with a host of beautiful new ones! With all new collection orders packed and sent out to the world, Zalie and I diverted all of our attention to one thing: confetti!<\/p>\n After months of secret planning behind the scenes, my dear friend Sonia and I held\u00a0Brand Confetti<\/a>\u00a0– an intimate, relaxed, hanging-with-your-friends type 2 day workshop on everything business + creative, where we planned to share EVERYTHING we had individually and collectively learned in business. After a sold out, 36 strong crowd in Adelaide, we continued the fun in Melbourne. To say we were blown away would be an understatement of EPIC proportions. And both groups were SO wonderful, so present, so engaged, so positive, so interactive and so eager to learn.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/240618240″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n With the biggest trade events complete for the year, and our 2018 planners signed off and manufacturing well underway, September was time to switch gears, and go wandering! While I flew off for a whole month in Europe with Charles, I left Zalie in charge of keep everything running in the studio (which she handled brilliantly!)<\/p>\n After a brief pitstop in the Hunter Valley, to deliver a big keynote at the Mirvac Retail conference in front of 150+ people (!) finally I could exhale.<\/p>\n Charles and I flew into Amsterdam for some days with family, before heading to\u00a0Rome, Sicily<\/a>\u00a0and then onto the\u00a0Greek Islands<\/a>! While we were getting wonderfully lost in the late summer sunshine and cobbled streets,\u00a0I worked on my first big project with Olympus<\/a>, capturing video content for the first time on a new camera in my family: the Olympus PEN E-PL8.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/243792445″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]While in Santorini, I took a deep breath and hit\u00a0PUBLISH on our 2018 planners preorder<\/a>. After a matter of hours, we had sold over a third of our stock, and were COMPLETELY inundated with orders flying in from all over the world. Within a matter of weeks, we had completely sold out…. of them all. Grateful!<\/p>\n Straight off my plane from Europe, I hopped onto another bound for Queenstown, New Zealand. I was lucky enough to be invited to join a group of beautiful photographers, bloggers and the Olympus family to launch the new OM-D E-M10 Mark III camera. Blog posts coming soon! For now, take a look at the trip hashtag – it was incredible!\u00a0#OlympusQueenstownExcursion<\/a>.<\/p>\n After an epic week back in Melbourne with Zalie, where we sent out over a hundred pre-orders of our new linen banner collection and made a quick appearance at\u00a0Finders Keepers<\/em>\u00a0in Melbourne, it was back on another plane for me.<\/p>\n I had the amazing opportunity to work on a campaign with\u00a0Love Great Britain<\/a>\u00a0and spend ten days on a solo adventure, exploring London and Cornwall. Blog posts coming soon!<\/p>\n No sooner had I touched down back in Melbourne, we received our 2018 planner shipment delivery, and thus began six huge days (and nights, and nights that became days) of quality checking, packing and sending out hundreds and hundreds of pre-orders.<\/p>\n Our little team of two swelled to five wonderful pairs of hands, for a while there. With our amazing + willing helpers (thank you \u2728) and wine bottles cracked after the postman called every night, we shipped out\u00a0every<\/em>\u00a0last one.<\/p>\n After those non-stop weeks back in the studio and clashing timezones, respective (big!) launches and the sheer hours required of us, Charles and I had hardly seen one another for a long while, so, we ran away for his [belated] birthday weekend to Byron Bay.<\/p>\n The weekend after, it was off to\u00a0Bowerbird Design Market<\/em>, and soon after,\u00a0Finders Keepers\u00a0<\/em>again in Sydney – our final design market of the year!<\/p>\n In the opening days of December, I flew my darling Mum and our very special family friend Pauline to Melbourne. I took them away to the Yarra Valley for a weekend of cellar door hopping and girly indulgence. Every Wednesday night throughout the year, they get together, open a bottle of champagne and individually hand-fold + package our greeting cards. Every single one (over 50,000 this year alone) – so this was my little way of saying a huge THANK YOU. We stayed at the divine\u00a0Botanica Editions<\/a>, one of the most magical places I know to retreat.<\/p>\n On the studio front, Zalie and I hatched a plan in the name of the festive spirit. We teamed up with twelve of our favourite brands we had worked with during 2017, to hold our first\u00a012 days of Christmas giveaway<\/a>. With a lineup of amazing prizes, from\u00a0Cultiver Linen<\/a>\u00a0to a $1000\u00a0Accor Hotels<\/a>\u00a0travel voucher, and thousands of entries to win, it was a huge success and the best feeling EVER to contact our lucky winners and spread this love into the world.\u00a0And\u2026.we wrapped up our studio year with a fros\u00e9 fuelled Christmas lunch at\u00a0Mr Miyagi<\/a>. Delicious.<\/p>\n 2017. What. A. Year! Just reading through the above, my head\u00a0spins\u00a0with exhaustion and\u00a0huge<\/em>\u00a0gratitude.<\/p>\n [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] 2017, in one word you were BIG. Full of love, creativity, joy, wins, lessons, far-flung adventures and SO very much hard work. It was definitely a year of non-stop leap taking, and stepping way outside every comfort zone I knew – from hiring my first employee and welcoming Zalie to the team, to speaking… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7882406-JanuaryReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nFebruary<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage788983-FebruaryReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nMarch<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7882123-MarchReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nApril<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage788985-AprilReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nMay<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881163-MayReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nJune<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881118-JuneReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nJuly<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881415-JulyReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nAugust<\/h2>\n
September<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881738-SeptemberReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nOctober<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881565-October2.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nNovember<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage788903-NovemberReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nDecember<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emmakateco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ResizedImage7881024-DecemberReview.jpg\")
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"